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.
KKP readers may be noticing that I've started the usual Friday Urban Contemporary articles a tad early on a Thursday night. Well, one reason is that I'm going to be rather busy tomorrow with other projects so I'm getting a lead on at least a few of them tonight.
Such as this one. Singer Yumi Seino（清野由美）released three albums with the first one being "U・TA・GE" in March 1981. And I guess I'm continuing some of that city City Pop from my last article being a Tokyo-based one; this time, we're heading down to Rio de Janeiro with the track "Rio no Mahoutsukai" (The Wizard of Rio). Written by Ayumi Date（伊達歩）and composed by Latin jazz musician Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）, there is a rumbling samba rhythm in there but the City Pop arrangement is also not standing back either. Plus, Seino's singing with the background chorus reminds me of some of the music from vocal groups such as Circus（サーカス）and Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット).
Whenever I talk about how Japanese City Pop came about, part of my answer usually includes what the Japanese back in the 1970s dreamt of when it came to places they would have loved to travel to. And I mentioned that perhaps they would have enjoyed strolling down 5th Avenue in New York City, walking along Waikiki Beach in Honolulu and bombing down the Ventura Freeway in California in a convertible.
Well, maybe I was getting a little possessive with the Ventura since there are other scenic freeways in the Golden State. One is the Santa Monica Freeway in the Greater Los Angeles Area of which it's only part of the incredibly long transnational route Interstate 10. From what I've read for the video above, the Santa Monica has its own scenic charms as well.
On the Fourth of July last month, I commemorated America's birthday by posting Naoya Matsuoka & Wesing's（松岡直也＆ウィシング）"American Highway" from 1979, a funky disco number that could have had drivers add a few more miles per hour onto their speed on the highways of the United States. A couple of years later, Matsuoka and his band got a bit more specific with their beloved expressways and came up with a song in tribute to the Santa Monica portion of the I-10 through their December 1981 album"Danzon".
Not sure why "Santa Monica Frwy" was given the abbreviated reading in the word "freeway". It just seems like the opposite of Naomi Kawashima（川島なお美）adding that extra vowel to her "SCOOOP!" album. But regardless of that, "Santa Monica Frwy" comes across as a jam session that tones down the disco but enriches the high-life melody by Matsuoka. Everyone's invited to the party including trombonist Shigeharu Mukai（向井滋春）, Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami（村上秀一）on drums and Hidefumi Toki（土岐英史）on saxophone. "American Highway" may have been a welcome road to the nearest disco but this one particular song is the path to the coolest dance party to the largest house in Malibu.
Just one observation but Matsuoka was one busy fellow in 1981. He put out no fewer than four albums that year with "Danzon" being the last one.
Happy 4th of July to those American readers of KKP down south. Hope you are enjoying the beginning of your long weekend. I was thinking of doing another special Holiday ROY article with a USA theme to start Urban Contemporary Friday on the blog, but then I just encountered this sparkler of a song uploaded only today by the YouTube channel Kimi no Station: The Home of City Pop. My apologies to the channel if I seemed a little hasty in suddenly soaring down on this one like a hungry bald eagle but considering today, the song's title and the fact that it got me immediately shimmying in my chair (and likely lessening its lifetime), I just couldn't resist using it for an article. By the way, the image and the video above are of the Ventura Freeway in California, one symbol that has always had me thinking AOR or City Pop.
What I'm talking about is "American Highway" by the late Latin fusion musician Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）and his band Wesing（ウィシング）. It was the B-side to the 1979 12-inch single"Lovin' Mighty Fire" which was given much of its vocal flamethrowing action by the soulful stylings of one Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）. This had me from Note One with the disco strings and boppy beat as it merges us into this freeway of music with bumper-to-bumper party animals and musicians including the Wesing brass and saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）.
Never got onto the Ventura myself but if it's anything like it sounds through "American Highway", then I'm all game for a drive there. If anyone else out there has been on the famed California route, let us know, or if you think this song is more suitable for another one of America's major roads, let us know that, too.
