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.
Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth article for this week. It's a testament to Carole King's abilities as a composer that I remember her melodies from all the way back in my early childhood even if I couldn't quite remember those lyrics or the titles.
One such song by hers is "It's Too Late" which was part of a double A-side with "I Feel the Earth Move" when it was released in April 1971. Both songs are also tracks on King's iconic album "Tapestry" which had come out earlier in February that year, and thanks to my friend's recommendation, my copy of the album is sitting on the shelf.
Now that I've been to able to appreciate music everywhere with a somewhat better sense and lens, I've been treating songs like King's "It's Too Late" as these particularly poignant pop songs of an era far gone by. I can pick up on the different stylings within the song such as AOR and jazz. As well, Toni Stern was responsible for the lyrics depicting one of the calmest and reassuring instances of romantic breakup. That's not to say that there wasn't any hurt but the aftermath seems to be one of acceptance and the observation that both parties tried their best to keep the relationship going.
I've been hearing King all these decades on radio and now through YouTube, but with this video, it's the first time that I have ever seen and heard her in concert although I used to see commercials for the musical that was based on her early career, "Beautiful". It's amazing to realize that I was actually alive as a kindergarten kid when she performed here, especially considering the fashion and the hairstyles back then. Yes, I was wearing the same kind of clothes and sporting the same sort of hairstyle that guitarist Danny Kortchmar was showing above. No, you will never see that photo.😝
In Canada and the United States, "It's Too Late/I Feel the Earth Move" hit No. 2 and No. 1 on their music charts respectively. "It's Too Late" won Record of the Year honours at the Grammys in 1972.
At the Japan Record Awards in 1971, the following three singers earned Best Performance awards.
Writing the blog for over a decade will bring its fair share of rhetorical questions regarding music to ponder. One such question is "What was the first kayo kyoku?". It would be nice to know the answer considering the title of this blog is "Kayo Kyoku Plus". And just to remind folks, kayo kyoku means "popular song".
According to both J-Wiki and Wikipedia, the first kayo kyoku, or at least what has been considered to be the great ancestor to the modern Japanese pop song, is "Katyusha no Uta"(Katyusha's Song) which was sung by singer-actress Sumako Matsui（松井須磨子）in 1914 for a play performed in Tokyo which was based on Leo Tolstoy's 1899 novel"Resurrection". With lyrics by Hougetsu Shimamura and Gyoufuu Souma（島村抱月・相馬御風）and melody by Shinpei Nakayama（中山晋平）, "Katyusha no Uta" is about the sad parting of lovers although the story of Tolstoy's "Resurrection" is more about the horrific treatment and abandonment of the young girl Katyusha.
Not being a musicologist, something that I've mentioned throughout the blog for years, I still kept seeing the term in Japanese and English, major pentatonic scale, whenever "Katyusha no Uta" popped up anywhere, so my assumption that as with the kayo kyoku that was to follow, this particular song, seen as the predecessor of all kayo kyoku, may have both Japanese and Western musical elements. But being released in the Taisho Era, the term ryūkōka（流行歌...popular song） was used, years before kayo kyoku was used to mean "popular song" in the following Showa Era under Emperor Hirohito.
"Katyusha no Uta" became a national hit, selling around 27,000 records and was even performed by street artists all throughout Japan and perhaps beyond. It's also been covered by many singers in the decades since its first appearance including the Queen of Kayo Kyoku herself, Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）, and folk singer Tokiko Kato（加藤登紀子）.
Of course, Bing Crosby's discography is bigger than "White Christmas" although whenever his name is mentioned, that particular song will be the first to come to mind to many. I've known that he was quite the crooner many years before he and Irving Berlin's legendary Xmassong for the ages were put together, and a few of his songs managed to get onto the old LP compilation of standards that our family had (or perhaps has...just misplaced).
But his "The Day You Came Along" is a new one for me. Created by the songwriting duo of Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnson, Der Bingle introduced it in his 1933 movie "Too Much Harmony" as a song of woo for that special someone.
The reason that I'm even introducing "The Day You Came Along" here in a non-ROY capacity is that I first encountered it as a cover by singer Tokiko Kato（加藤登紀子）under the title of "Akogare no Sora" (The Sky I've Wanted). It's a track on Kato's 1983 album, "Yume no Ningyo"（夢の人魚...A Siren Dream） whose concept is all about the music that was heard between 1914 and 1939, through the Taisho and early Showa eras. The singer produced the album alongside Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, and he was also the arranger for this particular playful track, according to Tower Records.
