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.
Partly inspired by my previous article on Naomi Chiaki's（ちあきなおみ）"Waltz"（円舞曲）and also thinking it would be nice to begin the work week with something a little different, I've opted to complete my Monday entries with some of the dance-titled kayo kyoku and J-Pop out there since it seems as if the Japanese also enjoyed cutting a rug if vicariously for most people.
Hello. It's been a while since I've opened the AI art gallery, and nope, this isn't a second Xmas edition like the last one I did back on November 24th. The next Xmas edition will come out on Christmas Eve, I promise you. However, take a gander at today's selections.
Over the last number of days, I've been getting into recording some of the programs from TV Japan for posterity since as all viewers will know, the specialty channel will end its broadcasting history as of March 31st. But from March 20th, the new Internet streaming service Jme will be going into operation as the inheritor of Japanese television supply for the masses in North America.
If I were to tape any "Uta Con"（うたコン）episodes, I should have done so tonight since everyone put on quite a show, opening with their tribute to the current NHK morning serial "Boogie Woogie"（ブギウギ）which will be ending its own run at the end of March. Apparently, "Uta Con" won't be returning until April which is when Jme will be in full service but TV Japan has assured us that the weekly music program will be available on the new platform.
Getting back to "Boogie Woogie", it's been the fictionalized story of the legendary Queen of BoogieShizuko Kasagi（笠置シズ子）and her career. I've been getting to know her for the big hits of "Tokyo Boogie Woogie"（東京ブギウギ）and "Jungle Boogie"（ジャングル・ブギー）, both done in 1948, a year in which all of her records had the word "boogie" in the titles.
In between those two songs was "Hey Hey Boogie", which was performed on "Uta Con" tonight by actress Sakura Kiryu（吉柳咲良）, who will actually be making her debut on "Boogie Woogie" in the last several episodes as the new ingenue, and the singing group Junretsu（純烈）. Enjoying what I had heard there, I looked up the original version by Kasagi and gave that a listen. Written by Ko Fujiura（藤浦洸）and composed by Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）, who had taken care of every other boogie song for the singer, the Queen of Boogie continued her streak of flamboyance and good feelings through her performance. I'd say that the song may especially be good for laughter therapy.
Keeping on the "Uta Con"（うたコン）theme from last article with Yu Sakai（さかいゆう）, there was a performance of an old chestnut that had been done on the currently running NHK morning serial "Boogie Woogie"（ブギウギ）starring Shuri（趣里）. Back in October, when the series just started, there was already some buzz flying about due to the barnstorming onstage performances of the actress as entertainer extraordinaire Suzuko Fukurai（福来スズ子）based on the real-life force-of-nature singer Shizuko Kasagi（笠置シヅ子）. Pretty hopping stuff to see and hear in the morning. The song that set the tone was "Sentimental Dinah".
The song about exhorting young Dinah to get out of her funk and do her singing and dancing whirlwind was written by Kobun Nogawa（野川香文）and composed by Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）for Kasagi to record in 1940. It certainly starts out in a down-on-your-luck morose way but by the end, things seem to pick up for Dinah at last.
The above video by Super Retro TV has Kasagi performing "Sentimental Dinah" in 1949. It's interesting to compare the 1940 recording with the 1949 performance on stage in front of a camera considering that the original record had been made right in the middle of World War II with the clampdown on entertainment (except for songs thought amenable by the Imperial government at the time).
I'm pretty sure that Shuri's cover of the song was arranged by Takayuki Hattori（服部隆之）, Ryoichi's grandson, who is handling the soundtrack for "Boogie Woogie".
As if anyone needed reminding, it is indeed October 1st, 2022. Time for fall leaves, harvesting and good food such as matsutake mushrooms and grilled sanma in Japan. Turkey and pumpkin pie would be the delicacies here in Canada and the United States, but I digress.
