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.
Showing posts with label Ryoko Sakaguchi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ryoko Sakaguchi. Show all posts
Back in 2021, I put up a couple of songs recorded by actress/singer Ryoko Sakaguchi（坂口良子）, and it was good that I hedged my bets and put two for the price of one in that article since the earlier of the pair, "Shitsuren Collage"（失恋コラージュ）, was soon taken down by the usual powers-that-be.
"Shitsuren Collage" was a track on Sakaguchi's one-and-only full album"Kajitsushu" (Fruit Wine) from 1979, and though it was too bad that that particular song has gone the way of the dodo, I was able to find the title track. As I did for "Shitsuren Collage", "Kajitsushu" seems to be in the New Music vein of things with an intro and persistent keyboard rhythm reminiscent for the one for the 1960s pop hit "Daydream Believer" although the overall arrangement is contemporary for that time. It's so relaxing that I was quite tempted to also include the genre of Fashion Music. There is some synthesizer buzzing around like birds in a glade, though.
As was the case with the other track, "Kajitsushu" was written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Ken Sato（佐藤健）. I'm just glad that I could find one track from the album to replace the now-missing "Shitsuren Collage".
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....".
