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.
Japanese television loves to use its fair share of musical cues within programs such as variety shows. For example, if there is an instance where a couple of celebrities are about to come to a screaming match or physical blows (mostly joking...mostly), Tomoyasu Hotei's（布袋寅泰）famous "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" roars in like an oncoming storm.
Well, I think another song intro which is much older than Hotei's classic could have been another perfect shredding guitar cue, and I have to admit that I have to give myself another Gibbs slap upside the back of my head since I had unintentionally omitted it from the pages of KKP for years and years. When it comes to Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）"Zettai Zetsumei", her 23rd single from August 1978, I put it up there with her "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）and "Playback Part 2"（プレイバック・パート２）as the 70s aidoru'ssongs of fury...as in "Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned".
"Zettai Zetsumei" can be interpreted as "desperate situation" or "stalemate", and both definitions can set the scene described by Yoko Aki's（阿木燿子）lyrics of irate showdown and her husband Ryudo Uzaki's（宇崎竜童）hard rocking confrontation music. You see, we have a love/hate triangle at a cafe somewhere in which at least one of the women has finally had enough of the status quo, and she and the other woman are giving the ultimatum to the guy they share. Who will win? Who will lose? And are there any sharp utensils nearby? You'd be surprised at how much damage a butter knife can do.
Even the cover of the single has Momoe looking terrifying. She looks like she's saying "Oh, really? THAT'S what you're going with?". Ay, carumba! "Zettai Zetsumei" peaked at No. 3 and ended up as the 34th-ranked single of the year. It's also a track on the singer's September 1978 15th studio album"Dramatic"（ドラマチック）which went as high as No. 6 on Oricon.
Considering yesterday's massive snowstorm, I can imagine commuters who had to take the car or public transit this morning on this Monday were closing their eyes in resigned realization of their immediate working needs. Fortunately, a few of my friends work from home so they have been off the hook.
If I mention the name Keiko Matsuzaka（松坂慶子）, I believe that a lot of Japanese folks would remember her in her capacity as an actress, TV personality or commercial pitchman. However, she did have that hit back in 1979, the saucy "Ai no Suichuuka"（愛の水中花）. But she had been putting out music for several years in the form of singles and albums starting from the mid-1970s well into the 21st century.
One album was the February 1984"Hitomi wo Tojite"（瞳をとじて ）and the track which started off the B-side of the original LP was "Close Your Eyes" which is the direct translation for the album title. Written and composed by Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）, who came up with a lot of Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）hits back in the 1970s, "Close Your Eyes" is something quite different. For one thing, it's quite the haunting technopop tune thanks additionally to Matsuzaka's vocals, and it feels like something that came out of France although I can also imagine the band Blondie tackling this one.
My mother has often asked the question, "Where is Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）? I haven't seen her in ages." Well, looking the legendary enka singer up on J-Wiki, I found out that she basically stopped any public appearances in the mid-2010s, and as of 2021, she's been living with a former actor in an old countryside inn somewhere in the Tohoku region. So, let us just assume that she has finally retired without any great bombast.
Some weeks ago, when I was watching the kayo program "Shin BS Nippon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）on NHK, I noticed one of the guests singing a Miyako song that I had never heard of before. It started out as one of the more traditional enka but then the carpet was pulled out from beneath us listeners, and it became an old-fashioned rock n' roll tune, reminiscent of the Group Sounds days of the 1960s.
This would be "Mukashi" which literally translates as "Long Ago". However, considering the lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, perhaps a better and more pragmatic translation would be "Yesterday's Man". This was Miyako's 119th single from New Year's Day 2003 and looking at that cover of a triumphant-looking singer with the big hair and her smiling visage emblazoned all over her kimono, this isn't an ordinary Miyako single...especially with Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）handling the composition, him being the grizzled rock master.
Along with the GS sound, Miyako is more than happy to be singing about washing that man right out of her hair...just to reference another old American song from way back when. She's free, I tell you, free of the shackles of the old relationship and ready to tackle new adventures, but not without some gleeful verbal stomping of the former pathetic paramour.
The whole family went out last night for dinner and we had it at a Swiss Chalet not too far away. As a bit of a change from my usual choice, I ordered a Hot Chicken Sandwich. It turned out to be somewhat less than the sum of its parts, however, since although there was plenty of bread and gravy slathered on, there wasn't a whole lot of chicken. I think the saltiness and the volume of gravy were meant to cover up for the deficiency. It just seemed like this restaurant's equivalent of the cheap Chinese takeout version of Deep Fried Shrimp...90% fried batter and 10% shrimp.
However, a club sandwich has never let me down no matter where I've eaten it. Most of the time, it's been at the diner franchise Eggsmart. I will always be a sucker for the bacon and chicken combo with generous smearings of mayonnaise. Found some good information on the famous dish at Wikipedia, too.
