Sunsetz -- An Antenna

 

Hope all of you are doing OK this Sunday. Here in Toronto, we've been having over 4000 new daily cases of COVID for a number of days now but we're hanging in there with the restrictions and the like. 

I found a rather intriguing song by Sandii & The Sunsetz（サンディー&ザ・サンセッツ）although depending even on different pages of the same website, their 1981 album "Heat Scale" labeled the band as either Sandii & The Sunsetz or as just Sunsetz. Just for the heck of it, I will use the latter name.

"An Antenna" is one of the Side-B tracks on the LP, and one descriptor on Discogs labels the album as Leftfield, a category that points out that it's not easily categorizable, although New Wave and Synthpop have also been used to describe it. I think that Leftfield label could also be used when I listen to "An Antenna". It starts off with a patter of syn-drums and blippy bass before some twangy guitar enters the soundscape. Then, Sandii herself comes in with the rap surrounded by wisps of her own meowing background chorus.

Although it's obviously not the same song, I did get some atmospheric vibes of Blondie's "Rapture" which is why I did put up the New Wave tag although it doesn't come across to me as the usual New Wave that I remember from my youth (no mention of anyone eating cars). Despite the syn-drums, I don't think it quite comes under the category of Synthpop either. If I actually had the Label, maybe it would be a form of avant-pop. Sandii and Makoto Kubota（久保田麻琴）were the lyricists here and Kubota took care of the melody while Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）arranged everything.

Makoto Kubota & Yuyake Gakudan -- Bye Bye Baby（バイ・バイ・ベイビー）

It's close to 11 pm as I type this but I wanted to put in just one more before calling it a day since a video that I saw was so fascinating.

The video was put up almost 10 years ago by a fellow named Nobuyoshi Maeda, and it features the band Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）playing a good ol' rock n' blues song titled "Bye Bye Baby" with singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）pouring it on while Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）is backing him up. I don't get to see either performer actually singing on a YouTube video so it was an interesting exercise to see them back in the 1970s jammin' away. There's also a bit in the above video where Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and friend were actually trying something that might have looked like an embryonic form of the Moonwalk.

Considering how "Bye Bye Baby" sounds, I had initially thought that Tin Pan Alley was performing a cover of some tune from the United States. But as it turns out, it's a wholly Japanese original that had been composed by Hosono himself and written by Yoma Fujita（藤田洋麻）. And the original performers were Makoto Kubota & Yuyake Gakudan（久保田麻琴と夕焼け楽団）on their 1975 debut album "Hawaii Champloo"（ハワイ・チャンプルー）.

Fujita's lyrics talk about a traveling band going from town to town doing the gigs on a seemingly never-ending train ride through America. And the band just sounds like they've lived the life and have been enjoying it, or at the very least, treating it like a good enough living. One would almost think that some of the members would have picked up a drawl or a twang in their speaking.

I don't usually listen to this genre but both the original and the cover done by Tin Pan Alley are actually quite fun to the ears. "Hawaii Champloo" has been previously represented on the blog through another track which is much more Okinawan, "Haisai Ojisan"（ハイサイおじさん）.

Shoukichi Kina & Champloose/Makoto Kubota & Yuyake Gakudan -- Haisai Ojisan（ハイサイおじさん）

It's rather amazing what I can find within a span of a few hours. I've said it before on the blog and it's happened again.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCppDP4y1L-5TWttVOkBDm7A

I dropped in at New J Channel's 24-hour broadcast of City Pop/J-AOR stuff as I do everyday and encountered one song by singer-musician Makoto Kubota（久保田麻琴）that sounded awfully familiar with its Okinawan twang. Didn't take me too long to figure it out either.

There was an episode of one of my favourite anime this decade, "Joshiraku"（じょうしらく）in which the character of Marii took some medicine for an agonizing toothache, and well, let's say it worked all too well on her. I had always thought that the music director for the show came up with the Okinawan festival jaunt.

Well, I found out that was probably not the case. I'm not particularly a fan of Okinawan music but even I have heard of Shoukichi Kina（喜納昌吉）who I think is one of the most famous musicians of the genre in the last several decades. Kina's debut single with his band Champloose（チャンプルーズ）was "Haisai Ojisan" (Hey, Old Man). Now, depending on either the J-Wiki article for the song itself or the Wikipedia article for Kina, the year of the song may vary. According to Wikipedia, "Haisai Ojisan", which was apparently created by Kina when he was in junior high school, was released in 1972. However, the J-Wiki article claims that the Okinawan record company Marufuku Records released the single in 1976.

"Haisai Ojisan" which is a cute little bit of banter between the old man and a boy became a big hit right off the bat for Kina as it sold 300,000 records. Initially, though, it was criticized as not being a true Okinawan folk song but over the years, it has been accepted as such and even as an example of Kachāshī, a festive form of Okinawan dance.

The one that I heard on J-Channel tonight is the above version by Makoto Kubota & Yuyake Gakudan（久保田麻琴と夕焼け楽団）which has a bit of an AOR intro before the familiar Okinawan melody (with a bit of Hawaiian added) comes in. His cover was on his 1975 album "Hawaii Champloo"（ハワイ・チャンプルー）.

To finish off, I found out from the J-Wiki article on "Haisai Ojisan" that one of the most famous characters by veteran comedian Ken Shimura（志村けん）based his silly theme dance on the song. The character is Henna Ojisan（変なおじさん...Strange Man） who appeared on Shimura's long-running Monday-night variety show "Shimura Ken no Daijoubu da"（志村けんのだいじょうぶだぁ...Ken Shimura's Everything's OK）. To think that I had watched that shtick for so many years and I only discovered the source tonight. Talk about your pop cultural connections!

Makoto Kubota to Yuyake Gakudan -- Hoshikuzu （星くず）

Let's head off to Margueritaville! That's the feeling I get when I listen to the following soother of a song.

There's a bit of a Doobie Bros. vibe when I hear "Hoshikuzu" (Stardust) by the 1970s band Makoto Kubota to Yuyake Gakudan（久保田麻琴と夕焼け楽団...Makoto Kubota & The Sunset Band）, but it's even more wonderfully mellow. The vocals by Kubota and the softly, softly delivery by the other instruments easily make it hammock time on the beach. It may be anything but summery right now (we've got a wind chill of -19 degrees C tonight!) but it's nice to dream of the warm days again.

"Hoshikuzu" is a track on the band's 2nd album "Dixie Fever" from 1977. Kubota and his Yuyake Gakudan released 5 albums between 1975 and 1981, and they were a group that focused on hippie culture, Hawaiian and Okinawan sounds.

However, the Kyoto-born and Ishikawa Prefecture-raised Kubota started his career in 1970 while he was a student at Doshisha University when he not only debuted his solo song but also participated as a member of the avant-garde band Hadaka no Rallizes（裸のラリーズ...Les Rallizes Dénudés）. Later on, he would take a year off university and head over to the States after which he released his first album "Machibouke"（まちぼうけ...Waiting in Vain） in 1972 with the help of producer Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）.

Near the end of the Yuyake Gakudan's run, he would bring in Aya "Sandii" Suzuki（鈴木あや）to become the main vocalist. The band itself would change its name to Sunsetz at the beginning of the 1980s and then finally to Sandii & The Sunsetz.

(cover version)