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.
For the Friday edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）, we all got the delight of being serenaded by Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love. It was a reminder of how great a singer he has been for well over thirty years. Ever since I first heard one of his tunes on my friend's car radio, I've been hooked by his distinctive voice and his happy adoption of various genres including jazz, rock and soul.
Much to my surprise, I realized that I had yet to provide a Favourites list regarding Original Love so here it is to finish today's cadre of urban contemporary on KKP Friday! Have a great weekend!
Although I know that cool-as-all-heck singer-songwriter Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love, has continued to kick around up to the present day, I've usually covered his stuff from the good ol' days...namely the 1990s, for his discography including "Asahi no Ataru Michi"（朝日のあたる道）. I did feature his "Zeroset"（ゼロセット）which was a much more recent single although that was still back in 2019.
Well, Tajima is still kicking butt thankfully, and he's got something to say about the whole AI thing. Last month, he released his latest digital single "Wild Humanity" which gets him to exhort to the fans to step aside from the artificial intelligence and the hyper-fast pace of life, and once again embrace that titular wild humanity.
In fact, the video has him looking all fashionably iconoclastic and ecstatic about handling all those musical instruments and old-style tech (in areas including tree-filled areas called parks) and those old-style genres such as boogie and jazz. It's ironic that one of the more noticeable instruments happens to be a synthesizer (an analog one?), so maybe his message is not to totally abandon the AI/hi-tech but share the benefits of them and wild humanity together.
It may have the same name as Chu Kosaka's（小坂忠）song but it is a different animal, and on top of that, it's undoubtedly a great tune as well. Original Love's"Ryuusei Toshi" is a medium-tempo ballad with a gentle blue-eyed soul feel riding on top of a city soul rhythm. Realizing that the night view while driving on an expressway is beautiful, there is also the point of seeing the lights of the city as stars in the galaxy which is the best.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
It was a little over a couple of months ago when I got my CD copy of Junk Fujiyama's（ジャンクフジヤマ）"Shoukei Toshi ~ City Pop Covers"（憧憬都市）from last year, with the singer coming up with his smooth takes on already-established songs of the genre. I did go over a number of the tracks but one that I intentionally left out until today was "Ryuusei Toshi" (City of Shooting Stars).
One reason is that it really does stand out as a City Pop number worthy of driving on the highway to. It feels like a love letter to Tokyo with references to Tokyo Tower and the skyscrapers in town. The horns including that boss saxophone are more than welcoming giants for the car and its occupants, and the slick music video above provide that wonderful vicarious ride. If this doesn't get viewers planning that City Pop-themed tour in Tokyo, then I don't know what will.
The original love emanating from this song actually originated from...well, Original Love via the band's May 1995 5th album"Rainbow Race". Compared to the snazzy cover by Junk Fujiyama, Takao Tajima's（田島貴男）creation is a quieter and more intimate piece that sounds more Burt Bacharach with that squeeze of bossa nova for good measure. According to Tajima himself, he had wanted to create a simple but pleasant song, something nice to go home with, and he mentions about the lovely view of the constellation Centaurus in the night sky (also in the lyrics). In a way, his statement reminds me of the whole story behind "Chuo Freeway"（中央フリーウェイ）performed by Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）and Yumi Arai（荒井由実）back in the 1970s.
Perhaps along with Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）classic "Koi wa Ryuusei" (恋は流星）, "shooting stars" in Japanese songs ought to be given further attention.
Since we are dead in the middle of summer, I'd like to share some songs that represent the hottest season of the year to me. They may not necessarily be summer-themed, but they are summer in atmosphere and spirit, or they simply remind me of summer.
This is a brain-off piece with simple comments rather than proper introductions of the songs. Most of the selection here already have their own entries, so if you'd like to know more about them, feel free to have a look. The idea is just to let you guys enjoy the songs with an unhinged comment or two on the side.
Since I've been talking about songs from the 1930s to the 1960s recently, perhaps some tunes here may come as a surprise as refreshing as a lemon soda on a 36 degree Celsius day. So, let's begin with those first.
I actually discovered this via KKP, so I'll have to thank J-Canuck for this. I think, more than a fun summery tune, this is a bop that just lifts my mood in general.
Perhaps I just so happen to like summer releases from the 1990s, but my "90s J-Pop" playlist tends to get more attention between June and August. Those three tunes, in particular, are my go-tos. Anyways, shall we move on to our usual suspects?