Last Saturday, I began a series known as "Go-Touchi Songs", those tunes that reflect a certain region or prefecture or city in Japan. They are held near and dear by many people in the country and last weekend, I started with Hokkaido and the Tohoku region which tends towards the northern part of the main island of Honshu. But as promised, I am now going into the area where I spent almost two decades of my life: the Kanto region which includes Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Gunma, Chiba and Kanagawa Prefectures along with Metropolitan Tokyo. As was displayed in last week's list, the songs aren't all about enka and Mood Kayo. Also to reiterate, this is a very tiny list merely to provide a small taste of these geographically based songs (especially where Tokyo and Yokohama are concerned); you can take a look at the far more extensive list at J-Wiki. Plus, I'll be covering the Chubu region next week.
1. Yukio Hashi -- Itakogasa (潮来笠) for Itako City in Ibaraki (1960)
2. Duke Aces -- Ii Yu da na （いい湯だな）for Gunma (1966)
7. Ayumi Ishida -- Blue Light Yokohama（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）for Yokohama, Kanagawa (1968)
As was the case with Hokkaido and the Tohoku last week, I'd like to finish with a couple of delicacies from the Kanto: yaki manju（焼き饅頭）in Gunma and monjayaki（もんじゃ焼き）in Tokyo respectively.
Welcome to the last day of 2021. Yup, it has been a typical New Year's Eve in the J-Canuck household. Cleaning up things here and there, getting ready for the toshikoshi soba later tonight, and catching the last third of NHK's annual Kohaku Utagassen, the 72nd edition(there was at least one major change to the schedule since I first put up the list), via TV Japan when I woke up this morning. Of course, Happy New Year to all of those folks in Japan; I did catch "Yuku Toshi, Kuru Toshi"（ゆく年くる年...The Departing Year, The Approaching Year） afterwards.
I did PVR the broadcast so I'll watch the entire thing at my leisure over the next few days, and perhaps some of us will give our opinions on No. 72. But in the meantime, I had been thinking of putting up another Kohaku-themed article to start off the New Year's Eve 2021 batch of KKP articles. At first, I had thought about doing another Fantasy Kohaku Utagassen as I did back in 2019 but that was my second round at it, and I eventually felt that...well...a second round was enough. Then, I mused about going all the way back in history to the very first Kohaku Utagassen on NHK Radio on January 3 1951. However, there was only one song on the lineup there that I knew about, and I just didn't want to smash in a whole bunch of new songs with descriptions when they could eventually get their own articles.
But I did get some more luck with the 4th annual Kohaku which was the very first televised edition on NHK on December 31 1953. It was held at the Nihon Gekijo（日本劇場）facility in Yurakucho, Tokyo which is only a few minutes' walk away from the 72nd edition's venue of the Tokyo International Forum. Broadcast between 9:15 pm and 11:45 pm with Red and White teams consisting of 17 performers each, actress Takiko Mizunoe（水の江瀧子）was the captain of the Red team while NHK announcer Keizo Takahashi（高橋圭三）led the White team. Another NHK announcer, Seigoro Kitade（北出清五郎）was the overall emcee.
For those who may have wanted to find out any footage of the 4th edition, don't bother. According to J-Wiki, because of the technology at the time, no audio or video exists of that show...only some stills which are probably stored away in the NHK archives. However, although I don't know many of the songs listed for that Kohaku, I can put up at least three that I do know since they're already included in the KKP family, and introduce one more by Chiemi Eri（江利チエミ）who appeared for the very first time on the NHK special.
Eri had debuted in January 1952 but her version of "A Guy is a Guy" was her 10th single from February 1953. This was a cover of the Oscar Brand-written standard in 1952 although according to the Wikipedia article for the song, its origins may go all the way back to a 1719 British tune; at this point, though, there is no definitive proof connecting Brand and the UK ditty. Getting back to Eri, she does sing the original English lyrics in the second half of the song but Japanese lyrics were provided for the first half and those were provided by Takashi Otowa（音羽たかし）, the collective pen name for any directors representing King Records.
There have been a number of versions of "A Guy is a Guy" but the most popular one was recorded by Doris Day in 1952.
To finish up, Wendy Tokunaga tweeted about an article at Sora News 24 regarding the future of the Kohaku Utagassen which I found quite interesting and probably already has garnered some very differing opinions.
