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 was a little surprised on Sunday that there was an episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）on Jme since it's the Holidays. I'd assumed that the program was going on New Year's hiatus, but as it turned out, they had one more in them to get out before the New Year which is fine for my parents especially.
A Los Primos song was covered in that last episode which had me thinking. The Mood Kayo group really loved their go-touchi（ご当地）songs especially with the term "blues" in the title. There have been "Ginza Blues"（銀座ブルース）, "Niigata Blues"（新潟ブルース）and "Asahikawa Blues"（旭川ブルース）, and that's for starters. How many more do they have?
Well, as it turns out, Akira Kurosawa & Los Primos（黒沢明とロス・プリモス）did release their 17th single in February 1970 titled "Yoru no Blues"(Night Blues). Yes, no geographical reference point here...at least not in the title. But as it turns out, those Los Primos guys pulled off a three-in-one. That's right. The three verses in "Yoru no Blues" stake claims to Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki, all major port cities in Japan. And it looks like the guys in those verses just can't seem to make the best of their opportunities, but dang, isn't it all very atmospheric, just like any Mood Kayo song should be?
Written by Kyosuke Kuni（久仁京介）and composed by Masakazu Mizushima（水島正和）, it feels like a fairly lighthearted tune for a Mood Kayo although there is the classic posture of Shoji Mori（森聖二）as the main vocalist at the time while the others were on instruments and haunting chorus, even with some languid scatting. The only thing that struck me was hearing the mellow horns provide the final harmonized note instead of the voices of Los Primos themselves.
I haven't covered a Mood Kayo in many weeks on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so I decided to pluck one out. Usually when I think of an old kayo kyoku covering the drinking beat, my mind unearths Tokyo neighbourhoods such as Akasaka and Ginza, the areas filled with expensive bars and nightclubs.
Harajuku? Not so much. For one thing, this particular area of Tokyo is known for its cutting-edge fashion and fashionistas tending toward the younger Tokyoites...not salaried types in sober suits and dresses looking to wet their whistles with whiskey and gin. And when it comes to Harajuku, the only food I think about is crepes.
That's why I had a few question marks revolving around my head when I saw that famed Mood Kayo group Los Indios & Silvia（ロス･インディオス&シルヴィア）recorded a 1980 song titled "Sorezore no Harajuku"(To Each Their Own Harajuku) as one of their trademark tunes. I certainly couldn't see these guys buying strawberry-and-cream filled crepes and hitting the nearest McDonalds.
However, as written by Yoko Nakahara（中原葉子）and composed by the late Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）, "Sorezore no Harajuku" is indeed a Mood Kayo fortified with even more upscale refinement. It did get me to thinking that Harajuku, especially Takeshita Street, may have begun catering to the teens from the 1980s but there probably were lots of expensive bars in that area, too. Plus Los Indios & Silvia take it even further out from Harajuku, extending through the tony street of Omotesando to the truly ritzy neighbourhood of Aoyama with Aoyama Avenue being the border. The whole area is milling with past and present and future lovers and just like a soup of chemicals, it's interesting to see what catalyzes, socially speaking.
Of course, Los Indios & Silvia would have an even bigger hit the following year with "Uso yo Konya mo"（うそよ今夜も）.
Well, back to the regular Thursday edition of Reminiscings of Youth following last night's tribute to "Star Wars". And tonight, I wanted to focus on one of the first female rock singers that I had ever experienced on television and radio.
Pat Benatar, I was happy to hear, will be inducted into the 2022 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year. I first heard about her right when I was starting to get into music on both sides of the Pacific and at around that time, music video was beginning to rise in the media. This video of her "You Better Run" was my first view of Benatar, and she looked stunning, intimidating and cool-as-all-get-out at the same time. Her cheekbones could be anyone's well-sharpened scythes!
However, it was her 9th single from September 1980, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", that got me with her best shot. Eddie Schwartz was the songwriter behind this typically growling Benatar rocker of defiance and challenge, and not surprisingly, it was the song of choice for a lot of team sports coverage including ice hockey. I mean, it would be a perfect tune for the best of the best goaltenders.
I was amused to find out from the Wikipedia article on "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" that Schwartz had been inspired to create the song from a pillow-punching therapy session in Toronto of all places. Never thought that my hometown was that violent way back when. Regardless, the song hit No. 10 on Canada's RPM singles chart while in the United States, it went up to No. 9 on Billboard, going Gold. Long may Pat Benatar rock!
