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 Takeshi Kitayama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Takeshi Kitayama. Show all posts
Hopefully, the subject matter of this enka ballad wasn't reflective of Takeshi Kitayama's（北山たけし）real life since the lyrics deal with a man grappling over the loss of his significant other due to possible neglect and taking her for granted.
Especially when Kitayama's father-in-law just happens to be enka legend Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）himself, I can only gather that marital bliss is paramount. Anyways, his "Ame no Uramachi"(Rainy Back Alleys) is a single that was released back in September 2012, and the protagonist in this song is spending his rainy days and nights probably in the older section of town filled with guilt and self-flagellation and perhaps even an excess of alcohol. Indeed, as the title hints, when it rain it pours.⛆⛆☂ The music is appropriately melancholy with what sounds like a forlorn clarinet and a synthesized version of an accordion.
I've already written a fair bit about Kitayama over the years and often was the case when Kitajima, under his pen name of Joji Hara（原譲二）, would create singles such as "Tsugaru Otoko Bushi"（津軽おとこ節）and "Byakuya no Ohkami"（白夜の狼）for his son-in-law. However in the case of "Ame no Uramachi", it was lyricist Toshiya Niitani（仁井谷俊也）and composer Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）who created the song which peaked at No. 16 on Oricon.
The video below has a shortened version of "Ame no Uramachi" with Kitayama himself in the video.
This enka tune probably comes under the category of "You can take the man out of his hometown, but you can't take the hometown out of the man".
Yup, Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）under his songwriting pen name of Joji Hara（原譲二）was responsible for creating "Tsugaru Otoko Bushi"(A Tsugaru Man's Melody) for his deshi and son-in-law, enka singer Takeshi Kitayama（北山たけし）. This is his April 2018 single, and as would be the case for any traditional kayo with a geographical region, "man" and "melody" in the title, it's got a goodly amount of brio in the music featuring shamisen and shakuhachi.
According to the YouTube explanation for the above shortened video, "Tsugaru Otoko Bushi" was the single commemorating Kitayama's 15th anniversary in the singing business, and though he was actually born at the southern end of the nation in Fukuoka, the way that he proudly sings this particular enka, he sounds like a man born and bred in the northern part of the country in the snowy Tsugaru district of Aomori Prefecture. As I mentioned off the top, the lad may have left Tsugaru for the capital, but Tsugaru never left his heart, and he's probably more than happy to return to the home and hearth once his job is done south.
Recently, I found this YouTube channel of kayo called abapon yamada which consists a lot of videos which contain 10 songs each by a certain famous songwriter. It's been quite interesting for taking a look for a variety of enka, Mood Kayo and pop tunes.
One such video is in tribute to the late composer Minoru Endo（遠藤実）, who I was surprised to find out had one of his compositions released as late as April 2008. This is "Kibou no Uta" (Song of Hope) as performed by enka singer Takeshi Kitayama（北山たけし）.
(cover version)
The lyrics by Takashi Taka（たかたかし）relate the story of a couple breaking up for whatever reason but with them deciding to take the high road and resolving to remember the fun times before parting for good. Think of it as the Japanese version of Rick and Ilsa's story in "Casablanca"...or perhaps it should be Kamakura. In any case, it's another example of the kayo trope of smiling through the tears through Endo's jaunty melody.
"Kibou no Uta" got as high as No. 28 on Oricon. This may have been one of Endo's final songs since in December 2008, he would pass away at the age of 76.
I caught the occasional episode of NHK's "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）this afternoon and saw a duo that I've been seeing a fair bit on the singing stages on the telly recently.
This would be Kitajima Kyodai（北島兄弟...The Kitajima Brothers） consisting of enka singers Yutaka Oe（大江裕）and Takeshi Kitayama（北山たけし）. Not only do both belong to Kitajima Music Office under the auspices of enka legend Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）, but the two of them were also apprentices under the master himself. And I just found out through J-Wiki that the older Kitayama got married to one of Kitajima's daughters about a decade ago.
With Oe celebrating his 10th year in show business and Kitayama celebrating his own 15th anniversary as an enka singer in 2019, the two of them got together and decided the previous year that they wanted to tour the country together. And so, the Kitajima Kyodai was formed with their first single, "Brother"（ブラザー）coming out in August 2018. The two of them even appeared with Kitajima himself during last year's Kohaku Utagassen to perform "Brother".
