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 haven't heard this one in quite a while but when it did come out, it was quite popular at karaoke and on the karaoke-themed variety shows on Japanese TV.
"Kaede" (Maple) by the pop-rock band Spitz（スピッツ）was released as their July 1998 19th single, the double-A-sided "Kaede/Spica"（楓/スピカ）. If there's anything that has charms to soothe the savage breast, then it's songwriter and vocalist Masamune Kusano's（草野マサムネ）vocals as he sings about an old flame that the protagonist of the song is finally learning to let go of. The music is very wistful and relaxing and respectful (nice inclusion of the pedal steel guitar, by the way) of the fellow as he does this most difficult but necessary thing. And I've got a feeling that tears start flowing when Kusano sings "Sa-yo-na-ra!".
"Kaede/Spica" hit No. 10 on Oricon and went Gold. The song "Kaede" itself had been placed as a track on Spitz's 8th album"Fake Fur"（フェイクファー）from March 1998. It made it all the way to No. 1 on the album charts and ended up as the 39th-ranked album of the year, going Double Platinum.
Last weekend, I wrote up an article for 1970s folk group Sanrisha's（三輪車）"Mizuiro no Machi"（水色の街）and then I noticed in the backlog that there was another identically-titled song by the more contemporary rock band Spitz（スピッツ）.
However, Spitz's "Mizuiro no Machi" (Aqua Town) isn't a cover of the Sanrisha song at all but their 27th single from August 2002. So, unlike the jaunty nature of Sanrisha's song, Spitz's tune is a more contemplative affair that I think might fall under the umbrella of shoegaze or dream pop according to vocalist/songwriter Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）and Seiji Kameda's（亀田誠治）arrangements.
According to the J-Wiki article for the song, the town in the title may actually refer to the city of Kawasaki between Tokyo and Yokohama although that is not made clear in Kusano's lyrics which merely relate someone's fondness for a woman in that town. Furthermore, the music video for "Mizuiro no Machi" might have been filmed in Thailand according to that elephant and the signboard. Indeed, there is something very dreamlike about the video which looks as if Kusano had hooked himself to that machine from Christopher Nolan's"Inception".
There may be a certain level of surreal wonder with "Mizuiro no Machi" but that's not to say that there is anything wrong with the song. It's all very relaxing despite the jangling of guitars and crashing of drums, and I could say that it can be used as an entry in a lineup of a hammock-friendly compilation mixtape. The single reached No. 5 on Oricon and it was released on the same day as the 26th single"Hanemono"（ハネモノ...The Rejected）. Both songs were also tracks on Spitz's 10th studio album"Mikazuki Rock"（三日月ロック...Crescent Moon Rock）, released in September that same year. The album hit No. 1 and became the 44th-ranked release of 2002.
Happy Monday! Ah, yes, we did pass into spring on Saturday morning and it's a welcome thing to embrace with the temperatures gradually rising and the snow slowly melting away. Of course, though not as much as summer, there are plenty of kayo in Japan celebrating the season of spring. I made it a quasi-tradition to feature some of those old tunes over the years of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" including "Haru Ichiban"(春一番）, "Haru Nanoni"(春なのに）, and "Kitaguni no Haru"(北国の春）.
Well, along with those aidoru tunes and one enka song above, I'm going to add the pop/rock of Spitz for some spring-themed J-Pop. "Haru no Uta" (Spring Song) is the band's 30th single released in April 2005.
For all of the fans out there, Spitz was one of those guitar pop bands from the 1990s alongside other acts including Mr. Children and DEEN. Perhaps I have already mentioned this in a past Spitz article, but vocalist Masamune Kusano（草野マサムネ）and his group have always provided this very warm and very comfortable presence through their music such as their 1994 "Sora mo Toberu Hazu"（空も飛べるはず）, and isn't warm and comfortable what one wants for spring (especially after a Canadian winter)?
Once again, they have done so with "Haru no Uta", and when I first heard the song, I had figured that it had to have been the theme tune for some uplifting television drama featuring the latest young talent. Well, as you can see above, the young talent is there but actually "Haru no Uta" was used as the song for a Ghana Chocolate ad. I did love Ghana Choco, mind you.
Written and composed by Kusano, "Haru no Uta" managed to peak at No. 5 on Oricon becoming a Gold record. It was also a track on Spitz's 11th original album"Souvenir"（スーベニア）which got onto shelves in January 2005, hitting No. 1 and ending up as the 38th-ranked album of the year, going Platinum.
