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 a rather drab and dreary November day which is often par for the course here as the season starts changing. Quite appropriate for Hump Day, I imagine.
Let's go with something a bit off the beaten path, especially for singer Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）. When the name is mentioned, I usually get thoughts of City Pop by songs such as "Disco Lady"(ディスコ・レディー) back in 1978.
However, her final original album to date was "Un Art de Vivre" from September 1985 and judging from that title and this particular track from it, perhaps she was trying for something quite different. "Kon'ya Escape"(Escape Tonight) is a bit more avant-pop and New Wave. Written by Kenzo Saeki（佐伯健三） and composed by Saeki Suzuki（鈴木さえ子）, it almost sounds like a slower take on Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion" with some synths and weird horns that might have popped out of a David Bowie production. The desired effect has definitely been reached, though; this is no City Pop song. It's something that could have popped from the country that came up with the words "Un Art de Vivre".
Let's see...during the 1960s original series "Star Trek", Captain Kirk had quite a few romantic dalliances throughout the three seasons the show was on NBC. Meanwhile, Spock also had his amourous adventures with a few guest stars from off the ship. But then, on the latest entry in the nearly 60-year-old franchise, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", which takes place in the pre-TOS decade, younger Spock has already been making out with three ladies, two of whom are his shipmates! For a half-Vulcan who's trying to keep hold of his emotions, he's a pretty randy guy! Love long and prosper indeed!🖖
My "Star Trek" preamble ramble was so that I could introduce this song which is part of a massive 5-LP box set, "CANDIES 1676 DAYS"（キャンディーズ1676日）, that was released in December 1977. Can you imagine a Candies fan getting this as a Christmas present? The tears of joy that would flood that living room floor! The set was put out there to commemorate the trio's singles and other songs ranging from their debut to the end of their farewell concert with the first three records containing those singles including B-sides while the fourth record has the ladies' cover versions of Japanese and English-language songs. Finally, Record No. 5 has new stuff.
One of those songs on the final LP happens to be "Gingakei made Tonde Ike!" (Fly to the Galaxy!) which is about one lass dreaming of her beau taking them away from all of the burdens of Earthly living and warping out to the end of the Milky Way. Kinda like the Enterprise. Written by Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）, composed by folk singer-songwriter Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）and arranged by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, it's notable for its disco arrangement over a folky rhythm and what sounds atypically like a koto or a harp periodically dropping by to say hello.
I can imagine the pitchman narrating the commercial for "CANDIES 1676 DAYS" and excitedly saying "Wait there's more!". Well, wait there's more!Michiyo Azusa（梓みちよ）gave her own more laconic cover of "Gingakei made Tonde Ike!" as her 42nd single in March 1978 with just a breath of rock in there. Then in September 1983, Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）also released her take on the song as a single; this one is notable for incorporating a country banjo and a synthesizer to create something that is still recognizably "Gingakei made Tonde Ike!" but on a rather bizarre level. Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）arranged this version.
Now, we finish up in this year. The original Candies version has been provided as the theme song for a CG anime titled "Ginga Tokkyu Milky Subway"（銀河特急 ミルキー☆サブウェイ...Galaxy Express: Milky Subway）.
A snow day has been declared for the Toronto area after getting the heaviest snowstorm in a couple of years. So I figure that the kids are either gleefully sleeping in or hitting the hills with their sleds. In addition, it is Valentine's Eve rather than Valentine's Day and I had already been planning to put this Reminiscings of Youth chestnut up even without the Valentine's Day reference, but the timing couldn't have been better regardless.
Last summer, I finally got around to welcome the late singer Nicolette Larson onto the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". A number of her songs were recurring tunes on AM radio here in Canada and at one point, I thought that she was actually as Canadian as maple syrup, only to find out many years later that she hailed from the state of Montana in the United States. One of those songs of hers was the cool and urban "Lotta Love" which was created by Neil Young.