I've known Kato as the tenderhearted folk singer behind "Shiretoko Ryojou"（知床旅情）but over the years and especially listening to some of her other songs through my old radio program "Sounds of Japan", I also know that she's more than game with other genres. Listening to her husky voice tackle Bing's old song, she sounds as if she is a natural for old-style nightclub torch singing in the European establishments. Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）was responsible for providing Kato with the Japanese lyrics for "The Day You Came Along". I really enjoy the classy but, as I said before, playful nature of this cover version.
Come to think of it, I'm going to have to do a Reminiscings of Youth for "White Christmas" although that song was more than 20 years before my appearance on Earth.
December 25 2020: This Creator article was written by me back in June 2019 and unfortunately, this morning, I saw on NHK News that Rei Nakanishi passed away on December 23rd from a heart attack. He was 82 years old. Despite the sadness in the music world for not only him but a number of famed Japanese songwriters leaving this mortal coil this year, they have left a wonderful legacy of music for us to peruse over and over again.
A few weeks ago, I caught the tail-end of an NHK documentary on veteran lyricist and novelist Rei Nakanishi. That small part that I did catch related the fact that Nakanishi had recently beat back cancer and was happily active once more. Considering that fact and the other point that he's had a good presence on this blog as well has inspired me to devote a Creator article for him.
Nakanishi has provided songs in just about every genre in Japanese popular music with some of them becoming landmark hits for his singing clientele. The very first Nakanishi-written song that I put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", for instance, was "Kita Sakaba"（北酒場）, the rousing and friendly kayo performed to success by Takashi Hosokawa（細川たかし）, and the appropriately speedy and uptempo "AMBITIOUS JAPAN" by Johnny's band TOKIO.
But going back to the beginning, Nakanishi was born Reizo Nakanishi（中西禮三）in 1938 in the city of Mudanjiang in what was once the puppet state of Manchukuo under Japanese rule and what is now Heilongjiang Province in the People's Republic of China. He later grew up for part of his life in Otaru, Hokkaido.
Graduating from Rikkyo University with a degree in French literature, Nakanishi first became a translator of chanson music after he had gotten a request from chanson singer and former Takarazuka Revue member Natsuyo Fukamidori（深緑夏代）. However in or around 1963, when he was at a hotel bar in Shizuoka Prefecture, he ran into singer/actor Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）who was in the middle of filming a movie. Ishihara suggested to Nakanishi about trying his hand at writing kayo songs.
Apparently taking the Tough Guy's advice to heart, according to Nakanishi's website's index of songs, he may have started as early as 1965. However, one song that I've keyed in upon immediately is his early lyrical contribution to kayo, "Dare mo Dare mo Shiranai"（誰も誰も知らない...I Know Nobody, Nobody）from 1966 which was composed by Yasutoshi Nakajima（中島安敏）. It's a sad and elegant Mood Kayo sung by Tokiko Kato（加藤登紀子）about someone who is utterly alone in the big bad city.
Although the first version of this song had been recorded by a combination of Naoki Matsudaira（松平直樹）, Miyoko Tashiro（田代美代子）and Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）also in 1966, I was able to find this cover version of "Namida to Ame ni Nurete"（涙と雨にぬれて...Wet From Tears and Rain）by Eiji Miyoshi（三善英史）. Nakanishi also provided the music along with his lyrics to this lovely ballad.
Just from what I've heard so far from his early material, Nakanishi seemed to enjoy going for the pathos in people's lot. Yu Kimura's（木村勇）music for "Otoko no Arashi"（男の嵐...A Man's Storm）from 1967 is more of a bluesier and deeper-in-Kabukicho Mood Kayo as Nakanishi's lyrics relate the tough life of a yakuza as performed by Ishihara himself, the same fellow who recommended Nakanishi to follow the kayo lyricist's path.
As I hinted up above, it wasn't all about Mood Kayo for Nakanishi. He also handled the lyrics for a lot of aidoru and aidoru groups including 70s darlings, Candies（キャンデーズ）. In fact, he wrote their 12th single"Aishuu no Symphony"（哀愁のシンフォニー...Symphony of Sorrow）which was released in November 1976 with Takashi Miki's（三木たかし）fleet-footed music. Once again, Nakanishi provides the story of love being so painful that it hurts like the Dickens. In a bit of symmetry, that 12th single peaked at No. 12 on Oricon, although it finished the year as the 61st-ranked single.
In 1985, he provided the words to the sweeping opening theme for the anime "Shoukoujo Sara"（小公女セーラ...Princess Sara） with Koichi Morita（森田公一）as the composer and Satoko Shimonari（下成佐登子）as the performer. "Hana no Sasayaki"（花のささやき...Whisper of a Flower） is sung from Sara's point of view as she goes through a bundle of tragedies and hardships and often refers to the little flower in her heart to reassure her.
