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 Shunichi Tokura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shunichi Tokura. Show all posts
"Uta Con"（うたコン）this week started off with a big tribute to the iconic aidoru duo Pink Lady（ピンクレディー） from the 1970s with one-half of the duo, Mitsuyo Nemoto（根本美鶴代）aka Mii（未唯mie）, appearing on stage to perform some of the old hits such as UFO. In place of her partner Keiko "Kei" Masuda（増田啓子）, some of the other guests stepped in to help out with the singing and dancing. The reason for all of the hubbub is that August 25th signified the 50th anniversary of the release of Pink Lady's debut single"Pepper Keibu" (ペッパー・警部) back in 1976.
Now I'd thought that I could do the B-side of "Pepper Keibu" in tribute but alas, I already did "Kanpai! Ojou-san"（乾杯!お嬢さん） last year. So I'm now going with the B-side of Pink Lady's 2nd single"S.O.S." which was released in November 1976. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed/arranged by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, the duo's go-to songwriters for quite a while, the short-but-sweetly sung "Pink no Ringo"(Pink Apple) sounds like quite the B-side since there is no hint of the disco or the feeling of dynamic limb moves that are part and parcel of a Pink Lady performance. Instead, it's a happy-go-lucky conventional aidoru song about a pink apple being the magical love charm. In real life, I would stay far away from a pink apple.
This Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）song was recommended to me by a commenter a few days ago and it turns out to be her fourth single that I hadn't known about. "Harukaze no Itazura" (Spring Wind Mischief) which was released in March 1974 arrived between a couple of arguably more well-known hits by the famed 70s aidoruand actress, "Kinjirareta Asobi"（禁じられた遊び）from November 1973 and "Hito Natsu no Keiken"（ひと夏経験）from November 1974.
As with those two songs, "Harukaze no Itazura" was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）. The arrangement by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）was reflective of what Momoe's early material sounded like: light and bouncy kayo paired with her younger and higher-pitched vocals. It's all about a young girl who's gotten so distraught after a fight with the boyfriend that she's gotten lost somewhere in the big cruel city while a cold spring wind is blowing. If Momoe's late-career persona of jaded mankiller ever saw this lass, she would have either taken her under her wing or perhaps given her a sneer and internally told her to dry up.
"Harukaze no Itazura" reached No. 11 on Oricon and ended up as the 85th-ranked single for 1974. The song was also included on her 3rd studio album"Juu-go Sai no Tehma ~ Momoe no Kisetsu"（15歳のテーマ 百恵の季節...Theme of 15 Years Old ~ Momoe's Season） which came out in April 1974 and reached No. 7 on the album charts.
A couple of years ago, I posted "Onna no Gakko"（女の学校）, a 1970 kayo kyoku and debut single by actress and singer Reiko Ohshida（大信田礼子）who had been in the popular action series "Playgirl"（プレイガール）. "Onna no Gakko" was a slithery and sexy song of the night that also probably summed up Ohshida's character in the TV series.
Ohshida released seven singles up to the middle of 1973 with her penultimate one being "Dousei Jidai"(The Time of Living in Sin) which came out in February that same year. Composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）and arranged by Hiroshi Takada（高田弘）, the melody sounds a whole lot more peaceful and innocent but the lyrics by Kazuo Kamimura（上村一夫）are quite the downer as a couple discovers that they can't live with each other and yet they can't live without each other. In fact, at one point, the woman had even considered killing her paramour and then killing herself. Talk about words and music going into opposite directions!
Interesting piece of trivia is that Ohshida actually ended up getting married to composer Tokura the following year, although she had apparently not gotten along with the man during the production of "Dousei Jidai". The marriage didn't last too long, however, since they divorced by 1978. As well, Ohshida had been classmates with Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）from elementary to high school in their native Kyoto.
Before Napster and Internet, there're 4 ways you can dub a song onto a cassette tape without buying it.
1. Find a friend who owns the song and ask him to dub it for you. Or borrow it and dub it yourself.
2. Go to a record shop that rents LPs or CDs. Rent the one you want and dub it yourself.
3. If you happen to make friends with the record shop staff, ask them to dub it for you. You may have to pay a small fee but the good thing is you can pick and choose. This is the ORIGINAL playlist.
