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.
It took me a while to warm up to the idea of Japanese rap. I had seen bits of Samurai Champloo and was aware of artists like Nujabes. I’d also played games like Sonic Rush and Jet Set Radio, whose soundtracks were composed by Hideki Naganuma (長沼英樹). So I already knew there was some great hip-hop and hip-hop-inspired music coming out of Japan.
But actual Japanese rappers breaking it down on the mic like Eric B. & Rakim? Nah, I just couldn’t fathom it.
I don’t remember the first J-rap song I ever heard, but so far, the earliest example I’ve personally traced it back to is Motoharu Sano(佐野元春)’s 1984 single “Complication Shakedown.”
Listen, let’s get this out of the way: this song is corny as all get out. (Although he's got a nice fit on the cover)
In all fairness, it’s no cornier than Kurtis Blow’s “Basketball.” Plus, the beat is admittedly catchy, which is important. Still, I’d be hard-pressed to call Motoharu Sano a rapper. This feels more like the Japanese equivalent of Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel suddenly deciding to turn their caps backwards.
I think it’s safe to say that J-rap didn’t really begin developing its own identity until the early-to-mid ’90s. Recently, I had the opportunity to check out the 1995 single “Keep Rock On” by Naohirock & SuzukiSmooth, and man were they cooking.
Not only does the beat sample one of my favorite smooth-jazz songs of all time, Ronnie Laws’ “Friends & Strangers,” but the actual rapping is pretty good too. Maybe it’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure most American rappers had stopped saying stuff like “It’s the place to be!” and “Microphone check, one-two-three!” sometime around the mid 80s.
Nevertheless, it’s still a really fun song to listen to. There’s something endearing about hearing the attitude, and conventions of old-school American hip-hop in another language.
I definitely wouldn’t mind cruising down Crenshaw with this blasting out of the speakers.
It was almost a couple of months ago when I posted Nanako Sato's（佐藤奈々子）"Muse no Koibito"（ミューズの恋人）and I got quite a few complimentary comments about the cover for the source album, her December 1977 "Sweet Swingin'". To use an old phrase: hubba-hubba.💓
Well, remembering all that, I've decided to post an article on another track from "Sweet Swingin'" and that would be her "Cheap Dance". Like "Muse no Koibito", this was also written by Sato and composed by Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）but this time, I wouldn't say that this was a City Pop tune per se. It's more of a good ol' honky-tonk rock n' roll number and I could actually imagine young Sato dancing and singing it up in a farm-fresh summer dress at some dive bar in either America or Japan with those hard-working horns behind her.
On a PS note, I finally got to throw the YouTube link into Sonoteller AI after a few failed attempts, and what I got was rather interesting, to say the least:
LYRICS ANALYSIS:
The lyrics depict a scene of waking up in the afternoon surrounded by a swirling vortex. The imagery is vivid, with references to bright lights and summer activities. The language used is Japanese. The emotions conveyed are energetic and playful. There is no explicit content in the lyrics.
MUSIC ANALYSIS:
Genres
Pop (80), Rock (70), Indie (60), Electronic (50), Dance (40)
Subgenres
Pop rock (80), Indie pop (70), Electronic rock (60), Dance-pop (50), Indie rock (40)
This song by City Pop chanteuse Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）had me by the throat right from its rolling piano intro which sounds like a fresh babbling brook in the forest.
"Muse no Koibito"(The Muse's Lover) is a ballad from Sato's December 1977 sophomore album"Sweet Swingin'". Composed by the singer along with her own muse Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）and written by Sato as well, it flows across the score sheet like a one-day thrill of a romantic adventure from morning to night in those 1970s. From her vocals and the arrangement, it also sounds like something that another up-and-comer from those days, Junko Yagami（八神純子）, would also tackle. It has that feel of a midtown-to-downtown escapade but I think the City Pop tones are more subdued here. Instead, what comes more to the fore is the flavour of female pop balladry from America. You can also try another track from the album, "Shuumatsu no Highway"（週末のハイウェイ）.
