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.
I knew that the city of Mississauga right on the west side of Toronto has had a sister city relationship with Kariya in Aichi Prefecture since 1981. For one thing, an old friend of mine from my hometown had a position as a liaison between here and Kariya by being assigned there on the JET Programme. What I hadn't known was that Toronto itself has had a similar relationship with the city of Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture since 1991 (so I guess we're celebrating (?) 35 years of friendship this year). I only found out about the connection in the last year when I was curiously looking for whether Toronto itself had any sister cities in Japan. The ironic thing is that I had a couple of students who hailed from Sagamihara including one who was my regular Wednesday night Arashi-loving superfan student.
As for singers from Toronto, we have Drake, The Weeknd and Alessia Cara. But I was also wondering which singers hail from Sagamihara. I could find three such people.
Looks like the good times are still rolling with "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）with not just the main show but also with the ending credit sequences which include the songs of yesteryear (specifically, those of the Showa and Heisei eras). We've already gotten Kozo Murashita's（村下孝蔵）"Hatsukoi"(初恋）and Da Bubblegum Brothers' "Won't Be Long" for Episodes 1 and 2 respectively.
The ending of Episode 3 has gone into the hip-hop field this time apparently, so the target song here is "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back" (Tonight is Boogie Back) which was the March 1994 7th single for hip-hop group Scha Dara Parr with Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）, formerly of Flipper's Guitar. It was pretty interesting hearing Ozawa going rap but then again, I've learned that he's tried all sorts of genres including jazz and of course, Shibuya-kei when he was with Flipper's Guitar.
Incidentally, there are two versions of "Boogie Back": the "smooth rap" and the "nice vocal" takes of which the former has Scha Dara Parr taking the lead while the latter has Ozawa behind the mike most of the time.
The thing is that the first time I ever listened to "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back", it was not through the original artists. It was actually listening to some musical guests covering the song on the late-night Saturday music variety show "Love Love Aishiteiru" (Love Love 愛している....Love Love I Love You） hosted by the Kinki Kids. At the time, I hadn't heard a whole lot of Japanese rap although we were just on the cusp of a big J-R&B boom from the late 1990s, so I wanted to hear the original with Ozawa and Scha Dara Parr.
"Boogie Back" was written and composed by Ozawa and the three members of Scha Dara Parr: Bose, Ani and Shinco. It peaked at No. 15 on Oricon (selling over half a million copies), and it looks like it has had plenty of covers done over the last thirty years. The song also samples En Vogue's "Give It Up, Turn It Loose" from 1992.
Apparently, the end of Episode 4 features a song by The Barbee Boys that I hadn't experienced before. That'll get its due then.
I've said this from time to time because I do have the penchant to talk about the weather in my hometown. Toronto is predictably unpredictable, meteorologically speaking. Probably meteorologists around the world would love to come here for a spell. And today is one of the best days since this morning we began with a +14 C high but the temperature will be plummeting like an anvil in a Warner Bros. cartoon for a wind chill factor of -12 C! On top of that, we've had some sun, some cloud, some rain and later on, we'll most likely get some snow. All I can say is that maybe we're getting the weather version of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Well, I figure that perhaps I can put up a J-Pop tune or kayo on the weather. It took me a bit but I did find singer-songwriter Kenji Ozawa's（小沢健二）solo debut single following the breakup of the Shibuya-kei duo Flipper's Guitar（フリッパーズ・ギター）. Titled "Tenki Yomi"(Reading/Gauging the Weather), this was released in July 1993, this was written and composed by Ozawa.
Described in the J-Wiki article for "Tenki Yomi" as a rock number, I would actually go with something like a mixture rock song. Weaning himself off of his Shibuya-kei roots, I believe the song still has some of that Shibuya-kei groove combined with a bit of jazz and straight pop. Lyrically, it doesn't have anything to do with climactic conditions, but it is about a man's dealings with some existentially stormy weather in his romance life although it appears that there is a break in the clouds by the end with a ray of welcome light piercing through.
This is the second instance today where a singer's namesake(s) currently has more fame than the singer himself/herself. Earlier today, I wrote about singer-songwriter Takuya Takahashi（高橋拓也）who seems to be far more obscure than his professional sports namesakes.
Well, let me introduce you to singer Kaoru Aizawa（相沢薫）. At least, I would if there were anything that I could say about her. At the site "90s City Pop Record Book", there is a July 18th 2014 entry in which the author admits that there is basically bupkiss on this Aizawa, although on J-Wiki, there is an article about a female free announcer with the same name but no mention about any music career. Therefore, I can assume that that Aizawa isn't the Aizawa that I'm looking at here.
