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.
Met up earlier today with my friend Gary and a few others at Santouka for a ramen lunch. I don't get a chance to go out all that much so it's always nice when the opportunity arises. Now, I remember that Gary enjoys some of the Japanese folk from yesteryear, so let's see if there's anything here.
Well, I did find something from veteran singer-songwriter Kosetsu Minami（南こうせつ）. The last time I wrote about him was back in 2023 when I discovered that he had been the one to sing one of my long lost memories in the form of his 3rd single from June 1977, "Natsu no Shojo"（夏の少女）. I'd been wondering about that song whose title and singer I hadn't been able to hear on the well-worn Canadian Tire tape for decades before I got to hear it once more on "Uta Con"（うたコン）. It's also on Minami's 3rd original album"Ima Kokoro no Mama ni"（今こころのままに...Now In My Heart） which also came out in June 1977.
What's also on that album is his 2nd single, "Ai Suru Hito e"(To the One I Love), which was released in January 1977. A laconic ballad written by Osami Okamoto（岡本おさみ）and composed by Minami, it's a bittersweet but determined reassurance by one man to his beloved that he'll keep her safe, no matter how horrible things are out in the cruel world. Considering the situation in the world right now, perhaps "Ai Suru Hito e" can be said to be rather timeless. The song reached No. 29 on Oricon.
It was quite the banner episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）tonight. At NHK's Shibuya Hall, enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）turned her jazz on once more to sing the torch song "Whiskey ga O-Suki deshou?" (ウィスキーが、お好きでしょ）in front of a mighty fine Big Band orchestra with leather-lunged veteran Akira Fuse（布施明）singing his rendition of Paul Anka's "My Way". Hiroya Ozaki（尾崎裕哉）also gave tribute to his father, Yutaka Ozaki（尾崎豊）, with a performance of "I Love You" which was quite reminiscent of his father's original recording.
As well, the show gave a shoutout to the Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in Hibiya Park, Tokyo which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. It has hosted plenty of acts ranging from rock-n'-roll band Carol to high-kicking aidoru duo Pink Lady to chanteuse Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）. Tonight, I got to hear from Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）her classic "My Revolution" there.
But what I'm most chuffed about regards the other performance of the night at the Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. Kosetsu Minami（南こうせつ）is someone that I've known for years as the proverbial folk artist in Japan, but tonight he sang something that had once been one of those lost songs in my mind for literally decades. I've mentioned them occasionally in articles, but for whatever reason, there have been examples of kayo kyoku that I've heard on "Sounds of Japan" or borrowed audiotapes which ended up disappearing with only wisps of memory to keep them alive in my mind since I never got to find out who sang them or what the titles of the songs were.
Well, I can now cross one of those songs (and there are still quite a few from both sides of the Pacific) off the list. I heard this one on a "Sounds of Japan" episode without getting the singer or the title, and it turns out that I can give thanks to Minami's performance on "Uta Con" tonight. He sang the cheerful "Natsu no Shojo" (Summer Girl), his 3rd single from June 1977.
Refreshing as a splash of cold water on a hot day, "Natsu no Shojo" which was written and composed by Minami and arranged by Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）, has been categorized as a folk tune on J-Wiki but I think that there is also a good dollop of that Margaritaville feeling and maybe even some country twang in Mizutani's arrangement. So, I can also throw in the New Music and Country labels, too. However the genres go, it's a wonderful song to be reacquainted with.
"Natsu no Shojo" topped out at No. 32 on Oricon and it's available on Minami's 3rd original album"Ima Kokoro no Mama ni"（今こころのままに...Now In My Heart） which also came out in June 1977. It hit the top spot on the album charts and eventually became the 20th-ranked album of the year. One interesting piece of trivia that I got from J-Wiki is that Kosetsu modeled the summer girl of the song on 70s aidoru Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）who had debuted a year previously. She herself would come out with a summery tune of her own in 1978.
Well, true to Hump Day today, my computer has been giving me some conniptions and I'm currently on an assignment so to be on the safe side, I've just performed some cleaning and other administrative details while taking a short break. I'll see about finishing off the task sometime later this evening.
Meanwhile, I would like to note that once again March 3rd has come around which means Hina Matsuri（ひな祭り）in Japan. The Doll Festival has families putting up those tiers of dolls in their homes to celebrate the daughters of the family.
As such, I was trying to find something appropriate to start off "Kayo Kyoku Plus" today and indeed I found "Shojo Ningyo" (Little Girl Doll) which happened to be actress Tsukasa Ito's（伊藤つかさ）debut single as an aidoru in September 1981, so this wasn't particularly released to commemorate the observed holiday today.
I mentioned in Ito's first article last year that the Tokyo-born lass had already long been a child actress before starting the music part of her career. However, with her star role in the second series of the famous TBS drama "San-nen B-gumi Kinpachi-sensei"（3年B組金八先生...Mr. Kinpachi in Class 3B）between October 1980 and March 1981, the powers-that-be must have decided that, yeah, it was time to get Ito into the recording studio.
Nope, Ito may not have had the greatest chops behind the microphone but she had the cuteness factor on her side and of course, being touted as an aidoru, any singing deficiencies could be easily forgiven. Folk singer Minami Kosetsu（南こうせつ）composed the sweetly innocent music while Hiroko Asano（浅野裕子）, who is not only a lyricist but was also a novelist, essayist and actress, provided the words here. Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）arranged everything into a cute and fluffy bundle of aidoru tune for Ito.
