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.
A few days ago, I posted a 1989 Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）Xmas song titled "Futari dake no Christmas"(A Christmas Just For Two) that came across as this rather holy cherished Xmas experience for the loving couple. Maybe the only thing that was missing was a priest.
Well, when I found Seiko-chan's song, I also found another one with the same title (basically). But this "Futari dake no X'mas" was actually released as a B-side to singer-songwriter Hiroaki Igarashi's（五十嵐浩晃）11th single "Summer Twilight"（サマー・トワイライト）in October 1988, and in terms of tone, it's quite the lighthearted and jolly City Pop duet featuring Igarashi and Rajie, neither of them newbies to City Pop.
Written by both Igarashi and Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）with Igarashi's melody being arranged by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, the song seems to surround a couple at a Xmas party at a mutual friend's residence (don't be shy...plenty of KFC to munch on) and the lovebirds, who may have yet to announce their relationship, are trying to find some alone time in a niche to at least clink a couple of glasses of champagne. That's gotta be one big house the friend has, but then again, this was released during the Bubble (or bubbly) Era. Anyways, I can also hear this "Futari dake no X'mas" accompanying a breezy montage of the couple having a great day together window shopping, sipping hot chocolate at a trendy cafe in Tokyo and even shooting snowballs at each other to much laughter.
According to the thumbnail for the video and what I found on J-Wiki, "Futari dake no X'mas" is included on Igarashi's 7th original album"Distance" which was also released in October 1988.
Arrangers: Tsugutoshi Goto, Yukihiro Takahashi and Mitsuo Hagita
From Rajie's 1977 album: "Heart to Heart"
The original version of "THE TOKYO TASTE" had been a track on Sadistics' debut album. This version was recorded only some months after, but with an emphasis on a tight groove, it has an even more pronounced City Pop flavour. In addition to the speed of its evolution, I see the passion and fullness of the Tokyo pop scene of that time. The combination of Rajie's（ラジー）translucent vocals paired with Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）quirky voice indeed makes for an exquisite and feel-good experience.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Believe it or not, we're approaching a decade since one of our early contributors to KKP, nikala, was kind enough to post her article on Rajie's（ラジ）November 1980 album"Mahiru no Hodou"(真昼の舗道). Like myself, she gave her opinions on some of the tracks but not all of them. If I can, I usually like to save some of those remaining tracks for their own individual articles.
And I guess in a way, this is a cross-pollination situation where an album one of my colleagues had covered in 2013 now has a track that she didn't cover being covered by me in 2023. Therefore, I'm going to take the baton and write about "Appartement", which was the fifth and final track on Side A of the original LP. That's great since it's been a while since I've posted anything about the singer who had been born Atsuko Souma（相馬淳子）.
"Appartement"(The Apartment) was written and composed by Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）for Rajie. Starting out a bit avant-garde, we get some cool New Wave...well, some French New Wave (yes, I'm being cute about the art film movement that began in the late 1950s). Just like Ohnuki did, Rajie herself was making some transitions from City Pop into technopop and a certain French-ness in the arrangements as both were going into the new decade, and Rajie's vocals are reminiscent of Ohnuki's own delivery, albeit with a bit more gravitas.
Just like poetry which reads like that love story and with a melody that seems like a landscape photograph fluttering in the wind, one can spend a calm early afternoon at the setting of the Velvet Motel. Backed by a captivating Niagara rhythm pattern that spontaneously borrows from rock bandMAMALAID RAG, the banter with Rajie is also unique. It's a splendid battle of sharp wits with a few curve balls thrown in.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
A bit early in the week for City Pop but heck, I've exercised my Captain's Prerogative. Besides, this is a song that I've been meaning to get on board for a while now but it just wasn't getting written about for various reasons including forgetfulness.
Haven't done a Rajie（ラジー）song since last November, so it's good to have her atmospheric "Bara no Gurasu" (Rose Glass) up on the blog at last. A track from her November 1981 album"Acoustic Moon", this was written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）, and it hits a lot of the different genre buttons. The bossa nova is there from Note One but a piano brings in some jazz as well. Also as we get a little deeper into "Bara no Gurasu", we also get some of that sophisti-pop and perhaps some of that Fashion Music, thanks to that relaxing languidness in the arrangement. Like a good sangria, they all blend into something very cool and urban as if the cocktail just has to be poured into that rose glass.
It's really not all that steamy out there tonight but it's always nice to have something as cooling as this one by Rajie.
Earlier this morning, I received a comment from an Anonymous person who was mentioning about a song by singer-songwriter Rajie（ラジー）. I hadn't written about her in quite a while so I decided to do some checking and came across "Shion".