I've mentioned the above book "Nantonaku, Crystal"（なんとなく、クリスタル...Somehow, Crystal） by future Nagano Prefecturegovernor Yasuo Tanaka（田中康夫）as one whose reputation preceded it for years upon years after its publishing in 1981. That was also the year that I fully got into the whole thing about Japan after my graduation trip through the nation as a high school student. Hearing about this novel which delves into a part-time model's hedonism with tons of references to various consumer goods and songs piqued my interest for years until I finally bought it a few years ago. Back in 2021, I posted an article on its namesake song created for the movie based on the novel so I'll let you see about my further thoughts on "Nantonaku, Crystal" without repeating myself.
The reason that I'm bringing up the novel again is that recently singer-songwriter Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）made his guest appearance on NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）during the Friday Premium Talk segment. I've only seen Sano in two televised interviews: this one and the one that he did on Downtown's "Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ" music talk show back in the 1990s. Of course, for the latter show, he was the target for the comedic duo's good-natured hits as was the case for most of the singers. For "Asaichi", he was a very affable and generous guest talking about his past and present.
Well, during the interview, Sano brought up his second single, "Glass no Generation" which was released in October 1980. Even those very early students of the Japanese language can figure out that the translation for the title is "Glass Generation", but its official English name is "Crystal Generation". Sano was behind both words and music with Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次）arranging everything into a very jaunty and pleasant song of the times, reminding me a bit of his later "Sugar Time". There is something about the music of "Glass no Generation" that is reminiscent of people like Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and even The Beatles in their respective early periods.
Interpreting those lyrics though lit some light bulbs over my head. It's about a couple having such a great time with each other that they hope it never ends with the lyric of note being "I don't want to be a boring adult". Of course, I was reminded of the phenomenon of the Crystal Tribe describing those young folks in contemporary Japan back then who were all for the trendy goods, music and other parts of pop culture mentioned in "Nantonaku, Crystal" and who were named after the novel. Just to remind readers, "Glass no Generation" came out in late 1980 while the novel was out in 1981. I haven't read anything in the information regarding either Sano's song or Tanaka's novel that would hint at any sort of inspiration from the former into the latter but I still wonder if there was a connection.
In any case, "Glass no Generation" gave off the scent of the promise of all that the Economic Miracle could provide and did provide for the following decade. The song was also part of Sano's 2nd album"Heart Beat" which was released in February 1981. From that "Asaichi" interview, I also found out that back in January this year, Sano and his group known as The Coyote Band re-recorded the song under a somewhat different arrangement with a new title which was the lyric that I was referring to in the previous paragraph: "Tsumaranai Otona ni wa Naritakunai"（つまらない大人にはなりたくない）. This time, the arrangement seems to be focused on speed rather than bounce.
I've already done my two articles for today but I just had to do one more because it is an Author's Pick that I'd been letting stew in my brain for a little while. Approximately a decade ago, I posted a similar article titled "Happy Songs for Me (for International Happiness Day)" on occasion of the annual March 20th tribute to all things happy. I realized that there were a number of songs already posted on the blog that simply made me happy each and every time I listened to them and so all those endorphins were flowing around like cars in the Indianapolis 500.
At the same time, I also recognized that there were other songs that not only provided an emotional high to me but also got me moving in my chair...not particularly easy considering a man of my mass and for that matter, a man of my often stoic temperament. But indeed, those tunes actually got me to dance...after a fashion. As such, I opted to put up my own list of tunes that have gotten me to shimmy. When I did a bit of research for this article, I found that there is such a day as International Dance Day but that's all the way ahead on April 29th. I'm not quite willing to wait that long.
So, without further ado, here is my list of up-and-at-'em tunes. As with the "Happy Songs" article, I've left out the years from Labels since that part of the article would have exceeded the limit of twenty and anyways, the years can be included easily enough beside the singer and the title.
I believe I've given my opinions on each of the songs but allow me to add some more for each song. Knowing that there was basically no way that "TOWN" would be played at the Tokyo Olympics (especially since the song was actually more about New York City), but if it had been devoted to Japan's capital city, the music video would have had the buildings and the populace get into one massive dance party. It can almost...not quite, but almost...get me to play air guitar near the end.
Dancing?! I don't need to dance to the well-titled "Sugar Time" to have a great time. All I need to do is jump all over the place. Whenever I listen to this fun fest, I always envisage Bobby Van's amazing sequence from the movie "Small Town Girl" released in 1953. Play "Sugar Time" and the Van dance while muting the latter. You'll lose a kilogram!
