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.
Have you ever thought about Steely Dan covering Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）iconic ballad "Sweet Memories"?
Nope, neither have I. And yet, here we are. Indeed, back in 2019 when singer-songwriter Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）came up with his 2019 album of covers"Radio na Kyoku-tachi Ⅱ"（ラジオな曲たちⅡ...Radio Songs 2）, he included one of "Sweet Memories" as the final track. Yup, the jazziness and meticulous chords are there in lyricist Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）and composer Masaaki Omura's（大村雅朗）tune for Seiko-chan. The original 50s or 60s girl pop stylings have been turned into urban and urbane radio-friendly grooviness for your evening pleasure.
You're getting the 2-for-1 deal today with singer-songwriter Senri Oe（大江千里）. Yup, two songs in one article...neither of which I have heard from him before.
First off, I was curious about how Oe when he was a pop star in the 1980s got his start since I've known him from the latter half of that decade and I've known him for his distinctive upbeat sound. Well, he made his debut in May 1983 with the single "Wallabee Nugi Sutete"(Kick Off Those Wallabees).
From Amazon
I think right from the start Oe has had that happy "Aw, gosh!" pop/rock style with "Wallabee Nugi Sutete" which struck me as being quite fast, and then I discovered that it's barely over three minutes. Couldn't ask for a poppier song. Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）arranged everything by the way.
Personally, I've never worn a pair of Wallabees before but they certainly look comfortable. However, Oe's encouraging the guys to take them off, ostensibly to have that beachside barefoot walk with the girls they like. "Wallabee Nugi Sutete" didn't seem to make it onto the Oricon charts but for those Oe fans, this should be part of their collection. The song was also included on the singer's debut album which came out the same month as the single "WAKU WAKU" and according to the J-Wiki article, "Wallabee" had some big guns in the recording studio such as bassist-songwriter Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and drummer Jun Aoyama（青山純）.
Seeing the music video for the song, I'm convinced that I had seen it before decades ago when the Canadian music show "The New Music" did a special on the music of Japan. They showed a part of this video, specifically the part where Oe was walking on the audiotape in the middle of it.
I'd already had Oe's debut single in the backlog for a few weeks when I discovered that one of his later singles has become part of the "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ! 中村くん!!）ending theme family. His 14th single"Glory Days" gloriously finished off a nerve-racking Episode 10 of ever-tense Nakamura-kun waiting to get an autograph from his favourite manga author.
Oh, isn't that an adorable pair look for Nakamura and Hirose! Anyways, "Glory Days" was released in August 1988 and once again, Omura was there to arrange Oe's words and music. It was also a part of his 10th album "1234" which not only hit No. 6 on Oricon but was voted Best Album of the Year at the 3rd Annual Japan Gold Disk Awards.
Back on March 26th, I provided an article on Tomoyo Harada's（原田知世）"Hoshi no Deja Vu"（星のデジャ・ヴ）, a pleasant and wistful song that works fine with the aidoru's soft and purring vocals. It was also the B-side to her7th single from July 1985, "Soushun Monogatari"（Early Spring Story）.
So, finally we've come to the A-side, and "Soshun Monogatari", which was also used as the theme song for a Harada movie of the same name, is a pretty different animal. Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, it was arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）into this ballroom waltz style in triple time according to the J-Wiki article. It's quite the moody and bittersweet affair but it doesn't quite encapsulate the plot of the movie which is pretty wild from what I could read on its Wikipedia page.
"Soshun Monogatari" reached No. 4 on Oricon and ended up as the 73rd-ranked song for 1985, selling a little over 160,000 records. Harada made her first appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen that year singing this one.
The very briefly ominous intro and outro with the percussion aside, as soon as I heard the music for this one, I knew that this had to be a Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）composition.
And sure enough, I was right. "Hoshi no Deja Vu"(Star-Crossed Deja Vu) was the B-side to Tomoyo Harada's（原田知世）"Soushun Monogatari"（早春物語...Early Spring Story）, her 7th single from July 1985. The sweeping feeling of fantasy within those strings and piano was pretty much a dead giveaway to the magic of Kisugi under Masaaki Omura's（大村雅朗）arrangement. And it goes so well with Harada's floating vocals. Chinfa Kan（康珍化）was responsible for the lyrics of a woman's memory of romance being triggered by certain scenes.
Although it's been categorized as a single with just the two songs on each side, "Soushun Monogatari" was packaged in an EP format, according to J-Wiki, so I'm thinking that instead of the usual 45" donut-ban, it got the full LP treatment.