Last Wednesday, when I put up those two burger kayo, commenter AL replied that he actually found a club sandwich kayo and it was performed by none other than aidoru of the 1970s, Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）. "Club Sandwich wa Ikaga?" (How About a Club Sandwich?). It's truly an unusual tune since this whimsical ditty actually sounds like something from a century back with its playful jazz arrangement by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）. Even Momoe-chan herself gets in on the act by sounding like she was recorded via an old-fashioned gramophone.
"Club Sandwich wa Ikaga?" was also one track on Yamaguchi's successful August 1976 album"Yokosuka Story"（横須賀ストーリー）with that famous trademark title tune, and indeed all of the tracks, including "Club Sandwich wa Ikaga?", were written and composed by husband-and-wife team Yoko Aki and Ryudo Uzaki（阿木耀子・宇崎竜童）. Usually when I hear those two names and Yamaguchi's in the same breath, my mind will usually go to one of the singer's more world-weary and rough-and-tumble hits such as "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）, so it is pretty revelatory when I hear something as comical as this particular song by the three. Heck, Momoe even predicted my drink of choice with my beloved club sandwich: hot coffee!🥪☕
I don't consider myself a tried-and-true expert on the aidoru career of Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）but just from listening to her earlier material in the late 1970s, I've gotten the impression that at least melodically, she was getting some fairly galloping material to tackle.
Takada's debut single from March 1977 is the fondly remembered "Garasuzaka"（硝子坂）which provided some romantic sturm und drang thanks to lyricist Takemi Shima（島武実）, composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）and arranger Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）. Well, her sophomore effort, "Dakedo..." (However...) from later in July continues some of the handwringing in love with Shima, Uzaki and Makaino helping out again to form out a fairly rollicking song. In fact, the overall rhythm reminds me of some of the drama from Hiromi Ohta's（太田裕美）"Saraba Siberia Tetsudo" (さらばシベリア鉄道）which wouldn't come out until a few years later in 1980.
"Dakedo..." was another Top 10 hit for the emerging 17-year-old singer as it hit No. 6. It finished the year as the 52nd-ranked single.
The lingering and perhaps slowly fading question among some of us kayo kyoku fans is "What if Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵） had continued her career into the 1980s?". Would she have taken a more rock n' roll route like Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）or gotten on the trendy City Pop train? I don't think she would have wanted the aidoru tag placed beside her name anymore.
Well, maybe we can live a bit vicariously by listening to aidoru Miyuki Kosaka's（香坂みゆき）12th single from February 1982, "Kawaita Hana"(Dried Flower). Written and composed by the same husband-and-wife duo, composer Ryudo Uzaki and lyricist Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子）, who were responsible for many of Yamaguchi's late 1970s hits in the latter half of her career, Kosaka doesn't have the same timbre of voice as Yamaguchi but there is a a certain similarity and familiarity with the breathy nonchalant delivery. She relates the story of a J-Don Juan who goes through his women like tissues on a hay fever day.
Under Masaaki Omura's（大村雅朗）arrangement, "Kawaita Hana" doesn't have that rock n' roll feeling...it's more like a smooth City Pop vibe with the synths taking things to nearly early 1980s Manhattan Transfer levels. Kosaka's biggest hit is arguably her later "Nuance Shimasho"（ニュアンスしましょ）and her voice there is much more different.
My impression of the late singer-songwriter Koutaro Yamamoto（山本コウタロー）was that he was quite the amiable and goofy guy in his T-shirt and bell-bottom jeans according to what I've read and heard through "Mura no Yuubin Haitatsu"（村の郵便配達）of 1972 and via his bands Salty Sugar（ソルティー・シュガー）and Koutarou Yamamoto and Weekend（山本コウタローとウィークエンド）.
So, it's quite the thing to see a much snazzier and older Yamamoto in that suit on the cover of his October 1984 album"Juu-gatsu no Kyori"（10月の距離...October Distance）. He looked like he was ready to party on the dance floors of Roppongi or Shinjuku back then. One song from that album and itself his final single is "Mihoko e" (To Mihoko); the single was released a month earlier. A wistful tune about a fellow who wishes a former flame well when she gets married to another guy, the arrangement of the song still keeps that folksy nature that had been part and parcel of a Yamamoto song from years previously...that is, before a synthesizer crashes the party like a thunder clap near the end for some weird reason. And this time around, Yamamoto doesn't have anything to do with the songwriting. The lyricist was Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）of AKB48 fame and the composer was Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）.
The kanji for Mihoko can also be read as Mioko but I don't think I could hear the name at all being dropped in the song but maybe one of you can catch it if it does exist.
