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 Tatsuro Yamashita. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tatsuro Yamashita. Show all posts
You've probably heard this story before, but back in 1975, a small band called Sugar Babe (シュガー・ベイブ) released their first and only album, SONGS. The record developed a cult following but didn't perform particularly well financially, and the band itself would break up the following year.
Its core members—Tatsuro Yamashita (山下達郎), Taeko Ohnuki (大貫妙子), and Kunio Muramatsu (村松邦男)—would go on to pursue successful solo careers, while SONGS became increasingly influential within the Japanese music scene and was eventually recognized as a classic many years later.
Ironically, much of Sugar Babe's sound owes a debt to another short-lived group from the late 1960s: The 5th Avenue Band.
It turns out that Yamashita and Ohnuki were huge fans of the band's mellow arrangements and vocal harmonies, and you can hear that influence all over Sugar Babe's music, particularly on songs like "Sutekina Melody"(すてきなメロディー) and, of course, "Downtown."
Obviously, Sugar Babe drew inspiration from plenty of other American groups, including The Beach Boys, The Righteous Brothers, and The Lovin' Spoonful. But one listen to The 5th Avenue Band's "One Way or the Other" suddenly puts everything into perspective.\
I understand it now.
Written by Kenny Altman, "One Way or the Other" is a groovy little bubblegum-pop track that honestly wouldn't sound out of place in The 5th Dimension's discography. Its acoustic-driven arrangement gives the song this wonderfully relaxed, weekend-drive kind of vibe—the same sort of breezy atmosphere that would later become such an important part of the City Pop sound.
Listening to the rest of The 5th Avenue Band's album, I wouldn't be surprised if other Japanese musicians like Shigeru Suzuki (鈴木茂) or Sentimental City Romance (センチメンタル・シティ・ロマンス) were influenced by this kind of music as well. There's something about its mixture of folk-rock, soul, vocal harmony, and laid-back instrumentation that feels remarkably compatible with the direction Japanese pop music would begin taking during the mid-70s.
Thankfully, "One Way or the Other" has continued finding new listeners over the years, helped in no small part by Tatsuro Yamashita, who has frequently played the song on his radio program.
Over the past few years, it's become fairly regular for me to wait in hospitals and clinics while my folks and myself go through various medical procedures. And as such, I bring a book along to wile away the time. A few weeks ago, I brought the above tome called the April 2018 edition of "Record Collectors" which was focusing on the City Pop singles and albums from 1980 to 1989.
Well on Page 47, there was an article with the title "Cunimondo Takiguchi ga Erabu Shiteki Hachi-juu Nendai City Pop Best 10"（クニモンド瀧口が選ぶ私的80年代シティポップベスト10）which has been translated into the title on the above byline. Now, Takiguchi is the leader of the band Ryusenkei（流線形）, one of the groups that spearheaded a new version of City Pop going into the 21st century although he has gone on record to state that he doesn't particularly want that exact label applied to his work since City Pop is a musical phenomenon of past decades; he would prefer that his discography and those of other similarly-minded contemporary musicians be called urban contemporary. I respect his opinion but I also have my own on the reach of City Pop throughout the past few decades and I feel that City Pop never really died out even when the Bubble Era collapsed at the turn of the decade from the 80s into the 90s so I have continued to use the label to categorize songs by Ryusenkei, Kirinji（キリンジ）and Suchmos, etc.
But in any case, I have here Part 1 of his list of those City Pop albums from the 1980s that he has enjoyed starting from 1 to 5. The latter half of the selection will be posted next week. I have also included the comments that he stated in the article for each album. For the last couple of entries, I wasn't able to find a full album.
When I was a junior high school sophomore, one summer, my three buddies and I listened to "Futari" on the Walkman from the veranda of an Atami cottage while looking at the night sky. We were so moved as we each had a turn listening to it and the memory has lasted as a formative experience in City Pop for me.
For the wonderful keyboardist, Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, who had his input on that Yamashita album, I took another look at his "Awakening" in my thirties and it became one of my most favourite albums. He once gave me an interview and though I was nervous, he was kind enough to give me two hours of his time which was a happy memory.
Going back from Matsushita's（松下誠）days with AB's, the original jacket from "First Light" struck me as something that was so cool. The refined chord progressions and arrangement along with Matsushita's not-overly-polished vocals were very comfortable to hear.
