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.
Arguably, the late singer-songwriter Lily's（りりィ）most famous song is her 1974 "Watashi ga Naiteimasu"（わたしが泣いています）, and so I've usually treated her as a 1970s folk singer. However, as has happened to many singers in Japan during that decade, she also did some wholesale genre-crossing.
She does some fine honky-tonk rock here with "Good-By City", a track from her 1983 album"Say". In fact, I was a bit surprised by how she sounded because the song reminded me more of Linda Ronstadt's material back in the previous decade It's some good-time rock n' roll which was written by Lily and composed by Hiro Tsunoda（つのだ☆ひろ）, a person with a most gregarious personality who I usually associate with R&B. As for that album cover with those glossy lips, I frankly assumed with that design, the album was titled "Sexy" from the handwriting.
The show must go on, as they say. The annual Toronto International Film Festival premiered yesterday with a mix of live showings and online presentations following a year where TIFF was all online. A lot of folks were caught off-guard by the realization that the festival was back on which, according to the organizer, was intentional since he didn't want a whole ton of stargazers amassing downtown for their favourite stars in the middle of the pandemic. If I'm not mistaken, one of the big movies tonight is "The Power of the Dog", based on the 1967 novel by Thomas Savage, starring Benedict Cumberbatch who is also in town to promote it.
Anyways, getting back to kayo, I have another song by the late singer-songwriter Lily（りりぃ）who passed away nearly five years ago at the 64. Though I don't have a large selection by her on the blog, I've realized that she's dabbled in a number of genres: folk, New Wave and bluesy rock. Now I see that she may have also contributed somewhat to 1970s City Pop or New Music in general.
"Mizukagami no Naka"(In the Reflection of the Water), just from the title, might sound something rather dreamy and contemplative, but as I mentioned in the last sentence, it's a Lily creation that sounds quite City Pop for the decade. Speaking of which, the song was the B-side to her February 1978 single"Sawagashii Rakuen"（さわがしい楽園...Boisterous Paradise）. Lily provided words and music with Akira Inoue（井上鑑）arranging both the A and B sides which gives a big indication at how "Mizukagami no Naka" would sound.
Come to think of it, perhaps the song is actually creamy and contemplative in that I could imagine drinking a Brown Cow while listening to this.🍸 Then again, "Mizukagami no Naka" might be perfect for that sunset stroll on the boardwalk. The keyboards and those horns add to the groovy urban and urbane aural experience, no matter the setting in which you would listen to it.
The above video by YouTube channel Fix69130 is of Japan Railways' Keihin-Tohoku train in Tokyo characterized by those light blue stripes. I always used to see it on one side of the platform opposite the the other side for the Yamanote Line which was the loop around inner Tokyo.
The reason that I mention one of my old familiar urban sights is because of this song "Namida no Dai San Keihin" (The Tearful No. 3 Keihin). At first, I'd thought that the song had something to do with the train itself but then looking up J-Wiki, I realized that the title is actually referring to the Daisan Keihin Douro（第三京浜道路...The No. 3 Keihin Road）, a segment of National Highway No. 466 spanning from the Tamagawa Interchange in Tokyo to the Hodogaya Interchange in Yokohama.
Lily（りりぃ）, the late singer-songwriter most famous for her 1974 hit single, "Watashi ga Naiteimasu"（わたしが泣いています）, created and recorded "Namida no Dai San Keihin" as her November 1980 single. With a mix of eerie and suspenseful, her lyrics relate a story of a woman trying desperately to contact a (former?) paramour without success. Meanwhile, her music has that relentless guitar chugging away like a revving car engine, and there is something in the arrangement that reminds me of songs that I used to hear from the New Wave rock band The Fixx.
The video below shows the actual Daisan Keihin Douro by hiros. tv channel on YouTube and the ride seems more relaxing and less urgent than the images from the actual song. But from 3:15, the video accelerates to four times the speed, so if you are inclined, you can cut the happy audio here and then play "Namida no Dai San Keihin" over it to get that suspense feeling. Regrettably, not ever having getting a driver's license, I can only drive vicariously through this video.