Another song that hailed from her September 1978 debut album "Nicolette" was "French Waltz" which is about as different as can be from "Lotta Love". One reason that I had assumed that Larson was Canadian was the fact that she sang some of the song in French and that there was something rather Canadian and folksy about it. If it had been written and composed in Japan, I would have immediately pegged it as a Fashion Music tune. Anyways, "French Waltz" was another popular song on the AM airwaves for years and even before "Lotta Love", the song had become a favourite of mine to listen to and remember the old days by.
Interestingly enough, "French Waltz" had been created by Adam Mitchell. He had been born in Scotland but ended up in Toronto along with the rest of his family as a teenager, and it looks like at least the earlier years of his music career were spent in the Toronto area, so perhaps the Canadiana did seep into "French Waltz" after all.
As with "Lotta Love" as a ROY topic, I'm going to hit the September 29th issue of the Oricon charts to delve into what was popular at around the same time that "Nicolette" had come out. But I've already done the Top 3 there so let's go with the bottom three of that Top 20 chart.
"Dreaming Love" is a sweet soul ballad that is right up the alley of soul freak Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and makes effective use of the electric sitar. As soon as the arrangement was done in the manner of Thom Bell who had helped produce The Delfonics and The Stylistics, there was probably no one in Japan who could match Tats. And within that, the horns and strings arrangement along with the precise positioning were magnificent.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
For a guy who doesn't drink all that much, I guess that I've been throwing in those alcohol-based kayo kyoku over the years of this blog. I actually did put up a whimsical Author's Pick a couple of months back with "Alcohol Kayo" and only some days ago, there was Nash Music Library's"Cocktail From Japan". So I gather that I'm a vicarious alky.
I've had my Screwdrivers, Brown Cows and Creamsicles but a Singapore Sling has yet to be made in my presence for imbibing. According to the video from Tipsy Bartender, it's got quite a few ingredients so I'm thinking some similarities to the Long Island Iced Tea. It's probably just as sweet and deadly, too.
Speaking of the Singapore Sling, Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）released a song with that very name back in July 1984 as a B-side to her single "Sennen Seppun"（千年接吻...Thousand-Year Kiss）. Described as a slice of American pop and AOR, this was written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）with Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）handling the arrangement. That bouncy piano does remind me of some of that Sunshine Pop from America back in the 1970s, but the pre-chorus synths reassure us that this was indeed made in the 1980s.
Found this song by Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）on her 5th album from July 1980, "Heart of Gold". "Revolution", as the title would suggest, begins with an AOR guitar and percussion that sound very anthemic before a determined drum march comes in as if the singer were going off to war. But the majority of the song straddles the line between AOR and City Pop.
Written by Kaoru Asaki（麻木かおる）and composed by Masahiro Ando（安藤まさひろ）, the first leader of fusion band The Square, I have one observation about "Revolution". At certain points, Nakahara's phrasings remind me of the vocals of Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）, and her debut song, which wouldn't be released for another six years, was titled "My Revolution". Things that make you go hmmmm....😏
Happy Monday! Inbound Japanese tourism has been a topic that's touched upon me and a few of my friends now and then since some of us do want to return to places like Tokyo, and I've got a student who is a senior tourism researcher. It certainly would be nice to visit Yokohama again and see things like the Nippon Maru as is shown above.
Not the smoothest segue, I have to admit, but I'm going to be starting this work week off with a couple of singles by Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）, including her August 1979"Show Boat". In contrast with her big kayo-sounding hit of "Tokyo Lullaby"（東京ららばい）the year previously, Nakahara and the two songwriters behind that one, lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, got back together again with arranger Jun Sato（佐藤準）to create "Show Boat" which actually sounds like more like all three played some Queen and/or Electric Light Orchestra LPs before coming up with this one.
As the chorus sings out "Life is the show boat" in that one enjoys a ride on one of those cruise liners with a handsome captain for a while but while the journey inevitably ends, they can just hop off the one boat and hop onto another one. I'm not nearly as adventurous in my analogies; I'm happy enough just saying that life is a Toyota Corolla.
