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.
I guess we've been going on a meteorological theme over the past couple of days. I started off yesterday's duo of articles with Junko Yagami's（八神純子）"Ame no Kyuujitsu"（雨の休日）, and I'm beginning Hump Day's session with another rainy title.
But unlike the soft and melancholy "Ame no Kyuujitsu", "Ame no Highway"(Rainy Highway) by Shinji Harada & Crisis（原田真二&クライシス）is much more of an urgent pop/rock thumper, feeling a bit like an old Billy Joel song from a few years earlier, despite its May 1983 release as a single. Although Harada took care of music and arrangement, it was Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）behind the lyrics of a man desperately driving through a storm to reach his girlfriend to resolve an even stormier crisis in their relationship. The single reached No. 71 on Oricon. The song was also included in the band's July 1983 third album"Save Our Soul" which ranked in at No. 43.
If the name Shinji Harada rings any bells for you fans of 1970s New Music, indeed it is the same adorable teen that you see at the top of the article from the cover of his 1978 debut album, "Feel Happy"(just wanna pinch his cheeks). Back then, with hits like "Candy", Harada was the boy wonder of whimsical piano pop along the lines of Gilbert O'Sullivan and Al Stewart. However, going into the 1980s, the singer-songwriter opted to create a band, Crisis, to bring out a pop/rock (and maybe AOR) sound. Shinji Harada & Crisis lasted between 1980 and 1984.
There were two incarnations of the band depending on the record label. Its first couple of years were spent under Polydor with drummer/percussionist Takashi Furuta（古田 たかし）, bassist Masao Seki（関雅夫）and keyboardist/violinist Takashi Toyoda（豊田貴志）joining Harada as this group with a more progressive rock approach. The singer spent much of 1982 studying overseas in the United States after which Crisis was now under the For Life label with keyboardist/saxophonist Michihiko Ohta（太田美知彦）replacing Toyoda and then the late Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）replacing Seki as the bassist later on. The For Life incarnation brought out a more theatrical flavour in live concerts with more elaborate sets, pantomime and even breakdancing.
One last piece of trivia is that a young Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）was brought into one performance by the band in September 1980 at the time of their formation as an emergency keyboardist in the Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. Komuro auditioned afterwards to become an official member of Crisis but didn't quite make the cut. But of course, there were no worries for him since he would become quite successful down the decade.
After I put up Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）"Time Machine wa Totsuzen ni"（タイムマシーンは突然に）onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus" the other day, I came to the realization that there were quite a few songs in Japan regarding time travel or at least there was some mention of it in the title. In fact, I found a few that I hadn't covered but perhaps I will in a future article. But in the meantime, here are a few that we did cover over the years.
Whenever I think of the vocal trio Sugar（シュガー）from the 1980s, I always envision their most recognized song "Wedding Bell"（ウエディング・ベル）and shiver a bit. After all, those lyrics that the ladies sing so sweetly also carry a major shiv in vengeance against a former beau and his blushing bride. Not sure how the audience reacted at the Kohaku Utagassen that New Year's Eve when Sugar performed it.
But no worries this time...the shields can come down. "Kiss ga Ippai" (Plenty of Kisses) is a straight-on gushy love song that has quite the feeling of a Candies（キャンディーズ）tune in arrangement and delivery by Miki, Kumi and Mohri. Written by copywriter-turned-lyricist Yoshiaki Sagara（さがらよしあき）, composed by Shinji Harada（原田真二）and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）, this was the trio's 6th single from April 1983. With those particular keyboards in there, I'm not quite sure whether "Kiss ga Ippai" would be considered a pop tune or a technopop tune so I've decided to cover the spread by including both genres in Labels. Kinda too bad that the original recording isn't up on YouTube.
Considering the title of this song (and even the album title) and that today is Thursday, I hope that the lass is OK.
Anyways, "Suiyoubi made ni Shinitai no" (I Wanna Die by Wednesday) is a track on actress/singer Yukako Hayase's（早瀬優香子）debut album"SO・UTSU"（躁鬱...Depression） from January 1986. Years ago, I wrote about her debut single and fellow track mate, "Sartre de Nemurenai"（サルトルで眠れない）which is a funky piece of technopop arranged in a way that had me thinking of Miharu Koshi（コシミハル）when she first began her journey as a diva of the genre, away from her old City Pop days. There is also Hayase's breathy delivery.