Yes, the above is the main drag for Omotesando, one of the tony streets in Tokyo. On weekends, you can see down the boulevard and observe the masses of humanity going up and down. My friend and I tried to navigate Omotesando during my first Xmas Eve in Japan in 1994. However, it was literally wall-to-wall people so it certainly didn't feel like Christmas and with a policeman on the pedestrian bridge exhorting us to keep moving, it felt more like going through Shinjuku Station at rush hour. But on most days, it's a nice little walk on a fashionable path.
Nanpa（軟派）is the act of picking up women. I've known for years some of the pickup lines that Japanese guys liked to use back in the day such as "Hey, Miss, how about grabbing some coffee at this café nearby?". I never got to use them myself since back when those lines actually had traction, I was an absolute nerd just starting junior high school. Usually when I hear of nanpa, the nightclub and bar-heavy Roppongi and the youth mecca Shibuya come to mind.
Strangely enough though, actor and singer Yutaka Mizutani（水谷豊）released his 3rd single in March 1978, "Omotesando Nanpa Street"(Omotesando Pick-Up Street). Tony Omotesando never gave me an impression that it was some place for men to make their moves on unsuspecting women but I wasn't there in 1978. Maybe it had a very different atmosphere back then. Anyways, this was written and composed by the songwriting husband-and-wife team of composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）and lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）, the same duo behind Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）biggest hits such as "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）, and everything was arranged by Happy End's（はっぴいえんど）Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）.
As Mizutani takes on the character of a young punk trying to make the rounds of picking up a couple of lasses in Omotesando, Uzaki and Suzuki have arranged "Omotesando Nanpa Street" to sound a bit like a folksy Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）tune but with some City Pop. Still in the end, I categorized the whole effect from the song as New Music, and while Mizutani's form of Joe Cool doesn't quite succeed in getting that female companionship, the song has that cheerful and happy-go-lucky vibe which probably means that the big lug has plenty of confidence to try again the next day.
To the kayo-listening audience at large actress-singer Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）has been immortalized thanks to her "Blue Light Yokohama"（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ） from 1968 which will reach its 55th anniversary since release in a few days on Christmas Day. But from the late 1970s going into the early 1980s, she also sipped from the wine glass of City Pop with some initial encouragement from Tin Pan Alley via "Roppongi Lullaby"（六本木ララバイ）.
In June 1979, Ishida released her 53rd single titled "Mild Night". A story of an urban love affair, "Mild Night" might be ironically titled since it sounds more like a wild night via a rumba. Also to my ears, it's not just a City Pop tune but also something in the amorphous New Adult Music realm of mixed genres. Usually New Adult Music would be a blend of pop and enkabut over here, the song has that Latin, City Pop and maybe even something from either a tokusatsu or a cop show theme tune, so some dynamic kayo kyoku. I wonder if the horns were supplied by the band Spectrum.
The lyrics were provided by Takashi Nakahata（仲畑貴志）while the melody was created by Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）."Mild Night" only got as high as No. 86 on Oricon and it was never put onto an original album by Ishida, so indeed it could be one of the rarest of the rare.
Happy Victoria Day for all of you in Canada and for the rest of you, Happy Monday!
I haven't watched much of any of his shows on television for years now, but Seth MacFarlane can still surprise me. It was about a decade ago when I found out about "American Dad" bringing in Perfume's "Monochrome Effect" for one of its episodes, and apparently a few weeks ago, there was an episode on his flagship "Family Guy" where he and Chris Griffin take a stab at the good ol' Toyota Cressida.
I took a look at the Wikipedia article for the model and it had been originally marketed as the Toyota Corona Mark II. Now, why I would even mention this specific vehicle in the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is that I actually was driven in a Cressida during my 1981 trip through Japan. The father of my host family during my 3-day homestay in Nara picked us all up in a Cressida and earlier in the trip, I had found out via a tour through Toyota facilities in Toyota City that supposedly the Cressida was second only to the Crown in terms of their sedan line. So I gather that this particular model back then was for the division head tier of executives but I'm wildly speculating here. It was a comfy ride since I did end up snoozing in the back.
Anyways, try as I might, I couldn't find a specific commercial for the Cressida that had a Japanese pop song as the jingle. But I opted to search through the J-Wiki list of songs that had been used in Toyota commercials in general, and I was surprised to see that even Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）had gotten into the act.
Yup, her 26th single"Ai no Arashi"(Love [Jealousy] Storm) from June 1979 was used for the Toyota Tercel in which she herself appeared as well. The song itself was another collaboration between her and the husband-and-wife team of lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）and composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）with the arrangement of Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, as her persona of the world-weary woman of the city and the night has to deal with yet another romantic entanglement. The guitar and string combination weave the lady and situation perfectly as someone quietly ferocious in a delicate situation. From the pounding percussion that ends the song, I gather that things didn't end well. I remember hearing this on my BEST compilation, thanks to that Aki lyric of "jealousy storm, jealousy storm, storm/storm/storm...".
