I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Showing posts with label Keisuke Yamakawa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keisuke Yamakawa. Show all posts
Uh, nope. This "Bohemian" has nothing to do with the more famous "Bohemian" recorded by the late Yuki Katsuragi（葛城ユキ）. We're far from the rock genre with this one.
In fact, I would say that "Bohemian" as performed by singer-songwriter Naomi Sugimura（杉村尚美）has more to do with cruise liner-friendly Latin-spiced City Pop. Released with its A-side, Sugimura's 2nd single"Kaze no Nostalgia"（風のノスタルジア...Windy Nostalgia）, in 1982, this B-side has a lot of bop to boogie onto the Lido Deck. Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Sugimura herself, it fairly sweeps over the ocean before a searing keyboard riff suddenly swoops over everybody to finish things off.
I'm always happy to start off Urban Contemporary Fridays on KKP, but today is especially auspicious since I'm going to begin with an album of the genre that I'd been searching for years. Yup, it was the odyssey of tracking down Junko Yagami's（八神純子）"Lonely Girl" from February 1983. For the longest time, it seems, the album had been discontinued although many of the singer-songwriter's other releases were available. But then, several days ago, out of a sense of whimsy, I tried out Amazon.jp and lo and behold, there were a few copies of "Lonely Girl" on sale. Well, I wasn't a lonely boy anymore. The air crackled over my keyboard as I whipped out my credit card and fingers and had that sucker sailing over the Pacific and much of Canada to my home.
It arrived, I listened to it and I'm a happy man. Mind you, out of the ten tracks, I've already covered half the album through individual articles on the title track itself, the theme for the anime feature "Final Yamato" "Love Supreme", "Yozora no Earring"（夜空のイヤリング）, "Touch you, tonight" and my favourite track on "Lonely Girl", the bouncy City Pop classic "Jealous". I found out through the liner notes that Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）had arranged the entire album and that Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）along with Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）helped out on the chorus including "Jealous". Also note that unless mentioned otherwise, the songs which all revolve around some aspect of love were written and composed by Yagami.
The folded booklet containing the lyrics is made out as a particularly expensive letter (well, those are a lot of stamps there). It isn't everyday that you get to see a smiling Junko so please enjoy one of the stamps. Anyways, without further ado:
Track 3 is "Kodou no Lullaby"（鼓動のララバイ...Heartbeat Lullaby） is a cool and sultry City Pop number about welcoming home a tired loved one, and without any sort of artifice such as a candlelit dinner or petals floating in a bathtub, the two happily engage in a cuddle in bed (how much clothing they're wearing, I'll leave to your imagination). The Joe Group strings and Masahiro Kobayashi's（小林正弘）fluegelhorn do wonders to take a very intimate experience and have it soaring into the night sky.
The final track on Side A of the original LP is "Moetsukiru made"（燃えつきるまで...Until It Burns Out） shows off why I'm often so in awe of Yagami with those incredible vocals of hers. They were what got me interested in her in the first place and I was given a good reminder of that here. Nice beefy bass by Kenji Takamizu（高水健司）and keyboard work by Maki Yajima（矢嶋マキ）. It's another night sky ballad.
Side A may have finished with a whisper but Side B explodes with cheerful thoughts via a good battery of horns including those manned by Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and Jake H. Concepcion. There's something rather happily Stevie Wonder about this funk and strut"And I Love You". Just enjoy the stride down Shinjuku as you listen to this one. Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）provided the lyrics.
The penultimate track is "You & I", another huggable love ballad which is arguably the most straight-ahead pop song of "Lonely Girl".Yamakawa and Matsushita provide a bit more in the chorus and Yagami sounds downright adorable whispering the last few syllables every other line at the end. It's quite short but it feels the right length.
The final track is "Falling For You" which has Yagami showing off those soaring vocals and has more of a feeling of Boz Scaggs or Bobby Caldwell. Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）, who shows up in many of the tracks, has another epic solo and those electric guitar solos have often popped up in those 80s Japanese love songs. I can't also ignore the piano which starts and ends the ballad along with the Joe Group strings once more.
Unfortunately, I didn't get this song with my copy of "Lonely Girl" but apparently for the 2003 re-release of the album, there was a bonus track included as mentioned on J-Wiki. "Sono Mune ni Mou Ichido"（その胸にもう一度...Once More Into These Arms）. Written by Yagami and composed/arranged by the late Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）of Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, this is some pleasant Latin-infused sunset City Pop with a hint of disco and maybe even Herb Alpert. If you have the 2003 version of "Lonely Girl", consider yourself lucky...apparently "Sono Mune ni Mou Ichido" hasn't shown up anywhere else unless someone tells me otherwise.
