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.
Although today has had a slightly changed schedule to accommodate my busier one tomorrow, I still haven't forgotten that Thursdays are devoted to regular Reminiscings of Youth songs. We did have the special holiday edition earlier this week, so here's the regular one.
So, it's nice to have the Queen of Quiet Storm herself, Anita Baker, back on the blog. I became a fan from the 1980s but she kept on going well into the 1990s and beyond. I have her first four albums but didn't continue the collection of her discography after heading to Japan. Well, some years during my odyssey there, I was either in Tower Records or HMV when I discovered her 2002 BEST compilation,"The Best of Anita Baker", and it took me all of a second to make the purchase.
Along with those hit songs from her early albums, there were some new ones that I hadn't heard by Ms. Baker, and one of them was "I Apologize" which was a October 1994 single. I may have been eight years late but better late than never. And it was another soulful smash for me and in my humble opinion, it was the standout new song for me. Created by Baker, Gordon Chambers and Barry J. Eastmond, it's a heartfelt tribute to the one action in a relationship that might be extremely difficult but absolutely necessary. I've spoken to enough married students to get that impression.
On Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, "I Apologize" hit No. 8. And perhaps I should apologize since I didn't realize that Baker just celebrated her birthday last month on the 26th. In any case, what was also being released in October 1994 in Japan?
During my years at the University of Toronto as I was majoring in Japanese Studies, through my digestion of a lot of books on Japanese culture, I read that the society had something called a "bar culture". Not only can the usual drinking and light noshing be done in drinking establishments, but business negotiations, airing of work grievances and testing out of vocal cords can also be accomplished (mind you, I think the same things happen in my country, too).
I know that drinking establishments in Japan can come in a variety of sizes and forms. Of course, there are the Western-style bars up in the hotels with the tuxedo-garbed bartender shaking up cocktails. Then there are the more financially accessible chains of izakaya with plenty of space, libations and dishes. For an English conversation teacher like me on a budget, the izakaya was by far the watering hole that I frequented the most in the country, although I was never much of a drinker.
On the other hand, the Japanese snack bar, or sunakku（スナック）as they say it over there, is a place that I very barely entered although there were those significantly rare times that I managed to squeeze into one due to friends taking me there. A sunakku is indeed a very cozy place with limited seating and it's usually run by a woman known as the Mama or Mama-san. There is the usual supply of alcohol to wet one's whistle and some light snacks only. One big reason that I rarely went into a sunakku is that it's basically the neighbourhood meeting place for the regulars...kinda like a mini-Cheers, if you remember that American 80s sitcom. Probably depending on the night, which can go really long depending on the energy levels of all those involved, there are dedicated regulars coming in and mixing throughout the week singing karaoke and knocking them back. Maybe there is even that one nightly barfly who gets "NORM!" yelled at him in greeting.
Anyways, a couple of days ago, NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was televising its usual episode but this time around, the theme of the episode was something that I hadn't heard before: favourite sunakku karaoke songs. According to what I heard, apparently the current demographic frequenting the little bars may mostly be in their 40s. I'm not sure if I even heard any enka (have a look at a past article on what folks in their 60s have enjoyed singing). Regardless, here are three from the "Uta Con" list.
Kiyomi Suzuki with Rats & Star -- Lonely Chaplin (ロンリー・チャプリン）
Rather amazing how long-standing assumptions can be torn asunder with a single blow. For the longest time, I had thought that Osaka rock band Sharam Q's（シャ乱Q）big hit "Single Bed" had been the lovelorn ballad/theme song for a typical J-Drama.
Well, it was a theme song but not for a live-action drama. It was actually the ending theme for an anime called "DNA²" back in the 1990s, and for the synopsis of the show, I will leave the above video to explain things rather succinctly.
"Single Bed" was Sharam Q's 6th single from October 1994 and I think it's been treated as the breakthrough song for the band. Written by vocalist Tsunku（つんく）and composed by guitarist Hatake（はたけ）, it's always going to be included in any video retrospective for the group, and considering the lyrics talking about a forlorn guy trying and failing to hold onto his girlfriend, I would have thought that "Single Bed" was the ideal ending theme for a drama instead of a sci-fi anime.