4. Dub the song as you're listening on the radio station.
I have done all four back when I was in secondary school in Hong Kong but no. 4 was by far my most used method when I found a song I like.
Back to the future. In the past few days, a melody suddenly popped up in my mind and it wouldn't go away. Not only the melody but I remember the lyrics as well. "How are you my friend? da da da da da da da," it sang in my head.
At the beginning, I was somehow convinced that it was from Matsuda Seiko 松田聖子 but didn't follow up further. As the melody played again and again in my head, the memories of my "dubbing days" came back and it felt so nostalgic that I wanted to listen to the whole song. So, this morning, I asked Gemini AI which Japanese song in the 80s included the lyrics "how are you my friend". Voila! It's NOT Seiko but Shojotai 少女隊! What a surprise. I immediately listened and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I'm pretty sure I dubbed this song when I was in Hong Kong but I forgot whether it's through method no. 3 or no. 4. I threw away all my tapes (regret!) 10+ years ago so there's no way I can find out anymore. There's a good chance that it's no. 4. I still remember that in the 80s, Radio Hong Kong had a weekly program that published a top 10 chart for Japanese songs. It could be from that.
For those of you who are interested in knowing more about Shojotai, J-Canuck already wrote an article here. As expected, it's very hard to find a Japanese singer or group that has not been covered by Kayo Kyoku Plus.
Going back to the song itself, given the Aidoru background and the atmosphere, the story of the song likely happened in a high school. A young girl was having a small fight with her boyfriend who's her senior i.e. her senpai. She's still thinking of him and wanted to speak to him. So, "how are you my friend?" was the message she had been keeping in her heart.
The song was written and arranged by Tokura Shunichi 都倉俊一. Obara Jouji 小原丈二 penned the lyrics. The single was released January 1985 and so this was one of those songs that included Chiko チーコ, an original member who left the group later the same year.
One more thing, I just saved the YouTube video on my playlist 😉
Wow! It's been around 13 years since I first posted the article on Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）1973 debut single"Toshigoro"（としごろ）onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Going back to my earliest memories of the 1970s aidoru when she was already in the latter half of her career in the persona of that seen-it-all and done-it-all world-weary woman, it was rather surprising to hear her all the way back to her first single when she was indeed acting and singing as the high school kid she was.
This is actually the first time though that I've gotten to hear the B-side to "Toshigoro", "Shikaranai de"(Don't Be Mad). When I saw the title, my assumption was that the song would be a rather melancholy ballad about a relationship going sour. Instead, it's arguably even more happy-go-lucky than the A-side. The same folks behind "Toshigoro" also took care of "Shikaranai de": Kazuya Senke（千家和也）on the lyrics and Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）on the melody and arrangement. The tempo is even a slight bit slower as those lyrics describe a young girl getting all gushy with her beau and leaving the big decisions up to him. I don't really know for sure, but my impression is that B-sides don't usually get performed on stage or TV but if it had been performed by Momoe, I would imagine a lot of young couples behind her doing some very cute choreography.
Since going into the 21st century, NHK's Kohaku Utagassen has undergone a number of key changes in its format, but one thing that has been retained is everyone's singing of "Auld Lang Syne" or as it is known in Japanese, "Hotaru no Hikari" (蛍の光）. The orchestra goes into its rendition at the end of the broadcast with a brief glimpse of the man who's conducting them. In the past, that has been singerIchiro Fujiyama（藤山一郎）and singer-songwriterMasaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）. For the past several years, though, it's been singer-songwriter Shunichi Tokura.
Well, since it's been several months since I've written up a Creator article (the last one was for Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）back last August), I've decided to whip one up tonight for one of the more prolific songwriters. Tokura has come up with some of the biggest hits in the late kayo kyoku period including those for some of the most famous aidoru of the 1970s: Pink Lady and Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）.
Born in Tokyo in June 1948, Tokura got into music pretty early in life by picking up the violin at the age of 4. His father was a diplomat so for several years, their family was living in West Germany where he started studying the basics of music. Returning to Japan at the age of 12, some of his junior high school classmates included future officials in government and business. He then returned to Germany for high school (where he joined a band called The Beat Cats) before making his way back to his home country.