Happy weekend! Feeling darn warm in my room but the fan is alleviating things a tad.
I don't particularly want to be doing farm work in Hokkaido, but I guess that there is something to be said about performing the chores in the open air and then resting up on a hay bale. Of course, I'm just going from the above thumbnail for the 2019 NHK morning serial drama "Natsuzora"（なつぞら）. All I know about the show is the opening credits (which I couldn't find in their original form) which are an anime sequence featuring the main character and some cute forest animals.
However, I was able to find the theme song, "Yasashii Ano Ko" (That Nice Girl), Spitz's 42nd single from June 2019. It's nice to hear Masamune Kusano's（草野正宗）distinctive voice again after so long, and the song is a perfect fit for both Spitz and "Natsuzora" with that optimistic country-style melody. Kusano provided both music and words with the band and Seiji Kumeda（亀田誠治）of Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）working on the overall arrangement.
"Yasashii Ano Ko" reached No. 2 on Oricon, going Gold. The song is also a track on Spitz's 16th original album"Mikke"（見っけ...See） released later in October that year which also went Gold and hit No. 2.
If you could fly through the sky, would you do it, and why?
The first time I listened to "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" was around 2012, when the anime "Tsuritama" was aired. It was one of the first anime series I followed weekly, and it means a lot to me, because it brought me closer to one of my oldest groups of friends, and also to my boyfriend.
The version used as the ending of "Tsuritama" is a cover by the girl group Sayonara Ponytail (さよならポニーテール) and it's very soft and whispery. I always loved how well it went with the visuals of the ending sequence and the particular use of the keyboard in the instrumental.
Only a few years later I was introduced to the original version of the song, by Spitz (スピッツ), which is one of their trademark tunes. It was originally released in 1994 and it's included in the appropriately named album "Sora no Tobikata" ("How to fly through the sky"), from the same year. It is penned by Spitz vocalist Masamune Kusano, as usual with their songs, and arranged by the band members themselves.
I took the opportunity to take a look around the Wikipedia page and found out "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" reached 1st place in the Oricon charts. It is frequently used as a graduation song in Japan, which seems fitting, since the lyrics of the song strike me as being a reminiscence of youth and past encounters.
The song isn't actually part of the anime "Honey and Clover", unlike a few other known tunes from Spitz, but it was this series that introduced me to the band. Its themes revolve strongly around the songs of the group and at the time, I found it really interesting. It's not usual to see a series being based so intensely in music (about that matter, I've still got to read the manga "Slow Motion wo Mou Ichido", and maybe talk a bit about it here someday).
After a few years of not giving it a listen, this song popped out in my head a few days ago. Remember Go Zeela, from my last post? I was thinking about her having said she was leaving BiS to "fly through the sky". And today, her old BiS friend Pour Lui quoted the lyrics of this exact tune... Well, if I could fly through the sky right now, I would be going straight to Tokyo to thank Pour Lui personally for creating BiS and for being such a good friend to my most beloved idol.
P.S.: J-Canuck also wrote a post about this same song and the same two groups! Link here.
Wow! An oldie but a goodie that I just remembered from the oeuvre of PUFFY!
"Ai no Shirushi" (Sign of Love) was the 6th single by Ami and Yumi from March 1998. Like many of their other hits, it had a long rotation on the charts and I remember seeing it all the time on shows like "Countdown TV". I mean, it's not everyday that I hear a pop song ushered in with urgent timpani accompanied by a video featuring choreography that was seemingly inspired by a couple of canoe paddlers. It's still a typically fun PUFFY song that peaked at No. 3.
Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）was the arranger for "Ai no Shirushi" but this time, he didn't take care of the words and music directly. That honour belonged to Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）of the band Spitz which was also enjoying its heyday in the 1990s. What I hadn't known was that Spitz did its own cover of "Ai no Shirushi" on their March 1999 album"Kachou Fuugetsu"（花鳥風月...Beauties of Nature）. Usually I associate the band with these wholesome guitar pop ballads and mid-tempo numbers, but the song and the video show a happily goofier side. The album also went as high as No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies.