Allow me then to give Nos. 1, 2 and 4 for September 1980 on Oricon.
A few days ago, I came up with some suggestions for those folks who were curious about what the traditional Japanese music genre of enka was all about with the male and female singers. Well, tonight, I offer the curious another genre in the Tokyo House Party series: Mood Kayo...the bar/nightclub genre as I identified it on the show back on February 27th.
According to J-Wiki, Mood Kayo supposedly originated from the late 1950s from musical interactions among native entertainers and members of the Occupation forces (mainly American forces), gradually moving to the nightclubs in the entertainment districts of the big cities such as Ginza and Akasaka in Tokyo. The dance music with its Latin, jazz and Hawaiian influences was observed to have generated a certain mood in those establishments thus the music gaining its genre name.
Mood Kayo was often but not always characterized by male groups with a lead vocalist and perhaps a backing chorus of three or four men. But there were also solo artists consisting of both men and women, notably with some pretty smoky voices. Moreover, another trait of the genre was that song titles frequently pinpointed a certain geographically famous area such as the aforementioned Ginza and Akasaka.
Of course, as I've said all along for this series, there are plenty of other examples from this genre that I couldn't get on here, and that includes a number of enka singers who have also dabbled into Mood Kayo from time to time.
This is pure Thursday whimsy on my part. For the past few days, I'd been thinking about doing an article involving one of the main subway lines in Tokyo, the Ginza Line which according to Wikipedia is the oldest subway line in Asia, having started on December 30th 1927. Obviously, I have no intention on giving a history lesson on the line but I do want to feature some of the kayo kyoku that have some attachment to the five areas whose subway stations are on the Ginza Line. However, I won't be giving any major information on the songs since the links will take you to the original articles. All I just want to do is relate the walk and a few impressions along the way.
Ah yes, the walk. I also received some inspiration to do this because I still remember my just-as-whimsical but totally insane-and-exhausting decision one day during the Golden Week holidays to actually walk down the streets that have the Ginza Line underneath all the way from Asakusa Station to Shibuya Station. My feet are still muttering to me years later "I'm still not letting you live this down!".😠
From www.tsunagujapan.com
Just to let you know in advance, most of the tunes listed here are in the older kayo genres of enka and Mood Kayo, probably because when they were first recorded, there was an interest in putting the various neighbourhoods of Tokyo into music when the metropolis was getting back on its feet in the postwar period and pulling in lots of young people from all around Japan for work.
I got off at Asakusa Station to start the trek on that day in May. Asakusa still garners a lot of affection as a place where I was working for a couple of years (1995-1997) early in my Tokyo career as an English conversation teacher. Got to see the Samba Festival and the Sumida River Fireworks Festival, and frankly speaking, every day was pretty much a festival with Kaminarimon and Nakamise Dori just around the corner from the school. The shopping streets were great for getting everything from some of the cheesiest Japan-themed souvenirs to some really soft and crunchy yaki manjuu.
Before I made the decision to go ahead with this project article, I had hesitated a bit specifically because I had covered Asakusa and Komadori Shimai during my series of articles while I was on my 2017 trip to Tokyo. Then again, I figured at my age, I was already repeating old stories to my buddies in person so why not do the same in print?
Places frequented often (PFO): Kaminarimon, Asakusa Matsuya, Nakamise and Shin-Nakamise Dori
A 20-minute walk from Asakusa got me to Ueno...not bad at all. I must have performed this major walk on May 3rd, aka Constitution Day, since I did see the ultra-right extremists getting their gear ready near Ueno Station (including the ear-splitting megaphones) while the riot police were setting up their vans.
Ueno also holds a dear spot in my heart since it was the area where I had received my training at NOVA for a couple of months before I was assigned to Asakusa. There was a lot of shopping and noshing to be had in this area since there was the Ameyoko shopping street and I got to learn a lot about the places with bento boxes for lunch. Speaking of Ueno Station, that place has undergone a lot of renovation in the years that I was living in Japan. It was a fair bit grottier back then but it's been gussied up with stylish cafés, restaurants and the like.
PFO: Ueno Station, Ueno Park, Ameyoko, Takeya Department Store (for the bento)
The walk took me from the older traditional districts to the more modern and skyscraper-filled parts of the city, and that includes Ginza. I may have gotten lunch here during the epic walk, but if so, I can assure readers that it wasn't at any of the swanky joints that Ishihara probably frequented. Most likely, it was at the very first McDonalds in the nation, just south of the main intersection (I believe that it closed down years ago). The fact that the counterperson recognized me with a huge smile meant that I had frequented it way too much.