"Suiyoubi made ni Shinitai no" has got the bleeps and bloops of the synthesizers but the style is a bit different. There's some added techno cabaret feeling to Akira Nishihira's（西平彰）nocturnal arrangement of Shinji Harada's（原田真二）melody although the funk does return in parts. Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）provided the lyrics and in fact, he provided the lyrics for all of the songs in "SO・UTSU".
Well once again my memory failed me since I completely forgot about putting up the weekly Gosanke team onto KKP the past weekend. However, at least I have remembered today.
On January 14th, I put up the Shibuya-kei Gosanke（渋谷系御三家）with some relief in that Takao Tajima（田島貴男）of Original Love has mellowed out about having to cringe at being included within that august trio. However, I have to say that when I opted to put up the rock version tonight, I was scratching my head at the inclusion of wunderkind Shinji Harada（原田真二）as one of the Rock Gosanke. I did see that among his genres listed at J-Wiki, rock was indeed one of them, but the tunes that I've put up onto the blog have all swum in the ocean of City Pop and J-AOR; mind you, the one other genre that was listed for him was pop. Maybe his rock tunes came later in his career and I have yet to cover them.
In any case, while Char started up early in the 1970s, both Harada and Sera（世良公則）debuted in 1977 so I'll use that as the year for Labels, although I'm unsure how the tag of Rock Gosanke came about for these three, although it is listed on that "idol.ne.jp" page for Gosanke and in the Yahoo.jp search engine.
Happy Saturday! Well, according to the statistics on the blog, this is the 8,888th article and since the number 8 is seen as a lucky number in a lot of Asian cultures, I'm hoping that the subject of this article, Tsugutoshi Goto, will have a fortuitous day today although his birthday was back on February 5th. Seeing over the years that Goto has had a lot of influence on various singers through his songwriting, I figured that it was time to take stock of his output through a Creator article. Usually when I encounter his name, I usually associate him with Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）since he came up with a number of songs and hits for her such as her iconic "Mugon Iroppoi"(MUGO・ん 色っぽい）in 1988.
Goto was born in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo in 1952 and is a bassist, composer, arranger and producer who has an even bigger presence on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" than officially stated through Labels since I haven't mentioned him there in songs where he has been involved as a musician in the recording booth. According to his J-Wiki profile, in his junior high school years, he began listening to his sister's Beatles and Ventures records, and then when she took him to a concert by The Astronauts, he was captivated by their "Movin'" (above) and also by the warm-up act, Takeshi Terauchi & Blue Jeans（寺内タケシとブルージーンズ）, especially with Terauchi's technique. From that point, Goto began learning the guitar and joined the light music club in high school where he met drummer Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）at one event. As well, he also studied at the Yamaha Music School in Ebisu where he got to know musicians Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）and Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）.
A few years later, Goto got a phone call from Hayashi telling him "You're playing bass!" since a tour involving the folk/AOR duo Bread & Butter（ブレッド＆バッター）was missing a bassist. He'd been a guitarist until then, so there was a sudden learning curve to climb as he now picked up on how to play that instrument. After participating in Chu Kosaka's（小坂忠）backing band, Goto then went fully into the bass, and he even sold his Corolla to purchase a 100,000-yen Telecaster bass at Yamano Music in Ginza. Since then, he helped out other groups such as Tranzam and Sadistic Mika Band in the 1970s.
I've written about Shinji Harada's（原田真二）"Shadow Boxer"（シャドー・ボクサー）in 1977 which was also Goto's first try at arrangement, and apparently he felt like he was thrown into the deep end of the pool through doing so, but he managed to survive his trial by fire.
Well, he didn't only survive...he thrived. He won for Best Arranger at the Japan Record Awards in 1980 for Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）"TOKIO".
Between his stint as a studio musician and songwriter/arranger, Goto also put out his several solo albums of which the first was "ON Bass" in 1978. One of the tracks there is "Choppers Boogie", an instrumental jam originally performed by Caramel Mama（キャラメルママ）and created by his old buddy Hayashi on the band's self-titled 1975 album.
Speaking of Sawada, before his hit "TOKIO", Goto had also arranged an earlier September 1979 single by Julie, his 28th, titled "Lonely Wolf"（ロンリー・ウルフ）which was written by Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）and composed by Katsuo Ohno（大野克夫）. It rather dramatically fits that personality of the go-it-alone type of guy who may be some sort of detective or drifter. The song reached No. 18 on Oricon.