As with Kayo Grace above, I was also eating sushi with a couple of friends at a place that I'd never been to before, Jyugyoya in the Bayview-Leaside neighbourhood. The weather wasn't the greatest since the clouds kept threatening to open up on pedestrians but it was still a nice walk through this quaint area in the city. The food was good, the service was fine and the company was wonderful.
I'd like to start this edition of Urban Contemporary Fridays on KKP with another entry from the "Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）series. First off, the original NTV film "Cosmos Avenue" involves a couple who look to be fairly long into their relationship judging from the nature of their banter, and it looks like they seem to be exchanging stuff over a fairly long distance between their respective homes.
The somewhat banging "Cosmos Avenue" soundtrack which plays during the nearly three-minute vignette is by Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）and is included in the 1986"Heart Cocktail Vol. 1" album of songs. It's elegant and busy at the same time with the string synths flowing over a hammering synth rhythm punctuated by syn-drums. Still for something more organic, there is a piano beating away at its heart.
Well, I guess today being a Sunday, it will be a cocktail-related instrumental day for "Kayo Kyoku Plus". My previous article was Nash Music Library's"Cocktail From Japan" and for this one, we go back to the wistful and sophisticated stylings of Seizo Watase's（わたせせいぞう）"Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）given animated life in the 1980s.
Today's "Heart Cocktail" entry is titled "Knock wo Shinakatta Santa Claus" (The Santa Claus Who Didn't Knock) and it's about a fellow on the borderline between melancholy and pragmatic. He's had one final drink at Jesse's Bar during the Yuletide a week after having a major fight with his girlfriend who hasn't been seen since. The guy heads to his cold apartment (no central heating in Japan), probably even colder without his girlfriend and thinking that's the end of a beautiful relationship before hitting the hay in his clothes. He then has a dream involving a flying car and a Miffy-like rabbit behind the steering wheel (what was in that egg cocktail?!) before waking up and finding his girlfriend puttering away in the kitchen. Cold War resolved.
Of course, it wouldn't be a "Heart Cocktail" episode without the accompanying stylish soundtrack and sure enough, the late musician Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）comes up with the song, also titled "Knock wo Shinakatta Santa Claus". It's a classy slice of mellow Latin jazz that lightens the so-be-it moroseness of the protagonist's story of love lost and surprisingly regained. The song is the penultimate track on "Heart Cocktail Vol. 1" from 1986. I have a feeling that the entire album can be used as dinner music anytime during the year.
Usually the fifth article on Urban Contemporary Fridays is set aside for the weekly Yutaka Kimura Speaks translation, but I did want to put this one in (no worries...Yutaka will still be getting completed tonight) since I actually referred to him earlier today in the MASH article.
Yup, the late Latin jazz musician and arranger Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）was also involved in the anime project for Seizo Watase's（わたせせいぞう）"Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）in the 1980s. In fact, Volume 2 of the soundtrack series for the show is under his purview. Specifically, he brought in the music for this episode in 1987, "2500-nen: Takeru no Ai" (The Year 2500: Takeru's Love). This time, "Heart Cocktail" takes us far into the future for a sci-fi story where love and City Pop still co-exist apparently.
I didn't quite get all of the story but the main character of Takeru lives in a society where emotions are literally non-existent within a person until one becomes old enough to handle them in a more civilized fashion or they're just kept suppressed for a certain period of time. On the eve of his surgery to get those emotions back, he has some hint of something for the pianist in his favourite bar and the pianist appears to oblige him with a date the next day immediately after his surgery. However, he finds out from his buddy that it was all a ruse by the pianist who's been "processed" in what might have been a "cruel-to-be-kind" strategy to get a lock on his newly-recovered emotions as he also gets a Dear John message via future Skype from the lady. Was she a replicant? Did she end up getting dismantled after fulfilling her final mission? Inquiring minds want to know. 😕
As much as I was left a bit confused by what had happened in the vignette, I really did like the accompanying music which also has the same title of "2500-nen: Takeru no Ai". It's got plenty of variety: a classical streak in there for some Fashion Music, the technopop to represent the future, and maybe some of that City Pop sheen. Unfortunately, the recorded version on "Heart Cocktail: Vol. 2" doesn't have the brief vocals that were displayed while the vignette was playing out. All in all, it's a beautifully enigmatic piece by Matsuoka.
