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.
So far, actress-singer Yumi Takigawa（多岐川裕美）has a short file here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but from what I've gleaned from her discography up to this point, she does like her City Pop.
When I first listened to this particular song of hers, "Gozen Rei-ji no Koibito" (12 AM Lovers), I noticed that the source written under the video was her BEST compilation from 1988. There is no way in heck that this tune was created and released in the late 1980s; it sounded more nostalgic than that. And as it turns out, the mellow tune helped along with flugelhorn, Fender and flute was a track on Takigawa's debut album"Sayo"（小夜...Evening） from October 1979. Written by Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）and composed by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, this is another sunset cocktail type of City Pop relaxation.
I figured that I could finish this up with a video of any of her commercials since I think she would be very alluring on screen. That she is, but I was taken aback by her promotion of a Tomato and Lemon juice!
Tomoko Soryo（惣領智子）may have started becoming more well known with the City Pop boom worldwide in the late 2010s and certainly on this blog, her material covered has been along those urban contemporary lines. However, I did find one song by her recently which has nothing to do with skyscrapers and cocktail-serving bars.
In fact, I'd say that her July 1978 single"Owari no nai Uta" (A Song with No End) is more like a breath of cold and refreshing country air. Written by Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）and composed/arranged by her then-husband Yasunori Soryo（惣領泰則）is a proud folksy ballad that brings to mind some of those grand love songs by female singers that I used to hear on AM radio when I was an elementary school kid. Not sure if it had ever been used for a commercial, but if it had been used for an ad, I could imagine it being for a car driving those long distances in the countryside. As it is, though, "Owari no nai Uta" was Soryo's biggest hit as a solo singer, peaking at No. 21 on Oricon.
Well, it's another round of Urban Contemporary Fridays on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and it's nice that it is the end of the month. The end of March and the beginning of April also signify a new fiscal year in Japan, and that also means that there have been a few changes in the mediasphere in terms of personnel in venues such as NHK and Weathernews Live.
First up is Kingo Hamada's（濱田金吾）"Machi no Dolphin"(Dolphin in Town) from his October 1982 album"midnight cruisin'". I was reading Rocket Brown's own review of Hamada's 4th release and was inspired to write about one of the tracks that I hadn't yet covered on the blog. By the way, you can take a gander at my own thoughts on this through-and-through City Pop album along with the individual articles for the title track and "Mayonaka no Tennis Court"（真夜中のテニスコート）.
As Rocket put it, "Machi no Dolphin" has "...a Latin-inspired disco beat with a simple, yet playful chorus that's fun and catchy." It is indeed very slick and though the lyrics by Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平） merely talk about admiring the stardust in the heavens creating the titular dolphin prancing about with a kid, the overall melody by Hamada himself has the effect of going out on the town and living it up in pre-Bubble Era Tokyo. Saxophonist Jake H. Concepcion is back in the house adding some further happiness to painting the town red as it were. The only thing this song is lacking is a painting of the dolphin in town (or over the town) by either Seizo Watase（わたせせいぞう）or Hiroshi Nagai（永井博）.
Rocket also mentions at the beginning of his album review that "Machi no Dolphin" saw the light of day outside of Japan thanks to Engelwood's Future Funk treatment of it back in 2017. Just a couple of years ago, Engelwood even put out a very resort utopian video for "Crystal Dolphin", so maybe I can hold off any requests to Watase or Nagai.
P.S. July 15th 2024: Charles Cornell has just gone crazy for "Machi no Dolphin" so have a look at his video.
I might never figure out the configuration of Haruko Kuwana's（桑名晴子）identification vis-à-vis her early singles. Initially, I had thought she and her band Baker's Shop first got together in 1980 to come up with the album "Hot Line", but then I saw the thumbnail for the above video which has "Vanishing Point", a single from November 1978. On that single cover, it has Haruko Kuwana with Baker's Shop although "Hot Line" had Baker's Shop with Haruko. Finally, J-Wiki lists the singer's 3rd single just under her name only.
But I'm just haggling over semantics or something here. "Vanishing Point" is a cool if lonely song about sudden heartbreak with a more hushed Kuwana. Still, even a more hushed Kuwana provides plenty of sultry sex appeal, and the music and arrangement by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）possesses its good share of strutting down Shinjuku, Roppongi or Akasaka. Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）wrote the lyrics here.
(3:43)
Enjoy her live performances as well. And sorry...my English teacher may be showing here but I think her pronunciation of the title is quite a bit better in performance than on the recorded version. Haruko's a tiger on the stage!😁
Good morning! And it is a good morning...finally. Back on Sunday when I wrote about that Xmas song by Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ）, I was mildly griping about that inconvenient kitchen pipe clog. Well, the situation lasted a few days, necessitating the usage of paper plates and cups to cut down on washing dishes and risking another backup of water through the drain. But a plumber did come to the rescue yesterday, although he had to bring increasingly larger and more powerful drain snakes to finally eliminate the blockage which was most likely half a century in the making. He brought in the ultimate warrior like the one above except that it was slightly bigger and even more armoured; it was basically half-python, half-Iron Man, and it fired like that huge phaser below. The important thing is that it did the job and there is one fewer stress point in my life now.
