NSP -- Mizu to Taiyou（水と太陽）

 

I've already got a number of NSP articles up already but perhaps I should have already started a running gag based on the fact that the band members never really came up with an explanation for what NSP actually stood for. For today's posting, I'll just say that it stands for No Socks, Please.👣

Moving forward, this NSP song hails from their April 1985 16th album "Mizu to Taiyou" (Water and Sun), and sure enough, it happens to be the title track. Written and composed by the late NSP vocalist Shigeru Amano（天野滋）, it's quite the wistful song and with this one at least, I get some Bread & Butter（ブレッド＆バッター）in Amano's singing and even Off-Course's（オフコース）1980s arrangements in the execution. I especially like the addition of the synthesizer in the intro and outro. I can say that it's quite the 80s tune.

NSP -- Shiosai no Hotel（潮騒のホテル）

 

Kobe Portopia Hotel in Osaka Bay is a place that I first saw when I was on the Toronto Japanese Language School graduation trip in the summer of 1981. Though we never stayed there back then, I did wonder what it would be like to stay in first-class accommodations like that. Well, I just had to wait nine more years when I and hundreds of other JET Programme teachers got to stay there during a Renewers' Conference. As it was, it was a pleasant three-night stay although I struggle to remember much of my time at the conference.

Y'know...it may not be too difficult to come up with another Author's Pick in the near future with the theme of hotel-based kayo kyoku. It wasn't too long ago when I posted BORO's "Negresco Hotel"（ネグレスコ・ホテル）based on the real-life place in France.

Maybe the hotel in "Shiosai no Hotel" (Hotel of the Sound of Waves) is more existential than literal. NSP's September 1981 21st single came at a time when autumn was seen as the season of the death of romance. Through vocalist Shigeru Amano's（天野滋）lyrics, the hotel is a whole lot emptier and devoid of the fun and games of men and women...which might explain hearing the sound of those waves a whole lot better. Amano was also responsible for the melody which Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）arranged, and at first, I was content to categorize "Shiosai no Hotel" as a rock-tinged New Music tune but that underlying groove gradually infiltrated my ears, and so the City Pop label got added.

NSP -- Bubble J ni Sasagu（バブルJに捧ぐ）

 

In 2010, I heard that the world's only museum devoted to John Lennon, located in Saitama Super Arena, was going to close down very soon after a decade. Not being a particularly huge fan of the former Beatle, I was still motivated to head over to the museum simply because I was curious about what I could find there and for the fact that I hadn't been to Saitama Prefecture all that much in the many years I was living in the Kanto area.

So, one morning when I had the day off, I took the appropriate subways over to Saitama City and took a look inside John Lennon Museum. What I found was basically a personal shrine to the singer-songwriter on a huge scale including the above collage of photos. It was all done with great respect and affection and there was nothing cheesy such as a John Lennon restaurant featuring something like Lennonburgers or Ono shakes. I was left wondering how Yoko Ono decided to have the museum established in Saitama since the Lennon family did have a love for the resort area of Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture, but I guess logistics were a major factor.

While I didn't exactly smack my head in frustration over the discovery that I had missed out on ten years of John Lennon memorabilia, I was still glad that I finally got to see what a Beatles' fan would enjoy in their room.

The band NSP had created their own tribute to Lennon within their May 1983 14th album "Shun"（瞬...A Moment） via the track "Bubble J ni Sasagu" (A Tribute to Bubble J). Written by band members Shigeru Amano（天野滋）and Taisuke Sawachika（澤近泰輔）, it doesn't sound anything like something that Lennon would have composed himself; it's a very personal and elegiac ballad toward Lennon, and the band has noted about their hero's desire for peace and freedom in the lyrics while also mentioning in passing the events of December 8th 1980 in front of the Dakota apartments. As for the bubble in the title, I can only guess that it could be referring to Lennon's spirit rising off into the distance like a soap bubble.

As a slight PS, I've given Sawachika's name out before since he was also the composer for Riho Makise's（牧瀬里穂）"Kokoro ga Nemuru Umi"（心が眠る海 ～Heart in blue～）which I wrote about last week.