During his sophomore year in university, Tokura became the vocalist for the folk group The Panic Men which came out with a 1968 single called "Omoide no Komichi"（思い出の小径...Path of Memories）. This was also the time when he took up his future career as a composer and one of his first creations was Chinatsu Nakayama's（中山千夏）"Anata no Kokoro ni" (あなたの心に) in 1969.
A few years later in 1971, Tokura would compose "Tenshi ni Narenai"（天使になれない...Can't Be An Angel） with lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, a heartfelt 8th single for Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）that became her first Top 10 hit, coming in at No. 8. It was also Wada's ticket for her 2nd appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen that year.
Tokura currently has 60 articles, not including this one but including one which shows his own solo song "I'm Just a Man". I was pretty surprised and happy to get his name on the byline as a performer. But let's show some of the ones that he has composed for other big-time acts. Along with other composers such as Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, there is a bit of a "He made that one?!" buzz around Tokura.
Along with his many accolades over the decades, he was the JASRAC chairman and currently Tokura is the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Not bad for a guy who once whipped up a melody about an alien-human love affair.
We're starting off this business week on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with a twofer. As a lot of the kayo kyoku vets know, Shigeru Matsuzaki（松崎しげる）is most famous for his "Ai no Memory"（愛のメモリー）, a single released in August 1977 which became a huge hit.
Until then though, he'd had some very lean years with him and his manager getting doors slammed on them. But on hearing the May 1977 single immediately before the successful "Ai no Memory", I'm hoping that folks have had a change of heart in his earlier works. "Yuuhi no Uta" (Song of the Setting Sun), which was his 13th single, is a lovely little ballad if perhaps a bit on the Kleenex-friendly sentimental side given further heft by Matsuzaki's tender vocals. Along with Shunichi Tokura's（都倉俊一） old-fashioned folksy melody and arrangement are Makoto Kitajo's（喜多条忠）lyrics. It sounds like something that I would have heard on a K-Tel compilation of American pop balladry. I have to say that the young Matsuzaki on the single cover looks like the world's most casually-dressed Secret Service agent.
And speaking of him on the cover, Matsuzaki looks like a veritable kid posing for his high school photo on his very first single as a solo artist. Yes, just to take a little tangent here, back in his days at the Nihon University College of Art, he'd been with Tomiaki "Tommy" Hidaka（日高富明）and Mamoru "Mark" Horiuchi（堀内護）in a short-lived band called Milk or Hot Milk (Tommy and Milk would end up with the band GARO in the 1970s). Famous singer-songwriter Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）had been a manager at Ohashi Productions who would scout young Matsuzaki during his time with Milk.
Getting back on track, that very first single was "Hassen-Nana-Hyaku-Roku-Jukkai no I Love You" (I Love You 8,760 Times) released in October 1970. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）, it stands out for being a regular kayo kyoku compared to his later stuff which sounds more in the New Music vein of things, and of course, his vocals don't sound like the familiar resonant and slightly raspy tones that we've become accustomed to. As for the rather convoluted number in the title, it stands for the number of hours in a year. Mind you, after having "I Love You" said to that special someone once an hour every hour for an entire year, I'm not sure if that someone will want to reciprocate anymore.
Last night's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）was entertaining enough. The topic du jour regarded the proper way to cleanse one's face but for me, it was all of the old kayo kyoku that was thrown out as segment BGM. That NHK staff seemed to have been on a bigger music bender than usual and even the on-air personalities were shimmying in their seats as the report discussed the debate on whether to use cleansing milk or oil to get the best results. And yep, one of the songs was the venerable chestnut, Tomoko Kuwae's（桑江知子）"Watashi no Heart wa Stop Motion"（私のハートはストップモーション）.
As mentioned in that article, "Watashi no Heart wa Stop Motion" was released in January 1979 as Kuwae's debut single. Well, a few months down the line, Kuwae released her sophomore effort, "Blue Blue Island" in May. Despite the title, it isn't really a tropical-sounding tune but something more akin to a jangly footloose and fancy-free 50s or 60s pop song while still retaining that breezy vacation atmosphere. The same songwriters that were behind that first single were also back for "Blue Blue Island": lyricist Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）, composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）.
The first time I heard "Evening Scandal", Mariko Kurata's（倉田まり子）4th single from January 1980, I thought that she was going all Pink Lady on me. And as it is, there's a goodly amount of disco punch in the song, a genre that Mie and Kei utilized effectively in their discography.
