Well, Jme, If We Can't Have Uta Con Because of the Beatles...

 

This week, we're not watching any "Uta Con"（うたコン）on NHK which was a bit weird because I swore that I'd seen "Uta Con" concierge Shosuke Tanihara（谷原章介）give out the lineup at the end of last week's episode for this week. And then, I figured something was up. Indeed, something was up...the number of non-Japanese songs being sung on the June 9th episode. Notably, the show's theme tonight was all about The Beatles, and this was confirmed by commenter Brian Mitchell in my last article yesterday. 

I've mentioned it before but our streaming provider of Japanese programming here in North America is Jme, and they've given us the heads-up on their website, but when it comes to the performance of American, British or any non-Japanese songs by Japanese artists in Japan, due to copyrights and all that legal stuff, they simply can't allow them to be heard. Usually, if it's one or two songs, Jme will put up the warning blurb at the top of the screen in Japanese and then mask the aural performance with Muzak although viewers can still see the singers doing the cover. However, when there's a whole bunch of foreign music played on a program, then Jme basically can't allow the episode to be shown. This has happened once before with "Uta Con" when the theme for that episode was Disney music.

This time, it's the Beatles. Not that I'm a huge fan of the Fab Four although there are several songs that I do like by Paul, John, Ringo and George, but it still gets rather annoying to have something that my family looks forward weekly get cancelled due to legal and money stuff (and personally, I did want to see Hiromi Iwasaki and Junko Yagami give their covers). Therefore, just off the top of my head, I've decided to put up some covers of the Beatles discography by Japanese singers...simply for the heck of it.

B'z -- Let It Be

Masayoshi Yamazaki -- All My Loving (and he's performing this in front of Sir Paul himself!)

Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Day Tripper

Mone Kamishiraishi -- Yesterday

Akiko Kanazawa -- Yellow Submarine Ondo（イエロー・サブマリン音頭）

Fukumimi -- Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou Again（星のかけらを探しに行こう Again）/Kyoko -- Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou（星のかけらを探しに行こう）

 

I remember the special music group Fukumimi（福耳）when they came out with the single "Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou Again" (Let's Look for Pieces of a Star Again) back in July 1999.

I also remember the black-and-white music video for the song. Basically what stood out to me was the main vocalist for this special group, Kyoko（杏子）, since she was one of the lead singers for the 80s rock band Barbee Boys. So, I was a tad surprised to see her after so many years handling a pop love song. But she got together with singer-songwriters Masayoshi Yamazaki（山崎まさよし）and Shikao Suga（スガシカオ）to form the initial trio for Fukumimi in 1998, and "Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou Again" was the debut single for a string of singles that have been released years apart. In addition, the members for the group have kept on rotating and rising like The Avengers. Acts including Sukima Switch（スキマスイッチ）and Chitose Hajime（元ちとせ）have also joined over the years.

From J-Wiki

As for the meaning behind the naming of the group, Fukumimi actually refers to the old Japanese saying of having big ears to be able to gather a lot of wealth (a number of the Japanese gods have big ears). According to a radio program interview, the members said that the president of the Office Augusta record label, Yoshinobu Morikawa（森川欣信）, had wanted to place the word fukumimi onto Yamazaki's and then Suga's albums, but both artists gave a hard NO to that, so it ended up becoming the name of this special music unit.

Getting back to the song, "Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou Again" peaked at No. 8 on Oricon and later became the 82nd-ranked single for 1999. It would get its appearance on an album for the first time on Fukumimi's "Fukumimi The Best Works" which came out in September 2006 and peaked at No. 3.

What I hadn't known until today was that there was an original version of the song simply titled "Hoshi no Kakera wo Sagashi ni Ikou" which came out in stores in February 1995 as Kyoko's 4th single. The tempo is quicker and there's even a bit of a reggae beat in there, compared to its more elegant cousin. Kyoko was responsible for the lyrics while Kazuyoshi Baba（馬場一嘉）was the composer. The original song ranked in at No. 90.

Masayoshi Yamazaki -- Chuuka Ryouri（中華料理）

 

Back in the 1990s, there was the amazingly over-the-top Fuji-TV hour-long cooking battle show called "Ryouri no Tetsujin"（料理の鉄人...The Iron Chefs） which pitched one of the three house master chefs against a challenger chef from outside Kitchen Stadium. There was Iron Japanese Rokusaburo Michibata（道場六三郎）, Iron French Hiroyuki Sakai（坂井宏行）though he wasn't the first one to have that title, and Iron Chinese Kenichi Chin (or Chen)（陳健一）. Of the three, I always found Chin to be the most openly jovial and down-to-earth, and his father, Kenmin Chin（陳建民）, has been hailed as the chef to first bring Sichuan cuisine to Japan decades ago.

