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.
Although the next couple of days following Showa Day are technically regular days, the Golden Week holidays have begun and apparently folks could have as many as twelve straight days off depending on how nice the bosses are. I knew that GW was on when I saw NHK show the annual Bullet Train capacity percentages and shots of highways showing a packed route going away from Tokyo and a relatively empty one going to Tokyo. From what I've seen so far, it looks like a lot of the Japanese may be keeping things within the nation instead of flying overseas due to the yen looking rather middling and the rise in a lot of things such as airplane fuel.
So I gather that it's time for an Author's Picks on vacations, and I'm surprised that I hadn't already done this in the past but I can rectify this right now.
I heard this one for the first time in a long while on the car radio last weekend. Definitely reminiscing here.
When this song originally came out near the end of October 1989, I had already been a few months into my two-year stay in Gunma Prefecture on the JET Programme. The thing is that the first time I got a good listen to Janet Jackson's propulsive "Rhythm Nation" single, it was via a Japan Air Lines commercial in which I got to see Ms. Jackson strutting it up with her squad in military uniform in an airport.
It wouldn't be for another several months before I finally got to see the award-winning and eye-widening music video. Music videos featuring a ragtag group of rebels attempting to bring light into a dystopia were nothing new by the end of the 1980s but I don't think anyone had ever seen anything this amazingly choreographed. Certainly not by me...before then, I'd only known Janet as Michael's kid sister and a cast member of "Diff'rent Strokes" on NBC.
The song and the video had such an influence on Japanese viewers that singer Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）practiced and performed the "Rhythm Nation" dance on the annual New Year's Fuji-TV program "Kakushigei Taikai"（かくし芸大会）which features celebrities of all stripes tackling feats that they normally wouldn't do. In Canada, "Rhythm Nation" made it No. 6 on the charts while in the United States, it peaked at No. 2.
So, what was coming out as singles in Japan in October 1989?
I didn't think that I would write such an article but after having watched NHK's travelogue "Otona no Wagamama Tabi"(An Adult's Selfish Trip) last night, I was rather inspired by the "soundtrack" pushing things along. The city for last night's episode was Taipei, Taiwan, and unfortunately, I couldn't find any sign of anything of the NHK show but I figure that the network had done its usual search-and-destroy mission of any signs of unpermitted NHK coverage on YouTube. However, I've found a fine video by Maibaru Travel as you can see above. I've been to Taipei myself once and all I can say after watching the episodes is that I still have much to discover about the city, especially when it comes to its gastronomy.
Anyways, about that eclectic "soundtrack", and yes, I have put it in quotation marks because I'm fairly sure that NHK is not going to put out an actual soundtrack but I thought it was nice to hear some of the old songs, a few of which were instrumental covers while others were the real McCoy. Here is what I heard as the actor/model on "Otona no Wagamama Tabi" was touring and eating his way through Taipei.
I've already done my two articles for today but I just had to do one more because it is an Author's Pick that I'd been letting stew in my brain for a little while. Approximately a decade ago, I posted a similar article titled "Happy Songs for Me (for International Happiness Day)" on occasion of the annual March 20th tribute to all things happy. I realized that there were a number of songs already posted on the blog that simply made me happy each and every time I listened to them and so all those endorphins were flowing around like cars in the Indianapolis 500.
At the same time, I also recognized that there were other songs that not only provided an emotional high to me but also got me moving in my chair...not particularly easy considering a man of my mass and for that matter, a man of my often stoic temperament. But indeed, those tunes actually got me to dance...after a fashion. As such, I opted to put up my own list of tunes that have gotten me to shimmy. When I did a bit of research for this article, I found that there is such a day as International Dance Day but that's all the way ahead on April 29th. I'm not quite willing to wait that long.
So, without further ado, here is my list of up-and-at-'em tunes. As with the "Happy Songs" article, I've left out the years from Labels since that part of the article would have exceeded the limit of twenty and anyways, the years can be included easily enough beside the singer and the title.
