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.
This song with its own YouTube video popped up on the right side of the screen a couple of nights ago. When I first saw the name Anna Banana（アンナ・バナナ）, I immediately thought it was some kind of quirky line of tropical summer wear. And then I discovered that there was an octogenarian Canadian performance artist under that same name but this was a different Anna Banana altogether.
Actually this Anna Banana does have a J-Wiki article. What I found out is that Anna Demeo had been born in California to an Italian-American father and a Japanese-American mother, and she came to Japan to pursue a modeling career and do some singing between the late 1980s going into the 1990s. She released 9 singles and 6 albums.
From her penultimate album"High Dive" from June 1993, I give you "Smile".😀 It's a nice and groovy pop tune written by one of the Queens of J-R&B Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and composed by Original Love himself, Takao Tajima（田島貴男）. I have to say that I do like Anna's vocals, and though they are different from those of this particular singer, I think that Miki Imai（今井美樹）would be someone who could easily cover "Smile".
There is something urban and urbane about "Smile", although I don't think it fits in with any of the City Pop, Shibuya-kei or AOR genres. It's just good listening in the pop vein, and I've read that it was used in NHK's "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）series of songs for kids.
This being the 8201st article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I bid you a Merry Christmas for 2021 and I'm hoping that readers have been enjoying December 25th if they do celebrate the holiday. It's been fairly quiet today for us and I'm more than grateful for that, but in a few hours, some of my family will be showing up for dinner tonight.
I got the Twitter notification last night that my good friend Rocket Brown of Come Along Radio had put up his latest mix which of course centered on the Yuletide titled "City Pop Christmas Marathon". So if you're into the Japanese urban contemporary and you need some music while you're cooking in the kitchen or just resting on the sofa before the potentially voluminous dinner, feel free to have a listen to it at Rocket's Mixcloud page.
Late last night, I was able to hear the first 20 minutes of the marathon before deciding to turn in but I was already hearing some good stuff that I hadn't come across before. One example was the bouncy "Hikari no Spur"(Ski Tracks of Light), aidoru group Negicco's December 2014 single. Not as much about Christmas as it is about potentially making romance while hitting the slopes, the song does have a truly upbeat and fun melody that does make one feel like jumping into the SRV and head for Naeba Ski Resort (eat your heart out, Yuming!). By the way, the sunny music video was apparently filmed in Finland.
"Hikari no Spur" was written and composed by connie who has been the group's music producer but I think that delicious beat is also due to the arrangement by Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love, and I've trusted him to make some really catchy songs over the past few decades.
I'd initially wondered about that last word in the title "spur" since the usual image in my head for such a thing has been that of those tiny spiked wheels near the heels of a cowboy's boots. At the same time, I also thought that it could be "spoor" which refers to the scent of an animal or a human being but I didn't want to imagine what the lyrics would be about in that case. Luckily when I checked on Jisho.org, there was just the one definition for "ski traces", originally from Germany. Anyways, "Hikari no Spur" hit No. 5 on Oricon and was a track on Negicco's January 2015 studio album"Rice & Snow".
Well, that was the last time I ever used the sparkle function on my old Casio camera while under the influence. Incidentally, that was...barely...Tokyo Tower.
Speaking of one of the megalopolis' prominent landmarks, I have this debut single by singer-songwriter Mutsumi Inoue（井上睦都実）titled "Boyfriend" and its coupling song "Tokyo Tower" from October 1992. I actually first wrote about her last month when I featured her "Nitamono Doushi"（似たもの同志）from July 1994 and that particular number was quite the smooth summery tune and it does distinguish itself from the two songs from Inoue's first single.
For one thing, both "Boyfriend" and "Tokyo Tower" have varying levels of Shibuya-kei in there. There's some swinging jazziness in "Boyfriend" which was written by Inoue and composed by Tsugumi Kataoka（片岡嗣実）from the duo Parquets. The marimba does help too in conveying that Shibuya-kei although I think it's more of a light dusting over a jaunty pop feeling. From what I hear from Inoue's lyrics, it seems like the most cheerful kiss-off of a relationship that I've heard in a while.
At 4:04 is "Tokyo Tower", another fairly rollicking song with some deeper Shibuya-kei imbued in its genes, thanks to Takao Tajima（田島貴男）from Original Love providing the melody this time around, and the marimba is still there along with a happy electric organ. To remind folks, Tajima had also been a vocalist for genre icon Pizzicato Five some years earlier. Inoue also penned the lyrics here. For both songs, Inoue has got some fine crisp and clear vocals as she would for "Nitamono Doushi".
