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.
It is once again Hump Day this week so perhaps the stress levels and blue feelings are at their peak. Well, I can't prescribe anything professionally, but at least, I can provide some soothing music. This time, I'm plucking something from the Group Sounds era of the late 1960s in Japan...specifically, this B-side from a March 1969 single by The Tigers（ザ・タイガース）titled "Kaze wa Shiranai"(The Wind Doesn't Know). Written by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）and composed by Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）, it was the flip side of The Tigers' 9th single"Utsukushiki Ai no Okite"（美しき愛の掟...A Decree of Love）.
There are some lovely harmonies between Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）and his colleagues and some peaceful arrangements as a lot of natural images come through Iwatani's lyrics such as wind, rainbows and the great big sky. I guess that would be par for the course for a pop song from the late 1960s. However, the impression that I got from the song was that one shouldn't rely on those symbols of nature for wisdom; ultimately, one has to rely on his/her own soul for guidance.
Some months later in December 1969,the folk duo Toi et Moi（トワ・エ・モワ）recorded a cover of "Kaze wa Shiranai" for their first album of cover songs,"Anata to Watashi to Toi et Moi"（あなたと私とトワ・エ・モワ）. The English translation of "You and Me and You and Me" sounds obviously redundant which may explain the official English title of "A Wonderful World of Toi et Moi". Anyways, their cover version is also lovely and it sounds a little more upbeat.
Well, as Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico are showing up above, "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is celebrating its 13th birthday today, so I gather that the blog might be showing signs of teenage rebelliousness in the years to come. As was the case last year, I've opted to show off any other Japanese singers who are celebrating their birthday on January 30th, too.
(1948) Sumio Akutagawa of Toi et Moi -- Dare mo Inai Umi (誰もいない海）
Over the past few days, I've been watching some of the Paris Olympics events including judo which truly had the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. In the last hour, I saw Yuto Horigome win his second Gold medal in Men's Street Skateboarding; I was chuckling somewhat at the CBC announcers who apparently decided to act more like standup comedians during that event. Meanwhile, one of them was mangling Horigome's name by continuing to call him "Yuto Origami". But unlike that popular paper craft, the Tokyo athlete didn't fold and won it all once again.
Anyways, to start off this July/August 2024 week of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've decided to bring folks to the AI Gallery with an Olympics theme in mind.
I have to admit that the photo of Mr. Calico and Kayo is cuter than it is hot-bloodedly passionate but the AI generator kept pushing me to adjust my request. Oh, well...enjoy Ohguro's classic which is definitely fiery.
Yes, believe it or not, we are in September. It's still too early to speak of fall though since not only is it officially three weeks away, the weather will be getting steamy here as we enter the weekend. Yet, NHK's "Uta Con" opted to use the theme of transitioning from the hot and torrid summer to the calmer and cooler autumn for its return to the airwaves after being away for most of August.
I thought there were some nice picks by the "Uta Con" people, and at first, I thought about combining their picks with my own picks of those transitioning songs from late summer into early fall, but the amount would have become unwieldy for Labels at the very least. Therefore, I'll just put up the five that were featured on Tuesday night. Also, since this was "Uta Con" picking them and not any of us on KKP, this won't be an Author's Picks article per se, although I will put up my own list in the next article.
I was most grateful for Leon Niihama（新浜レオン）and Fuyumi Sakamoto（坂本冬美）for performing this chestnut on NHK, since I very rarely hear it anywhere else. And yet, Toi et Moi's"Dare mo Inai Umi" would have been one of my own choices for my own list of moving between the seasons. I realize that it is a cover by late chanson singer Yasuko Ouki（大木康子）, but I think that this version by Emiko Shiratori and Sumio Akutagawa（白鳥英美子・芥川澄夫）is the definitive one for me.
"Juu-nana Sai" was actually given its tribute by some of the old videotape footage of Saori Minami（南沙織）, but it's always nice to hear her sing this one. After over fifty years, it still sounds pretty fresh to me. I hadn't been aware that it was a trans-seasonal kayo but perhaps pining for love can be considered to be a summer-to-fall thing in the music industry.
It was also nice to hear this one get its due a couple of nights ago, especially with the footage of Circus（サーカス）appearing on the Kohaku Utagassen for their first of two times. A nice touch of jazzy class can be had by listeners while enjoying that glass of Aperol Spritz on the Riviera.