I was once asked by one of the commenters about an Author's Picks regarding airports. After all, in terms of an old kayo kyoku, the airport serves as a setting for romantic farewells and (rarely) greetings. Plus, they can also be the launching point for adventures abroad. Now, I believe that I had yet to post such a list of airport-themed songs so I'm going with this one today to finish my trio of articles.
As far as I know, I don't think I've ever traveled as far south as the Tropic of Capricorn but I gather that for a lot of Japanese, that particular line of latitude may represent some good ol' traveling in the tropical zones.
Well, one fellow at least decided to have an adventure in Africa and he brought some Suntory beer with him. Just hope that he didn't give some of that stuff to the elephants. Nothing worse or more dangerous than being close to a sick or drunk pachyderm.🐘
Anyways, the jaunty commercial song here is "Minami Kaikisen" (Tropic of Capricorn) which was a duet between Takao Horiuchi（堀内孝雄）and Tomoharu Taki（滝ともはる）released as a single in April 1980. Alice（アリス）member Horiuchi had already gotten a taste of the solo artist life when he came up with his hit "Kimi no Hitomi wa Ichi-man Boruto"（君のひとみは10000ボルト）back in 1978 but didn't have another follow-up hit since then. And Taki was someone that I discovered through the blog a couple of years ago through his City Pop song "Taxi Driver" which was also a 1978 release.
Together, they recorded this footloose and fancy-free duet folk song "Minami Kaikisen" which could probably accompany a great trip down south. I like the rollicking rhythm and also the flourish that comes right after every chorus. Of course, Horiuchi shows his usual vocal flourishes here, too. I'm kinda surprised that I never heard this at karaoke. "Minami Kaikisen" managed to reach No. 4 on Oricon (this would be Taki's first Top 10 hit), selling around 375,000 records. It also ended the year as the 32nd-ranked single.
Horiuchi came up with the melody (and yep, there's a certain similarity between this one and the aforementioned "Kimi no Hitomi wa Ichi-man Boruto") with Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）coming up with the lyrics.
From the same edition of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本のうた）from which I discovered Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）"Daikon no Hana"（だいこんの花）and wrote about it earlier today, I also heard for the first time Goro Noguchi's（野口五郎）"Good Luck".
It's been called one of Noguchi's earliest forays into J-AOR/City Pop that was released as his 28th single in September 1978. I'd probably go with the former genre myself, with it having that breezy 70s West Coast feeling thanks to that shimmering electric guitar which is reminiscent of the one accompanying Julio Iglesias' cover of "Begin the Beguine". Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, Noguchi sings the step-by-step process of having that one last overnight tryst with a lover before he leaves her apartment forever. I gather that the good luck here is more about the farewell wishes to his paramour more than any fine fortune he may have had.
"Good Luck" won a Gold prize at that year's Japan Record Awards and earned Noguchi an invitation to the 1978 Kohaku Utagassen. The song was also the singer's final entry into the Oricon Top 10 as it peaked at No. 4 and eventually became the 70th-ranked single of the year.
At the end of February, I posted up an article regarding a not-so-well-known singer called Malja（麻留時夜）with the very involved kanji for her name. She released her one and only album in 1986 titled "Malja" with its own genre mix of tunes which of course included at least a few City Pop takes.
Well, the track I wrote about, "Nice Guy ni Ai wo Komete"（NICE GUYに愛をこめて）, was a pleasant City Pop ballad of the mid-1980s. Now, another track here is a more upbeat song of the genre, "Hadashi de Last Steps"(Last Steps Barefoot). Written and composed by the same guys behind "Nice Guy", lyricist Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composer Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, just from what I've heard thus far, it's about a woman dancing with abandon all over the floor to the point that she needs to doff off her heels to continue the fun. Yup, seeing some of those stilettos, I couldn't blame her one bit.
The city of Urayasu（浦安）, Chiba Prefecture is right next door to my residence city of Ichikawa（市川） in the same prefecture. Both cities gave me some strong impressions. Both of them are bedroom towns for Tokyo but whereas Ichikawa spread out so widely that there was no way I could explore all of it even within a few days, Urayasu struck me as having a dual personality.
