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.
First off, Happy 10th Birthday to the NHK music show"Uta Con". I saw their episode last night and it was nice not only to see some of the highlights from the past ten years but also get a tour of how the magic works at NHK Shibuya. It's amazing how quickly the years fly by...I remember when "Uta Con" got the baton passed over to it from "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）back in 2016.
Now, "Kayo Kyoku Plus" had its tenth anniversary back in 2022 so I actually pulled out most of the guns to celebrate our grand project back then, and of course, you can take a look at some of that via "10th Anniversary Special: 10th Anniversary Songs". However, I still wanted to commemorate the "Uta Con" achievement so I've opted to present a few songs over the years that have had something of the number 10 involved in the titles. I'll admit though to being a little cheat-y with my choices. But the important thing is that I also have the opportunity to present a new tune onto the blog by the late great Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）. Anyways, without further ado:
As noted above, I have this Hideki Saijo tune that has that 10-ish relationship (albeit through kanji association only). This is "Ai no Juujika"(Cross of Love), his 7th single from December 1973. Indeed, it shares the same title as Honda's song above but that's the only common denominator. It is otherwise a totally different animal.
Written by Takashi Taka（たかたかし）and composed by Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）under Koji Makaino's（馬飼野康二）arrangement, this is also the first time for me to hear Saijo's "Ai no Juujika", and from what I hear, it's a very early Hideki song of passion and angst. It's quite the cross for him to bear and I think he's even shedding a few tears in the concert audio above. All the better for the screaming fans to rush over to comfort him. Not surprisingly, the song hit No. 1 and finished 1974 as the 22nd-ranked single.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. If my first encounter of 1980s aidoru Minako Honda（本田美奈子）hadn't been that horribly off-tune rendition of one of her hits on one of the 80s music shows, I would have been far more entranced by the late singer.
For example, listening to her third single from August 1985, "Aoi Shuumatsu"(Blue Weekend), I just thought that Honda had a wonderfully clear and upbeat delivery surrounded by Kyohei Tsutsumi's（筒美京平） melody and arranged in a happy-go-lucky synth-heavy style by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）. On the other hand, Masao Urino's（売野雅勇）lyrics relate a tale of a couple who didn't have the happiest trip to the beach that day. But hey, it's a Japanese pop song so happy music paired with sad words isn't any surprise. For me, this is pure aidoru Honda without the dance club or rock trappings that I would often hear from her music during that decade. The song reached No. 23 on Oricon.
I was reminded of this 80s hit because the song got covered as an instrumental jingle on one of the heavy rotation commercials during the Olympics.
Reading the Wikipedia article on Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine" from April 1985, I discovered that the band itself had been rather tepid toward the song initially since even the lead vocalist, Katrina Leskanich admitted that none of them were exactly the most up-with-people types. Perhaps that was why the guys in the band looked distinctly cold and miserable for almost the entire length of the music video shot in London although Katrina indeed danced about as if she were really walking on sunshine. When I first saw the video as a university kid, that was the first big impression I got...Katrina was just having a really good day. And we got to see her everyday having a really good day because it was a hit song and the video got heavy rotation on the music shows.
"Walking on Sunshine" hit No. 3 in Canada (going Gold) and then No. 9 in the United States. A recent interview with Leskanich had her saying the song was probably going to outlive her. Well, it already has begun through the Olympics.
So, what else was coming out during that month? We've got the usual three.
Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth article and the interesting thing about this old chestnut from my memories is that the refrain (there are some other lyrics, mind you) consists of two words and those two words reached meme status to seemingly express a comically orgiastic bass-voiced reaction to something or someone. Indeed, it's been used in commercials such as the one above and TV shows such as "The Simpsons". And of course, the reaction to the reaction has been something like "Get that cold shower now!".
To be honest, I don't quite remember when I did first hear Yello's "Oh Yeah" but apparently the song got its big boost when it was used in a key scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), and that was actually for a Ferrari...not for any gorgeous man or woman. It kinda reminds me of Rodgers and Hart's"Lover" which had me thinking that it had always been used for a romance when it was actually first used as a comical song of affinity for a horse in an old movie musical.
