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.
Showing posts with label Monta and Brothers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monta and Brothers. Show all posts
It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since music icon David Bowie left this mortal coil. Perhaps it's a mere guess from me, but I think fans and people who are just discovering Bowie are probably going through his discography and perhaps even his filmography right now to view his creations.
As I mentioned in my first ROY article on Bowie, "Ashes to Ashes" was the first time I'd seen him in a music video, following my first ever sighting and listening to him on the Martin Sheen-hosted "Saturday Night Live" episode. Bowie Boy, did he make an impression! Music videos were just at the beginning of their lifetime as a pop culture force and this one for "Ashes to Ashes" was kinda like one of my dreams if I had a little too much spicy food the night before.
I will leave the interpretation of the song to better people at Genius and Wikipedia, but suffice it to say, it was something that left me somewhat shaken considering that I'd seen it on some video show late at night and it was something that I'd never seen before with all of those special effects and Bowie taking on multiple characters. I also read that "Ashes to Ashes" has been lauded for its distinct structure and I could attest to that with the melodic shifts in direction knocking me around for an absolute loop. Art pop and art rock were the right labels for this one, along with New Wave. At the time, I was ready to use avant-garde.
"Ashes to Ashes" was released on August 1st 1980. It did OK in Canada by scoring a No. 35 ranking on RPM and in the United States, it actually hit No. 21 on the Billboard Disco chart, but it reached No. 1 in the UK and France. Let's see what was up at the top of the Oricon charts a few days later on August 4th.
I just wanted to leave things off with Jason Shulman's wonderful paean through his video for Bowie's 1972"Starman". The song wouldn't fit for ROY because I frankly didn't hear it for the first time until much later into my adulthood but this video probably has had fans weeping for joy.
Have yet to see "Midnight Cowboy"(1969) in its entirety. I've only seen certain scenes such as the "I'm walkin' here!" part and the death of Ratso Rizzo but I know its reputation as one of the finest movies ever made. Then, there is the theme song in the opening scene "Everybody's Talkin'" by Harry Nilsson.
I was reminded of that movie and the theme when I listened to Monta & Brothers'（もんた&ブラザーズ）"Journey". This was the B-side to the group's debut single and biggest hit "Dancing All Night" from April 1980. In contrast to the sultry downtown Tokyo feel of that A-side,"Journey" is about as different as it can get. Written by Keiji Mizutani（水谷啓二）and composed by the gravelly-voiced Yoshinori Monta（門田頼命）with arrangement by Tadashige Matsui（松井忠重）, the song is a laconic and very American-sounding tune with elements of country and folk as the protagonist is on a solo journey throughout the United States, making stops in places like New York, Chicago and the Grand Canyon. I wonder whether Monta & Brothers were really inspired by the likes of "Midnight Cowboy".
Last week, I got to see the teaser for the remake of "The Naked Gun", this time starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., the son of the hilariously famous Frank Drebin played by the late Leslie Nielsen. So, of course, all the zany humour in this new version can go back to the original movie from 1988 and that movie can go all the way back to the 1982 short-lived series "Police Squad!".
Nielsen cemented his newfound status as a comic actor late in his long entertainment career in "Police Squad!" but it had been discovered a few years earlier in 1980 on "Airplane!" which had him playing straight-talking Dr. Rumack.
In recent months, a lot of the younger generation and their YouTube reaction channels have also been discovering the humour onslaught loaded like bullets in a machine gun in "Airplane!". One of my cinematic regrets is that I never got to see any of the 1970s Mel Brooks movies such as "Blazing Saddles" at the theatre (probably wouldn't have been allowed to get into the cinema anyways at my age), but all that was countered when my brother and I got to see "Airplane!" in its first run when it was released at the end of June 1980. I don't think I've ever had that much fun at a movie...before and since. Laughter was ranging from loud to absolutely screaming.
David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams were the geniuses at overdoing Brooks' humour in terms of quantity and speed, and as I mentioned in the "Police Squad!"ROY article last year, one of the big factors in the success of "Airplane!" was casting familiar straight dramatic actors from television and movies as some of the characters such as Peter Graves from "Mission: Impossible", Robert Stack from "The Untouchables" and Nielsen himself who had been in all sorts of serious roles ranging from starship captain to corrupt corporate executive.
