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've used the situation portrayed in the above video, one of many commercials for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the 1970s and 1980s, to illustrate how "Kayo Kyoku Plus" came to be. Over a decade ago, I decided to use my blogging experience and mesh it with all of those Japanese popular music CDs that I'd collected over the decades. Now, I can also use it to describe the song for this article which almost sounds as if fusion band The Square had bumped into technopop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra and somehow exchanged ideas.
Ironically, this track, "Kawaii Techno"(Cute Techno), was placed as the final song on an album called "Magic" which was released in November 1981 (alas, no "yellow" or "orchestra"). Also, there was no involvement by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏） or Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）at all with The Square's keyboardist, Daisaku Kume（久米大作）, handling everything. It's definitely not the usual The Square fusion piece and I still can't help but hear some of the more whimsical aspects of YMO, especially via their album "Service", although that album wouldn't come out until 1983.
Another notable thing is the guest appearance of comedian Tamori（タモリ）, who has since become one of the most venerable television celebrities in Japan, on two of the tracks in "Magic" including "Kawaii Techno". He's the one on the trumpet jamming in with the rest of The Square and he's providing some of the weird background vocals near the end.
I've mentioned bespectacled Japanese TV giant Kazuyoshi Morita（森田一義）here and there in the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years, notably because the theme song for his former noon hour variety show on Fuji-TV, "Waratte Ii Tomo"（笑っていいとも）has been featured. Within the medium, Tamori（タモリ）, as he's much better known, is one of the Big Three when it comes to recognizable faces who have been around for decades along with comedians Sanma Akashiya（明石家さんま）and Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）.
Coming back to Canada years ago, the only time that I can see Tamori via TV Japan is through his long-running "Music Station" on TV Asahi and NHK's "Buratamori"（ブラタモリ）. Since the former ends up being broadcast here in the wee hours for some reason, I really only watch the latter on Sunday nights as he and an NHK announcer take their own walking tours of various sites throughout Japan.
(32:29)
Now I knew that Tamori had some musical talent. When he was helping out on the Kohaku Utagassen many moons ago, I remember him playing the trumpet for one of the musical segments on the 1983 show. And there's even an album featuring him somewhere within the book "Japanese City Pop".
Sure enough, I was listening to New J Channel on YouTube earlier tonight and the song that came on was by Tamori himself. With the easy-to-remember title "Standard Whiskey Bonbon", this is a track from his 1981 album"Radical Hystery Tour". As the last sentence in the previous paragraph indicates, the song is indeed a bossa-tinged City Pop cocktail which sounds more 70s than 80s in the arrangement. It's quite relaxing as if the listener is actually sucking back on that titular confection amid summer comfort. Although I think Tamori has had a far more successful career as a TV emcee, he's not too bad behind the mike.
Although I couldn't nail down who the songwriters were for "Standard Whiskey Bonbon" exactly, I read on Tamori's J-Wiki profile that Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）of the legendary Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）and Masahiro Ando（安藤まさひろ）from the fusion band The Square had provided some of the tracks for "Radical Hystery Tour". As for Tamori, his album output consisted of 5 releases between 1977 and 1986.
I saw the shocking news via a random Twitter feed just half an hour after it had been announced by the host himself at the end of the program on Tuesday JST. Kazuyoshi "Tamori" Morita（森田一義） stopped the presses by stating to a stunned audience that after 32 years of entertaining the noon hour masses, "Morita Kazuyoshi Hour - Waratte Ii Tomo"（森田一義アワー・笑っていいとも....The Kazuyoshi Morita Hour: It's OK To Laugh) will be bringing down the curtains on itself in March of next year.
One of the big Fuji-TV pillars, the long-running noontime variety show started its history in October 1982, starring Tamori（タモリ）, who is pretty much one of the top tarento in all of Japanese show business....there are a few others such as comedian Sanma Akashiya and director Beat Takeshi who are up on that same level. With his sly sense of humour and his penchant for suits (sometimes without tie) and those dark sunglasses, I saw him as the Japanese version of the late host of America's "The Tonight Show", Johnny Carson. Whenever the clock struck 12 noon and the TV was set on Fuji, there would be the shot of Studio Alta in East Shinjuku with the familiar vaudevillian tune, "Uki Uki Watching"(Cheerful Watching), coming on, followed by the shot inside the studio with the Ii Tomo Seinen Tai dancing and singing before Tamori himself would pop on out.
Since I had some rather odd hours when it came to my former career as an English teacher back in Japan, I was able to see "Waratte Ii Tomo" pretty regularly, whether it was at home having my beloved karaage bento or watching the show from my favourite tonkatsu restaurant just underneath my subway station. The show basically is a mix of comedic/game show segments centered around the interview portion called "Telephone Shocking". Along with Tamori and the Ii Tomo Seinen Tai（いいとも青年隊...The Ii Tomo Youth Brigade）, there would be a gaggle of established and up-and-coming tarento to add to the frivolity which differed throughout the five days that the show was on. A Sunday digest show was also there so that the working masses who couldn't see the show at lunchtime had a chance to catch up.
Sticking with the comparison to "The Tonight Show", I think "Uki Uki Watching" is one of the most familiar TV themes in Japan, as much linked to its show, as "The Tonight Show" theme during Johnny Carson's reign was to its program. When I heard the news that "Waratte Ii Tomo" was on the way out, I decided to do a bit of digging about its theme song, and found out something rather surprising. The tune was composed by Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次）, a singer-songwriter who has been associated with New Music band, Sugar Babe, and has a number of entries in my "Japanese City Pop".nikala also has one article on one of his albums, "Baby Blue" on the blog (Choichiro Koizumi[小泉長一郎] was responsible for the lyrics). I can say that "Uki Uki Watching" is quite different from what I've heard of his usual music. As the various incarnations of the Ii Tomo Seinen Tai have demonstrated over these 32 years, the song is a light little number to be performed while the singers are doing a bit of softshoe. Perhaps the only things missing from the trio are canes and hats.
The very first Ii Tomo Seinen Tai consisted of Makoto Nonomura（野々村真）, Atsushi Kubota（久保田篤） and Kenji Haga（羽賀研二）, all of whom are still popping up on variety shows as veteran tarento. Incidentally, these three had their time on the show from October 1982 to March 1985.
Strangely enough, I managed to find a video with Ito himself performing "Uki Uki Watching" on a talk show.
The above here is one example of the "Telephone Shocking" segment.
And here is the start of the very first episode of the show back on October 4, 1982. Not sure what lunchtimes are gonna be like on Fuji-TV from April 2014. As for Tamori, well, he still has his hosting gigs on "Music Station" and "Tamori Club".