Just a couple of days ago on Wednesday, I provided Part 1 of The Works of Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）and there I included one of his brief projects which was the band MASH with their variety of City Pop and AOR.
Well, it was just the one 1981 album for MASH, titled "MASH", so I'm bringing over another track called "Poreus". Composed by Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）, who was the co-keyboardist alongside his Padawan Shimizu, and written by Yumi Kojima（児島由美）, "Poreus" is more on the West Coast rocking AOR side of things with Yumi Murata（村田有美）behind the mike.
To be honest, I had no idea what "Poreus" meant so looking up the Cambridge Dictionary, I found out that it is the Dutch word for "porous". Not sure whether there's anything about liquid being allowed to pass through in the creation of the song, but then again, Matsuoka and Kojima may have just come up with the name out of the air rather than liquid.
As a present from one of my students years ago, I was given a small sheaf of gift certificates worth about 10,000 yen that I could spend at just about every department store that was in existence in the Tokyo and Chiba areas. Well, I decided that I could just walk the ten minutes from my humble abode in Ichikawa to the neighbourhood Daiei store, and it was there that I spend the whole wad on this long black trench coat that I thought would look pretty good over a suit. And it did! I'm also happy to note that this coat that I got well over a decade ago is still hanging in my closet in fine condition. For that matter, the coat doesn't flinch from the usual frigid temperatures in Toronto.
To be honest, I forget which brand my coat represents. Maybe it's a Sanyo coat that seems to be getting the lion's share of praise as this trench coat brand. The company has been around since 1946 and I've got a feeling that it doesn't really have anything directly to do with the more famous Sanyo brand for appliances.
I was remarking to the uploader, Yoshio Takemoto（竹本善雄）, how much I loved the swing jazz intro and overall arrangement of this particular song "Coat ni Sumire wo" (A Violet in the Coat). There's nothing that says a classy night out on the town than some swing jazz, and in this case, singer-songwriter Issei Okamoto（岡本一生）was behind this whole ball of wax with Chinfa Kan（康珍化）handling the lyrics. Instrumentalist Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）took care of the arrangements.
Okamoto has been known for his City Pop material in the late 1970s and early 1980s such as his Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）-reminiscent "Midnight Station Hotel"(1980), but he also had his jazzy stuff right from his 1978 debut single"Moonlight Singing"（ムーンライト・シンギィング）. I guess that I can say that he is Japan's version of Bobby Caldwell? Anyways, "Coat ni Sumire wo" , Okamoto's March 1982 third and final single, was meant as the commercial campaign song for Sanyo Coats to stress the class and timelessness of their products. I certainly wouldn't mind traipsing down Omotesando to a dinner party while wearing my dress coat bought through gift certificates and listening to this one.
The first time that I heard about this group, I couldn't help but be reminded of the old CBS sitcom-turned-dramedy "M*A*S*H" based on the movie which had in turn been based on the 1968 novel by Richard Hooker. I watched the show in its later years when it was far into providing more drama than loony comedy so I had to rely on the nightly reruns on Canadian TV to catch up on the early years.
Browsing through YouTube, I did discover this group MASH and its funky City Pop tune "LOVE". Couldn't have asked for a more genre-specific song for Urban Contemporary Fridays on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" than this one; it's quite the enjoyable romp through the megalopolis. I just had to find out who these guys were.
Well, it wasn't that difficult to find out at least some information about this MASH which had just that one sole album "MASH" from June 1981. According to his profile on J-Wiki, the group was jazz/fusion keyboardist Naoya Matsuoka's（松岡直也）brief project which didn't last too long since the costumes and the sound level were apparently a little too loud for comfort when his group did appear on stage. That was too bad though since it was quite the lineup in MASH with Yumi Murata（村田有美）on vocals, "Ponta" Murakami（村上秀一）on drums, and Matsuoka himself and Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）on keyboards among other famous studio musicians. On the blog "The Listener of Music Media", I also found out that it was Matsuoka behind the melody and Konosuke Fuji（藤公之介）on the lyrics.
