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.
Being summer, it's festival season in Japan and I know that it's in full swing whenever I hear about or see Tokyo's Sumida River Fireworks Festival on the final Saturday of July. I've seen it on television from the air-conditioned comfort of my Ichikawa apartment and around thirty years ago, I actually saw it with my own eyes from the apartment of a student who generously invited teachers and fellow classmates over for a fireworks party. We were very fortunate in that the apartment was right by the Sumida River in Asakusa where I used to work, so the fireworks literally exploded right over our heads. Getting back home, though, was quite the adventure in time and physics.
Festivals in Japan also mean bon odori...the great communal dance around the raised stage all draped in red and white like the colours of the Japanese flag. Nothing says the dog days of summer than doing those rhythmic steps while sporting a colourful yukata and geta while a min'yo is being sung and performed on stage.
However, in the last several years, there has been some relaxation of the rules in terms of the music, so instead of the traditional stuff, examples of kayo kyoku and J-Pop have been used to get the crowds all roused up and dancing. Thanks to an NHK report yesterday, I was rather inspired to put up this list that I got from a far bigger list on Line Music. Yes, you can dance to these in the Bon Odori style!
And here I thought that all I needed for a bit of suspense during the Holidays was to watch "Die Hard". However, it looks like the next couple of days in Toronto will be seeing wind warnings which could lead to power outages. Not great during a cold time like now. A lot of folks here including myself still remember the Ice Storm of 2013 which knocked most of the city out for at least a couple of days and many for many days after that.
Still, I'm gonna still slog my way to 1000 articles as best I can. I've got another Author's Picks based on days of the week since I recall that certain Japanese songs have used days of the week in their titles and even their own artist names. All but one of the songs that will be included in the list are already represented on the blog.
(1993) Pizzicato Five -- Yasashii Mokuyoubi（優しい木曜日）
Yup, "Yasashii Mokuyoubi" (Sweet Thursday) is the odd group out this time, but it is most certainly not an odd song. It's a very pretty tune by Pizzicato Five evoking a pleasant spring walk in Paris on that day. With the feeling of Shibuya-kei, the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）vocally gives her version of a waltz along the Seine. I had a bit of a time tracking this down regarding when the song was originally released but thankfully its inclusion in "The Band of 20th Century: Nippon Columbia Years 1991-2001" gave me the big hint. It was just a matter of looking up those albums under Columbia and finding out that "Yasashii Mokuyoubi" had been placed in the June 1993 album"Bossa Nova 2001"（ボサ・ノヴァ2001）.
Looks like in recent days, the YouTube movie reactor brigade has caught the "Austin Powers" trilogy, and apparently one of the most popular scenes happens to be the opening credits for the first movie "International Man of Mystery". And what's not to love? Austin is gaily dancing and running through the streets of Swinging 60s London while having an entire army of women chasing him down like a pack of wolves. He may be a contradiction in profession as the world's most famous spy but his mojo is never in doubt. Plus, it's all set to Quincy Jones'"Soul Bossa Nova".
Of course, seeing all this had me thinking about the one group and one genre which emulates the joyful style of that decade from long ago, and that would be Pizzicato Five（ピチカート・ファイヴ）and the whole Shibuya-kei thing. I've already posted a lot of the big songs by the Divine Miss Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）and Yasuharu Konishi（小西泰治）such as "Tokyo wa Yoru no Shichi-ji"(東京は夜の七時）and "Baby Portable Rock".
But strangely enough, I never experienced the very first single where Nomiya made her presence known and that was "Lover's Rock", P5's 3rd single from May 1990 which came out about four-and-a-half years following their previous single in 1986. It's an interesting song for not only the fact that the above version is an extended mix which lasts over ten minutes, but with Nomiya making a surprisingly demure debut here, original P5 member Keitaro Takanami（高浪慶太郎）seems to be showing the young lady the ropes and easing her into the cold pool gingerly through both sets of vocals. "Lover's Rock" has that P5 touch but also has that "slowly slowly" approach with none of the usual brash panache that Nomiya would soon show via sound spectacular and music video.
I think this particular song would apply as one of the more eclectic examples even within the distinctive discography of Pizzicato Five（ピチカート・ファイヴ）.