Yup, Martin（鈴木雅之）was the first batter up on "Uta Con" so he performed "Glass Goshi ni Kieta Natsu", his debut single as a solo artist. At the time when I was simply not listening to the lyrics or paying attention to the title all that much, I wouldn't have pegged this as a late summer tune, but of course, looking at those words now, I realize that it is one of the most suitable songs for the seasonal transition as a man realizes that someone he cares about is now going off on a different path.
Actor/singer Kohei Matsushita（松下洸平）performed Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）paean to the end of summer, and yeah, I figured that this would be a sure fire pick for any such list. It feels just like what a move from August to September would feel like. It's time to head back home to hit the books or work the computer but wow what a nice musical way to finish off the hot season.
The good news is that it's feeling really balmy out there with temperatures being on the plus side of things. However, the bad news is that we're supposed to be getting smacked around again with a wall of precipitation and a lot of that will be in the form of cold hard rain before it changes into snow. Then, the temperatures will plummet once more.
For this Wednesday smack dab in the middle of February, allow me to give you a song that is rather soothing. Bossa jazz always has that effect on me. The folk duo Toi et Moi（トワ・エ・モワ）provided something that was a little out of their folk toolbox, and yet, Emiko Shiratori（白鳥英美子）and Sumio Akutagawa（芥川澄夫）handle their "Shiroi Nami"(White Waves) as if they were born to sing bossa nova. It's just a pity that I couldn't track down when they had released "Shiroi Nami" although it is located on their "La Belle Epoque" compilation from 2001. I could only find out that through another YouTube video featuring this particular song that it had made its presence known sometime in the early 1970s, so I'll just plant it as a 1970 concoction.
But then, there was one comment that I saw under that video for Toi et Moi's"Shiroi Nami" that said something to the effect that they "...also liked this version" by the folk duo. And so I thought "Oh, was there an original version of it?". Once again, I was happy to go into the rabbit hole to search for a story on this comforting "Shiroi Nami".
And sure enough, I found out that the first sung version of "Shiroi Nami" was recorded by another duo that specialized in Japanese-style bossa nova, Yuki to Hide（ユキとヒデ...Yuki & Hide）. In fact, "Shiroi Nami" was their very first single released in July 1967, and yep, I can "taste" an even more pronounced bossa nova flavour in this version.
The lyrics were provided by Hide himself under his other stage name of Eiji Mizuki （水木英二）, and for very keen readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and/or true believers in kayo kyoku, both of those names might strike you as being very familiar because they both popped up in my February 2015 article for Hide & Rosanna's（ヒデとロザンナ）"Ai no Kiseki"（愛の奇跡）. Yep, same fellow but different duo. There was one more single released by Yuki to Hide later in October but the act broke up sometime in 1968 with Hide meeting Rosanna soon after that. In fact, there were two Yukis during the Yuki to Hide era with the original, Yuki Sato（佐藤ユキ）, taking on the geimei of Mariko An（アン真理子）in 1969 and going onto a career of singing, songwriting and acting.
Up to now, I haven't revealed the composer for "Shiroi Nami" but I will as of this sentence, and it is jazz saxophone legend Sadao Watanabe (渡辺貞夫...Yuki to Hide during their short time together enjoyed covering his songs). The original is quite a bit peppier than then sung versions and it is a track on his June 1967 LP, "Bossa Best Collection".
Apologies for throwing in another Reminiscings of Youth article so soon after the last one but on hearing about actor Ed Asner's death earlier today, I just had to include this one. Many folks might recently remember the Kansas City-born TV and movie star from the 2009 Pixar-produced computer animated film "Up" where he played the main character of Carl Fredricksen. However for people of my generation, I will always remember Asner as crusty but lovable news director Lou Grant from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". Can hardly believe that the show first started almost 51 years ago.
With the announcement of Asner's passing, I've only just realized that almost all of the stars from that famous 1970s sitcom, including Mary Tyler Moore, Gavin MacLeod and Ted Knight are now gone. I think actress Betty White is the only actor from that show who is still here. From what I've gathered over the years since its run between 1970 and 1977 and beyond is that "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", which was about Mary Richards and her personal/professional life involving her work buddies at WJM-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, could also have been originating network CBS' first attempt to break out of its reputation of being the farm comedy network since many of its successful sitcoms in the 1960s were based on characters who came from the countryside such as "Green Acres" and "The Beverly Hillbillies".