I've seen some sites selling the presumably rare "MASH" for somewhere between 5000 and 6000 yen, but Tower Records has some copies at the saner price of 1,430 yen.
Although the usual period during the 24-hour cycle that City Pop evokes is early evening into night, I have encountered some songs that bring up memories of the early morning hours just when the sun is about to peek out. So it is with Asami Kado's（門あさ美）"Kibun wa Mou Menthol" (Feel Like a Menthol Cigarette) which is the lead track on her July 1982 fourth album"Hot Lips".
Written and composed by Kado with arrangement by jazz musician Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）, the story is established even before the first note is played when a woman leaves a hotel in the wee hours but not before she leaves a message for her date from the night before who is probably sleeping it off upstairs. Meanwhile, the front desk clerk is probably rolling his eyes and thinking "Ah yes, it's Saturday, isn't it?".
Well, that last part is my own concoction but please allow me to be a bit snarky before the weekend. In any case, "Kibun wa Mou Menthol" is, I think, all about the hopefully amicable understanding of the one-night stand or maybe the well-established weekly tryst with the lady taking off in the taxi. As she does so, she's appreciating the freshness of the morning air equating it with the cool inhalation of that menthol cigarette. She can now slough off the sordid but fun hijinks of the previous night and look forward to the new day with a feeling of refreshment as the breeze flows in through the rear window.
The melody by Kado is just as light and airy and still has that feeling of being in the city. Keyboards and strings bring out that AM sensation, and in terms of singers, I think of folks like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）and Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）. I would also like to give my compliments to the guitarist for the solo, whether it be Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, Akira Wada（和田アキラ）or Takayuki Hijikata（土方隆行）. "Hot Lips" peaked at No. 10 on the Oricon album charts.
Back in the dog days of summer, I provided a little something in the form of "Touch The New York Pink" by Latin jazz musician Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）from his 1982 album"Fall on the Avenue".
That was the first track. The second track is "A Song on the Wind (Remember Me)", only a slightly mellower song but still possessed by those percolating Latin rhythms and the happy-go-lucky melodies by the various instrumentalists including Matsuoka on piano. Maybe it's a bit more introspective as if the protagonist of the track is musing about some thought in his mind and the music here is representing all of the rollicking ideas.
Happily, the J-Wiki article for "Fall on the Avenue" has provided a list of the musicians involved in each track, and I also see that the album is available at CD Japan. Ahh...decisions, decisions.
Since I got on the New York kick with Terumasa Hino's（日野皓正）"High Tide-Manhattan Ecstasy" for my last article, I've decided to showcase another musical love letter to The Big Apple by another Japanese jazz artist. I'd even bookmarked it earlier.
The reason is that at the time a few weeks ago, I was writing about "Lovin' Mighty Fire" from 1979, a feisty collaboration between Latin jazz musician Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）and R&B queen Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）. Then I discovered this video for the song "Touch The New York Pink" by Matsuoka which came out a few years later in October 1982 as the launching track on his album "Fall on the Avenue".
Indeed that is some love and mighty fire bursting out with the boppy bass followed by some jaunty romantic piano by Matsuoka. The first time I heard "Touch The New York Pink", I got those shivers going up and down my spine, always a good sign in my case as the artist rolled up and down smoothly with his keyboards and the accompanying percussion. There's Hino's adventurous funk n' jazz with "High Tide-Manhattan Ecstasy" and then there is the party atmosphere of Matsuoka's first track on "Fall on the Avenue". Can't dance worth an extinct Canadian penny anymore (if I ever did) but this song can probably effect miracles.
Found this one not in the "Light Mellow ~ Twilight" as you can see above but in the "Breeze" CD.
Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）has been known as a Latin jazz/fusion specialist and also as the composer behind Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）big hit "Meu amor e" in the mid-1980s. Through "Breeze" though, I found out that the first single (his debut album was "Joyful Feet"in 1977) of his to come out was a collaboration between him and singer-songwriter and R&B chanteuse Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）in 1979 called "Lovin' Mighty Fire" as a 12" single.
With Matsuoka behind the music and arrangement, Yoshida handled the lyrics under her pen name of Minnie Shady. The result is a 7-minute-and-change disco groove interlude that had me thinking Chaka Khan. Minaka Khan? In any case, the first time that I heard this, I just had to make sure within the liner notes of "Breeze" that it was indeed only Matsuoka and Yoshida involved without any help from the Chicago-born R&B legend. Indeed, the jazz/fusion specialist and Minnie Shady took care of this, and it's a corker of a tune. The additional funkiness was provided by Matsuoka's band, Wesing（ウィシング）.
I realize that there is still more heat on its way before autumn finally arrives, but I've been enjoying the past few days since they represent the ideal August weather in Toronto. Warm and not too humid days with cool nights. Meanwhile, one of our collaborators on "Kayo Kyoku Plus",Joana, has been having a time of her life in Tokyo despite the torrid heat and humidity there, and my student and his wife are now taking in that vacation in Italy.
Here is something slightly luxurious and comfortable to fit the cooling temperatures right now as I write this at sunset. "Gafieira Night" is a track from Pedro & Capricious'（ペドロ&カプリシャス）1980 album"Oasis"（オアシス）. My last article on this group was done over a year ago and it was from the same release with the softly peppy "My Lover's Eyes". As I mentioned then, I'd had no idea that Pedro & Capricious could also handle the urban contemporary stuff since I had always been used to them as a folk band from the early 1970s.
"Gafieira Night" is a bit different from "My Lover's Eyes" in that it does take things into velvety bossa nova with lots of class. Once again, vocalist Naoko Matsudaira（松平直子）handles things lovingly as images of candlelit dinners on fancy balconies overlooking city backdrops come into view. I tried to look up the songwriters in the JASRAC chart, but alas, no luck on who created this tune (luckily, Daemonskald was able to find the songwriters below!).
I was rather curious about what kind of night a Gafieira night was. Figuring that it was Brazilian in origin, I was proven right when I found out from Wikipedia that Gafieira is a form of samba form-fit for the ballroom apparently. Although "Gafieira Night" doesn't seem to the type of tune that an actual Samba de Gafieira would be performed with, perhaps the characters from the lyrics may partake in it.
This particular small aspect of Japanese pop culture is definitely something that I could put into the quaint category, but I often used to see a lot of women of all ages in Tokyo put up parasols whenever the summer sun came beaming on down. Parasols were frankly to me something that I had once assumed belonged in the history books of the late 1800s and early 1900s...or sported by Abby Sciuto on "NCIS". Well, silly ol' me. Still, watching the ladies holding these frilly and gaily decorated parasols as they walked down the main avenues of the megalopolis, I kinda felt that there was a certain gentility proffered to the streetscape during the hot season. Mind you, my attention was soon diverted by the desperate need to get a can of Calpis Water or Max Coffee down my throat.
Well, allow me to smoothly segue into the late pianist Naoya Matsuoka's（松岡直也）first track from his 1984 album"Natsu no Tabi"（夏の旅...Summer Travel）, the funky yet elegant "Higasa no Kifujin" (Parasol Lady). Some of that keyboard work just seems to describe that parasol-sporting woman taking a walk on the fashionable side. And I think that the song would have been ideal as the theme for a character in a Japanese trendy drama back in those high-flying days of the Japanese Economic Miracle. It's a nice reminder of the summer in these days when things are starting to change for the colder.