In any case, according to "90s City Pop Record Book", singer Aizawa released just one album titled "Mou Ichido Koi wo Shiyou"（もう一度恋をしよう...Let's Fall In Love Again） in 1989. Within this album, there is the second track titled "Kiss wo Suru no ni~Koi Shiteru no ni" which is actually a cover of the 1981 single by Chaka Khan, "What Cha' Gonna Do for Me". The crazy thing is that this particular tune already has representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" via Chikuzen Sato's（佐藤竹善）own cover under that original English title for the first of his "Cornerstones" releases in 1995.
Happily, it's usually a fun thing to compare cover versions, and the Aizawa and Sato takes are no exception. When I first heard Sato's "What Cha' Gonna Do for Me" on "Cornerstones", there was quite a bit more funk in there, but Aizawa's "Kiss wo Suru no ni~Koi Shiteru no ni" is far more into the late 80s City Pop with the sophisticated pop essence. There's much more downtown caviar and champagne, and those sharp horns introduce us to the good life and take us home by limousine at the end, although the song itself is about a minute shorter than Sato's cover. Also, another surprising piece of trivia but the fellow who provided the Japanese lyrics for the Aizawa cover is none other than Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）who I just wrote about last weekend.
The author at "90s City Pop Record Book" also stated that when he was browsing about, he found a copy of the album for the low, low price of 500 yen! It's probably gone haiban since then and with all of the newfound interest in City Pop in the last few years, if there are any copies left going around on the auctions, then the price is probably a whole lot higher. In fact, there is one copy of it at a Yahoo auction, and the starting bid is for 30,000 yen! That price is not gonna do anything for me.
Seeing that I provided Chaka Khan's original for comparison in the Sato article, I will do the same here for Aizawa. Here is a 2014 cover of "What Cha' Gonna Do for Me" from "Separate Oceans" with Ned Doheny, who had created the song along with Hamish Stuart.
Heh, heh. To be honest, I remember the music video for this song more than I do for the song itself (since it's been parodied on TV) but I've been rectifying this as I listen to it. However, kudos to the folks behind that video; it's a good one and I'm surprised that there has been no mention about it on the J-Wiki article for "Tsuukai Uki Uki Doori" (Street of Exhilaration).
The song is by fun-loving 90s popster and songwriter Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）and it was his 11th single from December 1995. The video indeed has those Christmas images and Ozawa's lyrics talk about a fellow getting that request from his girlfriend to buy some Prada shoes for her, so he heads on down to what must be a truly happening shopping street and ends up enjoying himself far more than he expected in the hoopla. In fact, he ends up forgetting to get the shoes...and most likely losing his girlfriend in the bargain.
My first choice for that street the protagonist was on was Takeshita Street in Harajuku with all of the young folks and the variety of stores, but when the lyrics mentioned Prada shoes, I thought maybe this was Ginza. I know that neighbourhood better than I do Takeshita (although I can most likely afford the latter more than the former).
Still, the comical adventure in shopping and what-not is accompanied by Ozawa's merrily-as-we-go-along melody whose horn arrangement was provided by members of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra（東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ）:Gamou, Nargo and Masahiko Kitahara（北原雅彦）. Those horns provide some more of that lovely marshmallow to the cocoa that is "Tsuukai Uki Uki Doori".
The song hit No. 4 on Oricon and sold a little under 300,000 copies, and it's also a track on Ozawa's BEST collection"Setsuna"（刹那）from December 2003 which peaked at No. 29 on the album charts. One interesting piece of trivia about "Tsuukai Uki Uki Doori" from J-Wiki is that originally, lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）had requested Ozawa to come up with a song for the comedy team The Tunnels. Thinking that it was going to be for a duo, the songwriter felt that a Wham!-type song would do and so he whipped up a tune that was inspired by "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" which had been titled for Japanese audiences as "Uki Uki Wake Me Up"（ウキウキ・ウェイク・ミー・アップ）. But Ozawa just loved the sound of that uki uki so much that he ended up taking the song for his own. 😜
Who da thunk it? I heard and knew about this down-home and adorable jingle for a type of Toyota Corolla on TV for years but didn't realize that this would be singer-songwriter Kenji Ozawa's（小沢健二）greatest hit thus far.