I got into "Coconuts High" through the soundtrack she provided to "Urusei Yatsura"（うる星やつら）, and those tropical songs contained the Latin rhythms and her light and cute vocals which harmonized just right with those muscular synths.
I fell in love with "Tasogare My Love"（たそがれマイ・ラブ） when I was in elementary school. I got to know her cool and groovy side when I listened to "Point Zero" in my twenties.
Circus Town is one of my favorite albums of all time, and one of my top five favorite Tatsuro Yamashita (山下達郎) albums. As someone who’s been to New York, I think it captures the aura of the Big Apple very well. It’s got some well-known bangers like the title theme, “Windy Lady,” and my personal favorite, the doo-wop classic “Last Step.”
Although, in my opinion, the most underrated song is easily the closing number, “Natsu no Hi” (夏の陽). It has that typical ’70s folk-rock sound, but the ethereal backing chorus, combined with Tat’s signature belting, gives it a whimsical touch
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Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near the first song you think of when you talk about Tats, so color me surprised when I found out that the theatrical jazz-pop band Stardust Revue did their own a cappella cover of the song in 2008 for their album Always. This might be my favorite version.
I’ve heard a lot of Tatsuro Yamashita covers in my time, but this is one of the few that surpasses the original. Doesn’t surprise me one bit. The American revue-inspired band, hence the name, has a knack for creating excellent vocal harmonies and combining them with music you’d hear in some kind of vaudeville act. Plus, the lead singer, Kaname Nemoto (三谷泰弘), has performed live with Tatsuro in the past. Nemoto, joined by Tats and J-rock star Shōgo Hamada (浜田省吾 ), once performed a live a cappella version of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me.”
When you get a chance to listen to Stardust Revue, make sure to check out their 2008 album ALWAYS. It's filled with great acapella and acoustic covers of various kayokyoku classics.
Kinda ironic that I just put up my "New York" tunes a week ago, and now I'm posting Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Circus Town" onto the blog since this song was not only the lead track and title track for his 1976 debut album but also a representative of the New York side of the album (Side B is the LA side of things). After all these years of posting his music onto KKP and it is today that I'm finally adding "Circus Town", maybe one of his songs that got him beloved among the non-Japanese community of City Pop enthusiasts, onto KKP.
There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that I'd assumed that I did put it up in the past but haven't bothered to check since I often get depressed scrolling down his vast file and seeing all of the videos that have been struck down...possibly on the singer-songwriter's command himself. The other reason is another assumption that "Circus Town" is just one of those iconic Tats tunes that other better music bloggers and journalists have given their sage two cents and that I needn't bother to do so.
Well, as it turns out, there's not a whole lot of insight put out for "Circus Town" that I could find (although I'm sure that commenters can point me in the right direction afterwards). Even J-Wiki didn't contribute much to the song itself although its article for the album in general is fairly voluminous.
But what can I say about the song itself? It's wonderful! Breezy and seemingly celebratory about the Big Apple, it was written by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and composed/arranged by Yamashita, one of the star songwriting pairings in Japanese pop music (and my most recent article involving Tats was their duo cover of Niteflyte's "If You Want It" from almost a year previously). According to the brief paragraph on the song, "Circus Town" was based on the 16-beat pop that had been commonly played in New York circles. Blue Lou Marini was responsible for the scintillating sax solo and it was a nice touch to add that adorable piccolo rendition of circus music. And as much as Junko Yagami（八神純子）liked to call New York City"Purpletown", I think Yamashita calling what was once known as the World's Most Dangerous City "Circus Town" was very apt. I'm sure that for anybody coming into the metropolis from anywhere else must have been witness to quite the crazy circus-like atmosphere of Manhattan (check out those disco strings flying themselves into a tempests at one point in the song).
I have more hope that the above video of "Circus Town" will be staying up for a good long while since it actually does belong to Yamashita's own YouTube channel. Has the man followed the mantra of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"? Has he mellowed out when it comes to his works? In my case, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Just gonna enjoy my repeated listenings to it.
I've already posted a number of Art of Noise articles in the past ten years as parts of the Reminiscings of Youth file here on KKP, and indeed, the avant-garde synthpop group consisting of Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn and all of the rest made up some of the most incredible collages of sounds to form music to add pleasure to my time in the 1980s. By the time that they came up with their version of "Dragnet" for the movie starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks in 1987, they were very much a welcome part and parcel of the decade's pop panoply.
