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.
When I first saw the trio listed for the GS Gosanke or The Big Three for Group Sounds bands, I was a little surprised at the trio. No offense meant against Ox fans, but I thought that The Spiders with Jun Inoue（井上順）and Masaaki Sakai（堺正章）would be in there instead, but actually the trio is indeed Ox, The Tempters and The Tigers. Ox was actually the latest of the three bands to debut in 1968 while the other two first appeared in 1967.
Not sure when the media decided to come up with the tag for the three groups but there isn't a lot referencing this term of the GS Gosanke so perhaps this was more a name coined by fans over the decades. Regardless here they are.
On this week's Reminiscings of Youth, I'd like to take you back to my early childhood late 1960s. Though my memories of that time are getting hazier the farther I age away from them, I still remember those days going into the 1970s as the era of the prime-time variety show in America. One of those programs was "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" on CBS which had a shorter run than I had thought at only two years (1967-1969). Tom and Dick Smothers have been folk singers and comedians who had their duo act with Tom being the goofy sibling while Dick was the straight man.
I have always been grateful to YouTube for being able to show all of these old television shows from my childhood since they no longer show up on regular television anymore. I don't think that I'd seen any rerun from "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" since when I did see them in their first run, and frankly the only reason that I had been able to remember Tom and Dick and their show was because of one song.
"Classical Gas" was one weird title for a song but it was one big hit for classical guitar player Mason Williams. Released in April 1968, it was this rather epic instrumental piece that seemed perfect for the times with some tender playing by Williams before things erupted into this whole orchestral adventure. For years, I just considered it to be pop orchestra along the lines of whatever The Boston Pops Orchestra was doing but now I know it to be one of the first examples of Baroque Pop that I ever heard. But I always wondered why whenever I remember The Smothers Brothers, I always hear "Classical Gas".
Of course, I figured that Williams probably played the song on the show. Well, I found out from Wikipedia that he played it several times over the course of the show's time on television. In fact, I also discovered that Williams wasn't only a performer there but also one of the comedy writers on "The Smothers Brothers" and he was even the fellow who came up with the theme song for the show! He would also become a writer for "Saturday Night Live" many years later.
Getting back to "Classical Gas", I remembered that it was a source for a rather ribald joke said by probably Tom (and maybe written by Williams) comparing the title to some sort of physical consequence after consuming lots of beans. Can't take the music all that seriously after all. I was wondering how the title came to be...was it a typically hippie expression of an existential miasma infused into all enlightened beings? Well, Wikipedia has come to the rescue again...the origins were far more mundane. It had originally been known as "Classical Gasoline" as in a source of fuel for classical guitar music in general, until it was accidentally shortened by a music copyist. I've also learned that Mike Post, the composer of so many famous TV theme songs including that of "The A-Team", was behind its arrangement. "Classical Gas" hit No. 2 on both the American and Canadian singles charts.
Unlike "Classical Gas", I never remembered Williams' theme song for "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" but here it is.
In any case, what was being released in April 1968 in Japan? Well, according to my usual source, considering the age, it's not surprising to note that it was all about Group Sounds. I've found three although according to what I've written about them, they actually came out in February and March of that year.
Some more sad news this year as I heard about the passing of Peter Tork of the Monkees (1942-2019) today. This sitcom poke at The Beatles, The Monkees ended up as a pretty good and popular band, and they also became part of my Saturday lunchtime routine since their show usually showed up on one of the network affiliates around noon. While Davy Jones was the cuddly adorable one...the Monkee equivalent of Paul McCartney, Peter was perhaps the Ringo Starr in terms of personality as well as position in the band. He was the affably goofy one who I would also equate with SMAP's Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）.
I will therefore dedicate this song to the memory of Peter Tork. Coming out in the same year, 1968, as the episode of "The Monkees" above, The Tempters'"Kyo wo Ikiyou" (Let's Live for Today) sounded quite familiar to me when I first heard it. And the reason for that it is a cover of "Let's Live For Today" popularized by the American rock band The Grass Roots and originally recorded in 1966 by The Rokes based in Italy under the title "Piangi Con Me".