For purposes of elucidation, I felt that I had to put up this flower which is known as "shion" in Japanese but refers to a particular light purple aster. Thanks to Wiktionary for this one.
"Shion" is a track from Rajie's November 1981 album"Acoustic Moon" and as Anonymous described it, it is wonderful and very distinct. I'm not sure whether there is any direct reference to the aster or even the colour but I'm more drawn to the fact that it has elements of not only City Pop in the sophisticated pop vein but also some of that Fashion Music that I've occasionally mentioned with singers such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）. Seeing the songwriters behind it, lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Akira Inoue（井上鑑）, that was an awfully big Bat-signal for me to check it out post-haste. As well, some of the French-ness in the music also had me thinking Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）.
I've got her BEST compilation as you can see from the thumbnail photo at the top, but maybe I'm missing out on some of the other selections on "Acoustic Moon". Perhaps there is still a small chance that I can get it on one of the sites. In any case, good choice, Anonymous!
September has entered rather peacefully here. It's sunny and unlike several of the past days, it actually feels cooler and drier (although I've still got the fan going in my room). Knowing Toronto, in a few weeks, we may actually be hearing frost warnings at night. Sorry to my heat-loving fellow Torontonians...I don't mean to jinx anything.
Anyways, I was trying to see if there were any other September-themed kayo out there but I did discover this song by Rajie titled "Natsu ~ Hachi-gatsu no Memoir"(Summer ~ Memoirs of August) that seems to fit the bill whenever I write anything at "Kayo Kyoku Plus" on September 1st. It's fairly contemplative with the singer's breathy vocals and that languid piano. "Natsu" does feel like the summer has suddenly gone into hibernation again and it's just a matter of time before the leaves begin changing colour. Uploader purplesound was quite accurate when he describes it as a Dream Pop number. Maybe it's a little like Fashion Music as sung by folks like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）and Asami Kado（門あさ美）.
The song comes from Rajie's October 1984 album"Gogo no Relief"（午後のレリーフ...Afternoon Relief） with lyricist Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composer Takashi Sato（佐藤隆）working on it, and City Pop master Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）arranging everything.
Forty years ago on March 21st 1981, the late singer-songwriter Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）released an album that would become his magnum opus, "A Long Vacation". It would get a ton of accolades and it finished just behind Akira Terao's（寺尾聰）"Reflections" as Oricon's No. 2 album of the year.
I've already covered the album along with some of the other tracks that I've covered individually, and in fact earlier today, some of us got together on Rocket Brown's "Come Along Radio" to go over "A Long Vacation" (which will be appearing on some platform sometime in the weeks to come). One song that I had yet to profile on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was the second track on Side A, "Velvet Motel" that was a work between lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composer Ohtaki.
Imbued with that iconic Ohtaki sound that imbues most of the tracks on "A Long Vacation", "Velvet Motel" is kinda like that Act I in a romance-comedy: it's carefree and comical before the more dramatic elements enter and contrasts nicely with the epic "Kimi wa Tennen Shoku"（君は天然色） that begins the album. And interestingly enough, Matsumoto's lyrics actually relate a story of a couple checking into that titular motel with the guy ending up sleeping on the couch due to a tiff that night, although there is some amiable teasing back-and-forth between Ohtaki and special guest Rajie（ラジー）that becomes more prominent once the headphones are put on.
I found out yesterday that in November 2009, a tribute album to the works on "A Long Vacation" was released titled "A Long Vacation from Ladies" in which a number of veteran female singers do their cover versions of Ohtaki's tracks. Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）, Miki Imai（今井美樹）, Hiromi Ohta（太田裕美）and Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）are included in the list.
Man, this has been the most difficult Creator article and this has been the most difficult Author's Picks article that I've ever written...in a good way, of course. Ryuichi Sakamoto has been a music producer, musician, composer and arranger for so long and for so many other artists that his breadth of work is simply too huge to cover adequately, and I'm not going to pretend that I can even try to do that (in fact, a list of his works needed a separate page on J-Wiki). Therefore, I will take the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup approach and merge the Creator and Author's Picks here for this one article.
On top of that, that list is so big that I have decided to narrow things down by just including my very favourite songs (and yup, most of them are on the technopop side) by the Tokyo-born music man, and those are creations that he has provided other singers. Therefore, none of his Yellow Magic Orchestra or his solo material are included. Even so, I had to cram the Labels section to the 20-item limit so I couldn't even include all of the genres that he has dabbled in, but perhaps I can do so here: along with the Pop that I could squeeze in on the side, there are techno, New Wave, Latin, and City Pop among others. He's also been known to have helped in the formation of genres such as hip-hop and electro but otherwise, you can get the full biography at Wikipedia.