I really enjoyed walking up and down the main drag of Chuo Dori especially when the street was closed on the weekends (weather permitting). Also wonderful were the various stores that I could afford especially Yamano Music which was one source for my CD buying.
PFO: Yamano Music, Ito-Ya (stationery shop), Mitsukoshi Department Store, Yamaha Music Shop
After having moved from Ginza and then through Shimbashi, Toranomon and Tameike-Sanno, I finally reached Akasaka-Mitsuke Station which is at one edge of another swanky neighbourhood, Akasaka. Things were getting rather sweaty for me by that point and I walked over another 500 metres before I stopped off at a parkette right next to the Canadian Embassy. To be honest, I didn't really hit Akasaka all that much aside from invitations from friends and students to certain restaurants and bars. Basically, I had to go there on my own to renew my passport at the embassy.
The Akasaka stop was when my legs and feet started to cry "Uncle!" along with some very choice expletives to my face. My physical condition was beginning to mourn just like Los Indios' chorus which is why I was thankful for the many vending machines that provided opportunities to replenish my fluids. But the message was sent loud and clear: I was pushing things.
Approximately 6 hours of fairly constant walking later after having started from Asakusa Station, I finally arrived (ambled, limped, oozed) in the Teen Mecca of Shibuya. My legs were toast by that point and I was moving like a penguin and The Blob. My memory is a blur after that and I can only surmise that I found some sort of café to stylishly collapse in for an hour or so.
Shibuya was definitely one of my favourite areas and the sparkling Suzuki/Kikuchi duet reflected how I felt about it whether it be day or night. It may be seen as the area for the adolescents but with the various establishments covering the gamut between cutesy and glamourous, it appealed and attracted everyone of all ages. Of course, when I did land in Shibuya, I was sure to visit Tower Records and RecoFan. Not after the walk, though.
Somehow I dragged myself up the steps and took the Ginza Line back to Nihombashi Station and switched over to the Tozai Line to head home. I was indeed grateful for the remainder of Golden Week since it took that long for my feet to deflate back to their normal 27.5 cm size. Still, it was quite the odyssey passing through so many different neighbourhoods. I'm glad that I let my whimsy do the talking and the walking.
I've heard the various versions a few times now and I always get that urge to order something on the rocks (most likely for me it will be a Brown Cow).
Most of the article will deal with a couple of Mood Kayo singers that I had not heard of before. But with "Yoru no Gingitsune" (Silver Fox of the Night), the sound is so romantically Mood Kayo on the Latin side of things that I was slightly surprised that it was actually a solo singer instead of the usual quartet or quintet of the genre that got the ball rolling on this ballad.
There's barely anything on singer Shiro Saijo（斉条史朗）aside from the fact that his "Yoru no Gingitsune" which is the original version became a huge hit for him when it was released in 1969. I had to dig deep into the search engines but all I could find was one Japanese blog entry about the song in which the author indicated that Saijo had been a nightclub singer in his early 20s when this ballad came out so he would most likely be in his early 70s by now.
The above video has Saijo singing on some TV show and it's the perfect setting with him in his tuxedo while the orchestra is playing that Latin-spiced song and the white lacy curtains behind him. Daisaburo Nakayama（中山大三郎）wrote the lyrics of a woman pining for what I am assuming is a grey-haired Lothario while Hiroyuki Nakagawa（中川博之）came up with the sweeping melody.
At least, there is a J-Wiki entry for the late Shinichiro Hakozaki（箱崎晋一朗）who sadly passed away at the young age of 43 from liver cancer in 1988. The native from Iwate Prefecture made his debut in 1969 with the hit "Atami no Yoru"（熱海の夜...A Night in Atami）, and he became notable for his falsetto. Unfortunately, aside from perhaps one other song in his repertoire, he never really became a household name in music. His cover of "Yoru no Gingitsune" came out on a 1980 LP titled "Onnagokoro wo Utaimasu"（女心を歌います...Singing of the Woman's Heart） with the arrangement including that French accordion, another Mood Kayo instrumental trope. I guess that that particular instrument had its heyday in the 70s and 80s perhaps.
(13:05)
Although I couldn't find out whether or when the Mood Kayo group Los Indios（ロス・インディオス）had officially recorded "Yoru no Gingitsune", they nonetheless covered it on stage. The above has them and Alicia who was their 7th female vocalist. I'm pretty sure that the other Mood Kayo units have probably given their tribute to the 1969 tune since it seems tailored made for them.