Finally finding out what Tsunku's lyrics were all about, "Single Bed" is quite the melancholy life's lesson on how changing oneself on the inside rather than impressing through material belongings would have been the right way to go for the now-alone fellow. The arrangement also reflects some of that melancholy feeling although there is the refrain which has the guy hopefully and finally seeing the light to redemption. The guitar solo also had me thinking of the band Queen. Perhaps this was a Queen-size single bed....cough, cough.
The single peaked at No. 9 on Oricon and became Sharam Q's first million-seller. In addition, it also ended up as the 24th-ranked song of the year. Pretty darn good for an anison. "Single Bed" was included in the band's 4th album"Rettoukan"（劣等感...Inferiority Complex） released in November 1994 (I think that was my arrival date in Japan) which got as high as No. 25 on the charts and ended up as the 60th-ranked album for 1995, going Platinum.
When I returned to Toronto in late 2011, the ramen restaurant boom had just blasted off from the launch pad. And over the next number of years, new places serving one of Japan's gaishoku staples started to pop up like mushrooms and then multiple branches of those new places which includes a few this year. I've happily indulged in my ramen hobby with buddies to the point that any regret that I can no longer get a hearty bowl of the stuff in the source country really doesn't exist anymore. But let me say that I will still get at least two bowls of the stuff into my stomach when I visit Tokyo again.
It has also gotten to the point that I can no longer imagine a time when I was not able to get a bowl of the noodles. Before Toronto became Ramen Central in the 2010s, basically all we had was either Cup O' Noodles and, as you can see above, Sapporo Ichiban (although there was a nascent attempt at a ramen shop back in the 1980s called Yokohama which didn't last too long). But despite the plethora of ramen shops in the GTA, in the name of total disclosure, I still partake in the instant stuff occasionally for lunch. Yup, I do ingest all of the MSG and chemicals unrepentantly.
All that appetizing ramen talk is to help introduce a song by Osaka-based Sharam-Q（シャ乱Q）. "Ramen Daisuki Koike-san no Uta" (The Song of Ramen-Loving Mr. Koike) was the first track in the band's debut album from September 1992, "Sakuretsu! Henachoko Punch"（炸裂!へなちょこパンチ...Explosion! Greenhorn Punch）.
Now, my knowledge of Sharam-Q and its flamboyant leader, Tsunku（つんく）, first started filtering in when I landed back in Japan in late 1994, so I'd had no idea that the band had existed since 1988. And in fact, my knowledge of their ramen entry bubbled in when Tsunku and company had actually released an updated version of this song, "Shin Ramen Daisuki Koike-san no Uta"（新・ラーメン大好き小池さんの唄...The New Song of Ramen-Loving Mr. Koike）as their 19th single in March 2000. It peaked at No. 23 on Oricon.
But I haven't come across this new version on YouTube as of yet, so let's go with the original flavour, so to speak. In all honesty, "Ramen Daisuki Koike-san no Uta" in either of its incarnations has never particularly spoken to me..."Zurui Onna"（ズルイ女）is still the big Sharam-Q winner for me, but it's interesting to watch that ancient music video above to see the band looking unlike their glam rock presence when I first got to know them, and making like urban rock-funksters. Plus, I gotta say that I don't think I ever heard a funk song paying tribute to ramen.
(I believe you can see Koike-san at 3:09)
According to the J-Wiki write-up on "Ramen", Koike-san was actually a character who made appearances in a couple of manga that I knew "Obake no Q-Taro"（オバケのQ太郎...Q-Taro The Ghost）and "Doraemon"（ドラえもん）by the late artist Fujio Fujiko（藤子二不雄）, and indeed the fellow did love his home-cooked ramen.
Tsunku took care of the lyrics while the whole band came up with the melody which partially pays homage to the ending theme of the old anime "Himitsu no Akko-chan"（ひみつのアッコちゃん...The Secrets of Akko-chan）, the go-go-boot-kicking "Suki Suki Song"（すきすきソング...The Love Love Song） by Hisashi Inoue, Morihisa Yamamoto and Asei Kobayashi（井上ひさし・山元護久・小林亜星）.
Kobushi Factory（こぶしファクトリー...Magnolia Factory）is a Hello Project group that Marcos V. has already spoken about, and it turns out that their first major single was "Dosukoi! kenkyo ni daitan / Ramen daisuki koizumi-san no uta / Nen ni wa nen (Nen-iri Ver.)"（ドスコイ!ケンキョにダイタン/ラーメン大好き小泉さんの唄/念には念（念入りVer.）...Dosukoi! Humble but Bold/A song of ramen loving girl Ms.Koizumi/Be Double Sure (with ”NEN” Ver.)）from September 2015, which as you can see, includes their own version of the Sharam-Q song (aside from the changing of the character's name from Koike to Koizumi. The Factory is one of Tsunku's aidoru groups under the Hello Project banner and "Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san no Uta" kept plenty of funk. The single peaked at No. 3.