The actors themselves were initially skeptical about whether they could actually pull this off and say these lines like "Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?", so they needed some reassuring from the Zucker Brothers and Abrahams. However, one person involved in the production got it right away apparently, and that was movie composer Elmer Bernstein. This is the same man behind the epic soundtracks for "The Ten Commandments" and "The Magnificent Seven", and he was asked by the guys to not come up with anything epic, but something befitting a B-movie suspense movie...something corny and overdone.
And yet, when Bernstein completed his work, the "Airplane!" soundtrack not only fulfilled the producers' requests but it was still epic. I can hear any part of this soundtrack in a "Name That Tune" situation and I'd still recognize it more than forty years later. Of course, it all starts with the main title with a goodly nod to John Williams and a certain shark, before everything kicks in. At 4:38,"Lisa/Farewell/Take Off/Another Meeting" expresses the situation about the sick girl needing that heart operation but it also goes into one of my favourite scenes when a young couple sadly separates as if the lad were getting on a train rather than a plane.
I also wanted to show the scene as well as the music accompanying it if I can. At 8:48 on the soundtrack above is the Bee Gees' classic "Stayin' Alive" which of course provided the music for the flashback disco scene right here. The video doesn't show it but there was also the aftermath with Ted and Elaine sharing that cheek-to-cheek dance as they danced to the nighty-night jazz of "Love Theme from Airplane!" (13:31), a theme that gets picked up all throughout the movie in various versions.
At 23:38 is "Thar She Blows" which is a very appropriately titled track considering the scene that it accompanies. I wasn't sure whether Bernstein and the orchestra were trying to stifle laughter while recording that one. All I can say is that I had never heard of a pilot joining the Mile High Club until this movie.
27:27 is "Punch-Up/Kramer" which contains another one of my favourite scenes where Robert Stack's no-nonsense Rex Kramer shows in no uncertain terms how he feels about religious groups asking for donations at airports. At the time I saw "Airplane!", I recognized Stack's face, probably from guest roles on dramas but I hadn't known that he was the first TV Eliot Ness from "The Untouchables".
Finally at 39:47 is the song that had Ted regain his mojo and save everybody by the end. I hadn't known it at the time but that was the "Notre Dame Victory March". It also showed up at the end credits (always loved Stephen Stucker as Air Traffic Controller Johnny...he pretty much stole the show).
Considering that "Airplane!" was released in the Toronto/Buffalo area on June 27th 1980, let's see what was on top of Oricon. I've got the first three here from June 30th.
True to the unpredictable nature of Toronto weather, after our first White Christmas in four years, we may be looking at a high temperature of over 10 degrees Celsius today and tons of rain in the next several hours. Well, at least we did get the snow when we wanted it and we don't have to bundle up in layers for perhaps the next couple of days.
For our final Sunday of 2024, let's start off with a very late 80s-sounding pop ballad by Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）. It's been just a little over a year since his sudden passing at the age of 72 and so there is perhaps some added poignancy and bittersweetness to his "Totsuzen ni Furidashita Ame"(The Sudden Rain) that wraps up his 1987 solo album"Bitter".
Written by Maina（麻衣奈）and composed by Monta, it's a comfortable way to finish "Bitter" as the singer seems to be singing about pining for that love. It's got a beautiful piano going for it and even Monta's distinct vocals match quite tenderly in the arrangement as things fade off in the end. Contrast this ballad with its fellow track on the album, the supremely bouncy "Aisarenai Show Time"（愛されないShow Time）.
It's been almost ten months since we heard the shockingly sudden passing of singer-songwriter Yoshinori Monta（門田頼命）on October 18th 2023 at the age of 72. Just to remind readers, he and his band Monta and Brothers（もんた&ブラザーズ）were responsible for the top hit of 1980, "Dancing All Night".
Monta and Brothers' debut album was "Act I" from that same year and alongside "Dancing All Night", there was also this cool reggae-inflected track "Don-Zo-Ko"(Rock Bottom). Written by Mayumi Shinozuka（篠塚満由美）and composed by Monta himself, I couldn't find the lyrics for this one but from the title, I can only imagine that Shinozuka's lyrics may not be describing the happiest story. However, I can't deny that the reggae rhythm is underlying some laidback shoulder-shimmying arrangements and the singer's husky vocals. Also, it comes with a groovy keyboard solo near the end.