"Fushigi na Futatsu no Candle"(Magic Twin Candle Tale) is a track from P5's 11th studio album"Playboy, Playgirl"（プレイボーイ プレイガール）from October 1998. Sounding like a combination of whimsical fairy tale, a typical P5 Shibuya-kei song and some Beatles stuff circa "Sgt. Pepper's" with the help of that cello, I gather that it's a love song represented by a couple of candles burning brightly during a starless night. I've still thrown in the Duet label in there although I had to listen very carefully to pick out the folk/City Pop duo Bread & Butter（ブレッド&バター）since their backing vocals layered so finely with Maki Nomiya's（野宮真貴）voice that they basically sounded like one person...which would probably explain the "...featuring Bread & Butter" tag.
Just imagine...a veteran vocal group from decades ago collaborating with a songwriter and producer famous for a trendy music genre from a few decades ago. But that's what we get with Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）writing and composing a song called "Atarashii Uta"(A New Song) and Duke Aces（デューク・エイセス）tackling it at full throttle. And indeed, it's the familiar voices from yesteryear singing about creating that song for that significant other against a wall of Shibuya-kei sound goodness.
Duke Aces first covered "Atarashii Uta" on the March 2002 Pizzicato Five tribute album"Sensou ni Hantai suru Yuuitsu no Shudan wa. ~ Pizzicato Five no Uta to Kotoba"（戦争に反対する唯一の手段は。-ピチカート・ファイヴのうたとことば-...The Only Way to Oppose War ~ Words and Music by Pizzicato Five）. The project was released on the 1-year anniversary of P5's disbanding. The Duke Aces' cover was once again put out years later in 2017 as a single.
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The original "Atarashii Uta" can be found on P5's 11th studio album"Playboy, Playgirl"（プレイボーイ プレイガール）from October 1998 with the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）singing with Hisashi Kato（加藤ひさし）of The Collectors. The arrangement is "slightly more subdued" but still an exciting trip around town. Kato and Nomiya teamed up as well for "Nagame no Ii Heya"（眺めのいい部屋）.
One more version of "Atarashii Uta" can be found as a twee technopop take with Nomiya behind the mike once more through the special album "Haishin Muke no Pizzicato Five ~ Sono San Nomiya no Maki"（配信向けのピチカート・ファイヴ その3 野宮の巻...Pizzicato Five for Streaming Part 3: Nomiya） which came out in November 2021.
I barely remember her since I was only a toddler at the time, but Twiggy is a British model and actress who set cameras and the fashion world ablaze in the 1960s thanks to that thin appearance, short hair and large doe eyes. Happy to hear that she's still around at the age of 75.
So, it's not a surprise at all that a Pizzicato Five song used her name twice for the title. "Twiggy, Twiggy" is a track on the band's September 1991 5th album,"Josei Joui Jidai"（女性上位時代...This Year's Girl）, and it's definitely an up-and-at-'em Shibuya-kei tune with timpani and dance-luring rhythms (including a barrage of orchestra hits) along with the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴） singing sweetly in our ears. The big surprise though is that it wasn't Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽） behind words and music for "Twiggy, Twiggy" (although he was behind them for most of the other tracks); it was actually 1970s City Pop chanteuse Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）taking care of those.
I'll be honest...the music video with Nomiya and perhaps Konishi and other member Keitaro Takanami（高浪慶太郎）had me so mesmerized as I was about to write this article that when my screen suddenly went all crazy eights necessitating me to shut down and reboot my computer, I had assumed that it was all part of the P5 "Twiggy, Twiggy" experience. Well, no it wasn't. And I took a good look at the security protocols. I'm hoping that what happened was just one of those glitches of an aging unit. But yeah, it's quite the song.
I remember one New Year's Day when I was living in my humble Ichikawa 2K apartment. A couple of friends had stayed over at my place for a couple of days and things were feeling pretty lazy. However, we had made a prior promise to meet up with a few more friends in Roppongi that day for dinner where apparently at least a few restaurants were operating. So, we trudged off to Minami-Gyotoku Station on the Tozai Line. It was about 5 pm when we got onto the aboveground platform and the sun was beginning to set so we had these orange rays filtering into the station.
There were some wistful feelings that accompanied those slanting rays. Perhaps it was starting my first New Year's Day without the family around me or that January 1st felt more like December 31st after a busy year. Well, whatever the case may be, similar feelings can be had through Pizzicato Five's"Tokyo, mon amour", which was a track on their 12th album"Romantique '96" from September 1995. I'd actually written about that album all the way back in May 2013 so that's definitely an antique posting. I'm just glad that I hadn't written about this particular track until today.
