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.
Haven't seen singer-songwriter Reimy（麗美）in a while, so it's nice to have her here right at the beginning of this new year.
As I've stated in the past regarding Reimy, she seems to have had three stages in her singing career. Her first phase in the early to mid-1980s had her often covering Yuming's songs or providing some pretty aidoru-esque fare. In her second phase, she was doing more West Coast dance pop stuff for a short while, and then finally the third phase in the late 1980s going into the early 1990s involved her own creations which followed a gentle pop style.
"Saigo no Yasashisa"(The Final Kindness) was a B-side to her June 1987 single"fa・ri・ra". Written by Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）and composed by Reimy herself, it's a step away from the dance floor although the arrangement by Trevor Veitch still keeps it within that Los Angeles disco. It's a pleasant groove tune with some introspection about the nightlife that could fit LA or even Tokyo. And in a way, the song might be a fusion of those last two phases that I was referring to above.
Singer-songwriter Reimy Horikawa（堀川麗美）has recorded her fair range of pop music from smooth and contemplative tunes to West Coast dance-pop songs. However, whenever I hear her name, I'll usually go first to her love ballads that seem to bring up images of Valentine's Day or Christmas Day
Case in point: her 6th single from July 1986, "Just Only You". Written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Reimy, the keyboard rhythm almost had me thinking of a typical 80s love song by the band Chicago. Overall, it's indeed a 70s/80s ballad that would make Bobby Caldwell and Boz Scaggs proud, even more adorably delivered thanks to the singer's high and assured vocals.
Ach...I just noticed that I had already written about "Just Only You" during the pandemic. But that's OK since I've given some slightly different insights there. It's not the first time I've done this and probably won't be the last.
This article took a bit of thinking and re-thinking before becoming this final result. I had been under the assumption that the Gosanke（御三家）file was done after Noelle's and my contributions over a number of months including my latest on November 26th for the enka-based Ikemen 3（イケメン3）. However with the Xmas season once again upon us and me hitting the J-Christmas tunes, I realized that there was another kinda one-off agglomeration of singers.
I'm talking about singer-songwriters Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）, Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）, Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）and Reimy（麗美）who at one point in the late 1980s were under the Fun House label. The four of them got together and came up with their own Xmas album in November 1989 titled "Merry Christmas to You", and I came up with a posting for the title track way back on Christmas Eve 2012. As far as I know, it was just for that one album but I figured that if I could classify Ikemen 3 as a Gosanke for simply one song, I can do the same for Fun House Ladies' Vocal for an entire album of their group and individual efforts. Nagai is already part of the Gosanke club as one of my own imagined groups.
But then, I wondered whether I could post something on the four's harmonious rendition of Mel Tormé's classic "The Christmas Song". I'd even already written it down on the byline at the top but then looking at the article for "Merry Christmas to You", I realized that I'd already written about it in the article. So, it was back...finally...to the original idea of mentioning the fact that Kobayashi, Nagai, Karashima and Reimy were this Yuletide yonin known very casually as the Fun House Ladies' Vocal although their individual names were much more front and centre.
For my final article on Christmas Eve 2022, I've decided to do an Author's Pick to not only commemorate KKP's Xmas season but also to note once again that we've been around for 10 years. Mind you, it was actually around 9 years ago that I put up my "Top 5 J-Xmas Songs" with familiar names such as Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）. Since the end of 2013, though, we've gained knowledge of many other J-Xmas tunes and as of this writing, there are over 200 entries for "Xmas" in Labels.
As such, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to give out my personal alternative list of favourite J-Xmas songs as a sequel to the original 2013 list. Again, I'm going with five songs but they aren't in any particular order.
Yeah, this would be the one to decompress with...preferably with a cup of chamomile tea after that arduous round of Christmas shopping. The lyrics by the Sensei (Karashima's nickname) are on the melancholy and lonely side of Christmas songwriting in Japan but that beautiful string-and-piano arrangement can't be beat.
Again, the lyrics by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）aren't particularly happy ones, but "Stardust Memories" is quite an upbeat tune for the mellow-voiced Kobayashi. Instead of focusing on those words, focusing on the melody by the singer can bring images of having fun in the snow and/or finishing up the Xmas shopping and stopping in for a cup of coffee.
Seiko-chan（松田聖子）has come up with Xmas songs in the past but it seems with her 1987 album"Snow Garden", she came up with some of her most refined tunes for the happy season. "Pearl-White Eve" is the favourite one for me because it combines some old-fashioned arrangements and contemporary pop. The singer sounds absolutely innocent although as my university buddy pointed out that at the end of the song, Matsuda sings that she will wrap herself up in her pink pyjamas and she'll be the present for her lover. Hey, I will not judge.😇
As I mentioned in the original article for Reimy's（麗美）kittenish and adorable "Pocket no Coin", I don't think that it was ever meant to be a Christmas song. However, after those images of Christmas markets and couples quickly insinuated themselves into my mind after first hearing it, I just had to treat it as Xmas-friendly. Now, I've also realized that the cordial and languid arrangement can make it into Fashion Music territory.