Following the untimely passing of Yoshinori Monta（門田頼命）last month, I'm sure that a lot of fans and others revisited Monta & Brothers's huge hit "Dancing All Night" from 1980. The song had been seen personally by Monta as his final chance to strike it big as a singer, and thankfully, it did pay off for him.
At the same time, though, I also wondered about the years before "Dancing All Night" which I gather was his "paying one's dues" decade after starting out in 1971. In that year, Monta moved up to Tokyo to chase his dreams and put out some singles with his first album coming out in 1976, "Horizon". The first track on "Horizon" was "Kobe ni Asa ga Kita" (Morning Has Come to Kobe) which was written by Monta and Kumiko Sakamoto（坂本玖美子）with Monta composing the song. It's a moody tune with elements of rock and folk so I figure that New Music would be the genre to describe it. That distinctive voice of Monta is right in there as he sings about his hometown.
In 1979, Monta had enough of Tokyo and returned to Kobe although he still kept plugging away. Good thing he did, too.
That was quite the wallop. I was watching "Uta Con"（うたコン）an hour ago and right after the opening act of Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, the hosts solemnly reported that vocalist and songwriter Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）of Monta and Brothers（もんた&ブラザーズ）had passed away a few days ago on the 18th. He succumbed to an aortic dissection at the age of 72. The stunning thing was that he had appeared on "Uta Con" less than a month ago for what I believe was the first time. I'm also posting this only some hours after writing on the tragic loss of vocalist Atsushi Sakurai（櫻井敦司）of the band BUCK-TICK.
For most people, Monta will be known for his band having the No. 1 hit of 1980, "Dancing All Night". However, what I have here tonight is his 4th single"Desire" which was released in October 1981. A City Pop tune with a bit of rock in there, it was written by Kazunori Sonobe（園部和範）who also goes by the name Rio Rinozuka（里乃塚玲央）. Monta came up with the urgent melody for the song about being thrown into the maelstrom of that titular emotion as it applies to that crazy thing called love. Of course, it wouldn't be a Monta and Brothers song without that distinctive raspy voice by Monta himself.
"Desire" peaked at No. 7 on Oricon. I have seen a lot of tributes from YouTube commenters toward Monta. My condolences go to his family, friends and fans. It's been a pretty poignant couple of weeks.
It says something about how iconic MTV was when Pat Benatar's"You Better Run" has been noted on Wikipedia as the second video ever presented on the channel (above at 5:40) right after The Buggles'"Video Killed The Radio Star".
Here's a slightly sharper form of the music video for "You Better Run" which came out as a single in July 1980 and was my introduction to the snarly and sexy Benatar, although I've enjoyed "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" even more. As such, it was the first Benatar song to be placed as a ROY article on KKP. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it on that legendary first broadcast of MTV since we couldn't get it on our cable. Actually, I saw it on some local late-night music video show probably while my parents were out socializing one Saturday night. Listening to "You Better Run" and watching the singer strut around, I could imagine myself fleeing from the lady whenever she yelled out the title. Not someone to cross. Although "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was a Top 10 single, "You Better Run" did more modestly by ranking in at No. 42 on America's Billboard.
I keep getting educated as I do these ROY articles about how many of these 80s classics are actually covers of earlier originals. As has been the case with "Bette Davis Eyes" and "They Don't Know", I've found out that "You Better Run" was originally recorded by the rock band The (Young) Rascals back in 1966, as something that may have preceded the whole punk craze a decade later. The original rose to No. 20 on Billboard.
I gather that this is my second Reminiscings of Youth dealing with an album after Quincy Jones' "The Dude" a month or so ago, and though I finally did get the soundtrack to "Xanadu" a few years ago, I've only seen the 1980 movie through certain scenes only. Yep, I enjoyed "Grease" with Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta but only heard the bad word-of-mouth for ONJ's other Hollywood movie musical so I ended up skipping it. I may end up seeing it in its entirety someday. Also, I have to note that this is being written just a few weeks following the singer's first anniversary of her passing.