I do my best air drums when I hear Carl Smoky Ishii and company blast this one out the headphone speakers. And then if I'm really in a mood, I even try to emulate the K2C dancers on stage (I make sure no one's home).
I usually just repeatedly shift my weight to this technopop tune but my overactive mind envisions this being a battle and a dance simultaneously on the level and magnificence of the fights in the very first "Matrix" movie which was a mere two years after the source album "cure" had been released. It could be the background music for a fighting manga brought to life. And when the composer is the legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）...well, quality guaranteed.
When you link back to the original article, you'll notice that I only supplied one paragraph to this song, something that I haven't done in years. However, it really is the song that can give the oomph compared to anything that I could put down in prose. Some great samba beats by Mondo Grosso and some lovely vocals by Bird to get me doing my own line dance. I'm sure any concert performances of "Life" would have the audience frenetically dancing to theirs.
Once you get past the technopop intro, it's all wonderfully soulful brass and bass and disco strings and the Sawayama sisters. Yep, this is another one to get the blood pumping and the shoulders shimmying all over the place. Of course, I encourage you to be more ambitious in the movements.
Honestly speaking, I had to include both of these songs which come from Kirinji's heavy rotation 2018 album"Ai wo aru dake, Subete"（愛をあるだけ、すべて）. I mean, I probably would have included a few more tracks but I didn't want to go overboard. Of course, "Jikan ga nai" is the finest example of SALARYWAVE that I've seen especially with that section chief tripping the light fantastic on the disco floor in the music video. And then with "Hi Zero Wa Game", I never thought that I could dance to a Doobie Brothers-like arrangement but here we are. The concert performance videos are splendid but I wonder what a conceptual music video would have looked like.
I've enjoyed these and even burned some calories to them. How about you? Any danceable kayo kyoku out there?
"Manhattan Bridge ni Tatazunde" is not simply a stoic rock tune; it also shows Motoharu（佐野元春）at his most charming whenever he sings this sort of romantic love song. The combination of his tough voice and the Spector-like pop sound is also marvelous. Along with his remarkable abilities as a melody maker, there is a lively sense of reality within the "city" that occasionally displays a cynical view that is difficult to express as a professional lyricist.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
1981 was the year that I went to Japan on that graduation trip, and it was the trip that for all intents and purposes put me on the course that has led me to this moment. Basically...no trip, no realization of Japanese popular music, no blog. It was also the year that "My Dinner with Andre" first came out, a movie that in all likelihood blew a lot of folks' minds including those belonging to movie critics who are probably some of the most jaded people on the planet.
After hearing about this movie for decades, I finally took in a few scenes and the trailer for "My Dinner with Andre" via YouTube last night, and of course, though I'm still not totally convinced that a restaurant conversation can hold my rapt attention for nearly two hours without watching it in its entirety, I've already picked up on some things. I had already known about the actor Wallace Shawn, whose character has his first reluctant meeting with Andre for the first time in years, because of his recurring role in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and his name had hit media because of his time on "The Princess Bride". At the same time, though, it was really quite a re-revelation of sorts seeing Wallace walking down the Manhattan streets and riding the heavily-graffitied subway where he could have been mugged at any time to enter one of the most storied establishments of fine dining, the Café des Artistes (a place that I first heard about on "Star Trek: The Next Generation") and have a good dinner and a rather high-falutin' talk with Andre. I was also finally able to match the ending scene music and its title: "Gymnopedie #1" by Erik Satie; I'd first heard the piece when I was a kid watching "Sesame Street", and I'd read the title but never put the two together until last night.
I had been meaning to write about this song today because it's gonna be part of the Yutaka Kimura Speaks series in a few weeks, but I think the timing couldn't have been more coincidental because there also seems to be a somewhat light-hearted argument taking place within the lyrics about love itself, and the title has a connection with New York City obviously. "Manhattan Bridge ni Tatazunde" (Standing on Manhattan Bridge) is a song that was supposed to have been placed onto Motoharu Sano's（佐野元春）famed 1982 album"Someday", but instead found itself a track on the compilation album "Niagara Triangle Vol. 2" that was released in March of the same year.