Of course, there were much harder feelings in "Tokyo, mon amour" which deals with the end of romance. However, it's no surprise that even in the midst of such heart stopping heartbreak, the voice of the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）and the songwriting of Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）can make even that emotional explosion feel like the tenderest side of beef or the sweetest sip of wine. It sounds as if it could have been included in the soundtrack of a 1960s Alain Delon romance with those strings feeling so romantic and Parisian. Also, I have to give shoutouts to that bass and the saxophone showing off life in the big city. The sax by the way was played by Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）of the band SPANK HAPPY.
This is the view that I had from my room in the R&B Hotel in Otsuka, Tokyo back in 2017. Nope, I wouldn't call it panoramic either but it was still glorious from my point of view because I was back in my old stomping grounds once more. Nice cool draft wafted in, too.😙
It's Wednesday...Hump Day once more...the peak of the week's doldrums so why not bring in something to bring up happiness levels a little. I offer "Nagame no Ii Heya" (A Room with a View) which comes from Pizzicato Five's November 1999 12th album"Pizzicato Five".
The album has been categorized on J-Wiki as a mere pop and rock album and perhaps P5 at this point had been fading away from its Shibuya-kei heyday, but "Nagame no Ii Heya" still sounds like the cool Japanese genre of the 1990s was still coursing through its veins. From the groovy rhythms to the over-the-top horns to the DeVol arpeggios to the vocals of the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）, I manage to get that feeling of yesteryear. Written and composed by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）, Nomiya is joined by the leader of the rock band The Collectors,Hisashi Kato（加藤ひさし）, in this fun tete-a-tete. I've mentioned the band once before almost a couple of years ago when I wrote about their "Christmas Song".
Man, it's been a scorcher on Day 4 of our Toronto heat wave as we've passed the terminator into official Summer 2024. After three days of managing to endure the heat in my room, I finally decided to turn on the fan which is giving some limited relief.
Perhaps it would be a good idea for friends and couples to head out from the steamy apartment or house for a little while, preferably some cool café in the neighbourhood for some frozen cappuccinos or the like. And that is the point of "Chotto Deyou yo" (Let's Go Away for A While), a song by the early incarnation of Pizzicato Five（ピチカート・ファイヴ）, when it was known as Pizzicato V.
Buoyed by the "Citypop Lullaby -- Keitarou Takanami mad FPU Lovers Rock Remix" article I did yesterday which features the former member of Pizzicato V and then the fact that I had made reference to the band's debut single"The Audrey Hepburn Complex" all the way back in 1985, I went into that original single EP to see what else I could find. Well, as it turns out, I was able to discover the track "Chotto Deyou yo" which was written and composed by Takanami（高浪慶太郎）. An instrumental that starts out with a happy-go-lucky ukulele, it sounds like a cosmic 22nd-century tribute to a hybridized French pop and City Pop number. This observation isn't intended as an insult but there is also something about the arrangement as if it had been meant to accompany couples while they were window shopping in a mall anywhere.
There's an extended version of "Chotto Deyou yo" on P5's first BEST compilation, "Pizzicatomania!"（ピチカートマニア!）from July 1987 which finishes up with a weird music box ditty.
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.
Frankly speaking, I'm not sure what the state of summer festivals this year is considering that COVID-19 seems to be raging through Japan once more. I'm on the fence here since although I know that people have to stay safe, I also feel for those residents who love their matsuri and have been rarin' to go with them once more after a couple of years of no celebrations. I remember that the Sumida River Fireworks Festival was cancelled this year as well after a tentative date of July 30th, but I'm not sure about some of the smaller and local festivals.
My thoughts above were sparked after watching the video for Pizzicato Five's September 2000 23rd single"Tokyo no Gasshou" (Tokyo Singalong). It has the divine Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）along with good buddies, singer Shigeru Matsuzaki（松崎しげる）and hip-hop musician YOU THE ROCK☆ painting the town red through Old Tokyo, including my old work area of Asakusa during the summer.
It's quite the thing to see representatives of Shibuya-kei, 70s balladry and turn-of-the-century hip-hop altogether as they ply their vocal trade (Nomiya and Matsuzaki crooning away while YOU weaves rap here and there) while the music reflects the influences, too. Although I don't think "Tokyo no Gasshou" will go down as one of my favourite P5 tunes, I'm thankful for letting the trio show me some of those natsukashii scenes including walking along Nakamise Douri and the rickshaw rides around Asakusa. A couple of friends and I did one such ride around the neighbourhood; I think the operator took one look at me and reckoned that he was really going to earn his pay that night.