Well, I've found that I'm going to have extend this profile with a Part 2. A number of other songs to go through by Goto.
It's almost as if that photo of relative wunderkind singer-songwriter Shinji Harada（原田真二）was snarking "Where the heck have you been, J-Canuck, for the past 4 1/2 years?" And it has been that long since I posted one of his songs onto the blog. For that, I do apologize especially because the song that I have here tonight is definitely a banger for City Pop/J-AOR fans.
My last article on Hiroshima-born Harada was way back in November 2016 when I wrote up on his remarkable debut album"Feel Happy" from February 1978. It is chock-filled with all sorts of New Music daubed with that City Pop and West Coast goodness but it is missing the singer's 3rd single which was released in December 1977, "Shadow Boxer".
Harada brings some of that wonderful metropolitan funk in his own melody through "Shadow Boxer" which came out a few mere weeks following his 19th birthday and it's paired with the lyrics of Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, the fellow who provided the words for all of the tracks on "Feel Happy". It seems to be the starter kit squeezed into one song for anyone that wants to get into the world of City Pop thanks to those disco strings, boppy bass, bluesy saxophone and that funky strut of an arrangement.
And it all could have gone awry according to an interview provided within the liner notes of arranger Tsugutoshi Goto's（後藤次利）2008"Fitzbeat Years 1983-1985", a 3-CD collection of his own solo works. Bassist Goto was still feeling his way around the world of arrangement at the time when he was requested to put in those strings into "Shadow Boxer" which had him purchasing an electric piano and an arrangement book to study. However, when it came to have Tomato (the strings) do their stuff, there was enough unwanted dissonance in the initial result that an emergency break was ordered and Goto had to do some fly-by-the-seat-of-one's-pants rearranging on the piano to get it right. No pressure.
Well, from what I've heard, it looks like there was a happy ending to the proceedings. And in all honesty, when the recording session includes Harada and Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）on keyboards, Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）on drums, Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）on electric guitar, Nobu Saito（斎藤ノブ）on percussion, and Jake H. Concepcion on saxophone among other stars, I think that Goto, who was on bass and classic guitar, had some enormous backup helping him out. Folk singer Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）was even joining Harada on backup chorus. Those strings sound great...along with everything else!
Unfortunately "Shadow Boxer" didn't become the 3rd consecutive Top 10 hit for Harada, peaking at No. 14, after the No. 6-ranked debut single"Teens' Blues" (てぃーんず ぶるーす) and his sophomore "Candy"（キャンディ）which came in at No. 10. It still sold approximately 230,000 records and ended up as the No. 40 single for 1978. Plus, his following single, "Time Travel" became his highest-ranking song at No. 4.
"Shadow Boxer" finally got to make its album debut on Harada's 20th studio album from August 2007, "Feel Free", albeit in a new arrangement. However, after only a few months, the singer released the 30th anniversary remastered version of "Feel Happy" with the original version of "Shadow Boxer".
My seasonal purchase has had one runaway hit. That would be Shinji Harada's（原田真二）"Feel Happy" from February 1978 although I didn't get the original but the 30th anniversary edition of his magnum opus which has four extra tracks. All the better.
There was a quote in "Japanese City Pop" regarding "Feel Happy":
This is an 18-year-old genius idol who has hidden Paul McCartney in his right hand, Elton John in his left and Gilbert O'Sullivan in his heart.
I also found a comment for one of his YouTube videos which could be paraphrased as "He was just 18 when he wrote this?!"
Yup, Harada was that good when he came out with his very first album. Just looking at that face on the cover, he gave off that downright cocky confidence about his musical abilities. I had read from that "Japanese City Pop" blurb on the album and his J-Wiki entry about him and "Feel Happy" regarding how much in high regard the album has been held all these years which finally got me to purchase it. But little did I know how amazing the tracks were...I've listened to it twice now and I have yet to find a weak song. You may have noticed that I didn't write "...genius idol..." above as "...genius aidoru...". Despite his cute looks, I cannot place Harada as a typical Japanese aidoru.
Former collaborator nikala started the ball rolling with Harada on this blog when she wrote about the truly appealing "Time Travel" back in 2013 which felt like a magical carpet ride done to music. The original 1978 album didn't have this song but it has been included in the longer remastered version from 2007. However, the original does have the Paul McCartney-like "Candy" and "Teen's Blues" which were two of his first troika of singles that managed to achieve the then-unprecedented feat of all being included in the Top 20 weeklies at the same time. I am uncertain who came up with the bright idea of releasing those first three singles at a rate of once a month at the end of 1977 but either Harada or his agent should have gotten a huge bonus.