Written by City Pop and future TUBE expert Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, and indeed he penned a number of Pink Lady's hits, the arrangement was handled by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, a guy who also knows his City Pop. Although I wouldn't categorize "Evening Scandal" as such a song, it does handle like a dramatic and urban kayo kyoku as Aran's lyrics describe a torrid night on the town between two lovers.
As is the case in English, the Japanese language is chock-filled with portmanteaus. There is kopipe（コピペ）for "copy-and-paste" and the now-extinct pokeberu（ポケベル）which used to represent the pre-cellphone technology of a pocket bell or as it was properly called, the pager. This morning, I learned a new Japanese portmanteau via NHK: supepa（スぺパ）which stands for space performance...along the same lines as cost performance. Basically, it's the economization and more efficient use of limited space in the big cities of Japan due to the lack of it in houses and apartments. The above video by the YouTube channel "Never Too Small" gives a fine example.
The video is actually a couple of years old and I don't think the concept of supepa is a new one since cities like Tokyo have always had a battle within for space for domiciles. Plus, a few years ago, I used to subscribe to a Japanese YouTube channel which focused on the more unusual residences for rent within the nation, so I used to see my fair share of supepa places. By the way, supepa can also extend to the furnishings and appliances that could go into such a residence. I used to have a rather cute and petite fridge for my own Ichikawa 2K apartment although in comparison to some of these supepa apartments, my abode was absolutely massive.
Anyways, being a perverted fan of the terrible pun in both English and Japanese, I would have taken this opportunity to segue masterfully to the Pink Lady hit "Pepper Keibu"(ペッパー・警部) by referring to a supepa advisor as a "supepa keibu", but I will save you from that monstrosity because I had already written about "Pepper Keibu" all the way back in May 2012. In fact, it was the second Pink Lady KKP article that I posted.
However, I can go on ahead with the B-side to this No. 4-ranking success for Mie and Kei, "Kanpai! Ojou-san" (Here's To You, My Lady!). Created by the same duo behind "Pepper Keibu", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, the melody and arrangement have that very familiar Pink Lady disco aidorusheen but Aku's lyrics are notable in that they actually treat the autumn as the perfect opportunity for love to bloom and continue forth. Usually in the kayo kyoku realm, the fall is the time for love to fall and break into a thousand pieces, but apparently such isn't the case in the Pink Lady universe. Good for them!
Composer-arranger Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）has a list of his works on his J-Wiki that not surprisingly extends for a good country mile down the page and he is currently represented on 55 articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" as a songwriter. I've known him for quite a long while throughout KKP's history with him providing huge hits for acts such as Pink Lady and Linda Yamamoto（山本リンダ）.
So, you can imagine my surprise when I finally realized that Tokura did have his singing phase in his career. Well, I shouldn't be surprised since there have been plenty of songwriters who are also singers with singles and albums released...but until recently, I didn't think that Tokura was one of them since I hadn't been aware of a discography by him. However, during his university years in the late 1960s, he had been a vocalist for the folk groupThe Panic Men（ザ・パニック・メン）and another band called Julians（ジュリアンズ）.
Tokura also had his solo period throughout the 1970s with a smattering of singles as well as a couple of albums. One such album, "This Is My Song" came out in August 1973 and I can't help it when I see his handsome face on the cover and remark that the fellow looked like a Japanese David Cassidy. His voice is also very self-assured in English as he sings the final track on the record "I'm Just A Man" which has an intro that is reminiscent of a kayo kyoku and a Carpenters tune at the same time. At the same time, his singing and the arrangement backing him up also remind me of a lot of mellow pop songs on the radio from that time that were sung by folks such as John Denver and perhaps Jim Croce. As for "I'm Just A Man", while Tokura provided the melody, the lyricist was Bill Crutchfield according to the JASRAC database.
So, for his 56th article, Tokura finally gets on the byline!👍
Not sure if it's their home in Tokyo Japan or Unionville Ontario, but Kayo Grace Kyoku is enjoying a walk nearby with her younger sisters Nayo and Mayo on either side of her. Of course, Mr. Calico will always be around. Having been to Tokyo and Unionville, both have their lovely advantages.