Yep, the cover does say it all: a trumpet with fire blasting out of it like a volley from The Human Torch. This belongs to Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra's（東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ）3rd compilation of BEST hits, "BEST OF TOKYO SKA 1998-2007" that was first released in March 2007. If you're looking for some Saturday-night partying at home with that ska beat, this can help.
I don't think that I ever gave a proper introduction about TSPO so I will import this edited quote from the Wikipedia article on this group that has been around since 1985: Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ), commonly abbreviated by fans as Skapara or TSPO, is a Japanese ska and jazz band formed in 1988 by the percussionist Asa-Chang, and initially composed of over 10 veterans of Tokyo's underground scene. At the time, the band's sound was unlike that of any of its contemporaries in the then fledgling Japanese ska scene, and over the course of the past 31 years, they have been influential on Japanese music as a whole. Its sound, the product of the musical influences of its members, is a mix of traditional ska, jazz, and rock. In the vein of many other more traditional ska acts, many of Skapara's songs are purely instrumental.
The first time I heard and heard about ska was in the early 1980s when all this great music was flowing in from the United Kingdom which included this particular genre and its proponents such as The Specials and Madness. For that latter band, "Our House" was a huge hit in Canada, although perhaps the song was more of a mix of ska, pop and New Wave. Little did I know that Japan would be another birthplace of one ska-happy group of guys.
Anyways, here is the list for Disc 1 of "BEST OF TOKYO SKA 1998-2007":
Well, let's get the party started with the first track "DOWN BEAT STOMP" which was originally from TSPO's May 2002 album"Stompin' On DOWN BEAT ALLEY". The album hit No. 1 on Oricon and "DOWN BEAT STOMP" pretty much has everybody getting onto the dance floor with an increased number of TSPO members getting behind the mike. The video certainly reflects the atmosphere of fun of booze and dancing. TSPO bassist Tsuyoshi Kawakami（川上つよし）was the composer while baritone saxophonist Atsushi Yanaka（谷中敦）took care of the lyrics.
Also from "Stompin' On DOWN BEAT ALLEY" is "Mekureta Orange" (Peeled Orange). As well, this was actually TSPO's 20th single from August 2001 that peaked at No. 35 on the charts. Over the years, I've been enjoying the band's work with other cool artists. For example, there is their collaboration with happily zany Hiroto Komoto（甲本ヒロト）of The Blue Hearts for "Hoshi Furu Yoru ni"（星降る夜に）that is also included on Disc 1. And then there is "Mekureta Orange" which has special guest Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love（オリジナル・ラヴ）, helping out on this mix of ska and swing jazz. It was also Kawakami and Yanaka behind words and music here. I tried looking at the lyrics and I think the story sounds as if a couple of guys were greeting the sunrise with a mix of bleary-eyed exhaustion and possibly some scars. Would you like a brawl with your boilermaker, sir? Not sure where the orange peel comes in...except as a garnish in a cocktail glass.
The instrumental "Hi no Tama Jive" translates into "Fireball Jive" which is a great title for this song which was the band's 17th single from May 1999. TSPO multi-instrumentalist (bass, saxophone) Tatsuyuki Hiyamuta（冷牟田竜之）was responsible for this true fireball which not reminds me of the swing/jazz revival sometime in the 1990s but also of the orchestra that was providing the great music in Jim Carrey's"The Mask". Despite all of the action and flame, there is also some poignancy to "Hi no Tama Jive" since this was drummer Tatsuyuki Aoki's（青木達之）final single with TSPO before his untimely death. He passed away only 10 days before its release.
Hiyamuta and TSPO trumpeter NARGO were on words and music respectively for "SKA ME CRAZY" which has been described in J-Wiki as having a skinhead reggae arrangement in its recorded form. Sounds a bit scary there so I've put up their live version which is apparently a little different. It's another jump-and-dance-and-headbang number, and judging from the above video, you will believe a pianica can rock. "SKA ME CRAZY" was also the coupling song for the band's 22nd single from February 2002, "Utsukushiku Moeru Mori"（美しく燃える森）, another duet this time with Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）from the rock band Unicorn.