A few singles and years later, Nakahara came out with a new single in January 1981, "Shake, Shake..." (no idea regarding the three dots afterwards) which has more of a galloping City Pop beat provided by composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロ）and arranger Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）. Tetsuya Chiaki（ちあき哲也）provides the lyrics about what seems like the trials and tribulations of living the night life in Tokyo. Must have been quite the time in the capital.
The one thing that I've noticed about all of my Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）songs on the blog is that they were all released in 1978! I guess she was one really busy singer or I really ought to be searching for more of her output in the later years.
Hey, though. It is City Pop Friday so I'm good with it. And so here is "Togire Togirete" which I believe is an expression referring to "Disconnection", although hearing those moans by the singer and the boppy bass which seems to have gone on to even better fame on the theme song for "Law & Order", I don't get the feeling that there was much disconnection going on that night...nudge nudge wink wink, know what I mean?
"Togire Togirete" is a track on Nakahara's debut album"Touch Me" from February 1978 and it's simultaneously downtown and dreamy, maybe the perfect environment for an adventure in Roppongi which is why I put up the photo of the Mori Building in that neighbourhood. It really does have that 1970s urban contemporary feeling especially with the horns and the chorus in there. Speaking of the chorus, I think that is keyboardist/singer Izumi Kobayashi（小林泉）since she was also the one behind the melody while Nakahara provided the words.
Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）, as I've come to learn over the years of doing this blog, has goofed it up with the rest of the Drifters on their long-running comedy-variety show and even co-hosted TV Asahi's venerable "Music Station" during its first year. But early in her time in show business, she was also pretty active behind the recording mike herself.
(24:26)
Of course, there was her most famous hit, "Tokyo Lullaby" (東京ららばい）, from March 1978 which earned her an invitation to her only appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen that year. But a month before it was released, Nakahara had her debut album come out, "Touch Me".
From that album comes the track "Asa made Issho ni" (The Two of Us Til the Morning), a gentle and slightly woozy and bluesy song depicting waking up in the aftermath of a very successful night before, if you know what I mean.😉 The arrangement including the slow and languid guitar and the mellow Fender Rhodes illustrates that slow rise out of sleep to what looks like a fine morning outside and a still-sleeping partner next door. While Nakahara provided the lyrics, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）was the one behind the music.
Several days ago, a commenter asked me about a song by singer/tarento Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）which has a karaoke version on YouTube. The only thing is that the karaoke version is...well...not the greatest-sounding, so perhaps when the original recorded version ever appears there, I will take another look at it.
Instead, I would like to introduce all of you to another Nakahara ballad that got onto her 2nd album"Killing Me" from December 1978 called "Dreaming Love". There are a few things that stand out about this one. For one thing, those boozy keyboards in the intro have always kinda haunted me in a good way, and then, the melody segues into this Motown soul of the early to mid 1970s punctuated with a French horn. That's a pretty interesting arrangement about a couple very much in love. In fact, the whole setting may have them sitting on a comfy couch in the dark while this very song is playing in some dandy apartment in Tokyo.
The final thing is that "Dreaming Love" was created by the potent duo of lyricist Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and composer Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. It seems like anything those two put together comes off as pretty golden. Maybe the backing chorus could indeed be Yoshida and Yamashita as well.
(Not anymore, there aren't.😢)
Recently, I've been realizing that Nakahara had also quite the comical presence along with the romantic side of her. There are quite a few videos of her guesting on the Drifters'（ザ・ドリフターズ）old comedy-variety show.
Sentimental hotels? I've got two, both of which I stayed at for the better part of a week a piece. I've mentioned the Tokyo Prince over the years in various articles here as the first accommodations during my 1981 trip which proved my awakening to the wonders of Japan and also kayo kyoku. The Keio Plaza was my hotel during the orientation session for the JET Programme where I started my first real post-university job. Between the two, though, I will happily go with the Prince.
Van Paugam and his City Pop radio on YouTube has been a great find for those who have recently cottoned onto the Japanese music genre. Moreover for me, depending on the tune, those driving scenes, including one trip on the Yurikamome Monorail, have greatly enhanced the listening experience.