Other people who are apparently having a good morning? The couple in "Futari no Asa" (Morning for Two), a track on singer-songwriter Tomoko Soryo's（惣領智子）1977 album"City Lights by the Moonlight". It joins "I Say Who" and the title track (there is a link to the former via the article for the latter) on KKP.
Compared to the Motown of "I Say Who" and the nightclub-friendly "City Lights by the Moonlight", "Futari no Asa" really does sound like a morning City Pop tune of the 1970s. Soryo's melody and her then-husband Yasunori Soryo's（惣領泰則）arrangement create the slightly woozy feeling of waking up and then greeting a glorious morning over breakfast or brunch. Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）is responsible for the lyrics. It's quite the stress buster, thanks to the soothing combination of Soryo's whispery vocals, the Fender Rhodes, the strings, the flute and everything else.
There is a bit of an unintentional "trick" in the middle of the song when it seems to feel like "Futari no Asa" is about to end but then picks up again quickly. Maybe it's the melodic representation of the couple opting to get those five extra minutes of shuteye before finally getting out of bed.
Going into urban contemporary Friday, I just wanted to give a shoutout to City Pop guru Van Paugam who recently guested on a Yacht Rock podcast, "Out of the Main". I've always figured that City Pop and Yacht Rock would have a meeting of the minds somewhere in the cybersphere, so I'm happy that it finally did happen. If you're interested, you can check out this link.
Last weekend, Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" was good enough to re-introduce me to an album titled "EYES" which came out in 1979. It was veteran composer/arranger Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）who was responsible for this, his first album under the full name of Shiro Sagisu with Somethin' Special. This is actually just Sagisu's second entry on KKP with him on the title line since he's usually been in the "back office" here, so to speak, providing other artists with his music. Reading some of the comments on YouTube for some of the other examples showing off "EYES", there have been a modicum of shock and awe about this particular album, since he's also been known for his later soundtracks for famous anime such as "Evangelion" and "Megazone 23". However, looking at his works on J-Wiki, he's pretty much done everything outside of enka and Mood Kayo, I wager.
The first track on "EYES" is "Hitobito ni Ai wo"(Love for the Masses) which comes across as a disco anthem. Composed by Sagisu with singer-songwriter Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）helping out on the lyrics, The vocalist is Keiko Sugai（須貝恵子）pumping out this up-with-people tune that gets me these "Let The Sunshine In" vibes. It probably wouldn't get folks on the dance floor despite the disco arrangement but perhaps out on the pavement to march proudly around Shinjuku in preparations for a musical.
As for another track from the album, have a gander at "Fly!".
Over three years ago, I wrote about an old kayo chestnut titled "Dareka ga Kaze no Naka de"（誰かが風の中で）from January 1972 by singer/actor Tsunehiko Kamijo（上條恒彦）. It reminded me of those heroic theme songs for American Western shows such as "Gunsmoke" or "Bonanza", except that it was used as the theme song for a samurai drama. We are talking about Japan after all.
Well, a few months earlier in November 1971, there was a previous single, "Tabidachi no Uta ~ Ushinawareta Toki wo Motomete"(The Song for Setting Off on a Journey ~ In Search of Lost Time) that was a collaboration between Kamijo and the folk group Rokumonsen（六文銭）. Two of the members from that group, Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）and Hitoshi Komuro（小室等）, were responsible for words and music respectively (Komuro also composed "Dareka ga Kaze no Naka de"). And this was another rousing song that has actually lingered in my mind as well.
As is the case with the later "Dareka ga Kaze no Naka de", there is a heroic quality to this particular song as once again Kamijo sounds much older than his 31 years when "Tabidachi no Uta" was released and comes across as a wiser and older man proudly exhorting listeners to take that bold step into the future. The heroism isn't with a lone wolf here, it's more with everyone. However, the singer's words and music don't dissipate into the crowd but still packs as much punch into all who listen to it as "Dareka ga Kaze no Naka de" does into that samurai.
I have to thank the uploader for providing the video of Kamijo's appearance at the 1972 edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen, and indeed he did get that honour after ultimately selling approximately 700,000 records with "Tabidachi no Uta" peaking at No. 5 on Oricon. As for any questions on the first two kanji of the title: yes, that actually does read as shuppatsu（出発...departure） but in the name of the message for the song, I think tabidachi（旅立ち...setting off on a journey） has more of that dramatic and optimistic flair.
I hadn't been aware that there were a few ways to express sunset in Japanese. There is yuugata（夕方）which I usually hear in conversation, and then there is tasogare（黄昏）that seems to be the more romantic expression used as part of kayo titles. Now, I've just heard of boshoku（暮色）for the first time that also refers to dusk or twilight. Of course, I've yet to understand any particular nuances for this word.