For me, there was Old Urayasu around the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line's Urayasu Station (refer to the above video) which I was far more well-acquainted with. It was the usual conglomeration of fast-food restaurants, izakaya, pachinko parlors, one major department store, supermarkets and apartment buildings. I used to teach at a juku some fifteen minutes walk away from the station so I often made use of the local Starbucks, KFC, the family restaurant and the MUJI store there.
But then there was Shin-Urayasu or New Urayasu as you can see below. And it was like comparing night to day. The new development looked like a southern California resort community by the sea. There were palm trees, wide boulevards, a lot of spiffy new condos and attractive shopping malls. Of course, all that was probably started when Tokyo Disneyland began operations there in 1983. I could get to the area by a bus that actually began its route in front of my subway station, Minami-Gyotoku（南行徳）, just one stop east from Urayasu on the Tozai (why it didn't start from Urayasu itself is beyond me). It was a half-hour ride one way to Shin-Urayasu Station. Mind you, unless I had friends come over from abroad to head to the Mouse House, I never really frequented the Shin-Urayasu area. It appeared and most likely still is too expensive for my blood.
I knew that Urayasu had its humble beginnings as a small fishing town but I never really saw that side; Urayasu has always been that bedroom town/condo community for me. But I got that historical reality put into my brain while listening to Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）single from 1978"Shiokaze Douri no Uwasa"(Rumours of a Sea Breeze Avenue) because it was the theme song for an NTV drama of that year called "Kaigara no Machi" (貝がらの街...Seashell Town) which took place and was actually filmed in Urayasu when it was a whole lot smaller and sleepier. It's a pity that I can't find any footage from the drama.
Unlike Minami's familiar City Pop stuff or his 50s/60s twangy material, "Shiokaze Douri no Uwasa" is quite the softer song. For one thing, he had nothing to do with the actual creation of the song which was handled by lyricist Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composer/arranger Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）. The result is something that sounds quite early 70s Carpenter-esque but then again, any languid tune with an oboe in there will always remind me of Karen and Richard Carpenter. Again, there is no sign of the drama on YouTube but from the song itself, I can imagine that "Kaigara no Machi" was a pretty down-home TV series with plenty of that smalltown Urayasu atmosphere.
I'll be honest here but I've had this lovely song on the back burner for some time now and I'm finally putting it up today because I've finally figured out what the singer's name is. Yes, I held off from posting this due to a naming problem but the last thing I want to do is screw up a name, especially if the singer is still alive...which of course I'm hoping she is.
Depending on the source, I've come across the readings Maru Tokiyo and Maru Tokiya. However, down the 1986 self-titled album's obi, there is one sentence that begins with "I'm Maruja", And then, my brain did all sorts of old-fashioned computing noises with the conclusion being that all four kanji spell out MA-RU-JI-YA with the stylized form of the name above the upper-right hand corner of the photo on the album cover: Malja.
So, now that I've figured that one out, I can introduce Malja formally to KKP. She's one of those mysterious singers that came in and out along the lines of Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）in that she released only one single and this album "Malja". One of the tracks here is the scintillating "Nice Guy ni Ai wo Komete" (With Love To A Nice Guy) which is a pretty sweet title although it sounds like the nice guy here is now very much in the past.
Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, it's quite the laidback and slightly haunting mid-tempo ballad with the velvet vocals of Malja providing soothing solace to listeners' ears. I've only heard this song and one other track on the album but according to the website of the hair and music store Fam, "Malja" is apparently a hidden gem of Baleric modern pop music which features arrangements that make full use of the intricately programmed sounds unique to this era. And yeah, it does feel rather 80s.
I don't usually see sunrises this deeply red. Was this a warning?
Anyways, I'm starting Urban Contemporary Fridays on KKP with singer-songwriter Kyohei Nishida（西田恭平）. I first mentioned him back in 2022 with his 1981 "No Return My Love"（ノーリターン・マイラブ）, a downright downtown City Pop number of the evening.
Well, from his album "Kyohei ~ Medium Star"（恭平・ミディアム スター）, I have another track titled "Sunday Morning" (and thank you, Marty, for putting this one up) which stands somewhat opposite from "No Return My Love" in terms of overall tone. As the title shows, it sounds like a morning brunch-friendly City Pop tune with a hint of bossa nova/Margaritaville melody and satisfying morning-after wooziness, thanks to the Fender Rhodes and the languid strings. Time for that Eggs Benedict!