And yet, Ozawa's only apparent involvement with "Corolla II ni Notte", his 6th single from New Year's Day 1995, was behind the microphone in the recording booth. Creative designer Masahiko Sato（佐藤雅彦）was behind the lyrics along with Masumi Uchino（内野真澄）and Atsuko Matsudaira（松平敦子）, and Uchino came up with the melody. Veteran guitarist and singer-songwriter Chuei Yoshikawa（吉川忠英）arranged everything.
Considering the Corolla's image as the car for the middle-class masses, "Corolla II ni Notte" (Get On The Corolla II) is note-perfect as the reassuring music and lyrics describe the Corolla II being put through its paces transporting folks doing the usual daily errands and hobbies. The car may not be sexy or sporty but it'll get you to wherever you need to go and then take you back home safely.
The song peaked at No. 2 and ended up as the 42nd-ranked single of 1995. Those Corolla II ads had been shown throughout 1994 and I didn't get to Japan until November that year, so they must have run for a very long time since I could remember the commercials very well. According to a January 1995 issue of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper via J-Wiki, "Corolla II ni Notte" had initially been seen as simply a commercial jingle so only 5000 copies of the song had been pressed, but the popularity of the ads soared it was released officially as Ozawa's single on January 1st that year. It ended up selling more than 800,000 copies!
Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）...the one Japanese composer who can be identified with a song and folks would go "HE MADE THAT?!". A few days ago, I had just written about one of his early creations in the late 1960s for Taeko Kawabe（川辺妙子）, and "Midnight Tokyo"（ミッドナイト東京）reflected those times.
Well, listening to his special 50th anniversary 2-CD collection recently, I came across a number of surprises, and the subject of this article is another one.
All I can say is that Tsutsumi must have really liked his disco time (incidentally, disco never died; it merely moved to Japan and became an English teacher) since I can still recollect his handling of TOKIO's "Ambitious Japan" in 2003. Almost a decade earlier, even, he collaborated with happy popster Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）to create "Tsuyoi Kimochi - Tsuyoi Ai". It translates literally as "Strong Feelings/Strong Love", but the official English title is "Metropolitan Love Affair".
After Shibuya-kei darlings Flipper's Guitar split up, the biggest song that I remember by Ozawa has been his mellow and jazzy "Otona ni Nareba"（大人になれば）. Little did I know that he had indulged in his disco suit a few years earlier. Cue the mirror ball and do the Hustle! Ozawa took care of the lyrics while Tsutsumi provided the nostalgic dance music of the 1970s and the image of riding at supersonic speed on that Soul Train.
Ozawa's 7th single was released in February 1995, and to rather illustrate that Japan❤disco relationship, it went all the way to No. 4 on Oricon and went Platinum. In fact, it is his 2nd-most successful single next to his previous single "Corolla II ni Notte"（カローラIIにのって...Get On The Corolla II）. By the end of the year, "Tsuyoi Kimochi - Tsuyoi Ai" was the 92nd-ranked song on the charts. The song was also placed on his BEST compilation album, "Setsuna"（刹那...Moment）from December 2003 which peaked at No. 29.
I remember Marcos V. talking about Dempagumi.inc（でんぱ組.inc）back in 2014 and introducing the hypersonic genre of denpa music through them. Well, their May 2012 double-A side 4th single included their cheerful technopop cover of "Tsuyoi Kimochi - Tsuyoi Ai", and I think like their "Sakura Apparition"（サクラあっぱれーしょん）, it's perhaps a more restrained outing (at least until the last number of seconds in the shortened music video above) of their warp speed performances judging from some of their other videos.
The single did fairly well as it went up to No. 37 on the charts, and this version was arranged by Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）.
I've come across that striking red cover of Chu Kosaka's (小坂忠) "Horo" (ほうろう...Wandering) album pop up in a number of critics' lists featuring important Japanese releases of yesteryear, so eventually I decided to find out what this piece of work is all about. I first found out about it through "Japanese City Pop" and then read some more in "Record Collectors' Magazine" Special Issue about Japan's top Pop/Rock/Folk albums from 1960-1989. I ended up acquiring the actual album last year shortly after leaving Japan.