One such song, recently, is "Sentimental Hotel" by Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）, which is the B-side to her 2nd single"Disco Lady" (ディスコ・レディー), released in August 1978. Compared with her arguably most famous tune "Tokyo Lullaby"（東京ららばい）which is this jaunty number with some of that exoticism that had been a thing in some of the kayo during the late 1970s, "Sentimental Hotel" definitely sounds like a Japanese urban funk song with a sweeping feel that makes it a good fit with those Van Paugam drives on the highway.
The dream duo of Takashi Matsumoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi（松本隆・筒美京平）who handled both "Tokyo Lullaby" and "Disco Lady" also took care of "Sentimental Hotel". Lyrically, the story has a woman reminiscing about a past love at a high-class hotel. I can guarantee that my sentiments for hotels in Tokyo are very different from the heroine's sentiments. Plus, I didn't stay in Room 909 (would be terrified to activate a black-light scanner in that suite).
"Sentimental Hotel" was also a track on Nakahara's 2nd album, "Killing Me" (which you hear in the refrain for this song), from December 1978. As far as I know, the Keio Plaza hasn't changed all that much since 1989, but I do know that the Tokyo Prince underwent some major renovations a few years ago, so it won't be the same if I ever drop by there again for a cake-and-coffee set.
Being way too young to enter the discos when Disco was king in the 1970s, my time for cutting up a rug (that expression probably aged me a few more decades) was in the late 1980s when my university buddies and I hit places like the Diamond, the Copa and even the highest disco on the planet at the time, Sparkles, up in the CN Tower. Now that last dance floor was truly a closet pretending to be a disco emporium.
Urban Japan was also not unaware of the disco boom, it seems. I knew about all of those huge dance clubs from the 1990s such as Julianas and Velfarre in Tokyo but wasn't quite sure about how discos were like back in the 1970s. I've heard about those emporiums in Roppongi like the Lexington Queen but perhaps a lot of the dance clubs may have been fairly tiny.
In any case, this is "Disco Lady" by Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）. Released in August 1978, this was her 2nd single following her debut of "Tokyo Lullaby"（東京ららばい）which is the one song that most folks remember her for. The song does have some of that disco beat in there but I'm kinda wondering if it's more in line with some of the uptempo kayo of the time from the two Hiromis...Go and Iwasaki（郷ひろみ・岩崎宏美）. As with "Tokyo Lullaby", Takashi Matsumoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi（松本隆・筒美京平）were responsible for words and music respectively.
I've profiled Yasuko Naito's（内藤やす子）"Roppongi Lullaby"(1984) which is either bluesy and brassy or bluesy and tenderhearted depending on which of the 2 versions you listen to. Rie Nakahara's（中原理恵）"Tokyo Lullaby" which was released in March 1978, is more cheerfully rollicking. It starts with a Spanish guitar riff before going into a melody which sounds slightly enka-ish but also has a touch of exoticism that was fairly popular in a number of pop songs coming out around the late 70s. In any case, it's one of those songs I've heard a number of times in TV music retrospectives and in the karaoke boxes. I think it kinda reflected (and still reflects) the hustle and bustle of one of the world's largest metropolises as it gives a shout out to places like Yamate Road, Tokyo Bay and Tokyo Tower.
Born in Hakodate, Hokkaido as Tamie Mekata（目加田貴美恵）Nakahara debuted with "Tokyo Lullaby" at 19. Sounding mature for her age with a huskier voice, her managing agency initially bumped up her age a couple of years for the sake of "authenticity". Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi (筒美京平）, the song peaked at No. 9 on Oricon and earned Nakahara a berth in the 1978 Kohaku Utagassen as well as a Japan Record Award as Best Newcomer.
Nakahara also gained further fame when in 1984, she became one of the Madonnas in the Tora-san movie series entry for that year. And she was the first female co-host of TV Asahi's long-running "Music Station" for its first year.