Of course, it all depends on where you live, but earlier this morning, Torontonians had another opportunity to catch the latest blood moon up in the sky. Sleep was more of a priority for me so I was happy enough to witness the phenomenon via television.
In keeping with the lunar theme, I would like to introduce "Tsuki no Muse" (Moon Muse) by 80s aidoruand actress Narumi Yasuda（安田成美）. Some days ago, I received a comment from someone underneath the article I provided for her April 1984 sophomore single"Tropical Mystery"（トロピカル・ミステリー）and they told me about the Ryuichi Sakamoto-esque（坂本龍一） feeling imbued in the B-side which is "Tsuki no Muse".
Well, whenever anyone tells me about a song that I had never heard that has a Sakamoto-esque feeling, I do listen. And indeed, "Tsuki no Muse" is different from the Fashion Music-ish"Tropical Mystery" in that there is a whimsical technopop arrangement that reminds me of what the late great Professor did back in those days with synthesizers, but the crazy thing is that it was the same three fellows behind the A-side that were responsible for the B-side: lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composer Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. Many thanks to that commenter.
And here I thought that Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）got all her Xmas feelings out when she released her 1987 "Snow Garden". Well, apparently not.
At the very least, she did have one more Christmas song in the form of "Futari dake no Christmas" (A Christmas Just For Two) which was a track on her December 1989 album"Precious Moment". Seiko-chan herself came up with the lyrics (as she did for all of the tracks) with Minoru Komorita（小森田実） as the composer and Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）as the arranger. Speaking about arrangement, "Futari dake no Christmas" has this solemn and hushed atmosphere but also seems to possess a child-like wonder about the Holidays as if a couple were getting married in an ancient church on Christmas Eve. As for "Precious Moment", it scored a No. 6 ranking on Oricon.
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.
Agnes Chan（アグネス・チャン）will always be that one singer who I believe was born with long silky hair and an acoustic guitar attached to her hands. And she'll always be playing under a tree for any and all of the children in the neighbourhood. Her works as an aidoru in the 1970s have swung between touches of folk and country.
I read on one person's website that her November 1979 22nd single "Haru Tou Karaji" didn't become a major hit for Chan but it still resides solidly within his list of Top 5 Agnes Chan favourites. Indeed, it is a pleasant and wistful song that sides more into the folk side of things.
Written by Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）, composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）, who has a recent Creator article, and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, I was a bit stuck on how to translate that title since it came across as something akin to a typical Japanese four-kanji proverb (though I know that there are just three in the title). I actually had to find a page that had the Portuguese translation of "Haru Tou Karaji" and then translate the Portuguese title into English and it is "Spring Is Not So Far Away". Looking through Kitajo's lyrics, yep, I can see that working since a woman, recently losing her beau, is walking a park path all by her lonesome although the message is that spring will be back and so will opportunities for new love.
Yeah, it's been tropical here for the past several days but we might get a break within the next several hours in the form of a thunderstorm which might bring some much-needed rain. Meanwhile, the air conditioner is going full tilt and I'm hoping that we won't be suffering any more micro outages or even worse due to an overload of the electrical system.
Speaking of tropical, I have a Narumi Yasuda（安田成美）song here for the first time in a couple of years on the blog. "Tropical Mystery" was the actress-singer's 2nd single from April 1984 and it was also included on her debut album"Yasuda Narumi" which was released on the same day as the single.
The first time that I heard this one, I swore that the song had been created by singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）just because of that bouncy whimsical arrangement that weaves between Fashion Music and regular pop. Ironically, Ohnuki's first time as an album producer was for Yasuda's 2nd album"Ginger"（ジィンジャー）in 1988. Another reason for the assumption is that "Tropical Mystery" sounds rather similar to Ohnuki's "Natsu ni Koi Suru Onna Tachi"（夏に恋する女たち....The Women Who Love In Summer) which came out the previous year.
However, the melody was actually composed by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）with Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）supplying the lyrics. Yasuda isn't the steadiest of singers but it seems as if her vocals match the whimsy and fantastical romantic feeling emanating from "Tropical Mystery" perhaps even more here than was the case with her most famous song "Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa" (風の谷のナウシカ), which is also available on "Yasuda Narumi".
Now that we're into March here, there's still a lot of snow on the ground after that major storm a couple of weeks ago but perhaps a lot of it may be disappearing in the next 24 to 48 hours with the forecast of some major rain tomorrow. We'll be a little closer to spring with the rising temperatures but we may have to go through some flooding.