Finally, the entries that I've given here are ones that already have representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so the usual links will be present. However, some time in the next little while, I hope to get a second part of my tribute to The Professor up on the blog which will cover those songs of his that I have yet to get acquainted with.
This is a Sakamoto instrumental but it was included on his YMO bandmate Takahashi's（高橋幸宏）solo "Saravah!" album. With "Elastic Dummy", I think about my favourite salad that I bought from convenience stores such as Lawson and 7/11 with all sorts of bright and leafy vegetables with the much-vaunted protein of chicken chunks and a spicy-sweet dressing. In other words, "Elastic Dummy" has got everything of nutritious urban contemporary value: disco, detective drama soundtrack, City Pop, jazz, samba, technopop noodling, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and perhaps even a look into early 2000s J-R&B. Y'know, I wouldn't mind hearing this ball of fun (how much coffee did The Professor have when he created this one?!) being played over some ending credit sequence for a movie.
A track from Rajie's 1979"Quatre" album, Sakamoto created this funky late 1970s Bee Gees-esque tune along with Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）. It's got the technopop in there, too, but it's not merely a YMO song with Rajie as the featured guest vocalist. The singer is leading the way here with her high and floaty voice about the "Nantonaku Crystal" lifestyle in the big city.
Choosing one from the Ohnuki/Sakamoto file was quite the task considering that the two had worked together on oodles of material for several years from the late 70s well into the 1980s. Ultimately, though, I had to go with "Decade Night" from "Romantique", Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）1980 album and the LP that introduced a new direction for the singer-songwriter. Sakamoto produced "Romantique" and a majority of its tracks including the enigmatically attractive and quirky "Decade Night" that simultaneously reminds me of New Wave, avant-garde and a 1960s Hollywood romance soundtrack.
Sakamoto was applying that technopop touch through a number of genres at that particular time, so he probably figured why not do the same to the kiddies' song. And so he arranged Ryoichi Ito's（伊藤良一）"Computer Obaachan" about one cool senior citizen as a popular song on NHK's "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた） series.
The Professor produced Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）album"Hiromi-kyo no Hanzai" and he composed the unique breezy and futuristic-feeling title track with Miyuki Nakajima's（中島みゆき）lyrics. Go's resigned voiceovers and Sakamoto's fleet-footed synthpop might bring images of "Blade Runner" but I can't help but think that the actual setting for the song is much more of a crystalline utopia.
If Sakamoto can provide a catchy technopop tune for a former aidoru of the 1970s, then he can do the same thing for a singer who played a fictional aidoru of the future from a beloved anime franchise. Indeed, I'm talking about Mari Iijima（飯島真理）and her creation of "Blueberry Jam" from the 1983 "Rosé" album. The song is supremely bouncy like an aidoru tune but it's got that Sakamoto sheen and I can even imagine Lynn Minmay singing that one on the SDF-1.
As much as I wanted to put up a cover of this song by Miki Imai（今井美樹）, I think only the original version as partially provided at iTunes displays the Sakamoto-ness of this mix of synthpop and bossa nova. I mean, up to the time that I got her 1994 album"A Place in the Sun", I had never thought a melding of these two genres was possible but I was happily proven wrong. "Martinique no Kaze" is easily my favourite track on the album because of this fusion, Imai's vocals and Sakamoto's piano solo.
My final entry for earworm Sakamoto goodness is Miki Nakatani's（中谷美紀）"Kinokhronika" from her "cure" album. At this point, it was verging on the 20th anniversary of the formation of YMO, but Sakamoto could still come up with the techno dance beats. Just imagine him holding court in the clubs. If I need an energy boost, I sometimes listen to this one.
As mentioned all the way up at the top, these examples are just a fraction of what Sakamoto has done, and it certainly looks like I've only scratched the surface of what I know of his works. However, these eight songs by the Professor are among my favourites, but I've caught a glimpse of some of these other Sakamoto works that have been unknown to me and I'll feature them in a second tribute in the near future.
Welcome to the penultimate Friday for 2020 and as would usually be the case for a Friday here at "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I'm providing some City Pop/J-AOR for your listening pleasure.
A few days ago, citypoper 234 was kind enough to inform me about the joys of one of Rajie's（ラジー）songs "Goodbye Transfer", and I do agree that it's a smooth City Pop ballad about love lost. Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）wrote the lyrics of the realization of an end of a romantic relationship while at the airport, a setting that has popped up in many a kayo over the various genres. It's often been the case that travel to places domestic and international has attempted to be a salve for broken hearts.