Just to put it out there, Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）wrote all of the lyrics while Harada took care of the music.
After the instrumental beginning of "Beginning", "Feel Happy" goes off into "Curtain Rise", an atmospheric and inspirational effort which not only truly starts off the proceedings but also signals the start of a beautiful romance. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an original version of it on YouTube but thought it should be mentioned. Right then and there, I realized that I was at the beginning of an amazing hour of listening.
However, the next track is "Sports" which is where Sir Elton's influence comes in. Apparently the song came before the title since whenever he played this exciting tune of really active verbs at concerts, Harada ended up sweating as if he had just gone through the entire decathlon thus giving the song its name. Lots of high energy are involved with this performance and Harada storming the piano reminded me of Elton antics.
"Plastic Doll" is more of McCartney (and he even sounds a bit like the former Beatle in this one) and maybe even O'Sullivan as Harada sings about the inevitable not-so-happy periods in a relationship as the guy admonishes his girlfriend as being an unresponsive mannequin. If Woody Allen had ever decided to put in a Japanese song for one of his comedies in the 1970s, this would have been a nice addition.
The one new song that I really enjoyed is "Kaze wo Tsukamaete"（風をつかまえて...Catch The Wind）. According to the J-Wiki article about "Get Happy", Harada composed this one as if it were meant as a title for some movie music. At the same time, he envisioned it having the musical backdrop of a morning somewhere in Europe. Those introductory strings have that Old World feeling but then with Harada's whimsical piano and his "La-la-las", the atmosphere is immediately lightened to provide the scenery of a start to a wonderful day in Vienna or London or Bonn. The singer even sounds like a kid fascinated by his new surroundings and eager to explore as the strings take us along for the ride. I think it could be perfect for "Sesame Street". I can't really put McCartney, John or O'Sullivan on this one...this is pure Harada.
Harada even provides some good old 1970s American pop-rock with "High-Way 909" as he dreams up of that drive along the West Coast while singing to the radio. Let the good times roll, indeed!
My final song for tonight is "Shadow Boxer", Harada's 3rd single from December 1977 and the third in that miracle record-setting troika. It was also one of the other songs that hadn't been included in the original album but was placed as a track for the 2007 anniversary version. This is another notable one since the singer's melody is pure City Pop right down to the inclusion of the legendary Jake H. Concepcion on sax, Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）on plucky bass and Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）on the keyboards.
"Shadow Boxer" peaked at No. 14 on the Oricon weeklies and was the 40th-ranked single for 1977.
I realize that I haven't put up every track from the album (and I usually don't for any album) but I like to keep a few of them on standby for future articles. With the variety of good music in "Feel Happy", I think his title also acts as a fine promotional catchphrase. And again, this all came from the mind of someone who was still a teenager in Japan.
The album hit No. 1 on Oricon and stayed there for the bulk of the month of March 1978. By the end of the year, it was the 17th-ranked album. As for the other two tracks that were included on the 2007 edition, they were new versions of "Time Travel" and "Teen's Blues".
Well, talk about making an entrance. In late 1977, Shinji Harada（原田真二）made his presence grandly known on the music scene by releasing his first three singles once a month between October and December, the reason being that apparently one song was not enough to show the appeal of this singer that I've seen as the Japanese version of Gilbert O'Sullivan of "Alone Again, Naturally" fame.
His debut single was "Teens' Blues", a song that he composed with veteran lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）behind the words. Harada is still a fellow that I'm just beginning to know, and in fact, I tried to get his debut album "Feel Happy" but perhaps unsurprisingly, it was sold out. No worries, though since there is always Xmas. Listening to some of his early hits such as this one and "Candy", I could really hear that Harada was going as far away from the typical kayo mold as possible; his melodies were arranged such that they could have been played alone on radio in my neck of the woods without anyone the wiser that these were coming from Japan. The Hiroshima native must have been fairly quickly labeled as one of the new Kings of New Music to stand next to the Queen, Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）.
According to J-Wiki (there was quite a bit of text to go through so if I've made a mistake in my understanding please let me know), Harada had originally created the song while sitting on a bench along Peace Boulevard in Hiroshima. At first, the title for his song was to have been "Kimi no Sedai e"（君の世代へ...To Your Generation）with the lyrics taking on a very heavy message about world peace and the fate of the younger generation since at the time, there had apparently been an uptick in organized criminal activity to the point that it was becoming a rather large social problem.