After I discovered Fusako Amachi's（天地総子）ode to Mitsuya Cider a few days ago, I also found this other contribution by the late singer. A swinging jazz number that brought to mind "Sing Sing Sing", her "Rappa to Musume" (The Trumpet & The Girl) is an example of how and why I got into jazz of nearly a century ago. Actually, her version was a track on her 1974 album"Amachi Fusako to Tokyo Boogie-Woogie"（天地総子と東京ブギウギ...Fusako Amachi & Tokyo Boogie-Woogie）, and it actually had me swinging in my chair (don't try to imagine this...you just had to be there...or here).
The original "Rappa to Musume", according to J-Wiki, was recorded by Shizuko Kasagi（笠置シヅ子）in 1939 with Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）writing and composing about this story of a girl in love with that sweet sound of a trumpeter in a band. It was nice to find this chestnut since I've only known Kasagi primarily for "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie". I'm not sure whether the authorities in Japan had banned jazz in the country shortly after the release of "Rappa to Musume", but I'm glad that it has survived over the decades.
I'm pretty sure that "Rappa to Musume" has been further covered by a lot of other musicians and singers, but one simmering cover was by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra（東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ）for their 1993 album "PIONEERS". The ska is indeed in there but I can also imagine the guys wearing zoot suits from the 1940s.
Then in 2007, there was a release of an album covering the old hits by Hattori titled "Hattori Ryoichi ~ Seitan Hyaku-shuu Nen Kinen Tribute Album ~"（服部良一 〜生誕100周年記念トリビュート・アルバム〜...Ryoichi Hattori's 100th-Year Commemorative Tribute Album）with songs selected and arranged by his son, Katsuhisa（服部克久）, and his grandson, Takayuki（服部隆之）.Aya Matsuura（松浦亜弥）and trumpeter Terumasa Hino（日野皓正）provided their cover of "Rappa to Musume". Not sure if that is indeed Hino giving that magnificent solo in the performance above for NHK, but whoever he is, he's got one hot horn.
Looking at that lineup on J-Wiki, the Hattori tribute album might be worth getting. It actually peaked at No. 10.
This was a song that has popped up on NHK's"Kayo Concert" a couple of times including the previous episode last night (so glad that it's back)...and no surprise; it just seems to be tailor-made to be performed on stage.
"Kaimono Boogie" (Grocery Shopping Boogie) is a rapid-fire report on the craziness of doing the daily shopping by kayo boogie queen Shizuko Kasagi（笠置シヅ子）. Written and composed by Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）in June 1950 for some Nichigeki revue show (ah, no wonder it's great on stage), the song gained a great reputation so it got its own single release. I think Kasagi was definitely the big factor here as she sings out the role of a harried-but-tough-as-nails housewife hitting the fish market and fruits-and-vegetable shop while bantering about in the Osakan dialect non-stop...and if there's a group of people who can talk and shop at the same time, it's the Osakans. There was no Oricon at the time (and there wouldn't be for the better part of a couple of decades), but I can only wonder how it would have done on the charts since "Kaimono Boogie" managed to sell about 450,000 records.
As I've said before, nostalgia has had a huge hand in Japanese pop culture, and when something as snappy as "Kaimono Boogie" is created, it's pretty much rendered immortal. So unsurprisingly, the 1950 song has been covered by a number of artists including Osaka-born UA for her 2010 album"KABA". Here she is performing it on stage.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
Glad to see you again, Sachiko Kobayashi（小林幸子）. She was actually on Tuesday night's "Kayo Concert", and this is her performing "Kaimono Boogie" on stage with all of the trappings of mid-Showa Era living. I'd say that it was a tribute to Kasagi when she performed it as part of the stage show, and Kobayashi plays it up to the hammy hilt. It would be nice if she could come back to the Kohaku Utagassen to act out something like this on the Shibuya stage and leave the planet-sized costumes to posterity.
One of my supermarkets in the neighbourhood: Y's Mart.
Good ol' Minami-Gyotoku was truly blessed with no less than
4 supermarkets and a good sprinkling of convenience stores.
