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.
Today is supposedly the last day of our current heat wave and yep, it was a hot one as I walked the concrete in midtown Toronto to meet up with a couple of friends for lunch at Kinton Ramen. I had a pretty tasty if spicy mazemen and I found myself having to deal with my own "ring of fire" issues later on in the day.
Anyways, to keep on with this summer theme, I have here "Summer Tour" by rock band RC Succession（RCサクセション）as their 12th single from June 1982. Written and composed by vocalist Kiyoshiro Imawano（忌野清志郎）and guitarist Reichi Nakaido（仲井戸麗市）, the arrangement is appropriately New Wave sinuous and salivating as the late Imawano sings not of his own band making the rounds around the nation during the hot season but of waiting for a beautiful young lady to walk past his way again so his eyes can get their fill. The song peaked at No. 6 on Oricon and there's something in that underlying rhythm which reminds me of an upbeat take on The Animals' cover of "The House of the Rising Sun" that got especially featured in the Martin Scorcese movie "Casino".
I realize that it's a day early for Reminiscings of Youth but on hearing yesterday about the passing of The Rolling Stones' drummer, Charlie Watts (1941-2021), I felt that I should have put something up as soon as possible. Now, I was never a Rolling Stones fan but their presence in popular culture was so great that even as a non-fan, at least some of their songs were very well known to me such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash", and I knew about the outsized personalities of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Often when I compare 80s aidoru superstarsSeiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, I use the analogy of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as respectively applied to them.
(Video from the Drum Channel)
My lone Rolling Stones anecdote comes from years back when I was teaching at the second school during my 1994-2011 time in the Kanto region. One Monday, I had to do a series of level checks for young employees at the swanky Four Seasons Hotel in Tokyo not too far away from Japan's equivalent of The Pentagon. Once I was finished, I was given a pleasant afternoon tea service as part of their gratitude and I had a nice conversation with the hotel manager which led to some of the famous stars that have stayed at the Four Seasons. When he told me that The Rolling Stones had stayed there, his eyes rolled so hard in his head that their pupils could have bulged out the back of it. Let's say that they weren't the cleanest or the most button-down of guests.
And yet, I couldn't have imagined that Charlie Watts would have been involved in any of the debauchery (although I came to know about his vices in the 1980s). When I first saw him on television in the 70s or 80s, he already looked old to me compared to Mick and the others. Watts' hair was either already gray or graying. I don't know anything about his drumming philosophy or style but he always struck me as being the stoic parental anchor behind those drums. He appeared well-grounded and very dapper in his suits, and I think that he would have been the most approachable Stone.
For this ROY article, I've gone with one of their first hits, "Paint It Black" which was released as a single in May 1966. It's one of the Stones' songs that I know very well and even my anime buddy who has love for electric guitars has played "Paint It Black" constantly as part of his practice regime. Not being too cognizant about the Stones and their work, as I've mentioned above, listening to "Paint It Black", which was created by Jagger and Richards, there was the familiar melody with the sitar which I would find out on Wikipedia was the first time that a song with such an instrument would become a No. 1 hit. I also discovered that "Paint It Black" dealt with a person's earth-shattering loss and how he saw the world during that time of mourning.
Covers of "Paint It Black" have been done over and over in the decades since the song's initial success, and that includes Japanese artists. Given the direct translation of "Kuroku Nure!"（黒くぬれ!）, rockers such as RC Succession（RCサクセション）and Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）have given the Stones' classic their own take. RC Succession, led by the late Kiyoshiro Imawano（忌野清志郎）, is performing the song above although I couldn't find out who had provided the Japanese lyrics.
Now, what was being released in May 1966 in Japan according to Showa Pops?
As I said in one of my articles from yesterday, I was blessed with a large number of kayo singles and albums from my friend Steve in Manhattan through a large package since he wanted to unload his record collection before moving out West. One of the 45s I saw among the records is a Japanese chanson classic, "Sans Toi M'amie" by the Queen of Chanson in Japan, the late Fubuki Koshiji（越路吹雪）.
