Presents -- Feeling Like a Child (Part 3)

 

We've come to the final part of the trio of articles regarding Presents' "Feeling Like a Child" after Part 1 and Part 2, the 1980 labour of love involving Fumio Miura（三浦文夫）and his good buddies from childhood. Let's get into the final three songs.

Guitarist/percussionist Shunya "Chabo" Hashimoto（橋本俊哉）finally gets his time behind the words, music and microphone to perform his "Morning Beach". From reading his own commentary on the making of this fun track, it appears that Chabo was beginning from scratch when it came to crafting a melody and lyrics. He could have done a Bocchi and self-destructed but instead, I imagine that he rolled up his sleeves, declared "All right! Let's make the donuts!" and got to work.

And it's a great work. He said that he couldn't really come up with a pop melody, so he went with a T-Bone Walker blues intro and then incorporated something new in a Michael Franks vein. "Morning Beach" swings jazzily and there's even the keyboard interlude which had me thinking Steely Dan, and sure enough, the CD's liner notes make the reference to that legendary band. Chabo's lyrics originated from his own surfing experiences on the Shonan beach during his college days. In fact, along with "Bocchi the Rock", I'm also reminded of the anime "Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!" in that a cooler-than-thou surfer dude is trying to (pretend to) ignore a persistent beach lass.

"Nettaimu"（熱帯夢...Tropical Dream） is a way-south funky tune that gets me hints of Junko Yagami（八神純子） of the late 1970s and perhaps fusion bands such as Casiopea and The Square. Miura and Hibino go behind the mike to take the former's creation and fly through a whirlwind romance somewhere in the Caribbean. Although I mention Yagami, Hibino's delivery is once again quite reminiscent of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）with her high pitch. Chabo provided the instrumental soloing in which he was very modest in the website commentary as he gave a critique of his own performance as if Mr. Spock had been a musician.😆

The final track of the original album is "Cloudy Bossa Nova" which was officially given words and music by drummer Tadashi Noguchi（野口匡）although the commentary states that Miura, Kiyo and Chabo helped out with their parts. The drummer also sings the finale for "Feeling Like a Child", a song that involved strumming out the chords while humming out those favourite bossa nova songs. Noguchi sings about a view on a cloudy day but the music feels as if the weather isn't totally overcast; more like a plethora of clouds out there with some sunny breaks. The liner notes posited that "Cloudy Bossa Nova" can be compared to an urban and urbane Michael Franks song.

"Feeling Like a Child" the 2022 CD also has three more tracks which are the original backtrack mixes for "New York Nante Ikanai"（ニューヨークなんて行かない）, "Dim" and the title track. Also to let you know, although most of Presents were able to give their comments on "Feeling Like a Child", unfortunately Kiyo Nakamura（中村清明）passed away in 2006 at the age of 49 according to the Profile page and there's also a touching tribute to him by Yuriko "Yurippe" Yamazaki（山﨑有里子）.

I guess for me, listening to "Feeling Like a Child" had me feeling like a teen again when music akin to what Presents' had made was the freshest thing out on the radio waves and in the clubs, thanks to all of the groovy West Coast sounds that were coming out back then. This has been a great find and I'm grateful to Rocket Brown for keying me in on this successful labour of love by these college kids and also to those college kids themselves for daring to go big and small. Along with Presents and So Nice, I'm left wondering with potential anticipation about what other groups of university students were ambitious enough to cut their own urban contemporary projects back in the day. Before I finish off, I ought to lead you back to the band's homepage which has a brief testimonial by singer-songwriter Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）.

Presents -- Feeling Like a Child (Part 2)

 

Last Friday, just before 2022 entered the history books, I gave my account on Part 1 of this one-and-only light and mellow album from 1980, "Feeling Like a Child" by a group of childhood and then university buddies known collectively as Presents. Just to remind folks, the lineup included keyboardist/percussionist Fumio Miura（三浦文夫）, guitarist Kiyoaki "Kiyo" Nakamura（中村清明）, guitarist/percussionist Shunya "Chabo" Hashimoto（橋本俊哉）, bassist Takeshi Nakajima（中島猛）, drummer/percussionist Tadashi Noguchi（野口匡）, backup singers Reiko Hibino（日比野礼子）and Yuriko "Yurippe" Yamazaki（山﨑有里子）. The "Feeling Like a Child" project was only ever meant as a labour of love and the thinking was that once the album was given out to family and friends, that would be all she wrote. However, 42 years later, there were some minds changed. The album is now out for City Pop fans everywhere and there's even an English-language website for the band.

Before we get into the next three tracks of "Feeling Like a Child", let me marvel at the fact that because the band couldn't afford renting any sort of studio at the time, the entire project from writing to recording was done in Miura's tiny one-room apartment measuring just 11 square meters or 118 square feet. Man, Miura and company, and for that matter, their neighbours, must have been an extremely patient lot. Go ahead and read the Production Story on their website.

Track 4 is "Hohoemi no Naka de"（ほほえみの中で...In Smiles） which was written and composed by Miura with our first listen to Hibino on main vocals and Yurippe on backup. If I've interpreted the lyrics correctly, the story behind the song is relating a woman's encouragement to her husband to get out there and get at 'em. And she actually likes his facial growth. There is the brief commentary for each track on Presents' website but I was even more attracted to the CD's liner notes in which it was mentioned that "Hohoemi no Naka de" has that tone of a "Grey Skies" Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）who had just begun her solo career in the mid-1970s.  I would certainly agree with that observation.