"Ginga to Meiro" (Galaxy and Labyrinth), TSPO's 23rd single from February 2003, is a familiar song to me and that's probably because I heard it on the various music shows. It was used as the theme tune for the Fuji-TV drama "Bijo ka Yajuu"（美女か野獣...Beauty or Beast） so I gather that its commercials were also playing the song as well. Still a lot of fun ska to be experienced here, too, but it's also noticeably mellower than some of TSPO's other party favourites, maybe along the lines of the aforementioned "Mekureta Orange". Yanaka and NARGO were behind words and music respectively with drummer Kin'ichi Motegi（茂木欣一）on vocals as the single broke into the Top 10 at No. 9.
One more track that I will throw in is an instrumental cover of Donald Fagen's"Walk Between Raindrops" from his 1982 classic album"The Nightfly" for which I've already covered "I.G.Y." in a ROY article. Listening to this version, I can understand why TSPO decided to tackle it because that original shuffle beat works so well with these guys. Heck, I swear that the band even borrowed the same organ from Fagen that starts the song off.
I'll have to cover Disc 2 sometime in the near future but as it is, there's lots to enjoy in Disc 1. "BEST OF TOKYO SKA 1998-2007" peaked at No. 2 on the charts.
Unless you're a longtime Pizzicato Five（ピチカート・ファイヴ）fan, you may be inclined to point at me and giggle like Beavis and Butthead. "Hey, look! J got his preposition wrong...and he's an English teacher and translator!"
Well, not quite. I hadn't realized it until I read the J-Wikiarticle on P5's 3rd original album from July 1989, "On Her Majesty's Request", but what I actually got from Tower Records over the Holidays was the 1995 slightly shorter version of that album (omitting two tracks) named "By Her Majesty's Request". Oh, dopey me! Prepositional hazard! However, since I will be writing about those two missing tracks here that had been on the original release, I'm keeping with the "On".
Anyways, I bought "By Her Majesty's Request" which is known in Japanese as "Jouou Heika no Pizzicato Five" (Her Majesty's Pizzicato Five) through a strong recommendation from one of the commenters. Already having some of the group's releases with the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）from the 1990s when the genre of Shibuya-kei was in full flower such as "Romantique 96"(1995) and then their very first album, "couples" (1987) when Mamiko Sasaki（佐々木麻美子）was the vocalist, I didn't need my arm twisted to pick this one up. Moreover, "On Her Majesty's Request" came out right in the middle of Takao Tajima's（田島貴男）time behind the mike for P5, so I was really interested in hearing how he sounded as a member of this most eclectic group several years before Original Love came into being. I've already written about one of the tracks from the album, "Top Secrets", which basically sealed the deal that I would be providing cyberspace here for the entire thing.
Check the Amazon link to hear brief excerpts from the album.
Now, "On Her Majesty's Request" has been categorized on J-Wiki under a whole plethora of genres: rock, soul, jazz and pop, but NOT Shibuya-kei. I thought that a bit odd but then again, the term "Shibuya-kei" apparently didn't come into conventional usage until the final decade of the 20th century. Still, as soon as I heard the very first track "Audrey Hepburn no Kyuujitsu"（オードリィ・ヘプバーンの休日...Holiday for Audrey H.）, Shibuya-kei was all I could think of.
The whole concept behind "On Her Majesty's Request" was the soundtrack for the life and loves of a fictitious spy, but listening to Keitaro Takanami's（高浪慶太郎）"Audrey Hepburn no Kyuujitsu", it wasn't actually Bond, James Bond that I imagined. In fact, I kinda settled on Harry Palmer, the cynical operative played by Michael Caine for flicks such as "Billion Dollar Brain" back in 1967 and even Pierce Brosnan's Thomas Crown for the 1990s version of "The Thomas Crown Affair". Right from note one, there was that frazzled razzle-dazzle of racing through the craziness of the city but there was also that really slow and cool trumpet by Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）trying to settle us down. Maybe the trumpet represented Palmer quietly whipping up a soufflé or Crown relaxing in his armchair and concocting another heist in his head as easily as solving a crossword puzzle.
Track 3"Shin Bellissima"（新ベリッシマ...Bellissima'90）is where we get to hear Tajima for the first time on the album. Classy and rowdy at the same time, it's almost like hearing a track that was created for both the martini-sipping and beer-swilling sets in the same bar. This was written and composed by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）and it's got that rock mixed in with the Shibuya-kei as Tajima has that lighter voice when compared to his time as Original Love. Lyrically, it's all about that man (or cad) about town getting ready to give that goodbye to his soon-to-be former girlfriend. Guitarist Hiroyuki Hanada（花田裕之）provides the solo.
