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 Satoko Shimonari. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Satoko Shimonari. Show all posts
When I saw the one comment underneath the above YouTube video for Satoko Shimonari's（下成佐登子）"Koi no Epilogue" (Love Epilogue), her 7th single from June 1982, I had to also admit that there were some obvious similarities between this tune and Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）classic "Tasogare My Love" (たそがれマイ・ラブ）from 1978. In fact, I'd assumed that the latter song's composer, the late Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, was also behind this song but it was actually Kaoru Nakajima（中島薫）as the composer for "Koi no Epilogue" with Makoto Yuuki（結城まこと）as the lyricist and Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）as the arranger.
However, following a certain melody line or copying chords isn't particularly new in Japanese pop music especially when it comes to the 1980s. Not sure how Tsutsumi saw it; maybe he let bygones be bygones and focused on the expression "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". Well, whatever the case may be, "Koi no Epilogue" is still a nice song to listen to (which shows how good Tsutsumi was) and Shimonari's delivery reminds me of some of Junko Yagami's（八神純子）soaring swagger and Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）smokiness.
Happy weekend! And for me, personally, it's a weekend to feel relieved. That storm finally managed to grind its way out of our region, and despite the threatening winds out there yesterday and overnight, there were no blackouts in the GTA. Mind you, for a lot of travelers heading out for the Holidays, 2022 may go down as one of the worst years.
My plans for Saturday night (namely, tonight)? Just wrapping presents for tomorrow. I'd figure that folks in Japan may have already gotten their parties in for Christmas Eve, and because the 25th is a Sunday, both we and they can actually enjoy a day off on Christmas Day (since the big day is merely an observed holiday there).
Speaking of Saturday night, singer-songwriter Satoko Shimonari（下成佐登子）created a tune titled "Doyoubi no Yoru ni wa" (On Saturday Night) for her April 1983 album"Weekend"（ウィークエンド）, and though I don't think that it was ever meant as a Xmas tune, the visuals from YouTube and the softly swinging rhythm make it feel like a Yuletide number about a couple out on good old-fashioned date. Shimonari and arranger Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）collaborated on "Doyoubi no Yoru ni wa" which has that certain 1950s pop lilt to bring images of poodle skirts and bobby socks and hair gel.
With all that winter maelstrom behind us, all I can say is that we will be guaranteed a White Christmas this year! 🎄 As well, many thanks to Joana for her splendid article earlier this morning.
Yup, along with some of the anime that was able to come our way via North America in the 1980s, my Sunday mornings were also occupied by "The Transformers". They were indeed robots in disguise and there was more to them than meets the eye.
Yup, I do remember the opening theme song for "The Transformers" as well. Any kid and teen of the 1980s do. It is frankly obligatory. We must give thanks to songwriters Ford Kinder and Anne Bryant.
AUTOBOTS! DANCE AND BOOGIE!
According to Wikipedia, the first two seasons of "The Transformers" were exported over to Japan in 1985 where they became known as "Tatakae! Chō Robotto Seimeitai Toransufōmā"（戦え!超ロボット生命体トランスフォーマー...Fight! Super Robot Life-Form Transformers）; man, they really loved those extended titles, didn't they? What's more, the opening theme wasn't the famous intrepid march by Bryant and Kinder.
Instead, it was "TRANSFORMER" by Satoko Shimonari（下成佐登子）and this theme sounded more like Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots hit a City Pop party one Friday night. Shimonari may not have been a huge household word but I've gotten to know about her well enough that I've even purchased an album by her. However, little did I know that she had recorded a theme song for those robots in disguise as her 13th single in September 1985.
Shimonari had a trio of masters helping her out with "TRANSFORMER". There were lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）who created something that sounded very reminiscent of the "Cat's Eye" theme by Anri（杏里） a few years earlier. Heck, the song even included a fluegelhorn; just try to imagine a flugelhorn in a theme about transformable robot heroes. It is all so urban and cool and I can easily see Optimus and gang aerobicizing in their own 20-minute workout to "TRANSFORMER" as well as hit the dance floor: AUTOBOTS! COOL DOWN AND FLOW!