Well, let's finish this list with a "party hearty" one since that is yet another lyrical theme for J-Xmas. Plus, we do have Tatsuro Yamashita on the first list, so we gotta have his wife here for the follow-up. As much as it might be strange to go nuts on Christmas Eve with the heavy drinking, camaraderie and Kentucky Fried Chicken, that's the thing about December 24th in Japan. A lot of folks simply Wang Chung that night.
Anyways, if you're not showing up on the blog on the 25th because of all those Yuletide obligations, let me speak on behalf of everyone here on KKP and give my hearty wishes for a Merry Christmas. Don't drink and drive!
Well, I was traipsing through Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）J-Wiki file the other day when I realized that she and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）got married in April 1982. Whoa! That would mean that last month, the First Couple of City Pop just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. Finding out that the traditional 40th anniversary gift is ruby, I wonder whether the two got a gift from Akira Terao（寺尾聰）...very inside joke there.
Yes, I forgot to laugh, too. Anyways, realizing that piece of Japanese popular music trivia and also knowing that the upcoming June is a favourite time for those weddings to take place, I figured that I could create a short list of wedding-themed songs. Now, I also know that there are many many of those songs all over the kayo and J-Pop spectrum, but these are ones that came relatively readily to mind once that idea came into my head. Plus, they already have representation on the blog, so here we go in no specific order.
We're here on the first Monday of 2022 and at least for my area, we're finally feeling what a proper January winter should be. It's sunny but cold, and thankfully the winds aren't whipping up so going out in multiple layers this morning kept me nice and toasty inside.
From columbia.jp
Today I thought that we can start the week off with something warm and sweet, not unlike honey hot chocolate, and that would be pop singer Reimy（麗美）and her sophomore album"R" from September 1984 which ended up being her highest-rated release by hitting No. 6 on Oricon. Now, as I've mentioned in a past Reimy article or two, I've seen her through three phases: 1) her early high-toned pop period with help from the musical Matsutoyas, 2) a brief interregnum in the mid-1980s exploring West Coast dance-pop, and then 3) her mellow and introspective singer-songwriting time going into the 1990s. It was that last phase when I first heard her material.
I was fortunate to get my copy of "R" thanks to past KKP contributor JTM and with that 1984 release, the album falls under her early phase. Having a first listen, I was quite drawn to the first track "Kagami no Meiro (Strangled In Love)"（鏡の迷路...Mirror Maze）. Written by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and composed by Mayumi Horikawa（堀川まゆみ）, Reimy's older sister, I can hear this as City Pop albeit somewhat different from the other representative examples of the time, but strangely enough, "Kagami no Meiro" also has hints of what Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）was whipping up at the same time with those swift strings and certain keyboard work. Taguchi's lyrics talk of a woman having some romance issues but she's also struggling with life in the city, generally speaking.
Methinks that I may have mentioned this as well in past articles, but I had assumed that this early phase of hers was of Reimy as an aidoru singer just because of how cute she looked on her first album covers. But after listening to "Kagami no Meiro" and this second track "Sora ga Ichimen Umi ni Mieta Hi"（空が一面海に見えた日...The Day When The Sky Looked Like The Sea）, perhaps all involved in the production felt that she was able to go full pop. And sure enough, Reimy composed "Sora ga Ichimen Umi ni Mieta Hi" alongside another Taguchi set of lyrics centered around the saying of "parting is such sweet sorrow". From the mention of a (military) base in those lyrics, I gather that the setting may even be Reimy's native Okinawa. It's a straight pop number with her vocals going right up high almost to the point of breaking.
I was surprised hearing "Koi no Ichiji-kan wa Kodoku no Sen-nen"（恋の一時間は孤独の千年...An Hour of Love Means a Thousand Years of Loneliness） since up to now, I'd only known Yuming's（ユーミン）rendition of it on her 1992 "Tears and Reasons" album, not knowing that it was actually a cover of the original that she gave Reimy for "R". The songwriter was responsible for words and music and I have to admit that I enjoy the "Tears and Reasons" version more because there is definitely more of that authentic samba flavour there whereas Reimy's original sounds more like a cute Casio synthesizer doing Latin.
"Carry On" is another Taguchi and big sister Mayumi concoction with a nice beefy bass underlying a dynamic dramatic melody about a woman wanting to get back into the swing of things after a sad period of life. Maybe it's some foreshadowing for Reimy's second phase.