However, several years earlier, I was honestly taken aback and maybe even somewhat intimidated by the Art of Noise when I heard their December 1983 debut single"Beatbox". It was nothing that I had ever heard before; they made this beloved song in the breakdancing world out of various sounds which emanated like and not like human voices screeching out a march alongside some pounding percussion and perhaps my first exposure to orchestral hits.
I've read and heard that there have been various takes (or diversions) on "Beatbox" on record and in music video. If so, then the music video below is the one that I've seen because I remember seeing that image of the London police officer getting duplicated and stretched out. It was quite the tourist video for London as well.
Among all of the diversions (I've seen No. 10), I think the one that I heard the most on radio was Diversion 1 which lasts more than eight minutes and finishes with a classy classical piano take on the core song. It's almost as if AON was trying to let us know that no matter all of the technology and sampling, music still comes down to a basic beautiful melody played out on an old-fashioned instrument.
So, as I said, "Beat Box" was released in December 1983. What else was being released in Japan in that month?
Happy Monday! I've always had a fascination for those songs that kinda slipped through the net, so to speak. What I'm referring to are tunes by a singer that never got put onto one of their studio albums from a single such as a forgotten B-side or even an A-side. And perhaps, they never even made it onto one of their early BEST collections.
Being a singer and songwriter, the Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）file on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is pretty long by now, but I think I've managed to find one of those mystery songs. Her "Ashita Koso, Anata"(Tomorrow For Sure, You) was her 6th single from November 1981, and according to one site, it was used as a jingle for a Kadokawa Bookstore commercial. It did eventually get onto a Yano special compilation CD called "Ai ga Tarinai"（愛がたりない...Not Enough Love） which came out in January 1995 and supposedly consists of those ignored songs.
The other notable thing about this particular Yano song is that aside from the singer coming up with words and music, her husband at the time, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）were behind the arrangement (and you can hear him as background chorus). In fact, looking at the list of musicians involved, this was virtually a Tats-and-Yellow Magic Orchestra collaboration with Sakamoto on synthesizer, Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）on drums, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）on bass and Tats also helping out on guitar while Yano was singing away. I wouldn't even say that "Ashita Koso, Anata" was a technopop tune at all. If anything, it sounds closer to being a Shibuya-kei tune (a decade before the genre really came into being) with the happy-happy beat and Tats' chorus. If there had been a music video, I would have imagined a 60s band playing on some old music-variety show. Plus, there is something about the opening of each verse which reminds me of the music from "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". It's one of the rarest of the rare in many ways.
I'd like to interrupt this broadcast of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for a weather announcement. Toronto is currently being pummeled with a foot of snow with the temperature at around -14 degrees Celsius with a wind chill factor of -25. Autos are skidding off the roads and a lot of institutions are closing due to the weather (including schools; yay, Snow Day!😊). It'll probably be one of the rare days that I don't step out of the house, period.
But hey, it's January in my hometown and this sort of stuff is expected. And I've decided to put up an emergency Author's Picks based on storms.
Last night, my student reminded me that Monday is a national holiday in Japan known as Culture Day. Every November 3rd, there are festivals, parades and art exhibits to promote culture of all kinds including music throughout the nation. And I believe that museums and art galleries tend to open up their buildings for free access or half-price access on that day.
When I was on vacation in Tokyo back in November 2017, my former colleague was kind enough to invite me to a culture festival held at Waseda University where she was working at the time, and as you can see above, it was packed to the gills with students and other visitors as the various campus clubs held performances and campaigns to attract new members.
As such, I decided why not put up a few songs regarding Culture Day. Admittedly, I'm gonna be rather loosey-goosey about how I'm going to go about it. The first three entries are associated with some of the things that I talked about in the first paragraph whereas the final two songs were actually popular ones played at some of the festivals themselves.
I've known about 80s aidoru Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）ever since I started getting into Japanese pop music as a teen myself, and so I got to know some of his big hits such as "Blue Jeans Memory"（ブルー・ジーンズ・メモリー）and "Gingiragin ni Sarigenaku"（ギンギラギンにさりげなく）through the usual sources of videotaped music shows and karaoke outings. However, this particular song kinda fell through the cracks although I kept seeing it in ranking lists and Matchy's long discography.