But like a lot of folks, I have appreciated a number of the songs that had been featured in the June 1980 soundtrack more than I have the actual movie, and everyone involved in "Xanadu" went all out on the variety of genres. The Labels section is now occupied by stars that I hadn't expected to see here such as the legendary Gene Kelly, rock band The Tubes, and Cliff Richard.
The title song "Xanadu" has been the one musical remnant that I held onto all these years from the movie. As performed by OJN and Electric Light Orchestra's Jeff Lynne on backup vocals, it's been categorized as post-disco while I'm still hearing it as quite breezy disco. Through a now non-existent YouTube video of an interview with Lynne according to the relevant Wikipedia article, the ELO leader has gone on record to say that "Xanadu" is his least favourite among his own creations. On a personal aside, ELO was one of my targets when I had my Yellow Magic Orchestra-on-the-brain phase thinking that with its initials as a nickname/abbreviation and its eclectic brand of music, I thought that it was also into technopop but such was not the case. Yet, there are at least a couple of ELO tunes that I will eventually cover in ROY articles in the near future. On America's Billboard, "Xanadu" scored a No. 8 while on Canada's RPM chart, it peaked at No. 9 after being released in May 1980.
Arguably, "Magic" is the one standout track on the album that eclipses almost all of the others, and for the longest time, I hadn't been aware that it was actually from "Xanadu". Created by John Farrar, it was another OJN hit that seemed to have permanent residency status on the radio, and from my current viewpoint, it's truly a magical ballad thanks to some of the production effects, the orchestra strings and the feeling of being transported into the night sky while this is playing. I wouldn't be surprised if this had been a popular slow dance tune at the school dances back in the day. Another May 1980 release, "Magic" went to No. 1 in both Canada and the United States.
I had assumed that "Suddenly", another Farrar-penned single from the "Xanadu" soundtrack, was a B-side for another one of Olivia's singles or it was on her "Physical" album from 1981. Regardless, it's another classic love duet, this time with Cliff Richard that was released in October 1980. It also has its magical qualities although it's not quite up there with "Magic". It ranked in at No. 60 on RPM and No. 20 on Billboard.
One of the few non-single tracks on "Xanadu" is "Dancin'" which has Olivia collaborating with The Tubes. OK, maybe the movie "Xanadu" as a whole wasn't the finest piece of cinematic art to ever grace the screen, but this one scene is indeed incredible to the extent (especially at the end) that if it had been performed at the Oscars, it would have brought the house down. I never would have imagined that nightclub jazz and glam rock could ever be mashed up like this, but I guess miracles can occur in "Xanadu".
Welcome to KKP ROY, Mr. Gene Kelly! If I hadn't ever been aware of "Xanadu", and someone threw out his name and Olivia Newton-John at me, I would have assumed that we were playing the advanced level of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. But there they were in the above scene dancing to their duet "Whenever You're Away from Me", a throwback to those musical dance extravaganzas that Kelly had excelled at back in the 1940s and 1950s. Not surprisingly from what I've read of the comments, the master dancer made sure that the choreographed scene would meet his tough and exacting standards. No pressure on OJN at all. One of the things that stuck in my head about the movie was that his Danny McGuire character was the final film role that he ever played although he did appear as himself in a couple of film documentaries on the world of entertainment in his final years before his death in 1996.
It's rather ironic when I write of Kelly being in his one final musical in 1980 since a year before, I recollect watching an episode of the original TV series "Battlestar Galactica" where Kelly's old hoofing buddy, Fred Astaire, had a role as an elderly man who may have been Lt. Starbuck's father.
My last words on the soundtrack will deal with ELO's"All Over the World", another single that I hadn't associated with the movie but knew about due to its presence on the radio. Via the Wikipedia article, one magazine felt that the song was "souped-up '50s and '60s pop at its best" while I feel that it was uplifting disco about getting the whole globe to sing. Of course, I had to include the scene in "Xanadu" where "All Over the World" was played since it's got Gene and company dancing about on roller skates. It ranked in at No. 16 on RPM while in America, it got as high as No. 13.
"Xanadu" the soundtrack may have won the day, the month and the year over "Xanadu" the movie, but from what I've read from some of the other commenters on YouTube, the latter isn't too shabby at all, provided that viewers can take a little more cheese than usual. In any case, the soundtrack hit No. 2 on RPM and No. 4 on Billboard.