My last contribution to "R" is the final track "Kaze wa Ashita e"（風は明日へ...The Winds For Tomorrow） which had Taguchi and Reimy working together again. As much as I have realized that Reimy was never an aidoru, "Kaze wa Ashita e" is about the closest to an aidoru tune from her high-pitched delivery and the happy and hopeful lyrics and music. A young woman is up on a mountain waxing wistfully about a young man she's fallen for although he's somewhere distant.
There are a couple of more tracks that I've actually written about in the past, both of them being Yuming-penned numbers: "Seishun no Regret"（青春のリグレット）and "Zansho"（残暑）. "R" is quite the intriguing introduction to early Reimy considering how different she would sound half a decade later.
Sad to say, but with the rising infection rates in Ontario, my city of Toronto will be officially slammed into lockdown again with a few differences compared to the one in the spring as of this coming Monday. I'm rather grateful then that I did get my haircut a couple of days ago since all personal grooming establishments are going to be closed down for the foreseeable future. It will probably mean that lineups may be growing at the supermarket again, though. And for the first time, our Prime Minister has announced that a normal Xmas will probably be impossible this year. Well, just gotta suck it up.
However, our family still has their health and I've got my job and this blog. Let us try for something nice and soothing then. Reimy（麗美）is perhaps appropriate especially with her July 1986 single"Just Only You", a creation that she composed with Etsuko Kisugi's（来生えつこ）lyrics. Some nice and steady piano chords paired with the singer's whispery and solid vocals have that cocoa-with-a-marshmallow effect on me, and I think the song reminds me of some of the relaxing pop songs by female artists that came out in the latter half of the decade such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）.
The flip side of "Just Only You" is "Shadow Play", a fairly velvety pop/R&B mixture that was created by a fellow named Trevor Beach or Beech according to Hip Tank Records. There is indeed something about the arrangement that takes things onto the West Coast, and even the description on Hip Tank Records states that it is a little reminiscent of Sade's "Smooth Operator".
In a way, the combination of both "Just Only You" and "Shadow Play" strikes me as a crossroads between Reimy's early cute pop tunes and then her brief foray into dance pop in the mid-late 80s. Both songs, by the way, were also recorded onto her 4th album"My Sanctuary" which was released also in July 1986.
How would you like to be on a plane taking off while this song is playing? Yep, as a Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）fan, I'm biased, but I think that I would be slightly more relaxed than I usually would be having Yuming（ユーミン）lulling me into a calmer state. Again, I'm not a huge fan of air travel.
I first heard "Zansho" (Lingering Summer Heat) after acquiring her November 1990 22nd album"Tengoku no Door"（天国のドア...The Gates of Heaven） during my JET days. Considering the release date, perhaps a lot of her fans were indeed swooning about those last days of summer. I certainly am now since my city has apparently gotten an early taste of winter. It's a lazy and mellow tune in which I especially like that gentle intro of an Asian riff with that concluding chord sounding like something from Steely Dan.
Going from the 1980s into the 1990s, I recall that Yuming and her husband Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）were aiming for that pop sound with plenty of synthesizers, a move for which the latter has since expressed some regret in a later interview. However, I think that sound just represents that particular stage in his wife's career, and I have no animosity at all for "Zansho".
Some years later, I found out that Yuming's "Zansho" on "Tengoku no Door" was actually a self-cover of a song that had been given to singer-songwriter Reimy（麗美）early in her career. The original was Reimy's 3rd single from September 1984, and though I prefer the newer arrangement from 1990, Reimy's "Zansho" still has that wondrous and whimsical air along with that mellow sound that characterized Yuming's music at the same time.
"Zansho" was also a track on Reimy's 2nd album"R" which came out at the same time as the single. Just to finish off, although I have enjoyed Reimy's later work and voice as the 80s came to a close, there is something also very angelic about her vocals back when she first started.
We're in the middle of a fairly lovely Family Day weekend here in Canada. It's cold out there but not bone-shiveringly so and at least the sun is also out.
It will be nice to have something appropriately relaxing here so I'm providing Reimy's（麗美）"Angel". Been a while since I've had the Okinawan singer-songwriter represented, and whenever I listen to her after a period of time, it's always a breath of fresh air.
"Angel" was created and performed by Reimy and her arrangement reminds me of those late 80s and early 90s when some really solid female singer-songwriters were coming to the fore. This was her June 1989 single when she was pursuing a softer pop/AOR line in her music, and with that guitar, the synths and her voice, there is that sensation of heaven and earth getting a little bit closer in distance. I'm not sure whether "Angel" ever got onto an original studio album but it did get placed onto her 1993 "The Best Songs of Reimy".