"Niagara Triangle Vol. 2" was the follow-up to "Niagara Triangle Vol. 1" from 1976 featuring Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次）with their tunes coming together. "Volume 2" had Ohtaki back but with Sano and Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）this time around as the two other "sides". Ohtaki had requested Sano to use "Manhattan Bridge ni Tatazunde" in "Volume 2", although the latter had some reservations about the supposedly cynical lyrics being sung over the happy rock-n'-roll-tinged melody by the singer. However, the song did get onto the album and it has a very sunny outlook on life, melodically speaking, maybe in the same way that Wallace had felt at the end of "My Dinner with Andre" when he treated himself to that cab ride home.
I've only mentioned this once or twice before so perhaps you the reader may not have noticed it, but for the past few years, I've been keeping tabs on the Labels (on the right side) specifically in the Years section right at the top. There's been a dogged horse race among the years of 1981, 1982 and 1983 nearing 500 and I can now say that this 1982 article has now hit number 500...indeed, this is the 500th article for the year 1982 and therefore it's currently the year with the most number of articles on the blog. It was quite the prolific year and my congratulations to the year (I don't think I've used the word "year" in this much in a paragraph before).
The auspiciousness of the occasion is all due to Takako Shirai's（白井貴子）"Someday" and after listening to it, if the melody does sound familiar to you, then you must also be a Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）fan. This is the cover of Sano's famous song that I covered when I posted the article for his May 1982album of the same name all the way back in April 2015. Shirai's cover came out as her 4th single in August of that year with it being included in her 2nd album, "I LOVE Love" which was released later in October.
Back in the Sano article for the album, I noted that his "Someday" had that feeling of an American rock anthem. Shirai's version sounds somewhat softer even with the punchy percussion and there's a bit more of a breezy kayo lilt in there. Both versions are great.
Again, many congratulations to the year 1982. The Noritake dish set is on it way.🍽
Just when she sings "...outside the window..." in her languid voice, the atmosphere suddenly shifts, and it's at that point when the world according to Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）unmistakably opens up. "Shuumatsu no Highway" is representative of the "Subterranean no Futari Botchi"（サブタレニアン二人ぼっち）honeymoon period between the singer and Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）due to the comfortably swinging melodies they contributed. The city scenes that she was looking for are always seemingly lonely and precious even now.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Well, let's see here. I put down the instructions in the AI art generator for a City Pop highway in Tokyo and the above is the result. Not too bad but maybe next time I'll also request a driver's-eye view instead of the sky one.
Now the reason that I opted once more to go to the art generator was this song. "Shuumatsu no Highway" (Weekend Highway) is a track on Nanako Sato's（佐藤奈々子）Christmas Day 1977 2nd album"Sweet Swingin'" and it fits the bill in terms of what I envisaged to be a 1970s City Pop tune. There is that lovely keyboard, the shimmering strings and the bluesy saxophone (Sato even calls out for that last instrument in the song). As well, there is a guitar in there that made me wonder if the player ended up helping out on the "Law & Order" theme song.😀
Written and composed by Sato with Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）also co-composing, the singer relates her story about how much she loves a ride on the highway at night. Oh, to be on one of those City Pop drives in a Japanese metropolis. Perhaps I should have asked for a night scene in the AI generator if I had listened and read her lyrics a bit more closely.
I heard about this big collaboration among these older singing veterans last year and then of course, they showed up on the Kohaku Utagassen to perform their song. At first, I thought this special group was called the "Jidai Okure no Rock 'n' Roll Band" (An Old-Fashioned Rock 'n' Roll Band) but it was actually their one-and-only single that got the name. For all of us, the group is the quintet of Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）, Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）, Masanori Sera（世良公則）, Char and Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）.
According to J-Wiki, Southern All Stars'（サザンオールスターズ）Kuwata had been looking at the state of the world last year with COVID-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and natural disasters inflicting themselves in various countries. He decided to give his old buddy, rock singer Sera, a call and they decided to make a song that would be released as a digital single for charity. They then gathered three other singer-musicians around their age of 66: 70s aidoruNoguchi, singer-songwriter Sano and guitarist Char, and once Kuwata got everything written out, they recorded "Jidai Okure no Rock 'n' Roll Band" for release in May 2022.