Tadaharu Nakano (中野忠晴) -- Kougen no Uta (高原の唄) (1932)
Ever since J-Canuck mentioned the idea of Mr. Nakano in lederhosen going on a mountain hike in relation this this song, that image has been burned into my mind's eye. I honestly cannot tell you if I like that image or not. It could be kinda hot like Saitama right now, but also lederhosen. I don't think I can handle seeing his legs. Not that I don't want to. Just not like this.( *｀ω´)
Mountains are a good respite from the heat, but so is the sea, so we have this breezy sailor ditty by Akira-san.
One of the funniest things my friend, Ms. C, has added to the not-necessarily-canon lore behind my beloved fellas is that Akira-san is ditzy and jolly in a "head empty" sort of way, but that's what makes him adorable (she got that impression from some snapshots I shared early on). Honestly, the more I find out more about him and dig up photos of him, I can't help but agree, and it's in "Minato Hanarete" where he sounds exactly like that.
Summer will now always remind me of Bin-san because of his death anniversary (29th July) and birthday (August 26th), as well as the memories of heading all the way up to his hometown of Odate, Akita, to pay tribute to him. Twice. Yes, I visited him this year too, and even met up with the lovely Uehara Bin Tsudoi (上原敏集い... Uehara Bin Get-Together). Also, somehow summer makes me feel like cranking up the matatabi mono. The tune that brings those two things together is "Oya Koi Dochu."
Summer also equals bon odori equals ondo, so, of course, we need our ondo ambassador, Haru-san. The temperatures have been sky high in Kanto and it is pain, yet I find it amusing in an ironic way when Haru-san happily goes, "Kyou wa seiten yokatta ne" (Isn't it great that it's a clear day?(°▽°)) Maa, ne.
From a sub-tropical island, we head to a tropical one. I found that "Jawa no Mango Uri" actually has three versions: The original duet from 1942, Hai-Katsu's immediate postwar solo, and another solo likely re-recorded around the 60s or early 70s. I have gone with the latter because its slower, more grandiose arrangement and Hai-Katsu's languid delivery. It screams island paradise.
Also, today happens to be Hai-Katsu's birthday (20th August)! Happy 113th!･:*+.\( °ω° )/.:+
In early 2018, I posted an article on one of the many supremely catchy Original Love songs, "Tsuki no Ura de Aimashou" (Let's go to the darkside of the moon) created by band members Takao Tajima（田島貴男）and Ryutaro Kihara（木原龍太郎）. Released back in November 1991 as their 2nd single, I was rather reminded of the song once again when I heard it being performed a few days ago on NHK's amateur singing contest "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）.
The reason that I'm doing a follow-up, along with the fact that "Tsuki no Ura de Aimashou" is a darn fine song, is that I've gotten a little more information since first finding out about it a few years ago. For one thing, the YouTube video that I added to the original article was that of a revised version of the song. The one above is an older take that is slightly less funky but no less wonderful which was on their 2nd album"Kesshou ~ Soul Liberation"（結晶 -SOUL LIBERATION-...Crystal） from May 1992.
I also mentioned in the original article that the song was used as the opening theme for the Fuji-TV drama "Banana Chips Love"（バナナチップス・ラヴ）. The above is the opening credits sequence that was first put up a couple of years following my article so it's nice to see it up here now. Apparently, the late-night drama involved a young lady following a romantic breakup who decided to start a new life for herself in the Big Apple (all of the episodes were filmed in New York City) and by the usual magical coincidence encounters an even older flame. Many hijinks ensued, I'm sure.
According to the liner notes in one of Original Love's BEST compilations "The Very Best of ORIGINAL LOVE" from April 1995 via J-Wiki, the director for "Banana Chips Love"Tsuyoshi Takashiro（高城剛）, who had requested the song from Tajima and company in the first place, wasn't impressed at all with the first result of the song and it sounds like he acted like the typical irritated corporate section chief and demanded a better take by having the song start out with the chorus to bring in the viewers. Well, as they say, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette.
For the past several weeks, I've been putting up the series of Gosanke（御三家...The Big Three）, the musical trios representing certain genres. At the outset, I mentioned that there were the true trios whose gosanke or other related names were put together by the Japanese media machine, and then I also stated that I would probably come up with some of my own imaginary ones near the end. However, it looks like one may have already been concocted on that master list at "idol.ne.jp". I couldn't find any other mention of a Shibuya-kei Gosanke anywhere else online.
I figured that if there were a Shibuya-kei Gosanke, at least two of the artists would be Flipper's Guitar and Pizzicato Five, and indeed, there they are, but I was a tad surprised to find Original Love in there on the "idol.ne.jp" list. Or maybe I shouldn't be...Original Love's Takao Tajima（田島貴男）had fronted P5 for a few years before the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）arrived, and Original Love has that certain panache and style.
