Koji Tsuruta -- Uramachi Polka（裏町ポルカ）

 

The above is a shot of a menchi katsu（メンチカツ）shop on one of the back streets of Asakusa in Tokyo. One of my friends had recommended it to me as one of the best in town. Considering how big Japan's capital is, that's saying quite a lot, but getting a freshly deep-fried one in that paper sleeve and taking a bite, I could understand my friend's endorsement. Basically, think of a croquette without the mashed potato and just a loose conglomeration of ground beef. It makes for a nice snack before dinner.

Now, this song's appearance on the blog all came about from a request from commenter YMOfan04 who had asked me whether I knew some 70s or 80s kayo kyoku with an Eastern European flavour; perhaps something with a polka rhythm. I pointed her toward some of the Fashion Music and exotic kayo songs, but at the same time, I also plugged in a request into the Yahoo Japan search engine.

One of the songs that popped up was Koji Tsuruta's（鶴田浩二）"Uramachi Polka" (Backstreet Polka). Just from listening to it, I knew that this wouldn't fit into YMOfan04's parameters since it sounded quite old. And that was the problem there...I couldn't track down when this jaunty kayo was first released. My first attempt was met with failure since the song apparently didn't show up in Tsuruta's J-Wiki discography and the YJ search engine couldn't give me any answers either.

However, I wouldn't take NO for an answer and I gave it another go. This time, I could find out from the images shown in the search engine that "Uramachi Polka" had been the flip side to another Tsuruta song "Ame Shitatare Chanson"（雨滴れシャンソン...Raindrop Chanson） which had been released in July 1954. It isn't 100% proof but I'll take it. In any case, "Uramachi Polka" sounds like a 1950s kayo about the sweet magic of a polka to massage the spirit and soul of a person who's suffering from heartache. Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, it certainly has that jaunty rhythm of a polka but also has that familiar kayo melody.

Koji Tsuruta -- Aka to Kuro no Blues（赤と黒のブルース）

 

It's been several years since I put up the previous article regarding the late singer-actor Koji Tsuruta（鶴田浩二）. For me, the most recognizable song by him will be his most famous hit, the 1970 "Kizu Darake no Jinsei"（傷だらけの人生）. 

Well, last night on NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, one of the guests sang a moody kayo titled "Aka to Kuro no Blues" (The Red and Black Blues). Not surprisingly, it has been categorized as a Mood Kayo, probably one of the first of the genre, and it was indeed recorded by Tsuruta as a single in 1955. Tsuruta had already been making waves as a primo movie star who could sing; "Aka to Kuro no Blues" cemented that reputation as another hit.

Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, it's also another ballad of woe as the protagonist of the piece is probably schlumping in some alley watering hole while bemoaning his lot in life with the hint that a lady in a red and black dress whirled him into a sucker's deal of romance. The horns are there of course, but I also picked up on a bit more jazz than usual in this Mood Kayo.

With "Aka to Kuro no Blues" becoming one of the first big Mood Kayo hits, it was inevitable that some of the other big singing stars would take a swing at the song. Frank Nagai（フランク永井）was one such person with another being the Tough Guy himself, Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）.

Mariko Miyagi -- Gaado Shita no Kutsumigaki（ガード下の靴みがき）

 

In the last several years, a YouTube genre known as ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos has popped up in all sorts of settings such as massage, haircuts and even shoe shines. In oldspeak, I guess you can say it's all about getting that tingle up the spine and relaxing through the sights and sounds of getting that rubdown or other sort of tonsorial treatment. For me, I really did enjoy getting the full service at a Japanese barber when I was living in Ichikawa. I never had that shoe shine though since frankly most of my life has been spent in either sneakers or loafers. By the way, the above video is from Japan ASMR.

This kayo kyoku here is "Gaado Shita no Kutsumigaki" (The Shoeshine Boy Under the Overpass), a 1955 song by singer/actress Mariko Miyagi（宮城まり子）which probably tugged at quite a few heartstrings. Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Ichiro Tone（利根一郎）, the kayo involves a young lad all alone in the city with a dead father and a very ill mother just trying to survive as a shoeshine boy. The music possesses that wistful and plaintive feeling of innocence and industriousness as he tries to persuade customers for some work.

Miyagi was one of the early veterans on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen, appearing no less than eight times between 1954 and 1962. "Gaado Shita no Kutsumigaki" was the second song that she performed on the New Year's Eve special in that same year of 1955, and considering her later work helping children, maybe this song had a very deep effect on her.