"Ai no Arashi" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and ended 1979 as the 36th-ranked single. It was also a track on Yamaguchi's 19th studio album"Harutsugedori"（春告鳥...Japanese Bush Warbler） which was released in February 1980 and it hit No. 5 too on the album charts.
It's been several years since I last put up a song by actress/singer Noriko Watanabe（渡辺典子）and that was "Hare, Tokidoki Kill Me"（晴れ、ときどき殺人）, her second single from April 1984. Looking up her file on J-Wiki, someone was kind enough to even include her history of singles sales as a bar graph, and regrettably, it was a case of diminishing returns for the Fukuoka-born Watanabe.
Although I have never done a deep dive into her discography and although her vocals were perhaps not the most inspiring, her third single from later in September, "Itsuka Dareka ga..." (Sometime Somebody) is an interestingly arranged song. With Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）handling that job, the husband-and-wife songwriting team of lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）and composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）who had created the second single were also on hand for this third single.
"Itsuka Dareka ga..." as the title may imply is a song of enigma as a woman may be lost from all angles, literally and/or psychologically for starters. The melody and arrangement amp that feeling up as they shape the song into something like exotic kayoor Fashion Music as if the setting were somewhere in another nation or dimension involving a spooky castle of some sort. Although there is nothing at all mentioned about it in Aki's lyrics, I was even thinking something along the lines of Halloween.
According to that sales chart, the single managed to sell a little over 60,000 records with the Oricon ranking for it holding at No. 26.
Well, whaddaya know? Just like the second single becoming the theme song for a suspense movie of the same name starring Watanabe, "Itsuka Dareka ga..." got hit with the same function for another cinematic adaptation of a Jiro Akagawa（赤川次郎）mystery novel, "Itsuka Dareka ga Korosareru"(いつか誰かが殺される...Sometime Somebody Will Be Killed). Once again, Watanabe is on the hook...figuratively speaking.
It seems as if another frequent character on anime series is the tomboyish girl who is so tomboyish that even the other girls (along with the guys) have a thing for her. This season, it's been Tomo-chan but I recall several years ago, there was the hilarious Kashima-kun from "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん）.
Tomo-chan and Kashima-kun came to mind when I came across this February 1983 debut single by Itsumi Osawa（大沢逸美）, "James Dean Mitai na Onna no Ko" (A Girl Like James Dean). I actually wrote an article about the tall and tomboyish Sapporo-born 80s aidorua couple of years ago via her "Noppo no Captain"（のっぽのキャプテン）but unfortunately the powers-that-be have completely erased any aural evidence of the song from the Net. However, I'm keeping the article on active status since I've provided some of her background there.
James Dean is one of those iconic Hollywood figures who has not only lasted in American pop culture but also in Japanese pop culture. His face has popped up everywhere and I think his name has also been bandied about in titles and lyrics of other songs. In this case, I think the husband-and-wife team of lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）and composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）definitely had Osawa in mind when they whipped up this song about a handsome young girl. It does have that certain 1950s rock-n'-roll twang in there and Aki's lyrics seem to depict a Tomo-chan or Kashima-kun or Osawa type who's under some consternation about getting love letters from her fellow girls.
Happy Monday! Although Sunday was close-to-record-breaking warm at about 16 degrees C if windy, today is dreary and back to 0 degrees with some snow on the way. Yep, that's the weather story in predictably unpredictable Toronto.
About 10 days ago, I wrote on Disc 1 of "Yokohama Fantasy"（横浜幻想）, that double-CD compilation of Yokohama-themed kayothat I got recently. That first disc contained a couple of Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）songs that I promised that I would cover in their own article, and that article is now here.
The first of those two songs happens to start off Disc 1, but "Ima Mezameta Kodomo no You ni" (Like a Child Whose Eyes Have Opened) was originally a track from Yamaguchi's 9th studio album"Yokosuka Story"（横須賀ストーリー）from August 1976. Written by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）, composed by Juichi Sase（佐瀬寿一）and arranged by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）, this is a bright and vivacious number with some of that disco vibe.
And true to the vivaciousness of the song, Momoe sings to a former lover (and perhaps teases him good-naturedly as well) that she's going to be OK after all without him and has turned a new leaf. She's also thrown away the high heels and the clothes that she wore during their relationship. Perhaps it's still a little too soon after the breakup though since one line in Ishihara's lyrics refers to all of those lovers in the café as being naïve so she's stuck a slice of lemon into her mouth. Although the lyrics don't do a heavy promotion of the port city through namedropping, the proof that it is indeed Yokohama comes from a reference to the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery.
The album "Yokosuka Story" hit No. 3 on Oricon and ended up as the 43rd-ranked album of 1976. Of course, it also has the famous title track.