To be honest, when I decided to bring in Kate Bush for this week's Reminiscings of Youth, I had planned to talk about "Running Up That Hill" since the 80s hit received a new lease of life due to its use in an episode of "Stranger Things" last year.
But then, I came upon "Babooshka", her single from June 1980 and my mind was set. The image of Bush in that Valkyrie costume has forever remained with me since I first saw the music video decades ago. And watching it once more last night, I remember being rather flabbergasted at not only how pretty (and terrifying) she looked but also at the whole thing about her in a black bodysuit interacting with a contrabass as she switched scenes between that and her Valkyrie self.
Still trying to gain my bearings with all sorts of music at that time, I couldn't quite understand the genre of "Babooshka", although it's been described in Wikipedia as a rock song. However, my feeling is that it was either Art Pop or Baroque New Wave Pop (which could be one and the same). Regardless, the video and the song and her vocal style stand out very clearly, and isn't that what any singer wants? Bush definitely succeeded, and the chorus was playing out in my head repeatedly when I went to bed last night and when I woke up this morning.
To further emphasize that I've always been more of a melody man than someone who is into the lyrics, I had never paid attention to the straight-ahead story of the titular embittered wife Babooshka putting on the guise of a younger woman through correspondence as a test to see if her husband would stray away from the marriage. In fact, I'd thought "Babooshka" that was simply a play on the singer-songwriter's name because of that second syllable in the title.
Although there's no information on how the song did on the charts in either America or Canada, "Babooshka" was Bush's 2nd Top 5 single in the UK by hitting No. 5 according to the relevant Wikipedia article. I will have to do "Running Up That Hill" sometime in March. Anyways, what was at the top of Oricon in June 1980?
Through the Mixi news feed yesterday, I read that lyricist Ikki Matsumoto had passed away on November 4th at the approximate age of 73. A graduate of Keio University, he began his career in music in 1979, and according to J-Wiki, his debut set of lyrics came with 80s aidoru Yu Hayami's（早見優）debut single. However, he provided lyrics for songs in a few other genres such as pop, rock and City Pop, and he contributed songs to anime, TV shows and commercials. In fact, it's said that he was involved in over 3,000 commercials. I've also noticed that Matsumoto had often worked with composer Ken Sato（佐藤健）who already has his own Creator article.
The following is a small example of tunes that he provided lyrics for. My condolences go out to his family, friends and fans.
This is quite an auspicious start to Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I had assumed that there would be no chance in getting this BEST compilation "Magical ~ Ohashi Junko no Sekai III"(Junko Ohashi's World III) because the original LP was demanding nosebleed prices and there were other BEST compilations of the singer for much cheaper prices. Basically, my feeling was that except for those remaining copies on auction online, "Magical" had been discontinued.
Well, during my usual talk with KKP collaborator and friend JTM a couple of weeks ago, he advised me that this would be a good time to go on a purchasing spree since the yen was going so low. So, I just checked out CD Japan and threw in a couple of singers and albums, assuming that I was going to hit nothing. Much to my surprise, I did hit pay dirt. There was an actual CD of "Magical" and Ritsuko Kazami's（風見律子）1986 album"Aventurier" which I had also thought was one of the rarest of the rare and therefore impossible to obtain. At 1500 yen per disc ($14 CDN), I wasn't one to argue. I pressed the trigger on my wallet and the rest is history.
I'm happy to say that both are keepers. But this is my first BEST article in a while, so let's get the playlist out of the way:
The liner notes have the track list separated into groups of three and what I've read is that the original July 1984 (and not 1983, as J-Wiki says) release was a 2-LP album with three songs per side. As mentioned, this is one of Ohashi's BEST compilations, but there are three songs that did get their debut on "Magical". As you can see above, five of the tracks have already been spoken for on the blog so you can check those links.
One of those three new songs begins "Magical". "Koi wa Magic"(Love Is Magic) is actually a cover of the AOR song "Isn't It Magic", a 1980 single released by the duo Private Line consisting of the singer-songwriters Peter Yellowstone and Steve Voice. A fellow by the name of M. Tinsley also helped out in the songwriting department. Lyricist Hiromi Mori（森浩美）provided the Japanese lyrics for the cover which was a duet done by Ohashi and Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）with a single release in June 1984.