Indeed, it is the 21st of September!...which of course means...
Earth Wind & Fire's"September" was the rallying cry last year for all those who wanted to emancipate Area 51, and perhaps it's now one of the songs that will help us try to forget some of the sadness and frustration that has been imbuing 2020. It's also a classic happy-time funk fest that I first heard on the radio when I was a kid and it's never really left my cranium since its release in November 1978.
Yeah, it was actually released a couple of months later than one would imagine but at least it was recorded in September 1978. It hit No. 10 on the RPM Canada Singles chart and then No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart (as well as No. 8 on the overall Billboard), but I think since then, it's evolved into becoming a No. 1 song in many people's hearts and souls. Just hearing those horns and Maurice White yelling out "ba-dee-ya" is enough to get folks dancing out...in their rooms for now. Hopefully, the time won't be too far off into the future when everyone can strut their stuff to EW&F again on the dance floor.
Once again, since I couldn't find any monthly Oricon charts before 1980, I'm going to have to go with kayo that made their debut in or around September 1978.
Miina Tominaga（冨永みーな）has been a name that I have seen and a voice that I have heard on Japanese TV as a narrator, but not a seiyuu that I have ever come across in anime all that often unfortunately. I've read that she played the third Katsuo Isono（磯野カツオ）, the sometimes naughty brother and son in "Sazae-san"（サザエさん）and another role in "Sore Ike! Anpanman"（それいけ!アンパンマン）, but my only hearing of her in an anime during my visits to my anime buddy's house thus far has been as her villainous role of Majorina（マジョリーナ）in "Smile Precure!"（スマイルプリキュア!）back in 2012.
According to her resume, though, Tominaga has also been a singer and in September 1985, she released an album "M Marble"（Mマーブル）. From this album, I bring you "Hito Natsu no Memory" (A Memory One Summer), and it sounds like a jazzy love ballad filtered through cute synthpop although I couldn't track down who was responsible for words and music (Ahh...did find out; Satoko Shimonari（下成佐登子）took care of both words and music). Plus, Tominaga, who was probably around 19 at the time, sounds more like a lovelorn Precure here than a cackling witch. I would be curious in finding more about her discography in "M Marble" as well as for any other releases by her.
She was born Yoshiko Tominaga（冨永美子）in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1966. From what I read in her J-Wiki profile, when she was in elementary school and already a child actress, a fortune teller gave her advice to the extent that she changed her stage name into Miina Tominaga with the first name in katakana（冨永ミーナ）before it was further switched into its current hiragana form. For further trivia, her sempai at the Nihon University College of Art were Hikari Ohta（太田光）and Yuuji Tanaka（田中裕二）, the famous comedy duo Bakusho Mondai（爆笑問題）.
I guess that this would be the ideal autumn-flavoured City Pop tune.
(21:42)
"Tameiki Avenue"(Avenue of Sighs) indeed has the right tone right in its title. Satoko Shimonari's（下成佐登子）5th single from October 1981 is all about the quiet after the storm that was a sad breakup to a relationship, and isn't autumn the ideal time for the death of romance according to kayo tradition? However, the lyrics are buoyed by a fairly lighthearted bossa melody and Shimonari's delivery, and the combination is such that this could be covered nicely as well by another New Music/City Pop veteran, Junko Yagami（八神純子）. Shimonari was responsible for the music while Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）took care of the lyrics.
The song is also a track on Shimonari's debut album"Aki no Ichi Nichi"（秋の一日）from November 1981. The title track is something that I covered a couple of years ago and is much more folksy in sound. In addition, my first purchase of anything by the singer is her 1987 album"Keep In Touch", and the music there is more of a late 1980s contemporary pop release. Just from the tracks "Aki no Ichi Nichi" and today's "Tameiki Avenue", then, I would like to get my hands on the debut album for the contrast in the sound between the two albums.