"Lip Service"（リップ・サーヴィス）which was created by Tajima and Konishi is a sultry but also bubbly concoction featuring the former marveling at the wonders of a kiss. Nobuo Yagi（八木のぶ夫）provides the harmonica solo. Listening to this one, I get images of the original Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) and Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway) getting into that lip-locking.
(15:30)
Boys, be ambitious indeed! Pizzicato Five was ambitious enough to provide an album within an album of sorts through their "Excerpts from the music for film 'EROTICA Operation'". One of my favourites among those excerpts was "Spy Tai Spy"（スパイ対スパイ...SPY vs SPY） which was also made by Tajima and Konishi, and as the title indicates, it's the P5 take on a swinging 60s spy caper with plenty of suspense and champagne and jazz, and even some narration by Konishi. Love the punctuating horns and timpani here!
One track that stands out is "Eisei Chuukei"（衛星中継...Satellite Hour）by Konishi and performed by Tajima and Maki Nomiya before she officially became the next and most famous vocalist for Pizzicato Five. It stands out since it diverges from that spy movie theme and takes on a rather cute and slightly technopop arrangement. Junko Sugimura（杉村純子）provides the voice sample here as Tajima and Nomiya sing about the joy of receiving telly from all over the planet. Strange connection here but this one has me remembering certain pages from the Marvel comic "Excalibur" (possible future movie in the MCEU?) in which adorable and innocent Meggan is lapping up all of the television she can while sucking back on a milkshake.
(Head back to the video above for "Spy Tai Spy" and look for 13:16.)
To finish off this article (and I'll probably have to come up with a follow-up article for "On Her Majesty's Request" in the near future), I'm going to provide the two omitted songs that I mentioned up top that made "On Her Majesty's Request" into "By Her Majesty's Request". One is actually the first excerpt from "EROTICA Operation", "Nairobi no Jouou Heika"（ナイロビの女王陛下...The African Queen） by Konishi which is this rumbling tropical instrumental propelled by the percussion and the great sax by the late Jake H. Concepcion. I will now have those Mai Tais at Trader Vic's please!
The second song that got omitted from the 1995 "By Her Majesty's Request" was the final track for "On Her Majesty's Request", "Go Go Jouou Heika"（ゴーゴー女王陛下...Her Majesty au Go-Go）, also by Konishi at 53:10 in the video for the entire album. Like the earlier "Eisei Chuukei", this is more technopop that gives a loud shoutout to Art of Noise and possibly even M.A.R.R.S of "Pump Up The Volume" fame.
As I said, "On Her Majesty's Request" is so filled with fascinating songs that I will have to do a follow-up on it next month or so since there are a couple of other special guests that I couldn't include here. The album strikes me as being a massing of Pizzicato Five's past, present and future (at the time) with all three vocalists throughout its history taking part (Sasaki's contribution isn't included here) and the musical styles that P5 dabbled in.
One interesting point that I got from the J-Wiki article for "On Her Majesty's Request" is perhaps the spark that got the album done in its distinctive style in the first place. Apparently, Konishi had felt for a while that the prior album "Bellissima!" (1988) was a failure since he thought that everyone had gotten a little too serious about its production and that it lacked that certain whimsy. Perhaps that feeling was the annoying grain of sand in the P5 oyster that became the pearl of "On Her Majesty's Request".
And yep, that was the point for "Winter's Tale ~ Fuyu Monogatari" (the Japanese and English have the same meaning) since this was a campaign song for a Sapporo brand of beer that was being sold just in the winter in the early 1990s called Fuyu Monogatari.
And double yep, "Winter's Tale" is one song that can be given the sommelier's treatment although the product was a beer and not a wine. Sapporo should have been properly flattered for Fuyu Monogatari getting such a cool theme, thanks to this duet involving singer-songwriters Hiroshi Takano（高野寛）on lyrics and Takao Tajima（田島貴男）of Pizzicato Five/Original Love on music. It's got some snazzy and jazzy spark of sophisticated pop by way of British 1980s soul, disco/post-disco bits, and simply some happily familiar Tajima horn arrangement.
It's all about good times as the commercial shows. Hit the slopes and then savor the apres-ski with some beer and stuff. Released in November 1992, "Winter's Tale" peaked at No. 21, and also ended up on Original Love's"The Very Best of ORIGINAL LOVE" from April 1995. That album went all the way up to No. 4 and became the 78th-ranked album of that year. Takano is no stranger to cool winter-based music.