However, I've noticed that none of my articles on Tajima's group has included that Shibuya-kei tab. Now, it's not because of the fact that Tajima had once screamed into a mike at a 1994 concert "I AM NOT SHIBUYA-KEI!!!" (although in the years since, he has mellowed out on the genre according to J-Wiki), and intimidated by that declaration, I was afraid that if I did put that particular tab onto his articles, I would someday find a furious Tajima on my doorstep ready to use his guitar in an innovative way. Actually, and I made this point clear on one of my earliest articles on the band, I have agreed with Tajima that Original Love really isn't a Shibuya-kei entity. As mentioned, OL does have that certain panache and style, but it's a panache and style all its own. I think Tajima is more into the straight soul and Latin of yesteryear without the need for French fashion and language and 1960s lounge trappings.
According to the Wikipedia article on Shibuya-kei, the genre and fashion ultimately crystallized their definition and look in 1993, although I think by that point, Flipper's Guitar had already decided to break apart. I've decided then to go with 1990 as the tab year for this particular trio because Shibuya-kei has been seen as a 1990s thing although all of the bands involved originated back in the 1980s.
Christmas presents on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" can come from various places, and I was lucky to find yet another one via Scott's most recent podcast of "Holly Jolly X'masu". His target was "Mint Sound's X'mas Album" from 1987. Scott has been raving about this one because of the mix of new songs and classics done by an eclectic group of artists from the New Wave, rock or Mod community. I'll be honest and say that out of the fifteen artists and bands involved, I only know two of them. One is the late Kyoko Togawa（戸川京子）and the other is Original Love.
Original Love's contribution to "Mint Sound's X'mas Album" was "X'mas NO HI" (no kanji but the meaning is "Christmas Day"). It's quite the gift for a guy who has known about Original Love and Takao Tajima（田島貴男）since the 1990s with their sunny soul and jazz hits like "Seppun (Kiss)"（接吻）and "Asahi no Ataru Michi"（朝日のあたる道）. But I had to realize that the band had been around years before my discovery of them, going all the way back to 1985.
Formerly known as Red Curtain back in the very early days, Tajima realized that the band needed a bit of a shakeup, so they recruited a new member and changed their name to the current Original Love. Scott gives his own explanation on "X'mas NO HI" at 35:39 of the podcast in which I also found out that it was soon after the indies-era Original Love recorded this Xmas song that Yasuharu Konishi（小西康晴）invited Tajima to join Pizzicato Five. As such, from what I read on J-Wiki, Tajima had believed that with his commitment to P5, he wouldn't be able to release any Original Love albums, so he and the band put out a self-titled album in August 1988 as a memento with "X'mas NO HI" as one of the tracks.
Scott loved "X'mas NO HI" and so do I because it's not only a cool tune but it additionally shows a proto-Original Love sound, so to speak. Compared to what I fell in love with in the 1990s, "X'mas NO HI" has Tajima and company pulling off a laidback rockabilly sound with some nice doo-wop harmonies. But there is no mistaking Tajima's voice in there although it's slightly higher in tone. The singer was behind words and music but the way it sounds, it could have come straight from the 1950s.
P.S. Would like to end this with an announcement that we've got what could possibly be one of the worst snowstorms of the season heading our way in the next day or two. So, it's probable that with any resulting power outages that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" may be in that rare position of not having any articles go up on Friday. It would royally suck so I'm hoping that there will be a meteorological miracle overnight.
Welcome to August 2022! Over here, we're now entering the dog days of summer which will hopefully mean appropriately warm and sunny weather and then some refreshingly cool nights going into the latter half of the month. As well, some precipitation wouldn't be a bad thing either.
Years ago on the blog, I wrote about Original Love's elegant and heart-on-the-sleeve ballad "Primal"（プライマル）single from February 1996, and so I took another listen to that cute little CD again in whole. I was reminded of the coupling song "Your Song" which I do appreciate a lot more now.
"Your Song" is a song that Original Love, aka Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, wrote and composed first for his May 1995 5th original album"Rainbow Race", and the version didn't change any when it was used as the "Primal" partner track. It's a friendly and optimistic samba-flavoured tune with plenty of kids helping Tajima out on the vocals. In fact, according to J-Wiki and Tajima himself, the singer/creator of "Your Song" had wanted to come up with a song that would fit well with children's voices. His whole intention with this one was that no matter how good or bad a singer is, everyone has a song within themselves that's rarin' to burst out.
One piece of trivia here is that while Original Love was concocting "Your Song", he hadn't been aware that there was an even more famous "Your Song" by Elton John. Knowing what I know about Tajima, he probably would have shrugged his shoulders in indifference and gotten back to work. Doesn't matter to me either; "Your Song" is still a fine song.