I believe I've given my opinions on each of the songs but allow me to add some more for each song. Knowing that there was basically no way that "TOWN" would be played at the Tokyo Olympics (especially since the song was actually more about New York City), but if it had been devoted to Japan's capital city, the music video would have had the buildings and the populace get into one massive dance party. It can almost...not quite, but almost...get me to play air guitar near the end.
Dancing?! I don't need to dance to the well-titled "Sugar Time" to have a great time. All I need to do is jump all over the place. Whenever I listen to this fun fest, I always envisage Bobby Van's amazing sequence from the movie "Small Town Girl" released in 1953. Play "Sugar Time" and the Van dance while muting the latter. You'll lose a kilogram!
I do my best air drums when I hear Carl Smoky Ishii and company blast this one out the headphone speakers. And then if I'm really in a mood, I even try to emulate the K2C dancers on stage (I make sure no one's home).
I usually just repeatedly shift my weight to this technopop tune but my overactive mind envisions this being a battle and a dance simultaneously on the level and magnificence of the fights in the very first "Matrix" movie which was a mere two years after the source album "cure" had been released. It could be the background music for a fighting manga brought to life. And when the composer is the legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）...well, quality guaranteed.
When you link back to the original article, you'll notice that I only supplied one paragraph to this song, something that I haven't done in years. However, it really is the song that can give the oomph compared to anything that I could put down in prose. Some great samba beats by Mondo Grosso and some lovely vocals by Bird to get me doing my own line dance. I'm sure any concert performances of "Life" would have the audience frenetically dancing to theirs.
Once you get past the technopop intro, it's all wonderfully soulful brass and bass and disco strings and the Sawayama sisters. Yep, this is another one to get the blood pumping and the shoulders shimmying all over the place. Of course, I encourage you to be more ambitious in the movements.
Honestly speaking, I had to include both of these songs which come from Kirinji's heavy rotation 2018 album"Ai wo aru dake, Subete"（愛をあるだけ、すべて）. I mean, I probably would have included a few more tracks but I didn't want to go overboard. Of course, "Jikan ga nai" is the finest example of SALARYWAVE that I've seen especially with that section chief tripping the light fantastic on the disco floor in the music video. And then with "Hi Zero Wa Game", I never thought that I could dance to a Doobie Brothers-like arrangement but here we are. The concert performance videos are splendid but I wonder what a conceptual music video would have looked like.
I've enjoyed these and even burned some calories to them. How about you? Any danceable kayo kyoku out there?
NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）had their final broadcast before going on a multi-week hiatus during Golden Week. Now, the annual spate of holidays ranging from the last days of April into the first days of May doesn't begin for a few more days yet, but I figured that I can still provide a few of the songs that got into their "Uta no Tabi"（歌の旅...Song Vacation） theme segment yesterday along with throwing in one of my own choices.
As it stands right now, though, with the Japanese currency plummeting down to 155 yen to the dollar, perhaps there won't be as much tourism from Japan to overseas destinations this Golden Week although Americans, Canadians and other people will be more than happy to fly over to Japan for the next little while. Maybe that's why some of the songs from "Uta no Tabi" were most definitely domestic. In any case, here are the selections.
I gotta say that if there were such a thing as a 60th anniversary special for a cadre of Japanese Doctor Who, then the cover for Kome Kome Club's（米米ＣＬＵＢ）2nd digital single would be perfect.
Carl Smoky Ishii（カールスモーキー石井）and the gang are no longer active on the concert scene anymore as far as I know (their website states their latest event as having happened in 2021) which is a pity because they gave some epic performances. But this digital single "WHO?" which came out in December 2021 can help make up for this to a certain degree. It's got the old K2C brassy and funky pizzazz (thanks to Big Horns Bee) and Ishii's over-the-top delivery. I'm not sure if we'll ever seen a live performance of this song which could front a J-Drama about a local superhero, but just listening to this on the stereo is happy enough for the fans.