December 25 2020: This Creator article was written by me back in June 2019 and unfortunately, this morning, I saw on NHK News that Rei Nakanishi passed away on December 23rd from a heart attack. He was 82 years old. Despite the sadness in the music world for not only him but a number of famed Japanese songwriters leaving this mortal coil this year, they have left a wonderful legacy of music for us to peruse over and over again.
A few weeks ago, I caught the tail-end of an NHK documentary on veteran lyricist and novelist Rei Nakanishi. That small part that I did catch related the fact that Nakanishi had recently beat back cancer and was happily active once more. Considering that fact and the other point that he's had a good presence on this blog as well has inspired me to devote a Creator article for him.
Nakanishi has provided songs in just about every genre in Japanese popular music with some of them becoming landmark hits for his singing clientele. The very first Nakanishi-written song that I put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", for instance, was "Kita Sakaba"（北酒場）, the rousing and friendly kayo performed to success by Takashi Hosokawa（細川たかし）, and the appropriately speedy and uptempo "AMBITIOUS JAPAN" by Johnny's band TOKIO.
But going back to the beginning, Nakanishi was born Reizo Nakanishi（中西禮三）in 1938 in the city of Mudanjiang in what was once the puppet state of Manchukuo under Japanese rule and what is now Heilongjiang Province in the People's Republic of China. He later grew up for part of his life in Otaru, Hokkaido.
Graduating from Rikkyo University with a degree in French literature, Nakanishi first became a translator of chanson music after he had gotten a request from chanson singer and former Takarazuka Revue member Natsuyo Fukamidori（深緑夏代）. However in or around 1963, when he was at a hotel bar in Shizuoka Prefecture, he ran into singer/actor Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）who was in the middle of filming a movie. Ishihara suggested to Nakanishi about trying his hand at writing kayo songs.
Apparently taking the Tough Guy's advice to heart, according to Nakanishi's website's index of songs, he may have started as early as 1965. However, one song that I've keyed in upon immediately is his early lyrical contribution to kayo, "Dare mo Dare mo Shiranai"（誰も誰も知らない...I Know Nobody, Nobody）from 1966 which was composed by Yasutoshi Nakajima（中島安敏）. It's a sad and elegant Mood Kayo sung by Tokiko Kato（加藤登紀子）about someone who is utterly alone in the big bad city.
Although the first version of this song had been recorded by a combination of Naoki Matsudaira（松平直樹）, Miyoko Tashiro（田代美代子）and Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）also in 1966, I was able to find this cover version of "Namida to Ame ni Nurete"（涙と雨にぬれて...Wet From Tears and Rain）by Eiji Miyoshi（三善英史）. Nakanishi also provided the music along with his lyrics to this lovely ballad.
Just from what I've heard so far from his early material, Nakanishi seemed to enjoy going for the pathos in people's lot. Yu Kimura's（木村勇）music for "Otoko no Arashi"（男の嵐...A Man's Storm）from 1967 is more of a bluesier and deeper-in-Kabukicho Mood Kayo as Nakanishi's lyrics relate the tough life of a yakuza as performed by Ishihara himself, the same fellow who recommended Nakanishi to follow the kayo lyricist's path.
As I hinted up above, it wasn't all about Mood Kayo for Nakanishi. He also handled the lyrics for a lot of aidoru and aidoru groups including 70s darlings, Candies（キャンデーズ）. In fact, he wrote their 12th single"Aishuu no Symphony"（哀愁のシンフォニー...Symphony of Sorrow）which was released in November 1976 with Takashi Miki's（三木たかし）fleet-footed music. Once again, Nakanishi provides the story of love being so painful that it hurts like the Dickens. In a bit of symmetry, that 12th single peaked at No. 12 on Oricon, although it finished the year as the 61st-ranked single.
In 1985, he provided the words to the sweeping opening theme for the anime "Shoukoujo Sara"（小公女セーラ...Princess Sara） with Koichi Morita（森田公一）as the composer and Satoko Shimonari（下成佐登子）as the performer. "Hana no Sasayaki"（花のささやき...Whisper of a Flower） is sung from Sara's point of view as she goes through a bundle of tragedies and hardships and often refers to the little flower in her heart to reassure her.