The AOR feel is still intact but given a bit more of a punch thanks to Monta's gravelly delivery and there's an arrangement nod to Boz Scaggs the balladeer from Ken Sato's（佐藤健）efforts. Perhaps "Koi wa Magic" was a form of ongaeshi after a prior duet involving Ohashi and Monta in 1983 with their dynamic "Natsu Onna Sonia"（夏女ソニア）.
Track 3 is the 1984 "A Love Affair" created by the husband-and-wife team of Ohashi and Sato and it's the second of the three new songs. It's a good and funky City Pop tune which was also used for a commercial. I would just love to know what product was being sold here...a disco? I don't think that it would be life insurance. 😏
The next track is the final of the three new 1984 tunes, "I Love You So". I've heard this before, so it was maybe a track from the other BEST compilation of Ohashi that I have. What I'm surprised about is that I hadn't covered it before in an individual article since it is such a City Pop banger with that disco flute and those marvelous Ohashi vocals. As with "A Love Affair", it was Ohashi and Sato on lyrics and melody respectively. One commenter for the video stated that they got a lot of Chaka Khan vibes which I agree with; at the same time, that flute also made me wonder about Quincy Jones.
"Tasogare"(Twilight) was Ohashi's 20th single from August 1982 (and the title track from her June 1982 album). A sigh-worthy ballad about the ephemerality of love, it goes to show how much of a master Ohashi has been with the aching love song. Once again, it's Sato on music and arrangement but this time, Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）is behind the lyrics. I gather that the twilight here isn't about the sun setting but more about the end of a relationship. The background vocals almost make "Tasogare" a religious experience.
Also, from "Tasogare" the album is the slow ballad "Sherry" which was once again handled by Miura and Sato (the two of them also took care of the beloved "Telephone Number"). Sherry isn't the name of a lass but the actual libation being swirled around in the glass, as the lady calls up an old flame after a year to see what he's up to...and perhaps rekindle the passion that they once had. I'm not sure if that is a fluegelhorn or a really mellow keyboard in the background but it really works in "Sherry".
The last three songs for "Magical", i.e., Side B of Record 2 of the original album, all come from Ohashi's 1983 album"Point Zero". I've heard all about this record which was recorded in New York City with local musicians, and my impression is that the singer was trying to go all out in the R&B department beginning with the proto-Jamiroquai"Dancin'" which I've already written about. "In Your Lovin'" is a nocturnal, sinewy and sensuous funk strut down 5th Avenue that for some reason also gets me memories of Gino Vannelli. Sato was once again on music and arrangement while Diane Silverthorn handled lyrics.
The final track is "Sugao no Mama de"(Just the Way You Are) by Ohashi and Sato, which is a melodic flight into dreamland about having that romance with the partner of one's desire...including kids. There's some disco in there along with some really boppy keyboard work and of course, Ohashi's vocals scatting away at the end with a hint of Latin piano to whisk all of us listeners to the end. It's a light and hopeful tune to finish off this truly magical album. I will definitely recommend "Magical" but since I've always been a late bloomer and that includes the purchase of this one, most of you already know how wonderful it is.
This is the first Monta & Brothers（もんた&ブラザーズ）article that I've written since "Dancing All Night" nine years ago although leader Yoshinori Monta（門田頼命）has shown up on the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a number of times but just under that his own name. Whenever I hear the name Monta & Brothers though, it's always going to be Monta's rasping voice with the funky uptempo "Dancing All Night", the band's debut single in April 1980, that comes to mind.
And that is why Monta & Brothers' second single,"Akai Umbrella" (The Red Umbrella), is quite the left turn here. Released half a year after "Dancing All Night", it's the emotion-drenched (and perhaps rain-drenched considering the title) story of love broken forever where the howling winds during a storm feel less stinging than the sight of the former love's tears trailing down. If that sounds a tad florid, have a listen to the melody by Monta himself which takes on the epic downfall of a Greek tragedy, and the singer's ragged vocals complement the emotional breakdown in "Akai Umbrella". Taeko Tsugao/Togao（栂尾多恵子）provided the lyrics.