One of the first Junko Yagami（八神純子）songs that I ever heard was her "Omoide no Screen" (思い出のスクリーン）from February 1979, and among other Yagami tunes that I heard back in those blossoming days of my love for Japanese pop music, it set the template for my initial impression of the Nagoya-born singer-songwriter. Back then, it was about the boogie-down downtown disco and Latin; I had yet to hear her very early works as a teenager in the early to mid 1970s.
Well, I got to get acquainted with the B-side of that 6th single recently. "Ame no Kyuujitsu" (Rainy Day Off) is very much a different animal. Written/composed by Yagami with arrangement by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, it's a very somber ballad about a woman on a rainy day seeing a café or a restaurant that used to be frequented by her and a no-longer-present beau, and the reminiscings begin and perhaps some of her own water works. There is that dreamy feeling to the song as if the lady were seeing memories through rose-coloured glasses and a gauzy filter.
The lingering and perhaps slowly fading question among some of us kayo kyoku fans is "What if Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵） had continued her career into the 1980s?". Would she have taken a more rock n' roll route like Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）or gotten on the trendy City Pop train? I don't think she would have wanted the aidoru tag placed beside her name anymore.
Well, maybe we can live a bit vicariously by listening to aidoru Miyuki Kosaka's（香坂みゆき）12th single from February 1982, "Kawaita Hana"(Dried Flower). Written and composed by the same husband-and-wife duo, composer Ryudo Uzaki and lyricist Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子）, who were responsible for many of Yamaguchi's late 1970s hits in the latter half of her career, Kosaka doesn't have the same timbre of voice as Yamaguchi but there is a a certain similarity and familiarity with the breathy nonchalant delivery. She relates the story of a J-Don Juan who goes through his women like tissues on a hay fever day.
Under Masaaki Omura's（大村雅朗）arrangement, "Kawaita Hana" doesn't have that rock n' roll feeling...it's more like a smooth City Pop vibe with the synths taking things to nearly early 1980s Manhattan Transfer levels. Kosaka's biggest hit is arguably her later "Nuance Shimasho"（ニュアンスしましょ）and her voice there is much more different.
Toshi-chan! You rascal, you! Gotta be more demure about affairs of the heart.
Mind you, by the time Toshihiko Tahara's（田原俊彦）14th single was released in May 1983, he was in his early 20s (although still an aidoru), so if he wanted to get all hot and bothered in the recording room, that's his business. I am talking about his "Shower na Kibun" (Feel Like a Shower) in which the fellow doesn't hesitate to express the fact that he has fallen in lust for a young lady...right up to the point where he's more than ready to invite her to take a shower with him. Perhaps I could have posted this one up yesterday on Valentine's Day but maybe it was simply too lusty for a special time when a lighter form of romanticism was de rigueur.
Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, there was also a battery of other fine professionals backing Toshi-chan up. Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）was on electric guitar, YMO member Hideki Matsutake（松武秀樹） was programming the synths, Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and Jake H. Concepcion were on the horns and EVE was the backing chorus. It hit No. 1 on Oricon and ended up as the 43rd-ranking single for 1983.
I'm not quite sure how the audiences took to "Shower na Kibun". Maybe certain members were more than happy to oblige, especially when all the grunting arrived. Anyways, although the above footage on "Let's Go Young" has Toshi showing off his usual footwork, there had been something special planned for his "Shower na Kibun" performance on TBS'"The Best 10" where a real shower was supposed to fall upon him and his dancers, according to the J-Wiki article on the song. The rehearsals beforehand hadn't been going well but Toshi-chan, being the master of showmanship felt that the show had to go on, and went through with the gimmick, making that spin, throwing off his soaked jacket, and then grabbing that microphone that he'd tossed into the air, all in one move. It became watercooler talk the day after!
When I saw the one comment underneath the above YouTube video for Satoko Shimonari's（下成佐登子）"Koi no Epilogue" (Love Epilogue), her 7th single from June 1982, I had to also admit that there were some obvious similarities between this tune and Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）classic "Tasogare My Love" (たそがれマイ・ラブ）from 1978. In fact, I'd assumed that the latter song's composer, the late Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, was also behind this song but it was actually Kaoru Nakajima（中島薫）as the composer for "Koi no Epilogue" with Makoto Yuuki（結城まこと）as the lyricist and Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）as the arranger.
