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 always enjoy those bird's-eye night views of Tokyo. I've never been all that high up but at least I got to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government buildings to catch the Coruscant-like scene of the megalopolis spreading out on the horizon.
I also enjoy making discoveries of songs from that past that I'd never got to hear before. One example is this one by the duet of Makoto Saito（斎藤誠）and Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）. Both of them have had their feet in both City Pop and rock, but I think for this collaborative effort it's safe to say that this is a splendid mid-tempo pop love song. However, I also feel that there is enough of an urban contemporary element in there that I can imagine flying in the night sky or driving on the night highway while listening to "Our Love". This is a track from Saito's October 1990 album"Egao ni Go-chui."（笑顔に御注意。...Watch Out For That Smile）, a title that may be the only purely Japanese-language one among the mostly English-titled album discography by him.
I don't ever recall being in Shinjuku (pictured above) at around midnight although I've been in Shibuya at around that time. Most likely, I was desperately running for the last train on the Tozai Line to head back home to Ichikawa. However, I can see Shinjuku still being quite that active even at the witching hour.
A little less than a month ago, I profiled Mai Yamane's（山根麻衣）song "You Don't Have To Say", a jazzy City Pop ballad of the skies that also happened to be the B-side for the singer-songwriter's March 1979 debut single"Gozen Reiji"（12 Midnight）. Well, I've got the A-side now and it's got a little more urban oomph as if, despite the lateness of the hour, folks are still scuttling back and forth in the great big city. I gather that you can still check those YouTube live cameras to see if Shinjuku and Shibuya are still lively at midnight Tokyo time. This time around, "Gozen Reiji" was actually written and composed by singer-songwriter Yoko Shibata（柴田容子）.
"Would you care for another martini, sir? And if I may suggest...we can move you to a table overlooking Tokyo. The sunset is particularly beautiful today."
Yep, that's the kind of offer that I hear when I listen to this marvelous laidback tune by Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）. The refined and jazzy "You Don't Know Have To Say" oozes all kinds of class, and this is just the B-side to her debut single from March 1979, "Gozen Reiji"（午前0時...12 Midnight）. Written and composed by Yamane herself, the opening flute establishes things nicely in that refined 1970s way, the languid instruments thereafter transport some fine sunset relaxation, and then the saxophone make it very clear that we are enjoying some urban and urbane hedonism. Plus it's all brought together by the velvet tones of the singer herself.
Looks like I've been going for the funk today on Urban Contemporary Friday at "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so I might as well wrap things up for my four contributions with "Turn On Street" by Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）. A track from her March 1981 album"Sorry", there's some good old funk strut going on here judging by that beefy bass which launches things. And methinks that this must have been one heck of a jam session if and when she performed this live at a venue. But at the same time, the last third of the song does have a brief respite of gliding City Pop. Overall though, I did get some feelings of Donald Fagen's amazing "The Nightfly" album via the horns.
Unfortunately, I couldn't peg down the exact bassist who worked on "Turn On Street" although it's a star lineup of Shigeru Okazawa（岡沢茂）, Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利） and Yasuo Tomikura（富倉安生）helping out on "Sorry". Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）was once again on trumpet while Jake H. Concepcion took care of the saxophone. Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）was the guy responsible for music and arrangement so I figure that was him at the very end squealing away. According to JASRAC, there was someone named FUNKY CHICK who wrote the lyrics, and I'm wondering if that was actually Yamane being her coy self.
There is a Marvel character specifically within the "X-Men" community named Domino, a good buddy of Cable who just happens to be the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor and yadda yadda yadda. If I went on any longer, I would get rather soap opera-ish about the whole thing which is something that sometimes annoys me about the intertwining nature of the comic superheroes. But in any case, Domino's mutant power is her ability to warp probabilities. In other words, she can generate oodles of good luck for her and her allies.
Now, Zazie Beetz did portray Domino in "Deadpool 2". But I figure that if Domino were to make a second appearance on the big screen, I wouldn't mind having this song by Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）as her theme tune. Yeah, I realize that it's a little too obvious having a song titled "Lady Luck" for her, but heck, Yamane has done some great things for anime such as "Cowboy Be-Bop" so why not have this adorning any iteration of the character?
Besides, I've always seen Domino (when I used to collect the various X comics even in expensive Tokyo) as the kickass rock-n'-roll type and that's how I see "Lady Luck" which is a track on Yamane's August 1988 album"Woman Tone". Neither the song nor the character suffers fools gladly and they seem to love a great time in the city. Yamane and Eiko Yamane（山根えい子）provided the lyrics while Masayuki Iwata（岩田雅之）of PAZZ fame came up with the rollicking melody. Of course, Mai gives her velvety and growly best behind the mike.