The one thing that I never got to do which is featured in the latter part of the video was enjoying a trip on the yakatabune on the Sumida River. I'm not sure how much one would pay for the ride and dinner but I figure that it must be a special occasion. In any case, YOU THE ROCK☆ and P5's Yasuharu Konishi（小西康晴）created "Tokyo no Gasshou".
On the April 12th episode of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, there was someone on the guest list that I never thought would have appeared on the weekly music show. However, it was indeed the divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）, the third and the most famous of the lead vocalists for Shibuya-kei royalty Pizzicato Five back in the 1990s. She was there with her good buddy, Ken Yokoyama（横山剣）of Crazy Ken Band (with whom she's worked in the past), to sing something sweet, soulful and revue-ish.
In my own mangled way, I'm trying to say that she and Ken sang their take on "Sweet Soul Revue" which was not only Pizzicato Five's fourth single from April 1993, but also their first single after transferring to the Nippon Columbia label and P5's second single with Nomiya at the mike. As the music video indicates, "Sweet Soul Revue", written and composed by P5's Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）, was their tribute to The Staple Singers, the R&B singing group responsible for hits like "Respect Yourself", and when I had heard the audio only in the past, I did think that this song was reminiscent of the soul of the 1960s and 1970s.
Under the music video in the comments section (unfortunately that video has been taken down), I read Jake_Ro_X's description of how "Sweet Soul Revue" became a hit in the Philippines because it had been used as the background music in any television commercials for the anime "Ranma 1/2"（らんま 1/2）. That's one funky backup for a cartoon! Strangely enough, "Sweet Soul Revue" was originally produced for the summer campaign commercial back in 1993 for Kanebo Cosmetics (yes, for beautiful human life!).
The song hit No. 19 on Oricon and was placed as a track on P5's 7th original album"Bossa Nova 2001"（ボサ・ノヴァ2001）which came out in June 1993. One sardonically humourous piece of trivia that I got from the J-Wiki article for "Sweet Soul Revue" involved songwriter Konishi being in the department store Barneys New York in the Big Apple when he suddenly heard this very song being played on the speakers. When he slyly told a salesperson that he had been responsible for the song's creation, the salesperson dryly replied with a whisper of a smile, "Oh, isn't that special?". I'm sure that Konishi learned a valuable lesson. 😝
In early March 2022, a digital single was released for a cover of "Sweet Soul Revue" with Nomiya, YouTuber singer Rainych, who had made an explosion about a couple of years ago with her rendition of Miki Matsubara's（松原みき）"Mayonaka no Door"（真夜中のドアー）, and Neo-City Pop band evening cinema. Perhaps it's been 30 years since the release of the original single, but Ms. Nomiya is still plenty divine.
To continue on from where I left off with Disc 1 of this special 2-CD compilation album based on Yokohama-themed songs, I'm covering Disc 2 of "Yokohama Fantasy". This time around, it was a little more difficult to track down some of the songs since once again I've covered a few of them already and others don't exist on YouTube. Also, I'd still like to write about at least one of the tracks through its own article. Well, without further ado then:
1. Bay Bridge Serenade -- Shogo Hamada (ベイ・ブリッジ・セレナーデ）
Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）"Bay Bridge Serenade" is an acapella ballad with him and the rest of the guys about a fellow taking that long lonely drive in the middle of the night and then stopping on Yokohama Bay Bridge to look at the bright lights and big city. Hamada's lyrics (he also composed the music) give the impression that the poor guy is about to give up on that lady love of his and move on with the rest of his life. But dang, if he's not going to make that final night one big beautiful doo-wop of a song.
"Bay Bridge Serenade" was a track on his September 1993 album"Sono Eien no Ichi Byo ni"（その永遠の一秒に 〜The Moment Of The Moment〜）which hit No. 1 on Oricon and quickly ended up as the 13th-ranked release of the year. By 1996, it had racked up a little over 895,000 copies in sale.
Then we have singer-songwriter Makoto Saito's（斎藤誠）"Yokohama" from his February 2002 album"Careless Memories" which is a very pretty love song. It's solidly in the pop vein and with the strings and Saito's guitar both in the arrangement, "Yokohama" can both take place in a rooftop restaurant or in front of a beach campfire although the instrumental bridge kicks things up a notch into the stratosphere.
