Miyuki Kosaka -- Season Off

 

I think opinions may vary here, but today's feeling like the coldest day of the year thus far in my city. The wind chill factor took things down to -24 degrees Celsius! Had wanted to get my hair cut at the local barber but when I got to the place, it still hadn't opened and one poor guy was waiting in his car for the salon to open up. Wasn't going to wait and even the walk over to the convenience store to pick up the paper was an arduous odyssey.

At this point, still several weeks away from spring, I wouldn't blame folks for wanting to take the season off and make like bears going into hibernation. Instead, I'll be content to listen to heartwarming tunes like "Season Off" by Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）. A track from her September 1985 album "Fairway", it feels like a summer breeze with the melody and arrangement by the late singer-songwriter Kazuhito Murata（村田和人）, and it does have that laidback Murata merrily-we-roll-along jauntiness along with, I suspect, his voice as the background chorus and his guitar in the instrumental bridge. Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）was responsible for the lyrics. Nice to have a bit of summer back again.

Hako Yamasaki/Miyuki Kosaka -- Sayonara no Kane（サヨナラの鐘）

 

From what I've read of folk singer Hako Yamasaki's（山崎ハコ）debut album "Tobimasu"（飛・び・ま・す...I Can Fly） from October 1975 on J-Wiki, she was only 17 years old when she released it and it sold 50,000 copies which was quite the miraculous achievement especially when it came out without any special promotions. It managed to reach No. 51 on Oricon.

One of the tracks, "Sayonara no Kane" (The Goodbye Bell), which was written and composed by Yamasaki and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, must have left quite the impression on listeners. At over five minutes long, it is a bittersweet summary on a romance that has ended with a pealing bell on the hill being used as the symbol of the completion of the relationship. Through the lyrics and Yamasaki's delivery, there is a feeling of weeping over the death of what is perhaps the first love of that person. Maybe as the person grows older and more experienced with all those romantic entanglements, there is not so much drama but that first one which goes awry will always hurt. The melody is an interweaving of blues, folk and pop brought together as a contemplative piece on emotional pain and release.

Quite a few famous musicians were in the recording studio for "Sayonara no Kane": guitarists Char and Chuei Yoshikawa（吉川忠英）with the aforementioned arranger Sato also on keyboards.

A synthpop opening begins the cover version of "Sayonara no Kane" by Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）. The song was released as her 16th single in April 1984. Sato also arranged this one with those synths coming in. It's more than a minute shorter than the Yamasaki original but the bluesy feeling of melancholy and loss is still there. 

Miyuki Kosaka -- Kawaita Hana（乾いた花）

 

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.

Miyuki Kosaka -- Kimagure Juu-dai（気まぐれ10代）

 

What I'm covering here is "Kimagure Juu-dai" (Capricious Teen) by aidoru Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）. I have a number of adjectives to describe my teens, and capricious isn't one of them. Awkward and depressing are two of them.😞

But I digress. I was just entering adolescence when "Kimagure Juu-dai" as a track on Kosaka's 3rd album "Sugao no Mama de"（素顔のままで...Just the Way You Are） was released in December 1978. Written and composed by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）and arranged by Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）, it's a typical aidoru tune of that time with the twangy guitar, the breezy strings and Kosaka's light and happy vocals. It's also one of the shortest aidoru tunes I know at a mere 2 1/2 minutes.

This is the earliest song by Kosaka that I've covered in her discography to date. She has explored some other genres going into the 1980s as well including synthpop and City Pop.

Miyuki Kosaka -- Tokyo Magic Town

 

Tokyo is so large that it has several discrete major urban hubs whether it be the Teen Mecca of Shibuya, glitzy Ginza and Akasaka, bayside Odaiba and the salaryman's old-style haven Shimbashi among other sites. Depending on what and how much you want to see, it could take a few days to get even the major neighbourhoods under your belt.

Singer/actress Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）has sung on the wonders of one of the world's largest cities a number of times whether it be through "Tokyo ga Suki"（東京が好き）that I've already written about, and a couple of others that I have yet to tackle: "Get Back Tokyo" and "Tokyo Shadow". However, I do have one song, "Tokyo Magic Town" that I can reveal here and now.

A track on her March 1982 6th album "Backstage", this was written by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）and Kosaka and composed by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）. "Tokyo Magic Town" kinda straddles between City Pop and regular pop, although on repeated listenings, that busy bass can have me rescinding that latter genre and just go full bore into the urban contemporary. It's quite the paint-the-town-red excitement powering the tune as it feels like a drive on the Kan-Etsu interweaving the many skyscrapers of the capital itself.

Miyuki Kosaka -- Mizu no Naka no Knife（水の中のナイフ）

 

Welcome to June! We're looking forward to some more summery weather but some rain, too, since we were a little dry last month. Of course, some reopening from the pandemic will also be happily appreciated.

From that title, "Mizu no Naka no Knife" (Knife in the Water) reads as something far more ominous than it really is. This track by Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）from her penultimate album "Nouvelle Adresse" (sic) released in October 1987 is actually quite mellow. Written by Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）and composed by Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）, the song sounds like the type of music that I was hearing from a number of female singer-songwriters such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）in the late 1980s to early 1990s. It's the sort of song that I would probably hear over the speakers in some sort of peaceful café in the neighbourhood.