Finally decided to take a look at the rest of Mai Yamane's（山根麻衣）debut album"Tasogare"(Twilight) from May 1980. I have already written about half the tracks separately: the title track, "City Drive", "Foolin' Myself", and "Wave", and just judging on that half, I had assumed that "Tasogare" would be a pure City Pop/J-AOR collection.
Of course, I was wrong, and happily so. If it were just a City Pop album, I think that would have been cheating us and Yamane from showing off the range of her rich bluesy voice, which she does in tracks like "Heart For Sale". The singer wrote and composed this 2nd track as this down-home country tune, and the image that I get is the lady manning a bar out in the dusty desert somewhere in the Western United States. There are only a few regulars, the lights are laid down low and it's the jukebox playing the song itself while Yamane is singing away while sitting the other way around on a wooden chair with a Corona in her hand. Another City Pop king, guitarist Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）handled the arrangements.
It's Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）, Matsushita's good buddy, who came up with the rumbling New Wave-ish music of "Get Away". We're away from the desert here and racing down the highway cutting through the city at warp speed, and I'm getting some Pat Benatar vibes here. Yamane once again supplied the lyrics.
Plenty of atmosphere with "Yore Yore Boy"（よれよれ・ボーイ...Worn-Out Boy）as Yamane provides some musical libation to cheer up a guy who hasn't had a great day. It looks like the cure is working, though. Perhaps this time, the singer is in a more successful drinking establishment replete with adorably off-tune honky-tonk piano and good friends. This time, it wasn't Yamane behind words and music, but Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）.
The final song on "Tasogare" is the wonderfully wistful ballad "Hikari to Kaze to Nami"（光と風と波と...The Light, Wind and Waves）as Yamane becomes a giver of a country lullaby about being apart from a loved one. Indeed, true to the album title, it's probably twilight as the heroine stands on the wave-lapped beach as the music brings hints of the Eagles'"Desperado". Bringing in an orchestra near the end to finish things off might divide opinions, but being a fellow who likes his fair share of schmaltz in a song, I'm good with it. Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘）music is paired with Yamane's lyrics.
By this point in the recent history of City Pop, I think that most likely fans have already discovered "Tasogare" and have grown to appreciate the surprising variety in it instead of it just being focused on one genre. Moreover, even as far back as 1980, some of us got that hint of what she could provide in the late 90sanime classic "Cowboy Be-Bop".
I'm glad that I could get a re-released form of "Tasogare". Way back when I was still living in Tokyo but still early in my City Pop ardor, I went to visit one of my old haunts, Tacto, and tried to track down a Yamane album, but could only find a BEST compilation for the low, low price of $100! Luckily, there was a change of heart once I came back home to Toronto.
Found this one last night on the New J Channel radio and I tried to see if I could track it down elsewhere on YouTube. Hurrah! I could.
I had never heard of either singer involved in this duet with Fujiro & Miwako Hiro（ふじろう＆広美和子）that seems to have elements of City Pop, AOR, and even some gentle country, but "Walking in the Rain" does feel like that pleasant tandem stroll in the midst of precipitation. And dang, if that is indeed Fujiro on the cover for his 2nd single from January 1980, he really looks like an old friend of mine who suddenly went into "Miami Vice" mode. That joke aside, I do like hearing the drawl in Fujiro's voice.
Fujiro's full name is Fujiro Sugitani*（杉谷夫二朗）, which is the name he uses for his songwriting credits, a singer-songwriter from Tottori Prefecture who started his career around 1970. Working as a studio musician for most of the decade, he recorded his debut single, "Ai no Uta nado Utaenai"（愛の唄など歌えない...Can't Sing Love Songs or the Like）in 1979. He released a total of 3 singles and one album"I'm In Love" in 1980. According to his J-Wiki bio, unfortunately he passed away a little over a year ago in July 2018.
As for Miwako Hiro, because the arrangement of her kanji was different between the YouTube title and what I saw on the liner sheet in the video, I just had to make sure that the name was indeed Miwako Hiro（広 美和子）, and not Kazuko Hiromi（広美 和子）. I think that I got my confirmation that it was the former through this page, and apparently Ms. Hiro has gotten her reputation as an anison singer.
*I've gone with Sugitani here although the kanji for that name has four different readings according to Jisho.org, since it seems that Sugitani is the most popular reading. However, if I have made a mistake here, please let me know.
September 28th 2019: Jerry from Come Along Radio just told me that Fujiro also performed the same song with another partner, Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）.
One little tidbit that I got about Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）from a 1979 interview in "Myojo"（明星）via her J-Wiki article is that she and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）had apparently taken electone lessons together when they were kids.