I was watching the news this morning when the newscaster read out that two-thirds of Canadians had little interest in Valentine's Day. Perhaps I would have tut-tutted the information and gone onto a reinforced soapbox and exhorted "What is wrong about LOVE?!", but then again, when I'm frankly as romantic as a Vulcan after a successful Kolinahr ritual, I don't think that I really can earn that soapbox.
Anyways, I was still surprised to realize that I had never put out a Valentine's Day list of my own in the 7 years of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", although JTM did release his "Romantic 80s Playlist" back in 2014. Well, it is indeed Valentine's Day today, so allow me to give some of my choices for the Day of Love. There are of course tons of kayo/J-Pop...way too many, in fact, to even sate a comprehensive list of which this is certainly not. In point of truth, there are songs that are knocking me upside the head like a Gibbs' slap at this moment for not being included. So, all I can ask humbly is that if any of you folks have your own choice for an ideal J-Valentine's song, please inform me.
Incidentally, all of these already have their own articles so this is more of a summary.
Let's start with something nice and 70s and kayo-like by the adorable Megumi Asaoka（麻丘めぐみ）. "Watashi no Kare wa Hidarikiki"（わたしの彼は左きき）is a spritely and proud tune about the fact that one lady's Mr. Right is always on her left with the premise being that they are blissfully together and in love. Somehow, I've gotten the impression that is not so much a boyfriend-girlfriend situation but more of a just-married couple starting out on their life together.
Those opening notes from Anzen Chitai's（安全地帯）"Koi no Yokan"（恋の予感）are enough to get me all nostalgically moody. I don't think the song was ever meant to be recorded with Valentine's Day in mind but there's something about Koji Tamaki's（玉置浩二）delivery and the songwriting by him and Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）that makes this ballad ideal for an intimate dinner or a romantic walk in a park on February 14th (we are talking about Tokyo...not Toronto).
If I'm doing a Valentine's Day list of Japanese pop songs, then Sayuri Kokusho's（国生さゆり）"Valentine Kiss"（バレンタイン・キッス）has just got to be included. No exceptions! When compared with the mature themes of the above "Koi no Yokan", "Valentine Kiss" possesses the spirit of a 1950s novelty pop confection and the image of a junior high school girl nervously leaving homemade chocolates secretly in the school shoe box of a boy she likes. From personal experience, I hope that the lucky lad gets to the box early enough, lest those sugary creations end up smelling like feet! By the way, "Valentine Kiss" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and ended up as the 14th-ranked single of the year.
"Anniversary ~ Mugen ni Calling You"（無限にCALLING YOU...Eternally Calling You） is probably one of Yuming's（ユーミン）most heartfelt ballads about a bride ready to take the walk down the aisle, and she's absolutely sure of her life choice. I think that people in that situation would need to grab for a Kleenex when they hear this special single. Although I don't think that this particular song has made it up to my own Top Ten list of Yuming songs, "Anniversary" has most likely made it onto BEST lists by other fans.
"Zutto" was forever and always a love song that wafted through the air and inside the karaoke boxes and bars around that time. And it's the reason that Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）has stayed with me as one of the notable singers during my years in Gunma Prefecture on the JET Programme. Her plaintive "ZU-TTO, ZU-TTO, ne" strikes a nearly automatic Pavlovian response in listeners to start swaying from side to side.
Reimy（麗美）may not have become a huge superstar on the level of Yuming or Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）, but she still has gained a loyal cadre of fans including me for the lyrics and music that she created. "Marry Me" is one of my favourites as an intimate love letter of a ballad with a down-to-earth arrangement and a great guitar solo. Plus, of course, the title itself is an invitation for my list.
Kanchi! Ahhh...life and love in one of the biggest and most vivacious cities on Earth, and with a theme song that brings to mind a certain time and place. Poor wishy-washy Kanji Nagao in "Tokyo Love Story" had to make that difficult choice between the ever-lovable yet unpredictable force-of-nature Rika and the more down-to-earth Satomi, his old crush from high school in Ehime Prefecture. Not exactly an ideal Valentine situation but I still had to include "Love Story wa Totsuzen ni"（ラブ・ストーリーは突然にー）as a song of the season with oomph. The above video is a short clip of the song but at least, it actually has Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）singing one of his best songs.
I not only think that "I Love You" by the late Yutaka Ozaki（尾崎豊）is the song to be performed at a wedding reception but I could easily see it as the ideal proposal ballad. Plus, wouldn't it be something if the proposer sang it with a guitar bandied over his shoulder? An old friend of mine actually did just that when he popped on a Shinkansen from Tokyo to his girlfriend's home hundreds of kilometres away, although I don't know whether he sang this particular Ozaki ballad. But obviously since they did get happily married with kids, it was all good.