(karaoke version)
Nakanishi provided another Johnny's Entertainment group, NEWS, with lyrics for their 6th single "Hoshi wo Mezashite"（星をめざして...Aim for the Stars）, released in March 2007. Composed by Peter Bjorklund, Johan Sahlen, and Claes Andreasson, there is more of a hopeful feeling as the guys from NEWS exhort listeners to not let any of the problems of life continue to weigh them down. "Hoshi wo Mezashite" was a No. 1 hit for the group and ended up as the No. 13 single of the year.
The last song for this article is Goro Noguchi's（野口五郎）"Ai no Shoumei"（愛の証明...Proof of Love）, his 33rd single from February 1980. Noguchi played a bit with City Pop at the time, and I think that was the case with Nakanishi as well. This particular song straddles a bit back and forth between the dynamic aidoru kayo that he and his other "brothers", Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）and the late Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）, espoused and some of the more downtown Tokyo style of City Pop (kinda like Akira Terao). Hiroshi Sato（佐藤寛）came up with the music although this isn't the same musician behind "Awakening" since the kanji for his first name is different.
As for what Nakanishi is doing currently, according to his J-Wiki file, it looks like he has been providing his own columns and commentary to media. I can only hope that I am as active as he looks to be when I reach his age.
Autumn arrived officially at 4:02 pm today on September 22nd. However, a certain season apparently didn't get the memo. Yep, summer is making up for what was basically not all that hot (literally and figuratively) with a final week of blazing weather here in Toronto. Until this time next week, there will be plenty of sun and heat and humidity with the highlight possibly being tomorrow as the Humidex pops off potentially at 37 degrees Celsius or 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Finally, true to how quickly weather in my city can turn, once fall truly arrives next Friday or Saturday, the temperature will drop as much as 20 degrees within a day. Even for weather masters such as Torontonians, that could take a toll on the good ol' metabolism.
Still, as I am wont to do on this seasonal day, I try to find an autumnal kayo somewhere. And that I did with Satoko Shimonari's（下成佐登子）"Aki no Ichi Nichi" (One Fall Day). Shimonari has been one of the many singers that I have been able to discover because of my work on the blog and strolls through YouTube.
For the last couple of articles on her, I was looking at her contemporary (for that day) pop work such as "Time goes by" from 1987. Well, I've gone back to her beginnings with her debut single from August 1978 which was written and composed by Shimonari.
As I've mentioned before, autumn, when it comes to kayo, often signals the loss of a relationship, and "Aki no Ichi Nichi" continues that tradition. Her wistful debut depicts a woman dealing with such a loss or lamenting something that never came to pass as she ends up folding up some stationery in her home into a paper airplane and simply tossing it into flight.
Shimonari's melody certainly gives off that melancholy feeling in waves. The version near the top is the original single from 1978 and has that typically wistful feeling thanks to those violins. The one immediately above has a slightly different arrangement with a more intimate-sounding intro with a guitar and an addition of a soft chorus. This version is the title track from her debut album that actually didn't come out until November 1981. I like both versions but if I had to choose, I would probably go with the album take. In any case, I'm a sucker for the nostalgic stuff.
Fall is my favourite season, partially because when I was living in Japan, it was a great time for food. Although the late summer burst will be much appreciated, I will also be grateful when the temps finally get a little more bracing.
I mentioned about a week ago that I had gotten another couple of CDs, one of which was the amazing "Yoshino Fujimal". The other one was Satoko Shimonari's（下成佐登子）"Keep In Touch" from December 1987. I purchased that one on the strength of the opening track "Time Goes By".
"Keep In Touch" hasn't had the same immediate impact that "Yoshino Fujimal" did but listening to the former album a second time, I can confidently say that the tracks are starting to grow on me. This was Shimonari's 5th and final studio album to date, so perhaps that title had some meaning when it was released.