Well, a new single came out earlier in February, "Kyodai Renga" (Brotherly Poetry). With words and music by Toko Daichi（大地土子）, the two of them on today's episode of "Gogo Uta" even said that this jaunty enka about brotherly love was more on the pop side of things. Along with Kitajima Kyodai's smooth voices, I like the optimistic and breezy feeling that the song brings out. It could be a favourite among the karaoke set.
(short version)
I found out that Toko Daichi was the pseudonym for Makoto Ono（大野誠）, the second son of Kitajima who was a singer and songwriter in his own right. Tragically, he passed away in March 2018 at the age of 51.
Tonight's "Uta Kon"(うたコン) was given the extra half-hour treatment and deservedly so since the theme of the night was the one-and-only Yu Aku（阿久悠）. This year happens to be the 10th anniversary of his passing so a good chunk of the music on display consisted of his works. It was truly a passage down the old Showa kayo.
I will get to a couple of those songs by Aku since they are tunes that I had never covered in the blog. However, as with many an episode of "Uta Kon", the last 10 minutes of the show were given over to some of the newer numbers, and there was one by Takeshi Kitayama（北山たけし）that caught my ears immediately.
Mood Kayo is a genre that I've often associated with the songs of yesteryear...long back into yesteryear. So it's always nice when I hear such a song that was created in the 21st century. Such is the case with Kitayama's latest single"Muteki no Sakaba" (Foghorn Bar) which came out in November 2016. I only found out about the release date from the YouTube description instead of the singer's J-Wiki page.
Written by Toshiya Niitani（仁井谷俊也）and composed by Koji Tokuhisa（徳久広司）, "Muteki no Sakaba", as the YouTube description notes, is the welcome throwback to the good ol' days of Showa Era kayo. I mean, as soon as I heard it, I felt like things time-slipped back to the heyday of Frank Nagai（フランク永井）and Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）. Ishihara especially would be looking down at Kitayama with a wink and a smile and two fingers of whiskey as he listened to that bluesy sax and the languid keyboards. Even the lyrics have that well-worn theme of love lost and the fellow crying in his sake.
Would love to hit an Akasaka bar right now but since I do not own a Platinum credit card...
Somewhere in the United States, an old friend of mine from the JET Programme may be tearing up a bit.
You see, when we were meeting each other almost weekly up in the mountains of Gunma some 25 years ago, I found out that he was a huge fan of sumo legend Chiyonofuji（千代の富士）. In fact, one time we were watching a biographical documentary on the yokozuna and near the end, my friend was actually tearing up something awful since he was so touched by the rise of the Wolf which was Chiyonofuji's nickname. The Grand Champion actually finished his active career during our time as teachers on the programme. His time was from September 1970 to May 1991, and during that era, he won 31 tournament championships which was second only to the mighty Taiho. Plus, he had also held the record of consecutive winning bouts at 53 until still-active Hakuho took the record at 54 back in 2010. Even a casual fan like myself was well aware that the Wolf was special in that he was a relatively small wrestler at just 6 ft tall and 280 lb (1.8 metres and 127 kg) but he looked like a tightly-coiled powerhouse and was able to take out much larger rivals with as much brain as brawn.
This morning, when I woke up I caught the shocking news on NHK that Chiyonofuji had just passed away at the too-young age of 61 from the ravages of pancreatic cancer. I know that retired sumo wrestlers have their health issues but I never thought that anything could take him down like that.
Anyways in honour to Chiyonofuji, I decided to put up an enka ballad which fits the yokozuna titled "Byakuya no Ohkami" (Wolf Under The Midnight Sun). Takeshi Kitayama（北山たけし）sang this as one of his singles from July 2013, and it was written by Shinichi Tsuji（つじ伸一）and composed by Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）under his pen name of Joji Hara（原譲二）. And as would be the case for a Kitajima-penned tune, it is a manly enka sung with gusto by Kitayama about being that fellow with a dream to pursue relentlessly until finally caught and realized. There are those powerful strings and guitar in there but at the very beginning, there is a clarion call by the lone trumpet which must have been a riff off the score of a samurai drama. Truly lone wolf stuff.
As I said, the lyrics by Tsuji seem tailor-made for Chiyonofuji's hunt for greatness up the sumo rankings to achieve the ultimate title of yokozuna. Unfortunately, "Byakuya no Ohkami" wasn't quite as successful in its quest to hit the top of the charts, only getting as high as No. 20. Still, I thought it was quite the right song to put up for the legend. I'm sure the next couple of sports broadcasts will be going over the life and times of the Wolf.
To quote an ending line from an old Hollywood movie: "So long, champ!"