Although the original songwriters were David Shapiro and Mogol, I couldn't find out who provided the translated Japanese lyrics unfortunately. The Tempters' version can apparently be found in "The Tempters First Album" from June 1968. If I'm not mistaken, either The Grass Roots' take or perhaps even The Tempters' cover was used in some commercial back in Japan. In any case, that chorus "Sha-la-la-la-la-la" works as a good memory cue. Incidentally, the video below shows The Grass Roots' performance.
March 28 2019: It's sadly ironic to report this in an article that started out mourning the loss of Peter Tork of The Monkees, but I just read that the vocalist for The Tempters and actor Kenichi Hagiwara（萩原健一）passed away a couple of days ago at the age of 68.
I'd actually already written up one article for the Group Sounds band The Tempters（ザ・テンプターズ）, and it was for their single "Kamisama Onegai"（神様お願い）, since it was covered by Hanae（ハナエ）as the ending theme for the anime "Kamisama Hajimemashita"（神様はじめました）. At the time, I only knew the leader Yoshiharu Matsuzaki（松崎由治）because he was the one who wrote and composed the song. What I hadn't known was that another member was Ken'ichi Hagiwara（萩原健一）. I've only known him as a rather intense actor on TV and in movies, but hearing that he had been quite the hellraiser during his GS days, I'm not really surprised. Managed to find this late 1980s footage above of him appearing quite dapper on an interview show.
To be honest, it's rather difficult for me to imagine these guys as hellraisers in those outfits seen in the thumbnail above, but hey, it was the 1960s. Anyways, fashion critique aside, "Emerald no Densetsu"(Legend of Emerald) was The Tempters 3rd single from June 1968. From what I had seen so far of the results of the band's first two singles, they weren't doing too badly at all. And yet, according to the J-Wiki article on their third single, Philips Records was a bit worried about getting out that next big hit, so instead of leader Matsuzaki taking care of the next song, Philips apparently recruited lyricist Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composer Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）to whip up Single No. 3. I'm curious as to how The Tempters took that news, but it couldn't have been all that bad since "Emerald no Densetsu" did get made and recorded.
For me, "Emerald no Densetsu" does sound like a typical GS song of the decade, but apparently, composer Murai had taken in vocalist Hagiwara's suggestion of something with a mystique appeal, and created a melody influenced by French musical impressionism in achieving the goal of a certain mystery-laden romanticism. All of the fancy jargon aside, it was considered quite notable at the time for its use of strings, horns and oboe.
I guess lyricist Nakanishi had also taken that impressionism to heart as well since his words express a man falling in love with a woman represented by a glistening green lake. He even gets down on his knees to kiss it (was he wearing protection...y'know, for flesh-eating bacteria and the like?).
"Emerald no Densetsu" hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 16th-ranked single of 1968.
Several singers since the original's release have covered "Emerald no Densetsu" including the group Mi-Ke in their 1991 debut album"Omoide no G-S Kujukurihama"（想い出のG･S九十九里浜...Group Sounds Kujukurihama of Our Memories）which peaked at No. 19.
Strangely enough, I'm writing this article on March 16 2015 instead of the original June 9 2013. Apparently, due to some weird glitch, the original article got erased and superimposed by the other Hanae article on the opening theme to "Kamisama Hajimemashita". Well, that was pretty annoying but as they say in Japan, sho ga nai.
Anyways, I am talking about the ending theme to the original first season of the anime "Kamisama Hajimemashita"（神様はじめました）, "Kamisama Onegai" (Please, God) sung by whispery-voiced Hanae（ハナエ）. Released as the coupling song to her 3rd single, "Kamisama Hajimemashita"in November 2012, according to the J-Wiki article, the singer wasn't too thrilled about how the recording for this particular B-side went, although I think the song isn't bad at all, especially when she puts out that "Ah, ah-ah, ah...". Well, to each his/her own. In any case, the whole single managed to peak at No. 20 on Oricon.
At the time I heard Hanae singing "Kamisama Onegai", I hadn't been aware that this was actually a cover of the original song by Group Sounds band The Tempters. The band had a three-year run from 1967 to 1970 and their "Kamisama Onegai" was their 2nd single released in March 1968. Written and composed by the leader, Yoshiharu Matsuzaki（松崎由治）, the song had quite the psychedelic guitar sound as would befit the times. It managed to break into the Top 10 and peaked at No. 2.
