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 don't consider myself a tried-and-true expert on the aidoru career of Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）but just from listening to her earlier material in the late 1970s, I've gotten the impression that at least melodically, she was getting some fairly galloping material to tackle.
Takada's debut single from March 1977 is the fondly remembered "Garasuzaka"（硝子坂）which provided some romantic sturm und drang thanks to lyricist Takemi Shima（島武実）, composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）and arranger Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）. Well, her sophomore effort, "Dakedo..." (However...) from later in July continues some of the handwringing in love with Shima, Uzaki and Makaino helping out again to form out a fairly rollicking song. In fact, the overall rhythm reminds me of some of the drama from Hiromi Ohta's（太田裕美）"Saraba Siberia Tetsudo" (さらばシベリア鉄道）which wouldn't come out until a few years later in 1980.
"Dakedo..." was another Top 10 hit for the emerging 17-year-old singer as it hit No. 6. It finished the year as the 52nd-ranked single.
Wildly popular 70s aidoru trio Candies（キャンディーズ）announced their retirement together in 1977 (with the breakup becoming official the following year in April) which was probably a body blow to all of their fans. However, their supervising production company, Watanabe Productions, wasn't willing to give up the ghost quite yet. They gathered together another trio of young aidoru wannabes and perceiving them to be the proteges of Candies, the new group was initially called Candies Jr. This new group consisted of Mitsuko "Micchi" Mori（森光子）, Mayumi "Mami" Ueno（上野真由美）, and Akie "Aki" Kato（加藤明恵）.
The most ardent and dedicated Candies fans weren't impressed with the moniker of Candies Jr, and probably made it very well known to Watanabe Productions, and so the trio's name was switched over to the safer Triangle（トライアングル）. According to their J-Wiki bio, Triangle had actually appeared alongside Candies in the brief overlap time before the latter finally did break up on variety shows such as "Hachi-ji da yo! Zen'in Shuugo"（8時だョ!全員集合...It's 8 O'Clock! Everybody Assemble）, and it was duly noted about how much Triangle resembled their sempai; again not sure how Candies fans took that.
The trio released their debut single"Triangle Love Letter" in April 1978, and judging from the cover of the record, yep, it looks like the next generation were made to resemble Candies right down to their hairstyles. "Triangle Love Letter", which was written by Takemi Shima（島武実）and composed/arranged by Yusuke Hoguchi（穂口雄介）, even sounds like a Candies tune with the delivery and the shaki-shaki melody.
Even though I couldn't find out where exactly "Triangle Love Letter" ended up on Oricon, the J-Wiki article noted that it was the lone hit of theirs that got into the Top 30. There were six more singles and two original albums released up to 1980, but it was basically a slow fadeout for the trio until the official breakup came in 1981.
One of the members of the trio rang a bell for me. Mitsuko Mori, who was a namesake of the legendary actress, has already gotten her own article on KKP after changing her name to Michiko Komori（小森みちこ）. Under that name, she released one single and one album, and then went into the movie industry. Meanwhile Akie Kato took on the stage name of Aki Fujimoto（藤本あき）and ended up as a featured player on the aforementioned "Hachi-ji da yo! Zen'in Shuugo" until its final episode in 1985; she would then marry film director Ryoichi Kimizuka（君塚良一）, one of whose projects was "Odoru Dai Sosasen ~ The Movie"（踊る大捜査線 THE MOVIE） in 1998. Finally, Mayumi Ueno soon became a radio personality in her native Aichi Prefecture.
Just finished off a conversation with Rocket Brown so we were catching up on things, including of course, Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Love's On Fire".
It's always nice when I come across a pleasant song by someone that I have never heard of before, and so it goes with Mayuko Miyahara's（宮原巻由子）"Hana Akari". There's very little information about her online and nothing at all on J-Wiki. I did find out from "Idol.ne.jp" that she came from Osaka and that she was also a winner on the talent audition program "Star Tanjo!"（スター誕生！...A Star is Born!）. She had her initial time in showbiz as a singer and actress, although she only released two singles in 1983.