So, I'm talking about his 7th single from June 1982, "Highteen Boogie". Strangely enough, I never saw him perform it on videotaped editions of "The Best 10" or hear anyone at Kuri, our old karaoke hangout here in Toronto, perform it. Up until recently, it was simply a title on the Matchy list. Well, I finally listened to it and found it to be the typically Matchy rumbly rock n' roll song although I think perhaps one observation is that the kid sounded perhaps a little more high-tone and slightly softer despite the shark-powered driving arrangement.
And speaking of the creation, Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）was behind the lyrics while Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）took care of music and arrangement. In fact, Matchy also had some additional help from other Tats associates in the form of Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and EPO as the backing chorus. It hit No. 1 for a few weeks after its release and ended up as the 7th-ranked single of 1982. Apparently, Yamashita has covered the song live in concerts himself although no official recorded version of the song exists.
The song was the theme song for "Highteen Boogie" the movie which was released in early August 1982 with the Tanokin Trio: Matchy, Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）and Yoshio Nomura（野村義男） starring. Matchy plays a high school-age motorcycle-riding street tough who wants to go straight due to the charms of an orphaned teen girl but fate apparently has other purposes for him. Matsumoto's lyrics talk about young Sho's redemption through love and perhaps the aforementioned softer vocal approach reflects that.
If I'm not mistaken, September is the month for all things lunar in Asia. People seem to enjoy viewing the moon and stuff, and of course, McDonalds sells its famous tsukimi burgers during that time.
All the way back in 2019, I posted the first article for singer-songwriter Issei Okamoto（岡本一生）, later to be known as Akira Okamoto（岡本朗）, which focused on the title track for his July 1978 debut album"Moonlight Singing"（ムーンライト・シンギィング）. Well, I've got another track from the album.
Just to let you know, "Moon Magic" is the only other track on "Moonlight Singing" that has that moony theme, lest you might think Okamoto went all lunatic on us. As I was listening to this breezy disco tune created and sung by Okamoto, whom I noted sounded like a Japanese Bobby Caldwell on the title track, there was something more Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）in his delivery with "Moon Magic". Well, coincidentally enough, Tats was indeed involved as the guitarist, percussionist and the arranger. In fact, there were some very famous names in the recording studio with Okamoto: Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）on keyboards, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）on bass, Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）on guitar, and Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）on drums.
Aliens vs. Anime? I figure that could be one of the last frontiers that the 46-year-old sci-fi-horror franchise could visit. By the way, the photo above was taken in Nakano Broadway.
In any case, the latest in the "Alien" franchise is "Alien: Earth" and in the months and weeks approaching its arrival on screens, we've been getting tidbits about the terrifying yet fascinating new predators going on the attack. Perhaps the one big monster is T. Ocellus that is 50% octopus, 50% eyeball and 100% nightmare. It literally bursts out in its debut as you can see above (or perhaps you don't want to, especially if you love cats).
Well, considering that it's Hump Day today and I want to gently scrub my brain of any of T. Ocellus' work, I'm going with another whimsical Author's Picks consisting of songs that have "eyes" in the title. It'll be a short list today.
I had family over tonight for dinner after which most of us ended up watching the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game and the Edmonton Oilers-Florida Panthers Stanley Cup matchup. Drowsing off a bit in my armchair which is something that I tend to do with alarming frequency these nights, I started entertaining one of my fantasies which is wondering how it would be like to be an all-night radio DJ.
"Man, you must have been hitting the Canada Dry pretty hard, J-Canuck!" is probably what a lot of you might be thinking. But yeah, I've always wondered about a career in radio, and not just during the daytime drive time but also in the wee hours of the morning. After all, although I'm not sure whether I have a voice for radio, I certainly have a face for it! Plus, not only have I loved Donald Fagen's classic 1982 album "The Nightfly" as you can see above, I've also loved the cover of Fagen himself dressed up as a 1950s or 1960s disc jockey handling the overnight shift in that tiny room while he's charismatically spinning tales and records between midnight and 6 am.
One reason that I would love to try to give this particularly distinct job a whirl despite the hours is that I've read recently that live overnight radio in North America, at least, has been dead for a long time now (wherever you're reading this, perhaps you can tell me if this is also true in your neck of the woods). Financially speaking and in terms of personnel, I can understand why a radio station manager would cut all ties to all-night radio with a real human being; subscribing to a nationally-provided streaming service from a computer while the lights are all out at the station can save a lot of dough. However, I've also read that there had been DJs in the past who relished the overnight shift because they were a whole lot more free to talk and play their own kind of music and talk with the other all-nighters out there ranging from desperate university students cramming for exams to security guards at their lonely stations. Maybe they could have their own favourite guests or buddies come by to keep them company and nosh on pizza and stuff. As someone who used to man the Tuesday night shift at the International Student Centre at the University of Toronto, I was accustomed to seeing and chatting with all sorts of people who passed by the front desk and enjoyed it most of the time. I could enjoy that too as a DJ perhaps (of course, as long as the station manager was a nice and generous person).