However, following a certain melody line or copying chords isn't particularly new in Japanese pop music especially when it comes to the 1980s. Not sure how Tsutsumi saw it; maybe he let bygones be bygones and focused on the expression "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". Well, whatever the case may be, "Koi no Epilogue" is still a nice song to listen to (which shows how good Tsutsumi was) and Shimonari's delivery reminds me of some of Junko Yagami's（八神純子）soaring swagger and Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）smokiness.
Last week, I posted Part 1 of my article on Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）July 1982 11th studio album"Yugure kara...Hitori"（From Twilight--Alone）, and so today, I'll be completing the release with this Part 2 which is essentially Side B of the original LP. The final track, by the way, was the version of "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby" (聖母たちのララバイ）which was used as the ending theme for "Kayo Suspense Gekijo"（火曜サスペンス劇場.... The Tuesday Night Suspense Movie) on NTV and you can read about that particular song through the link. However, let's get through the remaining four tracks.
Starting off Side B is "China Reef" which was written and composed by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）and arranged by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）, the same duo behind Side A's"Yoake no nai Asa"(夜明けのない朝...Morning Without a Dawn) . Although this time around, it doesn't quite stray into Fashion Music territory like "Yoake no nai Asa", the creators of "China Reef" still maintain that certain jaunty pop elegance that Iwasaki could bat right out of the park. I have no idea where this China reef is located but it apparently is quite the magical place.
I especially love the intro and the rest of "Etranger"（エトランゼ...The Stranger） which has that lovely City Pop vibe and that Iwasaki elegance, to boot. Not surprising, considering that it's Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）behind the melody and arrangement with Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）providing the lyrics about a woman who has gone off to an exotic locale, ostensibly to forget a past romance, and trying to ensure that she remains a stranger in paradise without any further love entanglements. Iwasaki's voice gets to further shine here as it plumbs more depths and heights. The ending is interesting, though, since it almost sounds like it's lifted a City Pop riff via flugelhorn from another song.
All you bass addicts rejoice as we dive into "Go-juu-ni Kai no Off-Stage"（52階のオフ・ステージ...52nd Floor Off-Stage） which is a slightly more down-to-town City Pop tune with Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）behind the lyrics, Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）taking care of the melody and Masaaki Omura（大村憲司）as the arranger. These three were also behind "Single Man" which finishes off Side A, and it's quite the different animal from the 50s pop of that final track, as the boppy urban contemporary takes over here, thanks to the aforementioned bass and the sax solo. Hiromi-chan seems to be singing about analogizing the whole experience of heading up to an exclusive nightclub at the top of a really tall skyscraper and its surrounding tapestry of sunset hues and cityscape as a major love play.
Ohtsu, Suzuki and Omura also collaborated on this final track of this article, "Heartbreak Twilight"（ハートブレイク・トワイライト）. Beginning with a twangy guitar and keyboards, it's a mid-tempo melancholy melody as a high-flying couple realize that it's time to part ways with each other. In fact, aside from a slight peep into major chord territory before the second verse, "Heartbreak Twilight" keeps up the sad drama with the keyboard arrangement sounding downright sinister and creepy. One would almost think that the boyfriend was Nosferatu.
So, "Yugure kara...Hitori" has plenty of City Pop and elegant pop tunes for all of the Hiromi Iwasaki fans circa early 1980s. As well, the tracks have their own different tempos to keep ears alight. The original LP scored a No. 4 ranking on Oricon.
Chanteuse Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）has been in the music industry so long that she's had a lot of different images since her debut as a teen in 1975. However, the one image that will always stick with me is the one when I had first known about her in the early 1980s as you can see above: elegant, svelte and hair that went all the way down to her waist.
Yugure kara...Hitori
Today, I want to explore her 11th studio album from July 1982, "Yugure kara...Hitori"（From Twilight--Alone）. I've already written about some of the tracks on this No. 4-ranking LP: the surprisingly downtown warp-speed "Koi wa Senso"（恋は戦争）, the 1970s kayo kyoku-reminiscent 27th single"Lemon"（檸檬）which begins the album, and the follow-up single "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby"(聖母たちのララバイ）that has become one of her trademark songs. Even with those three covered, there are seven more tracks on the original LP alone so I'll be splitting up my impressions into two parts with Part 2 coming in next week.