The reason for the name change was that it was the theme song for the Fuji-TV late Saturday-night drama "Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san no Uta" based on the manga by Naru Narumi（鳴見なる）about a teenage ramen super fan.
Yup, I put rice in my ramen.
Don't get uppity with me!
Of the few Sharam Q (シャ乱Q) songs that I do like, "Iiwake" (Excuses) is not at the top of the list, to be honest. The somewhat jazzy "Zurui Onna" (ズルイ女) is my favourite. However, "Iiwake" is memorable for its intro which builds up with a dreaded air of uncertainty before things explode in a crash of instruments and lead singer Tsunku (つんく) goes into his lyrics (he also composed the music) of spouting off various excuses for not getting into a normal healthy relationship.
Plus, there was that appearance of Sharam Q at the Kohaku Utagassen (I'm assuming that it is the 1996 show). The familiar buildup for "Iiwake" began when the square of the stage floor opened up and out flew Tsunku to immediately dive into the song. That stunt probably got everyone's eyes open. I was just astounded that he didn't end up breaking his neck or falling back down into the basement. The moaning that he does in his performance would have been for real.
"Iiwake" is the band's 10th single from April 1996 which peaked at No. 3 and became a million-selling hit, earning a Best Record prize at the Japan Record Awards. It ended the year as the 21st-ranking single. The song was also used as the theme for a Fuji-TV drama about the consequences of infidelity called "Age,35 Koishikute" (Age 35 恋しくて....I Miss You). As I remember, the show got a lot of press and exposure, not surprising since the original manga was created by Fumi Saimon（柴門ふみ）, the author of "Tokyo Love Story" which became one of the big dramas (if not the biggest) for 1991.
Never saw a single episode but I am quite impressed with that opening credits sequence with Sharam Q actually performing "Iiwake" in front of the camera while the main actors are sitting pensively and separately at their tables. Pretty much sets the tone for the drama to come over the next several weeks.
The first time I saw lead singer Tsunku of the Osaka band Sharam-Q（シャ乱Ｑ) in the mid-1990s, he answered the question "What would a vampire from Shinjuku 2-chome look like?"...ahhh, life was indeed complete. And it was for this song I got to first know the band. I always remember the riffin' horn section for "Zurui Onna" (Cunning Woman) which kinda reminded me what a Big Band might sound like at the end of the century.
"Zurui Onna" was the band's 7th single and its most successful song to date. Written and composed by Tsunku (aka Mitsuo Terada) for release in May 1995, it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and became the 19th-ranked single of the year with 1.3 million copies sold, and apparently it is the 84th top-selling single in Oricon history. Not surprisingly, Sharam-Q was the top batter for the White team at the Kohaku Utagassen in 1995.
Sharam-Q was first brought together all the way back in 1988 when five Kinki University students pooled their talents. They were the aforementioned Tsunku（つんく）along with Hatake (はたけ...guitar), Makoto (まこと...drums), Taisei (たいせい...keyboards) and Shu (しゅう...bass). All of them came from 3 other bands, and they decided to form the new band's name from an amalgam of those other bands' names: Shutters（シャッターズ）, Ram（乱） and QP. The first new name was to have been Sharam-P, but so that they wouldn't be linked with a popular female comedic duo at the time, Okyan-P, the band decided to go with the Q.
For the next few years, they would enjoy life as an amateur band before releasing their first official single in 1992. Then in 1994, they started getting noticed from their 4th single, "Jokyo Monogatari"（上・京・物・語） and getting even bigger raves with "Single Bed" later that year. And of course, Tsunku would later become the Svengali who gave birth to Morning Musume and The Hello Project.
One of those groups, the Hawaii-based Coconuts Musume（ココナッツ娘。） would do an English-language cover version of "Zurui Onna" as the coupling song for their 1999 2nd single"Dance & Chance". The single itself got as high as No. 86. Formed in 1998, the starting lineup was Ayaka Kimura, Mika Todd, Danielle Delaunay, Chelsea Ching and April Barbaran.