Regardless of the target of love, "Oh Yeah" became a Hollywood go-to musical cue for falling hard for that particular noun in the 1980s. And yet, I didn't find out much about this Swiss electronic music band for several years after the release of this July 1985 (US) single and its video. For one thing, I hadn't realized that there were more lyrics aside from the drawn-out OH YEAHs which illustrated that the love being shown here was actually for natural phenomena. Plus, I didn't think that the two fellows could look any more goofier and any more cooler at the same time in the video.
Pretty interesting background for these Yello fellows once I looked them up. Dieter Meier is the industrialist millionaire and lyricist while Boris Blank is the instrumentalist and sound smith. The above goes into how "Oh Yeah" had its origins. And Yello is still at it.
So, what was being released in July 1985 in Japan? Well, the three that I have here are on the Showa Pops list although according to what I've written about them in their individual articles, all three of them came out in April, so perhaps there were re-releases? Anyhow, "Oh Yeah" isn't the first song of its titular nature to come onto the blog although there are differences in terms of the number of exclamation marks. Ask Princess Princess andKazumasa Oda（小田和正）.
Some days ago, I was generously gifted with some 80s albums that my friend no longer wanted due to a need for space in their abode. I will not mention that person's name just in case that they would like to keep some semblance of confidentiality but allow me to give them my thanks. Anyways, one of those albums happens to be 80s aidoru Minako Honda's（本田美奈子）sophomore album"LIPS" from June 1986. The album cover has what I think is one of Honda's most famous shots...looking like a Japanese Madonna (the singer) with the get-up, the hair and the cross around her neck.
One surprise is that on opening the album, I saw that the record itself was a peach orange-red. Haven't come across a vinyl disc in anything other than a black colour in many years. Getting into the nitty-gritty of the songwriting, the J-Wiki article about "LIPS" has made it quite easy stating that lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）were responsible for all of the tracks and there were three big arrangers helping out: Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）, Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）and Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）.
I've already covered a couple of the songs from "LIPS", "1986 no Marilyn"（1986年のマリリン）and "Ribbon Hodokenai"（リボンがほどけない）. Also before we get into some of the tracks here, allow me to say as I've already said twice before that I had been initially unimpressed with my first view of Honda when she was performing on one of the 80s music ranking shows since she seemed to botch "1986 no Marilyn". However, since then I have come to realize over the years as she made transitions into pop, rock and musicals that she did have talent, and now that I've been listening to her 80s material through the records and the YouTube videos, I was quite wrong in my early and hasty assessment, especially on listening to her "Ribbon Hodokenai" recently. So this isn't a redemption on her part but it's mine.
From listening to the first track "Sold Out", I started to make analogies among the other big aidoru of that decade. If I could make loose comparisons between Seiko Matsuda and Akina Nakamori（松田聖子・中森明菜）as the Beatles and Rolling Stones of 80s aidoru-dom, then I can reiterate that I could see Honda digging into her niche as Madonna, albeit with a bit more innocence than the Material Girl.
I don't think Madonna used a horn section a lot in her songs back then, but with "Sold Out", there is quite the tight brass in there and let me not forget the downtown bass that starts things off. Honda's vocals are steady and she knows when to be sultry and when to rock out, so perhaps if I can bring in Seiko and Akina once more, the former might be the girl next door, the latter can be the misunderstood teen rebel while Minako is the already successful rock star on tour. Otani was the man behind the arrangement here on this first track and though I wouldn't say that this "Sold Out" is City Pop, perhaps it can be a form of Japanese City Rock.
"Schedule"（スケジュール）seems like a rather mundane title for a track that has been lifted from a mid-tempo "breather" song into something more epic, thanks to Honda's vocals. As I heard the first verse, I thought about Akina singing this one with the exception that Honda has more of a projectile delivery in certain parts of "Schedule".