But for me, the interesting thing is the arrangement of the melody by singer-songwriter Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）which has these tenderhearted keyboard passages laid over a galloping percussive beat. It's a tasty lasagna of City Pop music, folks. In a way, it sounds rather EPO-esque and happily mellow about a bittersweet topic.
"Goodbye Transfer" is available on that 2nd CD of Rajie's "All-Time Selection"BEST compilation but was originally recorded on the singer's October 1984 album"Gogo no Relief"（午後のレリーフ...Afternoon Relief）.
I've collected a few Rajie albums over the years thanks to the lovely songs by the singer herself and through the work on the blog. However, I've yet to get my hands on her 2nd album"Love Heart" from December 1978.
The album was released just a few days before Xmas and from listening to one of the tracks on "Love Heart", "Last Chance", I think the song must have made for a nicely contrasting listening experience considering the Yuletide tunes playing on the department store speakers at the time.
According to "Music Avenue", Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）was manning the synth bass providing that bossa nova rhythm for his Yellow Magic Orchestra bandmate Yukihiro Takahashi's（高橋ユキヒロ）music and lyrics for "Last Chance". "Music Avenue" author kaz-shin wasn't all that over the moon with the song, calling it rather plain, and yep, it's not quite a classic City Pop song as some others are, but I think Rajie's vocals help guide the soothing way through the five minutes and change, and I can't complain about the keyboards either.
And all that preamble above to realize that I had already written something about it on my article for Disc 1 of Rajie's BEST collection since it was also included there. Ack...what the heck. It's a strong enough tune to take a fuller account.😁
Over a week ago, I provided the article "Shigeru Suzuki -- Sunset Hills Hotel, Side A" regarding Suzuki（鈴木茂）getting a bunch of his fellow musicians together to create compilation albums of instrumental music basically with an AOR feeling. "Sunset Hills Hotel" was the first of three such compilations all released in 1987.
Just so that I can finish what I've started, here is my look at Side B of the original LP, beginning with "Transit Airport" by the late Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）at 23:50. Out of all of the tracks on "Sunset Hills", I feel that this is probably the most appropriate as background music for some sort of Japanese comedy-drama. And yep, it isn't particularly my favourite track because of that. The synthesizers come into play here as light and plucky strings and then a steady beat comes into play before some boozy synth-horns stumble their way onto the airport floor. It may indeed describe a fairly harrowing hike through the airport for check-in and luggage pickup midway through a flight.
Following the comical "Transit Airport" is Asami Kado's（門あさ美）more flavourful "Purple Rose Goodbye" at 28:41. Although the liner notes that I saw at Amazon hint that it isn't Kado doing the velvety slow scatting, I did see the name Atsuko Honda（本田淳子）, nee Atsuko Souma（相馬淳子）, who has also gone by the professional moniker of Rajie, a City Pop veteran. "Purple Rose Goodbye" is downright romantic bar jazz rather than AOR with the piano and sax. I almost felt like putting a $20 bill into the non-existent goblet on the grand piano as I was listening to this! It's so steamy and creamy at the same time...kinda like sampling some melodic chocolate fondue.
Guitarist and singer-songwriter Chuei Yoshikawa（吉川忠英）is a name that I have heard before and it's possible that I may have mentioned him in a few of the articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but this is the first time that he's been put into the Labels because he is responsible for "On The Second Honeymoon" at 33:17. According to Wikipedia, his genres are folk and jazz, but this particular track has more of a gentle bossa nova beat.
At 37:21 is Shinichiro Miyagi's（宮城伸一郎）"Long Distance Call" which sounds faintly like "The Rose" and "My Way" in certain parts. Thanks to the synthesizer here, there is something quite 80s dreamy, perhaps even ethno-ambient thanks to the exotic arrangement and the percussion. I started imagining some of those coming-of-age movies from that decade such as "St. Elmo's Fire" and "The Breakfast Club" for some reason as I was listening to this. The titles and composers of all of the tracks at the YouTube page by Rare Japanese Sounds were written in English so I'm not 100% certain, but if it's indeed the right Miyagi, then he was the bassist for the 1970s folk band Tulip（チューリップ）.
Finally at 40:40 is the final track, and this time, it's Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）who created this one. "Her Sunset Smile" is also probably performed by Matsutoya himself as a lonely piano starts things off. I wasn't too crazy about that particular synthesizer flowing in right after although the second synthesizer riff was more acceptable. I remember in an interview long ago that Matsutoya had said that he regretted relying so much on synthesizers for his wife Yumi's（松任谷由実）albums in the late 80s and early 90s, but I gather that he was interested in putting some more experimentation on the musical technology at the time; no harm in that. In any case, "Her Sunset Smile" is the short and sweet epilogue to an eventful day at the surroundings by the Sunset Hills.