One other track that I'll be profiling here is one that I'd already noted back in the article for Disc 1. This is singer-songwriter Tomoko Tane's（種ともこ）own version of the classic kayo "Blue Light Yokohama"as originally done by Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）back in 1968. I'd already provided another article on a cover of the song recently through former Speed member Takako Uehara（上原多香子）in 2004.
According to the J-Wiki article on "Yokohama Fantasy", Tane had released a couple of her takes on "Blue Light Yokohama" in 1991 with the first being a single version that I don't think I can find on YouTube. Perhaps that was the more straight-ahead version since the one that is included in the 2004 compilation and Tane's September 1991 album"Kiss of Life" is known as the Ambient version. And indeed, it is a pretty chill-out take with its own rearrangement by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）. In fact, next to Konishi's contribution, his other partner from Pizzicato Five, the divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）, gives an introductory narration of the eventual end of a romance in the port city.
To be honest, when I first heard this version, I did go "Huh?!" but that was more me initially getting all old-fogey about it, but now that I've heard Tane's cover a few times, it's settling in much more nicely now. In any case, if you do get a chance, be a little more ambitious as a tourist and cover even more of Yokohama than I have.
Those two police officers must have had some explaining to do at the precinct after taking this photograph with the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）of Pizzicato Five. The vocalist for one of Shibuya-kei's prominent bands was using her model looks and fashion daring to the max that day.
I'm a bit surprised that I hadn't included this track when I was writing about their 12th album, "Romantique 96" which was originally released on this day in 1995. Yep, it's been 26 years! However, and speaking of fashion, "Catwalk" is now getting its own article here. Written and composed by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）, I'm not so convinced that this is a completely Shibuya-kei tune. I think that it has some of that mixed in with some of that contemplative Pet Shop Boys feeling as Nomiya sings about enjoying as much of the glamourous life that she can before finally settling down.
Perhaps to either Nomiya or any models involved in the lyrics, life in the big city is one huge catwalk. And maybe there's a saying hidden in the message: If you look good, you feel good, you are good.
On this week's Reminiscings of Youth, I bring you a single that I first heard on FM radio one afternoon after lunch during my university years.
Level 42 had already been around for some years before "Something About You" made its premiere, and I would find out some of their earlier gems on the dance floor. I think back then, Mark King and his band were providing their share of jazz-funk, but "Something About You" was the first song by them to hit my ears. And as soon as it did, I felt that there was something about them. The song didn't sound jazzy and neither it was supremely funky; in fact, I thought it was more along the lines of synthpop with the emphasis on pop.
Coming out in September 1985, "Something About You" became my latest target to find on the airwaves to record it onto one of my haphazard Canadian Tire tapes (many people collected stamps, I collected songs from radio), and of course, I would eventually get "World Machine", the source album. The song was one of the many tunes that burrowed its way into my head and not let go, primarily because of that catchy keyboard work. However, getting "World Machine" wasn't enough for me; I just had to track down the extended remix, too.
The song did pretty well in Canada where it hit No. 13 on the RPM Singles chart and it even went all the way up to No. 4 on US Billboard's Dance Club chart. "Something About You" opened up the world of Level 42 to methrough their past songs such as "Hot Water" and "Micro-Kid" and then I would also get an even more successful album "Running in the Family" a few years later.
A couple of acts made their debut in Japan a few weeks before the arrival of "Something About You".
Well, I couldn't deny that it was a sunny day today. However, we're on the cusp of getting majorly snowed up tomorrow and then to top it all off, we'll be going into a deep freeze on Friday. The winter keeps on plowing on.
My years as a toddler were in the final period of the American network variety shows, so although it's hard to remember a lot of the singing performances at this point, I still possess a vague memory of what was going on through programs such as "The Ed Sullivan Show". I remember singers or bands on a big wide stage with go-go boot-wearing women dancing in the background as the general structure. Of course, I also remember Tom Jones and that he did have his own show for a while, but here he is above on "Ed", and I have to marvel how fluid his hip joints were back then. It wouldn't surprise me if the near-octogenarian could still put everyone younger than him to shame with his moves.
Well, here's a fine how-do-you-do! The good folks of Pizzicato Five brought back some of my childhood memories in the form of their music video for "It's a Beautiful Day". Ed and Tom and Austin Powers may be properly approving of theDivine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）and Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）along with the rest of the group as they bring back images of the Swinging '60s.