Another recent acquisition is Yumi Seino's（清野由美）"Natural Woman" from 1981. I first found out about her through some of her songs that got onto YouTube in the last couple of years, all through her third album "Continental" from 1983. But what finally had me pulling the trigger on my credit card was hearing her lovely cover of Yumi Arai/Hi-Fi Set's（荒井由実・ハイ・ファイ・セット）"Sky Restaurant"（スカイレストラン）which is indeed a track on "Natural Woman". I was about as surprised as anyone else that "Natural Woman" could actually be purchased at CD Japan, and I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I picked it up lickety-split.
The bad news is that Yumi Seino's output on YouTube is almost only represented by her "Continental" tracks, except for "Sky Restaurant", of course. However, I was talking with commenter Daemonskald last night through my recent article "Some Pages to Make You Happy by Commenters", and he mentioned about the site Hip Tank Records with its wealth of information and song excerpts. I had heard about HTR and I've even linked to some of the pages through other articles, and I will be doing the same over here since the site does have "Natural Woman" represented with a few excerpts of the tracks. Of course, I will be writing about the songs that can be listened to in part.
Track No. 1 is "You & I", a cool and slick City Pop piece that has Seino tripping the light fantastic with her voice. The song has all the tropes for the genre: funky synths, soaring strings and sexy sax. Plus there is that overall feeling of a night in Tokyo in 1981. Man, do I miss those early nights in the metropolis during my graduation trip! Shinzo Higurashi（日暮真三）took care of the lyrics while singer-songwriter Yoichi Takizawa（滝沢洋一）provided the great music.
"Summer Hotel"（サマーホテル）is as the title says...a musical trip to a luxury resort inn along the coast with a young lady leaning languidly against the balcony railing while taking in the view. There is some Latin mixed into this one like some lemon zest in a cocktail, and I think I even heard a whiff of Boz Scaggs material. Again, like the city-based "You & I", the resort-based "Summer Hotel" brings some nice sense of nostalgia. Ayumi Date and Naoya Matsuoka（伊達歩・松岡直也）created this track.
The last track I can cover tonight is the last track for "Natural Woman", "Midnight Blue", a little bit of a reggae strut to end the proceedings with Machiko Ryu's（竜真知子）lyrics hinting at a late-night visitor coming to the door. I do like the boss baritone saxophone which starts things off and the seeming salaciousness of the arrangements. We can all thank Akira Inoue（井上鑑）who came up with the melody. Usually my feeling is that the final track of a typical Japanese pop album is showcased by an introspective ballad. Not this time...this is far steamier.
Another happy acquisition in "Natural Woman". With Seino, I get this feeling of a voice reminiscent of Meiko Nakahara（中原めいこ）or Yasuha（泰葉）tackling a range going from City Pop to mellower fare covered by Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）. At this rate, I may just have to get "Continental" and her debut album"U-TA-GE", if only to complete the set and to be able to talk about some of her stuff that's on YouTube.
Thank the heavens for Van Paugam's streaming City Pop radio. I've been able to discover some new stuff on it ever since the radio started up some weeks ago.
One example is this song by jazz pianist and Latin fusion musicianNaoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）. His name has popped up once on this blog since he was behind the creation of one of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）greatest hits "Meu Amor e"（ミ・アモーレ）. He also took care of the arrangement of a 1970s kayo kyoku which has become a nostalgic favourite, "Taiyo ga Kureta Kisetsu"（太陽がくれた季節）by the group Aoi Sankaku Jougi（青い三角定規）.
However, I hadn't heard any of his own music until some nights ago when I discovered his "One Last Farewell" on Van Paugam's"City Pop Radio". It kinda fits that nice genre of Resort Pop and perhaps folks back in Japan dreamed about heading overseas as they were listening to this one. To me, it sounds fresh and nostalgic at the same time. The song was a track on his 1981 album"The Show".
It was sad to hear that Matsuoka passed away in April 2014 at the age of 76 from prostate cancer. One thing I read on J-Wiki via a 2013 magazine interview with bassist Hiroshi Inuzuka（犬塚弘）, formerly of Hajime Hana & The Crazy Cats（ハナ肇とクレージーキャッツ）, is that a very young Matsuoka had filled in for a sick member of the group back in 1960 during which he had been asked whether he would like to become a member of the band. However, for whatever reason, Matsuoka declined the offer.