Well, this has been a rather bittersweet period of 24 hours.
Last night, Canada and the music world lost the legendary Leonard Cohen at the age of 82 who was arguably most famous for his rendition of "Halleljuah". He was probably one of the coolest old cats I've seen with that rich smoky voice.
Then just some minutes ago, the news came out that actor Robert Vaughn has died at the age of 83. I knew him from various shows and movies, most notably as one of the cowboys from the original "The Magnificent Seven" and even more famously as superspy Napoleon Solo from "The Man From UNCLE". One of my oldest pop culture memories is that pre-credits prelude from "UNCLE" in which an enemy spy tries to infiltrate UNCLE Headquarters and shoots at some (nearly) bullet-resistant glass only for a deadly serious Solo to appear to mete out justice. I mean, it was a total failure of security in a top-secret organization but, dang, it looked cool! And as I said, the sequence has remained in my brain all these decades.
Between those two news items, I also found out from Mixi this morning that singer-actress Lily (りりィ) passed away from lung cancer earlier today at the age of 64. Her most famous song is the folky 1974 "Watashi ga Naiteimasu"（わたしが泣いています）which got as high as No. 3 on Oricon.
However, I've also found this atmospheric and bluesy number which she created as her 8th single in March 1976, "Uchi e Oide yo" (Come Over To My Home). This may have been her 2nd-most successful number as it reached No. 14 on the charts, and with the soft but rambunctious piano and meowing guitar, it feels like it was meant to be performed at some rundown honky-tonk in Shinjuku.
I am also attracted to Lily's vocals. Sounding as if she had imbibed a few glasses of shochu before recording the song, she invites an old buddy who may be a man or a woman to share some drinks and commiserate over their shared loneliness...perhaps to lead to some overnight action. Or it is more of a "I LOVE YOU, MAN" type of platonic thing. I was never an expert on Janis Joplin but I couldn't help but be reminded of her while I was listening to this open invitation of a song. The home that Lily could have been talking about is probably a ramshackle apartment that is thoroughly lived-in and comfortable for any friends.
Musically, it's definitely a good distance away from any of the enka and aidoru stuff that was getting on the TV shows back then. Not sure if she ever did perform it there but I'm sure it was good to hear at the live houses of the 1970s.
Well, I've got a couple of surprises concerning singer-actressLily （りりィ）coming up, but let's first get onto her most successful song, shall we? I came across "Watashi ga Naiteimasu"(I'm Crying) through one of the albums from the "Good Times Diva" series that I have, and as soon as I checked YouTube out for the song, I remembered the husky vocals and the slightly jazz-inflected folk.
Lily was born Saeko Kamata（鎌田 小恵子....I'm hoping I'm pronouncing the family name correctly）in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1952 but moved to Tokyo when she was in Grade 3 of elementary school. Her career in show business started as a child model and then metamorphosed into that of a singer in 1972. A couple of years later, she would come out with "Watashi ga Naiteimasu", a song that she wrote and composed herself for release in March 1974 as her 4th single which became her biggest hit, peaking at No. 3 on Oricon and selling close to a million records.
She took a break from the industry in 1983 during which she got married a 2nd time and had a son. Lily released a few singles during that time, but it wasn't until the late 90s that she made a full-fledged comeback. Although her final single was in 1995, she has continued to work in the geinokai as an actress where surprise No. 1 comes in. Apparently among her roles recently was one in which she played the mother of crusading banker Naoki Hanzawa（半沢直樹）in the popular drama of the same name in 2013.
And as for surprise No. 2....her son grew up to become the lead vocal, JUON, of alt-rock band Fuzzy Control. And he also ended up marrying a woman who is the lead vocal of her own group, Miwa Yoshida（吉田美和）of Dreams Come True.