Reading Marcos V'sarticle on that collaboration between NGT48'sRika Nakai（中井りか）and veteran Mood Kayo group Los Indios（ロス・インディオス）the other day had me thinking about them once more. Not that the end of the year means tons of visits to bars and other types of watering holes in Tokyo; I would think that the final week would be spent sprucing up the home and cooking up all that osechi. Instead the days leading up to January 1st just gets me into that traditional music type of mood, and Mood Kayo is one such genre.
It may not have garnered as much acclaim as their "Como Esta Akasaka?"（コモエスタ赤坂）, but Los Indios' "Shirisugitanone" (Know Me Too Well) was released in the same year, 1968, as their arguably most famous song and it has that comforting mix of Mood and Latin that just brings up images of walking through various tony districts of Tokyo at night such as the aforementioned Akasaka.
Written and composed by the veteran songwriter Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）, the lovely melody is paired up with some sorrowful lyrics about a fellow whose now-erstwhile girlfriend has dumped him because she didn't like the "warts-and-all" part of him. Maybe it was news of another affair or he was in deep with a bad crowd....it doesn't matter, he's all by his lonesome once more.
Despite the sad story, it's still a wonderfully natsukashii kayo to hear and someday I may have to try it out at karaoke....that is, if I can meet up with a bunch of like-minded amateur singers. I don't think my old buddies in Japan are really all that much into Japanese music in general....at least, not into Mood Kayo.
I
would never expect to see LOS INDIOS paired with an NGT48 member any time, but
now we’re here with this song called “Daiteyaccha Sakuragicho”. To be honest,
this is very wrong in so many levels that I can’t even start, but the
possibility of this outrageous combination is the main reason why I love
Japanese pop music in the first place.
“Daiteyaccha
Sakuragicho” is a coupling track to the Type-B edition of NGT48’s “Sekai wa
Doko Made Aozora na no ka?” (世界はどこまで青空なのか?) single, which was released in
December 2017. As a song, it’s a return to Showa Era Kayo Kyoku in great style,
and I even enjoy Rika Nakai's awkward squeaky vocals backed by the Latin beat, a
wailing guitar, dramatic strings and LOS INDIOS’ harmonies. Like I said
earlier, it doesn’t work properly, but its audacity makes up for all the bad
things. It vaguely reminds me “Kudokinagara Azabu Juuban” (口説きながら麻布十番), a
song released by the extinct SDN48 with Mino Monta (みのもんた)
back in 2011.
The “Sekai
wa Doko Made Aozora na no ka?” single reached #2 on the Oricon chart, selling
148,442 copies in the first week. Lyrics for the song were written by Yasushi
Akimoto (秋元康),
while music was composed by Kensuke Toyoda (豊田健甫). As
for the arrangement, Makoto Wakatabe (若田部誠) was the responsible.
Well, it was a pretty banner night on tonight's "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）. The theme was Mood Kayo in Fall, and although I didn't really detect anything autumnal about the songs selected, it was still the urbane and comfy music of my childhood on display on the NHK stage.
The stage was indeed set when the show opened up with old footage of the bright lights and big city of Tokyo along with scenes of the bartender shaking up a martini and a couple tripping the light fantastic on the dance floor. A number of the classics that have already been covered in this blog were back, but my ears also caught another number that I hadn't heard in a long time and had yet to feature on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
"Uso yo Konya mo" (More Lies Tonight) is a flirtatious duet number (in Mood Kayo, what other type of duet can there be?) featuring Los Indios & Silvia who had an even more successful hit with "Wakarete mo Suki na Hito"（別れても好きな人）from a couple of years earlier. They were back again in 1981 with "Uso yo Konya mo", written and composed by Shigeaki Mutsumi（六ツ見茂明）, with some magnificent strings and a cute back-and-forth between the woman and the guys as they portrayed a charming cad not giving up on that beautiful lady with the latter not playing too too hard to get.
As soon as I heard the "Sukisa, dai sukisa..."（好きさ、大好きさ...I love you, I really love you）, my memory started firing up in recognition. The only places I could imagine this banter happening in would be Ginza or Akasaka, the perfect Mood Kayo settings. Usually, when I think of the genre, the 50s and 60s would be the decades I get reminded of, but it's nice to know that it was able to go farther into the century.
