Boz Scaggs -- Lowdown

Here's another one from my Reminiscings of Youth file and this time we're going to June 1976. Yes, the age when bell-bottoms and wide lapels were king! Yes, I was indeed alive back then and actually saw them being worn...since I was one of those people.😰

I had barely remembered Boz Scaggs' "Lowdown" which was released in that month and year. Before recently happily re-acquainting myself with this enormously cool and funky Scaggs' trademark number, what I had retained in my noggin was that blast of horns that came in twice during the song. In fact, I hadn't even been aware that it was Scaggs' tune. Up until recently, the one song that was still in my memory for him was his ballad "We're All Alone". Both songs were included on the B-side of his 1976 album "Silk Degrees", a hit release that peaked at No. 2 on US Billboard and the Canadian charts (via "RPM" magazine) and ended up on the respective year-end charts at No. 17.

Of course, getting to play it again over and over through YouTube, I realized (again) that there was some mighty wonderful funk and groove surrounding those appearances of the horns. "Lowdown" was my aural time machine heading back for a Saturday night on the town in downtown Toronto or New York City (it was mostly school nights back then for me...no disco!😭). Plus, backing up the singer were future members of the band Toto: David Paich, David Hungate and Jeff Porcaro. Now I rather wonder whether Scaggs and "Lowdown" were also influences on the Japanese City Pop scene along with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.

Up to now, in the ROY articles, I've brought in the kayo hits via Oricon or even those singers/bands that had their debut in the introductory month of the featured song. But this time, I've decided to go with three of the award winners at the Japan Record Awards for 1976. The connection among the three songs was that all of them were given lyrics by the late great Yu Aku（阿久悠）!

Grand Prize: Harumi Miyako -- Kita no Yado kara

Best New Artist: Kenji Niinuma -- Yome ni Konaika

Best New Artist: Pink Lady -- Pepper Keibu

Kenji Ninuma -- Tsugaru no Koi Onna (津軽恋女)

To be honest, I find it ticklish to listen to Japanese songs that have the singer repeat one particular word over and over and over again - the lyricists responsible for such tunes must've had an easier time churning out the lyrics. I guess it's due to the fact that this language is not my native tongue, so I pay more attention to how the word sounds like in comparison to what I know in English rather than its meaning. That part comes a little later, especially if the show doesn't have subtitles. Anyway, some examples include "Anata no Blues" (あなたのブルース), "Musoubana" (夢想花), and ever since Tuesday night's "Kayo Concert" featuring songs of the "Northern Country", "Tsugaru no Koi Onna".

Written by Kyosuke Kuni (久仁京介), this song features the Tsugaru region in Aomori - a hot bed for enka - which is known to have cold winters with lots of snow, so I can see why Kuni had Kenji Ninuma (新沼謙治) sing the word "Yuki" (雪) in rapid succession and even list down the 7 different types of snowfall there at the chorus. The rest of "Tsugaru no Koi Onna" looks to be about a woman from, you guessed it, Tsugaru, pining for her man as she waits for him to return to her - I'm not completely sure if its from the woman's point of view, or the man's, or if Ninuma is just narrating what goes on. And from the looks of the first stanza, she's not taking the separation very well. For a while I wondered how the listing of snow relates to the latter since it seemed to have come out of nowhere, but I soon (this morning, Singapore time) got the idea that the woman has to wait till all the 7 types of snow have fallen before she can see her loved one again. To complete the song is a rather forlorn and slightly dramatic score composed by Mondo Okura (大倉百人).

"Tsugaru no Koi Onna" was released in 1987 as Ninuma's 27th single. Although there's no information about how well it did, I think "Tsugaru no Koi Onna" did well enough for it to still be sung from time to time. It also seems to be one of Ninuma's more well-known tunes.

The video right here was of the performance earlier this week. It was a duet between Hiroshi Miyama (三山ひろし) and Kouhei Fukuda (福田こうへい). Fukuda seemed to be holding back on this one.

Wa-hey, Ninuma looks
cool in this picture!

hmv.co.jp

Kenji Ninuma -- Yome ni Konaika (嫁に来ないか)

So far I had come across a couple of songs featuring the topic of marriage. There's the lighthearted Hawaiian tune 'Oyome ni Oide' (お嫁においで) by Yuzo Kayama (加山雄三) wherein the fellow playfully and casually asks that special one to marry him - I'm sure many would gladly oblige back then. And then we have the more genuine 'Yome ni Konaika' by Kenji Ninuma (新沼謙治).

Although there's no punctuation behind the title, I think its a question on the line of, "Is the bride coming?" As I had seen on the J-Wiki, the song's supposed written -by Yu Aku (阿久悠) - in the perspective of a young fellow from the countryside who's about to get married. So you have him singing about stuff like having a ring already purchased with his own money etc. Kinda makes you go, "Aw... how sweet," from how earnestly Ninuma belts it out with that pleasant, not too Enka-y voice. Hmm, I wonder if he sang this to his late wife before they got married. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the easily recognizable music was composed by Makoto Kawaguchi (川口真).

Anyway, being Ninuma's 2nd single and released on 1st June 1976, 'Yome ni Konaika' was probably his most successful hit scoring 2 'Best newcomer' awards, one from the 18th Japan Record Awards and the other from 7th Japan Kayo Awards, as well as allowing him a spot on the 27th Kohaku even though its highest position was only 31st on the Oricon charts.

Frankly, I had never heard of Ninuma until I started watching the music shows on NHK. When I finally saw his face, first thing that came to mind was that the fella from Iwate was one of those folk singer-songwriters like Masashi Sada (さだ まさし) with the glasses, that particular amiable look and somewhat unkempt hairdo. All the more so when the picture I saw was of him in what looked like a field wearing those thin white long-sleeved shirts over a white T-shirt with a straw hat on his head... ... And that my friends, is what happens when I don't do my research beforehand.

Here's a clip of the young Ninuma singing the song back in 1976. It looked like he was performing at the Kayo Awards or the Kohaku.

Hey, he actually looked pretty cute back then!

http://1st.geocities.jp/yj_yamahide/a_recjkt/b_niinuma_kenji.htm