To give the proceedings that ol' nostalgic reunion effect, the music video was filmed at a Kanto region high school. Furthermore, joining the five in the video were SAS keyboardist Yuko Hara（原由子）, HOUND DOG's Kohei Otomo（大友康平）on drums, and bassist Hama Okamoto（ハマ・オカモト）. In the actual recording, Makoto Saito（斎藤誠）was helping out on electric guitar and Junichi Soga（曽我淳一）was on electric organ. As for the song itself, it's a gallant and summery rock-and-pop tune which is as comfortable as that once-retired leather jacket being taken out of the deepest corner of the closet as the five sing about getting off one's duff and doing something about the world.
"Jidai Okure no Rock 'n' Roll Band" managed to hit No. 1 on the digital charts with 21,000 downloads in its first week. The single is also available on Kuwata's 4th BEST compilation "Itsumo Dokoka de"（いつも何処かで...Always Somewhere） which was released later in November, also hitting the top of the charts and going Gold. Even before listening to the full version and hearing the hoopla about the song, I definitely got that Traveling Wilburys vibe.
I've already mentioned the fact in the last few days on Twitter, but as I was scrolling down "The Japan Times" online, I found an article titled "Nanako Sato brings back the groove of a bygone era" dated August 22nd, 2022. In it, the singer-songwriter（佐藤奈々子）that I had first discovered in the pages of "Japanese City Pop" related her surprise reunion with a spate of songs that she had recorded live with the rock band the Moonriders（ムーンライダーズ）in a radio station studio back in 1979 via a long-lost CD that was passed onto her via acquaintances. Those songs have now been placed into an album titled "Radio Moon and Roses 1979Hz" which was earlier in August on CD and Spotify. It consists of songs that both Sato and the Moonriders recorded in their respective earlier works; for Sato, her songs came from her 1977 album"Pillow Talk", while for the Moonriders, their tunes originated from the following albums: their 1976 "Hinotama Boy"（火の玉ボーイ...Fireball Boy）, "Istanbul Mambo" from 1977, and "Nouvelles Vague" from 1978.
By the way, "The Japan Times" allows unsubscribed readers to go through an entire article just once unscathed before they stop you from reading a second time so that you can set up an account with them. So, unless you are interested in getting a subscription with the newspaper, get to the article that one time and do a copy-and-paste if you plan to peruse it more than once.
I'll cover about half the album since I don't want to steal all of your spirit of adventure in exploring this fascinating set of eight tracks, although I may decide to check out some of those other songs in future individual articles. Let's begin with the first song "Swimmer"（スイマー）which was originally on the aforementioned "Nouvelles Vague". Written and composed by vocalist Keiichi Suzuki（鈴木慶一）, it's a hit-the-surf-running tune in this version as it takes on the rock side of New Music, and especially with Moonrider Masahiro Takekawa（武川雅寛）going off on his violin, I thought things were pretty progressive rock or progressive pop. If I've read the lyrics correctly, the song is about comparing getting into the love game with trying to swim through turbulent waters.
Nanako Sato is on the lead here as she purrs her own "Coin Laundry"（コインランドリー）which originated from her "Pillow Talk" LP. Sato took care of words and music along with her boyfriend at the time, Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）, also helping out on the melody. With all of the tracks coming from previous albums, I'm interested in hearing them all on those records, but I'm especially intrigued by "Coin Laundry" which may be the sexiest tune about a clothes-washing establishment ever made. I have to check out the original version, but I'm already sold on the song as-is here on "Radio Moon", thanks to the 1970s City Pop "haze" synthesizer effect, the jazziness of it all, and Sato's breathy bedroom vocals (plus Takekawa's violin) which has me thinking this as a Fashion Music piece. Mind you, instead of her draped on a grand piano, she must be lying on top of a Maytag.
"Black Pepper Jealousy"（ブラックペッパー・ジェラシー）is also from Sato's"Pillow Talk" and has Sato and Sano working on this one as well. It's not only got more of a tropical paradise feeling, but it sounds like a number that Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）would have shaken up like some cocktail at a Tiki bar. By the way, Sato's thank yous and introductions are very appealingly distracting.