"Bathroom Angel"（バスルームエンジェル）has the Sagisu arrangement and I'm uncertain whether it was indeed created by Akimoto and Tsutsumi specifically for that Toshiba YuuYuu Haru Matsuri（東芝「ゆうゆう夏祭り」...YuuYuu Spring Festival） campaign commercial. The intro riff reminds me of a late 60s/early 70s pop tune, and I think that "Bathroom Angel" is more on the pop side of things. Incidentally, the commercial below does feature Honda in that Toshiba campaign but there's no sign of the song.
I get Bonnie Tyler's"Holding Out for a Hero" vibes when I listen to "Dramatic Escape"（ドラマティックエスケープ）. From the title to the urgent beat to the horns and even to the backing chorus, the track seems to want to be part of a soundtrack to an80s Hollywood action flick starring Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The B-side to "1986 no Marilyn" was "Marionette no Yuutsu"（マリオネットの憂鬱...A Marionette's Depression）, although the track here has been labeled as the album version so I'm not sure if there have been any major changes in Shinkawa's arrangement. It's gutsy and brassy and the only thing missing is a fleet of punk-riding motorcycles causing mayhem on the highways as Honda describes a high school girl's frustration to break out of her good-girl mold and do something wild and crazy and utterly shameless. The background chorus makes that final point perfectly clear.
Allow me to throw in one more track from "LIPS", "The Yokosuka Rule"（YOKOSUKAルール）, which once again puts the Kanagawa Prefecture city in the spotlight. This time around, it looks like Honda was going for some funk as well as some rock here and a personal observation is that when the singer throws out the title syllable-by-syllable, "Yokosuka Rule" almost sounds like something that Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）would sing.
"LIPS" peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and so I've finally gotten to listen to the tracks after seeing and remembering that album cover for years. I'm glad to say that I do get to eat some crow as far as Honda's abilities are concerned and I'll be looking forward to listening to her very first album"M'Syndrome"（M'シンドローム）. The poignant thing here is that I'm writing all this up just a few days following the 16th anniversary of her untimely passing at the age of 38.
I did forget that Masakazu Tamura（田村正和）also had his fun in commercials as well. Anyways, I promised in my first tribute to the actor whose passing had been announced within the last few days that I would come up with a further tribute through the theme songs that adorned some of his 1980s and 1990s dramas. They all have their own articles on the blog so I will just treat as a hub to get in touch with those pages. However, I will mention the song, singer, drama and year of broadcast.
Starting
off this list with Eri Nitta’s (新田恵利) awkward, but surprisingly captivating baby voice, “WHO?”
is a bouncy and serviceable Eurobeat song released in 1988. Even though I still
feel Nitta’s voice was a joke, I actually find it full of personality here, and
the chorus is quite catchy as well. Nothing groundbreaking, but it deserves a
listen, even if just for the fun.
Minako Honda -- Tokyo Girl
(The lower video is for those who couldn't see the upper video due to availability limitations.)
It’s
been just a few days since I talked about Minako Honda’s (本田美奈子) English language “OVERSEA” album here on the blog, but now I want to highlight
one of her Japanese songs, and a rather rare one, called “Tokyo Girl”. Released
as the coupling song to her single “Help”, in 1986, “Tokyo Girl” is a very nice
pop song, and I just love the way Honda almost dramatically sings “You are Tokyo
girl…” and “I am London boy…”, or the opposite, during the choruses. I can’t
help but sing along with her.
Mami Yamase -- Aishuu no Barcelona
(cover version)
When
I see the name Mami Yamase (山瀬まみ), it’s her wacky and punky persona that comes to mind.
However, before committing to this particular style, her career started in a
more traditional aidoru route. And even during her “normal” days, she was still
able to surprise us with things like “Aishuu no Barcelona” (哀愁のバルセロナ), a
dramatically sung track with a cold and ominous Euro/synthpop arrangement
included in the album “PRIVATE EDITION”, from late 1987.