That's the message by veteran band Pedro & Capricious（ペドロ＆カプリシャス）through their 7th single"Wagamachi wa..."(Our Town is...) from November 1974. A folksy sunshine pop tune that is upbeat enough to earn status as a theme song for a Japanese family drama, that is indeed chanteuse Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）as the main vocalist when she was the second person to hold that position. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, the story is that the parents are reminding the kids about always remembering and cherishing where they came from. They might be striking it big in Tokyo but getting back to the old hometown will be far more valuable as they will learn over the decades.
I've always treated the legendary duo Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）as the most disco aidoru group of the 1970s with their musical arrangements and choreography. But this particular single "Monday Mona Lisa Club" really got Mie and Kei, and for that matter, their regular go-to songwriters, lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）off their butts and hitting the Studio 54 dance floor. Production and arrangement were handled by Robby Adcock and Charles Merriam as it was being recorded in Los Angeles.
According to the J-Wiki article on "Monday Mona Lisa Club", Aku and Tokura wanted to cook up a really disco tune for the ladies and the ladies reciprocated by stating that this is the type of song they'd always wanted to perform. This was released as Pink Lady's 15th single from September 1979 and it was their final Top 20 hit, peaking at No. 14 and selling about 450,000 records.
"Monday Mona Lisa Club" also made it onto Pink Lady's December 1980 BEST album"Turning Point". According to Aku's lyrics, it's all about being in the post-disco party blues after another debauched weekend but hey, discos can be open on Mondays, too. Sounds like the supposed hangover remedy of "the hair of the dog".
Well, the switch from cable TV Japan to Internet Jme has seen one major change in our viewing. I woke up at around 6:45 am this morning to turn on the computer to show my parents the newest episode of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）which went live at 8 pm JST, some thirteen hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. It's a new reality but still rather surreality to watch all of these singing stars bouncing around on the stage several minutes before getting my swig of orange juice and digging my spoon into the oatmeal. It used to be the thing to watch "Uta Con" during prime time.
One of the guests was 73-year-old Linda Yamamoto（山本リンダ）doing her classic "Nerai Uchi"（狙いうち）. Although she may not be quite the force of nature that she was back in the 1970s, she still amply illustrated that she'll always be far more active than I have been in the last thirty years as I oozed over my armchair, gradually waking up. Dang, she's got so much energy!
I've decided therefore to start up today's round of KKP articles with one for a song of hers that came before "Nerai Uchi" and after her big breakthrough hit of "Dounimo Tomaranai"（どうにもとまらない）. Released in September 1972 as Yamamoto's 21st single, "Kuruwasetai no" (I Wanna Drive You Crazy), I've got a feeling that the lass wasn't trying to gaslight any guy according to that title; it's more of a siren enticing unsuspecting men to their doom or something else.
Created by the same duo behind "Dounimo Tomaranai" and "Nerai Uchi", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, "Kuruwasetai no" has that same bossy and beefy brass sound propelling things through in the same way that Yamamoto's hips seemed to gyrate out enough energy to light up a small town. The song did very well by peaking at No. 6 on Oricon.
When I first heard this song some weeks ago, there was that ASMR reaction up my spine since I've always had a soft spot for grand AOR balladry. Some of my examples would be The Eagles'"Desperado", Michael Johnson's"Bluer Than Blue", and on the Japanese side of things, "Kawa no Nagare wo Daite Nemuritai"(川の流れを抱いて眠りたい）by Saburo Tokito (時任三郎）.
The interesting thing is that "Ku-ji kara no Lily" (Lily From Nine O'clock) was also released in the same year as Tokito's ballad, 1981. It's just too bad that there is very little information on the source band Cappuccino（カプチーノ）. In fact, the only data I could find thus far comes from the vocalist's own blog. She identifies herself as singer Chie and in that year of 1981, "Ku-ji kara no Lily" was the band's debut single.
I don't know how it did on the charts, but it's one of those songs for me that has me thinking of a team pulling off a tough job really well and then staring off happily into the sunset since they're now free. Yes, it's Miller Time!🍺 Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）made the melody and he also produced the single while Yu Aku（阿久悠）came up with the lyrics that speak of a different scenario. It's wistfully about pining away for Lily, a nighttime piano player in a tiny bar who has seen better days but has to settle for her lonely existence.