Happy Civic Holiday to my fellow Torontonians and Happy Monday to everyone else! Last week, commenter Michael gave me his list of his own Happy Tunes in response to my list and one of those tunes was the catchy "Mikakunin no Superstar"（未確認のスーパースター）by Shin Rizumu（シンリズム）.
Another tune on his Happy list was Original Love's"Zeroset", and unlike the other KKP articles for singer-songwriter Takao Tajima's（田島貴男）splendid works, this song isn't from the 1990s but just from early last year due to its inclusion in his 17th album"bless You!" from February 2019.
No surprise that Michael has "Zeroset" on his list since it is very much an "Up with People" type of song. It was only yesterday that I wrote about "Kodoku no Marathon Runner"（孤独のマラソン・ランナー）by the folk band The Natashar Seven（ザ・ナターシャー・セブン）, and like that one, "Zeroset" also uses the metaphor of competitive running to get folks up and at 'em! But instead of the 1970s country-folksy melody of "Kodoku no Marathon Runner", "Zeroset" is a 21st-century driving pop piece with a touch of synth and a rolling thunder of percussion and bass. Furthermore, this time, the sport here might be more about the 100-metre dash rather than the 42-kilometre marathon. The important thing is that Tajima wants folks to leave the tough times and experiences behind, reset everything including the mind, and then once the starter's pistol goes off, run like Usain Bolt.🏃
I wouldn't be surprised if "Zeroset" becomes an athlete's go-to song for pumping the psyche up as "Kodoku no Marathon Runner" did for one fellow on that NHK Sunday sports broadcast. Hey, if the video is any indication, you can possibly end up in really cool duds and a great convertible in Tokyo if you go for the gusto. Tajima must be really lucky with the vehicles considering the car he's driving in there and the automobile he's got in the 1994 "The Rover" from "Kaze no Uta wo Kike"（風の歌を聴け）.
One of the earliest songs that I wrote about on the blog was Original Love's"Asahi no Ataru Michi"（朝日のあたる道）, the band's 6th single from April 1994. As I mentioned in that article, it was my first exposure to Takao Tajima（田島貴男）when he still had a number of people with him under the Original Love name, and I heard it in my friend's car one rainy day. "Asahi no Ataru Michi" was this blend of fun pop, soul and jazz that struck me as being quite different from what was hot during those times in music when the Komuro Boom was beginning its steamroller run and while guitar pop/rock bands such as Mr. Children and Spitz held sway.
Well, it didn't take long until I copied my friend and bought the album that had "Asahi no Ataru Michi", "Kaze no Uta wo Kike" (Hear the Song of the Wind), Original Love's 4th album released in June 1994. According to J-Wiki, it hit No. 1 and ended up as the 63rd-ranked album of the year. But for all that, I played the whole album on my Onkyo in my apartment in Ichikawa...and then put it into my shelf of compact discs for several years without playing it again. I gave the same indifferent treatment to Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）"History 1978-1984", and the reason was the same: as I would find out many years later, it wasn't at all the fact that the songs were bad; I myself was simply not quite ready to embrace either Original Love or Ohnuki because they both dared to provide songs which went in all sorts of directions.
(19:46)
I'm definitely much older and a little wiser now as I appreciate both albums. With "Kaze no Uta wo Kike", there is a lot to chew on in terms of what vocalist and songwriter Tajima provided here. And here I start with Track 1, "The Rover".
Now when it comes to remembering anything called Rover, I'm someone who's very much in the minority since it's not a name of a dog that comes to my mind first. For me, Rover means that terrifying gigantic white balloon/enforcer from the 1960s British thriller series "The Prisoner". Rover scared me into the crack between sofa cushions when I saw it capture errant Villagers, and I think it actually got a shoutout in the final episode for Season 2 of "Kaguya-sama: Love is War" last weekend.
Ahhh, but now, I can sleep more soundly now that Rover can refer to "The Rover" by Original Love. Written and composed by Tajima (unless noted otherwise, all tracks have been handled by Tajima), the music video for this first track sure shows one heck of a crazy road trip accompanied by just-as-crazy film footage. I'm sure hoping that at least the driver didn't have any illicit chemical compounds in his system, but the video goes back-and-forth between frolicking in the desert and then whooping it up in some go-go dance club from the 1960s. I had been wondering what the deal was with those photos in the album's cover booklet...and it turned out to be colour shots of the dancers.