Hiroshi Wada and Mahina Stars -- Tokyo no Yoru wa Tanoshiku（東京の夜は楽しく）/Tokyo no Yoru wa Sasayaku（東京の夜はささやく）

 

It's been about half a month since I've tackled a Mood Kayo and last night's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）was more on the folk stuff of the 1970s (which of course I was perfectly fine with), so nothing about the old bar songs there.

First off, let's have those Mood Kayo veterans Hiroshi Wada and Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）back on KKP again with their 1966 song "Tokyo no Yoru wa Tanoshiku" (Fun Nights in Tokyo) which was actually a B-side to "Ginza Blues"（銀座ブルース）, a single that had the group duet with Kazuko Matsuo（松尾和子）. Written and composed by the same fellow behind the sultry music of "Ginza Blues", Domei Suzuki（鈴木道明）, "Tokyo no Yoru wa Tanoshiku" has more of a galloping melody with some Latin hustle percussion and that steel pedal guitar so maybe even a bit of Hawaiian punch is included. The guys are basically happily exhorting all of those salarymen to Wang Chung (80s pop joke) the night away in the largest city on the planet. Good times, back then.

I've also thrown in this Tokyo-themed song by Mahina Stars called "Tokyo no Yoru wa Sasayaku" (Whispers in the Tokyo Night) although I couldn't track down the originating year for this one, though it's been contained on kayo compilations for the 1960s. I figure it was probably a non-single album track on one of the group's original LPs.

Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Hideki Mishima（三島秀記）, "Tokyo no Yoru wa Sasayaku" has more of an intimate sensation on the ears, and I especially enjoy the almost-crystal like guitar plucking right from the start. The feeling is akin to a couple dancing really close on the nightclub floor buoyed by plenty of alcohol in the two of them. It's truly a Mood Kayo love ballad somewhere on the streets of Tokyo.

Akira Mita -- Utsukushii Juudai （美しい十代）

Saw my first "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）in a few weeks. One indication that the old kayo ought to be lasting for a good while longer is seeing some of the young kids performing it on stage. I saw a 13-year-old boy singing the tune of this article less than an hour ago, and although he didn't get the full triumphant barrage of bells, he still got a thumbs-up from me. He wasn't totally on tune but it was because of that, he probably got the lion's share of accolades.

The song in question was "Utsukushii Juudai" (The Beautiful Teens) as originally sung by Akira Mita（三田明）. It's been included in that sub-genre known as seishun kayo（青春歌謡...salad day pop music）with all of those nostalgic stories of high school life. I believe Kazuo Funaki's（舟木一夫）"Koukou Sannen-sei"（高校三年生）would be the quintessential example of such a song.

According to J-Wiki, "Utsukushii Juudai" was the debut single of Mita who became popular for his innocent looks and wonderful voice. Released in November 1963, the song was written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, and focused on that adorable young love during those tender if sometimes turbulent time in life. Couldn't get more musically sepia than those strings and backup chorus.

A few months after the release of the single, its success meant that a movie with the same title was produced with Mita taking on a supporting role.

Mita was born Ushio Tsujikawa（辻川潮）in Tokyo in 1947. In 1962, while appearing on the NTV music variety program "Ajinomoto Hoihoi Music School"（味の素ホイホイ・ミュージック・スクール）, composer Yoshida took the young Mita under his wing, and several months later, the singer and actor made his debut. At the time, the Gosanke（御三家...The Big Three） trio of Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）, Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）and the aforementioned Funaki were the singing heartthrobs but although Mita was seen as being a Johnny-come-lately to the proceedings, the media did place him with those three, thus having the quartet dubbed as the Shitennou（四天王...The Four Heavenly Kings）.

It looks like Mita's heyday was the 1960s which was punctuated by his 6 straight appearances on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen. However, he never sang "Utsukushii Juudai" during that run between 1964 and 1969.

Yukio Hashi -- Ame no Naka no Futari （雨の中の二人）

It was only for a very brief period this afternoon but we actually had a snow shower today. Yes, snow in May. What's the phrase I always like to use about Toronto weather?: predictably unpredictable. Well, in any case, it was brief. It's now sunny if unseasonably cold...we're only up to 6 degrees Celsius today.

Time for a another precipitation-based kayo today. However, it is not on snow but on rain...what we should be having this time of year. I heard this on today's edition of NHK's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）. My memory sparked at this old chestnut since it is one of my childhood oldies from the old wooden stereo. It has one of those distinctive melodies that I can remember clearly but I couldn't find out who sang it or what it was called.