However, "It's a Beautiful Day" was P5's March 1997 single which was written and composed by Konishi. Furthermore, it also got onto the band's 10th studio album"Happy End of the World" from June of that year. The recorded song also starts off and is interspersed with a cheerleading chant that wasn't in the music video version. See how your hips feel after grooving to this one. Ah, I almost forgot to mention that the song is also included on P5's most recent BEST compilation, "The Band of 20th Century: Nippon Columbia Years 1991-2001".
Unless you're a longtime Pizzicato Five（ピチカート・ファイヴ）fan, you may be inclined to point at me and giggle like Beavis and Butthead. "Hey, look! J got his preposition wrong...and he's an English teacher and translator!"
Well, not quite. I hadn't realized it until I read the J-Wikiarticle on P5's 3rd original album from July 1989, "On Her Majesty's Request", but what I actually got from Tower Records over the Holidays was the 1995 slightly shorter version of that album (omitting two tracks) named "By Her Majesty's Request". Oh, dopey me! Prepositional hazard! However, since I will be writing about those two missing tracks here that had been on the original release, I'm keeping with the "On".
Anyways, I bought "By Her Majesty's Request" which is known in Japanese as "Jouou Heika no Pizzicato Five" (Her Majesty's Pizzicato Five) through a strong recommendation from one of the commenters. Already having some of the group's releases with the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）from the 1990s when the genre of Shibuya-kei was in full flower such as "Romantique 96"(1995) and then their very first album, "couples" (1987) when Mamiko Sasaki（佐々木麻美子）was the vocalist, I didn't need my arm twisted to pick this one up. Moreover, "On Her Majesty's Request" came out right in the middle of Takao Tajima's（田島貴男）time behind the mike for P5, so I was really interested in hearing how he sounded as a member of this most eclectic group several years before Original Love came into being. I've already written about one of the tracks from the album, "Top Secrets", which basically sealed the deal that I would be providing cyberspace here for the entire thing.
Check the Amazon link to hear brief excerpts from the album.
Now, "On Her Majesty's Request" has been categorized on J-Wiki under a whole plethora of genres: rock, soul, jazz and pop, but NOT Shibuya-kei. I thought that a bit odd but then again, the term "Shibuya-kei" apparently didn't come into conventional usage until the final decade of the 20th century. Still, as soon as I heard the very first track "Audrey Hepburn no Kyuujitsu"（オードリィ・ヘプバーンの休日...Holiday for Audrey H.）, Shibuya-kei was all I could think of.
The whole concept behind "On Her Majesty's Request" was the soundtrack for the life and loves of a fictitious spy, but listening to Keitaro Takanami's（高浪慶太郎）"Audrey Hepburn no Kyuujitsu", it wasn't actually Bond, James Bond that I imagined. In fact, I kinda settled on Harry Palmer, the cynical operative played by Michael Caine for flicks such as "Billion Dollar Brain" back in 1967 and even Pierce Brosnan's Thomas Crown for the 1990s version of "The Thomas Crown Affair". Right from note one, there was that frazzled razzle-dazzle of racing through the craziness of the city but there was also that really slow and cool trumpet by Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）trying to settle us down. Maybe the trumpet represented Palmer quietly whipping up a soufflé or Crown relaxing in his armchair and concocting another heist in his head as easily as solving a crossword puzzle.
Track 3"Shin Bellissima"（新ベリッシマ...Bellissima'90）is where we get to hear Tajima for the first time on the album. Classy and rowdy at the same time, it's almost like hearing a track that was created for both the martini-sipping and beer-swilling sets in the same bar. This was written and composed by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）and it's got that rock mixed in with the Shibuya-kei as Tajima has that lighter voice when compared to his time as Original Love. Lyrically, it's all about that man (or cad) about town getting ready to give that goodbye to his soon-to-be former girlfriend. Guitarist Hiroyuki Hanada（花田裕之）provides the solo.
"Lip Service"（リップ・サーヴィス）which was created by Tajima and Konishi is a sultry but also bubbly concoction featuring the former marveling at the wonders of a kiss. Nobuo Yagi（八木のぶ夫）provides the harmonica solo. Listening to this one, I get images of the original Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) and Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway) getting into that lip-locking.
(15:30)
Boys, be ambitious indeed! Pizzicato Five was ambitious enough to provide an album within an album of sorts through their "Excerpts from the music for film 'EROTICA Operation'". One of my favourites among those excerpts was "Spy Tai Spy"（スパイ対スパイ...SPY vs SPY） which was also made by Tajima and Konishi, and as the title indicates, it's the P5 take on a swinging 60s spy caper with plenty of suspense and champagne and jazz, and even some narration by Konishi. Love the punctuating horns and timpani here!