There's some good ol' James Brown-like funkin' going on with Tajima and the gang, and apparently according to the description of the song by Tajima in the J-Wiki article, "The Rover" was based on a re-arrangement of an earlier song "Ai no Circuit"（愛のサーキット...Love Circuit） from Original Love's 1992 album"Kesshou"（結晶...Crystal） and a whole lot of experimentation. It certainly sounds like the band enjoyed going into this song like me going through a tenderloin steak. Incidentally, the lovely Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子）provides backing vocals on a number of the tracks including this one.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the actual track from "Kaze no Uta wo Kike", but "Jisa wo Kakeru Omoi"（時差を駆ける想い...Memories Running Through the Time Difference）, which is being performed here on Tajima's "Hitori Soul Show" (Soul Show by One) released in June 2012, is the one other song besides "Asahi no Ataru Michi" that I remembered even after that first listening to the album. I believe one reason is the bossa nova in the melody devised by Tajima and bassist Hideyuki Komatsu（小松秀行）, and although I hadn't realized it at the time, I was always quite attracted to the genre. There is something so very romantic and sweeping about "Jisa wo Kakeru Omoi", and yet according to Tajima, the lyrics are all just based on his childhood memories of running around with buddies and smelling that wonderful soup before dinnertime. Those memories came flooding back to him as he was on a plane either heading over to or coming back from Morocco in 1993 for filming.
There's some more of that home movie camera style for the video (taken down unfortunately) of "It's A Wonderful World", and according to Tajima, the song was inspired by the works of Curtis Mayfield. Tajima also remarked that it was the first time that he had ever sung an entire song in the higher registers of his voice so he had been a tad worried about how it would go at recording, but as it turned out, he did it in one take. Some fine 70sNew Yorkfunk and soul included here.
"Futatsu no Te no You ni"（二つの手のように...Like Two Hands） sounds like the perfect summer love song as created by Tajima and keyboardist Ryutaro Kihara（木原龍太郎）. All it needs is a park to stroll in. Love the harmonies between Tajima and the rest of the band as well as the horns. The singer stated that he realized that there were at least some spiritual similarities between the song and Yumi Arai's（荒井由実）"Kitto Ieru"（きっと言える）, so perhaps this would be the New Music entry of the album?
One more track that I will provide here is "Fiesta"（フィエスタ）. Now throughout the years of writing in "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've been able to gain names for some of the famous musical riffs that I've heard over and over again from various sources including The Doobie Bounce and Steely Dan's Mu Chord. Recently, I found out about The Bo Diddley Beat from TV Tropes, and it's been a rock n' roll rhythm that I've also heard in a number of songs such as George Michael's"Faith" and "I Want Candy" by Bow Wow Wow as mentioned in the TV Tropes article.
It looks like I'm hearing that now in "Fiesta" and just from the happy raucous music, my initial impression was that Tajima was channeling some wonderful experience down in New Orleans or somewhere in the Deep South of the United States. However, Tajima in the J-Wiki article for the album has remarked that he was using a Second Line rhythm; the remark has a direct link to the J-Wiki and then the English Wikipedia article on the Second Line tradition of people following a parading band with their own dancing and walking. He also said that he had initially wanted to create something that was comforting in the form of a hymn. Perhaps the end result didn't come out as a hymn, but personally speaking from what little I know of funeral traditions in New Orleans, "Fiesta" is still quite comforting since I assume that the funeral procession down there is one of some celebration and joy over the life that was lived by the person.
Finally, Tajima states that "Fiesta" may be the one track on "Kaze no Uta wo Kike" to reflect what the album is all about. If that is indeed the case, then I think the vocalist was trying to illustrate the celebration and joy of music in general through different modes. Why keep the music chained to one style in one album when there are so many other styles to explore and have fun with? Be free!
And yep, that was the point for "Winter's Tale ~ Fuyu Monogatari" (the Japanese and English have the same meaning) since this was a campaign song for a Sapporo brand of beer that was being sold just in the winter in the early 1990s called Fuyu Monogatari.
And double yep, "Winter's Tale" is one song that can be given the sommelier's treatment although the product was a beer and not a wine. Sapporo should have been properly flattered for Fuyu Monogatari getting such a cool theme, thanks to this duet involving singer-songwriters Hiroshi Takano（高野寛）on lyrics and Takao Tajima（田島貴男）of Pizzicato Five/Original Love on music. It's got some snazzy and jazzy spark of sophisticated pop by way of British 1980s soul, disco/post-disco bits, and simply some happily familiar Tajima horn arrangement.
