Satoshi Kishida -- Sunshine Superman（サンシャイン・スーパーマン）

 

"Supergirl" came out today after waiting about a year since she made her rather explosive and drunken cameo on "Superman". I've heard mixed reviews about it, but I still would be interested in catching the flick sometime in the next few weeks.

As such, I thought I would end this edition of Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP with something that has a fleeting connection with "Supergirl", and that would be Satoshi Kishida's（岸田智史）"Sunshine Superman". I re-discovered it on the "Beams" CD of the "Light Mellow" series recently.

I've really known the singer-songwriter's 1979 hit, the tenderhearted and folksy "Kimi no Asa"（君の朝）, and so to hear "Sunshine Superman", which was originally a track on Kishida's October 1977 2nd album "Citron"（シ・ト・ロ・ン）, is quite the revelation. Written and composed by him, it's the bouncy City Pop or J-AOR song of the 1970s with the hazy effect of the synthesizer, the jazzy play of the electric piano or Fender Rhodes and the happy-go-lucky rhythm. There's also something about Kishida's vocals that reminds me of the dulcet tones of Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）.

Also as a PS, I heard about the strong earthquake that shook Yamanashi Prefecture earlier today. And this following a similar tremor up in Aomori has probably gotten citizens a little nervous. Hopefully, that will be the brunt of it and everyone can settle down back into their usual business in the next few weeks or so.

Herb Alpert -- Rise

 

A few years ago, I posted another Reminiscings of Youth article regarding Joe Jackson's classy "Steppin' Out" from 1982 and how I first heard it when I was walking through a Hudson's Bay department store (which is now extinct, by the way) near its record album department. The same thing had happened to me perhaps a few years earlier with a totally different song. There was all this groove and funk surrounding a lone and perhaps lonely trumpet with such a sharp presence.

I couldn't identify it back then but I would gradually find out that this was the one and only Herb Alpert behind his July 1979 "Rise". You could have knocked me down with a feather at that realization; I'd had no idea it was the same guy behind his iconic 1960s Tijuana Brass sound and the man behind the jolly "Casino Royale" theme. "Rise" sounded so sexy and urban (so I guess it was well titled, eh?😈) and quite different from what had come before. Apparently, Alpert had once been asked to come up with disco versions of his old hits such as "Tijuana Taxi" and "A Taste of Honey" but he (and I) didn't feel too comfortable with that and so a new song was crafted. Good choice!

"Rise" hit No. 1 on US Billboard while on Canada's RPM, it hit No. 5. Back in March, Alpert celebrated his 90th birthday and so there was a feature celebrating his life and career as shown below. Still on the trumpet, I see!

So, what was in the Top 3 of Oricon when "Rise" had been released a few days prior?. 

1. Sachiko Kobayashi -- Omoide Zake （おもいで酒）

2. Satoshi Kishida -- Kimi no Asa （君の朝）

3. Masashi Sada -- Kanpaku Sengen （関白宣言）

Vapour Trails -- Don't Worry Baby

 

Maybe for this one, it isn't so much a Reminiscings of MY Youth as it is a Reminiscings of Youth for a lot of Japanese people my age back in the 1980s. As was the case with last week's ROY entry involving the "William Tell Overture", this was also a Western song that adorned a Japanese TV program of that magical decade but the fact is that I didn't personally know about the show or its theme song until many years later through retrospective programming.

I'm talking about "Best Hit USA", a TV Asahi late-night show that ran between April 1981 and September 1989. It was hosted by the very amiable and English-fluent Katsuya Kobayashi（小林克也）and it struck me as being a Japanese counterpart to Casey Kasem's "America's Top 10" as both featured the popular charting songs in the United States. The friendly theme song for "Best Hit USA" that played every time right from the start was only known for its intro and maybe some of that first verse.

Strangely enough, I got to hear the whole song finally many years after "Best Hit USA" had finished its run and it was the first full track on "BRIO AOR: Off-Shore", one of a two-CD set of all those groovy and laidback AOR tunes that populated the 1970s and 1980s. This is the 1979 "Don't Worry Baby" by Vapour Trails consisting of John McBurnie, Andy Dalby, and Phil Curtis, a British band that specialized in those West Coast soft rock songs, and it was known as "Surfside Freeway" in Japan. The song was also part of Vapour Trails' one and only album from that same year, "Vapour Trails".

That's pretty much all I could find out about this band. Apparently, there is a current Scottish band known as The Vapour Trails which provides jangle pop and indies. Of course, when I hear or read "vapour trails", I usually think of Yumi Arai's（荒井由実）famous "Hikoki Gumo"（ひこうき雲）. 

As for "Best Hit USA", it returned to TV Asahi's broadcast satellite service in 2003 where it has continued talking about the popular stuff in America for over twenty years.

Now, since I couldn't get more specific than 1979 as the origin for "Don't Worry Baby", I've opted to show what was at the top of the album charts for that year in Japan. Here are Nos. 1, 4 and 6. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to cover the albums so the links below will take you to their representative tracks.