The second song "I Came From Yokosuka" originates from Momoe's 11th album"Momoe Hakusho"（百恵白書...The Momoe Report） which was a May 1977 release. This time, the songwriters are husband-and-wife songwriting duo composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）and lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）behind the arrangement which is somewhat reminiscent of the Bee Gees'"Staying Alive" in the level of guitar funk and disco. There's also some notable plinky honky-tonk piano which starts the proceedings.
In terms of Aki's lyrics, they seem to be the opposite of those of "Ima Mezameta Kodomo no You ni". This time, Momoe is on the hunt for that specific guy taking the train all the way from her hometown of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture to Shinagawa in Tokyo (Yokohama's involvement seems to be more of a passing through thing this time, though). And true to the songs that Uzaki and Aki crafted for Yamaguchi in the latter half of her singing career, the lass isn't taking NO for an answer. She was definitely one headstrong 18-year-old. "Momoe Hakusho" peaked at No. 3.
The first time that I had heard of Yumiko Araki（荒木由美子）was through her debut single"Nagisa de Cross"（渚でクロス）from June 1977 which I wrote about a little over a couple of years ago.
I've already given out much of her biography through "Nagisa de Cross", so let's cut to the chase with this track from her debut album"Virgin Road/Nagisa de Cross"（ヴァージン・ロード／渚でクロス）which was released in October of that same year. The husband-and-wife team of Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子）, who had also come up with "Nagisa de Cross", was also behind "Haru ni Fukarete" (Carried Away by Spring), this time with arrangements by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）.
The debut single may have been a bit more rock n' roll but "Haru ni Fukarete" is more lighthearted with a touch of Latin in there. It's more like a stroll in some tropical paradise and there is that velvety singing by Araki herself. Not a bad thing to hear especially as the season is here.
There was no source given behind the following comment in the J-Wiki article for this entertainer, but I can imagine that it was probably the Japanese entertainment media which gave the rather cruel snark that the 1983 group of new aidoru was a bad crop due to none of them having any notable hits. In the previous year, the geinokai had seen the arrival of Tomoyo Harada（原田知世）, Hidemi Ishikawa（石川秀美）, Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）among others so perhaps the media got rather spoiled which probably led to the remark. Can't really imagine how some of those teenage singers took the news. I know that not all aidoru had the most talented voices but ouch!
One of those singers debuting that year was Itsumi Osawa（大沢逸美）from Hokkaido. She made her debut in February 1983 with "James Dean Mitai na Onna no Ko"（ジェームス・ディーンみたいな女の子...A Girl Like James Dean） which I will probably get around to sometime later on. However, I'd like to begin the Osawa file with the B-side to her 2nd single"Kiri Kiri Mai"（キリキリ舞い...Spin Dance） instead which was released in June.
That would be the cordial "Noppo no Captain" (The Tall Lanky Captain) which was written and composed by the husband-and-wife team of lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）and composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）. Aki and Uzaki penned a lot of 70s aidoruMomoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）hits in the latter half of that decade such as "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）. Those Momoe songs had that line of kickass sultriness which also had an influence on how the singer performed on television.
However, "Noppo no Captain", the tale of a young girl having the hots for the captain of a high school cheerleading squad (although he's already attached) has got more of a French pop feeling which really stood out to me. Certainly, it's a song that I would have rooted for because it's one of the types of melody that I enjoy, no matter the genre, and I wouldn't have minded if it had gone on a tad longer than its 3 minutes and 6 seconds.
Osawa released a total of 11 singles up to May 1990, although the interval between her 10th and final singles was around 4 years. She also recorded two albums, both coming out in 1983. Osawa also did her fair share of acting on TV, movies and stage. According to both her J-Wiki and Wikipedia articles, she has also given lectures and written a book about her experiences dealing with her parents who had been in ailing health.
Happy weekend as I slowly broil in my own juices. Yes, it's a hot one in the big T.O. today and will be for at least a week. Perhaps I can interest you in a mild segue as I provide another smoldering Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）song.
Commenter Jim Laker and I were talking about one of the most famous 1970s aidoruand he was kind enough to introduce this first track "Rinne" (Reincarnation) from Yamaguchi's album"This is my trial" from October 1980. As I've probably mentioned before, I haven't been a die-hard fan of hers but definitely knew and enjoyed her hits to the extent that I've got a couple of her BEST compilations, so it's still a time of exploration when it comes to her original studio albums of which "This is my trial" was her 22nd and final album before retiring from show business at the age of 21. It did very well on Oricon by placing in at No. 4.