However, the song was seen as being a little too serious so Matsumoto was brought on board to see if it could be lightened up somewhat. The recording staff saw the union of Harada and the former drummer of New Music pioneering band Happy End (はっぴいえんど) as fortuitous since Matsumoto was influenced by John Lennon while Harada was a huge fan of Paul McCartney (a bit of a reach, I know...). Still, it seems that initially there were some growing pains since Harada was told that his lyrics were a bit weak and by his own admission, he had that defensiveness of youth so there was some push back against what he saw was some potential danger of having his material overly influenced by Matsumoto.
As it turned out, the final version of the lyrics involved a certain rebellious young man turning his back on love while still wondering if he could see his former flame on the train, presumably taking her to a new city and life. So the blues of the title was brought down from its lofty societal perch to a very personal level.
The rest was history, as they say. "Teens' Blues" was the launch point for Harada's career, and it was a home run. The song became a hit and the new singer became a sensation in the music industry for his new sound...and at the teen age of 18 as well. As I mentioned above, he released his 2nd and 3rd singles in November and December respectively which were the aforementioned "Candy" and "Shadow Boxer" (that last one I'm gonna have to check out). The unusual and unprecedented decision to release his first three singles once a month paid off in dividends as all three ended up in the The Top 20 of Oricon, the first time that had ever happened.
"Teens' Blues" went all the way up to No. 6 and ended up as the 47th-ranked single of 1978. It was also indeed on that first album "Feel Happy" which hit No. 1 on the charts.
I was listening to Disc 2 from the seventh of Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）many BEST compilations, "Seiko Box" the other day when I heard "Pineapple Island" for the first time in a long time. In fact, it had been such a long time that it was for all intents and purposes, the first time...again.
Quite the playful tune, it is. Starting off with the incessant banging of piano keys, a rumbly electric guitar comes barging in before Seiko-chan's light and girly vocals take flight and sing Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）lyrics about a fellow trapped on a deserted island with only Seiko as a cute mermaid. Perhaps not the worst situation to be in, I suppose.
It's quite the interesting song to hear because of the above, and also for the combination of flute and guitar pushing the cute and comical melody upwards. The music was provided by singer-songwriter Shinji Harada（原田真二）who knows something about weaving the whimsical. However, I gotta say that there is the sound of the flow of liquid in the middle which might be some Perrier pouring into a highball glass but frankly my disturbed mind took it gigglingly as something that would get the following response from a wife: "Honey, remember to put down the seat when you finish. You always leave the seat up!"
"Pineapple Island" is a track on Matsuda's 5th album"Pineapple" from May 1982. It hit No. 1 on Oricon, and it also contains the official singles of "Akai Sweet Pea"（赤いスイートピー）and "Nagisa no Balcony"（渚のバルコニー）.
I never purchased my own copy of Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）11th album, the somewhat enigmatically-titled "The 9th Wave"(June 1985), but I did borrow it from a friend for about a week back in my university days. It was rather interesting seeing that tropical visage of Seiko-chan with blue sky and azure sea on the cover...I wondered if she went the full Okinawan. A couple of hit singles came from it: "Boy no Kisetsu"（ボーイの季節）and "Tenshi no Wink"（天使のウィンク）.
However, I actually wanted to talk about a non-single track from that particular album since it has stuck in my head all those years. When I listened to "Hoshizora no Story" (Starry Sky Story), I thought one thing: would this be what a police procedural theme song by Matsuda would sound like? The song fades in ominously as if the intrepid detective and the intimidating criminal mastermind were slowly ambling to their final confrontation on a fog-shrouded dock in the big city. And then a barrage of urgent strings, heavy bass and tight drum roll in and out like a getaway car while the familiar high-pitched voice of Seiko chimes in.
For an aidoru who I always relied upon for that Yuming-penned romantic ballad or cute boy-meets-girl upbeat tune, "Hoshizora no Story" was quite an aural revelation. As it was, Etsuko Kisugi's（来生えつこ）lyrics talk about a couple going through a bit of an adventure. I just wonder if it was the circa 1980s Earthbound version of the star-crossed lovers running away from and battling dark forces just to stay together. As for the dramatic music, that was supplied by late 70s New Music wunderkind Shinji Harada（原田真二）of "Time Travel" fame.