The final track on "Radio Moon and Roses 1979Hz" is "Jub Up Family" (ジャブ・アップ・ファミリー), a song which got its KKP article all the way back in March 2013, thanks to contributor nikala. Armed with a truly Devo-esque music video and a New Wave spirit that predated the genre by a couple of years, this was one bizarrely fun song to first hear. As performed on "Radio Moon", "Jub Up Family" takes on more of a Gypsy Jazz and Hosono tropical feeling once more as even Sato gets involved in this lyrical fight between a married couple.
By no means is my selection here a representation of my favourite tracks. I think that all of the tracks are great and would like to read some of your comments about the above and the ones that I have yet to talk about. "Radio Moon and Roses 1979Hz" is a wonderful discovery by me and a delightful re-discovery for Sato and presumably the Moonriders themselves. It's always nice to unearth some long-lost treasure.
Not sure how to describe the architecture for this part of Asakusa along Okuyama Omairi Machi. Is it reflective of Taisho Era or early Showa Era? Hard to say...but it looks quite classy at night.
I'm including another track from singer-songwriter Nanako Sato's（佐藤奈々子）1977 debut album"Funny Walkin'" that also has the breezy 70s City Pop of "Subterranean no Futari Botchi"（サブタレニアン二人ぼっち）. This time, though, "Yoru no Isadora" (Isadora of the Night), has much more of an overnight/early morning vibe and Sato's breathy and slightly woozy vocals work as the image of a young tipsy woman stumbling home after a long fun night coalesces in my head.
Written and composed by Sato with Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）also helping out in composition duties, I do wonder if Sano hadn't dived into rock n' roll from the early 1980s whether he would have gone the jazz route. And "Yoru no Isadora" has that jazziness with the added inclusion of the muted trumpet near the end, but it also feels like a New Music tune of that era thanks to the contemporary arrangement. Not surprisingly, it is the final song on Side B of the original LP. It's time to wave nighty-night!
Welcome to another Thursday ROY article to start things off for this broadcasting day.
From the time that I've started this category of Reminiscings of Youth where I talk about some of the non-Japanese pop songs that came into my ears and life, and make that superficial comparison with what was showing up on Oricon or being released as singles in Japan, I've been covering a lot of my favourite 70s and 80s tunes from the United States and the United Kingdom. However, strangely enough, I had yet to do anything about the songs of my youth from my own country of Canada.
Well, one of the finest examples of our Canadian humour came from the beloved show "SCTV" that had its run in those 70s and 80s. In a long-running satirical gag about fulfilling the need to provide Canadian content on the show, the producers and cast came up with "Great White North" (which is why I've often referred to my nation as the Great White North in past articles from time to time), a two-minute vignette featuring a couple of hoseheads, the brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, spouting off on various Canadian concepts. Even surprising the guys who had played the McKenzies, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, the skit became a huge hit on both sides of the US/Canada border, and for a while at least, terms such as the aforementioned "hosehead", "beauty, eh?" and "take off" merged into the pop culture vernacular. Up to my final days in Japan, there were people meeting me for the first time who when discovering where I was from, gave the secondary greeting of "How's it going, eh?" along with "Must be cold up there".
In the interests of providing Canadian content then, I bring you Spoons'"Nova Heart", a May 1982 release. Now, who are the Spoons? Well, the original band formed in 1979 in Burlington, Ontario, just to the west of Toronto and consisted of guitarist/lead vocalist Gordon Deppe, bassist Sandy Horne, keyboardist Brett Wickens and drummer Peter Shepherd, and I found out through their Wikipedia entry that they got the name for the band from all of the members sharing some alphabet soup and then suddenly staring at their spoons (ahhh...the magic of alphabet soup!).
Apparently, Spoons initially reflected their love for prog rock band such as Genesis (in the 1970s) but due to a lack of interest from audiences, they decided to go for something more pop and New Wave, and that's where I first found "Nova Heart". At the time, I'd just fallen for kayo kyoku after the trip to Japan in 1981 along with a suddenly ravenous interest in pop music (especially songs that included those analog synthesizers) in general thanks to music videos. So, the video for "Nova Heart" with its dreamy images (and the dreamy beauty of bassist Horne), the distinctive delivery by vocalist Deppe, and the mesmerizing synthpop arrangement immediately got my attention.