"Shojo Ningyo" managed to hit as high as No. 5 on the Oricon weeklies and ended the year as the 43rd-ranked single of the year. I'm sure that hearing the song again in the decades hence have had folks my age swooning in nostalgia.
Up to this point in the blog's history, we've only had one example of longtime folk singer Kosetsu Minami's（南こうせつ）work (thanks to Noelle Tham) under his own name, and that was through his contribution to Yuzo Kayama's（加山雄三）The Yanchars（ザ・ヤンチャーズ）...basically a get-together of Kayama and his good buddies for a jam session.
Now, allow me to provide some more of Minami and his own early solo works. I've seen this amiable folk singer from Oita Prefecture on television off and on for years now, so I'm a tad sheepish about introducing him on his own for the first time more than eight years after beginning the blog. He just seems like the most approachable musician who never ages.
Minami started off on his own in 1970 and later on in October of that year, he joined up with what would become the first incarnation of the folk band Kaguyahime（かぐや姫）. The following year, the second incarnation came into being with Minami, Shozo Ise（伊勢正三）and Panda Yamada（山田パンダ）getting together, and gradually they would get their big hit with "Kandagawa"（神田川）in 1973.
The singer still continued on with his solo career with an official debut album"Kaerimichi"（かえり道...The Road Home） being released in July 1975 and a first single coming out in early 1976, "Kyou wa Ame"（今日は雨...Rain Today）. The song for this article, though, is the first track from his March 1976 2nd album"Negai"（ねがい...Wishes）, "Sayonara no Machi" (Goodbye City). It's also the first track in the above video.
"Sayonara no Machi" is as gentle a folk song as you can hear. Written and composed by Minami, it's a bittersweet ballad (not sure whether the bitter or the sweet won out here) about a young man heading back to his hometown after several years in the big city and a lot of adventures including a romance now over. He states in the lyrics that he can't go back home (the city) again so I guess that he may still be harboring some hard feelings about some things such as the end of the relationship and maybe even the fact that he couldn't really make it big there. Still, the lovely music by Minami helps soften any blows, and I certainly can relate to an extent about the feelings expressed in "Sayonara no Machi".
As for the album "Negai", both it and "Kaerimichi" reached as high as No. 2 on Oricon.
Ah, this song (and MV) never fails to lift my spirits.
From what I've been seeing, Yuzo Kayama (加山雄三) collaborates with many bands to come up with a number of his works since ever. There's The Launchers (ザ・ランチャーズ) and The Wild Ones (ザ・ワイルド・ワンズ) that go way back during the Group Sounds era and to when the Wakadaisho was actually wakai and awkward. Fast-forwarding to just last year in 2015, he was in the unit, THE King ALL STARS that looked like some hip rock group. But my favourite Kayama-collaboration has got to be with The Yanchars (ザ・ヤンチャーズ) back in 2010, during Kayama's 50th anniversary of being in showbiz.
Here are the members of The Yanchars: Kosetsu Minami (南こうせつ), Masashi Sada (さだまさし), Ryoko Moriyama (森山良子), Shinji Tanimura (谷村新司), and THE ALFEE. It's like a gathering of Kayama's pals! As for why I love this gathering of folk veterans - it's the music video. It had them looking cool with shades and strumming guitars, and adorable (especially Minami in that chullo) at the same time. Before seeing this clip, I never paid much attention to these guys as I don't listen to folk all that much, but they've definitely made their presence known to me by showing off their fun side.
Kayama and The Yanchars had released only one single, "Za . Lonelyhearts Oyaji Band", on 7th April 2010. It peaked at 36th place on the Oricon charts, which I think is quite decent for a group of aged singers. Witnessing the chemistry between the members and judging by how much I like this song, I really wished that they would have come up with more than just one piece. Oh well, I take what I can get.
Putting "Za. Lonelyhearts Oyaji Band" together were Sada, who was in charge of the lyrics, and Kayama as Kosaku Dan (弾厚作), who composed the music. What interested me in this tune was its amusing name that literally has "old man band" in it. Then what got me hooked was the bright and cheerful melody that is mostly folk-oriented, but then there's the screaming electric guitar that comes in from time to time that spices things up and gives it a rock vein. Hearing it with the voices of the folks behind the mic, the first thing I thought was, "ROOOAD TRIP!!!" - I can clearly envision a bunch of oldies going on a road trip in a beat up Volkswagen Kombi to relive the memories of bygone days. And speaking of memories, I'm guessing that's the main focus of "... Oyaji Band". Y'know, said oldies who were once in a garage band of sorts coming back together to play again for nostalgia's sake. Same old songs and it's as if nothing had changed over the years despite going through the pains of growing up. Come to think of it, perhaps the band's original name was "Za . Lonelyhearts Band" and the "Oyaji" bit was added years later. :)
tora3hime.ti-da.net/e3591961
Hmm, I wonder what "Yanchar" in The Yanchars stands for. If I'm not mistaken, Sada came up with the name. The only possibility I could think of is "Yanchar" meaning "Mischievous/Naughty" in Japanese... Actually that would be quite funny if it were really the case.