"Rinne" is a bewitching number. It starts off rather spookily before the late-career sultry vocals of Yamaguchi come to the fore as she purrs about being a woman of ice who will always prefer coming back over and over as a woman so that she can cloud men's minds and wrap them around her fingers in one grand game. I guess that my description almost describes Yamaguchi as a superhero or supervillain on the same level as The Shadow, Dr. Strange or Catwoman. The music by Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）and arrangement by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）strikes me as being rather appropriate as a theme song for a larger-than-life figure of the darkness. Of course, if Uzaki is there, then his wife Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）is also there with the lyrics.
Overall, I found "Rinne" to be emblematic of the songs that she put forth when she collaborated with Uzaki and Aki such as "Imitation Gold"...about that cynical and hard-bitten woman wiser beyond her years. And a question popped up in my noggin about which era of Momoe-chan I preferred. Was it the early 70s when I kept envisioning her in that very short haircut and high school uniform while singing lyrics that may have shocked listeners with their rawness a la "Hito Natsu no Keiken"（ひと夏経験）or was it the late 70s when that more mature image of the singer caught up to her and her songs? Mind you, even during that latter part of her time on the stage, she had hits through more innocent entries such as "Yume Saki Annainin"（夢先案内人）, which had also been created by Uzaki and Aki, and the classic "Ii Hi Tabidachi"（いい日旅立ち）.
For me, although I've enjoyed Momoe all throughout that decade that she held court in the fans' eyes on stage, TV, radio and movies, I would probably go with her late 70s era. The reason for that is because of that collaboration with Uzaki and Aki and that persona of a toughened and older seen-it-all, done-it-all woman in the fancy dress (have I mentioned that she retired at the age of 21?) with the lower and more intimidating voice. When she was performing, she came off as attractive yet hard-to-approach, hard but maybe(?) with a soft centre.
Actor/singer Kentaro Shimizu（清水健太郎）will always be known for his debut tune"Shitsuren Restaurant"（失恋レストラン）, but I was curious regarding any other songs that he came up with.
His 3rd single which came out in August 1977 is "Enryo Suru na"(Don't Hold Back), a song that is probably as tough and cocky and funky as the roles that Shimizu probably played on TV and movies. With words and music by Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）, it's busy with horns, guitar, and strings as the singer puts up a stonewall front to his soon-to-be-former girlfriend that she doesn't need to hesitate to stick around for his benefit. She's free to go, although what the poor guy is really feeling inside is not all that clear. In any event, the music makes clear that he's not going to show anything close to tears.
It's quite the pugnacious pop song and perhaps with that hint of funk in there, maybe I can also call it a City Pop tune of sorts. However, my biggest impression is how much it sounds like a theme for a Japanese cop show of that time.🚔
I've been checking the pageviews over the past week and it looks like the winner has been the opening theme for this season's anime "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~ Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen"（かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜）, "Love Dramatic"（ラブ・ドラマティック）.
So, all I can say to the main singer is:
Congratulations, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. You are now the proud father of an earworm! Please feel free to get your sunglasses at night by the door.
I've been checking out for any comments on "Love Dramatic" online and most of them have been very positive about the song. The other thing that I've found is that a number of folks have only discovered Martin just in the past few weeks because of the theme song.
So although I was already thinking about doing this first BEST article for 2019 since I discovered that Suzuki did provide his first anison, the comments that I saw over the past few days have pretty much cemented my decision. Therefore, without further ado, I introduce the second of his BEST compilations, "MARTINI II" released in October 1995.
1. Wakare no Machi (1995 acapella version)（別れの街） 2. Koibito（恋人） 3. Mou Namida wa Iranai（もう涙はいらない） 4. Sayonara Itoshi no Baby Blues（さよならいとしのBaby Blues） 5. Chigau, Sou Janai（違う、そうじゃない） 6. Adam na Yoru（アダムな夜） 7. Midnight Traveler 8. Liberty 9. Come On In 10. Shibuya de Go-ji（渋谷で5時） 11. Ai no Okite（愛の掟） 12. Glass Goshi ni Kieta Natsu 1995（ガラス越しに消えた夏1995） 13. Yume no Mata Yume（夢のまた夢 (1995 Remix Version)）
As you can see above, about half of the songs have already been spoken for through past articles, so feel free to link on those. Let's go on with the ones that I have yet to cover starting with the smoky "Sayonara Itoshi no Baby Blues" (Farewell, My Beloved Baby Blues), a track from Suzuki's 5th album,"Fair Affair" from 1992. A whisky-on-the-rocks-worthy soul & blues song about a love gone wrong, the aforementioned drink would be one of the libations needed at that bar with a sympathetic mixologist.
Martin's recording of "Sayonara Itoshi no Baby Blues" was actually a cover of the original song by singer-songwriter Hideki Andoh（安藤秀樹）which was his 17th single from December 1991. The concert video above has all of Martin, Andoh and Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）from Sing Like Talking performing the song, although I think the evening is probably the ideal setting instead of what looked like the afternoon in the video.
