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 Motoyoshi Iwasaki & WINDY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Motoyoshi Iwasaki & WINDY. Show all posts
Well, I was trying for something more Hiroshi Nagai（永井博）but it didn't quite deliver. Plus, I was also hoping for a more comfortable road rather than a major highway along the coastline.
However, the lovely video here has plenty of Nagai's work onscreen. And it's adorning the song "Kaigan Doori Monogatari"(Seaside Road Story) by Motoyoshi Iwasaki（岩崎元是）& WINDY. With Iwasaki handling words and music and then Akira Inoue（井上艦）arranging everything (as well as playing the synthesizer and other keyboards), it's some nice summery beach pop with a hint of 50s and 60s. It is the type of tune to hear on the car stereo while driving along the sea on a Sunday afternoon.
The song hails from WINDY's 2nd and final album to date, "From South Avenue", which was released in May 1987. And along with Inoue participating in the recording session, some other famous session musicians lent their talents to the album including guitarist Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）, saxophonist Hidefumi Toki（土岐英史）and singer Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ）as part of the chorus.
As is the case with Nobuo Ariga's（有賀啓雄）"Ameiro no Boku to Kimi"（雨色の僕と君）, "PARKING" is a romantic rainy song that has inherited something from "Ame no Wednesday"（雨のウェンズデイ）. In addition, Iwasaki's（岩崎元是）vocals are truly cool and refreshing and in terms of the song's composition, it has an ambiance reminiscent of Air Supply, so it has a fairly pleasant aspect that takes after the Niagara sound. The strings and chorus are perfect and it's got a pretty high sense of polish, so it ought to get another round of appraisal.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
To start off this week's round of urban contemporary music on KKP, I've put up a photo of Mr. Calico driving Kayo Grace in a Toyota Cressida during a rainy afternoon, although I was aiming to have them actually parked in a lot somewhere...the photo doesn't make that really clear. I've only been in a Cressida once and that was back in 1981 when my host father was driving her daughter and me to their home in Nara.
Back in 2018, I posted a couple of songs by the band Motoyoshi Iwasaki（岩崎元是）& WINDY, another wonderfully summery addition to my Japanese pop-addled mind which already has TUBE, Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）and Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）on board. As I also mentioned there, Iwasaki & WINDY only hung out together for a couple of years in the late 1980s but they enjoyed a pleasant summer of sorts.
Their first single was "Natsu no Tsubasa" (Wings of Summer) which was written and composed by Iwasaki with the band arranging everything. Coming out in May 1986, it's as summery as the Shonan beach and I think with the twanginess and the harmonies coming out of the speakers, I get some Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）but at the same time, Iwasaki also reminds me of yet another summer-singing fellow, the late Kazuhito Murata（村田和人）. By the way, that is one lovely video above.
The reason that I've come to pick WINDY up once again is that the B-side to "Natsu no Tsubasa", "PARKING", is going to be next week's entry on Yutaka Kimura Speaks (which is also why I put up that photo with Mr. Calico and Kayo Grace). The entire band worked on this one, too, and it's a slightly more relaxing Resort Pop or even City Pop medium-tempo tune, and as Kimura will also explain, there seems to be some inspiration from Ohtaki's famous "Ame no Wednesday"（雨のウェンズデイ）.
Ah...yes. Sarek and Amanda Grayson of Vulcan. The Doctor and River Song. The Scarlet Witch and the Vision. I gather that mixed marriages can have their unique issues but also some distinct benefits.
Yesterday, commenter Martin let me know on the article for Miki Matsubara's（松原みき）"Ganmo Doki!"（ガンモ・ドキッ!）and "Hyokopon Kankei"（ヒョコポン関係）, the opening and ending themes for the 1984 anime "Gu-Gu Ganmo"（Gu-Guガンモ）, that he knew of another similarly-premised anime adaptation of the manga "Mojacko"（モジャ公...Duke Moja） which had its run between 1995 and 1997. Instead of chicken-type aliens, though, "Mojacko" simply has alien aliens turning a student's life upside-down.