As a summary, I think Side B of "Sunset Hills Hotel" mixed in and featured more to the fore a few more different genres than the more straight-ahead AOR Side A. I could be churlish and say that I prefer Side A over Side B, but as I mentioned, "Purple Rose Goodbye" and "On The Second Honeymoon" are also my favourites. Overall, Suzuki's first contribution to his 1987 series would be an album that I would be interested in acquiring on CD later this year, if it's available, and certainly I would be curious about the next two albums.
Well, the weekend is upon us once more. To be specific, it's the Canada Day long weekend so folks in the major cities are probably doing their best to get out of Dodge as quickly as possible. Plus, it's a good weekend for it with all of the summery weather that has finally arrived.
Therefore, in honour of all of those cars heading out on the highways and byways to cottage country, I bring you "Ai wa Tabun" (Love is Probably) by smooth-singing Rajie. A short track from her 1977 debut album"Heart to Heart", it was also used as the commercial song for the Nissan Skyline, and it's got that calm and mellow melody that would be quite a nice car stereo accompaniment for a relaxing drive out in the country.
That calm and mellow melody was provided by Nobuyuki Takahashi（高橋信之）, music producer and brother of Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）, drummer from Yellow Magic Orchestra, and the lyricist was Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）. As the original commercial makes clear, "Ai wa Tabun" has that wistfulness of making that long journey as a loving couple through the countryside and forests, leaving all those urban cares behind. Good times, back then.
I did buy that 2-CD BEST compilation for City Pop singer Rajie（ラジ）earlier this year. BEST compilations are fine for getting that overall picture of a singer's work, including any hit tunes. However, there is still something to be said about getting the original studio albums and even some of the singles at least. Of course, it all depends on the individual listener, but I've found that those studio albums and the B-sides of singles have also contained gems that simply didn't get onto a BEST collection.
Case in point: Rajie's "Inshouha"（Impressionist）, a track from her 1984 album"Gogo no Relief"（午後のレリーフ...Relief in the Afternoon）. It didn't get onto that BEST compilation but I'm not left looking askance at my ceiling while I wonder why. There were so many fine tracks from so many of her albums that got put onto those 2 CDs that probably some perfectly decent stuff had to be left behind.
Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）provided the lyrics while Takashi Sato（佐藤隆）created the music, and it's Sato's oh-so-City Pop melody that got me hooked (gorgeous keyboard work) and has me thinking about investing in this 6th album of hers. That melody just courses around the metropolis like a smooth-running sports car in the mood for a good tour of the bright lights and big city. And yet, what makes it even more interesting is Rajie's vocals which reminds me of the delivery of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）in her early 80s technopop/European phase. Maybe "Inshouha" leaves the impression of taking a ride around Paris of the 22nd century.
As the summer comes to a close for another year, I figure that the sunset ballads will be coming out around now.
So, what better example than a romantic number by Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe（杉山清貴&オメガトライブ）joined by Rajie（ラジ）? This is a shortened version of "You're A Lady, I'm A Man" from Omega Tribe's 4th album"Another Summer" from July 1985, and it's a power ballad with that familiar sound of not only Sugiyama's band but also the mellow music of Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）.Kumiko Aoki（青木久美子）provided the lyrics of l'amour.
As with a number of Omega Tribe's ballads, this would be a worthy musical accompaniment for a couple walking down the beach as the sun goes down the horizon. "Another Summer" scored a No. 1 ranking on Oricon, and includes Omega Tribe's most successful single of their career, "Futari no Natsu Monogatari"（ふたりの夏物語）.
Happy Monday! It's been less than 24 hours since I put up the article for Disc 1 of Rajie's"All Time Selection" from 2018, but since I was able to get all my work done today, I now have oodles of time to write about Disc 2 now.
Disc 2 includes selected tracks from d) Mahiru no Hodou (真昼の舗道...1980) e) Acoustic Moon (1981) f) Gogo no Relief (午後のレリーフ...1984) g) Espresso (エスプレッソ...1985), and yeah, I'm keeping the order that I had from last night's Disc 1 article so that's why it's starting from d).
Unlike in Disc 1, you won't be finding any links under here and only a few lettered tracks since neither nikala nor I have talked about Rajie's material beyond nikala's article for "Mahiru no Hodou". However, this gives me a chance to find out more about the songs that she performed for those last three albums.
The lineup for the second disc then.