I saw the ever-playful and loopy Tatsuya 'Carl Smokey' Ishii（石井竜也）and the rest of Kome Kome Club（米米ＣＬＵＢ）on "Uta Con"（うたコン）the other night, and though age has kinda crept in on the edges, it was good to see the guys perform on the stage once more. But man, did they put on some grand shows back in the day! Then I realized that I had yet to put up my own Author's Picks for K2C, so in no particular order, here they are.
Well, I figured that if I could come up with a Yonin Musume（四人娘）of my days on the JET Programme in Gunma Prefecture between 1989 and 1991, I should have my own Goyonke（御四家...The Big Four） during that time as well, as opposed to the traditional Gosanke（御三家）; permit me my whimsical side. Of course, I'm referring to the quartet of male performers that garnered the attention of my ears and memories from that time.
Another work week here in the GTA but this time, the temperatures have plummeted back to normal. It was therefore a bit brisk in just my T-shirt and track pants but nothing that a Canadian couldn't handle.
Let's go with something a little calming to begin the week then. I know that fantastic band Kome Kome Club（米米ＣＬＵＢ）was known more for its flashy upbeat songs backed up by the phenomenal Big Horns Bee, but Carl Smokey Ishii and company did like to chill sometimes as well. From their 10th album from November 1993, "Phi", I give you the track "TELEPHONE".
With a hint of bossa nova in the air, "TELEPHONE", which was created by the band, is an amiable and relaxing pop number which should come with its own hammock and a bit of softshoe. A song about a woman's approach to an incoming landline phone call (yes, it was back in those days) from her ardent boyfriend, the lass is a bit naughty but there's no doubt that she shares the same feelings as her suitor. As for "Phi", it peaked at No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and finished up 1993 as the 35th-ranked album.
Well, I was taking stock of my CD singles (i.e., dusting them off) when I came across the above chestnut for the first time in a long while. It happens to be the March 1989 re-release of the CD single "Paradise" by flamboyant band Kome Kome Club（米米CLUB）. I know that to be true since when looking it up on J-Wiki, I found out that the 1989 version has "Sure Danse" as the coupling song which is the case with my own copy. The original April 1987 release, though, has a B-side or coupling song known as "Parodies".
Anyways, enough of the technical stuff. "Paradise" is another uptempo tune by K2C about wanting to get some of that youth back or as the lyrics (and the music) by the band state more accurately, to return to that golden time of youth and debauchery. The video seems to be half-performance and half-dream of leader and vocalist Tatsuya Ishii（石井竜也）as a middle-aged man in a cardigan getting kicked to all sorts of places, none of which look particularly like paradise. But I digress.
Horns and vocals and chorus are in fine fettle, and I've been reading a number of Japanese comments under the video whose readers profess their love for "Paradise". Considering what the late 80s were for many Japanese, I could imagine them using the song as their theme song. The original 1987 song reached No. 19 on Oricon while my 1989 CD peaked at a more modest No. 65.
A bit of an odd one to start off today's articles of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but on hearing about the passing of former President, CEO and Chairman of SONY, Nobuyuki Idei（出井伸之）, at the age of 84 (his death was the top news story on NHK today) a few days ago, I began thinking of all of those contraptions that me and my family have had contact with over the decades such as the Walkman, Discman, Playstation 1 and all of those audio tapes. And crazily enough, I've also mentioned our old family pink SONY radio from the 1970s from time to time in various articles. Well, I finally found a photo of it but since this is a Pinterest shot on someone else's account, to keep things copacetic, I will instead provide the link to it right here.
It did get me to thinking, though. I remember that a number of musical artists have been featured on the commercials for all of those SONY products in the past. At first, I thought about focusing on one song but then I opted to make this an Author's Pick based on Media, and see if I could dig up some of those commercials with songs that have already made their way onto our blog. To be honest, it was a tad more difficult than I'd assumed, but I did find five.