The same folks from "No Return My Love" were also responsible for "Sunday Morning": lyricist Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composer Nishida. I also found out that Tadashige Matsui（松井忠重） was responsible for overall arrangement. Looking at that cover of Nishida and the statuesque young lady beside him, I'm reminded of one thing that Jedi Master Yoda may have said: "Size matters not".
In all likelihood, this track from Kingo Hamada's（濱田金吾）6th album"Heart Cocktail" from March 1985, "Tokyo Come & Gone" reflects the sad and concise four frames of a manga that makes up the cover of the album. My condolences to the former Itos.
"Tokyo Come & Gone" was written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Hamada as a wistful and reflective ballad of what used to be a happy relationship and is now a very former one. Not sure what happened but hey, that's life and romance in the big city, I guess. It's a beautiful and melancholy City Pop melody by Hamada with the Fender Rhodes and one other keyboard gently making contact. There's very much of a "there are other fish in the sea" feeling in this one as it accompanies Mr. Ito heading sadly into the horizon.
Returning to solid food once again after 30 hours of fasting is a nice thing. I'm still recovering totally from the fatigue from yesterday's medical procedure, so listening to something like this will always be welcome.
From the same album as Saki Kubota's（久保田早紀）iconic "Ihojin"（異邦人）is the singer-songwriter's "Guitar Hiki wo Mimasen ka" (Would You Like to See Me Play the Guitar?). A track from Kubota's December 1979 debut album "Yume Gatari"（夢がたり...Dream Story）, this is the bossa nova stop that the traveler from "Ihojin" arrives at for some well-deserved R&R. Aside from the singer's lovely tones, it's just Kazuo Ohtani（大谷和夫）on the plinky keyboards and Chuei Yoshikawa（吉川忠英）on the guitar for that Brazilian bar atmosphere. Kubota was responsible for both words and music with Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）also helping out on the lyrics and Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）as the arranger.
I've used this photo before but just to remind readers, this is the pedestrian bridge spanning between Kinokuniya Books and what used to be Tokyu Hands in the Times Square complex in South Shinjuku. I used to traverse it a lot since I often had things that I had wanted to purchase in both stores.
All this for the flute-softened song "Bridge" by singer and flutist Ai Kanzaki（神崎愛）. This is once again from her 1980 debut album"Today" and it's a pretty jaunty and sunny track by lyricist Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composer Yasuo Higuchi（樋口康雄）. In her brief file on KKP thus far, I've noticed that Kanzaki's voice could go from low and sultry to high and playful. Perhaps with "Bridge", her vocals travel to a medium state between those two ends. Melodically, the song itself hovers in its own medium state dipping tantalizingly into jazz, City Pop and New Music. Ultimately, I opted for that last genre.
It's still nice and summery out there but the heat and humidity have climbed down a tad so there's even a bit more pleasantness with the walking out there.
Yesterday on Urban Contemporary Friday, I featured a recent song by Natsu Summer titled "Orange Airmail". Interestingly enough, decades earlier, singer-songwriter Saki Kubota（久保田早紀）came up with a song that was almost identically titled except that it had an extra word. The song du jour is "Orange Airmail Special".
A track on Kubota's 4th album from May 1981, "Airmail Special", it was composed by Kubota with Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）as the lyricist and Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）as the arranger. Usually with Kubota, who now goes by the name of Sayuri Kume（久米小百合）, she was often associated with exotic kayo or City Pop. With "Orange Airmail Special" though, it strikes me as being more straight pop, although a case can be made with that electric guitar in there that it's achieved the rockier side of AOR. But hearing this one by Kubota, it did feel rather refreshing.
Maintenance of a blog can sometimes bring up some unfortunate truths. For one thing, the elimination of videos for the first couple of articles of a pretty obscure singer. And indeed, that has happened to singer, flutist and actress Ai Kanzaki（神崎愛）. So, at this point, I've had to put her two City Pop offerings back into mothballs until those videos come back.