1. Last Scene（ラスト・シーン）(d) 2. Itsuwari no Hitomi（偽りの瞳）(d) 3. Radio to Futari（ラジオと二人）(d) 4. Yojirean Twist（ヨジレアン・ツイスト）(d) 5. ROSY BLUE 6. Black Moon（ブラック・ムーン） 7. Bara no Glass（薔薇のグラス） 8. Do you wanna dance 9. Memory Through (Tsuisou)（メモリー・スルー (追想)） 10. Ce Soir（セソワ） 11. Goodbye Transfer（グッド・バイ トランスファー） 12. Ruriiro no Koibito-tachi（瑠璃色の恋人達） 13. Double Moon（ダブルムーン） 14. MAMAMIYA ~ Uchuu kara no Okurimono（宇宙からの贈物） 15. Espresso 16. Misshitsu（密室） 17. Yumeiro Densetsu（夢色伝説） 18. Hikari to Kage（光と影） Tracks 1~4 are d), 5~9 are e), 10~14 are f) and 15~18 are g). For those first four tracks, originally from "Mahiru no Hodou", you can just click the link in the second paragraph to find out more about them.
Since "Mahiru no Hodou" is already well represented, shall we begin with Rajie's 5th album"Acoustic Moon"? Above is "ROSY BLUE", a happy-go-lucky number that weaves between down-home and classy. Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）, it might be telling a tale of a woman teasing a new beau over his past while tripping the light fantastic. Despite the songwriters involved, I couldn't but feel that there was a feeling of Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）infused into this song. "ROSY BLUE" was also the B-side to Rajie's 8th single"Do you wanna dance" from 1982.
Speaking of that A-side, here is "Do you wanna dance" which is another rather split-personality song which has a doo-wop refrain sandwiched in slices of what sounds like French jazz of the 1960s. Rajie is playing into this quite well with her flirty vocalization. Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里）and NOBODY took care of words and music respectively.
"Black Moon" from "Acoustic Moon" has Rajie seemingly channeling some Junko Yagami（八神純子）and Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）from the 1970s. Etsuko Kisugi and Yoshitaka Minami（来生えつこ・南佳孝）have teamed up to create this tribute to some classy City Pop with European undertones. No fusion of genres here....just some pleasant music that I would enjoy having some steak and alcohol with at The New York Grill in Shinjuku. "Black Moon" was also her 7th single from 1981.
Going into Rajie's 1984"Gogo no Relief" (Afternoon Relief), "Goodbye Transfer" is a pretty atmospheric piece straddling between 1980s City Pop and the sophisticated pop coming in the latter part of the decade. Kingo Hamada（浜田金吾）was responsible for the moody music and Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）took care of the lyrics which talk about a woman getting ready to take off from a fogbound airport to leave her romantic woes behind.
"Double Moon" is a another heady song with some bossa nova. Lyricist Rui Serizawa（芹沢類）and composer Akira Nishimoto（西本明）created this one.
"Espresso" is Rajie's final original album and the title track is a smooth and light technopop number by Serizawa again and Yuji Karaki（唐木祐史）. For some reason, I'm quite attracted to these cabaret-type songs done with synths.
Then on the same album, there is "Misshitsu" (Secret Room), a sultry song in which a woman and her paramour have a little tryst in an elevator while heading up to the 15th floor. I gather that back then, apartment or hotel elevators weren't all that fast. The same fellows behind "Double Moon" in the previous album also took care of this technopop tune which is about as different as Rajie could get when compared to her earliest City Pop entries. Again, I have yet to get "Espresso" the album but my feeling is that it could be similar to "Quatre" from 1979 which also had Rajie going for a more synthesized sound.
And that is what makes this BEST compilation interesting since Rajie didn't settle on one particular sound during those years between 1977 and 1985. She continued to evolve so it's been fun listening and comparing the songs.
Considering that she may not be all that well known anymore, I was not only surprised to find out last month that there was indeed a Rajie BEST album but that it had been released only in February of this year. Not that I'm complaining at all. I think of Atsuko Souma（相馬淳子）as one of the hidden unsung gems of the classic City Pop era, and now that I've got this compilation, I can get to know some of the other songs that I've yet to discover outside of the albums that I've already gotten by her, "Heart to Heart" (1977) and "Quatre" (1979).
The 2-disc set of "Rajie All Time Selection" doesn't have Rajie's best songs scattered all over the place or categorized into some arcane order. It just starts from her early years on Disc 1 and goes to her final album in 1985 "Espresso" by the end of Disc 2.
First off, let me introduce her albums: a) Heart to Heart b) Love Heart (1978) c) Quatre d) Mahiru no Hodou (真昼の舗道...1980) e) Acoustic Moon (1981) f) Gogo no Relief (午後のレリーフ...1984) g) Espresso (エスプレッソ)
As I said at the top, I've got a) and c) while nikala who gave her opinions on "Mahiru no Hodou" has d).