One track that stands out is "Eisei Chuukei"（衛星中継...Satellite Hour）by Konishi and performed by Tajima and Maki Nomiya before she officially became the next and most famous vocalist for Pizzicato Five. It stands out since it diverges from that spy movie theme and takes on a rather cute and slightly technopop arrangement. Junko Sugimura（杉村純子）provides the voice sample here as Tajima and Nomiya sing about the joy of receiving telly from all over the planet. Strange connection here but this one has me remembering certain pages from the Marvel comic "Excalibur" (possible future movie in the MCEU?) in which adorable and innocent Meggan is lapping up all of the television she can while sucking back on a milkshake.
(Head back to the video above for "Spy Tai Spy" and look for 13:16.)
To finish off this article (and I'll probably have to come up with a follow-up article for "On Her Majesty's Request" in the near future), I'm going to provide the two omitted songs that I mentioned up top that made "On Her Majesty's Request" into "By Her Majesty's Request". One is actually the first excerpt from "EROTICA Operation", "Nairobi no Jouou Heika"（ナイロビの女王陛下...The African Queen） by Konishi which is this rumbling tropical instrumental propelled by the percussion and the great sax by the late Jake H. Concepcion. I will now have those Mai Tais at Trader Vic's please!
The second song that got omitted from the 1995 "By Her Majesty's Request" was the final track for "On Her Majesty's Request", "Go Go Jouou Heika"（ゴーゴー女王陛下...Her Majesty au Go-Go）, also by Konishi at 53:10 in the video for the entire album. Like the earlier "Eisei Chuukei", this is more technopop that gives a loud shoutout to Art of Noise and possibly even M.A.R.R.S of "Pump Up The Volume" fame.
As I said, "On Her Majesty's Request" is so filled with fascinating songs that I will have to do a follow-up on it next month or so since there are a couple of other special guests that I couldn't include here. The album strikes me as being a massing of Pizzicato Five's past, present and future (at the time) with all three vocalists throughout its history taking part (Sasaki's contribution isn't included here) and the musical styles that P5 dabbled in.
One interesting point that I got from the J-Wiki article for "On Her Majesty's Request" is perhaps the spark that got the album done in its distinctive style in the first place. Apparently, Konishi had felt for a while that the prior album "Bellissima!" (1988) was a failure since he thought that everyone had gotten a little too serious about its production and that it lacked that certain whimsy. Perhaps that feeling was the annoying grain of sand in the P5 oyster that became the pearl of "On Her Majesty's Request".
Going way back into my memories, there are a few very early ones that I still miraculously retain. One would be crawling around on all four on the wooden floor in a family friend's house, and another would be seeing a "Hockey Night In Canada" broadcast on the CBC on the ancient black-and-white TV in our very first apartment.
My early memories also include musical ones, as well. One of the earliest songs that I remember hearing and liking was "All You Need Is Love" by The Beatles, and it is the one that I will always first associate with The Fab Four.
Another one is "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)". Being only around 2 years old at the time, I certainly couldn't retain knowledge of the whole title but I did keep "groovy" in my head. It was such a happy tune that I could imagine that a lot of toddlers reacted to it like candy. But it wasn't the original by Simon & Garfunkel that I loved, and in fact, I only heard the original for the first time just a few months ago and was surprised at how short it was. Nope, it was the 1967 cover version by Harpers Bizarre with that woodwind section. "Feelin' Groovy" was categorized as a sunshine pop song, a genre that I hadn't even been aware of and that was the label which was put onto the band also.
In any case, hearing it again after so many decades, I realized that even the Harpers Bizarre version was also pretty short and kinda reflected what seems to be a very innocent age. At the most basic level, it's such a happy ditty.
So when I heard that Pizzicato V (as it was written back in the band's early days) had also recorded a cover, I first assumed that these would be the guys to cover something like "Feelin' Groovy". But then I discovered that their Japanese-language version had been recorded as an addition to their very first single"The Audrey Hepburn Complex" back in August 1985, and remembering that song, Pizzicato V hadn't taken on that familiar Shibuya-kei sheen quite yet. It was more of a quirky technopop unit with Mamiko Sasaki（佐々木麻美子）as the lead vocalist.