For a fellow who got all into technopop (Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, etc.) thanks to Yellow Magic Orchestra, hearing a local band embracing a somewhat similar sound was manna from heaven for me. "Nova Heart" did moderately well on the RPM charts by coming in at No. 40, but the song itself has lasted in my memories for about 40 years now. The song was also a track on Spoons' 1982 album"Arias & Symphonies".
To finish off, here's some more Canadiana with "Hinterland Who's Who", an animal-based PSA that was playing throughout my childhood on the television in the 1960s and 1970s. You have a good day, eh?
Happy Friday, and for my fellow Torontonians and folks in Peel Region, let's all welcome ourselves to Stage 3 of recovery, although I think that we will all need to straddle that tightrope between enjoying our return of lost freedoms and keeping safe from COVID-19. On the other hand, I'm hoping that somehow Tokyo and the rest of Japan get a handle on another wave of the pandemic that has been washing ashore for the past several days.
On a happier note, I've encountered another YouTube video, this time by Kimi no Station: The Home of City Pop, on which a Japanese talk-variety show covers the international appeal of City Pop that has been grabbing the attention of Japanese media over the past several months. Seeing these fellows voraciously browsing and buying up genre albums and CDs in areas like Shibuya has me reminiscing about the old days when I engaged in my pastime of frequently hitting Tower Records, Tacto, Yamano Music and RecoFAN for any of the good ol' stuff. I probably won't be able to head back to Tokyo any time soon but hopefully, when I do hit my old home, I will be flipping through the discs and LPs once more.
The amusing thing about the above report is how while one of the City Pop browsers holding the Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）LP actually sounds quite calm and collected about his potential purchase, the fellow providing the Japanese voiceover translation comes across as if he were about to experience his first orgasm.😤
In any case, it is a Friday so let's provide the first City Pop song of the day. It's actually been over a couple of years since Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）has made her last appearance as a performer on the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so I'm more than happy to bring her back. This time around, we have "Koi no Ryuusei" from her 3rd album"Pillow Talk" released in October 1978.
Written and composed by Sato and with co-composing help by Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）, "Koi no Ryuusei" (Meteor of Love) is a smoothly-running song of the genre, perfect for that sunset or early evening drive on the main thoroughfares of Tokyo. Sato's kittenish vocals are very enticing over the driving rhythms and the snappy percussion. It's almost as if the singer is beckoning us listeners by curling her fingers inward through her voice. Of course, there has got to be the sax solo.
Now, the title "Koi no Ryuusei" is very similar to the title of another City Pop classic "Koi wa Ryuusei" (恋は流星...Shooting Star of Love） by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）who had introduced it the year before, so if you're searching for either, keep an eye out for those Japanese grammatical particles.
Had another listen to singer-songwriter Motoharu Sano's（佐野元春）classic album "Someday" from 1982 again and got myself re-acquainted with a lot of the tracks. Of course, I already know the title track and the absolutely fun "Sugar Time".
One track from "Someday" that I got to know again was "Vanity Factory". Originally given to the iconic kayo chameleon Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）by Sano for his 15th album"G.S. I LOVE YOU" from December 1980, this rock blaster seems to describe that persona of Julie as the preening and pompous "man of culture" of his time. The lyrics describe the setting of one January Wednesday in the big city as a fellow (executive who may have risen too fast and too high) gets ready to paint the town a gorgeous red. Reading through Sano's lyrics, that's what "Vanity Factory" is about: setting but not substance. "G.S. I LOVE YOU" got as high as No. 23 on Oricon.
Sano provided a cover of "Vanity Factory" in the "Someday" album. His version is a tad mellower but it's still got that quick delivery and the feeling of hustle and bustle in the megalopolis.
Happy Monday! I guess this article will feature one of the more unusual duets that I have ever come across in kayo kyoku. You have one of the Sannin Musume（三人娘）, the three popular songstresses who also included Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）and Chiemi Eri（江利チエミ）from the early postwar period, paired up with a pop/rock balladeer of the 1980s for a jazz number in 2014.