Hump Day getting you down or tired? I think that I may have just the tonic for you. And if you thought that "FUNK FUJIYAMA" was zany, then please get a load of this one!
Contributor nikala provided her take on one of Kome Kome Club's（米米ＣＬＵＢ）signature tunes over seven years ago with its own singular music video. Well, this time I'm providing an earlier just-as-wackadoodle tune by the always entertaining band led by Carl Smokey Ishii（カールスモーキー石井）,"KOME KOME WAR".
Their 7th single from August 1988, "KOME KOME WAR", written and composed by the entire band with arrangement by singer-songwriter Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）, has lyrics that are as gibberish-y as the music is catchy and funky. I'm not even going to go anywhere into analysis mode with these words; I will merely look at them, nod and smile. The main words, aside from the title, are "semete, semete, semete" (attack, attack, attack) and "yamete, yamete, yamete" (stop, stop, stop), and that's all you need to know since the music is the thing here and the music video, directed by Ishii himself, provides tons of distractions. Everybody gets involved in a K2C video!😎 All that hard work led to it earning the band a Grand Prize in the international version of the MTV Music Video Awards that year, according to J-Wiki.
Of course, if you had the opportunity back then, the ultimate way to enjoy a K2C song was actually going to one of their concerts. Not sure how much it cost to attend one of their events but considering the showmanship, the lavish settings and the over-the-top arrangements, I'm sure that it was well worth it. In any case, "KOME KOME WAR" reached No. 5 on Oricon and first made its presence on an album via the band's 4th album"GO FUNK" which came out in September 1988. It hit No. 1 and quickly became the 25th-ranked album of the year.
It's been a while since I've written about good ol' Kome Kome Club（米米CLUB）and their brand of dynamic music and performance. To be honest, I thought that this particular song by them was a much later creation but actually, "TIME STOP" is one of their earlier singles, their 8th to be exact, from October 1988.
Written and composed by K2C, I've got this on their BEST compilation, and "TIME STOP" comes across as the ideal number to be played near the end of one of their concerts...just before the inevitable encores are called for, and it's pretty much inevitable that K2C has plenty of encores. But without getting too far off point, "TIME STOP" has that feeling of a satisfying end to a busy day or busy date (or something) with Carl Smoky Ishii（カールスモーキー石井）giving out his heartfelt message of love (some wonderfully soaring and soulful vocals) to the lucky woman.
Y'know, I haven't seen an episode of "Saturday Night Live" in ages but from what I remember from the old days of comedians such as Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner, each episode ended with the house band playing something similarly mellow to "TIME STOP" to let the audience know that things were coming to a close. The song has some fine sunset horns to finish things during a final slow dance. In any case, "TIME STOP" did moderately well by peaking at No. 25. It was also a track on K2C's 4th album"Go Funk" released in September 1988; that album hit No. 1 and ended up ranked No. 25 for the year.
I am home after a week's cruise on the Caribbean with the family. Vacations are great for that respite away from home and work but for me, they are also a way to be grateful for home, and I'll be honest here and say that I've never been a huge fan of heat and humidity of which that part of the Earth is famous for. Therefore, it was very refreshing and welcome to be exposed to the coolness of 15-degree Toronto once again. As you can see from above, the platform for my vacation was the currently largest cruise ship on the planet, the Harmony of the Seas, a seaborne city/starship of sorts. That will soon be superseded by the even more humongous Symphony of the Seas next year.
In commemoration of my time on board the Harmony, I'm hereby showcasing some tropical-themed songs that I've already written about on the blog so you can check out their history through the links. However, you can also enjoy the songs here as I go through my story over the past week.
Well, it was more like Fort Lauderdale at 3pm but it's hard to find a bad spot along the Florida coastline. We had a few hours after boarding to enjoy the shore view before the Harmony launched for the 1-week cruise.
The launch of the Harmony didn't feel like it needed a John Williams/Michael Giacchino overture but a nice little pop song about traveling such as the one above sufficed quite nicely.
