J-Canuck's Station-to-Station Songs

 

Yesterday, I met an old friend for coffee and then dinner downtown at Union Station. It had been a few years since the last time I met him so I figured that we would be catching up on a lot of stuff. Part of the reason that we went for Union Station as the meeting place was that I'd heard about the renovation of the station, especially where the food was concerned. Being a foodie, I was interested about a new flood of restaurants and cafes creating a mega food court underground. You can take a gander at the above video by Toronto Our City whose husband-and-wife team has been exploring the various eateries of our city. 

By the way, I know that there is a certain group of otaku in Tokyo who love to explore the underground malls, passageways and crevices of one of the world's biggest cities. Considering next year's World Cup which will have a few games played in Toronto and that our metropolis may have the biggest underground commercial complex on Earth (the PATH system), I cordially invite those folks to do a bit of exploration here, too).

After enjoying an hour of coffee, conversation and one of the best almond croissants that I've ever had, we were getting lost in the maze that was the Union Station underground before opting for dinner. When we got to Union Chicken, the place was packed with Toronto Maple Leafs fans for about half an hour before it got all cleared out like a drainpipe getting the Drano treatment (there was a home game just down the street). Then it was easy to get a table where I got the three-piece Chicken Tenders with Fries. I'm glad that I didn't get the five-piece version since that would have killed me. The above video is from the official Union Chicken YouTube channel.

Anyways, getting reacquainted with the main train station of Toronto and being back in my room in front of my computer again, I've decided to put up an Author's Picks based on kayo kyoku or J-Pop songs with the word "station" or "eki" in their titles. Enjoy!

(1964) Hachiro Izawa -- Ahh, Ueno Eki （あゝ上野駅）

(1971) Chiyo Okumura -- Shuuchaku Eki (終着駅）

(1980) Mariko Kurata -- Sayonara Rainy Station （さよならレイニー・ステーション）

(1986) Sonoko Kawai -- Aoi Station （青いスタスィオン）

(1986) Akina Nakamori -- Eki（駅）

Mariko Kurata -- Evening Scandal（イヴニング・スキャンダル）

 

The first time I heard "Evening Scandal", Mariko Kurata's（倉田まり子）4th single from January 1980, I thought that she was going all Pink Lady on me. And as it is, there's a goodly amount of disco punch in the song, a genre that Mie and Kei utilized effectively in their discography.

Written by City Pop and future TUBE expert Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, and indeed he penned a number of Pink Lady's hits, the arrangement was handled by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, a guy who also knows his City Pop. Although I wouldn't categorize "Evening Scandal" as such a song, it does handle like a dramatic and urban kayo kyoku as Aran's lyrics describe a torrid night on the town between two lovers.

PAO/Mariko Kurata -- Sunset Kiss（サンセット・キッス）

 

Never heard of "A Little Romance" before but this 1979 overseas cinematic rom-com starred Laurence Olivier and a 13-year-old Diane "Save Martha" Lane. Certainly, the trailer above pretty much screams "MEET CUTE!".

Following its initial release in the United States in April of that year, "A Little Romance" got its Japanese debut in July. As is often the custom, an image song specific to Japanese audiences was created for the movie, and much to my surprise, it turned out that the obscure New Music/City Pop trio PAO recorded one for this movie.

But this time, true to the nature and setting of "A Little Romance", PAO went for some of that sweeping exotic kayo instead of City Pop in the arrangement. It was released as a single with Side A providing the English-language version while Side B had the Japanese-language version. Side B was written by Masami Sugiyama（杉山政美）and composed/arranged by Toshiyuki Kimori（木森敏之）while Side A had PAO member Sabine Marianne Kaneko（サビーネ金子）helping out with the English lyrics.

I've read some rumours that the lead vocalist was Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）who had been a member of PAO in its very early days. But seeing that name of Sabine featured very prominently in katakana on the lower-right of the cover for the single and remembering that Mamiya had only been involved in PAO's debut single "Say Yes" in 1978, I believe that there is no sign of the mysterious City Pop singer in "Sunset Kiss" although I can understand how many listeners including myself could initially think that Mamiya was behind the microphone. In any case, the above video has the English version while the one below is of the Japanese version.

Later on in November 1979, Mariko Kurata（倉田まり子）would release her debut album "Anata ni Meguri Aete..."（あなたにめぐり逢えて・・・・Encountering You） and it includes her cover version of "Sunset Kiss". With Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）handling the arrangement, the song takes on a much more City Pop flavour with that downtown groove. Sounds as if the setting of the movie had been moved from Italy to Tokyo.

Mariko Kurata -- HOW! Wonderful （HOW! ワンダフル）

Came across this cute little ditty by Mariko Kurata（倉田まり子）a few days ago so I decided to write about it. "HOW! Wonderful" was Kurata's 3rd single from August 1979 written by Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, and unlike the first Kurata song that I wrote about, the more introspective "Sayonara Rainy Station"（さよならレイニー・ステーション）, "HOW! Wonderful" is a pretty genki song which wouldn't surprise me if anyone else termed it an aidoru tune.

The happy-go-lucky song has that feeling of a summery walk down at the park with Kurata sporting a twirling parasol, a fashion accessory that very much still has a place in Japanese society, especially when the sun is firing down during the torrid months of July and August. In a way, the tune almost sounds like a prototype for the aidoru songs for the early 1980s.

I'm not sure how high "HOW! Wonderful" went up the charts although from checking the entamedata chart for 1979, it didn't end up on the yearly single list. Still, according to J-Wiki, the song earned Kurata a number of awards as Best Newcomer along with some newly found popularity. In the same article, there was apparently some talk about her resemblance to another young singer at the time, Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）.

Mariko Kurata -- Sayonara Rainy Station （さよならレイニー・ステーション）

I was going through YouTube last night looking for a video for another article when I encountered Mariko Kurata's（倉田まり子）name. It's been a name that I've seen bandied about through various literature on Showa Era music over the years but I'd never come about to listening to any of her works until then. So I saw the video above for her September 1980 7th single, "Sayonara Rainy Station" which sounds like the type of title for a New Music ballad from that time.

With the soaring strings and gentle arrangement, "Sayonara Rainy Station" reminded me of the similar songs that a couple of my favourite songstresses were putting out in the late 70 and early 80s, Ruiko Kurahashi and Mariko Takahashi（倉橋ルイ子・高橋真梨子）. Chika Ueda（上田知華）, who would create a number of famous songs for Miki Imai（今井美樹）several years later, was behind the music here (and man, was she ever rockin' that Farrah Fawcett hairstyle back then) and is singing along with Kurata in the above video. The lyricist was Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）, who was also responsible for one of Mieko Nishijima's（西島三重子） trademark songs, "Chitose Bashi"（千登勢橋）a year earlier. Incidentally, you can hear Ueda's version of the song right here.

Mariko Kurata was the stage name for Mariko Tsubota（坪田真理子）from Nagasaki Prefecture. She was born in 1960 and came up to Tokyo in 1974 after being discovered by a talent scout on a TBS music variety show. Kurata made the leap to singer and later actress from 1979, and as for the last name of her stage name, she decided to take a kanji character from her mentor at the time, Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）who was creating hits for a number of singers, notably Pink Lady.

According to J-Wiki, it seems like the entertainment phase of her career ended sometime in 1984 and has been a career counselor ever since under her real name. I can only imagine what she would say to folks interested in entering show business.

Maihama Station, the gateway to Tokyo Disneyland.