Rumi Shishido -- Cosmic Rendezvous
Just like Mami Yamase, Rumi Shishido (宍戸留美) also recorded traditional aidoru pop
before doing her more experimental stuff, and her debut single, “Cosmic
Rendezvous” (コズミック・ランデブー),
is probably the best example of it. Released in 1990, I just love the
mess that is the cute-faced Shishido singing this aidoru/Techno Kayo tune while
showing her long legs in a Moritaka Chisato-esque (森高千里)
outfit and doing a choreography with a stick.
Eriko Tamura -- NEXT
The
talented and voluptuous Eriko Tamura (田村英里子) is the aidoru behind today’s
final song. Called “NEXT”, this over-the-top song is probably my favorite in
all her discography, and the reason lies on the devastatingly dazzling Carnival-esque synth arrangement that permeates most of it. Other than that,
well, Tamura can’t dance properly, but her awkward choreography is what makes the
video so endearing in my opinion. “NEXT” was the coupling song to her single “Honki”
(真剣),
released in 1989.
As I’ve written years ago in my article for “That’sThe Way I Want It”, Minako Honda’s (本田美奈子) “OVERSEA” album, released in June 1987, is my go-to one in the late singer’s discography. Maybe it’s not her strongest offer, but it’s easily the one I like the most and, very recently, I was finally able to buy my own copy of the album, surprisingly enough, here in my own country, Brazil (it’s a relief not to pay for import taxes).
After the release of “1986 no Marilyn” (1986年のマリリン) and the album “LIPS”, both representing her famous Madonna-wannabe phase, Minako Honda took a plane to London and started working with a myriad of musicians, which resulted in an album called “CANCEL” and two interesting singles, “the Cross-Ai no Juujika-” (愛の十字架) and “Crazy nights / Golden Days”, produced by Gary Moore and Queen’s Brian May, respectively. Also, girl surely had a somewhat crazy schedule back then, since she had to go back to Japan between all the networking and recording sessions to promote the stuff there, her main and mostly sole market.
Between all the work in London, Honda still found some time to release a Japanese-produced single, the nice “Oneway Generation”, and, soon enough, was already working on a new album, but this time in the US, with musicians who had worked in La Toya Jackson’s then latest album, “Imagination”. It’s no wonder the aptly titled “OVERSEA”, the final result of this American project (by the way, Honda recorded the whole album in English), is a collection R&B and synthesized-funk of the mid-80s, such as the opening song “Sneak Away” and the already covered “That’s The Way I Want It”, with the occasional soulful ballad, “Take It or Leave it” (an Evie Sands cover, originally released in the 1974 album, “Estate of Mind”) being my favorite example of these, thrown away in the middle of it.
A heavier funk sound is introduced in the album’s second half by the single “Heart Break”, thanks to its sick and relentlessly hypnotic bass sequence that catches all the attention. And there’s also “Plaything”, which follows it, standing as one of the airy and light R&B songs more in the lines of “That’s The Way I Want It”.
The final song is called “You Can Do It”, and it’s also an Evie Sands cover, but this time from her 1979 album, “Suspended Animation”. With it, the funk is back, but this time is the muscular, groovier and more laid-back version of genre, making this song one of the highlights of the album. Love the bass, the synths and even Honda’s performance here.
The “OVERSEA” album reached #4 on the Oricon charts, selling around 58,000 copies (source: http://wagamamakorin.client.jp/saku-minako.html). After its release, but also of “Midnight Swing” in December 1987, Minako Honda changed her music style once more, becoming the frontwoman of the all-female hard rock band Minako with Wild Cats in 1988. Anyway, that’s when my interest in her faded away.
When it comes to the many works of 80s aidoruMinako Honda（本田美奈子）, it looks like I will be on the installment plan for eating crow for the foreseeable future. Having scoffed at my first look at her through a live performance on one of the music rankings show of that decade, over the years of doing this blog, I've come to realize that that performance was more of a notorious off-tune one-off and that Honda actually did have some good singing chops even during her aidoru era.