Martin has also stated his love for the first of the four ending themes that were used during the anime's run. And I have to admit that I like it, too. "Koibito ga Uchuujin nara" (If My Lover Were An Alien) is performed by sweet-voiced seiyuu Junko Iwao（岩男潤子）who plays Miki on "Mojacko", the designated target of affections by at least one of the main characters. With lyrics by Yumi Yoshimoto（吉本由美）and music by Motoyoshi Iwasaki（岩崎元是）, Iwao, perhaps in character as Miki, wonders what it would be like dating an alien like Moja. I gather that it wouldn't be like dating Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan, although chaos is possible with The Doctor.
However my affinity for "Koibito ga Uchuujin nara" lies in the fact that there is something quite EPO-tastic about the arrangement. It's got that amai doo-wop 50s sound that EPO and her good buddy Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）had been known for in their early works in the late 70s and early 80s. Heck, even the opening that sounds like an old-fashioned radio identification call is right out of the EPO and Mariya playbooks. And then the full version tops that up with some jingly-jangly Phil Spector Wall of Sound piano (or Eiichi Ohtaki, if you like) in the bridge.
I was looking up Iwao's file on J-Wiki and I found out that she has also played the mother of key character Rikka Takanashi on "Chūnibyō demo Koi ga Shitai!"（中二病でも恋がしたい!...Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions） in 2012. Indeed, I am feeling even older now.
On the latest episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）before it went on official summer hiatus for a month, the show began with a medley of summer kayo favourites. One such song was a Takashi Hosokawa（細川たかし） tune that I hadn't heard in a very long time and hasn't been included on the blog until now.
Probably the reason that it was placed into the summer medley was the generous inclusion of beer into the lyrics, and if I'm not mistaken, Hosokawa's 38th single from May 1991, the feel-good "Ouenka, Ikimasu" (I'm Going with the Fight Song) was used for a beer commercial, though I have yet to find it. It's an interesting song to be sure because though the veteran enka singer uses some of those enka vocal techniques, the melody by Motoyoshi Iwasaki（岩崎元是）is much more along the lines of the late pop troubadour Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）and sure enough, I've found out through Iwasaki's J-Wiki file that he was greatly inspired by Ohtaki. Actually, the Hokkaido singer-songwriter already has representation on KKP via his own City Pop stuff from the mid-1980s.
The lyrics of enjoying the company of good buddies and beer were created by veteran Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里）. Frankly, I was surprised that "Ouenka, Ikimasu" hadn't been given its own J-Wiki article since the song seems to have created a lot of good vibes for that year including folks raising their mugs of suds. At this point, I'm not sure how well the song did on Oricon but it must have been done well enough to earn Hosokawa his invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen in 1991 and 2014 to perform this particular tune.
I can imagine that the beer gardens in Tokyo are packed right now with some very thirsty drinkers, especially with the usual heat and humidity that beats down on residents in a typical Japanese summer. Drink hearty, my friends!🍻
I almost neglected to mention that this is a follow-up to Noelle's original article on the song.
Yes, indeed we are in April and once again, I have an appropriate song. Strangely enough, it just happens to be the same song that I used to commemorate the arrival of the fourth month back in 2018.
For you Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）fans, if "April" sounds familiar, it is because that the J-AOR crooner had first recorded it as a track on his 6th album from March 1986"Realistic". It was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Yasuhiro Kido（木戸やすひろ）with a slightly doo-wop arrangement by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）.
However, Kido covered his own composition for his September 2017 album"KID 65 ~ Kiseki no Kakera"（奇跡のかけら...Pieces of a Miracle） which seems to be a sequel to his one other album "KID" which was released all the way back in 1978. Singer-songwriter and guitarist Motoyoshi Iwasaki（岩崎元是）arranged Kido's cover as a mixture of happy pop and some 1960s Phil Spector. As for those Akimoto lyrics, I hadn't written about them in the original Inagaki article but here's another kayo reflection of a cheery melody paired with some rather sad words. Apparently, a fellow is reminiscing about a woman that he loved (and perhaps still holds a torch for) but when the topic of marriage was broached, she left him so quickly that the air most likely crackled. Didn't want to be tied down with that institution, she said. Ouch! I'm just hoping that the guy is as wistful and happy as that Kido melody.
Back to the 9/10ths of the iceberg as I have found another pop group that I hadn't known about until sometime in the last few months.