NSP -- Go-chome Ni-banchi（五丁目二番地）

 

As people who have lived in or have known about Japan for a while already know, the address system there is something to behold. Usually here in Canada and the United States, if someone invites me to their home for dinner, I will get a street name and a preceding number. If it's a main street, then all I need is the nearest major intersection and perhaps a map for reassurance and I'm good to go. Even if it's a side street, maybe some general directions and a map for reassurance is all I need. 

However, when I've had to go to a friend's or a student's apartment for the first time in Japan, it's been the custom for that friend or student to meet me at their nearest train or subway station and then guide me over. Without the guidance, a map (homemade or otherwise) is absolutely essential because of the address system. It goes by descending order of area unit. For example, if I wanted to go to a friend's apartment whose address is Shinjuku 1-2-3, I would need to head into Shinjuku's 1st district before searching for the 2nd block there and then finally the 3rd building...theoretically. My old address was Fukuei 3-15-17 so the 3rd district of Fukuei, the 15th block in there and the 17th building within that block. But what determines the designation of any of those numbers?! Map please!

Anyways all that preamble ramble was there to introduce a song by NSP, a group that I haven't mentioned in quite a long time. "Go-chome Ni-banchi" (5-2...5th District 2nd Block) is a track on the band's 7th album "Tasogare ni Se wo Mukete"（黄昏に背を向けて...Turning Your Back on the Sunset） from November 1977. Written and composed by vocalist Shigeru Amano（天野滋）, that titular neighbourhood was apparently the scene of some really dramatic and romantic development.

Like a number of folk groups and singers in the 1970s, there was that leap into somewhat more urban contemporary music such as AOR and City Pop for NSP. But I hadn't known that Amano and his group leapt quite that early. When I first listened to "Go-chome Ni-banchi", I had assumed that this was a tune from their early 1980s period but actually it was quite early on in 1977. It is quite groovy with the Santana-esque guitar work and the keyboards, and I can only imagine the plot happening in some downtown neighbourhood not too far away from the rising skyscrapers of Shinjuku. I just hope that the two lovers involved here were able to find each other in the neighbourhood.

NSP -- Blue kara Nigerarenai Asa（ブルーから逃げられない朝）

 

Before I met up with KKP contributor Larry on Thursday, I'd been walking around downtown for the first time in a few years, including alongside Lake Ontario as you can see above. It was good exercise that I needed but boy, were my legs sore yesterday!😖

Well, how would I describe that photo? New Saturday Pier? Nice Serene Port?

Ah, yes. This is indeed an NSP article today to start this first Saturday in July. As I mentioned back in their first article for "Kyonen no Natsu"（去年の夏）, the band led by the late Shigeru Amano（天野滋）had a running gag with the letters for their name after they had decided to ditch the inaugural moniker of New Sadistic Pink in the early 1970s when he and the other members, Takayuki Nakamura（中村貴之）and Kazuto Hiraga（平賀和人）opted for the folk route instead of rock. They wanted the fans to come up with words to satisfy those letters.

Well, if I were to judge one of their later songs, I could say that NSP stood for Not Satisfying Period. Not that "Blue kara Nigerarenai Asa" (The Morning that I Couldn't Shoo Away the Blues) is a bad song by any means. In fact, it is a truly beautifully arranged dreamy number created by vocalist Amano, but his lyrics send the message about a man who is most likely suffering from depression as he schlumps his way into the corporate grinder as he has every day.

For "Kyonen no Natsu", I likened NSP to another more famous folk band that transitioned to a more pop and AOR sound, Off-Course（オフコース）. Well, in the case of "Blue kara Nigerarenai Asa", the feeling engendered here makes me think much more of AOR-playing Bread & Butter（ブレッド＆バッター）, another group which also took a light and mellow turn away from their folk roots, right down to that Perrier-friendly keyboard riff which was part and parcel of the genre at that time. And speaking of that time, the song led off the group's June 1982 13th album "Meguriai wa Subete wo Koete"（めぐり逢いはすべてを越えて...A Chance Encounter Goes Beyond Anything）. The cover of that album (which peaked at No. 63 on Oricon) also seems to fit the mood of that lead track.