And sure enough, Pizzicato V's take on one of the earliest songs that I could remember is more of a light and spacey version with some snappy percussion, to boot. Instead of go-go boots and mini-skirts, I envisage space boots and rocket packs. But dang, although it still retains that short time, it's also quite catchy with Masami Ogura's（小倉雅美）Japanese lyrics in place. The song is also on the band's first BEST album"Pizzicatomania!"（ピチカートマニア!）from July 1987.
Over the years on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we've covered a fair share of female singers who's possessed that mixture of style, class and even a hint of...danger. I'm thinking of ladies such as Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）of Pizzicato Five, Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）and Kaori Momoi（桃井かおり）. Now, I would like to introduce Mari Natsuki（夏木マリ）.
Perhaps for international audiences, Natsuki may be known as the voice of Yubaba on the Studio Ghibli film "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi"（千と千尋の神隠し...Spirited Away）, but I've seen this actress/singer a number of times on TV over the years. By my impression, she has that sort of presence which would demand the best armchair at a swanky soiree at some mansion where she could gleefully hold court as one of the best raconteurs that any of the partygoers ever met. I think the adjective "vivacious" would be an ideal one for her.
Beginning her recording career under her stage name of Mari Natsuki in 1973, she released her first single, "Kinu no Kutsushita"（絹の靴下...Silk Stockings）and since then she's released 26 more singles up to 2012 and several albums. The subject of this article "Ichiban Suki na Mono" (My Favourite Things) is a track on her 2013 album "Natsuki Mari ~ Inshouha Collection"（夏木マリ 印象派コレクション...Mari Natsuki ~ Impressionists' Collection）.
Purring her way through, I can imagine her singing an acapella version of "Ichiban Suki na Mono" under a spotlight in a darkened intimate live house in the basement while sucking back on a cigarette. However, I do like the full version here with that Latin jazz and Shibuya-kei vibe. Not surprisingly, it was Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）from Pizzicato Five who wrote and composed this one for Natsuki as she sings about her love of makeup, cigarettes and wearing fur coats (and nothing underneath). However, there is some darkness as she also mentions about crying within all that luxury. Still, it wouldn't do for her to show that side to her admirers.
Last Thursday, just before I met up with my fellow translators for a meeting downtown, I decided to drop into BMV Books which is a local group of shops selling all sorts of books, DVDs and records/CDs. Since returning to Toronto from Japan, I've kept up the bookstore browsing.
Well, as I was in the basement looking at the LPs and CDs, I did manage to find this EP CD by Pizzicato Five titled "Nonstop to Tokyo", selling for just a little over $5 CDN. Not wanting to look at a gift horse in the mouth, I didn't hesitate and bought it. Plus, there is a bit of a personal connection since that is exactly the plane that I use to get to Japan...the Air Canada nonstop between Toronto and Tokyo.
The EP, released in July 1999 (peaked at No. 55 on Oricon), consists of 5 tracks including the title track. As would be expected from a P5 album, "Nonstop to Tokyo" has our congenial hosts, Maki Nomiya and Yasuharu Konishi（野宮真貴・小西康陽）, leading our flight with a light vocal delivery paired with some hip-swiveling groovalicious beats. I can only wish that those nonstop flights to Tokyo would be nearly as fun. Alas, perhaps some alcohol on the way would remedy things somewhat...
"Room Service" is a slightly less frenetic number that still retains that Shibuya-kei style. My imagination envisions those "Mad Men" executives sitting nonchalantly in a 60s space-age lounge knocking back those cocktails as this song is playing. Personally, I've never had room service in a hotel, preferring to get my meals somewhere out on the town. However, when I was in Japan in 2014, I did ask to have a massage in the room, and the masseuse did a very intense job on my shoulders and back. Amazing how far sinews can stretch!
I couldn't find "Bossa Nova 3003" but did find "Mademoiselle" which brings back the energy levels. The Divine Ms. Nomiya could be on the stage leading the way with her mike while a bunch of young ladies and gentlemen are shimmying vigorously all over the dance floor. I don't think I've used the term mademoiselle since Grade 12 French!
The last track is a radio edit of "Nonstop to Tokyo" but I couldn't find it on YouTube. However, I did find an interesting version of the song which was included on a P5 2001 album"Çà et là du Japon", since the vocalist here is not Nomiya but veteran singer and frequent informercial guest Shigeru Matsuzaki（松崎しげる）. Although the Wikipedia article for the album lists both Matsuzaki and former Sparks keyboardist Ron Mael as the vocalists, I can only hear the dulcet tones of "Captain" Matsuzaki on this version.
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