Having listened to aidoru throughout the 80s, I've come to a couple of opinions. One is that the really early 80s aidoru tunes up to about 1983 often had that innocent country girl-in-the-summer arrangement whereas the later 80s examples incorporated some more worldliness in the music while still maintaining that usual aidoru-ness. I once borrowed a mix tape of aidoru songs from an acquaintance and I'm still occasionally kicking myself in the keester since I didn't really keep a good memory of what I listened to. The only tracks I can remember involved Sonoko Kawai（河合その子）and Sayuri Kokusho（国生さゆり）, but what I do remember about the songs themselves is that the lot of them had that attractive worldliness I've just mentioned (yes, I am aware that I am talking about aidoru, not timeless classics here).
Case in point: I was just doing my random little walk through YouTube and found a few Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子） tunes. I have covered a few of her songs as she tackled some of that City Pop but she's probably much more famous as the lyricist for TUBE's big early hits such as "Summer Dream".
Still, I found out that she also provided the words to this song, "Terminal" which was the 2nd single by aidoru Rie Hatada（畠田理恵）. After listening to it, I realized that this was another interesting little gem illustrating some of that worldly late 80saidoru music, and it was special especially since it involved an aidoru who hadn't been connected to Onyanko Club (Kawai and Kokusho were members).
The Osaka-born-and-raised Hatada was scouted by entertainment promotion company Big Apple in 1986 after she had entered and done well in a couple of magazine-sponsored beauty contests. She promptly dropped out of high school and took that train to Tokyo to start her career, initially appearing as a variety show tarento program on TBS titled "Momoco Club"（モモコクラブ）sponsored by the female aidoru magazine "Momoco".
Then in 1987, she debuted as an aidoru in March with "Koko dake no Hanashi -- Ofureko"（ここだけの話 〜オフレコ〜...A Secret - Off The Record） which peaked at a respectable No. 13. "Terminal", which would turn out to be her most successful record, was released three months later and went as high as No. 12. I was drawn to the combination of the typical aidoru beat and that Latin infusion although Hatada's vocals weren't exactly remarkable. Latin fusion musician and composer Naoya Matsuoka （松岡直也）was responsible for the music and if the last few bars of "Terminal" sound somewhat familiar, it might be because they also popped up in the last several seconds of a more successful Latin-spiced song, "Meu Amor e" by Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. And guess who was responsible for weaving that classic?
Speaking of Nakamori, up until her 4th single in 1988, Hatada had been being groomed to emulate Akina's style but from that point onwards, the powers-that-be decided that she would take on a more coquettish Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）brand.
As I said Rie Hatada wasn't exactly the best singer, but, hey, it's the overall effect of aidoru vocals, music and nostalgia that had me enjoying "Terminal". She released 8 singles and 2 original albums in total between 1987 and 1993. Also, she appeared as an actress during that same period before retiring from the industry in 1996 after marrying shogi champion, Yoshiharu Habu（羽生善治）.
This is the article which is a sequel of sorts from what I wrote about her album, "D404ME"since it contains her 11th single, "Meu Amor e".
Released in March 1985, "Meu Amor e" served as a crossroads for me when it came to listening to Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. As I mentioned in the article for "D404ME", that album snagged me into becoming one of her ardent fans. As someone who was basically living a hemisphere away from Japan in the 1980s, I had to do my fair share of catching up when it came to her discography. Thanks to "Sounds of Japan", I was able to hear a lot of her early hits such as "Slow Motion" and "Kinku", and as I did so, I could also keep current by watching videotapes of "The Best 10". At the time I became a regular purveyor, that 11th single was the one that was getting all the attention paid to Miss Nakamori at that time, almost a year before she really rocked Akina fandom with "Desire".
Although those early hits I had heard on radio were well established in the Japanese pop sound, "Meu Amor e" was the first of her official singles to take Akina out of Japan and into a new frenzied beat in Latin America. I used to watch her repeated performances on the music shows as she elegantly brought in a lot of brio and Rio into living rooms while all around her the dancers were going a bit crazy with their choreography. I sometimes thought that the arrangement of the music was almost overwhelming for even her.