It figures then that it was sung by Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）since another one of my earliest musical memories was one of his other singles released some months down the line called "Muhyo"（霧氷）. "Ame no Naka no Futari" (A Couple in the Rain) was released back in January 1966 as his 75th single (man, those singers really shot out those releases like a Gatling gun back then), and like that later single, there is a certain haunting stateliness to "Ame no Naka no Futari" thanks to the background chorus supporting Hashi. What is also striking about the ballad is the use of the violins which help make it sound somewhat like a R&B tune from the 1950s or 1960s although it is a Mood Kayo. Just the way those bows rapidly swished across the strings seared itself into my memory forever.

Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Ichiro Tone（利根一郎）, "Ame no Naka no Futari" is a pretty dramatic tune to describe that romantic walk under an umbrella. In fact, one of the things I learned while teaching in Gunma Prefecture is that that a line drawing of an umbrella with two names written underneath was the Japanese sign of romance, and of course, the trope has been used to death in just about every anime. The song was also the theme tune for a movie of the same name starring Hashi himself.

My personal memory of the record that was played on the old RCA Victor was that the disc was probably warped in some way since it often got stuck on a groove until my Dad nudged the needle a bit.

Frank Nagai and Kazuko Matsuo -- Kokudo Juu-Hachi Gou-sen （国道18号線）

Got together with the work colleagues yesterday for a semi-annual drink down at my old university watering hole, The Madison Ave. Pub. We did the nachos-and-alcohol thing and I went for a Maddy's that consists of whiskey, Kahlua and lots of other stuff. I held my own...something that I couldn't do back 25 years ago when I arrived in Japan to live for the first time. I still cannot even drink a college freshman under the table but I can say that I am able to survive through a night at a bar...Japan did that for me.

So, on that note, allow me to bring another Saturday night special from the wilds of Akasaka and Ginza. It's another round of Mood Kayo with the duo who is practically synonymous with the genre, Frank Nagai and Kazuko Matsuo（フランク永井・松尾和子）. The pair who brought over the classy "Tokyo Nightclub" back in 1959 came together once more with another club-friendly ballad, "Kokudo Juu-Hachi Gou-sen" (National Route 18) in 1964.

The lyrics were by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）who also gave the words to the haunting "Muhyou"（霧氷）for Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）while the music was composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）who had also written the notes for the above-mentioned "Tokyo Nightclub". The above version of "Kokudo Juu-Hachi Gou-sen" is what I would expect for a Nagai/Matsuo duet: lots of hearty sax with shimmering strings and ritzy club piano while the two serenade each other over a stiff drink. The title highway probably refers to the lifeline between the pair...it might be several hours between the resort town of Karuizawa and the metropolis of Tokyo but Frank will be more than happy to get behind the wheel to see his Kazuko.

(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)

This version is probably the original considering the older-sounding arrangement with the horns. I prefer the more bluesy take at the very top of the article, but I do like this video showing the bright lights of Tokyo and Yokohama. On a teacher's salary, there was no way that I could ever darken the doorway of any of the clubs that Nagai and Matsuo may have frequented, but for me just walking downtown of either city would have satisfying enough for me.

Koji Tsuruta -- Machi no Sandwich man (街のサンドイッチマン )

As much as I would've liked to hear the Meatball Sub and Philly Cheese Steak or any kind of sandwich in existance being mentioned in Koji Tsuruta's (鶴田浩二) "Machi no Sandwich man", this song has got nothing to do with the food itself and 'Sandwich man' is just a term for a human billboard...bummer. Nevertheless, it still makes me envision a hoagie every time I listen to it.

I came across this song just about a week ago while feeling bored and a little more adventurous in the music department. While on this YouTube channel by the name of 'subaru enka' that uploads Enka and Kayokyoku from the 50's (or even farther back) to the 70's from time to time, I decided to just pick a random video from the unfamiliar lot and listen to it, and hopefully like it. So I ended up choosing Tsuruta's first big hit (unbeknownst to me yet) since I recognize the fellow's name and the title sounded fascinating.

The 1979 performance I first watched.

"Machi no Sandwich man" occurred to me as quite a catchy, slightly jazzy tune with the trumpets, the sharp, high notes of the violin (I think), and the prominent bass in the background, or at least it does in the 1979 version where I had first heard of the song. The original from 1953 doesn't have such a full arrangement, and it sounds a little like one of those Disney tracks from the 50's... I can just see one of those walking brooms/mops marching away to this. It was composed by Yoshida Tadashi and written by Tetsuo Miyagawa (吉田正.宮川哲夫).