It's all about good times as the commercial shows. Hit the slopes and then savor the apres-ski with some beer and stuff. Released in November 1992, "Winter's Tale" peaked at No. 21, and also ended up on Original Love's"The Very Best of ORIGINAL LOVE" from April 1995. That album went all the way up to No. 4 and became the 78th-ranked album of that year. Takano is no stranger to cool winter-based music.
Did anyone catch that Blood, Blue, Super...any colour in the Crayola palette...Moon a few days ago? Nope, I didn't. Didn't need to, either, since NHK's "News Watch at 9" was more than happy to batter us folks at home over the head with the coverage.
However, the cosmic phenomenon provides me with the perfect segue to a nice new discovery. "Tsuki no Ura de Aimashou" (Let's go to the darkside of the moon) by those grand funksters, Original Love. Now, I've been a fairly good fan of Takao Tajima（田島貴男）and his group since my friend introduced me to them back in the late 1990s but there is still a lot of their earlier material that I have yet to be exposed to. And I was delighted to first hear their 4th single "Sunshine Romance" from 1993.
This goes back even further. Their 2nd single"Tsuki no Ura de Aimashou" from November 1991 is another soulful and funky piece of moonglow. Tajima composed this one with Ryutaro Kihara（木原龍太郎） providing the lyrics. But the amazing thing about hearing this for the first time is Tajima's vocals. I'd been accustomed to hearing Tajima with this slight depth in his delivery but on "Tsuki", it wasn't there. His voice sounded almost whispery to the point that when I first heard it, I swore it was actually Flipper's Guitar behind the mike!
No worries though. It's still a great cool and happy song and it was the theme song for a Fuji-TV drama "Banana Chips Love" . There is something about an Original Love tune that can generate a ton of sunshine let alone moonglow inside an apartment. It did modestly on Oricon, only getting as high as No. 86 but that won't dissuade any newcomers or die-hard Original Love fans. The single also became a track on the band's 2nd album"Kesshou ~ Soul Liberation"（結晶 -SOUL LIBERATION-...Crystal） from May 1992 that did far better by hitting No. 10 on the album charts.
Tajima's replacement as the vocalist for Pizzicato Five, the divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）provided her own lovely cover of "Tsuki" in 2014 through her album "Nomiya Maki, Shibuya-kei wo Utau"（野宮真貴、渋谷系を歌う。...Miss Maki Nomiya sings Shibuya-kei Standards）. However, I'm not sure if I can really consider her cover of this particular song as being Shibuya-kei. It seems a bit too mainstream pop and I think even Nomiya's singing is a little different here. But nothing to complain about. Besides, I'm afraid if Tajima ever found out I categorized this song as Shibuya-kei, he'd probably have me mugged!
There are actually ballad-like covers of the song done by Tajima himself and Hitomi Shimatani（島谷ひとみ）but I think the more uptempo versions are better.
November 7th 2023: J-Canuck from the future. I've written a follow-up to the song right here.
After a week of relatively mild weather (+4 C was the peak here...pretty good for Toronto this time of year), it looks like winter has returned in earnest. It's a good Sunday to keep things indoors and knock back a hot chocolate or something.
I heard another wonderful song from the "Light Mellow" series. This is Original Love with "Yume wo Miru Hito" (Dreamers) which, according to excerpts from an interview with vocalist and songwriter Takao Tajima（田島貴男）on J-Wiki, was a really hard song to compose; in fact, it took 6 months to get down the melody that has been described by Tajima as being simple yet melodious
The process may not have been smooth but "Yume wo Miru Hito" sure goes down that way. I think Tajima is quite the songsmith providing this really elegant blend of light funk and pop. For some reason, though, he had been under the impression that a lot of folks would balk at the title but considering the romantic and airy lyrics of having a couple just let go and take that train trip to anywhere, I think this was the perfect title. And the music and words make a nice marriage.
Perhaps either Tajima or the director of the video may have been watching "2001: A Space Odyssey" beforehand but it's a pretty wigged-out visual representation for the song which seems so happy and down-to-earth. Especially when it's so gloomy and cold outside as it is here, it's nice to bring in a bit of sunshine through this song.
"Yume wo Miru Hito" was Original Love's 7th single from April 1995 which peaked at No. 29. It was also a track on his 5th album"Rainbow Race" which came out a month later. That went all the way up to No. 3 on the album charts and ended up as the 96th-ranked release of the year.
I wonder if anyone reading this was anywhere near born...or for that matter if anyone's parents were born...when The Fifth Dimension was really big in the 1960s. Well, I was around. In fact, I remember that one of the first songs that I actually listened to and enjoyed was their huge hit of "Up Up and Away" in 1967. I wasn't even 2 years old when this came out and listening to this again, I can see where later bands like Swingout Sister got their inspiration.