I did get some further information from the emcee in the above video (unfortunately that video has been taken down). Found that the vocalist's full name is Chie Sato and she was only a high school senior when she recorded "Ku-ji kara no Lily". Those are some velvety vocals that she possesses.
Soulful chanteuse Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）gave her longer bluesy take on "Ku-ji kara no Lily" as a coupling song for her November 2005 single"Coat wo Katte"（コートを買って...Buy Me A Coat）. It almost sounds like she's taken on the role of Lily herself. Another coupling song on this single is the cheerful "Somewhere in Tokyo".
Commenter Bon tipped me off on another Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）collaboration with another artist some days ago in the article for L'Arc-en-Ciel's"Driver's High". Since I'm not only a fan of the cool-and-crazy school uniform-wearing song-and-dance group but enjoyed their work with former SMAP member, Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）, in last year's "Tokyo Tower", I figured that I was going to have to give another one of their joint projects a try.
The thing is though that Bon's recommendation goes quite a ways back to 2019, at least according to when this YouTube video was first uploaded. Atarashii Gakko no Leaders cooperated with the 5-piece band Klang Ruler. To be honest, when I first heard that name, I kinda wondered whether there was something Klingon about these guys, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is a group that has been around since 2014 and has dabbled in pop and alternative music.
Another impression that I have about Klang Ruler is that they also like to do their dance beat covers of the old Showa and Heisei Era music, and that includes Linda Yamamoto's（山本リンダ）"Dounimo Tomaranai" from 1972. Working together under the banner of "Midnight Session Chapter 3", I can't seem to find any sign of this cover coming out in the discographies of either the Leaders or Klang so maybe the midnight sessions were just one-offs on YouTube (correct me if I'm wrong). But getting back to the song, Wild Child Suzuka does sound like a fresh-faced Linda before any cigarettes and alcohol. And she passes the mike off to Klang Ruler while her group does a bit of their choreography. Some nice bass action, too.
The current lineup for Klang Ruler is yonkey and Chihiro Yasuda（やすだ ちひろ）as the co-vocalists with SimiSho on drums, Takumi Kato（かと たくみ）on bass, and Gyoshi on guitar. I was looking through their discography thus far and I was intrigued when I saw that the band had covered the 90s City Pop duet"Shibuya de Go-ji" by Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）and Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）. It was released as an October 2022 digital single and it has the sophisticated pop tune transform into a Trance ParaPara number.
Happy Monday to you all, especially since we're on the final Monday for April 2023. I thought that we can start this KKP week with something mellow once more. Bossa nova has always been one of my favourite genres anywhere around the planet, and so, I often think of Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 and their classic "Mas que Nada" which I will really have to cover on a future Reminiscings of Youth. I actually have covered a Mendes song through ROY but it was one of his AOR hits, "Never Gonna Let You Go" from 1983 which still retains a lot of sentimental value to me.
I read that Mendes, who at one point was on the same level as the late legendary Pele in terms of world-class popularity among Brazilian celebrities, had changed the double digits for his band as the decades passed. Therefore in 1971, Brasil '66 changed to Brasil '77 with Mendes' promise that the music would come out with a bit more rock and a bit more Brazilian authenticity.
Bossa nova was and is a popular genre in Japan although I'm unsure whether Mendes and his band have that same sort of Big-in-Japan love that The Carpenters and The Ventures have enjoyed for years and years. Regardless, I was surprised to find out yesterday that Mendes & Brasil '77 had put out a Japan-only single in 1975 titled "Aisareta Ato de" (After Being Loved). Written by the late Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, it's certainly got the genre vibes in there including the flute and those delectable rhythms, but something inside me also believes that there is some of that kayo feeling as well.
If I'm not mistaken, the vocals are provided by Bonnie Bowden and maybe Mendes' wife Gracinha Leporace, but perhaps someone can confirm that one for me. They were both responsible for vocalizing Nakanishi's Japanese lyrics on the A-side and then the English version on the B-side under the title of "The Magic Wheels".
Glad to have found out about this single since there is nary any information about Brasil '77 on either Wikipedia or J-Wiki, let alone anything about this one-off single for Japan. It's finding this gem that has always made me grateful for the blog.