(karaoke version)
"Adam na Yoru" is interesting enough just for the title. If I were to translate it as "Adam's Night", perhaps the Japanese would be "Adam no Yoru"（アダムの夜）, but with that "na"（な）in there, maybe it's "An Adam-esque Night"?
In any case, Martin's 20th single from February 1995 was written and composed by the songwriting couple Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子）, who were behind a lot of Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）later hits in the late 1970s, and though it sounds like the perfect tune to hear while prepping up for a banner night out in Tokyo, Aki's lyrics actually portray a scene right from the "Penny for your thoughts?" moment following a tryst in some bedroom. Looks like Adam and Eve took a huge bite out of that apple.
"Adam na Yoru" was also the theme song for a TBS drama titled "Watashi, Mikata desu"（私、味方です...I'm A Friend）which was televised between January and March of 1995. It peaked at No. 17 on Oricon. Do love those horns. Heck, I think it would be great listening on the car stereo while driving through West Shinjuku.
"Liberty" was actually Suzuki's 3rd single from March 1987 but it has been included here in "MARTINI II". Written and composed by the great Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）with AKI, it's a gospel-influenced tune performed in English, and Yoshida provides some of the background vocals. Peaking at No. 64, "Liberty" also made it onto his 4th album "mood" from 1990.
Martin can really rock those suits, can't he? "Midnight Traveler" was his 17th single from October 1993. It basically has the same flavour as the aforementioned "Adam na Yoru" through Yoshiyuki Osawa's（大沢誉志幸）melody but Kitsuma Ohshita's（大下きつま）lyrics provide more mystery in the story of two lovers on a journey for parts unknown, perhaps unable to come back. I already talked about "Midnight Traveler" through its album "Perfume" but my write-up doesn't have the full version that is right above this paragraph.
In 1991, Suzuki and 80s pop mainstay Paul Young got together as a duet to sing Sam & Dave's 1969 "Come On In" for a bit of that old-time soul. Originally written by Isaac Hayes and composed by David Porter, the Suzuki/Young single got as high as No. 79 and was also included on "mood".
The final track on "MARTINI II" is "Yume no Mata Yume", which I can think can be translated as "Dreams On Dreams". As much as "Liberty" sounds like a Minako Yoshida creation, "Yume no Mata Yume" feels like Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and the way that he made his songs back in the early 1990s (and he's in the background vocals as well). And yep, it was written and composed by the Off Course（オフコース）singer as Suzuki's 19th single for release in October 1994. In a way, Oda's lyrics can almost describe the tensions in "Kaguya-sama". Peaking at No. 17, it is included in his 7th album"She・See・Sea"which came out in the same month.
"MARTINI II" hit No. 1 and ranked in at No. 27 on the Oricon yearly charts. It also hung in there for 1996 at No. 68. I will have to do another BEST for Martin's immediate predecessor, "MARTINI", since there are some great tunes in there, too but perhaps next month. So until "Love Dramatic" gets out officially on February 27th, you can do a bit of exploration here and on some of the other Martin songs.
Hello, folks. J-Canuck here to let you know that a few months ago, I wrote about the Japan Top 10 podcast. Well, over those past few months, JTop 10 music director Recca and I have kept in contact and we've decided to do some collaborative work. As she will explain below, some of us here at "Kayo Kyoku Plus" will be contributing some of our favourites to a future podcast while she and William will be contributing some articles on the blog. In any case, enough of me...I will now let Recca take over with her first article on Momoe Yamaguchi.
Hey there everyone, Recca from the Japan Top 10podcasthere. We’re collaborating with Kayo Kyoku Plus on some posts here and a future episode of Japan Top 10. I’m the music director and a sometimes-host of J Top 10, so I’m popping in to write a guest article.
I like things that “push the limits” of popular media. TV shows that get as avant-garde as you can while still being commercial. Children’s movies that go really dark but are somehow still for kids. Pop songs that go high-concept and weird but are still pop songs. So, I often boil down my taste in music to “weird pop.”
No one will dispute that Momoe Yamaguchi 山口百恵 is a pop idol. Who made pop music. But she had her fair share of strange concept albums during her latter years, right before her all-too-early retirement. Today’s track, Koi no Hotline(恋のホットライン; Hotline of Love), comes to us from one of those—1980’sMöbius’s Game(メビウス・ゲーム). The album’s tag line boils down to something like “Momoe’s infinite wonder world.” And what a wonderful world it is.
The album features some straight-up retro rock n’ roll, including the album’s only single, Rock n’ Roll Widow (ロックンロール・ウィドウ), and the 1950s pop pathos of Aishuu no Coney Island (哀愁のコニーアイランド; Sorrowful Coney Island).