Anyways, this was just a sampling of some of my choices for a February 14th custom. Nothing happening here at home today but perhaps I will pick up a chocolate bar tomorrow.
I had just watched one of the many regular NHK documentary shows right now, and this particular program goes all over the world to snap a shot of life in a particular village or a small section of a large metropolis. Tonight's episode focused on Soho, London via a woman who has a regular stint as a DJ at the local radio station.
Before I started "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in early 2012, I had wondered about doing a podcast and even fantasized about even doing radio, somewhat inspired by "Sounds of Japan" back in the early 1980s on Toronto's CHIN-FM. Some students have remarked that I have a voice for radio (not so sure about that) but I know that I have the perfect face for radio (best heard, not seen...ever).
If I were to ever do a radio show, one episode that I would like to explore is those singers that I have considered to be underrated. There are a number of them and I have covered them in the blog: Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）, bird, the band Bonobos, and perhaps even Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三）. One other singer that I also wished could have reached even further heights is Reimy Horikawa（堀川麗美）who has been known as just Reimy and Remedios.
Now, everyone's reaction to a singer will differ of course. But I think Reimy has always had that talent for ballads and mid-tempo feel-good tunes, both as a singer and as a songwriter, and for whatever reason, she didn't quite become that superstar. Then again, her fans, and I consider myself one of them, can also ask "Why would she need to be one?" She's got a dedicated fan base and we know that she's a fine singer so why would we need to worry? Well, perhaps, I guess there's that bit of family in all of us who wanted to see their family member hit the top.
It is starting to sound like I'm writing my very first article on Reimy which isn't true since there are 13 previous articles as of this date. And as I've probably stated in my first one for her heartfelt "Dear Tess", I first discovered the singer-songwriter from Okinawa when she had already entered the third phase of her career when she was fully endeavoring in writing these mature pop songs after her debut stage of teen pop around the mid-1980s and then going into a brief stint of American dance-pop.
However, "Just Only You", her 6th single from July 1986 is another revelation in that it seems to hint at that later third phase of songwriting. Reimy composed this one with Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）providing the lyrics. Along with her vocals, I just love the rich keyboards underlying the ballad. As the title would suggest, this could have made for the perfect love song in a teen movie in Japan. I came across one Japanese blogger (which is how I found out about "Just Only You") who made a pretty impassioned entry for her and this number, and the whole underrated thing I mentioned off the top.
The single may be rather difficult to track down these days but it is available on Reimy's compilation album "yes we're SINGLES" which came out in November 1988.
As I've mentioned in previous Reimy（麗美）articles, before I first got to know the Okinawan singer as the writer of some of that mellow pop from the late 80s and early 90s, she did start out performing cover versions of Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由実）hits.
Right from her debut album of "Reimy" released in January 1984 was her version of Yuming's（ユーミン）"No Side". However, I have to correct myself since in actual fact, "No Side" was an original song given to Reimy from the Queen of New Music with the latter performing it at the end of the year as a cover and as the title track for her 16th album.
From the piece I wrote about Yuming's "No Side", I had written that according to the relevant J-Wiki article, the song itself may have been based on a high school rugby match that had taken place in January 1984. Now, considering that "Reimy" was released with her "No Side" in that same month, I'm now wondering if that story is either apocryphal or Yuming wrote it up really quickly. Mind you, the album came out on January 21st and considering her ability to whip up those melodic gems, it is possible that she still managed to see that match, get inspired by it, create a song about it and have it recorded by Reimy.
There isn't that much of a difference in terms of the arrangement for "No Side" for either Reimy or Yuming. The song still has that bittersweet tone about the aftermath of a lost game. But since I've been so accustomed to Yuming's cover of it, I'll probably still prefer her version over Reimy's. Generally, I think Reimy became much more interesting when she started striking out on her own with her own songwriting creations.
I actually had been considering about writing on Reimy's "No Side" before this news came out, so it was a coincidence that I've written this on a day on finding out that one of the pioneers of Japanese rugby, Seiji Hirao（平尾誠二）, suddenly passed away at the untimely age of 53.
Furthermore, continuing on the theme of sad sports losses, I'm writing this on the day after the Toronto Blue Jays were eliminated from further post-season play by the Cleveland Indians. I hadn't thought that the Jays would make it to the World Series in any case since I think they lack consistency, but it's still sad to see the boys in blue get tossed out the way they did.
Ah, good heavens....it has been a long time since I put up a Reimy（麗美）article. A couple that I did do last year had their videos eliminated so they're unfortunately on Draft status, but I'm happy to see this particular song up right now.