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Mari Watanabe/Yosui Inoue/Yoeko Kurahashi -- Tokyo Dodonpa Musume （東京ドドンパ娘）

I was watching NHK's "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）program as I do most Tuesday nights on TV Japan, and the theme of the week was "passionate kayo". Well, one of the singers came on to do this somewhat jazzy number which sounded like a slightly slowed-down old boogie, and the title caught my eye: "Tokyo Dodonpa Musume". "Tokyo"was a given, and "Musume" I knew as "daughter" or just plain "girl". However, that middle "Dondonpa" got my curiosity going, so I decided to do a bit of searching on my usual sources of YouTube and Wikipedia, and I found the original version which was sung by 18 or 19-year-old Mari Watanabe（渡辺マリ）, her 2nd single. It was written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫） (who later gave lyrics to Yukio Hashi's haunting "Muhyou"), and composed by Yoichi Suzuki（鈴木庸一）.

With the end of the Second World War, jazz and Latin music started flooding like a young river into Japan, and using the analogy of the old 49ers in California, the gold from the panning here brought about the genre of Mood Kayo into the clubs and bars of Tokyo. What I didn't know was that there was also a birth of a smaller genre called Dodonpa in the 1960s. I came across a couple of explanations for the derivation of the genre on J-Wiki, but I actually liked what one kind person answered on a Goo Q & A in Japanese: that it was a Latin rhythm, rumba, given the Japanese kayo kyoku arrangement. There is also a story that Philippine bands performing in Kyoto helped to give rise to Dodonpa via the mambo. Dodonpa is onomatopoeic...I took a listen to some of the other songs of this genre, and they all have that same sort of brass "buh-boom-POW" phrasing. To me, Dodonpa also incorporates some of that Big Band Swing from the 30s and 40s.

"Tokyo Dodonpa Musume"(Tokyo Dodonpa Girl) started off all things Dodonpa, and the single ended up selling over a million records. It also seems like everything ended at that song since despite Dodonpa songs getting created and released, even one by Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）, none of them ever hit the heights that Watanabe's magnum opus did.

(23:05)

Forty years later, Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）gave his own dynamic version of "Tokyo Dodonpa Musume" with an assist from a cool organ in 2001 via his album of covers titled "United Cover", which peaked at No. 2 on Oricon.

Yoeko Kurahashi（倉橋ヨエコ） has been a name that I've seen a lot in the CD stores back in Tokyo but never really explored. Actually, I was trying to find stuff by one of my favourite unsung singers, Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）, but I often kept seeing Yoeko's tab. After hearing her 2002 cover of "Tokyo Dodonpa Musume", though, I think I will explore a bit more about her since she's been labeled as a singer of "jazz kayo". Also, the official music video for the cover is a pretty nifty 50s-style motif done in a Monty Python animated style (unfortunately, that's been taken down so Madonna has come in to lend a hand).

This is Hibari Misora's contribution to the dodonpa fad, logically titled "Hibari no Dodonpa"（ひばりのドドンパ...Hibari's Dodonpa). It comes in at the 56-second mark.

Yukio Hashi -- Muhyou （霧氷）

Well, it's the 1-year anniversary of KK Plus! And I had been kinda wondering which songs I would be putting up on this day. Then, a few weeks ago, I was watching an episode of NHK's "Kayo Concert", and enka veteran Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫） sang this song which immediately turned on a switch. I decided then and there that this would be the one song I would be putting up on January 31 2013, exactly a year after I put up "Memory Glass" by Jun Horie（堀江淳）.

"Muhyou"(Silver Frost) just happens to be one of the very first songs I had ever heard....period, so I'm talking about the late 60s. As I've mentioned a few times before, as a toddler, my place was often in front of one of the speakers of that old RCA Victor, and this song was a Japanese standard in our 5th-floor apartment. 

Hearing it again with re-tuned ears, I realized how haunting it was with the chorus and the sad arrangement. This is Mood-y Kayo! Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫） and composed by Ichiro Tone（利根一郎）, the song is about a melancholy breakup and its aftermath. I can imagine the dumped guy walking down a lonely street on a cold winter night while the song is playing. Now that I've heard it again, I kinda think that the arrangement sounds somewhat reminiscent of a particularly serious 60s James Bond theme, thanks to the shimmery strings in the background.

Yukio Hashi debuted in 1960, and between then and the release of this song in October 1966, he released so many singles (at least 70), I couldn't tell you the exact number of this single. Back in 1962, he did a duet of another kayo kyoku classic with actress Sayuri Yoshinaga, "Itsudemo Yume wo" (already profiled) which was a far more happier piece. "Muhyou" was released before Oricon, but a couple of accolades it did get was the Grand Prize at the 8th Japan Record Awards, and a place at that year's Kohaku Utagassen.

Maybe somewhere in one of the family lockers, the record is still sitting somewhere....