As I mentioned at the top, "Hoshizora no Story" was a track on "The 9th Wave" but the album itself managed to hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and was the 12th-ranked album of the year. I will have to get my own copy of it pretty soon.
I think I first heard Shinji Harada's（原田真二）"Candy" on an episode of late-night Fuji-TV music introspective "19XX" years ago. Seeing him perform it in concert, I was reminded of what nikala had written about him for "Time Travel": "Face of an idol, talent of a songwriter". Yep, he definitely had the cherub-cute looks of someone who could have belonged to Johnny's Entertainment, although I'm not sure if Johnny Kitagawa would have been accepting of the curly head of hair....then again, Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）didn't exactly have the straightest tonsorial style.
I've yet to hear the full range of Harada's discography, but judging from "Time Travel" and "Candy", he had a knack for weaving the type of whimsical tune that I used to hear on the radio...the ones that were done by these half-folkie, half-old-time country-style popsters. Especially with "Candy", there seems to be that sepia tone overlaying the music as if the song could have time-traveled (didja read what I just did there?) from half a century previously.
As with "Time Travel", Harada took care of the music while Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）provided the lyrics about a fellow who's totally devoted to this girl Candy although the feeling is not quite reciprocated, at least not yet. According to the J-Wiki article on the song, Matsumoto had been inspired to write the words based on some author who was cutting it real close to the deadline for submitting his shojo manga...maybe it was titled "Candy", by chance?
"Candy" was Harada's 2nd single that was the middle part of a spree debut of sorts. He had released his debut "Teen Blues" in October 1977, "Candy" came out in November and then his 3rd single, "Shadow Boxer" was out in December...basically one mass debut at the end of the year. It was pretty unusual to say the least, and apparently the reason was that either Harada or one of his team felt that one song was simply not enough to get the singer's full message across. Still, that distinctive style of his probably did the job quite well.
The song peaked at No. 10 on the Oricon weeklies and managed to become the 48th-ranked song for 1978.
Face of an idol, talent of a songwriter. The wonder-boy Shinji Harada (原田真二) definitely made a lot of girls happy in 1977 when they caught his performances on music shows like The Best Ten and Yoru no Hit Studio. Looking at that picture above, I could easily associate him with singers like Hiromi Go and Hideki Saijo if I hadn't read all that info about him. The media made a pretty big deal of the fact that Harada was 18 years old at the time of his debut and already so accomplished. Indeed, he started playing piano at the age of 3 and eventually became a multi-instrumentalist proficient with guitar, drums, bass and percussion, amongst others. It also helped that Takuro Yoshida (吉田拓郎) sponsored and produced his debut album "Feel Happy" while Yosui Inoue and Shigeru Izumiya participated in the recording.
"Time Travel" (タイム・トラベル; "Joy" was the other a-side) was his fourth single, released in April 1978. It was composed and arranged by Harada, with lyrics provided by the ever-present Takashi Matsumoto (松本隆). This song works for me on many levels. First, it starts off as a gentle 70's-style ballad backed by breezy strings and acoustic piano and then suddenly turns into a groovy number that makes your head bob in different directions. It's a musical equivalent of being awoken from a pleasant dream and then hurriedly getting ready for the day you're really looking forward to. Yeah, those happen from time to time. I also like the whole bounciness of the refrain "jikan ryoko no tour wa ikaga" (="How about a time travel tour?"). Then there's the line that references "The Charleston" and mentions FBI breaking into a tap dance that I found oddly charming, especially hearing it with that tack piano in the background. And of course, Harada's youthful husky voice is quite appealing.
Here's Harada's performance of the song on The Best Ten. The single peaked at 4th spot on Oricon weeklies and eventually became the 50th-ranked song of 1978. It was also the one he performed for his sole appearance on Kohaku Utagassen. From 1979, he pretty much fell off the radar popularity-wise while getting adventurous with music itself. He has since released 40 singles and 22 albums while composing and writing songs for other singers. I gotta admit, his material after those early days has been hit-or-miss for me, and the outfits he sported in the 80's often got ridiculously tacky. But there were real gems like "Ame no Highway" and "Breathe".
"Time Travel" was revived in 2011 as a theme song for the Fuji TV drama Boku to Star no 99 Nichi (僕とスターの99日), this time performed by the band Spitz (スピッツ). The studio version of their cover appears on their album "Orutana". I think Masamune Kusano's voice suits it well.