I've known Reimy primarily as a singer-songwriter of the turn of the decade between the 1980s and 1990s but "Koi Suru Jikan" (Time to Love) was her 7th single much earlier in her career when she was a young pop singer (aidoru perhaps?) covering a number of Yuming（ユーミン）hits. However, this song was actually created by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）for release in November 1986 as a theme tune for a Saturday-night NTV drama titled "Koi Suru Jikan desu"（恋する時間です...It's Time to Love） which starred Narumi Yasuda（安田成美）and Miki Imai（今井美樹）among other thespians.
"Koi Suru Jikan" is a pretty tune with Reimy singing about wishing that falling in love wouldn't be so messy and that she would like the Disney version (i.e., unrealistic) of things. Good luck on that. Tsutsumi's music rather reflects Kisugi's lyrics as it weaves between uncertainty and hope for a happy resolution to the romance.
First off, a little technical announcement. Commenter Ryan Miller remarked that he's been shut out of music163 due to some copyright hiccups on the site. I had the same situation a few months back but it resolved itself a few days later, although I seem to be suffering some slowness with its transmission recently. If any of you out there are in the same boat, I hope that things get resolved in your area.
Now, let's get away from some of the stress from that. It's been a while but here is a Reimy（麗美）tune for you. Titled "One Day Vacation", it's a love song which was written and composed by the singer-songwriter for her 1990 album, "Hashiru Soyo Kaze Tachi e" (走るそよ風たちへ...To The Gentle Breezes), a release that has been well represented on the blog through tracks such as the Xmas title track and the elegiac "Dear Tess". I just had some chamomile tea tonight to soothe the stomach; "One Day Vacation" is pretty much the same for the ears. It's not a synthed-up power pop piece or a grandly produced ballad that is ready for single release. It's simply a pleasant and intimate song that could have been performed at a cafe out in a small town...something that was a very nice characteristic for a number of Reimy's songs at the turn of the decade.
I don't really get out on vacations per se but I did enjoy a one-day vacation within a vacation last year when I was back in Japan. A couple of buddies and I got away from Tokyo for a day to Ito and spent the night at a small ryokan near the shore. If I got the same opportunity here in Toronto, I would probably head out to Niagara-on-the-Lake near the famous falls and spend the night at a nice little bed-&-breakfast.
Ever since I first found out about singer-songwriter Reimy Horikawa（堀川麗美）back on that old MTV Japan interview in 1990 when she introduced the videos for her hauntingly beautiful "Dear Tess" and the indie-pop-ish "Tower of Vanity", I became a fan and started collecting her CDs first through ancient money order via "Eye-Ai" magazine and then by tracking down her increasingly rare albums when I started living in Japan again from the mid-90s.
As I bought up her albums from 1989 onwards as a full-fledged singer-songwriter specializing in light pop/AOR tunes, I discovered that she had debuted from much further back as an aidoru under the initial aegis of Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）as well as a backup singer . Intrigued, I picked up her BEST compilation from those years in the early 80s, "Reimy Brand". And so I had thought that was her career consisting of those two halves.
However, one day when I was browsing in one of those oldies CD shops, I came across a Reimy disc that I had never seen before. And if my memory serves me correctly, it was "Speed of Light", a single from 1988. I don't know why I never picked it up, but by the looks of the cover and the title, it was some sort of American dance-pop sort of release which didn't quite chime in with the two different images I'd had of the singer. But my curiosity was stoked...what indeed had she done during that time between 1986 and 1989?
Well, on another day, YouTube provided an answer when I found out this song called "Shotgun" by Reimy. Of course, I had never heard of it and played the official music video (unfortunately it has been taken down), and just saw a very casually dressed Reimy walking in a hot summer landscape while this cool saxophone started tooting away as if were perfect for Los Angeles. And as the song went on, I realized that this was an entirely new animal. It was a Reimy who still had that higher voice from her early years singing something that was hovering midway between City Pop and American urban contemporary R&B of that time.
Source: Amazon.jp
Source: Amazon.jp
The hunt was on. And gradually I tracked down the CD that it had come on, "My Sanctuary" which was released in July 1986. And as you can see at the top of the page, it was a very stripped-down look compared to the cutesy aidoru before and the laid-back & folky pop singer with the sauvage hair style after. I had been under the impression that her visit to the United States lasted at least a couple of years but reading the really small personal statement she made in the liner notes in "My Sanctuary", I found out that she had gone to LA to record the album for just 42 days, although she also noted that it was a pretty big trip for her.
In any case, I'm going to have to listen to the album again in full just to get some more impressions about her style during that intermediate period. Reimy was responsible for the composition while veteran lyricist Masao Urino（売野雅勇）took care of the words.