That first single from February 1983 was "Hana Akari" which translates, according to Jisho.org: the brilliance of cherry blossoms which illuminate the evening. So it's most likely an ohanami phenomenon in the spring. Written by Takemi Shima（島武実）, composed by Yasuo Kosugi（小杉保夫）and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）, "Hana Akari" seems to be a jaunty example of the usually laconic Fashion Music, hepped on some extra synthesizers. Despite the revelation of sakura, "Hana Akari" does feel like something with a bit more of a European setting.
Miyahara retired from show business in 1984 once she got married, but then made a comeback as an actress and model under the pen names of Mayuko Kyomoto（京本真由子）and Mayuko Okada（岡田真由子）. She has also taken on the occupation of a video translator. Under that original name of Miyahara, she has an Ameba blog where I discovered that she has posed as a grey hair model. On top of that, she opened her own Instagram account.
Can't consider myself a prolific baker but once in a while, I like to whip up some old-fashion Pineapple Upside-Down Cake for the family. Haven't done it since COVID-19 darkened our shores, but perhaps I can do it again in the near future.
A few weeks ago, I was given a recommendation by Rocket Brown from Come Along Radio, and it was a surprising one. From 1978-1979, the late Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）provided 4 albums for Trio Records, and half of them were releases based on the AOR genre.
All this time, I had seen the congenial Kamayatsu on TV for years and knew him as an ever-grinning tarento and a musician from the Group Sounds period via The Spiders and then as someone who embraced folk and rock (maybe one of the New Music pioneers) going into the 1970s. However, I'd had no idea that he also headed into Margaritaville later that decade. Indeed he did, though, with "Walk Again" in 1978, and then this album the following year,"Pineapple no Yukue e"(Up In The Pineapple).
I was only going to talk about the first track, "Do You Wanna Ride" but then ended up listening to the next three tracks since I got rather entranced by them. As for "Do You Wanna Ride", which was composed by Monsieur and written by Yutaka Hoshi（星豊）, it's indeed him singing in both English and Japanese, and I swear that he could be singing about that front cover showing the beach and the palm trees as he invites the listener to come along with him in his wonderful world. That cover is so AOR-friendly (including the lettering) that I had a huge craving to buy a hammock from Canadian Tire (curbside pickup, of course).
Batting second at 3:28 is "No No Boy" which is a song that had originally been recorded by him and the rest of The Spiders back in the 1960s. This cover version takes on a more upbeat but just-as-gentle feeling when compared to what I think is a more melancholy original. At 6:13, "No No Boy" gets quickly shuffled off for Track 3, "Gentle Wind", a brief instrumental composed by Ken Morimura（森村献）. that begins with that 1970s City Pop/AOR trope of the Haze riff, but I think the melody has got a bit more of a funky breeze kicking about in there with a little wacka-wacka for good measure.
Finally at 8:05 is "Summer Love Again" which seems to contain a hint of Neil Sedaka and Akira Terao（寺尾聡）. This is another short-and-sweet track with perhaps a little City Pop in the arrangement which will have the libations flowing under the beachfront umbrellas. Takeshi Shima（島武実）this time provided the lyrics for Kamayatsu's mellow melody.
Indeed this is some fine Resort Pop for folks who want to listen to something summery and relaxing. Referring back to my second paragraph about showing some surprise that Kamayatsu did embrace his inner AOR, I think that surprise should be curbed somewhat because of course he wasn't the only one to do so. People who were involved in 1970s folk such as Iruka（イルカ）and bassist Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）from Craft（クラフト）also took their 1980s plunge into City Pop/AOR through "Follow Me" and "midnight cruisin'" respectively.
This was another song from the Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）2-CD tribute album that I purchased many months ago, and it was another example that has cemented my view that the legendary composer really liked his R&B.
Wow! Can you dig it? Tsutsumi composed "Roxy no Yoru" (Roxy's Night) for musician-producer Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）as his first debut solo single in August 1977, although it's also known as Haruo Chikada and Haruophone's（近田春夫&ハルヲフォン）4th single due to their work on the B-side, "Yami ni Jackknife"（闇にジャックナイフ...Jackknife in the Darkness）.
"Roxy no Yoru" really struts and shuffles just like a young buck making his cocky way on the rough and ready streets of Tokyo. I really enjoy the funky guitar and bass accompanying Chikada along with those disco strings. I guess nothing says 1970s sunset City Pop more than this one. The only thing that comes anywhere close to destroying the cool image of this song is my observation that Chikada sometimes sounds like Pokey, Gumby's equine buddy. Takemi Shima（島武実）, lyricist and someone who would later become a part of the New Wave band Plastics, took care of the words.