But the album’s high-concept “wonder world” really kicks in with Track 5, Apocalypse Love (アポカリプス・ラブ), and its dark and Biblical apocalyptic imagery. Momoe is the queen of Babylon, watching over her crumbling desert empire, wailing plaintively 「泣かないで」(Don’t cry) as she illustrates the end of days.
That song bleeds directly into the next, Techno Paradise(テクノ・パラダイス), speeding up into the frenetic disco climax that is my featured song today, Koi no Hotline. I can’t say enough about this song. That driving disco bass line punctuating the gaps between lines of the verses gets my blood pumping. It’s got a hint of the retro rock n’ roll from the first few tracks of the album in the backing vocals, but there’s no question, we’ve definitely entered Momoe’s high-concept disco wonder world by this point. This song is a sexy tune about desire and Momoe knows what she wants.
The song ends all-too-suddenly, slowing down and bleeding into the next track, the electronic-infused funky One Step Beyond(ワン・ステップ・ビヨンド). Then it’s onto E=MC2, likening love to an equation in another example of the album’s electronic future visions transposed to a pop soundtrack. We end with the mournful string-driven Violet Rhapsody (ヴァイオレット・ラプソディー), Momoe breathy and wistful after our trip through time and space.
The Momoe on display for most of this album is my favorite Momoe. It’s the same no-nonsense badass lady speeding down the highway in Playback Part 2 and showing up unannounced to turn a love triangle into a Mexican standoff in Zettai Zetsumei. These have often been referred to as Momoe’s “punk” songs. The kind of songs that get yells of “kakkoii!” (“So cool!”) at karaoke, if you can do a half-decent job of channeling your inner Momoe.
While nothing on this album approaches the technopop that would come into full bloom in the years surrounding its release, it’s a fun dash of electronic instruments, disco, and apocalyptic future visions in the career of “Momoe-chan.” What a transition from her 1970s teenage idol tunes to this mature, sexy, and transcendent figure.
I didn’t discuss every track on this amazing album, so I highly recommend checking it out for yourself. I picked up my CD copy in Japan, but it’s easily available online as well. And, of course, please keep an eye on Japan Top 10’s feed for our future collaboration episode with Kayo Kyoku Plus! If you enjoyed my commentary here, you might want to check out some of the past Japan Top 10 specials I’ve hosted, covering themes like ‘80s J-pop, the best-selling J-pop songs of all time, J-pop songs from pro wrestling, and many others.
I've referred to this before, but as much as that huge pyramid of 80s aidorusseparated into ranking levels existed, I think there was also that somewhat more obscure but similar 70s pyramid of teen singers.
There were those singers such as Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）and Pink Lady（ピンク・レディ）up at the top of that pyramid in the late 1970s, but to be honest, I don't have nearly as much knowledge about the B-team below those 70s stars as I do for the equivalent ranking with the 80s aidoru. However, I did find out about one such singer recently from the late 70s second tier.
Her name is Yumiko Araki（荒木由美子）and she hails from Saga Prefecture, which is the setting for one of this season's most popular anime incidentally speaking, and she's currently known as a singer, tarento and actress.
In 1976, when she was around 16 years of age, she earned herself a prize at the 1st annual Hori Pro Talent Scout Caravan, a talent show whose Grand Prix winner was none other than Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）. Then, some months later in June 1977, Araki made her singing debut with "Nagisa de Cross" (Crossing at the Beach) which earned her some Best New Artist honours alongside the aforementioned Sakakibara and Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）.
"Nagisa de Cross" was created by the husband-and-wife team of Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子）, the same tandem behind a number of Momoe Yamaguchi's later hits such as "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）. Finding this out as I listened to the song, I could pick up on the tough girl feeling as Aki's lyrics seem to relate a fierce rivalry between two girls over a guy during the summer (from the title, I had initially thought it was about volleyball). It's almost as if Araki was the teen version of the jaded seen-it-all done-it-all character that Yamaguchi was portraying through her hits, although we all know that Yamaguchi was still very much an adolescent herself at that time.
One other thing that I picked up on as "Nagisa de Cross" was playing in my ears was the overall arrangement by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）. That rumbling melody had me thinking of tough girls and guys and their motorcycles which then reminded me of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）"Ni-bun no Ichi no Shinwa"（1/2の神話）that would come out several years later in the 1980s. The interesting point was that Nakamori was seen as the heir apparent for Yamaguchi through her image and deeper voice.
Her debut single didn't particularly take Araki into the stratosphere as "Nagisa de Cross" peaked at No. 56 on Oricon and sold 44,000 records. However, she would release a total of 10 singles up to 1980 along with 4 albums while also entering the tarento and acting worlds of the geinokai. In 1983, she then married fellow entertainer Masayuki Yuhara（湯原昌幸）and retired for many years before making a return in 2004.