Imagine how shocked and sad I was this morning to find out that Kenichi had passed away on March 11th at the age of 67 from interstitial lung disease. Way too early. Outside of "Ryouri no Tetsujin" Chin often popped up on other cooking shows including ones for NHK so we got to see him via TV Japan all the time showing off his dishes. In the tribute to him this morning, one of his apprentices related an anecdote in which years ago, the apprentice had forgotten to make some gyoza for a customer during the usual whirlwind of activity in the kitchen. Well, he thought that he and the rest of the kitchen would be getting a huge chewing out by their master; Chin himself brought out the belated dish of gyoza to the slightly miffed customer but when he returned to the kitchen, he basically said "Hey, the customer was only a bit ticked. Everything's good!" and then proceeded to throw out one of his usual bad puns. 

In tribute to Chef Chin, I've put up singer-songwriter Masayoshi Yamazaki's（山崎まさよし）"Chuuka Ryouri" (Chinese Food) which was his February 1996 second single under a major label. Written and composed by Yamazaki, it's a folksy pop tune about a man worried about his girlfriend's blue feelings who tries to alleviate things by taking themselves to their favourite Chinese restaurant. There's nothing that can't be cured with a dish of pot stickers and endless cups of tea. The song was also included on Yamazaki's debut album "Arerugii no Tokkouyaku"（アレルギーの特効薬...Wonder Drug for Allergies） which was released a couple of months following the single in April.

I'll leave you with the Iron Chef making up his signature dish, mapo tofu（麻婆豆腐）. I haven't had this dish in ages and someday I would love to have the one that his literal and figurative descendants are probably making now. My condolences to his family, friends and fans of his food.

Masayoshi Yamazaki/SMAP -- Celery (セロリ）

During the late 1990s, both singer Masayoshi Yamazaki（山崎まさよし） and premier (at that time) Johnny's Entertainment group, SMAP, were heading to the top of the geino heap. SMAP was absolutely taking the Japanese entertainment world by storm (ironically to hand over the torch years later to another Johnny's unit going by the Japanese word for 'storm', Arashi『嵐』) with their songs, TV roles and variety show appearances. Yamazaki would also storm the charts with his heartrending ballads that got him a lot of airplay in the karaoke boxes and tears from grateful listeners at his concerts.

But they have a common bond through a most polarizing vegetable.

"Celery" is Yamazaki's 3rd single released in September 1996. Written and composed by the Shiga Prefecture singer-songwriter, it's a happy-go-lucky uptempo song talking about the fact that no matter the differences between a romantic couple, if they still love each other, that's good enough. The green leafy vegetable is merely one example of a potential difference-maker and ultimately a minor one, at that. The video was also fun to watch as Yamazaki, who I had always thought to be a very introspective type, showed an amiable side as the single young man getting settled into his new apartment.... something that I could relate to very well.... although I never quite had the opportunity to cavort with a bunch of cute women in bikinis (ahem).

The single itself peaked at No. 68 on the Oricon weeklies, and was also a track on Yamazaki's 2nd album, "Home", released in May 1997. It went Double Platinum and peaked at No. 4 on the album charts.

At the same time that Yamazaki's "Home" was released, SMAP revealed its cover of "Celery" to the world. Thanks to the Fender Rhodes, their version has more of a groove and perhaps more of a 70s/early 80s feel to it. And perhaps because it was the guys who were singing it together, I think the song seems to have a wider meaning of overall friendship instead of a romantic relationship. In any case, the SMAP cover was the one that I discovered first, and it's the one that I like better. Plus, it's the first time I've seen KimuTaku and the fellows get all gussied up for a video, and just sitting on the stools singing away....kinda like the old days of singing on a variety show. Nice little change.

SMAP's "Celery", their 25th single, was able to hit No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and was the 27th-ranked song for 1997. The song was also the theme song for member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi's drama at the time, "Ii Hito"(いいひと...Good Guy). I never saw the show myself but I remembered the trailers for the series with the amiable Kusanagi playing just the nicest guy anyone had ever met. And that's the image he has in SMAP....aside from an unfortunate incident involving him running around drunk and naked in a Roppongi park several years ago....would still love to treat him to a non-alcoholic drink. The song also belonged to the group's 10th album, "SMAP 011 Su"(SMAP 011 ス）which was released in August of that year. It peaked at No. 3.

SMAP doesn't sing too much anymore, so I think coming across "Celery" once in a while serves as a bit of a reminder of their up-and-coming days. And as for my opinion on celery, I hated it as a kid but actually do like it now nice, raw and crunchy.