The stops along this cruise were Mexico, Jamaica and Haiti. I took a bit of time to take look around Falmouth, Jamaica and although I didn't quite make it to Ian Fleming's Goldeneye, the area around the port was pleasant if not surprisingly commercial.
The food aboard Harmony was decent but not spectacularly great. Most of the downside was due to the buffet options which followed the rule of the landlocked buffet: quantity over quality. The dinner options in the American Icon Grill were much better on the whole. Still, this peach pie at the buffet was one of the few highlights. I can even recommend this to Mariya Takeuchi!
Although I love the Yagami song, we were all quite relieved that there was no rain at all during our week on the ocean. My favourite area on the Harmony has got to be Deck 8, Central Park which is the ship's courtyard. Plus, it does have a nice little snack place called The Park Cafe which makes a delicious roast beef sandwich with dollops of mustard and horseradish.
Came home in the late afternoon and enjoyed the coolness of Toronto again. Still, it was a nice little jaunt down there and perhaps I will take another cruise in the future but most likely will keep it farther north.
Thought I should at least leave you with a video of what the Harmony is all about.
During the Holidays last year, my good friend Shard was kind enough to give me some books that he no longer needed and one of them was a manga titled "Princess in Tokyo" by Yutsuko Chusonji（中尊寺ゆつこ）. It just so happened that the late author (died sadly at the age of 42 over a decade ago from cancer) was responsible for a pop cultural phenomenon that I had heard about when I was in Gunma Prefecture on the JET Programme between 1989 and 1991.
Chusonji came up with the meme of the oyaji gyaru (オヤジギャル) which literally meant old geezer girl. It referred to those urban ladies who did all the things that middle-aged guys in the corporate machine enjoyed such as leafing through the horse race results in the newspaper, smoking like chimneys, and golfing. And yet, they still liked to hit the discos while dressed in their bodicon dresses and coiffed in their straight long hair while ravenously looking for that wealthy Mr. Right. And the manga artist put all that into her creations such as "Princess in Tokyo". Even though I couldn't quite remember her name, as soon as I saw her characters anywhere, I knew immediately it was that oyaji gyaru artist.
Looking through "Princess in Tokyo", I wasn't quite sure whether Chusonji was lionizing the oyaji gyaru or lampooning them. It seemed as if some of the main characters were always ending up on the losing end of the stick. However, it was a good read for a few nights before I hit the hay. Plus it was rather fascinating seeing some of that oyaji gyaru jargon that was bandied about in the manga.
Since I was living out in the Japanese Alps at the time, I never really got to see or know any of those bodicon women in Tokyo although I did head out to the Big Sushi once a month. But, y'know, my focus was buying up a ton of CDs whenever I went and not on hitting the dance clubs in Roppongi or, for that matter, on the women there.
Of course, being the turn of the decade, it was also a big time for kayo kyoku/J-Pop as things started diversifying, and of course, one of the big bands then was Kome Kome Club（米米CLUB）. I hadn't talked about Carl Smokey Ishii（カールスモーキー石井）and company for a long time so today would be a fine time to introduce yet another one of their singles.
Their 12th single was "Hitosuji ni Narenai" (Can't Be Single) from September 1991. I read in the J-Wiki article for the song that compared to some of their earlier dynamic hits this one was comparatively subdued. Well, ouch! Still, I find it a fine tune with Ishii's great vocals and the always-wonderful sound from Big Horns Bee. I would probably say that "Hitosuji ni Narenai" is a K2C cool down effort between their more exciting songs. It's got that K2C sound but it's also got a mellow kick going for it just to relax the sweaty fans.
Perhaps the other reason for the song to be seen as one of Kome Kome Club's minor successes is that it was up against a bumper crop of hits in 1991. "Hitosuji ni Narenai" got as high as No. 3 (nothing to cry about) but it was fighting with long-selling mega-hits "Say Yes" by Chage & Aska and "Donna Toki mo" (どんなときも) by Noriyuki Makihara（槇原敬之）.