(karaoke version)
Nakanishi provided another Johnny's Entertainment group, NEWS, with lyrics for their 6th single "Hoshi wo Mezashite"（星をめざして...Aim for the Stars）, released in March 2007. Composed by Peter Bjorklund, Johan Sahlen, and Claes Andreasson, there is more of a hopeful feeling as the guys from NEWS exhort listeners to not let any of the problems of life continue to weigh them down. "Hoshi wo Mezashite" was a No. 1 hit for the group and ended up as the No. 13 single of the year.
The last song for this article is Goro Noguchi's（野口五郎）"Ai no Shoumei"（愛の証明...Proof of Love）, his 33rd single from February 1980. Noguchi played a bit with City Pop at the time, and I think that was the case with Nakanishi as well. This particular song straddles a bit back and forth between the dynamic aidoru kayo that he and his other "brothers", Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）and the late Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）, espoused and some of the more downtown Tokyo style of City Pop (kinda like Akira Terao). Hiroshi Sato（佐藤寛）came up with the music although this isn't the same musician behind "Awakening" since the kanji for his first name is different.
As for what Nakanishi is doing currently, according to his J-Wiki file, it looks like he has been providing his own columns and commentary to media. I can only hope that I am as active as he looks to be when I reach his age.
From one of my favourite genres to another... Besides enka and Mood Kayo, I really enjoy jazz, and I've made that known when I did the article on Duke Aces'cover album filled with ancient jazz tunes. The combination of sounds in such music - the not too boisterous tapping of the drums, the tinkling of the piano, the blare of the trumpets, and the rich notes from the saxophone - brings relaxing thoughts and images to mind. And that was what compelled me to get this album by Hiroshi Tachi (舘ひろし).
After hearing his rendition of "Arashi wo Yobu Otoko", which was where I got to see the current-decade-Tachi being as suave or even more so as he was back in the 80's, I was pleased to know that he had done a cover album solely on the hits sung by his senior and former leader of the Ishihara Gundan, Yujiro Ishihara (石原裕次郎). It was released on 26th September 2012, and it peaked at 128th place on the Oricon charts. Through an episode of NHK's "SONGS" online that featured this very album, I was glad to know that his renditions all had the familiar, comforting sounds of jazz, which was probably why I accepted them fairly easily even though I wasn't familiar with or didn't liked the originals.
The tracks for "HIROSHI TACHI sings YUJIRO" are as follows:
1. Prologue (序章)
2. Yogiri yo Konya mo Arigato (夜霧よ今夜も有難う)
3. Arashi wo Yobu Otoko (嵐を呼ぶ男)
4. Akai Handkerchief (赤いハンカチ)
5. Iki na Wakare (粋な別れ)
6. Brandy Glass (ブランデーグラス)
7. Futari no Sekai (二人の世界)
8. Ginza no Koi no Monogatari (銀座の恋の物語)
9. Kurutta Kaijutsu (狂った果実)
10. Mina Dare ka wo Aishiteru (みんな誰かを愛してる)
11. Waga Jinsei ni Kui Nashi (わが人生に悔いなし)
12. Amai Seikatsu (甘い生活) - Bonus track, Tachi's own song.
On a whole, the covers are louder with a fuller arrangement, and the Mood Kayo feel is mostly lost to that of jazz - most sound like tunes you'd hear in jazz bars and Broadway shows rather than a little izakaya tucked away in some back alley in Ginza - but I like them anyway.
Alright, enough with the introduction, let's get on to the songs I enjoy from this album, shall we? For the tracks that I can't find online, I will put down the original instead.
Yogiri yo Konya mo Arigato (1967)
As you probably know by now, I LOVE this song, and I'm actually very particular about who sings this jazzy Mood Kayo hit - besides Tough Guy, of course. In fact, I can get quite ticked off if I don't think the singer has the right vocal delivery for it. Lucky for Tachi, I think his voice has some similar qualities to Yujiro's, those being low, smooth and gentle; he isn't able to reach the higher notes as easily though. If I were to use food as an analogy, Yujiro's voice would be something like a smooth and light hot chocolate, while Tachi's a thicker, heavier caramel.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to find Tachi's cover of "Yogiri yo Konya mo Arigato", but it is a lot louder than the original with the trumpets blaring away rather than just the lonely sax. It's nice, but frankly, I prefer the music to the original as it represents the loneliness of the song better.