But what would I play? Well, this is something that I was musing about for a long time and the six choices that I have are only a mere fraction of what I would like to play during a stint in the booth. Not surprisingly, it would be a mix of Japanese and non-Japanese music. So, typing this close to 11 pm EDT, here's a sextet of cool-down nighttime music coming up here on WKKP in Toronto. I'd also welcome any contributions by you out there.
I was going to have some leftover spaghetti with some butter, soy sauce and pepper. But then I discovered that my supermarket was selling fully cooked smoked bacon. Well, since I think that pasta without some sort of meat is just plain naked, I wanted it, I could get it, and I got it! Throw in a few hot pepper flakes and I've got my make-do Pasta Pepperoncino.
Now this whole joke segue landed in a pile of fortuitous coincidence since I would come home to the blog to find a comment from Francois stating his discovery of a wonderful cover by the duo of Tatsuro Yamashita and Minako Yoshida（山下達郎・吉田美奈子）, and those two have been responsible for the creation of some of the more beloved City Pop songs from that original period of the late 1970s going well into the 1980s.
I am talking about their rendition of Niteflyte's"If You Want It", and many thanks to Francois for the recommendation. Apparently, this was some 1980 studio recording of the original 1979 single by the American funk group, so perhaps Yamashita and Yoshida performed it during a radio show, but the two are full money on their cover, especially due to Yoshida's soaring vocals. It's a wonder that the two didn't do any more of these duets. By the way, listening to this, I can get an idea of how "Sparkle" came about.
I can't think of a better song to start off this edition of Urban Contemporary Fridays on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" than "If You Want It". It was love and not bacon that was the subject of the original Niteflyte song which peaked at No. 37 on Billboard, and I have to admit that I love the original even more thanks to those disco strings which have plucked my own heart strings. And the groove is mighty epic! "If You Want It" is also present on the band's self-titled debut album from 1979. By the way, I wrote about Niteflyte for the first time almost a year ago with their 1981 "You Are".
The works of Tatsuro Yamashita in the 1970s can be considered to be "style-oriented". That style was wrapped around a 16-beat structure and was funky to be sure, but at the same time, the melody was selected through collaboration with other musicians as if from a producer's point of view, leading to the albums that he created. It was this rationalism of his that sparked Charles Calello, who had an up-close-and-personal relationship in the recording of "Circus Town", to state that Yamashita went about things like a true professional. It was this methodology of competing with the sounds of the time that steadily gathered support within the music scene that finally led to his breakthrough album of 1980, "Ride on Time".
Yamashita, after his 1983 "Melodies", took an even bigger singer-songwriter approach, releasing music such as the huge standard "Christmas Eve", and achieved an unshakeable position in the Japanese world of pop music. As everyone knows, the fact that he is still around is due to the respect that he's earned from the steady work of quality of a higher degree for any album that he's involved in.
Well, when making the selections for this book, what I was most surprised about was how frequently he participated in recording sessions. He was especially no slouch when it came to his workload in the 1970s, but of particular note is that a lot of it involved him in background chorus work. At the time, he was focused on chorus; moreover, he himself commented that he had been highly valued because there was no one else who was good at falsetto. Within Japan's pop scene, his level of contribution when it came to his brand of harmony pop after the birth of rock-and-roll(Beach Boys, Four Seasons, doo wop in general, etc.) should be remembered in large part alongside his own solo work.
In this book, a lot of the works where his session work can be enjoyed have a large following. I hope that you can give these a try as well.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
I mentioned at the beginning of this KKP broadcasting day on the tribute to Sugar Babe's"Downtown" that the auspicious anniversary for the band's one album "SONGS" wasn't the only target of a special anniversary for a Japanese music piece.
April 25th 2025 also happens to be the 41st anniversary of the release of Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）single "Plastic Love", a song whose original YouTube video not only launched 7 million views in a few months but helped start along with a few other songs from Japan, the City Pop boom beginning in the late 2010s.