1981 was also the year that my classmates and I went on that graduation trip to Japan. And on my second night in Tokyo, one of the boys' host family swung by the Tokyo Prince Hotel to take him, myself and one other guy out for dinner. As I recall, we didn't take a taxi or a subway so I figure we must have ended up in nearby Daimon at a tonkatsu restaurant in one of the underground malls. It was a fine dinner but when the three of us offered to pay our share, the host father somehow had the wherewithal to throw all of us strapping young lads out the door. That is what I call being treated to dinner. And for the first time, I felt like I was getting into the swing of things in the evening of this most epic metropolis. Daimon may not be Ginza or Akasaka, but to me, it more than made a great impression....perfect for a Mood Kayo to be a theme song.
For couples of a certain age who still like to hit the karaoke box circuit, this is still one of the must-do songs to choose on the PADD (the modern karaoke box chains now have the "Star Trek"Geordi LaForge displays....saves time, paper cuts[from flipping those pages in those tome-sized karaoke menus] and calloused thumbs [from pressing the oversized remote controls]).
Los Indios has been around since 1962 playing their izakaya & bar-friendly Mood Kayo and Latin-tinged music. In 1968, they had a huge hit with "Como Esta Akasaka", and then 11 years later, the group had an even bigger hit with "Wakarete mo Suki na Hito" (Even If We Part, I'll Still LoveYou). And for the first time, Los Indios invited a female vocalist to sing with them, Silvia.
Silvia, who was born as Rieko Matsuda（松田理恵子) in 1958, was scouted while singing at an establishment owned by another singer/TV personality, Mitsuo Sagawa（佐川満男). Her first known assignment was with Los Indios, and the pairing was a fortuitous one since "Wakarete mo Suki na Hito" ended up becoming the 8th-ranked song for 1980 after its release in September 1979. Listening to it (along with similar songs of the genre) reminds me of some of those high times Tokyo must have been having back then, and this was even years before the Bubble Economy.
The pairing of Los Indios with Silvia started a tradition that has lasted up to the present day. Besides Silvia, 7 other female singers have worked with the group, and the 9th singer, Nina, a jazz singer, will be joining as of December 15 2012 according to J-Wiki.
As with a number of songs in kayo kyoku (such as Hiromi Iwasaki's "Sumire Iro no Namida"), the successful version has often concealed its previous versions. That has been the case with "Wakarete mo". Originally, singer-songwriter Ben Sasaki（佐々木勉) had created the song for the Group Sounds band, Purple Shadows, as their 5th single in November 1969. That version is above. It wasn't a hit for them, and some years later in 1975, the leader of Los Indios, Shizuo Tanahashi（棚橋静雄), did his own solo version of the song without it becoming a hit.
Its popularity as a duet song hasn't been lost even on the professional singers. I'm sure a lot of them on the various TV shows have gotten together to do their take on the Mood Kayo classic. Here are Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ） and Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）.
And heck, how about a real surprise? Not sure which show or when this came up, but even the boys from B'z and comedienne Kuniko Yamada（山田邦子) did their take. Enjoy!
The subgenre of Mood Kayo（ムード歌謡）evokes and is evoked by scenes of tipsy businessmen crawling throughout the bar districts. In Tokyo, one such pricey area is Akasaka where bars, nightclubs and restaurants are squeezed in together so tightly that they've probably secretly made a Guinness World Record in the category of "Most Densely Populated Bar District". For some reason, Mood Kayo often incorporated jazz, Latin or even Hawaiian melodies. It all started in the 50s when such music was played for Occupation forces and then later moved into the bars and nightclubs of Tokyo districts such as Ginza and Akasaka.
Los Indios was one such band that specialized in Mood Kayo. It formed in 1962 with Shizuo Tanahashi（棚橋静雄） as the lead vocal. One of their representative hits is "Como Esta Akasaka"(How Are You, Akasaka?), a tribute to the famed drinking area where love can be found and lost. It was written by Takashi Nishiyama（西山隆） and composed by Kazunori Asano（浅野和典） in 1968.
I'm also leaving you with the karaoke video for the song since it gives a nice view of what Akasaka is like in the evening. Yes, night is the best time to just even walk through the area and admire just all the lights (yes, even in post 3/11 Tokyo). A couple of my farewell parties were in the area last December. Had one nice dinner and drink in an izakaya with one student, and then a bunch of friends took me to the local Hooters there....very pleasant young waitresses....yes, they were.