Considering some of the world-weary characterization that 70s aidorusuperstar Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）had adopted during the latter half of her singing career in songs such as "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）, it can still be jarring to realize that 1) she retired from show business when she was barely into adulthood and 2) she used to have that earlier-half persona of a typical junior high school student with the lighter voice and school-aged concerns.
So it's especially refreshing, not to mention downright adorable, to see that cover of Yamaguchi's 5th studio album"Juu-go Sai"（15才...15 Years Old） from December 1974 since it has a very happy aidoru clutching that doggie. The penultimate track on the album is "Otome wa Matteiru" (A Young Lady is Waiting), a quintessentially 70s aidoru tune with that familiar decade-specific arrangement by Hiroshi Takada（高田弘） (strings-and-brass, flute-and-marimba) wrestling between innocence and uncertainty. Written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, "Otome wa Matteiru" is given the quick explanation by Momoe-chan herself right at the beginning; a young girl fights with a mischievous boy at school all the time but for some odd reason, she can't quite get herself to hate him and perhaps some other feelings are bubbling forth. Things that make you go Hmmm.
As for "Juu-go Sai", the album peaked at No. 8 on Oricon. The album also has "Izu no Odoriko"（伊豆の踊子）. Recently, Momoe has been showing up in the last several months as an entry in ROY articles, so it's nice to have her back with one of her own songs as the featured star once more.
Perhaps I should save a day during the week which I can devote to those mysterious one-and-done singers, especially in the 1980s. My impression over all these decades of listening to Japanese pop acts is that it was during that decade when a lot of aidoru or other types of singers made their debut and simply skedaddled or put out a few singles before disappearing from the limelight. I mean, it also happened in the 1970s, but it was the following decade that this phenomenon seemed to be at its peak. Speculating is the only thing that I'm doing here, but maybe with the surging money that was flowing through Japan's economy at the time, studios were simply flooding their recording booths with lots of wannabes to see which tiny nuggets of gold might be discovered among the sand grains.
Of course, I've found some in the past that have gotten onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and once again, here is a lady who was literally one and done...at least, according to the good folks at "idol.ne.jp". The only information that I could find about Mika Yuuki（優木美佳）was that she was born in Fukuoka Prefecture, won the Fukuoka Music Festival's Big Contest and was once a vocalist for a rock band in high school.
I may get some pushback on my opinion here which is fine, but it's for that last fact that I haven't pegged her as an 80s aidorusince I have yet to know any rock-singing vocalist who would head straight into teenybopper territory. Plus, she released her one-and-only single in December 1982, "N･U･S･U･T･T･O", at the age of 19 which strikes me as being rather late for debuting as an aidoru singer. But for today, I'm looking at the B-side, "Mint Iro no Koi" (Mint-Coloured Love). One more argument against her being an aidoru is that I think that her vocals for the tune were pretty smooth and refined as they flew daintily but confidently in the higher range while occasionally dipping into the lower depths. Just judging from this song alone, which I enjoy for those warm horns, it seems too bad that she merely released that one 45" record.
Mirai or Miku Minegishi（嶺岸未来）wrote the lyrics for "Mint Iro no Koi" while Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, who had come up with those hits for Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）in the previous decade, was responsible for melody and arrangement.
It's been 5 1/2 years since I wrote about singer Yoko Aso's（麻生よう子）February 1974 debut single"Touhikou"（逃避行）, a wistful tune about a woman eloping with the man he loves, away from all she knew and had loved to spend life together in a different town.
Man, I'm kinda wondering if her sophomore effort, "Gozen Reiji no Kane" (The Bells at Midnight), released six months later, is a direct sequel to the story of that young couple running away for love. If so, then the ending is very bittersweet. Created by the same duo of lyricist Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）that did "Touhikou", the plot here is about possibly the same lass leaving a Dear John letter on the door to their home and deserting the relationship due to implications that perhaps the guy hasn't held his end of the bargain. Interestingly enough, the melodic tone sounds more hopeful in a way that intimates that the lady may have learned a hard lesson but can now move onto the right path which may mean going back to her hometown or another place.
Reading the rest of Aso's biography on J-Wiki, I've read that the singer some years later actually did a cover of Gloria Gaynor's disco classic"I Will Survive". I will have to write about that one sometime soon.
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