Now here is the lineup for the first disc of "Rajie All Time Selection": 1. Hold Me Tight 2. It's Me...It's You (a) 3. Ai wa Tabun（愛はたぶん） 4. The Tokyo Taste 5. Suteki na Feeling（素敵なフィーリング）(a) 6. Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido（気分を出してもう一度） 7. Heart to Heart 8. Kaze ni Yosete（風によせて） 9. Cool Down（クール・ダウン） 10. Love Heart（ラヴ・ハート） 11. Fuyu no Shouzou（冬の肖像） 12. Last Chance（ラスト・チャンス） 13. Just in the Rain（ジャスト・イン・ザ・レイン） 14. Quatre（キャトル）(c) 15. Tokidoki Mahou（ときどき魔法）(c) 16. Watashi wa Suteki（わたしはすてき） 17. Kaze no Michi（風の道）
Tracks 1~7 are a), 8~13 are b), 14~17 are c). Also, if the particular track above is linked, it has its own article, and if a track is lettered, it means that the album article features that song.
"Ai wa Tabun" (Love is Probably) is one of the songs from "Heart to Heart" that hasn't been covered at all so allow me to rectify this. It's quite the breezy pop tune by Keisuke Yamakawa and Nobuyuki Takahashi（山川啓介・高橋信之）, and that is probably because it was used as the campaign song for the Nissan Skyline back then. Nice for a drive. Incidentally, "Ai wa Tabun" was also the B-side to Rajie's debut single of "Hold Me Tight".
I never got to the title track for the album "Heart to Heart" so I have a chance to write about it here. Very pleasant song thanks to Rajie's vocals and creamy arrangement by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）with all of the instruments on languid mode. Yukihiro Takahashi and Chris Mosdell（高橋幸宏・クリス・モズデル）took care of the lyrics while Takahashi created the melody. I could drink a glass of wine to this.
Have yet to get "Love Heart" so I'm glad that I've got the opportunity here to talk about at least some of the tracks represented on this BEST disc. If the tracks there all sound like "Cool Down", then I can be enticed to invest in that one as well. As the title hints, it's the relaxing mid-tempo to bring a person down from a hard or overly exciting day. Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）, who duets with Rajie here once again, composed the music with Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）providing the words. "Cool Down" is a bit of a sangria of a song with some bluesiness, AOR and a hint of Latin.
Yeah, I think I will get that "Love Heart" now, especially when "Last Chance" sounds so good. Takahashi took care of words and music and he knows how to weave a cool City Pop number along with co-creating those technopop hits as one part of the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Speaking of YMO, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）was on the electric piano and rumbling bass synthesizer. For those listeners who have only heard of The Professor through his later solo works and his Oscar-winning soundtrack for "The Last Emperor", I would be happy to introduce "Last Chance" to show some of his cool funky chops.
My last paragraph here will be devoted to "Fuyu no Shouzou" (Winter Portrait) with Goto providing a melody that initially, at least, reminded me of something Eagles-ish or perhaps something poppy from the West Coast. Rajie's vocals are especially soaring in this power ballad. Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）wrote the words.
I will see about getting an article on Disc 2 sometime in the next 24 hours.
I listened to Rajie's debut album from 1977"Heart to Heart" again earlier this afternoon and it's starting to age quite nicely. I already covered the album back in the summer but one track that I had yet to cover is the one featured here, "Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido"(Bring Back The Mood Once More), a cute little number that could be set in any intimate bar in a big city as a woman tries to tease out her guy's feelings for her.
Showing my age here but I could probably imagine Katherine Hepburn in this situation while trying to crack through Cary Grant's shell...or if you wish, Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, but perhaps even that pairing may be a little too dated. Fair enough. Anyways, "Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido" was composed by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）and written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）as this Latin-tinged song evoking some nice tropical feelings.
A quarter of a century later, the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）unearthed "Kibun" once more in 2002 to perform it as a 70s soul duet with the Crazy Ken Band'sKen Yokoyama（横山剣）. The track is included in Nomiya's album"Lady Miss Warp". That's a pretty nice combo with one of the Shibuya-kei set performing with the charmingly louche Yokoyama.
October 29th 2020: I've got a follow-up on the song right here.
I already identified the pop singer Rajie as Atsuko Souma（相馬淳子）right in the very first article for "Hold Me Tight" some years ago. But what I didn't do back in that very brief June 2012 piece was how she came by her nom de guerre. According to J-Wiki, her name of Rajie came from a character named Raji (played by Sajid Khan) from the 1966 movie "Maya".