As mentioned in those liner notes, the title track "Feeling Like a Child" is groovy and soulful and it has that sunny 1970s vibe. Perhaps I may not be too amiss when I state that the song is reminiscent of the stuff that Ohnuki's old bandmate, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, was doing in the early part of his solo career in that decade. The website's assessment of the song describes the scene of a sports car heading to a chic café near Victor Aoyama Studio in Tokyo. I'm not sure whether any of the band actually did that (considering their tight budget, probably not), but it must have been nice for them to fantasize it. "Feeling Like a Child" is another Miura creation with Kiyo handling vocals this time. 

I believe Track 6 (and the final track for this week), "Dim" started off Side B on the original 1980 LP and Miura provides word and music here, too. There's some bossa nova and jazz infused into this bittersweet song which Hibino tackles with aplomb although at points, the instruments almost overwhelm her vocals. "Dim" is a lovely tune nonetheless as it relates the story of the memories of a love affair slowly dimming. Probably out of all of the tracks, this one really seems to fit the album cover illustrated by the Hiroshi Nagai（永井博）; indeed, it's good ol' Resort Pop. I was a tad surprised by the comment on the website comparing the synths at the end of the song being reminiscent of the early progressive rock by Genesis.

Next week, we'll wrap up "Feeling Like a Child" with the last few tracks.

Presents -- Feeling Like a Child (Part 1)

 

To give credit where credit is due, City Pop specialist and good friend Rocket Brown of the podcast "Come Along Radio" recommended this group to me several weekends ago when we were chatting on Discord. Fortunately, I was able to take a close gander at their website information in the days leading up to this first article since I hadn't been sure which words were the band's name and which ones were the album title.😁 Well, for the record, the band's name is Presents and their one-and-only album is "Feeling Like a Child" from 1980.

Some years ago, I wrote up on the band So Nice and their 1979 album "Love". A band that showed their admiration and love for the earlier group Sugar Babe with Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）through the various sunny tracks, I was surprised to discover that "Love" had been created by a bunch of university students who simply wanted to commemorate their amateur band days by wrapping things up in a bow with "Love" which had never been meant to be sold publicly but given out to family and friends as a present.

Well, guess what? Lightning can strike twice. The band Presents consisted of a group of childhood friends from Nerima and Nakano Wards in Tokyo who also had mutual associations with music, so they decided to make their own one-and-only album for distribution to their loved ones. What became "Feeling Like a Child" would be their 1980 creation just before they all headed out to the working world from university.

Keyboardist/percussionist Fumio Miura（三浦文夫）, guitarist Kiyoaki "Kiyo" Nakamura（中村清明）, guitarist/percussionist Shunya "Chabo" Hashimoto（橋本俊哉）, bassist Takeshi Nakajima（中島猛）, drummer/percussionist Tadashi Noguchi（野口匡）, backup singers Reiko Hibino（日比野礼子）and Yuriko "Yurippe" Yamazaki（山﨑有里子）made up Presents. All of the band members except for Yurippe had their opportunity behind the microphone, and apparently the rule was that each member had to come up with one song and a set of lyrics.

"Feeling Like a Child" was indeed given out to family and friends and then quietly left alone. Then, 42 years later, it was unearthed once more and with the resurgence in City Pop outside of Japan over the last few years, the album was given a new production shine before it was put onto the market from November 3rd 2022. I was happy to see that it was readily available on CD Japan and after hearing a couple of tracks on YouTube, I pulled the trigger and bought the album. 

One more thing before I get into the first three tracks for Part 1 of this "Presents" series. It's wonderful that there is an all-English version of the band's website so everyone can find out about what made Presents tick and how "Feeling Like a Child" was produced, right down to the equipment used. I don't think that I ever been to a website that is as welcoming and homey as the one for this band is. It's almost as if I was going to be offered a cup of coffee and a massage chair when I hit the site. Heck, there is even one photo of some of the band members as kids.

"New York Nante Ikanai"（ニューヨークなんて行かない...I'm Not Going to New York） starts things off and indeed as it's written on their website, the song is mainstream Tokyo City Pop that was created and sung by Kiyo Nakamura. There is some nice groove going on here, accompanied by mellow brass that seems to be de rigueur for any City Pop song that has to do with the Big Apple. New York City isn't being especially slammed here by Nakamura; all he's saying is that there's no need to take the plane over to enjoy the big city life. As long as the significant other is present, then any nearby Japanese metropolis including Tokyo is perfectly fine for him.

Incidentally, the hospitality of the Presents site includes a page which provides a brief paragraph on each of the tracks. Therefore, you can get the band's take on what was going on when the songs were being produced.

Nakamura was also wholly behind Track 2, "One Night Darling", a relaxed but still rollicking tune about spending a night with that young lady. As mentioned in the commentary, Chabo Hashimoto leads the charge with some funky beats and Miura provides gliding keyboard support including a trip-the-light-fantastic solo on his Fender Rhodes.

The next track is "Forget and Forgive", written, composed and sung by bassist Nakajima. It's another languid slow jam which has been pictured by Nakajima himself in the commentary as an ideal driving song. I do agree with the bassist that it's something to be played in the wee hours past midnight. He also pointed out that he came up with the title when he saw the famous phrase in a dictionary, but from his lyrics, I also like to think that the setting is a man driving his car on the highway to let off some steam following a kerfuffle with his girlfriend.

The first two Fridays of 2023 will cover the remainder of "Feeling Like a Child", but I can let you know now that I think the album is a good get for any City Pop fans.