Case in point: her cover of the late Belfast guitarist and singer-songwriter Gary Moore's October 1986 single"Crying in the Shadows", given the title of "the Cross ~ Ai no Juujika" (Cross of Love) for Honda as her 8th single from September 1986. When I heard it for the first time, I just went like "Why wasn't I hearing this stuff from her instead of 'Oneway Generation'?" I think Honda was still an aidoru at the time but from listening to "the Cross", she had apparently made some grand leaps into solid pop-rock.
I wouldn't really compare Honda at the time as a budding rock goddess but the former was really good with "the Cross" especially with that echoing voice. From what I've seen on her "Top 10" and "Best 10" appearances, it looked like she was going for a J-Madonna aesthetic back then, but with this song, I imagine her more as a Pat Benatar.
With Moore having written and composed the original song, Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）provided the Japanese lyrics. "the Cross" went as high as No. 5 on Oricon and was first included on her first BEST compilation, "MINAKO COLLECTION" from December 1986. That album reached No. 13. Moore was also involved in the recording of Honda's cover and also provided his guitar playing for the title track from her third album"Cancel" which also came out in the same month as "the Cross" although the single wasn't included in that album.
To finish off, here is Moore's "Crying in the Shadows" which was included in the CD release of his 1987 album "Wild Frontier".
Minako Honda（本田美奈子）would have been 51 years old at the end of this month, but her fans will later be remembering about her in November on the 13th anniversary of her death due to cancer. It's hard to imagine that it's been this long since she passed away much too early.
I mentioned that seeing that live performance of "1986 no Marilyn"（1986年のマリリン）on one of the rankings shows left a very bad taste in my mouth when it came to Honda as a singer...fairly or unfairly. However, as the years passed, and she made that transition to stage actress and singer...well, let's say that she made huge strides from her aidoru days.
But then, my jaw dropped last night when I heard this song by Honda which came straight from her second album"LIPS" (June 1986). If I had actually let my ears listen to "Ribbon Hodokenai" (Can't Untie The Ribbon) instead of the more notorious "1986 no Marilyn", which was a fellow track albeit as a new version, I probably would have had a far more different first impression.
Furthermore, the song was created by the same tandem behind "1986 no Marilyn", lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. "Ribbon Hodokenai" is a cool, urban and urbane number of style about the sad diminishing of love over successive birthdays. It's a song that I would have expected to have seen more in the corner of someone like Masayuki "Martin" Suzuki（鈴木雅之）or Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）. The other amazing thing is that Honda sounds great here as if that later career voice had already started showing up. I will have to check out some of the other tracks on "LIPS" but if the results are more on the "Ribbon Hodokenai" side than on the "1986 no Marilyn" side, then I could be persuaded to part with my yen. As it was, the album peaked at No. 3.
In all honesty, I was never all that big a fan of Minako Honda（本田美奈子）during her aidoru days although there was no denying her beautiful looks. I think it was that one performance on one of the 1980s music shows where she sang "1986 no Marilyn" (1986 Marilyn), and I thought it was just horrible! And that's perhaps saying something considering the numbers of aidoru I had seen on those music shows and other variety programs on VHS during that time. However in her defense, she had the headset on while pulling off some of those dance moves as an aidoru so I could imagine it may have been fairly difficult to keep steady vocally.
Listening to it again, I'm still not totally sold on her most successful song but at least with the above performance, she wasn't obliged to be so dynamic in terms of the choreography. "1986 no Marilyn" was released in February 1986. As with her later hit "Oneway Generation", it was the duo of Yasushi Akimoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi（秋元康・筒美京平）behind the creation of "1986 no Marilyn" which had Honda giving that sultry description of the legendary Marilyn Monroe.