I first wrote about "Plastic Love" and the rest of the album "Variety" back in 2012, some years before that one corner of YouTube exploded with joy and discovery of this particular song. I was no Nostradamus so there was no way that I could have predicted how incredibly popular it would become, but even back then, I wrote down how cool and urban "Plastic Love" was and how it compared to Steely Dan's material and even the more adult contemporary songs that the Manhattan Transfer sang in the late 70s going into the early 1980s. Before then, I knew her primarily for her very early stuff bringing together 50s/60s girl pop along with country music and her much later pop balladry.
It was just that one short paragraph for "Plastic Love" in the article for "Variety", so I had always wanted to write something fuller since the song's fortunes dramatically changed from the late 2010s forwards. For a song that has become one of my favourites when it comes to Takeuchi's huge discography, it's ironic that I wouldn't even know of the song's existence until 2008, almost a quarter-century after its release, and I had been a Mariya fan since I first heard her sing "September" in 1982 on the local radio program "Sounds of Japan". 2008 was the year of my discovery of "Plastic Love" through her hit BEST compilation "Expressions" which was released to much fanfare in October of that year. I had bought her previous BEST album "Impressions" back in 1994 but "Plastic Love" hadn't been included in that one.
During my years in Japan, I'd wondered from time to time if there would ever be a Japanese pop song that could be the second coming of Kyu Sakamoto's（坂本九）"Sukiyaki" song (1961) in terms of surprising out-of-the-blue worldwide popularity. Names including Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）, Dreams Come True and Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）came to mind but none of them really hit the global big time. But then came along "Plastic Love" via YouTube as "Sukiyaki" did through radio DJ booths in the UK and the US, and suddenly an unlikely hit was born. Mind you, "Plastic Love" hit the ceiling outside of Japan over three decades after its initial release, but my long-awaiting question was finally answered.
I've heard a few secondhand reports but my new question is still out there. How has Ms. Takeuchi felt about this second wind to "Plastic Love"?
Last week, I got to see the teaser for the remake of "The Naked Gun", this time starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., the son of the hilariously famous Frank Drebin played by the late Leslie Nielsen. So, of course, all the zany humour in this new version can go back to the original movie from 1988 and that movie can go all the way back to the 1982 short-lived series "Police Squad!".
Nielsen cemented his newfound status as a comic actor late in his long entertainment career in "Police Squad!" but it had been discovered a few years earlier in 1980 on "Airplane!" which had him playing straight-talking Dr. Rumack.
In recent months, a lot of the younger generation and their YouTube reaction channels have also been discovering the humour onslaught loaded like bullets in a machine gun in "Airplane!". One of my cinematic regrets is that I never got to see any of the 1970s Mel Brooks movies such as "Blazing Saddles" at the theatre (probably wouldn't have been allowed to get into the cinema anyways at my age), but all that was countered when my brother and I got to see "Airplane!" in its first run when it was released at the end of June 1980. I don't think I've ever had that much fun at a movie...before and since. Laughter was ranging from loud to absolutely screaming.
David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams were the geniuses at overdoing Brooks' humour in terms of quantity and speed, and as I mentioned in the "Police Squad!"ROY article last year, one of the big factors in the success of "Airplane!" was casting familiar straight dramatic actors from television and movies as some of the characters such as Peter Graves from "Mission: Impossible", Robert Stack from "The Untouchables" and Nielsen himself who had been in all sorts of serious roles ranging from starship captain to corrupt corporate executive.
The actors themselves were initially skeptical about whether they could actually pull this off and say these lines like "Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?", so they needed some reassuring from the Zucker Brothers and Abrahams. However, one person involved in the production got it right away apparently, and that was movie composer Elmer Bernstein. This is the same man behind the epic soundtracks for "The Ten Commandments" and "The Magnificent Seven", and he was asked by the guys to not come up with anything epic, but something befitting a B-movie suspense movie...something corny and overdone.
And yet, when Bernstein completed his work, the "Airplane!" soundtrack not only fulfilled the producers' requests but it was still epic. I can hear any part of this soundtrack in a "Name That Tune" situation and I'd still recognize it more than forty years later. Of course, it all starts with the main title with a goodly nod to John Williams and a certain shark, before everything kicks in. At 4:38,"Lisa/Farewell/Take Off/Another Meeting" expresses the situation about the sick girl needing that heart operation but it also goes into one of my favourite scenes when a young couple sadly separates as if the lad were getting on a train rather than a plane.