And yet even after it fell out from the Top 10, it managed to hang around for a long time between the 20s and 40s due to word-of-mouth and the strength of it being used in a Sony commercial. In fact, it was the 44th-ranked single for 1991 and it continued to hang on a year later as it came in the annual charts at No. 52. Besides, K2C didn't have anything to worry about. Their biggest hit would be coming in 1992, "Kimi ga Iru dake de"（君がいるだけで）. The song can be found on any of their BEST compilations including "DECADE".
I think it could have even become a theme song for a typical romance-comedy on the Japanese airwaves. Those lyrics talk about some guy who most likely took his long-suffering girlfriend for granted and was now suffering a crisis of possible breakup. In all likelihood, the young lady probably wouldn't have been an oyaji gyaru since she wouldn't have taken that sort of treatment for a single second....or perhaps the roles would have been reversed.
Years before that particular piece of real estate
became Roppongi Hills, it used to include
WAVE, one of my favourite CD shops in Tokyo!
I know I rely on "Kayo Concert" for ideas and inspiration for the articles I write on this blog, but little did I know the extent I depended on this enka-based show until it disappeared for more than a couple of weeks. For those weeks I hadn't had much material to work with besides a few gems I managed to dig out of YouTube, so having "Uta Kon" come in and take its place last week was sort of a God-sent - okay, I'm exaggerating but I was really glad I had something to watch on Tuesday evenings again.
Anyway, having been the episode that kicked off the new year in Japan and "Uta Kon" itself, I wasn't surprised to see faces like good ol' Sabu-Chan, Sayuri Ishikawa and Keisuke Yamauchi. However, my eyes popped open the moment I saw that Tatsuya Ishii (石井竜也) would be gracing the Osaka stage with his bohemian presence; y'know, by enka-yo standards. In total he did 3 wardrobe changes, wow! It's not very often that the likes of Carl Smokey Ishii would appear on this sort of show, and I also happen to like a few of Kome Kome Club's hits so I looked forward to his time on stage.
The first song Ishii sung was "Roman Hiko" during the earlier half. I had heard snippets of it and its bizarre MV whenever I watch 90's hit medleys, and I thought it was alright though at that time I had much preferred their jauntier later single, "Kimi ga Iru Dake de" (君がいるだけで), and it never occurred to me listen to it in its entirety until last Tuesday night (I went to search for the full thing after the show). And it was at that time where I realised I had been missing out on something good... That happens way too often...
When I read up on "Roman Hiko" on the blog and the moment I watched the MV, I learnt that it was used in a JAL OKINAWA commercial back in the 90's, and I must say that the music fits the beach scene, fluffy clouds and the underwater world shown. However, I'm not sure how Kome Kome Club in helmets and outfits that make them look a little like Thai royalty meets Roman gladiator meets vikings fits into everything. Ah well, I guess that's K2C strangeness for me. Coming back to the music, it has this relaxing and almost hypnotizing beat that makes one think of lying on the sand and enjoying the sun and surf. It would be nice to do that, but with the temperatures being unseasonably hot in Singapore and the humidity happily doing its worst, doing just that would make me a burnt piece of toast on one side, and soggy bread on the other. Probably lolling about at a beach in Okinawa would be slightly better? Oh my, is the commercial actually working on me?!
Moving on, "Roman Hiko", released as Kome Kome Club's 10th single in 8th April 1990, was a big hit selling around 1.7 million copies and managed to be the 2nd best-selling song of that year.
How on earth did they think of such a getup???
golden90s.com/2016/03/08/post-5/
Ah, can't wait for tonight's "Uta Kon". There's gonna be Yoshimi Tendo, Kiyoshi Hikawa, Kaori Mizumori, and Hiroshi Miyama! Pretty good lineup, even for not having any of the older folk I always hope for.