According to J-Wiki, Motoyoshi Iwasaki & WINDY（岩崎元是&WINDY）was a band that had a brief time in the sun in 1986~1987. Led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Iwasaki, WINDY consisted of keyboardist Naohiro Inaba（稲葉直弘）, drummer Kazunori Seki（関和則）and bassist Yoshihito Muranaka（村中義仁）. Altogether, two original albums and four singles came from the group, with a 2012 box set being released titled "The all songs of WINDY".
(26:57)
"Kimi ga Nokoshita Natsu" (The Summer You Left Behind) is the B-side for Iwasaki & WINDY's 3rd single"Maru de Tenshi no You ni"（まるで天使のように...Just Like An Angel） which came out in April 1987. Although I saw an entry for the band in the book "Japanese City Pop", I think I would place this sunny song as simply a nice slice of summery pop, not really in the City Pop or AOR genres. Composed by Iwasaki and written by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）, this was how I was introduced to the band's works and if I'm not mistaken, I think I heard it on Van Paugam's radio (glad that it and New J-Channel's radio are both back up and running). I guess I can say that it's a skippier type of Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）...not so much by the beach but perhaps on a sun-dappled town road.
I actually found this one by Iwasaki & WINDY earlier tonight and liked it so much that I decided to feature it here as well. "Kaze no Station" (Windy Station) is a track on the band's first album"Heart Wash" from August 1986, and this track is quite a bit more dramatic with some snap to Seki's drumming and the arrangements taking things deeper into the city with added sax appeal. I think Iwasaki sounds rather similar to Kiyotaka Sugiyama（杉山清貴）and Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）but surrounded by a Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）love song. "Music Avenue" put it best when kaz-shin remarked that this would have made for a good number to put into a Japanese TV drama during the 1980s.
In the first month or so after I get an enka/kayokyoku singer's yearly compilation album, I'd typically just listen to the handful of songs that made me want to purchase the CD, then leave the rest for later discovery on days where I feel rather adventurous or just plain bored or both. Yesterday was one of those days. I got pretty bored listening to the same songs ad nauseam (Kiyoshi Maekawa, George Yamamoto, Haruo Minami, etc.), then I realised that I hadn't touched my Takashi Hosokawa (細川たかし) playlist in a while, and there were still a number of tracks out of the 16 from his 2015 compilation album I had yet to sample.
First one I picked was "Sado no Koi Uta" (佐渡の恋唄), which was decent, but it didn't make me any less bored. Next came "Oenka, Ikimasu", mostly because its title piqued my interest. Now this one finally got my lazy brain to start working again - Friday was a tiring day - since it was a lot faster in pace and more joyful than "Sado no Koi Uta". In terms of the music composed by Motoyoshi Iwasaki (岩崎元是), it seems to lean more to the genre of Pop than enka and, to me, it didn't sound like a song Hosokawa would sing, more specifically at the portions before the chorus. I actually kept envisioning a whole list of other enka singers who'd be a better fit for "Oenka, Ikimasu". However, with all the power-packed, Minyo-backed "Ah ah..." and "Ha...", I'd say Hosokawa made the song his own.
That Noh mask still makes my skin crawl...
While reading (and listening to) the lyrics penned by Shigesato Ito (糸井重里), one line that Hosokawa repeats a total of 7 times in the entire song managed to grab my attention: Nama biru ga aru janai ka?
I think that translates to, "Is there any draught beer?" or, "Would you like some draught beer?" Either way, every time I hear it, I can't help but imagine Hosokawa starring in a Sapporo/Asahi beer commercial, wearing a sparkly suit with a bow tie - he looks weird with a necktie - and offering up a glass of the golden malt to the masses. Doing some research on "Oenka, Ikimasu" allowed me to find out that I wasn't too far off point in thinking that this cheerful tune would fit perfectly in a beer commercial since it did indeed star in one... not Sapporo or Asahi, but Kirin... Close enough!
On to the song's statistics. "Oenka, Ikimasu" was released on 1st May 1991 as Hosokawa's 38th single. The enka singer sang it twice on the Kohaku, in 1991, then only just last year in 2014, which was my first viewing of the year end competition. No wonder I found it so familiar, especially that "Nama biru" bit.
(Unfortunately, the karaoke video with Hosokawa has been taken down but here is another karaoke video.)
Here's the karaoke version with Hosokawa in it. In the later half when he faces the camera with that smile, it looks like he's in a beer commercial.