On that note (no pun intended), I take you back to Yamane's City Pop/AOR days in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Here is the smooth and calming "(You and Me Still Keep On) Fall In Love", the B-side to her 7" single from 1981, "The 21' (Live to be Wild)". Written by Yamane and composed/arranged by Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, that combination of songwriters immediately had me taking notice.
And sure enough, "Fall In Love" does deliver the City Pop goods, gliding on a frictionless surface just as smoothly as Yamane's vocals. It's again one of those mellow ballads that would accompany an introspective stance on a high balcony over the city while the sun sets. Memories of Foster, Graydon and Temperton come to mind here.
The original single may still be around somewhere but I have heard that both "The 21'" and "Fall In Love" have been included on the remastered version of her 1985 album"Sorry".
My, my, Mai, Mai...this has been quite the Mai start for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" today. Just finished an article for Mai Kuraki's（倉木麻衣）"Secret of my heart", an anison for the "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン）series, and now I'm going ahead with a more down-and-dirty tune by Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）for "Cowboy Be-Bop".
In terms of the singer, I'm approaching Yamane in that countervailing way that I've gotten into Japanese popular music. A lot of fans have become J-Pop fans through anison being their front door and then branching into the other genres and singers including the singer in this article. For me, although I had heard of Yamane's contributions to the legendary "Cowboy Be-Bop", I only started getting into this singer through her very early City Pop tunes in the 1980s such as "Tasogare"（たそがれ）, and then I made the inroads into her rock-and-anime area.
So I have arrived at "The Real Folk Blues" which is really a jazz-rock extravaganza with Yamane behind the mike and The Seatbelts as the band. And man, with all of the attention on that opening theme, "Tank!", I've realized that the ending theme is no shrinking violet by any means.
Mentioning about that jazz-rock arrangement, I couldn't really say that "The Real Folk Blues" is a typical fusion tune. I think that the creation by lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）and composer Yoko Kanno（菅野よう子）is something that belongs in that category of film noir-spy caper-Neo-Western music. It has that smoky bourbon blend of sexiness, danger and lone-wolf sense of justice. Plus, the lyrics by Iwasato seem to describe something like a final scene from a Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall noir movie: "Sorry, dollface. Would love to be with you but a palooka like me ain't much for settlin' down. Gotta keep movin'". Heck, "The Real Folk Blues" would be something that I would have heard in a 1970s James Bond flick but with the far more intimidating Daniel Craig bringing the hammer down in the opening credits.
Yamane's honey voice and those horns are just perfect for the cool tone. And I gotta say that the coda that seems to describe Bogie walking off into the distance is amazing with the music keeping that main theme but taking on that underlying rhythm of an uncertain future. Y'know...with "Tank!" and "The Real Folk Blues", "Cowboy Be-Bop" may have been an anime with one of the most killer anison theme batteries in history.
Definitely a hot one in Toronto, going up to about 30 degrees Celsius. Nope, doesn't quite compare to the steam baths of August in Tokyo but let's say that I was grateful for some of that ice water during lunchtime with some friends today.
Speaking of something nice and cooling, I did discover that swaying feeling with "Wave" from Mai Yamane's（山根麻衣）debut album"Tasogare" (Twilight). The images that first came to me involved standing by the ocean during sunset while the breezes came rolling in along with the surf.
Kinda ironic that, since the lyrics by Yamane described something more intimately physical and torrid. Perhaps turning on the air conditioner during the afterglow session would have been a wise thing. Another City Pop master was responsible for the deceptively mellow music, guitarist Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）. And of course, Yamane lends some lovely vocals to the soundscape of languid guitar and horns.
I heard this song by Mai Yamane（山根麻以）"In Love" last night and I immediately exhaled as if I were unloosing some of the stresses of the day...which I was. At least for me, this song was that sort of song, the aural equivalent of that special someone to meet you at the door and escort you gently to your favourite area of the sofa before pouring you a Brown Cow (inside blog joke) following a hard day at work. Yup, it's that relaxing.
"In Love" was a track on Yamane's 2nd album, "Sorry" from 1981, and although her contributions to the legendary "Cowboy Be-Bop" were years away, I think this particular ballad would have made for a fine addition to that anime's soundtrack. And although I mentioned above that this would be a fine song to hear at home, I think this would also fit into a car stereo while taking a nice drive in the city.
The ballad was written by Kumiko Tomoi（友井久美子）and Funky Chick while the laid back music was provided by Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, a guitarist who is not unfamiliar with the slow groove. I've already got Yamane's debut album"Tasogare"...y'know, I wouldn't mind making another investment into one of her early releases.