Hopefully, the only knife involved here is the one slicing out a wedge of cheesecake or apple pie in that café. Incidentally, I wouldn't mind seeing those opening up again really soon.

Miyuki Kosaka -- Tokyo ga Suki（東京が好き）

About four years ago, I put up an article regarding Keiko Mizukoshi's （水越けいこ）"Tokyo ga Suki" (I Love Tokyo) from 1979, one of those prime examples of Fashion Music. The song had that European resort feeling of lounging on that chaise longue while being fed a bunch of grapes.

Well, I didn't know it at the time but Miyuki Kosaka（小坂みゆき）had covered the song as her 15th single in May 1983. Following the general pattern of sad bitterness over possibly being dumped by a cad in Tokyo, Kosaka's cover still has enough of a different arrangement to make the song quite interesting.

In comparison to the original by Mizukoshi, this newer version takes things a bit more closer to home...or I should say, closer to my old stomping grounds of Japan's biggest city, so there is that slight feeling of City Pop. And yet, at the same time, there is also a sensation of a kayo-esque arrangement in there, too, although I wouldn't quite put it in the same class as Mood Kayo. The other thing is that when the chorus sang the title in the Mizukoshi original, there was a sense of "Ach, c'est la vie! Allons-y!" with the lass sloughing off the melancholy like an old coat, whereas in the Kosaka cover, the woman there hasn't quite reached the point of moving on just yet and she's still in the rainy café in Omotesando or some other tony establishment.

As with Mizukoshi and Kosaka, I love my Tokyo, too. And right now, things are looking pretty grim over there with the higher rates of infection from COVID-19. I've been checking with a few friends in the past couple of days; it looks like they're hanging in there and luckily, they're still safe and healthy.

Miyuki Kosaka/Yosui Inoue -- Kannazuki ni Kakomarete（神無月にかこまれて）

Up to now, the only thing that I've really heard from 70s/80s aidoru Miyuki Kosaka（小坂みゆき）was her lovingly techno-quirky "Nuance Shimasho"（ニュアンスしましょう）in 1984, created by the dream team of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and EPO.

Then a few months ago, I heard her 21st and final single from November 1989, "Kannazuki ni Kakomarete" (Wrapped Up In The 10th Month of The Lunar Calendar) which is also pretty catchy in a different way. Written and composed by Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）, it's a fairly driving pop/rock tune with the sheen of that decade. I figured that it was probably made as a theme song for some action drama starring Kosaka.

Well, I may be half to completely right on that guess since it was used as the first theme song for an anthology drama series called "Dramatic 22"（ドラマチック22）, so titled because it was broadcast at 10 pm or 2200 hours on TBS. The show lasted for about 18 months and though I didn't go through the entire list of episodes to look for Kosaka, it looks like it starred pretty much all of Japanese show business in one way or another.

The thing is, though, that "Kannazuki ni Kakomarete" was actually originally recorded by Inoue himself for his December 1972 album "Yosui II: Sentimental"（陽水II：センチメンタル）. The album has been classified as a folk release, but Inoue's first take of "Kannazuki ni Kakomarete" also has that same urgency but within a combination of Latin rhythms and light psychedelic rock. It's like doing the tango in a wide-lapeled suit and bell-bottoms while the piano keeps on chugging along.

As for "Yosui II: Sentimental", it peaked at No. 10 on Oricon, and though it took its sweet time, the album became the 8th-ranked release for 1974 and then came in at No. 15 in 1975.

Miyuki Kosaka/Shiho Fujisawa -- Nuance Shimasho （ニュアンスしましょ）

I came across this cute song purely by accident last night when I just managed to traipse into one of the J-Pop Internet radio stations "70s-90s J-Pop Stream" on Twitter. Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）was a name that I heard somewhere, and at first, I had thought it was Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）who created the 70s classic "Anata"（あなた）, but of course I was wrong there. Then, it later dawned on me that the Kanagawa Prefecture-born Kosaka was actually a familiar face on the morning wide show circuit when I was living back in Japan. I never knew that she was an aidoru who sang for about 12 years from 1977 to 1989.

"Nuance Shimasho" (Let's Have Some Nuance) is Kosaka's 17th single from August 1984 that was written by Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and composed by EPO. I remember the two singer-songwriters getting together to write the funky "Magnetic Love" for Akina Nakamori（中森明菜） on her "D404ME" album from 1985, but "Nuance Shimasho" is the type of song that the two would create. The melody is a quirky piece of techno kayo...something that Ohnuki herself sang in her early 80s albums while Kosaka's high and bright delivery sounds just right for EPO to cover.

Not sure how it did on the Oricon charts, but it was used as the campaign song for a Shiseido commercial. And now, I wouldn't mind finding out a bit more about Kosaka's aidoru career.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the exact date or year that this cover came out, but this was a pretty nice take on "Nuance Shimasho" by Shiho Fujisawa（藤澤志保）featuring hiro:n.