Man, I'm sure glad that the songs on this BEST album by the legendary Kome Kome Club（米米CLUB）lasted better than the plastic cover on my own copy of "DECADE". I bought it as soon as it came out in February 1995 for all those crazy, funky, heartwarming and just plain fun songs that the eclectic band led by Tatsuya Carl Smoky Ishii（カールスモーキー石井）created over those 10 years since its beginnings in 1985. But it isn't just Smoky but everyone else including the larger-than-life James Onoda（ジェームス小野田）, the amazing Big Horns Bee and Mari and Minako.
As I've said, I never got to see a concert by K2C (one of my regrets) but from what I've seen on YouTube, it was a blend of Cirque de Soleil, the most raucous Japanese summer festival, a slice of Carnaval, and good ol' Big Band jazz all led by Ishii who I always saw as the Japanese equivalent of Joel Grey's flamboyant Emcee from "Cabaret". I don't know how expensive tickets were to see Kome Kome but I'm pretty sure the audience got more than their money's worth.
Anyways, the list is as follows (all songs were created by the band):
"Dakishimetai" (I Wanna Hold You) is your light funk fusion feel-good song by K2C that probably wouldn't been out of place in a Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）album. But actually it was the first track on Kome Kome Club's 10th album from November 1993, "Phi".
Not quite sure how audiences first saw the band when they debuted with "I-CAN-BE" in October 1985. Perhaps folks may have saw Smoky and the gang as the second coming of Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）glam rock period but if they heard this first single, they would have heard good ol' funk. As for the title, I thought it was being inspired by something but reading the lyrics, Ishii is mourning and resenting the end of a relationship, and so I think the title is more of a pun on the expression akanbe which refers to a childish facial expression for dissing. The single was originally placed on their first album"SHARI-SHARITHM" from 1985, but the song was re-released as a single in March 1990 which got as high as No. 67 on Oricon.
"Ai Know Magic" (Love Knows Magic...or just a pun on I Know Magic) is another upbeat tune of disco-soul which was a track on K2C's 8th album, "Octave" from June 1992. Smoky is singing about a fellow who just can't seem to believe his good fortune that the girl he likes actually likes him back and is now doing some comical hemming and hawing. Sounds like many a Japanese comedy-drama.
"Konya wa Full Kaiten" (Firing On All Cylinders Tonight) is a re-acquaintance on this CD that I enjoyed so much that I played it twice on the player. More on the zoot suit jazz side of things, I wondered if the band had dancers in 40s gear jiving away on the stage while Ishii sang this one. Big Horns Bee really brought the house down here. The song in the video comes out at around 6:07 but the previous entries include "Kimi ga Iru Dake de" and "Roman Hiko".
Speaking of that last song, here is "Roman Hiko" once more, a K2C classic and a karaoke favourite.
Not surprisingly, "DECADE" hit No. 1 and broke the million barrier, eventually becoming the 8th-ranked album of 1995. Kome Kome Club had a sabbatical of sorts for almost a decade before coming back for a second round from 2006. Hopefully, that may mean there is some hope that I could make it to a K2C concert if I can scrounge up the funds to make it back to Japan again.
I only have one disappointment when it comes to "DECADE" though and that the band didn't decide to include the fantastic "Abracadabra" from 1994.
Well, it's been close to 3 years since I wrote up about Kome Kome Club's（米米クラブ）"Kimi ga Iru Dake de"（君がいるだけで）, the huge hit that was the theme song for the drama "Sugao no Mama de"（素顔のままで）which had one of the most tissue-drenching endings in Japanese dramas.
"Kimi ga Iru Dake de" was this supremely sunny and cheerful song that ended up as the No. 1 song for 1992, but the single also had this B-side which was also heard during the episodes of "Sugao no Mama de" starring Narumi Yasuda（安田成美）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. "Aishiteru"(I Love You) also created by Kome Kome Club is this very soft ballad tenderly sung by lead vocalist Tatsuya Ishii（石井竜也）that also seems to have a certain old-fashioned feeling to it thanks to the languid horns in there. I think as much as the A-side musically identified the drama, "Aishiteru", both the original and the instrumental version used as BGM, made its own mark on the show as well. To be honest, I would have preferred to have heard this song at the end of the series when Akina's character of Kanna was remembering her old late friend, Yumiko; now that would have really put the tear ducts in overdrive.