1. Godiego -- Saiyuki（西遊記）

4. Satoshi Kishida -- Morning （モーニング）

6.  Alice -- ALICE VII

Queen -- Don't Stop Me Now

 

My own personal listening history with Queen began with "Another One Bites the Dust" which was one of their disco outings in 1980. But then the following year, when all of us kids were heading out to Japan after graduating from Japanese language school, I got to hear my classmate's copy of their classic "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975) on the plane ride. Then in short order, I got to hear "We Will Rock You" and "We are the Champions" especially since the NHL's New York Islanders were using that last song as their victory anthem during their dynasty of Stanley Cup wins in the early 1980s. Having finally gotten into music by that point, I got to hear their New Wave "Radio Ga Ga".

"Don't Stop Me Now" from 1979, however, was a song that I wouldn't get to know about for many years and yet it's probably the most preferred hit among many Japanese. Sure enough, I've seen a few commercials there featuring "Don't Stop Me Now" including one where a jet plane is just pulling off all these loops in the sky; can't remember what it was selling...knowing Japanese ads, it was probably life insurance. I can possibly understand its great popularity in Japan, though. With Freddie Mercury espousing pure joyous fun for the sake of it, all those hard-working cogs wouldn't mind throwing their blazers to the wind and going all Wang Chung!

Now of course, any of you who read "Kayo Kyoku Plus" regularly and have their eyes and ears to the music scene in Japan know that I'm posting this special holiday Reminiscings of Youth because Queen and Adam Lambert showed up on last night's Kohaku Utagassen to perform "Don't Stop Me Now". It was great and nostalgic to watch them in San Francisco, but wouldn't it have been something if the band had actually shown up on the Shibuya stage in Tokyo? But the logistics would have most likely overwhelmed the production staff. Still, good to see the guys bring out the goods.

Apparently, it isn't just Japanese pop culture that picked up on the joyousness of "Don't Stop Me Now". When it was originally released in 1979, it didn't do all that well on the charts with the United States for example only having it reach as high as No. 86 on its Billboard. Since then though, it has done a slow persistent burn up to the top of many fans' favourite lists. And in 2018 through Billboard Japan, the song went up to No. 37 and then No. 32 in 2019.

"Don't Stop Me Now" was released in Japan in March 1979 which of course begs the question about which other singles were getting out there in that month.

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Be Silent（美・サイレント）

Satoshi Kishida -- Kimi no Asa （君の朝）

Southern All Stars -- Itoshi no Ellie （いとしのエリー）

Supertramp -- The Logical Song

from Discogs

Since it is a major holiday today in Canada and the United States, I thought that it would be nice to have another special Reminiscings of Youth article up here detailing some of the songs outside of Japan that I heard in my teenage years. 

I think that cover for Supertramp's 1979 award-winning "Breakfast In America" is absolutely iconic. The crazy thing is that though I remember the photo of that really welcoming diner waitress with her orange juice raised up high, I'd always thought that up to an hour ago, the backdrop was truly a photo of Manhattan Island in New York State instead of it actually being a bunch of dining table paraphernalia made up to look like Manhattan. 

By the way, welcome to KKP, Supertramp! The English rock group was a regular on the radio airwaves when I was growing up, and being the kid that I was, I had known them as that band with the fellow with the really high voice. That's about as descriptive as I could get about Roger Hodgson at the time, but his voice did serve as a calling card for me to be able to recognize the band's music...well, that and the Wurlitzer electric piano. 

"The Logical Song" from March 1979 which has been called Supertramp's greatest contribution to music was indeed the lead single from "Breakfast In America", and yep, I heard it all the time on radio. But like the simple mind that is quoted in Hodgson's lyrics, I had no idea of the significance of them until many years later. I thought it had a rather odd title back then and being a budding Trekkie at the time, images of Mr. Spock kept flittering around in my head instead of the debate about what formal education was really worth (to this day, I still don't really know how learning about matrices in math meant anything).

Over the years though, Hodgson's music for "The Logical Song" has gotten increasingly cooler and though I have yet to encounter any official literature about the structure and progression of its melody, it seems to flip between the hecticness of life in the big city and a more dream-like state wondering what life is all about. Then the end with the band members playing their cowbell, castanets and whistle might be showing the protagonist finally going a bit mad.

Certainly my imagination wasn't going mad when it comes to the "The Logical Song" and how often it was hitting the airwaves. It was the No. 1 song in Canada for 1979 while on the US Billboard chart, it scored No. 27.

Well, I might have found a new site providing information on which singles were released in which month and year. And so, I can provide a few singles that did come out at the same time as "The Logical Song".