Even as a kid, I remembered "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" right from its first season since Mary herself had such long hair. The very first time I ever saw the actress was when she was playing Laura Petrie on the black-and-white "The Dick Van Dyke Show", another beloved sitcom from the 1960s, so there was some confusion about her new hairdo and the fact that I was seeing her in colour. And for that matter, where was Dick?
I also remember seeing episodes from time to time in its initial run right from Season 1 along with the tropes of Mary's first apartment, the camaraderie among her and the WJM staff, and the appearance of the cute kitten at the end of the ending credits for each episode. But for me, I think it was in the latter half of the show's 7-year run when I was laughing my guts out at a lot of the episodes including the one that is represented at the very top of the article, "Chuckles Bites the Dust", when the local TV clown is killed in a hilarious accident. It's been voted as one of the top episodes of all time for all American television and it has even merited its own Wikipedia entry.
Yes, I still remember that this is a music blog, and a Japanese one at that, but bear with me. The show was that memorable for me. Besides, it's not the first time that I've given a TV theme song the ROY treatment (see "WKRP in Cincinnati" and "The Odd Couple").
Another thing that I wax nostalgic over when it comes to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is the theme song. There have been a number of variations of Sonny Curtis' "Love is All Around" played over the seven seasons, but I will always choose the original version from Season 1 as my favourite take. Created by Patrick Williams, the original is cool and swinging like a Burt Bacharach song (especially with the more pronounced horns), and even the instrumental version of "Love is All Around" used for the ending credits is also my favourite among the variations used during the show's run.
Well, I can perhaps say that almost all of the WJM staff have gotten together once more in a new and better place with love all around. In any case, since the show premiered in September 1970, what were some of the singles that came out around that time? Two of them are actually re-releases from the early 1960s while the other one is once again showing a discrepancy in terms of release month with Showa Pops.
Argh! How the heck do you respond to that?!😖 Uh...thank you? My condolences? Did he get to run around the bases?
But that is indeed the translation of the title for Toi et Moi's（トワ・エ・モワ）5th single from July 1970, "Hatsukoi no Hito ni Niteiru". There's no major existential consternation here though, folks. It's just some very simple innocent love as a young lady realizes that a man that she's met looks just like the fellow that she'd fallen for years earlier.
Well, maybe I was being a little too optimistic about my earlier reassurance in the previous paragraph. There is some existential consternation to grapple with according to the lyrics as the lady wonders whether she should even admit this observation to him, and of course, whether she's falling in love again although this is a completely different lad. Ahhh...the trials and tribulations of l'amour.💝
Written by Osamu Kitayama（北山修）and composed by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）of The Folk Crusaders, "Hatsukoi no Hito ni Niteiru" is a comfortable ballad that has a bit of country-western infused into its folk, and I do love that sharp trumpet that starts the ball rolling. On Oricon, it made it all the way up to No. 30, but a few months later, Emiko Shiratori（白鳥英美子）and Sumio Akutagawa（芥川澄夫）would do even better with their next single, "Dare mo Inai Umi"（誰もいない海）, the very first song by them that I put onto the blog all the way back in 2012.
Rather inspired by my discovery of Tomoko Fujita（藤田朋子）as a singer today and then coming across Yutaka Yokokura（横倉裕）as the producer for her debut album"The Woman In Me", I was interested in finding out more about Yokokura who also goes by the full-cap name of YUTAKA. According to his Wikipedia and J-Wiki entries, the Tokyo-born singer is also well versed as an instrumentalist being proficient on piano, other keyboards and the koto.
The above video has a track from a 2013 album, "Love Is There ~ NOVO Complete Works" paying tribute to the band NOVO of which YUTAKA was a member in the 1970s. The song "Ai wo Sodateru" (Nurturing Love) with its English title of "Love Is There" on this particular release is a lovely bossa version with Aoi Fujikawa（藤川あおい）sharing the mike with Yokokura. There is something very 1980s David Foster and even Carpenters about the arrangement here. Wouldn't mind sipping a cup of coffee by the sunset as I listen to this.