For all the accolades on "Kimi ga Iru Dake de", you can check out the original article.
Up until a few minutes ago, I had been prepared to give an Author's Picks on "Psych-Up Songs"...those tunes that would give me that extra burst of energy and joy. But then I remembered that a scant few months earlier, I had already put up something very similar in the form of "Happy Songs for Me (for International Happiness Day)". In fact, there were a couple of songs that I was going to put up in this list that are already up in that other article. So I've just decided to go with the sequel formula here.
When I'm about to undertake a major project, I take a dose of this and don't need to call the doctor in the morning. I realize that in all likelihood the committee planning the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will assign one of the big songwriters to create a new tune to represent the city at the Opening Ceremonies, but if an oldie-but-goodie can be introduced during the entertainment phase on the opening day, this is the one song that I'd want....with 3D projection mapping of dancing Tokyo buildings! If Yoshida can't perform this, then I nominate Kahoru Kohiruimaki or Miwa Yoshida.
The perfect summer song that wasn't sung by Tatsuro Yamashita. And it provides me with a fine sense of catharsis as it did for the finale of that 6th episode of the anime "Space Dandy" when the sudden and happy scene of space surfing came out of the blue. When I finish a major project, this is the song that I would like to play...as I walk off proudly into the sunset.
Another epic and EPO-esque song of City Pop coolness. Striding down the main strip of either East or West Shinjuku as the sun is heading out would be the ideal setting for this one. I think it deserved a higher profile when it comes to the EPO discography but for the die-hard fans, it's probably a well-remembered entry in any event. And considering the title, perhaps it's also the tune reminiscent of past economic days of glory.
When I recently heard the fictional Kitaoji High School band perform "Rydeen" on the anime "Hibike Euphonium", my jaw dropped and my joy rose. Yep, even after 35 years, a brass band version of a technopop tune had me squeeing like a little boy. At the time I first heard "Rydeen" in its original computer glory, I had no idea that the electronic pitter-pats which introduced the songs actually represented horse hoof beats but I immediately "got" the high-speed fun of the piece and was more than happy to ride on the YMO express.
I really cannot afford to take luxurious trips to far-flung tropical destinations...at least, not yet. However, "Loveland, Island" makes for a pleasant aural placebo...heck, a lot of Yamashita's summery works during the late 70s and early 80s would qualify but there is something about this particular song that just has me soaring off into the stratosphere over the Hawaiian coast. It's too bad that the original music video has been taken off the Net since it was fun to watch that supposedly old fellow bust a move like a pro...apparently that was none other than a disguised Noriyuki Higashiyama for 80s aidoru group Shonentai.
The mission of Kome Kome Club has been to bring zany, colourful and fun music to all who will listen, and a lot of folks did. Probably a majority of them would place some of their other hits above "Abracadabra", but for me, it's in my Top 3 for K2C. As the title hints, it's just this magic carpet ride led by a master magician...if the magician were Beetlejuice as portrayed by leader Tatsuya Ishii. It's one of a few songs that can actually make me sweat.
Referring to Minako Yoshida's"TOWN" at the very top of the list, Maki Ohguro's "Atsukunare" actually was one of the official songs for the 1996 Atlanta Games coverage by national broadcaster NHK. And yep, it did the right job in that it could get any couch potato such as yours truly pepped up enough to take on the planet. At least, it got me pepped up enough to get off the sofa and head over to the nearest CD shop to purchase the single.
But after writing this list down, I realized that although I will still call this "Happy Songs 2", all of the entries here indeed have that energy-building factor. It's not just the smile that has been put on my face but also that psyching-up feeling in my brain.
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