It looks like "Banana Zero Music"（バナナ♪ゼロミュージック）is coming to be one of my regular programs on the telly since it seems to have found a home in the 7:40 pm slot on Saturdays. Last night's theme was food songs and I was quite surprised to have found out that there are quite a few out there. I've also written about a few of them myself such as Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）"Ramen Tabetai"（ラーメン食べたい）and Shibugakitai's（シブがき隊）"Sushi Kui ne!"（スシ食いねェ！）.
Apparently, a rundown of those food songs on the show revealed that the pop band Spitz（スピッツ）has had quite a few songs with food themes such as "Tamago"（たまご...Eggs）, although it hasn't gone to the level of Weird Al Yankovic.
But this time, I won't be doing a food-themed Spitz song here because I came across another very nice tune by them with a more seasonal theme called "Natsu ga Owaru" (Summer's Ending). This was a track on their 4th album"Crispy!" (which is how I like my chicken and fries) from September 1993, and I like it because it has that AOR feeling of yesteryear to it.
Vocalist Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）wrote and composed "Natsu ga Owaru", and on the J-Wiki article for the album when referring to this particular song, guitarist Tetsuya Miwa（三輪テツヤ）mentioned that it was a type of tune that hadn't been tackled up to that point by Spitz, so it was quite fresh to them. "Natsu ga Owaru" was also made the coupling song for the band's 7th single"Kimi ga Omoide ni Naru Mae ni"（君が思い出になる前に...Before You Become A Memory）which came out a month after the album.
At a concert in 2013, Kusano himself talked about the song and mentioned that although he had written the lyrics to help listeners get over a really hot summer (which is par for the course in Japan...believe me, I know), the summer of 1993 was actually unusually cold. All I can say is that listening to it, it can probably act in warming people up then.
"Crispy" itself peaked at No. 27 on the album charts and earned Gold status while "Kimi ga Omoide ni Naru Mae ni" managed to top off at No. 33.
Speaking of AOR, I'm dedicating the article to Walter Becker of Steely Dan who passed away today at the age of 67. "Peg" remains one of my melodic delights.
And here I thought that this was one of Spitz's（スピッツ）later songs. Well, there is a story here.
I got to re-acquaint myself with "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" (I Think I Can Even Fly Into The Sky), a song by the pop group Spitz but since I was just a casual fan, I never got to learn the title. However on hearing it again on NHK's "Banana Zero Music"（バナナ♪ゼロミュージック）music variety show last week, I remembered that it was one of the band's trademark tunes.
And it is a lovely tune filled with the usual Spitz sunniness and optimism, thanks to the writings of vocalist Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）. I'm convinced that he is incapable of creating a depressing ballad. Heck, the original music video for "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" has been compared by YouTube commenters to a laundry detergent commercial! So fresh and clean.
Now, getting back to the topic of the release date of this song. I had thought it was released relatively late in the 1990s so it was with some surprise that I discovered that "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" had actually been released as Spitz's 8th single in April 1994....several months before I even landed in Japan to start my second stint as English teacher there! I had assumed that it was a tune that came out a number of years after my arrival.
But as it turned out, Kusano had been approached by someone to write a theme song for a TV drama, and after looking through the scenario of the show, he was able to create "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" within a few days. After all that effort, though, the producers or whoever was in charge decided not to go with the song but Spitz decided to release it anyways as an official single. It did modestly well on the charts, hitting No. 28.
Still, the second time was the charm. The producers for the Fuji-TV drama "Hakusen Nagashi"（白線流し...Those Were The Days）, another one of those coming-of-age high school dramas that came out in January 1996, selected "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" as its opening theme song as you can see above in the credits. The single got a second pressing and did far better, earning Spitz its very first No. 1 chart-topper and even becoming a million-seller. I bet Kusano and company felt like they could indeed fly into the sky on that news!
It just goes to show how important those tie-ins can be between song and TV show in Japan. The song even became the 6th-ranked single of 1996. I think it's one of those tunes that can immediately put listeners at ease and get those nostalgic juices flowing. "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" became a track on the band's 5th album"Sora no Tobikata"（空の飛び方...How To Fly Into The Sky）, released in September 1994 which went Triple Platinum, peaked at No. 4 on Oricon and was the 46th-ranked album of the year. So even though the original release of that single wasn't a huge hit, Spitz was still doing pretty decently back then.
In 2012, the anime "Tsuritama"（つり球...Fishing Ball） premiered as a part of Fuji-TV's"noitaminA"（ノイタミナ）late-night programming for such shows. The show involved high school kids, aliens and fishing apparently and "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" was selected to be the ending theme.