And yet, this is what happened. Izumi Yukimura and Motoharu Sano（雪村いづみ＆佐野元春）collaborated to make a single together titled "Tokyo Chic" in February of that year. I've been quite impressed with Sano, who composed and wrote this song, since he's gone beyond my initial images of him as that jeans-and-T-shirt type of guy on the same lines of The Boss and The Piano Man from the late 70s and early 80s. Even before his official debut as a singer, he helped with Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）back during the 1970s through some City Popand then for this decade, he came up with a wonderful tribute to Big Band/Swing jazz.
However I have to admit that Yukimura at the age of 76 back when this was recorded has definitely got the lead role here. I'm not sure if this is so much a duet as it is Sano trying to keep up with his partner. In any case, the duo has come up with a cheer-up song to get folks out of the blues and into painting the town red through one of the largest cities on the planet Earth. Plenty to see and do in Tokyo, to be sure. Just bring lots of yen!
Quite the interesting title here. "Subterranean no Futari Botchi" (Just A Subterranean Couple) is the first track on Nanako Sato's（佐藤奈々子）debut album"Funny Walkin'" from June 1977. Seeing her name and picture in "Japanese City Pop" for the first time, I had never heard of this singer-songwriter so I was surprised to see that she was represented on YouTube.
Frankly the first time I listened to "Subterranean no Futari Botchi", I was a little unsure of Sato's singing especially in the first number of seconds but after giving it a second try and then a third, things settled down pretty nicely. But among tries, I began the Sato file with her "Doyou no Yoru kara Nichiyou no Asa e"（土曜の夜から日曜の朝へ）instead which was also a track on "Funny Walkin'".
As I mentioned in that first article for Sato, she had that fateful encounter with singer-songwriter Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）which got her behind the mike. And "Subterranean no Futari Botchi" is one of their collaborations with Sano helping out in the melody while Sato took care of both words and music. For those Sano fans, this song may sound somewhat atypical since it comes across as a sunny70s City Popnumber instead of a jeans-and-T-shirt rock song but I can't deny the appeal of a percolating Fender Rhodes.
"Subterranean no Futari Botchi" has Sato singing about a couple just knocking about one Saturday night, footloose and fancy-free...akin to a pair of Coney Island lovers as is mentioned in the lyrics. The hint is also made that perhaps the two are living life somewhat on the edge as Sato even coos that they may be hitchhiking on the road. That brings my paragraph to this reference that shows up in the lyrics as 「サム・トリッピング」. At first, I had assumed it was about some famous person named Sam Tripping (singer? novelist?) but actually, the singer was referring to a 1972 movie titled "Thumb Tripping". The Wikipedia article gives one sentence for the plot: Adventurous hitchhikers decide to accept every ride they are offered and end up with more than they bargained for.
Returning to that interesting title...I gather that the subterranean part might be talking about the couple going underground, doing their own thing without any one from their respective families and friends being the wiser. But unlike the ominous note that "Thumb Tripping" strikes, it looks like the couple will continue their daring escapade up to the morning...and then get back to their ordinary lives according to that last lyric.
Ultimately what I got from "Subterranean no Futari Botchi" is a young man and woman playing out that American fantasy of painting the town red deep into the night, and I think that's what City Pop was all about: Japanese pop music to transport listeners across the Pacific for a bit of the exotic good life.
I came across rocker Motoharu Sano's（佐野元春）March 1980 debut single, "Angelina", a few nights ago. And right from the get-go, it sounds just like the image that I've had for the singer-songwriter. "Angelina" has that old-style rock n' roll with the guitar and the saxes.
There was something downright Early Springsteenian about it, and the image that coalesced in my brain was of teenage rebel-without-a-cause Rocko rumbling down the highway on his motorcycle while dreaming of his darling Angelina the ballerina. Rocko probably stood on a hill overlooking the great big city, smoking away a box of cigarettes and hoping to see the lass. Considering how Japanese pop culture back in those days included a whole bunch of rockabilly wannabes twisting away in Yoyogi Park, perhaps Sano's debut hit a certain chord.
However, there was nothing mentioned in J-Wiki about it hitting the Oricon charts. "Angelina" was also a track on his debut album which came out in April of that year, "Back to the Street". Apparently, that release also didn't chart but no problems. Sano would someday get his fame in the next few years. And this is pure speculation from me, but I wonder if Sano ended up inspiring future artists such as Ayumi Nakamura（中村あゆみ）, Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）and Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）.