However, it is used in the title "Tokyo Boshoku" (Tokyo Twilight), the 4th of 5 singles that singer-songwriter Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）released in the 1970s. To be specific, "Tokyo Boshoku" was released in June 1974, and for those keen-eyed readers, the name Kohei Oikawa may ring a bell since I have already mentioned the Hokkaido native as a songwriter for Jiro Sugita's（杉田二郎）"Hitori ni Nareba"（ひとりになれば）last week.
I actually first heard about Oikawa through one of his songs that made it onto one of my "Light Mellow" discs. Unfortunately that song isn't available on YouTube so I took a look around the area and found this rather natty one. "Tokyo Boshoku" is a folk tune but instead of heading into New Music territory that I've read that a lot of Japanese folk songs fall under, this one is truly folksy in terms of old-fashioned kayo. The late, great lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）provided the words to Oikawa's whimsical melody, and instead of getting images of walking the concrete streets of modern Tokyo, it's more imagining the older quarters of the megalopolis such as Asakusa or Sugamo.
Aku's lyrics and Oikawa's music make things rather Chaplinesque or Buster Keatonesqsue as a guy mopes around Tokyo as he mourns another setback in his love life and tries to shake off the blues. Considering the time of its release, I can only see the fellow in ratty bell-bottomed jeans, similar jean jacket and maybe even a shapeless hat plopped onto his downturned head.
In addition to those 5 singles up to 1975, Oikawa has recorded 13 albums up to 2010, although during the 1980s, he didn't do anything music-related. For a time, he even left music altogether and became a tennis instructor according to J-Wiki. There is one album of his that I'm interested in, and that would be his 1975"Natsukashii Kurashi"（懐かしいくらし...Nostalgic Living） because that J-Wiki article mentioned that it had a City Pop sheen with Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）contributing their talents to the project. Alas, I haven't been able to find any sign of it on YouTube.
Oikawa has still been singing in recent times as the video below shows. By the way, "Tokyo Boshoku" also appears on his July 1974 album"Namae no nai Kimi no Heya"（名前のない君の部屋...The Room For You Who Has No Name）.
I mentioned this in passing in my article for Akiko Kobayashi's（小林明子）"Kokoro no Honoo"（こころの炎）, her cover version of "Somewhere Out There", the poignant duet between Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram for the 1986 animated movie "An American Tail". Although the single was released with just Kobayashi singing the tune, she actually did do a duet version of "Kokoro no Honoo" with singer-songwriter Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）at one of her concerts which was recorded on her "In Concert ~ A Changing".
That was actually the first time that I had ever heard of Sugita, and from his performance of the song with Kobayashi, my impression was that he was more of a jazzy crooner like Akira Fuse（布施明）. Little did I know at the time that he was responsible for the 1971 folk hit "Senso wo Shiranai Kodomo Tachi"（戦争を知らない子供たち）when he was in his folk group Jiros（ジローズ）.
Last night, when I was listening to the New J Channel radio, I heard this haunting and attractive song from Sugita's first solo album "Apartment 1109"（アパートメント 1109）which was released in October 1972. "Hitori ni Nareba" (If I Were Alone) struck me with a woman's dreamy reprise of the title that swept through my headphones as Sugita gave his gentle view on loneliness. Written by Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）and composed by the singer, "Hitori ni Nareba" has that folksy lilt but I think the melody even tilts a tad close to New Music or City Pop because I could envisage that individual young person making his/her way through life in the big city while cooped up in the danchi.
Although according to Sugita himself in the above concert video footage, it's Hiro Yanagida's band backing him up here, I read in his J-Wiki file that Off-Course（オフコース）had also been his backing group when they were still paying their dues. Regarding that video, it's just too bad that Sugita's live performance couldn't have that woman's haunting reprise included. For me, that's the secret sauce for "Hitori ni Nareba".
If this photo of an ancient Canadian Tire tape looks familiar to you, that is because I used the same picture for my most recent Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）article in which one of her songs was on an episode of "Sounds of Japan" that is on the tape.
Well, there was another song on the episode....in fact, it was the song that started off the episode. It was called "Come On, Sunshower", the 33rd single of the duo Cherish (チェリッシュ) that came out in March 1982. Looking at a chart of their singles and their success at J-Wiki, it was obvious that their heyday was back in the early 1970s. The song didn't even chart on Oricon.
Still, I liked the really upbeat nature of the tune that was created by lyricist Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）. And I would have liked to have introduced the actual song to you via YouTube as well. The only thing is that no such video exists there or on any of the other sites. However, what has still made this article possible is the fact that a cover was performed by Teresa Teng (テレサ・テン) a couple of years later. If I read the description correctly, it is a Mandarin cover by the late singer but it is still unmistakably "Come On, Sunshower" since the arrangement hasn't changed all that much including a happy electric guitar.
There are quite a few Cherish tunes up on YouTube. I hope that this particular one does get its due someday (it finally did after several years of waiting).