I couldn't find any scenes or trailer for the movie on YouTube, but apparently according to the J-Wiki article on Monta & Brothers, "Akai Umbrella" was used as an insert song on the 1985 Japanese movie "Love Hotel"（ラブホテル）. However, there is a Wikipedia article on the flick.
Early in 2020, I discovered this really cool and snazzy number by singer-songwriter Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり） of Monta & Brothers fame titled "Aisarenai Show Time"（愛されないShow Time） that was the second track of his 1987 solo album "Bitter". It was quite the perky City Pop song, and I've found that "Bitter" does have a good dollop of variety.
(brief excerpt only)
Right before "Aisarenai Show Time" is Track 1, "Woman", which was also his 6th single from the same year. Not to be mistaken with Keizo Nakanishi's（中西圭三）breakthrough hit of the same name later in the following decade, this "Woman" by Monta is a contemporary turn on the type of old-time jazz that you would hear in some sort of tropical nightclub sometime in the middle of the previous century. Interestingly enough, "Woman" was used as the campaign song for a commercial selling soup spaghetti, because when one hears jazz, one always feels like pasta...apparently. All joking aside, the underlying rhythm does remind me of The Andrews Sisters' take on "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" from 1937.
Couldn't finish off today's articles without tackling this one here since it's so funkalicious!
When it comes to Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）, who was born Yoshinori Kadota（門田頼命）, I've only really known him as part of Monta & Brothers（もんた&ブラザーズ）with their huge hit, "Dancing All Night"（ダンシング・オールナイト）back in 1980. I would like to get to know him some more especially after listening to this fun and bouncy "Aisarenai Show Time"(Unloved Show Time) from his 1987 solo album"Bitter" .
It's a good piece of kakkoii City Pop. Knowing "Dancing All Night", it's definitely Monta's voice but this time, it's surrounded by some tight horns, a relentless keyboard keeping the beat, and then all of that funky goodness. Once again, this might be another call for Daemonskald but although I tried looking through the search engines and the newly-returned JASRAC database, I couldn't find the songwriters. I wonder if Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）or any of the guys from AB'S had anything to do with this one.
Would like to get my hands on this album if it hasn't gone haiban.
Yup, I do realize that I'm writing this past midnight but I was getting somewhat obsessed about getting my quota in since I skipped writing anything on Thursday. Fortunately, I did find a song that has a comfy midnight feel.
Two years ago, I discovered via one of the "Light Mellow" CDs of City Pop/J-AOR tunes this band called Chocolate Lips featuring vocalist Miho Fujiwara（藤原美穂）and musicians James Norwood and Jimmie L. Weaver. The song on that disc was "Day Dreamin'", a short but sassy funk piece that took things even past City Pop into good ol' American R&B of the 1980s.
I had wondered on the article whether their 1984 self-titled album"Chocolate Lips" was the first of a number of releases or the lone example. Well, according to Tower Records, it was the latter. That's the bad news. The good news is that apparently the album was converted into CD format back in 2015, so perhaps it's not quite as rare now.
One of the tracks is "Foolish Girl" with lyrics by Fujiwara and music by Yoshinori Monta (もんたよしのり) of Monta and Brothers fame. Somewhat more introspective and cooled down than the peppy "Day Dreamin'", this would be the sort of song to be heard while walking somewhere in the metropolis on a rainy night. My respects to Weaver on his sax and whoever was doing the guitar solo.
Woof! Now this would make a great theme song for a show about a tough-as-nails female police officer. But instead, "Natsu Onna Sonia" (Summer Woman Sonia) was used as the campaign song for Kose Cosmetics. And there was quite the powerhouse vocal duo behind this jingle with the sonic boomer of Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）and the raspy-voiced Yoshinori Monta (もんたよしのり), leader of Monta & Brothers（もんた&ブラザーズ）who had the No. 1 song of the year in 1980, "Dancing All Night"（ダンシング・オールナイト）.
Released in April 1983 as a special duet number, "Natsu Onna Sonia" was written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by singer-guitarist Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）. It gallops at a fast pace, but it also has a nice if very brief slower passage handled by Ohashi before things go back to full speed. I wouldn't have minded if that passage had been extended a bit more since I'm a fan of Ohashi and that voice of hers. Still, it's a nostalgic and dynamic reminder of some of that Japanese disco sound from the 1980s and even the decade before that. The song got as high as No. 16 on Oricon.