The vocal group Sayonara Ponytail（さよならポニーテール）covered the Spitz classic, and the song was released as their first single under the Epic Record Japan label in May 2012. This version peaked at No. 56 on Oricon. I would have said that I had never heard of this group before, but I would be lying. Actually, I was just ignorant. This was the same group who took care of the second ending theme for the over-the-top anime "Kill La Kill" a couple of years later, and that was definitely a show that my buddy and I watched right to the end.
I gotta say that if I were to analogize Japanese singers with comfort food (like a good pot of admittedly unhealthy poutine or a canister of Pringles), there is no one better for me than Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）of the band Spitz (スピッツ).
Long time, no see. It's been almost 2 years since I put up an article about Spitz, so on hearing them again through their 15th single"Scarlet", Kusano and company felt like an ASMR massage video. I forgot that a Spitz performance made for a nice tonic when I have heard a little too much of the Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）technopop/dance music experience. "Scarlet" and their other hits during this time brought things down to earth as a nice melodic cool down.
Kusano's vocals and the guitars and the overall arrangement of "Scarlet" made it a nice welcome back to the mellower side of J-Pop. The vocalist was responsible for the words and music for the song which was released in January 1997 (20 years ago...sheesh). It was their 4th of 5 No. 1 singles with "Scarlet" becoming the 47th-ranked singlefor the year as it went Triple Platinum. The song also became the theme for the TBS drama "Melody".
Well, it was over a couple of years ago that I wrote down my first article on my favourite song by the band Spitz, "Cherry". In it, I did mention my first introduction to Masamune Kusano's（草野正宗） group via their earlier single, "Robinson", but it wasn't until today that I finally decided to write about this one.
The reason was that I only kept seeing the excerpt of the monochrome music video on CDTV and did nothing about it, and it kept getting shown over and over again over the weeks and months. I should have picked up on that hint but ended up falling for their later food-based hits such as "Cherry" and "Hachimitsu"（ハチミツ）. And that was a shame, since I finally got to hear the full version tonight.
Some days ago, I came across a topic on one of the Mixi communities and the title posed the question: "Is there a song that you didn't like initially but you have come to love later in life?" Now I never disliked "Robinson"...just never attempted to get to know it better. However, after listening to that cascading opening and then hearing Kusano's riff on falling head-over-heels in love with that bicycle-riding woman, I've seen the light. And I have to admit that there is a bit of nostalgia in my revelation as well since it's now been 2 decades and at my age, there is now less discovery and more re-discovery and re-appreciation of the music of yesteryear.
And what do you know? Reading the fairly packed J-Wiki article on "Robinson", I found out that even songwriter Kusano himself didn't think too much of his creation...at first. When Spitz was discussing about which song to put out as their 11th single, the band was stuck between choosing "Robinson" and "Ore no Subete"（俺のすべて...My All）. While they ultimately went with "Robinson", Kusano was less than thrilled, stating that his creation was just "too pop" and not getting too excited about the promotion. In fact, aside from it being used as a theme song for a short-lived Fuji-TV late afternoon variety show, there was barely any promotion for it when it was released in April 1995.
So that is why "Robinson" became a sleeper hit. It just came out of nowhere to become a million seller, peaking at No. 4 on Oricon (their first Top 10 hit since Spitz debuted in 1987) and ending up as the No. 9 single of the year. It even won a Japan Record Award. In a 2007 interview, Kusano admitted that he still couldn't understand why the song became such a long-running hit. Luckily for Spitz, millions of fans could.
Now, the only question for me about the song is: "What is the meaning behind the title?" I mean, before "Robinson" came out, the only two people I associated with that name were Robinson Crusoe and the American children's show host, Mr. Robinson. And there was no hint in Kusano's lyrics about being stranded on a deserted island or asking the listener to be his neighbour. Well, the answer turned out to be that "Robinson" was only meant as a stopgap title. When Kusano had been traveling through Southeast Asia, he was struck by the name of the regional department store, Robinsons. And as I mentioned in the article for "Cherry", the singer had a love for the way English words were arranged. But there were no consonant clusters in this word which would eventually become the official title of the song. And of course, there was never meant to be any connection between it and the actual lyrics. Just one of those stories that will be passed about between lovers of Japanese popular music...when the conversation gets really, really slow.