NSP -- Yuugure Toki wa Sabishisou（夕暮れ時はさびしそう）

The above photo shows the shore along Ito on the Izu Peninsula when my anime buddy and I went there back in 2014, and it seems to be the ideal thumbnail for this particular song. Incidentally, my friend is probably enjoying some fine hot waters in an onsen up in the northern part of Japan right now during his annual pilgrimage to the country.

Once again, I bring you glad tidings via the folk trio NSP. This time, the tune is their 4th single "Yuugure Toki wa Sabishisou" (Seems Lonely at Twilight) from July 1974. Because this was released in summer and close to festival season, images of young lovers in their yukata walking around the town would start percolating in folks' minds. However, the point of "Yuugure Toki wa Sabishishou" is that one poor fellow walking along the pier in the hopes that he will somehow meet up with the girl that he has been sweet on for some time. Shigeru Amano（天野滋）, vocalist and the one behind words and music, sounds wanting and forlorn as his character may slowly be despairing that his supposed one true love will never know how much he feels about her. Yeah, a lot of us have been there.

"Yuugure Toki wa Sabishisou" was NSP's biggest hit just missing out on the Top 10 of Oricon by peaking at No. 11.

NSP -- Kyonen no Natsu （去年の夏）

The above photo is of a Coco's restaurant while we were on the way to Kamakura. One of the things I realized about my home for 17 years is that there is a plethora of family restaurants...or famiresu in the Japanese vernacular. Of course, the United States and Canada have their own such places such as Denny's and IHOP but I thought there were more brands of them in Japan. Coco's, Skylark, Denny's, Gust, etc...they were pretty much everywhere, including a Skylark in my own neighbourhood of Minami-Gyotoku.

In fact, in the early years of my stay there when I was much more gastronomically receptive (re: a glutton), I often went to Skylark for that breakfast buffet on a weekly basis before heading off to the school. And boy, the staff didn't skimp and it wasn't exactly typical breakfast fare, either. There was pasta, hamburgers, deep-fried chicken, salad, soup, etc. The average Japanese salaryman must have really needed his protein! I patronized my Skylark so much that the manager started recognizing me and greeted me with "Ohaiyo gozaimasu! Itsumo osewaninatteorimasu"（お早うございます！いつもお世話になっております...Good morning! Thank you very much for your continued patronage）. I was flattered and mortified at the same time since the other bleary-eyed customers could see me for the hog I was. I did indeed see the tables more as troughs, though. Still, I sometimes miss my famiresu. They were a good place to eat and hang out with friends. In terms of the closest analog here in Toronto, the shopping mall food court would be the thing.

Now, for the matter at hand. In my last article, I wrote about that mystery song by 70s aidoru legend Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, "Tokyo no Sora no Shita Anata wa"（東京の空の下あなたは）which was written and composed by Shigeru Amano（天野滋）of the folk-pop group NSP. Well, I had heard of the name before and since a number of YouTube videos featuring them popped up beside the Momoe video on YouTube, I decided to try them out.

Well, Land O'Goshen (yup, I still like to use the archaic exclamations from time to time)! I heard this one song above and one part of the song suddenly started to ring memory bells in my head. And so I realized that this song "Kyonen no Natsu" (Last Summer) had been featured in an episode of "Sounds of Japan" on CHIN-FM. However, I should say part of the song. One small thing that peeved me about the radio broadcast was that it didn't have an official ending theme or music to finish off the show, instead opting for a "sacrificial" tune that sounded perfectly interesting but was merely used to help the DJ finish things off before abruptly fading out. I found out last night that "Kyonen no Natsu" was one of those songs without me knowing who performed it or what the title was.

Now that I've heard it in its entirety for the first time since I heard its excerpt about 30 years ago, I'm now quite intrigued about NSP. "Kyonen no Natsu" was also written and composed by Amano and it's a sad introspective ballad about reminiscing about that lost love from a year back while walking along the seashore. I'm not sure who was handling the vocals for this particular song since apparently all three members of the group had their turn behind the mike but I was quite entranced by the haunting delivery and the overall arrangement, especially with the fairly dramatic intro involving the drums, the strings and the piano.