As a whole, "Keep In Touch" has got that urban contemporary atmosphere of the late 1980s mixed in with a few ballads. "Game" is one of those songs that would take place in the city although I probably wouldn't classify it as City Pop in terms of melody. Written by Junko Sato（佐藤純子）and composed by Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）with Shimonari singing about a rather flirtatious lady with a devilish streak holding court in the dance clubs. Her J-Wiki profile also stated that she has contributed some anison so I figure this track could have been something played for a show such as "City Hunter".
"Yasashii Kaze"（やさしい風...Gentle Winds）is the original final track on the album and it's my favourite of her entries here. Sato also provided lyrics with Shimonari composing the song herself and it sounds quite inspirational. I only have one tiny pet peeve in that the usage of a "haunting" synthesizer near the final refrain makes it sound a little too dated. "Yasashii Kaze" was also her 15th single from June 1987, and it served as the ending theme for an NTV travel program "Watching Nihon Retto"（ウォッチング日本列島...Watching the Japanese Archipelago）.
My final contribution to the article here is "Haruka naru Shangri-La"（遙かなる桃源郷...Far-Off Shangri-La）, her 16th single from November 1987. It was placed as a bonus track on the original album to exhort the masses to travel to those exotic lands. Considering the Bubble was probably already in Japan or on its way, the song probably didn't have to push too hard to get folks buying those plane tickets. In fact, it was used as the campaign song for Japan Asia Airways that year. The aforementioned "Game" was the B-side on the original single. Ren Takayanagi（高柳恋）and Yasuo Kosugi（小杉保夫）created the song.
So "Keep In Touch" isn't a home run out of the park but I think as an example of where Japanese female pop singing and songwriting were heading from the late 1980s, I think this final studio album by Shimonari hits the spot. I always like to find some of these more obscure efforts.
Well, aside from yesterday which was sunny and pleasant, this whole week is going to end up being a washout. Toronto Island may even have to be evacuated due to possible flooding from all the rain coming down. I don't think I have heard of such a thing in all my years growing up and living here.
Anyways for those folks residing in a precipitation-filled zone today, perhaps this song might lift spirits to a certain extent. I had actually written an article about little-known singer Satoko Shimonari（下成佐登子）a little over a year ago via her 2nd single"Ame"（雨）which came out in May 1979. I was quite drawn to her performance since she sounded similar to one of my favourite songbirds, Junko Yagami（八神純子）, back then, and finished things up by saying that I would like to hear more of her.
Lo and behold, I encountered this pleasant piece of pop in the last several hours, also done by Shimonari. But this was several years later in her career, circa December 1987 via her 5th album"Keep In Touch". One track, "Time goes by", is one of those songs that had me thinking uptempo contemporary pop by female singers such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Kaori Kuno（久野かおり）from the late 1980s into the early 1990s. Fully realizing the years that have passed since her debut, it was still surprising to hear such a refreshing change in the music. I can only hope that the rest of the album is just as sparkling; that is, if I can track a copy down. Yui Masaki（真沙木唯）, who has written for folks like Anri（杏里）and Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）, provided the lyrics here while Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）composed the melody.
Still nice to discover new faces out there in kayo-land. On YouTube the other day, I saw a video featuring a singer by the name of Satoko Shimonari（下成佐登子）and discovered that there were quite a few of her songs online so I sampled them. So far, the one that I've liked for a first-timer is "Ame"(Rain) which was her 2nd single from May 1979.
Miyuki Suga or Kan (菅美雪) wrote and composed "Ame" for Shimonari, and just from the title and overall melody, I got the impression that it was another song of lost love. However, the thing that sparked my interest was the observation that she sounded somewhat like Junko Yagami (八神純子) handling the mellow ballads of Ruiko Kurahashi (倉橋ルイ子). Since I like both singers, I think I would be quite interested in hearing some more of Shimonari.
According to her J-Wiki article, Shimonari is a native of Miyazaki Prefecture who has not only tackled the pop genre but also provided theme songs for anime. She started her singing career in 1978 and has released 19 singles up to 2015 with 6 albums including 2 BEST compilations.
Will not be getting rain tomorrow...more like sleet.