According to J-Wiki, her previous single "Temptation" did very well, hitting No. 10 on Oricon. However, lyricist Akimoto felt very bad for Honda since it didn't do as well as they had hoped which led to having him, the aidoru and her staff working even harder to get that even bigger hit so that more of Honda's personality can shine through. He actually felt that Honda had some of that Marilyn Monroe in her which needed to get out, thus the development of "1986 no Marilyn", as perhaps something autobiographical (?). I think her original performances of the song on "The Best 10" and the other music shows channeled more Madonna but then again, Madonna was basically seen as the second coming of Marilyn, so perhaps it was mission accomplished. Also at the same time, I saw some rock-era Ann Lewis and maybe even a tad of Rebecca as well.
Certainly it was mission accomplished when it came to the Oricon charts. "1986 no Marilyn" made it all the way to No. 3 and ended up as the 32nd-ranked single of the year.
Yesterday, I got to see "Batman v. Superman" with some friends downtown. Yep, I did hear about all of the negative reviews so my expectations were about as high as a caterpillar's belly which actually did help me to enjoy things a bit more. It wasn't quite a disaster but I thought it was severely lacking in humour. Perhaps if there were a good dollop of it from the above parody with comedian/talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, we would have been happier, although there were other issues to fix.
I had the same feelings when I first saw and heard the late Minako Honda（本田美奈子）back in the 1980s. I may have remarked to Marcos V. for one of his Minako articles on the blog that I hadn't been too impressed when I saw her performing on either "The Best 10" or "The Top 10" and her voice was all over the place. In retrospect, though, I may have been a bit harsh since she and her dancers were flying about at the time, but still, even as an aidoru, she didn't exactly show some of that prowess that would later come out when she became a stage musical actress.
Still somewhat wary of "1986-nen no Marilyn"（1986年のマリリン）which was one of her earlier releases but looking at her 9th single, "Oneway Generation" from February 1987, I was pleasantly surprised that she sounded a bit more stable on TV...I will have to listen to the original recorded version someday. And of course, the refrain has been the one meme of Minako that has stayed in my head all these years.
Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, "Oneway Generation" has an inspiring message about those young folks who might be feeling stuck in terms of what to do for their future: just plod ahead with those dreams and not listen to any negativity. Mind you, passing those university entrance exams is one big wall, though. The single managed to get as high as No. 2 on Oricon and became the 23rd-ranked single of the year.
"Oneway Generation" was also the theme song for the TBS serial "Papa wa Newscaster" (パパはニュースキャスター...Papa is a Newscaster) starring Masakazu Tamura（田村正和）who would take on a far more iconic role in the next decade.
I remember
that the first time I heard this Minako-chan (本田美奈子) song was on a mixtape called
“Tokyo Boogie Night” that was created by Ansai Osamu featuring some interesting
80s Japanese funk/city pop songs (click here if you’re interested in hearing
the mixtape. I easily recommend it).
Originally
released in Minako Honda’s “OVERSEA” album, in June 1987, the simple yet
interesting “That’s The Way I Want It” was recorded entirely in English. In
fact, the entire “OVERSEA” album was recorded in English. Also, according to this
source, Minako worked with Michael Jackson’s staff in the record. Being more
accurate, she worked with some musicians that were involved with Janet and La
Toya careers, but not directly with Michael’s team (Minako even invited La Toya
Jackson to sing Lipps Inc.’s classic disco song, “Funkytown”, with her in the
“DISPA [short for Disco Party] 1987” concert. It was a very odd moment that,
unfortunately, isn’t on YouTube anymore). About “That’s The Way I Want It”, for
me, it’s not a late night song, but one that combines better with the sunset in
a highway near the beach. Although far from being a complex or very notorious
song, it’s one of my favorites. I just love the twinkling synths and its
laidback breezy feel.
According to
J-Wiki, the “OVERSEA” album reached #4 on the Oricon charts, but another source
talks about a #5 position. Also, this same source points out that the album has
sold around 58,000 copies (source: http://wagamamakorin.client.jp/saku-minako.html).
As for “That’s The Way I Want It”, it was written and composed by Mike
Piccirillo. As for the arrangement, John Wilson was the responsible.