Let's see if we can go for three songs here beginning with the second track. Following the innocent and sweet "Lemon", there is "Tobashite, TAXI"(Step On It, Taxi), a keyboard-funky urban tune of giddiness about a woman hopping into a taxi to confront a lover at his hotel on whether the rumours surrounding him are true; apparently, she's still in the denial stage. Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, composed by Toshio Kamei（亀井登志夫）from the band NASA and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, the lyrical content may be rather tense but the arrangement speaks of one exciting time in the big city. This particular song isn't to be confused with the similarly-titled "Tobashite Taxi Man"（とばしてTaxi Man） by Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）from her 1983 album"Relief 72 Hours". May I just complete this paragraph by noting how amazing her voice is when she yells "TAXI!". The multi-cab crash that could result if she yelled it in that way.
Following Track 3"Koi wa Senso", Iwasaki turns from the disco-lined streets of Roppongi to an area that's much more discreet...say a boutique hotel off the main drag or an exclusive restaurant. "Yoake no nai Asa" (夜明けのない朝...Morning Without a Dawn) sounds like it should have been recruited to become a theme song for those weekly murder-mystery dramas on Japanese television as was the case with "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby" and a few other contributions by her. However, it remained just a track on "Yugure kara...Hitori" but it stands out for that wonderful intro and throughout the song it has that one foot in classy Fashion Music territory although the chorus rhythm with the punchy percussion keep things in the metropolis. Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）was responsible for words and music with Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）handling the arrangement here.
If I'm not mistaken, "Single Man" was the final track on Side A of the original LP. Taking on a gentle 1950s pop ballad form, Iwasaki sings about the realization that a summertime romance is about to head to its end as the autumn comes. Good times...but hey, that's the way it goes. Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）was the lyricist here while Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and Kenji Omura（大村憲司） were the composer and arranger respectively.
Just before tackling the album here on KKP, I had been wondering whether I would be getting a mix of her City Pop from the late 1970s and that murder-mystery balladry that was her thing in the early 1980s. So far, I think I've been getting even more variety with "Yugure kara...Hitori". Looking forward to the second half which will basically look at all of Side B.
Well, today is indeed Father's Day. Hopefully, a lot of us have paid tribute to the patriarchs of the household. Our family got to share in a dinner together last night, and then I took my parents out for breakfast at our favourite diner earlier this morning. I still seem to be digesting my meal.
Summer is still yet to officially arrive but the feeling is quite summery already here and I hear in Japan that the temps are more than reflecting the hot season. Perhaps, it's just the time to reveal Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）opening track from her May 1982 5th album"Pineapple", "P・R・E・S・E・N・T". Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composed by Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, there is a feel of anticipation in the intro that made me first think that the protagonists were about to head out on a major vacation to exotic climes. But actually, as the title hints, the giddy young lady is about to receive a lovely gift from her beloved in the form of a gold necklace. Maybe it's another step closer to something even more precious such as an engagement ring.
Despite the intimate setting, I still get that feeling of all things summery out there with the rollicking rhythm and Seiko's light and fleeting vocals. Nice guitar to end things. As for "Pineapple", that was another No. 1 hit for the Queen Aidoru of the early 1980s.
Always great to encounter a City Pop singer that I hadn't heard about before even at this late hour in the world's love affair with the uber-genre.
Hiroyuki Izuta（伊豆田洋之）is a singer-songwriter from Chiba Prefecture born in 1959 who graduated high school in Tokyo and then went over to the States to study at Illinois State University (I heard another singer-songwriter went to high school in the Prairie State). Then, he transferred to University of California, Los Angeles and got a job in the City of Angels as a piano player. One day, a Japanese music producer met him and I gather that the meeting was a good one since they both went back to Japan and Izuta ended up cutting a single and an album, both titled "Rose Bud Days" in 1984.
Izuta released 16 singles up to 1993 and 7 original albums up to 2014. His third one in December 1987 was "Bless You". From here, I give you "Kodo no Distance" (A Heartbeat Away) which was composed by the singer, written by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）. The first thing I was struck by was Izuta's resonant voice which reminded me of Billy Joel's own vocals (further enhanced by finding out that he was working at that piano bar in LA), and then there is the very 80s-sounding electric guitar that got me reminiscing over old music videos on Canada's Muchmusic once more. Izuta has been categorized as being a singer of City Pop and rock, and I think that "Kodo no Distance" fulfills that observation.