I also wanted to show the scene as well as the music accompanying it if I can. At 8:48 on the soundtrack above is the Bee Gees' classic "Stayin' Alive" which of course provided the music for the flashback disco scene right here. The video doesn't show it but there was also the aftermath with Ted and Elaine sharing that cheek-to-cheek dance as they danced to the nighty-night jazz of "Love Theme from Airplane!" (13:31), a theme that gets picked up all throughout the movie in various versions.
"Thar She Blows" is a very appropriately titled track considering the scene that it accompanies. I wasn't sure whether Bernstein and the orchestra were trying to stifle laughter while recording that one. All I can say is that I had never heard of an automatic pilot joining the Mile High Club until this movie.
27:27 is "Punch-Up/Kramer" which contains another one of my favourite scenes where Robert Stack's no-nonsense Rex Kramer shows in no uncertain terms how he feels about religious groups asking for donations at airports. At the time I saw "Airplane!", I recognized Stack's face, probably from guest roles on dramas but I hadn't known that he was the first TV Eliot Ness from "The Untouchables".
Finally at 39:47 is the song that had Ted regain his mojo and save everybody by the end. I hadn't known it at the time but that was the "Notre Dame Victory March". It also showed up at the end credits (always loved Stephen Stucker as Air Traffic Controller Johnny...he pretty much stole the show).
Considering that "Airplane!" was released in the Toronto/Buffalo area on June 27th 1980, let's see what was on top of Oricon. I've got the first three here from June 30th.
Just to give everyone who may not know her a preview, this is former competitive skater Mao Asada（浅田真央）. She's become quite the legend due to her feats on the ice and has been a regular face on Japanese TV not just because of her skating but also through commercials.
Apparently, she's now broken into the world of music videos. That is indeed Asada against the backdrop of a different form of H2O as Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）sings her latest release, "Days of Love" which got its debut on YouTube a couple of days ago. Written by Takeuchi and composed by her husband Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, it does have that Tats feeling of twangy guitar and languid rhythm that has often gone into one of his songs.
"Days of Love" is now being used as the campaign song for Airweave, a mattress company. It's a nice fit, considering how relaxing the song feels.
This was also the case with his debut song "Denwa shite mo"（電話しても）, but there are many instances in Kazuhito Murata's（村田和人）melodies which evoke that particular bittersweetness of youth. Furthermore, when Yoshihiko Ando's（安藤芳彦）excellent lyrics expressing that feeling are laid down, the songs truly shine. "Lady September" is one of those songs representing the duo's early works, and it splendidly illustrates the passing summer and the loneliness present at the end of one love that happened that summer.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
A few decades ago, someone had the bright idea to enshrine the third Monday of January as Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year. As much as folks and maybe even authorities have tried to debunk it, the concept has remained stuck to pop culture like hawk talons on a fish. Ironically, a lot of those credit card and utility bills have poured into my mailbox today.
Well, Monday is bad enough but a Blue Monday calls for some help and perhaps I can humbly provide some "blue" songs that can have you swaying, skipping, grooving or even dancing. Enjoy!
Yes, I do realize that Christmas ended two weeks ago today but I really couldn't let this one song go, especially I would have to wait another eleven months to activate this one.
To be honest, I only discovered this Xmas oddity a few days after December 25th. The late singer-songwriter Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）showed off his humourous side once more with "Christmas Ondo"(Christmas Folk Song). It was placed suitably as the penultimate track on his Xmas Day-release 1977 concept album"Niagara Calendar". Inspired by Julie London's 1956"Calendar Girl", Ohtaki's tracks follow along the theme of a calendar from New Year's to New Year's.
"Christmas Ondo" is a fun mélange of Xmas music and Japanese festival melody that includes excerpts from "Silent Night", "White Christmas" and "Jingle Bells". It makes me wonder whether some enterprising folks in Japan ever came up with a Christmas matsuri somewhere in the years since. One bit of trivia that I got from the J-Wiki article on "Niagara Calendar" was that Ohtaki had begged Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）to include and arrange a string section. Tats wasn't too keen on the necessity but Ohtaki insisted and somehow the deed got done.
Interestingly enough, Ohtaki got together with vocal group Chanels (before they became known as Rats and Star) at a Christmas Day 1979 concert and did their version of "Christmas Ondo". Methinks the guys had generous helpings of spiked egg nog to get them through it.