"Meu Amor e"(My Lover Is) was written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composed by Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也） who specializes in Latin fusion. He started his professional career as a pianist at the age of 15 in 1952 before starting a number of Latin bands. When he created "Meu Amor e" in 1985, he had also made the theme song for "News Station", the long-running TV-Asahi news program starring Hiroshi Kume, the former co-host of "The Best 10".
The accolades for "Meu Amor e" were abundant. Hitting No. 1 on the charts, it eventually became the No. 2 song of the year (630,000 records sold), only behind Checkers' "Julia ni Heartbreak"（ジュリアに傷心）. It also earned the Gold Prize and Grand Prize at that year's Japan Record Awards. Not surprisingly, the Kohaku Utagassen came knocking as well.
Just a couple of months after the release of "Meu Amor e", the folks behind the single caught a major brainwave and decided to produce what was basically an extended version of the song but with different lyrics and title. "Akai Tori Nigeta"（赤い鳥逃げた...The Red Bird Has Escaped） came out in a cover which was dramatically different from the one for the original single (that ravishing picture of Akina in the video up on top before you press "Play"), showing her in what I guess would be called Harajuku Punk(?). The second time was definitely the charm as this version also hit the No. 1 spot on the Oricon weeklies and even became the 20th-ranked song of 1985. "D404ME" also has a different extended version but under the original title and lyrics.
I was commenting to nikala about her article on Mitsutoshi Ambe（あんべ光俊）in that although I have been listening to kayo kyoku/J-Pop for decades, I still come across a lot of stuff for the first time to my absolute delight. The B-side to "Meu Amor e" is one such example. Everyone may have been paying rapt attention to the A-side, but "Lonely Journey", written and composed by EPO, is a revelation. Since it never got onto the original albums, let alone the BEST albums (correct me if I'm wrong, fellow Akina fans), I only became aware of this tune for the very first time in the last few months via YouTube. And I've fallen for it.....it's this fun 80s Tokyo disco-y highway-friendly song with a driving bass. And strangely enough, the end of the refrain reminds me a bit of YMO's "Technopolis". It may not be quite worthy for A-side fame but it's wonderful to listen to nonetheless.
But there are a lot of YouTube videos for "Meu Amor e". And yes, I'm going with the Portuguese spelling here, although the original single's cover had it written as "Mi Amore".
P.S. Larry Chan below brought up a topic about whose lyrics came first: the ones for "Meu Amor e" or "Akai Tori Nigeta", both by Chinfa Kan. If anyone can confirm this, please let us know!
Been trying to find this one for ages although I think it's somewhere in one of my compilations. Aoi Sankaku Jougi(青い三角定規...Blue Triangle [as in the one in your school pencil case]）was a short-lived folk group that managed to sing one of the evergreen songs of the 1970s. "Taiyo ga Kureta Kisetsu"(Season of the Sun) was the theme for a yearlong high school drama "Tobidase! Seishun"(飛び出せ！青春...Break Out, Youth!) that was shown on TBS.
It has stuck in my head all these years since the song's arrangement is so anthemic, almost along the lines of a superhero serial, and also because it represents the sound of early 70s Japanese pop with the strings and orchestral brass, despite the fact that it's been labeled as one of the big folk songs of all time.
Here is the group consisting of Kumiko Nishiguchi（西口久美子）in the middle, and Shigeru Iwaku and Mari Takada（岩久茂・高田真理）. Aoi Sankaku Jougi first formed in 1971, and released 6 singles and 3 albums before their breakup in 1973 due to creative differences. "Taiyo", released in February 1972, was their only big hit, written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介） and composed by Taku Izumi（いずみたく）. The song hit the No. 1 spot and won the Newcomers Award at the Japan Record Awards while selling over a million copies.
I'd think people in their 50s back in Japan would be swooning about this one.