One of the reasons that I've enjoyed Reimy（麗美）so much is that she can create some pretty nice ballads. It's a bit hard to imagine that the aidoru in the early 80s under the wing of the Matsutoyas could blossom this nicely and romantically. This particular ballad, though, is definitely more in the "grab a hanky" category.
"Last Fragrance" was the 2nd-last track on "Magic Railway", itself the 2nd-last original album that the singer-songwriter released back in July 1992. As with all of the songs on the album, Reimy took care of everything: writing, composing and arranging. The song describes the gradual disintegration of a relationship and the woman's desire to break it off permanently, and the tempo takes on that feeling of sadness, shock and inevitability that anyone would feel at the end of a long romantic era. The music video at YouTube shows that rather well.
For some reason, this is one of a few Reimy songs that continues to pop up to mind whenever the name itself is remembered.
Reimy（麗美）may not have hit the heights of superstardom like some others, but she has had a good cadre of fans including me. To be honest, I have yet to come across a fellow Reimy fan in my travels through the world of kayo kyoku/J-Pop so I cannot compare notes but one of the reasons that I've enjoyed her music is that she has been willing to create music that won't necessarily guarantee Oricon success but will provide some interesting melodies and hooks to those willing to listen.
As I've mentioned before, during the 80s and early 90s Reimy Horikawa（堀川麗美）had three distinct periods: her early era as an 80s aidoru, then a brief intermediate time in America as a dance popster and finally coming into the 90s, she wrote and composed her own distinctive flowing style of pop. For me, this last period was the most appealing to me. My case in point for this article is "Daydream Fair", the opening track to her 1990 album, "Hashiru Soyokaze Tachi e"（走るそよ風たちへ....To The Blowing Gentle Breezes）which also contained a few more Reimy songs I've covered including the elegiac "Dear Tess".
There is something rather Kate Bush and Beatlesque about the whirling "Daydream Fair" which musically conveys a wonderland that any bored company droid would love to be transported to, even for a few minutes, from the drudgery of office life. I actually first heard it on a BEST album of Reimy's, "The Dream of It" from 1992 but after collecting most of her albums from her third songwriting period, I was reminded of it once again on "Hashiru Soyokaze Tachi e". I'm not sure if there ever was a music video for "Daydream Fair" but I would have been interested in seeing its interpretation.
I had quite the liking for Reimy（麗美）, judging from the fact that I was willing to go through the paperwork at the bank and via the "Eye-Ai" mail ordering service to get a couple of discs by the singer-songwriter. The second disc was "Magic Railway",her 10th original album from July 1992. I did get my money's worth on that one since there were a number of tracks that stood out to me.
One of them was "Iidasenakute" (Can't Get The Words Out) which was written and composed by Reimy. Starting out with a bit of a techno riff, the song quickly simmers down into a light R&B duet between her and Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三）, who was just starting to come out on his own with songs like "Woman"and "Ticket to Paradise"that same year. It didn't have quite the heft to become its own single but it still has that pleasant radio-friendly vibe for a Sunday morning listen. "Iidasenakute" and some of the other tracks on "Magic Railway" had Reimy returning to a slightly more upbeat pop sound after a period of softer songs. Even her appearance underwent a small change as she went from the then-popular sauvage hairstyle to a short bob.
My audio relationship with Reimy（麗美） started when she had already been well into the singer-songwriting phase of her career in the late 80s and early 90s, so it was a revelation to find out that she had started out in the mid-80s singing somewhat more aidoru-ish songs. I think the distinction between the two phases was sharp enough that at this point, I have a couple of BEST albums by the Okinawan singer representing those two different eras.
In any case, "Seishun no Regret" (Teenage Regrets) is Reimy's 2nd single from that early era, released in May 1984. I may have mentioned in one of the early articles on her that she seemed to have had some career grooming by the Matsutoyas, including a stint as one of the backup chorus during Yuming's（ユーミン）concerts. And so it was pretty natural that the Queen of New Music created this song for Reimy. Since I had become acquainted with Yuming's cover of the song first, it was interesting to hear the original ballad arrangement with that somewhat gloppy techno beat holding things down. And watching the official music video above, early Reimy was quite different in the looks department, compared to the short haircut and the zippier fashion that she was sporting at the end of the decade. And her voice was more akin to that of Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子） back in those days.
As I said, the first version of "Seishun no Regret" that I had heard was Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由実）cover which got onto her 1985 17th album, "Da-Di-Da", although my first time with it was via her BEST album, "Neue Musik" from 1998. Yuming's version is quite a bit more fun-loving and would probably be figuratively better translated as "Teenage Celebration". My image whenever this song plays is of some high school girls on the weekend taking off in a convertible for the beach. Not sure on the lyrical level, but the song certainly sounds joyful.