Speaking of New Wave, I've also realized that the City Pop"Roxy no Yoru" is perhaps not the usual Chikada song according to what I've learned from nikala'sarticle on him, "Electric Love Story". Since that very first Chikada article, my impression had been that he was more for the eclectic blips and bleeps of a synthesizer.
Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）didn't have such a long career (1977~1985) but from listening to the above album last night again, she did dip her toe into a few genres whether it be Latin, City Pop or something with a bit of 50s rock n' roll.
With her 8th single, "Dream on Dream" from January 1979, the 1970s aidoru performed a forceful tune thanks to some Latin pizzazz. Written by Takemi Shima（島武実）and composed by Ryudo Ozaki（宇崎竜童）, the whole song brings together a love affair and an intense tango. The feeling behind "Dream on Dream" including Takada's somewhat more oomph-laden delivery had me thinking of Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, and Ozaki's participation in the making of the number rather sealed that impression.
"Dream on Dream" managed to peak at No. 42 on Oricon, selling about 33,000 records. It was also the title track for her 3rd original album from February 1979.
The big surprise here was lyricist Shima. I had to be reminded of the fact that he would become a member of two very different bands, The Plastics and NiNa.
My awareness of The B-52s began with their appearance on an episode of "Saturday Night Live" sometime around the late 70s or early 80s, and as I was watching their bizarre performance of "Rock Lobster", I just went "Who the heck are these guys?!" I gathered that this was part of New Wave with Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson in those sky-high bouffants that seemed to pop out from my Mom's old photos from the 1960s. "Rock Lobster" may not have been my cup of tea at the time but I did get better with "Love Shack" and then came my favourite song by the band "Roam" in 1990.
JTM and I were having a talk the other night and our conversation slowly veered into the topic of bands such as Judy & Mary, and we were then trying to remember the name of that side project that J&M's vocalist, YUKI, got involved in around the end of the century while J&M was on hiatus. I knew that Kate Pierson from the aforementioned B-52s was YUKI's co-vocalist.
As it turned out, I was trying to remember NiNa which along with YUKI and Pierson also included Mick Karn from the band Japan, Takemi Shima & Masahide Sakuma（島武実・佐久間正英）from the Plastics, and drummer Steven Wolf. When I first heard about this project back in the late 90s, I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that there was going to be this overt collaboration between this 90s J-Pop singer and this American band member from the 80s.
The one song I remember from NiNa was "Happy Tomorrow" which I saw performed on television a number of times. It was released as their first single in July 1999, and it's a sunny laidback song that reminded me a lot of the jangly guitar pop/rock from the 90s in Japan before R&B and the Hello Project started entering the stage.
The lyrics for "Happy Tomorrow" were written by YUKI and Pierson, with YUKI and Sakuma (under his pseudonym of Ma-Chang) providing the music. Another notable thing about the song was that it was the theme song for both the anime "Arc The Lad" and a regular live-action J-Drama on Fuji-TV,"Kanojo-tachi no Jidai"（彼女たちの時代...Time of the Women）, which were both broadcast in the same year within a few months of each other. The single went Platinum while peaking at No. 9 and becoming the 77th-ranked song of the year. "Happy Tomorrow" also appeared as a track on NiNa's lone album "NiNa". It came out in November 1999, and hit No. 3 on the album charts, finishing 1999 as the 83rd-ranked release.
One last piece of trivia about NiNa. The name was derived from YUKI's age at the time which was 27 with "ni" representing 2 and "na" representing 7.
Last night was the annual "Omoide no Melody"（思い出のメロディー...Melodies of Memories）special on NHK. Often called the Summer Kohaku Utagassen, the focus is on the classic kayo and last night's performances all involved folks up to the 1980s.
One pleasant surprise was seeing the wife of a sumo stablemaster appear on stage to perform some of her old hits when she was but a teen. It was Mizue Takada's（高田みづえ）first appearance in front of the cameras in 31 years, and in my early Kohaku viewing days, she was an annual performer who I first heard on an ancient tape of kayo kyoku. She also had a career as a tarento, often appearing on the old Drifters' variety show and more than willing to get dunked in water and other stuff to get the laugh.