A little over a couple of years ago, I wrote my first article on Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）. I think she's probably better known for her work with various anime projects including "Cowboy Be-Bop" but I first found out about her through the pages of "Japanese City Pop". Interested enough through the write-ups there and the one song that I did have of her in the "Good Times Diva" series, the cover of Eric Carmen's"Foolin' Myself", I started searching for any of her early albums. But at the time, even visiting my resident expert store in rare kayo kyoku, Tacto, only found a BEST compilation which cost a whopping 7800 yen! Unfortunately, economic sanity had to trump over cultural curiosity and I figured that was it for finding anything of her old originals although I remained hopeful...something that I've mentioned in the first two articles for Yamane.
Well, the situation has happily changed now in June 2015. The album that I thought was one of the rarest of the rare was actually selling at Tower Records, and so without hesitation, I pushed the buttons to get Yamane's first album, "Tasogare"（たそがれ...Sunset）from May 1980, and listened to it last night when it arrived by EMS on Friday morning. Very surprising and delightful. For one thing, it isn't purely a City Pop album, although the title track and "City Drive" along with at least one other tune provided by City Pop crooner Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）are very much in that vein. She deftly handled some rock and some country-folk tracks in there, and her voice belied someone who hadn't even reached 22 years of age at the time. I would be more than happy to put her up there with divas such as Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）, and according to the chatter on one of the tracks, "Yore Yore Boy"（よれよれ・ボーイ）, she certainly sounded quite conversant in English.
As for "City Drive", Chinfa Kan（康珍化）handled the lyrics while Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）from the band SHOGUN took care of the oh-so-City Poppy melody. True to the title of the album, this definitely has the feel of a drive down the Bayside Highway at that certain time of the day when the weather was just excellent, and again that voice of hers just sparkles like those keyboards.
It's too bad that there isn't a whole lot of her material online from those early days, but I'm happy enough as it is now that I've got "Tasogare" as part of the collection.
Another singer from the pages of "Japanese City Pop" is Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）. For my first article on her regarding her3rd single, "Foolin' Myself", she was performing the cover of an Eric Carmen song. This time, the focus is on the title track of her debut album, "Tasogare"(Twilight) which came out in 1980.
I really enjoy the groove going on in all this mellow. And instead of Eric Carmen, when I hear "Tasogare", I get this Gino Vannelli vibe with a bit of Rod Temperton synth thrown in for good measure. Yamane's smoky vocals are even more spot-on here. She doesn't have to wrench her heart out like she does in "Foolin' Myself" but can go more with the groovy flow of the melody.
Considering that her early stuff may be among the rarest of the rare out there, I can only hope that I can somehow track down a copy of "Tasogare".
Something that I've often thought is that certain old Western pop songs and their singers never die, they just head over to Japan for immortality. The Carpenters and their repertoire are arguably the biggest example, and I think somewhere in the deep forests of the Japanese Alps, Elvis may be eking out a happier existence. Another example is Eric Carmen and his 1975 hit, "All By Myself", the heart-on-his-sleeve ballad. I used to hear this all the time on AM radio, and it's found its Valhalla in Japan by having been used in at least a couple of commercials over there. The song was based on a Rachmaninoff concerto; a number of artists have based their hits on classical music, something that has also been cherished in Japan when it comes to their favourite hits, kayo kyoku or Western pop.
Another Carmen creation that perhaps wasn't as big a hit as "All By Myself" was his 1980 "Foolin' Myself", another power ballad which also seems to have a classical base of sorts in its melody. Pretty soon after its release, a Japanese cover by husky-voiced Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）came out in March of that year. I first came across the song in Volume 2 of the "Good Times Diva"series for which I bought a number of discs; as I probably mentioned in the article for that series, I've appreciated the CDs since they've introduced a number of artists that I had never heard of before. Mai Yamane, a native of Shimane Prefecture, is one of those singers. She also pops up in "Japanese City Pop". If it weren't for those two sources, I would never have discovered her, although for anime fans, she's probably known for her work in shows such as "Cowboy Be-Bop" and "Macross Plus".
That resonant voice of hers sold me on the Japanese cover of "Foolin' Myself". With Japanese lyrics by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）, Yamane released this as her 3rd single. She has that nice balance of tough and tender in her vocals when she sings it, and of course, that epic melody makes the song stand out. Originally, the song also was a track on Yamane's debut album, "Tasogare"（たそがれ....Twilight）which came out the same year.
I've heard a few more of her tunes via YouTube, and I'm starting to like her material. If the album hasn't gone out of print, I would love to get my own copy. Mind you, I actually looked for any album by her a couple of years ago when I did my periodic visit to that old CD shop, Tacto in Jimbocho. There was one which was a BEST compilation.....cost 7800 yen! A little rich for my blood.
And here is the original Eric Carmen version of "Foolin' Myself".