Minako Honda (本田美奈子) had quite an interesting debut in April 1985 with “Satsui no Vacance”. The song is not one of the most acclaimed in Minako’s discography, but this alone doesn’t make the song less interesting.
“Satsui no
Vacance” starts with some nice synth chord progression and a pulsating bass
line before Minako joins with the haunting and dramatic chorus. Based on that,
the song takes a more serious route if compared to the happy-go-lucky aidoru
tunes of the mid-80s, and that was quite a stand-out characteristic for Minako.
She certainly wasn’t just a kawaii aidoru singer, or “more of the same”. Back
to the song, as the majority of all good synthpop tunes, it eventually breaks into
a “cold” synths solo. At first, by the title, I found this song quite odd. A poor “Google Translator” translation teached me that “Satsui no Vacance” means, literally, “Vacation of Murderous”, which is quite an impacting song title for a debut single of an aidoru singer. Even more bizarre is that the song was used as a CM for the “Toshiba Juice Mixer” (source: generasia). But I ended translating the whole lyrics with “Google Translate” and acknowledged that “Satsui no Vacance” is just another passionate torch song in the veins of Akina Nakamori (中森明菜), and not about murderers.
Also, I find initial synth chord progression of “Satsui no Vacance” quite similar to the the initial synth chord progression of the hit
song “Big in Japan” by German band Alphaville.
Take a look below.
To finish,
here’s a cute young Minako performing “Satsui no Vacance”. It’s really great
that we have videos preserving the great memories of artists that are no longer
with us.
“Satsui no Vacance” reached #21 on the Oricon chart, selling 72,520 copies. Lyrics were written by Masao Urino (売野雅勇), while music was composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi (筒美京平). As for the arrangement, it was done by Satoshi Nakamura (中村哲).
Well, it’s no secret that Minako Honda (本田美奈子) wasn’t just a cute/pretty face. Honestly, she had an incredible voice and was a great singer/performer. She really brought some big guns to the aidoru world with the dramatic synthpop aidoru tune “Satsui no Vacance” (殺意のバカンス), her debut, which was released in April 1985. But it wasn’t until “Temptation”, released in September 1985, that Minako caused some true commotion. And I can see why, as “Temptation” is surely an interesting song in an aidoru’s catalogue. It’s the type of song Akina Nakamori (中森明菜) could have recorded and turned into one of her memorable hits, just like “SOLITUDE” or “Fin”, two of her laid-back masterpieces of the 80s.
But Minako
herself did a great job with “Temptation”. The melody is mysterious and even sensual, in a strange way. The
arrangement, built around a strong bass line and synths, just contributes to
this foggy and funky feeling. Overall, it’s a very nice song and one of Minako’s
best offerings during her aidoru
days.
If Minako wasn’t so instable during her aidoru career, she could have maintained this style and grown as a singer with it. Her rock phase was really a turn-off if compared with the earlier synth pop tunes like "Satsui no Vacance", "Temptation" and "1986nen no Marilyn" (1986年のマリリン), or even the nice pop-rock ones like “CRAZY NIGHTS”, produced by Queen's guitarist Brian May. To be honest with Minako, though, she did grow as a singer, especially when she started doing her classical work during the 90s, but you know what I mean, she just needed a better artistic/musical direction sometimes.
“Temptation” reached #10 on the Oricon chart (source: wiki.jp), selling 184,000 copies (source: http://wagamamakorin.client.jp/saku-honda.html). A “[New Mix Version]” was later included in Minako’s first full album, “M’ Syndrome” (M'シンドローム), which reached #2 on the Oricon chart and sold 239,000 copies (source: http://wagamamakorin.client.jp/saku-minako.html). The album, which was released in November 1985, also became the #16 best-selling of 1986. Back to “Temptation”, it was written by Takashi Matsumoto (松本隆), composed by Kyouhei Tsutsumi (筒美京平), and arranged by Kazuo Otani (大谷和夫).