NOVO's original version of "Ai wo Sodateru" was released as the band's first single in 1973. Although I prefer the new and improved version from "Love Is There ~ NOVO Complete Works", original "Ai wo Sodateru" is also quite sunny with that feeling of the 60s and 70s.
But the source doesn't lie with NOVO, at least not completely. The very first version of the song was as a lush commercial jingle for the Asahi Kasei Corporation which focuses on chemicals and materials science according to its Wikipedia entry. The band behind "Ai wo Sodateru" here was the folk group Toi et Moi（トワ・エ・モア）, and not seeing the song in their discography, I surmised that it was probably never released as an official single but as truly something just for the company. The commercial supposedly came out in 1971.
Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）was behind the music with Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）taking care of the lyrics which incorporated the Asahi Kasei name. I'm assuming that one of the members of NOVO, perhaps YUTAKA himself, made the appropriate changes to the words when making "Ai wo Sodateru" their own.
Now that Tokyo will be hosting the Summer Olympics for the 2nd time in a little less than 7 years' time, eventually the organizers will have to get a superstar singer to come up with a zinger of a theme song. Of course, various artists from Maki Ohguro to Misia to Anri have come up with songs that were used for various Olympiads, but for the Tokyo Games, the chosen singer or singers will have to have 20/20 vision for 2020 since it is the capital of Japan, after all.
Now, take a fellow by the name of Bunichiro Kawamura（河邨文一郎）. In 1970, he was given the assignment to write the lyrics for the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo with Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦） as the composer. National broadcaster NHK gave Kawamura 3 conditions to help him formulate the theme song for the Sapporo Games: 1) The song has to last long after the Games are done. 2) It has to express the hearts of the residents of Sapporo. 3) It shouldn't have a heavy ceremonial feel but it must be able to be sung by everyone from the Buddhist monk on his guitar to thousands of people in chorus (translated and paraphrased from the J-Wiki article for the song). No pressure. And the kicker was that Kawamura's stock in trade wasn't lyrics.... he was an award-winning poet and orthopedist! The poor man had to go through 2 weeks' worth of writer's block before that pen of his finally got going.
However, Kawamura somehow got the job done. In February 1971, "Niji to Yuki no Ballad" (The Ballad of Rainbow and Snow) was first broadcast on the NHK"Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた...Songs for Everybody） series and would later get officially released as a single, starting off with folk duo Toi et Moi（トワ・エ・モワ）.
The above two videos have Toi et Moi giving the recorded and live performances. I decided to write about "Niji to Yuki no Ballad" since I actually caught it tonight on a special NHK concert performance. The song was the duo's 9th single released in July 1971 and was the most successful version, hitting the No. 7 spot on Oricon. I can't be sure about Condition 1 when it comes to how long its popularity lasted once the Sapporo Games were over, but I think Conditions 2 and 3 were met. It doesn't come off as overly ceremonial, but it does show that pride in an anthemic but folksy way.
Some weeks after Toi et Moi's version got released, Group Sounds band Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルーコメッツ）brought out their own folk/GS cover of the song as their 25th single. However, since it seemed that everyone got their fill of "Niji to Yuki no Ballad" through Toi et Moi, there weren't too many people left to go for The Comets' cover.
But then between Toi et Moi and The Comets was the version given by Pinky & Killers（ピンキーとキラーズ） which was incidentally the band's 2nd-last single released in August 1971. Lead vocalist Yoko Kon（今陽子） gives a nicely full-throated performance here.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
Then there is Mari Amachi's（天地真理） soft and relaxing cover which was never released as a single and considering that the 70s aidoru had only started her career in October 1971, she sounded remarkably reassured here. The song was actually a track on her debut album, "Mizuiro no Koi"（水色の恋...Water-Coloured Love） (December 1971), which managed to become the top album of 1972.
Now, as for those 3 conditions, I wonder if NHK will be dusting those off once more in the year 2018, and who will be the one to follow them to get a song out. Could it be Noriyuki Makihara? Yasushi Akimoto?