The above is a song by The Fifth Dimension that I hadn't heard about until basically tonight. This is "It's A Great Life" which was a track on their 3rd album"Stoned Soul Picnic" from 1968. It's a similarly sunny song that I could love just from the horns in the intro alone.
And apparently, Takao Tajima (田島貴男...man, did he look like a stringbean back then) of Original Love also loved that brassy intro enough that he adopted it for his 4th single, "Sunshine Romance" from May 1993. And as the title states, there is plenty of good ol' sunshine in this song that I re-discovered tonight (it's on the "Sunny Side of Original Love"BEST compilation that I bought years ago). This is quite the pick-me-up song that actually had me thinking of some of those 80s bands such as The Style Council.
The keyboardist for Original Love at the time, Ryutaro Kihara（木原龍太郎）, came up with the lyrics. The single managed to peak at No. 48, and it was also a track on the band's 3rd album"Eyes" from June 1993 which made it to No. 4 on the Oricon weeklies.
"Words of Love" by Original Love, aka Takao Tajima（田島貴男）is a track on his 1996 album, "Desire" which also contains the dramatic "Primal" and exotic "Hum A Tune".
I described "Primal" as being that serenade of love to that person who just won't reciprocate. It's a lovely ballad that I enjoyed more in its single form (which is the one that I've displayed in the article) than the album version. But lyrically it is somewhat sad since there will apparently be no happy ending between the two folks. "Words of Love", on the other hand, seems to represent that wake-up from that melancholy dream to a happier reality.
The song starts with Tajima and a piano instantly creating this "morning" feel...that waking up I told you about in the last paragraph. I could smell the coffee in the first verse. And to the relief of the waking protagonist, he (sorry, I'm going with the male point of view here just to shorten the need for pronouns) can see his lady love waiting for him at the breakfast table. Tajima's music isn't nearly as bold and dramatic as his melody was for "Primal". It just has that feeling of something as warm and comfortable as a well-worn pair of slippers or sandals. The two folks are as happy as two peas in a pod and will probably head off for a nice drive down the coast according to the sounds of the song. It makes for a good Sunday pancake breakfast sort of tune.
Could make for a fine Valentine's Day track, to boot.
Well, it's been a while, Original Love. Welcome back to the blog! Yup, it's been about a year since I last put up a song by the one-man band/songwriting unit of Takao Tajima（田島貴男）.
Getting charmed by his melodies and his vocals, there was a time in the 90s when I was buying a fair number of Tajima's singles and albums. I bought his 4th album,"Kaze no Uta wo Kike"（風の歌を聴け...Listen to the Song of the Wind）on the strength of the rollicking "Asahi no Ataru Michi"（朝日のあたる道）which I first heard on my friend's car radio during a rainy drive through Chiba.
Then, sometime after that, I saw on the telly that Original Love was coming up with another album, and saw an excerpt from the official music video for "Hum A Tune" which was playing while his 6th album"Desire"(July 1996) was getting its ad shown. It had a close-up of Tajima's face sweating away near a fire while hearing a pretty dramatic riff. There was something quite voodoo about it. Well, that was it for me. I bought "Desire" in no time.
As it turned out, "Hum A Tune" was the first track (never a single) on the album, and it started out quite exotically with what sounded like an Indian sitar. I just went, "Sasuga, Tajima-san!" The only other song that I remember starting in a similar way was "Subarashii Yume no Naka de"（素晴らしい夢の中で）by the just-as-exploratory Sing Like Talking for their album, "Discovery" (1995).
Following that intriguing intro, "Hum A Tune" settles into an innocently optimistic, almost celebratory, tone of realizing that as the sun set, joy and nirvana were not far away. Then, in the last couple of minutes or so, the key suddenly veers elsewhere, a big drum starts banging away and things get a bit more intense melodically speaking...which is where that excerpt comes in during the "Desire" commercial. It's almost as if Tajima was trying to say that The Promised Land may be within your reach but you still gotta pay the piper a pretty high premium. I think the music video shows a good description of that.
My first listening to "Hum A Tune" caught me a bit off-guard but I've learned to appreciate it very well since then. And good heavens, the man can come up with some great hooks.
The cover of "Desire"
You really don't want to
cross this guy!
For instance, DO NOT
tell him that he's a Shibuya-kei
artist.
Gotta have Takao Tajima's（田島貴男） coat there in the video. Considering that Toronto barely reached -15 degrees C today, that would have been one fine fashion accoutrement out in the cold. In any case, I also said the same thing about his song, "Primal", when I first heard it almost a couple of decades ago, and for that, I was very successful.