One of my other recent acquisitions from Tower Records Japan was indeed her debut album"HEART to HEART" from September 1977. I've listened to the album twice now and I am enjoying it. Two other albums by Rajie have already been covered in the blog: her 1980 "Mahiru no Hodou"（真昼の舗道）by nikala and "Quatre" from 1979 by me.
My overall impression of the album (and nope, I realize that two listenings are not going to provide the deepest insights) which was produced by Yellow Magic Orchestra'sYukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）is that unlike those two later albums, there isn't any sign of the technopop which would come out in varying degrees among the tracks in "Mahiru" or "Quatre". However, I'm starting to think that there was an interesting parallel between Rajie and singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. I mentioned it in "Quatre" and nikala also hinted at it in "Mahiru".
"Shizuka na Hitomi"（静かな瞳...Quiet Eyes） is a bluesy ballad written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Takahashi. It's a bit of musical introspection about a woman who is trying to figure out the man in her life since he's an unreadable fellow. The song reminded me of Ohnuki's output from her first two solo albums "Grey Skies" and "Sunshower"which were very much in the New Music genre. In fact, listening to "HEART to HEART" and then knowing what she did since then, her vocals and career direction has me thinking that she could have been Ohnuki if she hadn't veered that far into technopop and that European mood going into the 1980s.
"It's Me...It's You" sends my above point even further with its galloping melody and the chorus work. I actually thought it was Ohnuki lending backup vocals here but according to the liner notes, Rajie was responsible for those. And even though, Ohnuki doesn't provide any songwriting for any of the songs, I personally get a few echoes of her in Rajie's delivery and the surrounding music. Takahashi and Chris Mosdell took care of the lyrics here while Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）came up with the melody. The other point on this parallel between Rajie and Ohnuki is that the backup musicians and songwriters assisted both singers for their albums.
Along with "The Tokyo Taste"which has already been covered in a recent article, "Sarasara no Machi"（さらさらの町...Smooth Town） is my other standout favourite in "HEART to HEART". But unlike the former song which is quite the slick downtown City Pop tune, "Sarasara no Machi" is a much more whimsical non-City Pop happy-go-lucky song about life in the burg. I'm not quite sure where Rajie was referring to but I would like to know. I bet the residents skip to and from work there. Still, my old home in Ichikawa was a decent neighbourhood as well. Kisugi and Goto took care of the songwriting in this case.
My final track for tonight is "Suteki na Feeling"（素敵なフィーリング...Wonderful Feeling） which has Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）providing lyrics about a woman head-over-heels in love. There is even a shoutout to Cinderella in there. Composer Goto starts things out with a very 1970s atmospheric ballad feeling but it quickly switches to a pleasant Latin number.
There are a few more tracks in "HEART to HEART" but I will leave them for future articles. However, suffice it to say that Rajie's debut album has a little bit of most everything in terms of straight-ahead pop since quite a few top songwriters came and helped out. I'm a bit surprised that this album and Rajie herself didn't get more notice in the world of Japanese music, but then again, the situation lends a bit of attractive exclusivity as if I've come across a previously unknown delight that I'm sharing with a few others.
Another wonderful day out there. Quite reflective of the late spring and early summer. It's just like that photo above with the blue sky shining off that skyscraper in West Shinjuku there. I will be heading off in a couple of hours to a friend's place up in Richmond Hill for a nice little dinner party but still wanted to get this one article peeled off before I go.
Last night, I pulled the trigger again and purchased a few City Pop albums including this one, "Heart to Heart"(1977) the debut release by the relatively unknown Rajie. Part of the reason that I got it was I have enjoyed her brand of music especially this one track, and the album itself makes quite a contrast with her 3rd album"Quatre" (another acquisition) from 1979 which has more of a technopop flavour.
"THE TOKYO TASTE" wasn't only a track on that first album but also the B-side to Rajie's 3rd single, "Cool Down" from December 1978. And although the song says "Rajie featuring Yoshitaka Minami", I think the mellow Minami（南佳孝）shares equal billing with his duet partner in this one. They would get together again in the aforementioned "Quatre" for one number "Tokidoki Mahou"（ときどき魔法...Sometimes Magic）.
The song itself is a cool and light funk piece that actually didn't have Minami creating it. Minami was just the singer here. Instead it was YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and YMO associate Chris Mosdell taking care of the lyrics while Takahashi also provided the music alongside Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）. It's quite nice to listen to while strutting down the hotel-laden streets of West Shinjuku around sunset with the slightly loopy lyrics describing some cool and light fun downtown. Considering the title and how I have described it here, I would think "THE TOKYO TASTE" would have made for the ideal jingle for a menthol cigarette commercial.
In any case, I am looking forward to getting my copy of "Heart to Heart" in the next few weeks.