Arashi wo Yobu Otoko (1958)
I enjoy both versions of "Arashi wo Yobu Otoko", but I think I prefer Tachi's by a slim margin. The original is more on the refined side if you take out the boisterous crashing of the drums and cymbals. The cover on the other hand is aggressive and combatant and very Tachi in its arrangement, and I think that it blends with the boxing-related taunt mid-way through the song.
Iki na Wakare (1967)
This one came across as slightly enka to me when I heard the sample of it on CD Japan, and I took a liking to it immediately. The laid back vibe of "Iki na Wakare" made by the horns and sax had me thinking of someone taking a leisurely stroll in a park with brown leaf litter crunching underfoot and the trees painted gold, red and orange by autumn. The original is softer and more deconstructed but it gives off a similar feeling, though instead of a park I envision the person strolling down a Parisian street at sundown. "Iki na Wakare" was the B-side to "Yogiri yo Konya mo Arigato", and Kuranosuke Hamaguchi (浜口庫之助) had also put this song together.
Ginza no Koi no Monogatari (1961)
"Ginza no Koi no Monogatari" was one of Tough Guy's songs that I never paid attention to even after hearing it a couple of times on "Kayo Concert", and for a while I was wondering why this duet was one of his most successful hits. And then Tachi's version, sung with jazz singer Karen Aoki (青木カレン), staved off the doubts I had. I think it has got to do with the arrangement of the song again, with the former being quieter and more subdued, while the latter being more Broadway-like and exciting. But either way, "Ginza no Koi no Monogatari" has found its way into my brain and it has no intention of leaving - it's been stuck in my noggin for a few days now... it's getting quite annoying. You can find the cover in the video above which shows that episode of "SONGS" I was talking about earlier. "Ginza no Koi no Monogatari" comes in at the 9:47 mark.
Waga Jinsei ni Kui Nashi (1987)
To end off the article, I'll talk about the last song in the album (not counting the bonus track). I think "Waga Jinsei ni Kui Nashi" translates to "I have no regrets in my life", and taking into account that this was Ishihara's last single released while he was still in the world of the living just makes it one poignant tune... It's one that would put a sad smile on your face. The music that Tokiko Kato (加藤登紀子) had composed starts of soft at first, and while Tachi/Yujiro sings during that bit, it sounds as if our protagonist is staring into the mirror and talking to himself, reviewing what had been happening in his life thus far. Then it picks up at the chorus where he then proclaims sort of triumphantly that he has no regrets in his life. Rei Nakanishi (なかにし礼) had written the lyrics. "Waga Jinsei ni Kui Nashi" did quite well on the charts in 1987, peaking at 12th place and selling about 840 000 copies. Ah yes, and you can find Tachi's cover in the "SONGS" video above at the 25:52 mark.
He looks really good in a tux... especially with
the bow tie undone... like that.
I couldn't find the actual Kohaku Utagassen performance Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）did of "Nanpasen" (Shipwreck), her 19th single from September 1987, but the above video was about as close as I could find in terms of my memories of the mood, lighting and dress when she appeared on the 1987 show. And it was quite the showstopper for me. Nakamori had become the regular name for me in Japanese pop music with all of those amazing catchy hits, including "Desire" which I believe she performed the previous year on the NHK New Year's Eve special.
But her 1987 appearance was way different and affecting. I remember the lights going down low on the NHK stage, an ominous intro that sounded like a submarine sending out a ping signal in the deep ocean, and then Nakamori appearing all in lacy black as if she were going to a particularly high-class funeral. And then she delivered that ballad at a vocal depth that I had never heard from her before. It sounded like she was really digging into despair and heartbreak to bring that song out. Plus there was that richness to the music with that orchestra of Romanticism...this was no aidoru tune. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen.
The Kohaku Utagassen 1987 edition would be the first time that I heard "Nanpasen", and it has ended up as one of my biggest memories from the entire history of the show alongside seeing Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）perform "Natsu no Tobira"（夏の扉）in the 1981 show and seeing both Red and White teams from the 1983 edition do their Latin version of "Begin The Beguine". If there had been an Internet back in the 80s, certain areas probably would have melted down from fans gabbing about that performance.
And the crazy thing is that I wouldn't find out until years later that Akina Nakamori's"Nanpasen" was actually a cover of Tokiko Kato's（加藤登紀子）"Nanpasen" from a few years earlier. Now, my knowledge of chanteuse Kato's body of work isn't nowhere near as extensive as it is for Nakamori's, but I knew that she had sung the evergreen folk hit of "Shiretoko Ryojou"（知床旅情）back in the early 70s and there was a half-hour on my old radio show "Sounds of Japan" which was dedicated to her in which she sang some rather eclectic tunes. But I had no idea that she was behind one of Akina-chan's most significant songs.
