Kazuma Mori -- Natsu wo Oikakerou!（夏を追いかけろ!）

 

Looks like Kayo Grace has some terrifyingly good skill in making sand castles. Maybe architecture will be her career if and when she decides to leave the aidoru business. Anyways, with the arrival of the annual Canadian National Exhibition here in Toronto, and the temperatures starting to cool off in the morning and night, I gather that the summer is beginning to make its way out of here. When I went outside today, it was only feeling like 16 degrees Celsius. Quite refreshing.

So, for those in my neck of the woods, enjoy your summer as much as you can in the remaining month. Meanwhile, I can introduce this rather rare 1980s tune by Tokyo-born actor Kazuma Mori（森一馬）. Nope, I've never heard of him either but he's had a long career since 1983 on stage and screen according to his J-Wiki profile.

Of course, being seen as an up-and-comer in the geinokai back then meant that eventually the entertainer (no matter in what area) had to cut a record, talent be damned! Therefore, Mori recorded two singles, only one of which got to get onto the store shelves (although he also released three albums); all of his audio output came out in 1984. That one single was "Natsu wo Oikakerou!" (Chase the Summer!) which was released in July with Ryo Shoji（東海林良）handling lyrics while Takayuki Baba（馬場孝幸）and Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）took care of the melody and arrangement respectively. It was the typical upbeat summer pop tune with some of that rock-n'-roll regarding the usual hijinks on the beach which sounded like something that one or two of the Tanokin Trio would have tackled in those 1980s.

There's no explanation why Mori's mystery single wasn't released officially (maybe Mori got into some of his own real hijinks), but it apparently has seen the light of day via his debut album. The single is "Midnight Train" and the debut album is "Shoshin"（初心...Naivete）.

Yuki Katsuragi & Daisuke Inoue -- Gray no Asa ni（グレイの朝に）

 

This song is even more poignant when I consider that both Yuki Katsuragi（葛城ユキ）and Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）are no longer around with us. "Gray no Asa ni" (On a Gray Morning) is a fitting power ballad as a B-side to growly Katsuragi's arguably most famous rock song "Bohemian"（ボヘミアン）from May 1983.

Written by Ryo Shoji（東海林良）and composed by the late Inoue as a duet involving Katsuragi and Inoue, "Gray no Asa ni" seems to be a elegy to a relationship and perhaps the beginnings of new hope in the future. Although there is still some rock in there, I think the melodic inspiration for the ballad also comes from some Motown soul. I like the song but at this point anyways, the sudden crescendo into an epic horn fanfare kinda goes a little too high into the stratosphere. However, if there were ever a joint tribute to Katsuragi and Inoue, this would be the ballad to send them off with.

Yoshio Harada with Anli Sugano -- Bright light, in the sea

 

The late Ken Ogata（緒形拳）was an actor that I first got to know in the biopic "Mishima" and since then I've envisioned him as someone who would play rough-and-tumble salt-of-the-earth characters such as Showa Era fathers and samurai warriors. But I also remember him doing all those Kirin beer commercials to "One" from "A Chorus Line".

In 1983, he played one of those terse characters in the film "Gyoei no Mure"（魚影の群れ...The Catch） as a grizzled veteran fisherman looking for that huge tuna catch to rake in the yen while having to deal with his daughter's city boy fiancé played by Koichi Sato（佐藤浩市）. Not that it will ever happen, but I figure that if I ever were put in the situation of meeting a potential father-in-law like Ogata, I would most likely do something that I haven't done since I was three.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Py4y1V7XE/

How I got to know about "Gyoei no Mure" in the first place was through music, of course. In this case, it was the ending theme for the movie, "Bright light, in the sea", which was a duet between actor/singer Yoshio Harada（原田芳雄）and jazz singer Anli Sugano（アンリ菅野）. I introduced Sugano last summer through her "Akujo Street"（悪女ストリート）, a track from her debut album whose cover still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

I knew about Harada's acting career and I thought that he was in the movie since my impression was that he could also play the tough guys although he would have been pretty young back then. However, Harada, along with Sugano, only provided "Bright light, in the sea" which was a B-side to his 1983 single, "New York Hyouryuu"（ニューヨーク漂流...New York Drift）. For a movie about fighting the rough seas, "Bright light, in the sea" is a surprisingly romantic pop ballad along the line of similar ballads that I heard back on the radio here in Toronto such as "The Next Time I Fall" with Peter Cetera and Amy Grant or the Grammy award-winning "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.

Harada's singing is something that I've heard on New J Channel and he's got the chops for rock and blues, and I think he had some of that Cocker feeling in his vocals here. The music was by Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）from Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）which was on its way to fame, and Tamaki can come up with the heart-on-your-sleeve balladry just like that. Meanwhile, lyricist Ryo Shoji（東海林良）was responsible for the words; he was also behind Machiko Watanabe's（渡辺真知子）bouncy "Kuchibiru yo, Atsuku Kimi wo Katare" (唇よ、熱く君を語れ）. Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）took care of the arrangements.

Ryoko Sakaguchi -- Shitsuren Collage（失恋コラージュ）/Persona（仮面）

Hokkaido-born Ryoko Sakaguchi（坂口良子）was an actress and a TV personality who appeared in movies and TV programs ranging from the iconic 70s cop show "Taiyo ni Hoero!"（太陽にほえろ!）to a second series real-life adaptation of the manga "Sign wa V"（サインはV）and a numbers of variety shows. Tragically, she left this mortal coil prematurely at the age of 57 in March 2013 from pneumonia and cancer. YouTube channel makotosaito put up the above video of some of her commercials as a tribute to her just a couple of days after her passing.

(Unfortunately the video has been taken down.)