The Kagoshima-born Takada made her debut as an aidoru after winning the championship on the Fuji-TV talent search show, "Kimi koso Star da!"（君こそスターだ!...YOU Are The Star!）in 1976 at around the age of 16. In March 1977, she started off her career with "Garasuzaka" (Glass Slope), the very song she sang last night in "Omoide no Melody".
Written by Takemi Shima（島武実）and composed by rocker Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）, "Garasuzaka" is a pretty jaunty tune that I found notable for Takada's phrasing. There is this countryside lilt to the song that was also quite appealing to me with Uzaki's lyrics . I'm not 100% sure about the overall meaning but I believe Takada was softly admonishing someone for not having the gumption to relate his/her true feelings for that special someone.
As a debut single, "Garasuzaka" did very well. It broke the Top 10 on Oricon, peaking at No. 9 for Takada, and becoming the 36th-ranked single for 1977. It sold a little over 300,000 copies and earned the singer not only a Best Newcomer prize at that year's Japan Record Awards, but also her first invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen.
Unlike Takada, I know little about Midori Kinouchi（木之内みどり）except for whatever I was able to glean from J-Wiki. The Hokkaido native also debuted as an actress/aidoru back in 1974, and has had two pretty famous husbands with Hubby No. 1 being bassist/composer Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and Hubby No. 2 being actor Naoto Takenaka (竹中直人...who co-starred in the original "Shall We Dance?").
Kinouchi actually first brought "Garasuzaka" into the world a month before Takada's version as the title track of her 5th album. Her version seems a bit more languid but that same syncopated delivery is also there.
Former aidoru-turned-enka singer, Yoko Nagayama（長山洋子）, gave her own version of "Garasuzaka" in the mid-1990s.
And someone was kind enough to actually upload Takada's return to the NHK stage after 3 decades. I was also quite happy to see her sing her most successful single, "Watashi wa Piano"（私はピアノ）last night as well. "Garasuzaka" was actually her 2nd-most successful release.
I'm not sure if too many people remember Plastics, the New Wave/Synthpop unit, but in my musically pliable brain in the late 70s and 80s, they invaded my little melon and have kept up permanent residency there all these years. Now, a lot of folks on YouTube have mentioned that they first saw Plastics on the dearly beloved comedy-variety show "SCTV" via "The Tim Ishimuni Show" (guest-starring Godzilla and an in-studio air attack). But for me, I actually first saw them doing their loopy "Top Secret Man"(1980), the band's 2nd single, on a local show on Toronto's first multicultural channel, "Japanese Panorama" a year previously.
For a guy who grew up hearing enka and 70s aidoru, it was quite a revelation to catch these post-punks hiccupping their lyrics and sounding like a mix between Devo and The B-52s....although I had seen the mesmerizing video for Yellow Magic Orchestra's"Firecracker" on the same show some months before that. Not that the video for "Top Secret Man" is boring at all. I think it was one of the first times I've seen so much imagery stuffed into a music video whose song was less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds. And Ms. Sato certainly made for some nice eye candy. Considering the title, there did seem to be a bit of "Secret Agent Man" in the melody.
Speaking of Ms. Sato, Plastics were Chica Sato (佐藤チカ...vocal),Toshio Nakanishi (中西俊夫...vocal/guitar), Hajime Tachibana (立花ハジメ.... guitar), Masahide Sakuma (佐久間正英.... keyboards) and Takemi Shima (島武美.... rhythm box). The band first started up in 1976, centered around Sato (a fashion stylist), Nakanishi (an illustrator) and Tachibana (a graphic designer). Initially, starting as a bit of an oldies(!) group, they started changing into a more punk rock/glam rock direction, and with the addition of Sakuma, Plastics veered further into technopop while trying out the rhythm box, something that was inspired from Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express"(1977). And in turn, Plastics gave inspiration to bands such as Pizzicato Five and Polysics.
At the end of the same episode of "Japanese Panorama",Plastics made another appearance via a video of their debut single, "Copy"(1979), which was fairly minimalist lyrically. Basically, what it amounted to was that everybody copies. I'm not sure if the band was trying to make a statement on Japanese society, but I think I'll stick with the first song.
.jpg)