And in a bit of a cameo, Miki Imai（今井美樹） gives her own take on "Seishun no Regret" via her latest album, "Dialogue" which is a tribute to Yuming's music.
During my Gunma stint from 1989-1991, one of the singers that I discovered during my forays into the CD shops and mass media was Reimy Horikawa（堀川麗美）, or as she is better known, just Reimy. I first saw her on a late-night episode of "MTV Japan" in an interview as a couple of her videos came on: the sad but beautiful "Dear Tess" and "Tower of Vanity". Since then, I've been trying to collect her increasingly rare collection of CDs.
Then, in my 1993 trip to New York City with a couple of friends, I was looking through a basket of Japanese discs at the Rockefeller Centre branch of Kinokuniya when, lo and behold, I came across "The Best Songs of Reimy". Well, I wasn't about to let that one go. Released in July of that year, this BEST album covers her later singles from 1989 to 1992.
1. Tokai no Safari Park （都会のサファリ・パーク） 2. Mi Okuri （見送り） 3. Angel 4. Kuchibeni no Iro ga Toretekuru （口紅の色が取れて来る） 5. Hashiru Soyo Kaze Tachi e （走るそよ風たちへ） 6. Dear Tess 7. Marry Me 8. Two of Us 9. Tower of Vanity 10. Everlasting Love 11. Love Lecture 12. Dakishimetai （抱きしめたい） 13. Diamond Wing 14. Last Fragrance 15. Wonder Girl （ワンダーガール）
When I think of Reimy's career, I divide it into 3 parts. There was her beginning era of 1984 to 1986 when she was more along the aidoru pop avenue which included covers of Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由美）songs (Yuming and her husband had a little hand in her development). Then, there was her time in the United States where she worked on a more danceable pop. And finally from 1989, she went into a more relaxed pop/AOR direction (although she went slightly more uptempo in her later stuff) in which she penned her own songs. It's this 3rd period that has been the most appealing for me although I have discs by her that cover all three eras.
"Kuchibeni no Iro ga Toretekuru"(The Lipstick is Coming Off) is a track from her first album in this third era, the 1989 "Kotoba no Nai Yujo"（言葉のない友情....Friendship Without Words）. It's a cool urban bossa nova piece which makes me imagine the singer doing some peoplewatching from a cafe. The song also sounds like something that Miki Imai（今井美樹） would have sung at around the same time. Ironically enough, both singers belonged to the same company, Fun House.
"Tokai no Safari Park"(Safari Park of the City) starts off with some frenetic drumming before going into a blast of the big city. I had initially wondered whether the song was a jingle for a real safari park (such as the one in Gunma Prefecture), but actually Reimy is cheerfully referring to the urban jungle that is probably Tokyo. In a way, considering how poppy and cheery it is, her first single in this new period (released in February 1989) almost sounds as if it belongs to her earlier pre-LA era as an aidoru although Reimy's voice now had a lower edge.
This is the aforementioned "Tower of Vanity", an atmospheric song which shows how much her voice has changed and deepened since her aidoru days. Not quite sure what Reimy's English lyrics are all about, although I get the hint that it's about keeping the future generations of children safe. There's a bit more power in this pop than a majority of her songs during this time. "Tower of Vanity" shows up in her 1990 album, "Hashiru Soyo Kaze Tachi e".
"Marry Me" is one of my favourites from that 1990 album and on this BEST album as well. It is an intimate song which sounds as if it should be heard by Reimy playing her guitar around a campfire with good friends than in a concert hall with hundreds. The slow, relaxed ballad arrangement reminds me of Eric Clapton during his later Unplugged years. And that guitar during the bridge is just wonderful.
Then, Reimy brought some glamour and funk and choreography (via the video) through her single, "Everlasting Love" which had separate Japanese and English versions in 1991. The track also went onto her 1991 album, "Yume wa Oitemasen ka"（夢はおいてませんか....Haven't You Left Your Dreams?）. One of the things that stands out in this song is that talking modulator (Yoichiro Kakizaki) partner of hers as it bleats out "Won't you be my girl?"
"The Best Songs of Reimy" makes for a great overview of those 1989-1992 years. She obviously evolved since her debut in 1984, but to sum up, I'd also like to compare her song stylings with those of her then-colleagues in Fun House who got together to make this Christmas song, "Merry Christmas To You"in 1989. Reimy's niche seems to fall between somewhere between the tomboyish rockin' fun of Mariko Nagai（永井真理子） and the lush balladry/overseas rhythms used by Akiko Kobayashi and Midori Karashima（小林明子・辛島美登里）. She is comfortable in both musical worlds. And again, I think I mentioned somewhere else in the blog that I will always enjoy a singer immensely who can adeptly cover a range of genres and tempos. Reimy is one such representative.
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