NSP consisted of Amano on guitar, Takayuki Nakamura（中村貴之）on guitar and Kazuto Hiraga（平賀和人）on bass. All of them were born and raised in Iwate Prefecture and while in high school in 1972, the three of them first met while being active in other bands. Deciding to create their own unit, they initially went the rock route and came up with the name New Sadistic Pink. However, since they debuted in 1973 with a folk song, they decided that that particular name was a bit odd and just shrunk it to the more generic NSP. Years later going into the 1980s, the guys decided to have some fun over their initials with the fans and invited them to come up with new variations on the name such as Non Stop Progression and Nasa Shopping Plaza. Personally, Natto Sukiyaki Piiman would have been my choice but that's just me.

"Kyonen no Natsu" was a track on their June 1982 album "Meguriai wa Subete wo Koete"（めぐり逢いはすべてを越えて...Completely Beyond The Encounter）. Considering the success of another folk-pop group, Off-Course（オフコース）, through those same decades, I was rather surprised that I hadn't heard of NSP in all this time, at least not officially. If I can hear some more songs by Amano and company, I think I can do more comparison between NSP and Kazumasa Oda's（小田和正）band.

NSP called it quits in 1987 with the three of them going their separate ways and providing songs for other singers and bands, although Amano continued to release solo material. However, all three got back together in 2002 during which they held their first comeback concert at Nippon Seinenkan in Shinjuku, Tokyo. According to J-Wiki, the tickets sold out within an hour. In February 2005, NSP even released their first single in 19 years. Tragically, though in July of that same year, Amano would pass away at the age of 52 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Tokyo no Sora no Shita Anata wa （東京の空の下あなたは）

As I've often said here, one of the reasons that I've enjoyed adding onto the blog for so long now is that I've been able to encounter some rare gems among all the kayo kyoku. Once again, it's all about the iceberg analogy. However this time, it has to do with a rare tune but by a well-established singer.

There has been that comparison between the quintessential 70s aidoru Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）and 80s aidoru Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. I've mentioned before that both singers became known as these teenage stars with a certain darkness and talent that came out in their respective discographies. And as Nakamori gradually turned into a pop superstar, the tone of her Oricon-friendly singles diverged from her more eclectic albums starting from the mid-1980s.

Perhaps Yamaguchi had a similar thing going in the latter half of her decade although to a smaller extent. One of my first entries about her involved her 1979 album "L.A. Blue" which fascinated me since a number of her tracks there had her exploring some American-style AOR and perhaps even City Pop. Until that point, I had always known her for those Oricon chart-toppers which were solidly within that kayo kyoku sphere.

Now I find out that this wasn't her first foray into recording outside of Japan. In 1977, she had also gone overseas to London to record her 12th album "Golden Flight". Although the album has one of her landmark songs, "Imitation Gold", I don't know how the rest of the songs sound...were they more into the New Music vein? One thing about the tracks on that album is that a majority of them are titled in full-cap romaji. Would be interesting to find out. For a singer who purportedly said that she only continued her career simply to provide for her family and retired as soon as she got married, I think Momoe tried to spread her wings out a bit, professionally speaking.

Even regarding that special album, there was a special song that had been recorded but ultimately didn't get placed onto "Golden Flight". Titled "Tokyo no Sora no Shita Anata wa" (You, Under the Tokyo Sky), it was never even made into a single or even a B-side of one, although it was performed by Momoe a number of times at her concerts. In fact, it finally saw the light of day in 2003 as the only song on the 24th disc of the 24 discs of "MOMOE PREMIUM", that huge CD-BOX set...26 years after the fact.

My question is "Why the heck did you keep it under wraps for so long?!" It's a wonderful song to me. Starting out with a wacka-wacka electric guitar, "Tokyo no Sora no Shita Anata wa" rolls out to a pretty propulsive Latin beat to accompany those familiar Momoe vocals. The song probably wouldn't belong on "L.A. Blue" but it's certainly not the usual stuff by her that I have been accustomed to. I'd say that the arrangement was more along the lines of another singer who was up and coming at the time, Junko Yagami（八神純子）. Still, Yamaguchi made this her own tune. It's short but oh-so-sweet. And if I had the funds, I would get "MOMOE PREMIUM" just to get this song; I will have to hope for that bonus or lottery win. Perhaps I can still aim for "Golden Flight" and "L.A. Blue".

The creator of the song was Shigeru Amano（天野滋）who was a member of the folk group NSP. Now that is a group I'm going to have to cover shortly.