One of the mysteries that had been blowing through the windmills of my mind (along with the regular air flow) for decades was finally solved (I think) tonight. At the 1983 Kohaku Utagassen, tall and lanky Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）made another appearance at the top of the order and his weapon of choice that year was the skippy "Gyarandu", his 44th single from February 1983.
Now, usually I would have already written the translation for the title in brackets immediately following it. However, the title was the mystery. What in the world was gyarandu? And why was he twisting to it on the NHK stage on December 31st along with the other members of the White team? As one US commercial catchphrase put it so long ago, "Enquiring minds want to know".
As I've said a number of times through other articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I was never much of a lyrics man so I hadn't investigated too deeply into the words (and music) by Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）, the man who hit paydirt a few years previously with "Dancing All Night" via Monta & Brothers. But I did finally look into them tonight thanks to the good folks at Utamap, and it was about Hideki spouting off his desperate desire to meet that tantalizing woman even if for just one night. He declares "gyarandu" regularly throughout the song but I wasn't really any closer to deducing the meaning.
Mind you, in the last several years, I'd heard that "gyarandu" referred to that descending tuft of hair starting from a guy's belly button all the way down to his nether....world. Well, I guess I could imagine Mr. YMCA singing about something a bit more lascivious as he went further into his career as a musical sex symbol. Still, I was wondering about the derivation of the word. It was in katakana so I assumed it was an example of gairaigo....a foreign loan word, but from which language?
I delved a bit deeper and perhaps finally found an answer. According to Monta himself, the title "Gyarandu" was just a combination of three English words (gal and do) slammed together nonsensically. Therefore, it was all about the girl in the first place. Apparently, all that stuff about the body hair may have come all the way from The Queen of New Music, Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由美）, during a radio show in which she couldn't come to describe Saijo's own bushy tuft, so she ad-libbed it "gyarandu". Yuming's new definition had just as apparently made it onto one of the Internet dictionaries I use for my work. Now whether the story of Matsutoya's moniker is true or not may still be up in the air but I will accept Monta's side of the story.
But getting back to the song itself, the original 1983 version has that typically 80s urban contemporary sound with the electric guitar and what I think is the ubiquitous EVE as the backup team. "Gyarandu" didn't break into the Top 10, only getting as high as No. 14 (and scoring No. 94 for the annual rankings), but it did earn Saijo a Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards and of course, there was the invitation to the Kohaku (could only imagine how the audience thought about the veteran singer and his tuft while he was singing, if the Yuming gag did get around Japan). The song also got onto his 16th album, "It's You" which came out in July 1983.
The above video is an updated version but not sure when and where it came out. But I think that particular mystery can be solved a whole lot faster than the whole mythos about "gyarandu".
"Dancing All Night"is a song that I've encountered now and then on the Japanese music retrospectives. I wasn't a huge fan of it when I first heard it but over the years, it has grown on me. I think Yoshinori Monta's（門田頼命）gravelly voice kinda turned me off initially. Perhaps my initial dislike could be analogized by my hatred of sashimi and wasabi until I was close to my teens when a gastronomic light switched on, and now I eat the stuff several months a year.
To throw in another analogy, Monta's big hit of 1980 was the equivalent of a journeyman baseball player hitting a World Series-winning grand slam homer in Game 7. He had dropped out of high school in Kobe to start a career in music in the late 60s before making his official solo debut in 1971. Even before the late 60s, as a teenager, he had become a huge fan of The Beatles and started a band. However, after almost a decade of no hits, he was ready to throw in the towel.
But then, he made one more try and got together a band called Monta & Brothers. The grand slam came in April 1980 when "Dancing All Night"was released. Composed by Monta and written by Keiji Mizutani（水谷啓二）, the composer treated the song as his last chance. Breaking into the Oricon charts at No. 19, the song flew up to No. 4 the following week, and then hit the top spot a week after that. It stayed at No. 1 for 10 straight weeks. More glory came for the band with Grand Prizes coming from all of the major Japanese music awards, an appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen and 2 million records in sales. And to top it all off, it was the No. 1 song of the year.
Still not a huge fan of the chorus section, but overall I enjoy it now and then as an example of nighttime City Pop.