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Be Silent（美・サイレント）

Satoshi Kishida -- Kimi no Asa （君の朝）

Southern All Stars -- Itoshi no Ellie （いとしのエリー）

Satoshi Kishida -- Tasogare（黄昏）

 

Throughout this decade of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've become more sympathetic to those fans behind the so-called one-hit wonders. In the past ten years, I've not only written about superstars that I've enjoyed and new singers that I'd never heard of before with a catchy tune, but also those other artists who have been around for years but either never got that huge mega-hit or did gain fame for that one song before seemingly disappearing from the charts and the media. That last group of singers I've come to realize has had their dedicated fans because they (and I) have found other wonderful and worthy tunes by them. Maybe those songs didn't get used in a popular commercial or didn't climb up Oricon but they are just fine just the same.

As such, I've tried to spotlight some of those singers' material whenever I can, and one such song is "Tasogare" (Dusk) by singer-songwriter and actor Satoshi Kishida（岸田智史）. Whenever his name is mentioned on television or radio these days, it's because of that huge hit that he had in 1979, the comely "Kimi no Asa" （君の朝）, which spent five straight weeks at No. 1 and sold over half a million records.

Written and composed by the singer, "Tasogare" was actually his 2nd single from March 1977 and it's in that folk/New Music vein, as arranged by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, as Kishida sings not about the daily sunset but the sad sunset of a relationship and one half of a former couple having to deal with the bittersweet aftermath. Kishida begins "Tasogare" introspectively before he lets his emotions come out during the refrain via that resonant voice of his. The setting might be in some big park in autumn in Tokyo but the introduction of what sounds like a quiet French accordion near the end could actually transport the grieving fellow to some other nation.

(short version)

In October 2016, a new version of "Tasogare" by Kishida was released with some added elegance. By the way, the kanji for his name was changed from「岸田智史」to「岸田敏志」by that point (the pronunciation remains the same). His real name is Hidehiko Inada（稲田英彦）, and his son, percussionist Shintaro Inada（稲田しんたろう）, was a co-arranger for this new version. Also, on the family front, Kishida's daughter is Mizuki Inada（稲田みづ紀）, a musical actress while his father was a famous calligrapher.

Mariko Fuji -- Chikashitsu no Party（地下室のパーティー）

The first time that I saw the title "Chikashitsu no Party" (Basement Party) as performed by actress/singer Mariko Fuji（藤真利子）, I received some rather bad vibes in terms of the implications of that location. Yes, I realized that a lot of my friends when we were all younger had parties in house basements that all seemed to have that mandatory pool table, bar and couch. However, I couldn't help but go "Hmmmm...".

Listening to this ballad, though, the red alert was almost instantly canceled. "Chikashitsu no Party" is something along the lines of classy Fashion Pop/City Pop with Fuji singing ironically and sadly about being in this underground cafe with no windows all alone as she muses about the lost guy. And I was actually in a Renoir cafe in Tokyo which was indeed an establishment in the basement with no windows...and lots of cigarette smoke.

With the bluesy sax and mellow keyboards in there, images are conjured up of sighing most dramatically while nursing a drink for a few hours in the big rainy city. Singer-songwriter Satoshi Kishida（岸田智史）wrote and composed this track on Fuji's 2nd album "Romantic Game"（浪漫幻夢）from March 1981. He actually found fame for his "Kimi no Asa"（君の朝）back in 1979 which kinda goes to show that trend back then of folk singers finding their inner urban contemporary music.

Not sure if I will ever be able to enter those high rooftop hotel bars, one of those venues that I often associate with City Pop, but when it comes to cafes, underground or otherwise...heck, I spent half of my life in Japan in those places.

Satoshi Kishida -- Kimi no Asa （君の朝）

From around the late 70s/early 80s, there are three songs I know that have the theme of "morning": Kazuo Zaitsu's "Wake Up", Hiroaki Igarashi's "Pegasus no Asa"（ペガサスの朝）and Satoshi Kishida's "Kimi no Asa". All three of them are perfectly made to listen to during those hours slowly rousing out of bed. Of the three of them, Kishida's "Kimi no Asa" is the most laid-back.

Singer-actor Satoshi Kishida（岸田智史）from Okayama Prefecture, first debuted in 1976 with "Aoi Tabi"(蒼い旅....Blue Journey). Three years later, he came up with his biggest hit, "Kimi no Asa"(Your Morning), a very comforting ballad that's less the drinking of coffee of Zaitsu's "Wake Up" and more the slow wafting of said coffee from the kitchen into the bedroom as it's brewing away. Whenever I'm reminded of it, the chorus of "Morning, morning...." rings in my ears.

Composed by Kishida itself and written by Osami Okamoto（岡本おさみ）, "Kimi no Asa" was the theme song for a TBS drama "Ai to Kassai to"（愛と喝采と....Love And Acclamation), a show that Kishida also starred in. The single was released in March 1979, and it hit No. 1 for 5 weeks straight in July and it sold over 600,000 copies before becoming the 15th-ranked song of the year. It is also the first track on his 4th album, appropriately titled "Morning" which also hit the top spot and became the 4th-ranked album of the year.