Right now then, I just have the one active article depicting her 1980 single"Sentakusen"（洗濯船）which lays more on the border between Fashion Music and New Music. As I stated there, it's rather chaise lounge-friendly and has more of that classy exotic kayo feeling. The B-side though is the topic of this article for Kanzaki. "Koibito-tachi no Rondo" (Lovers' Rondo) has a bit more oomph but it's also whimsical to a nearly comical degree as Kanzaki vocally takes on a higher and squeakier tone, although some of those chord changes are pretty cool. It's almost as if she's singing this half-drunk in some French bar. Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）was the lyricist here with Ken Sato（佐藤健）and Yasuo Higuchi（樋口康雄）taking care of the melody and arrangement respectively.
Up to now, I've posted two articles regarding the rock-n'-roll band Cools which has undergone a number of name and lineup changes since starting up in 1975. Thus far, I've been covering them during their time between 1977 and 1980 when they were known as Cools Rockabilly Club.
When I first started with them, it was for their September 1978 single"Sentimental New York"（センチメンタル・ニューヨーク）which was surprisingly quite City Pop in its arrangement. Then, a couple of years later, I posted their follow-up single from March 1979"Climax"（クライマックス）with its 1950s rock n' roll flair.
Today, I've got the B-side for the metropolitan "Sentimental New York", "Kaze ga Kawaru Mae ni"(Before the Wind Changes). Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by the band's guitarist James Fujiki（ジェームス藤木）, this has more of the "Climax"rock vibe while also bringing in horns that sound more like the contemporary 1970s. However, it's also got a nice laidback feeling and from that title, I get the impression that the lone motorcyclist is about to take off again for places unknown after spending a few weeks or months settling into one site.
Around Christmas last year, a commenter alerted me about the late Yoichi Takizawa（滝沢洋一）having a mystery 1982 album "Boy" which had been undeservedly shelved for decades until its unearthing in 2024. So I was happy to listen to the tropical City Pop from "Endless Summer" as one of the tracks on "Boy". One reason that I'm here in this article today is that a good fellow by the name of Ryusei Miyakodori（都鳥流星）let me know of his own English article on the album, so if you can follow this link right here, you can get his own personal take on Takizawa and his history with music from his childhood.
Well, today I'll be starting this session of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with another track from "Boy", "Morning with Venus". Composed by Takizawa and written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）, this takes things more into downtown Tokyo starting with a really attenuated twangy guitar before we have the lovely duo of Takizawa and an especially sultry-voiced Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ）coming up with a whimsical combination of City Pop and American variety show jazz. I was half-expecting the two to suddenly break into either a tap dance or a soft-shoe on stage during the instrumental bridge. I'd say that is one happy morning with Venus and one more reason that I'm glad for the revelation of "Boy".
At first, when I encountered this lively ditty, I assumed that the title was "Campus Gal '81" as if the title had referred to the belle of the ball in some tony Tokyo university such as Waseda. But I focused my eyes a little better and realized that it was actually "Campus Gai '81"(Campus Street '81).
No matter though. It's still a really wicked City Pop song about someone having the time of their life as a university student in the big city, and indeed Waseda University is not far away from hubs such as Takadanobaba, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. And the singer is Saki Kubota（久保田早紀）who I last wrote about back in 2022 for her "Ennui"（アンニュイ）on her May 1981 4th album"Air Mail Special"（エアメール・スペシャル）. "Campus Gai '81" is also a track on the LP with Kubota taking care of music while Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）is the lyricist and the arranger is Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）.
The song starts off with a feeling of great anticipation as if the protagonist were about to tackle a big adventure overseas (or on campus). Following that, the usual City Pop mellowness comes in via the keyboards and rhythm before some Latin beat invites itself into the chorus. As well, the strings and electric guitar provide a nice layer of sophistication and coolness respectively.
My friend and fellow contributor to KKP, Marcos V., and his own buddy were kind enough to allow me to use some of his photographs after visiting Rio in their native Brazil some days ago, so many thanks to them both. Regrettably, I've yet to travel anyplace south of the Equator but maybe someday, I'll be able to see places like Brazil or Australia or Singapore.
Although I haven't been to Brazil yet, I've been well acquainted with their samba and bossa nova for literally decades, and it seems as if folks in the Japanese music industry have also been very admiring of the genres for that long as well. In fact, I see that Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）provided some of her own songs infused with those particular two. I came across these jewels not too long ago and I couldn't decide which one to go with first, so I've opted to cover both of them together.