In any case, I now appreciate a new Spitz song...20 years after the fact.
Yup, springtime is finally here and the sap has already flowed through the maple trees and onto our pancakes and waffles as syrup. So, it was a bit of a revelation in my first few months in Japan when I found out that the folks were just as much beholden to honey on their flapjacks as they were to maple syrup. Then again, considering how expensive genuine maple syrup could be in the supermarkets, the bee product would make for a fine substitute.
This rather not-as-smooth segue is for the purposes of bringing anotherSpitz （スピッツ）song from my memories. Now, "Hachimitsu" (Honey) was not an official single but it was the launching song for the band's 6th album of the same title in 1995, so it still got plenty of air time along with its successful album mates, "Robinson" and "Namida ga Kirari"（涙がキラリ☆）. Leader and vocalist Masamune Kusano（草野正宗） created this infectiously skippy song that has a video which could get a hikikomori to take a walk in the sunshine. And it takes a cute little poke at the average Japanese commercial.
As for the album "Hachimitsu", it went to No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 12th-ranked album of 1995.
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.
Next to Spitz's "Cherry", "Namida ga Kirari"(Tears Are Glittering) is the song that I know the most when it comes to the band. I've always loved the refrain for this one. It was not only getting lots of exposure on TV, including being the opening theme for TBS' late-night ranking program "CDTV" for a while, and it was also used as the campaign song for the Sharp MD (remember Mini-Discs?)
Written and composed by the lead vocalist, Masamune Kusano（草野正宗） as its 12th single,"Namida ga Kirari" was released on July 7 1995. I'm being more exact with my date here since there is the issue of that star at the end of the title. According to J-Wiki, the members appreciated the Tanabata Star Festival, which came on every July 7th, more than Christmas, so the star was put up to commemorate that fact, and that was probably the reason behind the release date. And if we go by the Japanese year system by reigning emperor, the song was released on the 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year of Heisei （平成７年７月７日）.
The song went Triple Platinum in Japan, selling over a million copies. It reached No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and ended the year as the 30th-ranked song. It has stayed one of my memory songs of my early years in Ichikawa.
Y'know....this is the first time I ever heard of any band getting their name from a member's love of an English consonant cluster. Spitz（スピッツ） was one of the bands I started hearing a lot about during my early years in my long Ichikawa sojourn. And their vocalist, Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）, had a long love since his high school years for the letters "sp" in words like "crispy" and "special"(I've got a feeling that he may have hung out a lot at KFC after school)....this info I did get from both Japanese and English versions of Wikipedia, by the way. Then, when he came across the word "spitz", he discovered that in German, it had the meaning of "sharp and pointy"or "cranky", and apparently that sealed the deal for the name.
In the Japanese Wikipedia, Spitz is classified as a rock/alternative/power pop band. Perhaps in their very early years playing in the cool-and-youthful Tokyo neighbourhood of Shimo-Kitazawa, they may have been rock, but I've always thought of them as just a good ol' guitar-based pop group, post-Band Boom. They'd been around since the mid-80s but it wasn't until the mid-90s that they hit the limelight with hits like "Robinson", the first song I heard from them.
But for me, my favourite tune by Spitz is "Cherry". Written and composed by Kusano, it's a skipworthy song on a nice Sunday afternoon, and I think their music video kinda reflects that happy, breezy feeling. And I enjoy that little ragtime jazz riff near the end. I read that Spitz got some of their musical influence from Scottish singer Donavan who had some jazz and pop in his songs. The lyrics seem to express a man's gratitude toward a former love for their time together before optimistically moving on.
Apparently, the title for their 13th single has an interesting backstory. Originally, the title was to have been "Biwa"(a fruit in Japan), but Spitz decided to go with "Cherry" since their release month of April 1996 was also Cherry Blossom season in the country, and so it could also be seen as a launch point on a new journey (the information came from that month's issue of "Rockin' On Japan"). In addition, 5 days before the official release of the song on a broadcast of TV Asahi's"Music Station", Kusano remarked, probably when he was asked about the origins of the title, "Well, since all of us are cherry boys..."(i.e. virgins). I can only imagine the conversation among the band members after the show was pretty interesting; perhaps it started with phrases like "Well, maybe YOU are, Masa...."
Whatever the origins, "Cherry" was another home run out of the park as it hit the No. 1 spot on Oricon and became the 4th-ranked song of 1996.