Whilst I was in the midst of collecting these discs of 20th-centurykayo kyoku around the turn of the century, I got Volume 3 of "Good Times Diva"(already profiled in the "Media" label) one day at Yamano Music in Ginza (also profiled under the same label). I usually just listened to a new disc in bed, and as I was nearing the end, this one track came up which caught my attention. "Utsukushii Hoshi"(Beautiful Star) by folk singer Ryoko Moriyama（森山良子） starts with a brass section sleepily waking up to a sunny day and then has the singer cheerfully delivering the lyrics as if they were part of a French oldie-but-goodie before going into a jazzy/gospel-like refrain. The lyrics, as would be the case with such a melody, talk of a happy couple relishing the fact that they live on this wonderful Earth and that each day and night should be savored like a fine wine. As sappy as that may sound, it's a short-but-lovely cheer-up tune.
The folk groupAkai Tori （赤い鳥）did their cover of the song.
The Moriyama song was actually a B-side to her October 1972 17th single, "Sayonara no Sekai"（さよならの世界....The Goodbye World), but it can also be found on one of her BEST compilations....or Vol. 3 of "Good Times Diva" (just check out Amazon.jp). The folk duo, Toi et Moi, also did a slower cover version.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
And 70s aidoru Mari Amachi（天地真理） gave her own straight-ahead cover. The song, by the way, was written by Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）, the prolific lyricist who had been responsible for Agnes Chan's"Hinageshi no Hana" and Akai Tori's"Tsubasa wo Kudasai" (both profiled). The composer was Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）who also had a hand in the latter song.
Officially, we're still 3 weeks away from Fall, but traditionally since the passing of August heralds the beginning of the transition from Summer to Autumn, I thought it would be a good time to start introducing some seasonal tunes from the world of kayo kyoku. And whenever September 1 comes around, my thoughts often go back to that old Canadian Tire cassette tape I used to record that 1982 broadcast of "The Sounds of Japan" which focused on the old J-Pop of Fall.
I can still remember most of the lineup from that show:
I have been listening to the last two songs for years and I'm especially looking forward to profiling one of Mariya's early hits. As I've mentioned on the entry for Higurashi's "Aki no Tobira", this was a song that I'd been looking high and low for for decades until I finally tracked it down in July.
And now the circle is almost complete with Toi et Moi. This was a duo consisting of Emiko Shiratori and Sumio Akutagawa（白鳥英美子・芥川澄夫）. Debuting in 1969, the pair had often been mistaken as a straight folk group due to the gentle melodies and deliveries in their music, especially amongst the many singers and groups who were singing the popular genre at the time. However, Toi et Moi was just a kayo kyoku pairing singing light Japanese pop.
Toi et Moi's cover of "Dare mo Inai Umi"(The Deserted Sea) in November 1970, the group's 6th single of 21 singles they released throughout their 4-year history, comes off as this pretty and romantic kayo kyoku ballad which starts off with the lyric "Ima wa, mou aki"（今は、もう秋....It's now Fall) and talks of promises made to the various parts of that desolate patch of seashore to keep on surviving no matter what. The song peaked at No. 16 on the Oricon weeklies.
However, the original singer for "Dare mo Inai Umi"was the late chanson artist Yasuko Ouki（大木康子） in 1968 (although the makers of the song, Yoko Yamaguchi｛山口洋子｝ and Tsunemi Naito｛内藤法美｝ had originally crafted the song for singer Jerry Ito｛ジェリー伊藤｝ for a weekly bit on a morning TV show...it was never made into a record). Now, chanson is a genre within kayo kyoku that has a small but very loyal group of fans. A lot of Japanese have had a deep and unabiding love for French culture; the music of Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour made such an impact that a number of Japanese singers during the 50s and 60s took up the cause and dedicated themselves to singing chanson of which Ouki was one. Certainly the lyrics for the song lend themselves well to the genre since they talk of proudly defying the odds in the face of huge obstacles. This original version, though, never broke through on the charts.
There was another attempt at the song in the same year that Toi et Moi sang it. Composer Tsunemi Naito's effervescent wife, Fubuki Koshiji（越路吹雪）, was also a famous chanson singer, and in fact, until her untimely death in 1980, she was known as the Queen of Chanson in Japan. She never seemed to do things in half-measures. Part of the reason for that was that she had also been groomed as a young girl in the exclusive Takarazuka Academy that specially trained female students to sing, dance and act on the stage with an enhanced, shall we say, theatricality that has garnered some very intense fan loyalty. Her take on "Dare mo Inai Umi"was released on the same day as Toi et Moi's version, but her version didn't do quite as well, only reaching as high as 92 in the rankings.
In any case, the Toi et Moi version is the one that I will always cherish.