I was watching the latest "Kayo Concert" tonight and it was particularly interesting since the host, Tetsuya Takayama（高山哲哉）, introduced the show's theme as Rhythm Kayo. I know about Mood Kayo and Techno Kayo but it was the first time to hear about this new old genre of kayo, and Takayama and the guests explained it as that part of Japanese music from yesteryear which has a danceable beat. I've already covered at least a couple of the songs that are included in the genre (and were sung tonight): Shizuko Kasagi's（笠置シヅ子）snappy "Tokyo Boogie Woogie"（東京ブギウギ）and the hip-swiveling "Koi no Mexican Rock"（恋のメキシカン・ロック）by Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）.
The remarkable thing about this Rhythm Kayo is how the Japanese songwriters back in the early postwar period were more than happy to incorporate at least some hint of the exotic song stylings from other countries and bring in the names of dances into the titles such as "rock", "flamenco" or "boogie". And yet, there was still that baseline of kayo in the songs. But of course, that borrowing of outside styles would continue later into the century through New Music and City Pop and the like.
Of course, "Tokyo Boogie Woogie" would lead things off on NHK's Shibuya stage but then the guests went into another one of Kasagi's numbers that I hadn't ever heard before. Titled "Jungle Boogie" (no relation whatsoever to Kool & The Gang's namesake song from the 70s), the original was sung by Japan's boogie queen back in 1948 for the movie "Yoidore Tenshi"（醉いどれ天使...Drunken Angel）, the first collaboration between legendary director Akira Kurosawa（黒澤明）and famed actor Toshiro Mifune（三船敏郎）. In fact, it was Kurosawa who was behind the lyrics of the song which Kasagi lunged into like a hungry cheetah. There were certain points where I thought she was going to channel a really ecstatic Louis Armstrong. Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）took care of the melody; he was also the composer behind the more famous "Tokyo Boogie Woogie".
Here is a brief excerpt from "Yoidore Tenshi".
As I was looking for any original video with Kasagi for "Jungle Boogie", I found out that Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra covered the old chestnut back in 1991 for their album, "World Famous". I love the video and their version certainly has that jive brio that also makes me wonder whether Kome Kome Club had ever covered it. Considering the brief neo-swing fad that popped up later in the decade, TSPO's take on the song had me musing that it beat bands like Squirrel Nut Zippers to the punch by a few years.
For the longest time, I'd thought that "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" was purely a Hibari Misora（美空ひばり） song, but as I would find out, she was actually just one of the first of generations of singers to cover one of the most well-remembered kayo kyoku. The original singer was Shizuko Kasagi （笠置シヅ子）(1914-1985), who was known as the Queen of Boogie in the postwar era....a lot of her song titles had the word "boogie" in the title.
Written by Masaru Suzuki（鈴木勝） and composed by Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一） for release in 1948, Hattori apparently came up with the melody while he was commuting on a train, and heard the combination of sounds from the clinking rail joints and the handstraps hitting against the metal shelves located over the seats. The composer had his "Eureka" moment and rushed off the train to the nearest café to jot the song down on a napkin. And I guess the rest is history. Kasagi had a hit and would eventually earn her tiara. She appeared on the Kohaku Utagassen four times, and performed "Tokyo Boogie Woogie" on her 3rd time in 1953.
Of course, I have to include the Misora cover. It's just a short clip, but she pulls off a masterful performance.
I knew The Venus for their only major hit, "Kiss wa Me ni Shite"（キスは目にして） back in 1981. The band was actually formed all the way back in 1974 as a musical group performing American music of the 1960s. According to the J-Wiki writeup on the group, The Venus underwent a number of personnel changes during its 9-year history, and in its last 2 years, the members decided to take on English stage names. So, lead vocal Sachiko Ishikawa（石川幸子） was Conny Lane. In its final year, Conny and the gang did their own version of "Tokyo Boogie Woogie".
Of course, numerous musicians have covered the song from enka singers to members of Hello Project. Here is Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀） doing her version. "Tokyo Boogie Woogie" will always be that one song from long ago that will always be welcome in the home or in the karaoke lounge even in the 21st century.