The first one is "Ai Suru Ashita"(Loving Tomorrow). A B-side to her 42nd single, the June 1969"Aishite, Aishite"（愛して愛して...Love Me, Love Me）, "Ai Suru Ashita" was apparently used as the theme song for a movie of the same name, and it certainly sounds quite majestically bossa nova. Written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composed by Osamu Shouji（東海林修）, the orchestra gives the song a sweepingly romantic heft and there's no doubt what the movie is about from the title and the arrangement of this song. In its own way, I kinda feel like it's the Japanese take on "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing".
The second song was recorded by Ito many years later in September 1984 for her album "Fado"（ふぁど）. "Aki no Jasmine Tea" (Autumn Jasmine Tea) is a more mid-tempo bossa song with a bit more of a City Pop feeling and fueled by the sweet and husky tones of the singer. Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）was the lyricist while Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）took care of the brisk melody. Enjoy the drink.☕
This will be the late Taku Izumi's（いずみたく）23rd article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and the composer has been responsible for a lot of works including a commercial jingle and themes for television shows along with his hit songs such as Saori Yuki's（由紀さおり）"Yoake no Scat"（夜明けのスキャット）and Aoi Sankaku Jougi's（青い三角定規）"Taiyo ga Kureta Kisetsu"（太陽がくれた季節）. However, I didn't know about the fact that he had his own group of singers.
Working since the 1950s, in 1972, Izumi brought together a total of thirteen young men and women from an entertainment company, the alumni group from the NHK music-variety show "Stage 101" and even members from the defunct Group Sounds band Fifi the Free to form Izumi Taku Singers（いずみたくシンガーズ）. Initially, the group was divided into a singing team and a dancing team, and during their three years together, they released seven singles and three albums.
However, by the time of their fourth single, Izumi Taku Singers was basically pared down to around seven members. That single was "Kaerazaru Hi no Tame ni"(For the Day of No Return) which was released in April 1974. A bossy and boppy kayo composed by Izumi and written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）, the No. 13-ranked hit was created for the NTV rugby-based drama "Warera Seishun!"（われら青春!...Our Salad Days!）that had an April-September run in that same year.
The legendary aidoru trio Candies（キャンディーズ）covered "Kaerazaru Hi no Tame ni" on their December 1974 3rd album, "Namida no Kisetsu"（なみだの季節...Season of Tears）. Their version is a bit brighter, for the lack of a better word.
Happy Monday! A bit gray and cool out there so perhaps something a bit more contemplative might be nice to begin the usual work week.
Before the amazing band Off-Course（オフコース）sold out arenas and stadia later in the late 1970s and early 1980s with their blend of pop and soft rock, Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）, Yasuhiro Suzuki（鈴木康博）and the rest of the Kanagawa Prefecture-based group were all about the folk. And considering the background behind their second single, one would think that "Yoake wo Tsuge ni", which is directly translated as "Calling the Dawn" but has been given the official English moniker of "Leaving All Behind", was The Off-Course's（ジ・オフ・コース）debut release (we also have to remember that there had once been a definite article leading the name of the band).
"Yoake wo Tsuge ni" was indeed the sophomore single from October 1971, and it was produced by singer-songwriter Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志）who, according to the liner notes of the band's first studio album"Boku no Okurimono"（僕の贈りもの...My Gift to You） from June 1973, had managed to come across a demo tape from The Off-Course and liked the cut of their jib, so to speak. He believed that there was something more to this folk group. Also at the time, Oda and company were still cutting their teeth as performers in the music industry, so they were more than happy to give the songwriting reins to others if doing so could help them in the end. As a result, not only was Umegaki in their corner, but lyricist Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）along with arranger Nozomu Aoki（青木望）applied their sets of skills. I'm not sure whether "Yoake wo Tsuge ni" made the Oricon chart but not only does it feel like a proto Off-Course tune thanks to the familiar and reassuring vocals of Oda and the calm rhythms, it also reminds me of Woodstock, hippie pop and the folk/pop from California from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Yamakawa's lyrics talk of striding out into the future proudly amid Kato's sleepy melody.
The B-side is "Utsukushii Sekai" which literally translates as "A Beautiful World" but was released under the English title of "If You Really Love Me". This was Oda's first creation (words and music) to be put onto vinyl, so that in itself makes it a significant song for the fans, and like the A-side, there is that hopeful optimism going into the future but Oda also sings about taking those happy past memories and packaging those for another look later. The orchestra was definitely out in force and by the end, I got vibes of Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park" from 1967.
According to J-Wiki, neither song from the single was put onto an original album, although perhaps they might be on some of their BEST compilations.