But before I come to her, "Sans Toi M'amie" (Without You, My Love) was originally created and recorded by Belgium's Salvatore Adamo, a singer that I have already profiled in this blog through his other hit "Tombe La Neige", known in Japanese as "Yuki ga Furu"（雪が降る）. Adamo was only 19 when he sang "Sans Toi M'amie" for the first time in 1962.
A couple of years later in June 1964, Koshiji released her version of "Sans Toi M'amie", and it is the version that I know the best. In fact, I was surprised that I hadn't yet covered it in "Kayo Kyoku Plus". It's one of Koshiji's trademark hits along with "Ai no Sanka"（愛の讃歌）and although it has that hint of grandness that I've come to associate with chanson, the song is somewhat tempered by a certain lightness in the arrangement as if the singer is asking listeners not to take things so seriously. There is that feeling of a boozy waltz, thanks to the laidback instrumental accompaniment, and yeah, I think it can be danced to.
Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）provided the Japanese lyrics to "Sans Toi M'amie". Koshiji herself was invited onto the Kohaku Utagassen of 1964 to perform it.
However, "Sans Toi M'amie" was not left behind as a relic of the music of the 1960s. It has been covered by a number of other artists with their own musical imprint. The band RC Succession gave the song its own rocking beat in their covers album, obviously titled "COVERS" which came out in August 1988. It hit No. 1 and went Gold.
I also like freshly-graduated Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）member Maki Goto's（後藤真希）take on "Sans Toi M'amie" with its relaxing pop sound that has an echo from the past. This was her 5th single from December 2002, and I think it's because I didn't follow her solo career all that doggedly that her more mature delivery stood out all the more to me. Her version peaked at No. 6. It was also a track on Goto's special album for a soundtrack from a musical that she starred in, "Ken & Mary no Meriken-ko On Stage!"（けん&メリーのメリケン粉オンステージ!...Ken & Mary's Wheat Flour On Stage!）from March 2003. It went as high as No. 59 on the album charts.
A couple of my friends who are far more tech-savvy than I ever will be got together with me earlier this week for our seasonal dinners at our usual sports bar. One of the topics of conversation was about the horrible kerfuffle with Samsung's exploding Galaxy Note 7. We all agreed that despite Samsung's current woes that in all likelihood, Japan's electronics makers will not be able to capitalize on the Korean manufacturer's lapse since companies like Sony have all gone into their own quagmires long ago. I really haven't heard anything great from Sony since the PlayStation 1 and that grand invention was 20 years ago.
Even further back was the Sony Walkman. If you were into jogging in that day-glo fashion back then, the Walkman was one of those needed accessories to be seen while all your favourite songs could be heard at a touch of a button. Somewhere in my apartment, a blue Walkman is languishing somewhere as a technological relic of the 20th century. If my niece ever lays eyes on it, she would probably give a look with a message of "Oh...how very quaint". However, I would still be happy to play any of my old tapes on it as long as the internal machinery is still intact.
Maybe that's why I got so nostalgic listening to "Transistor Radio" by rock group RC Succession (RCサクセション). Led by the late colourful Kiyoshiro Imawano（忌野清志郎）, I saw these guys as this glam rock unit with a New Wave bent which would have had me avoid them when I was a teenager since that genre was a tad too extreme for me at the time.
I actually heard this being performed earlier this afternoon on NHK's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）by a middle-aged guy from Fukuyama City in Hiroshima Prefecture, and although he got those "nice-try-but-no-cigar" 2 dings on the bells, I actually liked what he sang. So I decided to give RC Succession a try.
And so here is "Transistor Radio" above which has Imawano bopping about in his light cosmetics and rock wear. Plus, there is that early 80s New Wave-y music but then I see a couple of soprano saxophones playing in the backing band, and I thought that this was certainly not a usual sight for a rock concert. Imawano and some fellow under the moniker of G1,238,471 were responsible for the creation of the cheerful "Transistor Radio" about a teenager skipping school and smoking out his lungs while listening to those great songs from the States and abroad. Yup, good times were had.
The one thing I will always remember about Imawano along with his spiky hair and war paint on his face is his strangulated vocals. Love them or not, they will always identify him. "Transistor Radio" was RC Succession's 11th single from October 1980 and was also a track on the band's special album "EPLP" from June 1981 which peaked at No. 22 on Oricon.
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