Sakaguchi also put out her fair share of singles from the early 1970s but only one full album and one mini-album were released by her. The full album was "Kajitsushu"（果実酒...Fruit Wine） which came out in March 1979. One track is "Shitsuren Collage" (Heartbreak Collage), a pretty funky number by lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composer Ken Sato（佐藤健）, although I'm not sure whether it would fall into the City Pop category although that underlying rhythm and honky-tonk piano are making me think about that. However, I've categorized it as New Music for now. Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）arranged all of the tracks on "Kajitsushu".

However, I have to say that the arrangement for her "Persona" is good for that City Pop tag. A track from that May 1982 mini-album "Silky"（シルキー）, this was written by Ryo Shoji（東海林良）and composed by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, and it's got that touch of class, thanks to some moody strings, jazzy instruments, dreamy keyboards and Sakaguchi's even breathier vocals. I'd be inclined to check out "Silky" over "Kajitsushu" at this point, but both albums have gotten me to go "Hmmm....".

Sayuri Ishikawa -- Jinchouge（沈丁花）

Caught this one on a recent episode of NHK's "Songs of Japanese Spirit" a few weeks back, and it turns out that "Jinchouge" (Winter Daphne) is a Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）song. It is actually the first time that I had ever heard of this plant so my horticultural vocabulary has also benefited from the experience.🌲

Released as a New Year's Day 1978 single, "Jinchouge" strikes me as a sweeping romantic enka with some Mood Kayo elements in there as Ishikawa pines away for that lost lover. I gather that since her breakthrough hit of "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki"（津軽海峡冬景色）in 1977, she may have been seen as the go-to chanteuse for traveling ballads of heartbreak. "Jinchouge" has that feeling for me, and it's that arrangement pattern which brought me over to enka and Mood Kayo in the first place. I simply love those strings and the mournful chorus.

"Jinchouge" reached No. 19 on the Oricon weeklies and it ended up as the 93rd-ranked single for 1978. Written by Ryo Shoji（東海林良）, the composer was none other than Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）, the fellow behind the karaoke Mood Kayo classic "Izakaya"（居酒屋）and also the famous theme song for "Detective Conan".

Kenichi Hagiwara -- Shinkirou（蜃気楼）

For my recent article on the Group Sounds band The Tempters, I added some information at the bottom, noting that Tempters vocalist and actor Kenichi Hagiwara（萩原健一）had passed away on March 26th 2019 at the age of 68.

If I'd had known about this song at the time of his death, I would have put it up onto the blog as soon as I could. "Shinkirou" (Mirage) was the opening track on Hagiwara's 3rd solo album "Nadja II ~ Otoko to Onna"（男と女...Men & Women）, the middle album of his "Nadja" series" from June 1978.

This is one cool song to me. After listening to it the first couple of times earlier this afternoon, I ended up humming a little bit of it over dinner tonight. There was no hesitation in deciding that I would put up a third article for tonight because of "Shinkirou". I love the 70s City Pop feel, thanks to the bluesy sax and that characteristic dreamy stardust-y keyboard which winds in and out of the song at points. Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat" has come to mind.

Composing it is Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）, the same fellow who came up with a couple of iconic themes for the cop show and anime genres. Along with Ryo Shoji's（東海林良）lyrics which seem to depict a lone wolf of sorts  whistling a tune while looking down at the pedestrians below, I can imagine that "Shinkirou" would have made a fine theme tune itself for a done-it-all, seen-it-all private detective. There's even a part of me that thinks the detective has finally gone up to that run-down office in the sky and his ghost is now amiably viewing at all of the little mortals from a cloud somewhere, now released from all of his earthly concerns.

Whatever my analysis of "Shinkirou", this is still one good tune that I would be happy to lift up in tribute to Hagiwara like a tumbler of scotch on the rocks.

Midori Kinouchi -- Yokohama Eleven （横浜いれぶん）

I once wrote about 70s aidoru Midori Kinouchi（木之内みどり）as having sung the first version of "Garasuzaka"（硝子坂）as the title track of her 5th album even before it became a hit for Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）in 1977. Well, the following year, she finally got that big hit with "Yokohama Eleven" in February.

According to J-Wiki, prolific lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）had been writing the words for Kinouchi's 5th to 10th singles without any of them becoming smash successes, but a switch over to lyricist Ryo Shoji（東海林良）did the trick with "Yokohama Eleven". The song title doesn't seem to hint at anything within the words of the song aside from the fact that it was the singer's 11th single. Katsuo Ono's（大野克夫）mellow but somewhat peppy melody helped to get the song up to No. 28 on the Oricon weeklies and although it didn't get into the Top 100 for 1978, the song has apparently become one of the signature tunes of that time period.

Machiko Watanabe -- Kuchibiru yo, Atsuku Kimi wo Katare (唇よ、熱く君を語れ）

My first Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子） song was this one....a cheerful, breezy number whose title seems to translate as "Hey Lips, Talk Passionately About Yourselves". Watanabe hails from Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture and debuted in 1977 with "Mayoi Michi"（迷い道...Lost Way）, a mix of kayo kyoku and New Music. "Kuchibiru yo" is even more in the New Music/City Pop vein. Her 7th single was released in January 1980 and peaked at No. 4 on the Oricon weeklies, eventually becoming the 24th-ranked single of the year. It was also a track on Watanabe's 5th album, "Libra" which was released in August 1980.

Composed by Watanabe herself and written by Ryo Shoji (東海林良）, it was picked up as a commercial jingle for Kanebo Cosmetics. For me, it struck me as being a very car radio-friendly tune to be played in the summer.

Here is the video with Watanabe and Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）performing the signature song together.