"Primal" is Original Love's 8th single released in February 1996, and it was used in one of the NTV dramas "Only You - Aisarete"（愛されて...To Be Loved）. And yes, it's a song that has its heart on its sleeve if I can use that tortured metaphor. I love the strings and piano combination here....just brings that dramatic oomph to the proceedings, and then with Tajima's falsetto vocals projecting out, I sometimes think that he was reincarnated from one of those lonesome singing cowboys from the States. And the lyrics come off as a wrenching serenade to a loved one who just doesn't seem to respond (and the English translation of those words is conveniently written on the back of the CD cover). It's certainly one of the lushest love songs I've heard in J-Pop, and the arrangements remind me of the works of an American R&B singer who I have also adored over the years, Anita Baker The Quiet Storm.
The song peaked at No. 5 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the 60th-ranked tune for 1996. I think if a personal 90s playlist project were to be started, I'd be putting this on my Top 10 list.
As I mentioned in the other article for Original Love's"Asahi no Ataru Michi"（朝日のあたる道）, that was the tune that first exposed me to the existence of the band. Takao Tajima（田島貴男） created this nice mix of jazz and soul that caught my attention. The album that it came on, "Kaze no Uta wo Kike"（風の歌を聴け）, was released back in 1994. My curiosity for Original Love had me buying at least one more album and a single, before I discovered that even before "Asahi no Ataru Michi", there had been another great song that might be Tajima's most famous creation.
"Seppun", which came out in November 1993, was written and composed by vocalist Tajima, and it's the man's vocal tribute to the grand ol' art of lip-locking. "Seppun" actually does mean kissing, although like the word for "lion"...shishi...the English equivalent, "kissu", has long usurped the Japanese original. Tajima's lyrics of how much he craves those kisses are wrapped around by another jaunty blend of jazz and soul, although I think the latter is more in charge here. And I've always enjoyed the singer's particular delivery.....perhaps appealingly craggy is the only way I can describe it. It's just a fun song to listen to.
The song managed to peak at No. 13 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the 98th-ranked tune for 1994. It was also a track on Original Love's first BEST album, "Sunny Side of Original Love" which came out in December 1993 which got as high as No. 6. I think the video above is for the version from this album. By the way, the song was also used as the theme for an NTV drama called appropriately "Otona no Kiss"（大人のキッス...Adult Kiss）.
According to J-Wiki, between the year that it was released and 2012, "Seppun" has gotten its accolades by the number of covers that have been done of the song. Singers from Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）to BENI have given their versions, but probably the most famous one is the one by Mika Nakashima（中島美嘉）. Her cover came out in June 2003 as her 8th single and is arranged as a slower reggae-style ballad. Tajima was apparently very pleased with her take on his song, which did even better on the charts, rising as high as No. 4.
Finally, I leave you with Tajima in concert performing "Seppun".
Apparently, the singer (and only member) of Original Love, Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, disliked being labeled as Shibuya-kei. In fact, according to the J-Wiki write-up on the group, he had once screamed into the microphone at a concert in 1994, "I AM NOT SHIBUYA-KEI!!!" Message received loud and clear, sir. And I heartily concur. I'm surprised that the band was given that genre label since I don't think Tajima sounds at all similar to Pizzicato Five or Flipper's Guitar. If anything, I think Original Love is more in the fusion/funk category of things. But strangely enough, although the band itself started up in 1986, Tajima did a couple of years as P5's second lead vocal from 1988 to 1990 before the iconic Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）took over.
The first time I heard of Original Love was while I was in the car with a couple of friends in Japan. One of them just had the CD playing on the stereo, and it turned out to be OL's 4th album, "Kaze no Uta wo Kike"（風の歌を聴け....Listen to the Song of the Wind）. And the song playing at that time was "Asahi no Ataru Michi"(The Street In The Morning Sun), also known as "As Time Goes By". It was a good ol' stomp mixing in pop, soul and jazz with Tajima strutting his distinctive vocals like he had complete ownership of the sidewalk. I loved the horn section, and especially the trumpet solo....I just wondered at that point if Stevie and Dizzy collaborated again. At the time, the Tetsuya Komuro music machine was at the top of J-Pop, so to hear something old-school again was pretty refreshing.
The song was released as Original Love's 6th single (written and composed by Tajima) in April 1994, just a couple of months before the album came out. It peaked at No. 12 on Oricon (the album itself hit No. 1). After listening to the CD on my friend's car stereo, it wasn't too long before I got that very album and some more discs by the man. Although Original Love had at least three members including the lead singer at the time the song came out, by 1995, Tajima ended up going his own way as a soloist but still retaining the band name.