From the middle of the 1990s, Izuta was very much into collaboration. He worked with Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）and Kiyonori Matsuo（松尾清憲）to form the group Piccadilly Circus in 1996 and then the following year, he joined the drummer from the band Tulip（チューリップ）, Masatoshi Ueda（上田雅利）and others to become GAR-YIZ. Then in 1999, Izuta, Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）, Kazuhito Murata（村田和人）and Yudai Suzuki（鈴木雄大）worked together as the unit A,M,S & I, even releasing one album.
I can imagine then-aidoru Fumiko Sawada（沢田富美子）and her father having THE talk about her career in entertainment. Pere Sawada would have sat his daughter down and told her that the geinokai is fraught with uncertainty and there's no telling how long or how short her career as a singer would be. Finally, he encouraged her to have some sort of backup plan. Then Fumiko would say at the age of 19 that she's been investing in real estate and that she would end up owning multiple buildings in the tonier districts of Tokyo. He would then conclude everything by saying "Uh...never mind".
But none of us are here to discuss Fumiko Sawada the property mogul. We're here to check out Sawada the aidoru, as brief a career as it was. The way that I found out about the mogul part was when I wrote up her 1986 single, the cover version of WHAM!'s smoky "Where Did Your Heart Go?", under the stage name of Maria Sakurai（桜井真里亜）. And up until today, that was all I had on Sawada but then I found this early single by the Nagoya native which had been posted onto YouTube very recently.
"Chotto Harukaze"(A Little Spring Breeze) was her 2nd EP from April 1981. Listening to this appropriately breezy and cheerful ditty and knowing the year of release, I kinda figured out pretty quickly who the songwriters were. They were lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composer Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）and arranger Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, all folks who had worked together less than a year earlier on the similarly breezy "Aoi Sangoshou"（青い珊瑚礁）for Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）. I think that the three even added in a bit of Olivia Newton-John's"Xanadu" for good measure. I think the song is a perfectly delightful aidoru tune but I don't know how strongly it did on Oricon although the fact that her discography had only lasted from 1979 to 1982 (eight records) with a four-year break before her cover of the WHAM! song probably meant that the singing part of her variegated career (she was also acting, modeling and DJ'ing) wasn't the most predominant.
Can't quite believe it's been over a year since I posted a Tazumi Toyoshima（豊島たづみ）song onto KKP. The last one was her "Machi ni Akari, Sora ni Hoshi"（街に灯，空に星）from her November 1979 album"Still Night".
Well, allow me to recompense. Her follow-up single to her biggest hit "Tomadoi Twilight"（とまどいトワイライト）was her 5th, "Yukikurete"(Overtaken by Darkness), from October 1979. Despite the ominous meaning of the title, it's a very pleasant bossa nova piece written by Keiko Ochiai（落合恵子）and composed by Jun Sakurai（桜井順）with arrangement by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）. Once again, images of a lady nursing a drink all by her lonesome in a swanky hotel rooftop bar come easily to mind. Omura's arrangement is nicely stylish...resembles compositions that Henry Mancini would have made in the 1960s.
John McGraw is someone that I've met a couple of times at lunch, thanks to an introduction via our mutual J-E translator friend. I guess that you can say that we're ramen buddies. But in any case, he began a YouTube channel called Hiyaku Coaching and a podcast titled "Intercultural Insiders" more than a year ago which in his oft-repeated words "...helps expats feel more confident in their new country in less time and pain than they would on their own". Whether it be in Canada or another nation, I'm sure that lot of us including myself have gone through the euphoria and despair of culture shock in the early years of residency in a new country. Well, McGraw and his coaching are the shock absorber.
Obviously I'm living in my home nation again, but I've been listening to John's podcasts for a couple of reasons: 1) I'm an introvert and I can use some of what he's spoken about and 2) he's got a very soothing voice.
But the reason that I'm starting off this edition of KKP on the first Saturday of March 2024 with some intercultural therapy is because of what this particular song is saying. It's been a while since I've posted anything by aidoru Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）but I was able to find this track "City Polka" which is a track on her 3rd original album"Weather Report" from July 1981.
I know that Iwasaki actually began her career as a singer with some City Pop under her belt, but I have to admit that I've never heard of "City Polka" before. As created by lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by her brother Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）with arrangement by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, "City Polka" isn't a polka at all even in its jauntiest moments. In fact, I'd say that it's a very congenial aidoru tune with a hint of 1950s girl pop and country. Lyrically though, the song is about a woman coming to grips with a new life in the big city, presumably Tokyo. Yes, she can feel very lonely in a megalopolis with a daytime population of 14-16 million souls. Overall, I can add that the song is a very pleasant underrated track that is very Kisugi indeed.
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