Kato wrote and composed "Nanpasen" as one of the tracks on her 23rd album from December 1984, "Saigo no Dance Party"（最後のダンスパーティ...The Final Dance Party）. The original version was quite interesting to listen to...it starts out sounding like a chanson but really feels like a lighter, less dramatic ballad than the sturm und drang of the arrangement for Nakamori. And listening to Kato sing this, I also wondered how someone like Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）would have handled this as well.
According to the J-Wiki article on "Nanpasen", Kato seemed to have been quite insistent that Nakamori would be the perfect person to do a cover of her own song. Fortunately, the younger singer readily agreed. And as it turned out, Nakamori's version of the song brought in a lot of accolades including a Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards, and Best Single of the Year honours at the Japan Golden Disc Awards. The song peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and was the 6th-ranked song for 1987,
A few months ago, Akina was the featured guest on the NHK music program "SONGS", in which the narrator focused on that 1987 Kohaku appearance. He mentioned that it wasn't just a special performance but an acting performance. I can agree with that. There was a certain impression of fragility that came to the surface when I saw her on the stage, an impression of her that has never really left me since that time.
I wouldn't let that picture of a foppish Hisaya Morishige（森繁久彌) make you believe that his song is comic in nature. In fact, his "Shiretoko Ryojou"(Shiretoko Feeling) has survived for over half a century as one of the most heartwarming and enduring kayo kyoku ballads. I've known this song for a very long time as well, and I knew about Morishige as one of Japan's veteran actors but didn't know about the connection between them until just a few years ago.
The late Morishige (he passed away in November 2009 at the age of 96) had actually been born in Osaka Prefecture and was a student of Waseda University in Tokyo. Starting off as a stage actor, he had a stint as an NHK announcer assigned to Manchuria for a while before coming back to further his career in film. I knew of him much later in life as the old dramatic actor, so it was surprising to have found out that he had become famous as the comedic center of a couple of franchises known as the "Company President" and the "Station" series starting from the late 50s and throughout the 60s. But for one movie which required the actor to live on Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula for a long while, Morishige was affected by the scenery and life there to such a degree that he wrote and composed a song originally titled "Okhotsk Funauta"（オホーツク舟歌...Okhotsk Shanty) whose lyrics spoke of the harshness of the Shiretoko Winter and the joy of Spring returning there.
However for some reason, Morishige also created an alternate version of the song which became the more famous "Shiretoko Ryojou", released in July 1960, which focused on the various points of attraction of the area. Unsurprisingly, tourism to the northeastern point of Hokkaido increased, and Morishige found himself singing the song on the 1962 Kohaku Utagassen. The Oricon rankings wouldn't start for another several years but when they did, "Shiretoko Ryojou" went as high as No. 11. By the way, I should clarify that the term "ryojou" refers to those feelings experienced during a journey.
The song also became one of the trademark songs for veteran chanteuse Tokiko Kato（加藤登紀子）. The "Sounds of Japan" radio broadcast that I used to listen to once dedicated its entire half-hour to her songs and they ran the gamut from folk to New Wave/City Pop. According to the J-Wiki profile on her, she has also performed chanson and rock. However, Kato is often remembered for her rendition of "Shiretoko Ryojou" which was her 14th single since her debut in 1966. And my image of her performing this has always been her sitting on a stool in front of a microphone as she strums her guitar.
I could say that Kato's cover of the kayo kyoku classic is probably even more famous than the Morishige original. Kato has always handled the song in a way that makes people stop whatever they're doing and listen. However, I also think Morishige sang his song as if he were the proudest lifelong resident of the Shiretoko Peninsula. In any case, Kato's version was released in November 1970 and this time the song went to the very top of the Oricon charts, and became the 2nd-ranking single of 1971, just behind Rumiko Koyanagi's"Watashi no Joukamachi"and just above Kiyohiko Ozaki's "Mata Au Hi Made". Her rendition also sold 1.4 million records and earned Kato her 2nd consecutive Japan Record Award and her first appearance on the 1971 Kohaku Utagassen for which you see above.
Actress-singer Chieko Baisho（倍賞千恵子）, most famous for her role as the main character's younger sister Sakura in the "Tora-san" series, released her version in 1976 under the original title of "Okhotsk Funauta". Her version has a slightly more epic and polished quality...almost operatic.
As for the area itself, in 2005, Shiretoko Peninsula was designated as a World Heritage Site which probably warmed Morishige's heart greatly in the last few years of his life.