One of the reasons why "Horo" is considered important is because of the position it occupies in the development of Japanese pop music in the 70's, namely with how it successfully bridges the Western pop and R&B traditions that local songwriters started embracing at the time. Yuming, the originator of New Music, really pushed this trend forward in 1973 when she teamed up with Caramel Mama (who renamed themselves to Tin Pan Alley the following year) to record the founding albums of the genre. In January 1975, Tin Pan Alley would then contribute to Kosaka's "Horo" to bring forward another self-coined genre Wasei R&B (和製R&B). A number of early magazine and radio adverts for the album mention that term, though in the modern days it's referred to as an example of early City Pop, though we would wait another three months before Sugar Babe would fully embrace urban sounds through "Songs". Speaking of Sugar Babe, Tatsuro Yamashita (山下達郎) and Taeko Onuki (大貫妙子) both participated in the backing chorus for "Horo", joined by Minako Yoshida (吉田美奈子), who would also embrace her R&B side later that year with "Minako". And as an icing on a cake, the strings and horn arranger on "Horo" is Akiko Suzuki (鈴木晶子), who debuted in 1976 as Akiko Yano (矢野顕子) when she married Makoto Yano (矢野誠), also a member of this album's personnel.
As for Kosaka himself, he's been an old friend of Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣) since 1969 when they were band mates in Apryl Fool (エイプリル・フール). Once the band split up and Kosaka went solo in 1971, Hosono would support his music by inviting fellow musicians to play on his albums: Happy End for the first two and Tin Pan Alley for "Horo". Kosaka does look rather intriguing on that cover, a bit like an established middle-class immigrant in 1940's America. "Horo" was one of the last secular releases he put out, as later that year he decided to convert to Christianity after his daughter survived a massive burn. So for much of his career, Kosaka has associated with the Gospel side of things, but because of a revived critical interest in "Horo" over the last decade or so, he recently re-recorded the album in the form of "Horo 2010", this time with blue cover art.
After all this extensive background information, perhaps I should actually provide an example of this singer's music. I decided go with the cool "Shirakechimauze" (しらけちまうぜ), a lushly crafted tune with breezy strings, slightly jazzy piano and laid-back groove that were arranged by Hosono and Makoto Yano. According to the article in "Record Collectors", a number of album's tracks including this one were inspired by then-emerging Philadelphia Soul genre. I can hear the influence thanks to the light disco feel, though the song still retains Kosaka's folksy roots, especially with that distinct delivery of his. The train whistle-like vocals of Yoshida, Yamashita and Onuki in the refrain also contribute to that impression because they make me think of a smaller town rather than a glowing urban centre. I think that's what the critics meant by "Horo" bridging the gap between folk-influenced New Music and urban City Pop. Hosono was responsible for composing the carefree melody that perfectly matches Takashi Matsumoto's (松本隆) lyrics about the protagonist's apathetic attitude towards his recent break-up where he casually sends off his guilt-driven ex and admits that he's bad at crying. The melody makes you picture him strolling through the neighborhood and enjoying everyday life regardless of what has happened.
Kenji Ozawa (小沢健二) provided his own take on "Shirakechimauze" in 1995 through a guest appearance track on Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra's "Grand Prix" album. This version is pretty jazzy with the added brass section and also has more pronounced drums. I especially like the trumpet solo in the opening.
It's been quite a while since I opened this one up. I had forgotten what the song sounded like and when I re-heard it, it was like welcoming an old friend again. At the time I got the single back in the mid-90s, I hadn't been so much of a die-hard Flipper's Guitar fan but I was starting to get into jazz with folks like Bill Evans and Canada's own Diana Krall. So when I first saw the now-solo one-half of Flipper's Guitar, Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）, in a sake commercial with actor Masakazu Tamura, I rather paid attention to the light pleasant jazz playing in the ad while the two were bantering.
That turned out to be the Ozawa-penned "Otona ni Nareba" (When I Become an Adult). It was his 13th single from September 1996, and it's a happy-go-lucky ditty about a young man who feels that he's somewhere between childhood and adulthood and is just waiting to cross over that threshold to go through all that bittersweet love stuff.
Instead of sake, though, I often got reminded of the Tom Hanks movie from 1989, "Big", since the overall themes from both song and film were somewhat similar. And seeing that part of the movie took place in The Big Apple, I think the jazz motif of "Otona ni Nareba" kinda fits. As for how the song did, it did get as high as No. 7 on the Oricon weeklies and Ozawa got his second invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen that year to perform it.
Now, as for that One-Cup Ozeki, that rotgut was sold in a lot of vending machines on the way from the subway station to my apartment in Ichikawa. I was never much of a drinker but for some mad reason, I decided to get one from the machine since I was planning to cook with it, and also swigged down half of it. I ended up coming down with one of the worst headaches, and from then on, One-Cup Ozeki was only used for cooking. Make mine Kubota!
