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.
The last time I brought Olivia Newton-John into Reminiscings of Youth was a little over a year ago when I wrote about her early 1970s ballad"I Honestly Love You". When I look back on her career from that time forward a decade, it's amazing how much she changed her style. And yes, I'm well aware that we are approaching the 4th anniversary of her passing.
From a well-scrubbed country lass back in those 1970s to a New Wave diva of the early 1980s (and a disco gamine in between...along with her time in "Grease"). Yep, I'm referring to the above music video for her October 1983 hit"Twist of Fate" which I saw a lot on the video shows. I'm not sure whether a lot of folks actually watched the movie that it was attached to, the 1983 "Two of a Kind", starring Newton-John and her old buddy from "Grease", John Travolta, but the song and the video sure were popular.
As I mentioned, "Twist of Fate" was a synthpop/New Wave-y concoction produced by David Foster and created by Steve Kipner and Peter Beckett that was catchy and pretty much screamed "I'M OF THE 80'S!" in its arrangement. Maybe it could have gotten folks onto the dance floor as well. But it was the music video that got my attention at least with a glammed-up Olivia strutting into a seemingly futuristic court. I swear that she looked halfway to becoming a live-action version of Memphis Group art. I think even the singer mocked herself in a later interview about how much lipstick she spackled onto her mouth for the video, although I thought she looked dang hot to be honest.😉
In Canada, "Twist of Fate" reached No. 5 on RPM while in the United States, the song peaked at No. 5 as well. So, what was up on the Oricon charts on October 24th 1983, a few days after the release of this OJN hit? Just for fun, let's go with Nos. 18-20.
So, how is that post-Xmas dinner digestion doing by you? Sleepy from all the turkey? We had ours tonight but thanks to a cup of strong coffee and a really good Strawberry Dream Cake, I'm still doing quite well. Not feeling really sleepy but I figure that within an hour, all that sugar and caffeine are going to wear off and I'll simply collapse like an old lung.
Anyways, I had assumed that the article on the final Xmas article for KKP's Christmas season 2023, EPO's "Twinkle Christmas" would be the last one for today. However, I realized that I had to complete my other tradition of putting up a Reminiscings of Youth article on a national holiday, and after all, since I'm filled with beans (or what used to be beans) at the moment, I might as well do something danceable because I'm vicariously needing to dance it up as we enter the final week of the year.
I am talking about Talk Talk's big hit "It's My Life" from January 1984. Yup, we're fast approaching the 40th anniversary of its release and I remember it first of all for its strange video featuring the late vocalist Mark Hollis at the zoo as it looked like a nature documentary was going all New Wave and dance remix on me. I always loved Hollis' haunting delivery and the combination of synths/percussion banging away, and in fact, I was looking for its remix version on the dance remix radio shows of my youth.
"It's My Life" hit No. 31 on Billboard Stateside although it hit the top spot on the dance charts down below. Meanwhile in Canada, it peaked at No. 30 and in the band's native Great Britain, it did a modest No. 46, although I read on its Wikipedia article that it did get a third lease on life and reached No. 13 when it was reissued in 1990.
Dance your dinner away please! Anyways, I'll give you Nos. 8, 9 and 10 from the January 1984 Oricon weekly chart.
A sad day for manga artists and fans as the news has come out about the passing of veteran Fujiko A. Fujio（藤子不二雄Ⓐ）at the age of 88 today.
Fujiko A. Fujio was born Motoo Abiko（安孫子素雄）in Toyama Prefecture and along with fellow manga artist, Fujiko F. Fujio（藤子・F・不二雄）, they were the duo known as Fujiko Fujio (藤子不二雄) collaborating on projects such as the very popular "Obake no Q-Taro"（オバケのＱ太郎）but the two also worked on separate solo works.
Fujiko A. Fujio didn't just do the cute stuff either. He also came up with the comically dark "Warau Salesman"（笑ゥせぇるすまん...The Laughing Salesman） which began as a one-shot in 1968 known as "Kuroi Salesman"（黒イせぇるすまん...The Black Salesman） that spooked his editor. But he was able to get it published between 1969 and 1971 in a weekly manga magazine.
I actually first saw the first anime adaptation of "Warau Salesman" when it was a regular segment of a TBS nighttime variety show, "Gimme A Break"（ギミア・ぶれいく）in 1989. From the episodes that I saw, it was all about Fukuzo Moguro（喪黒福造）, a stout, ever-grinning and waddling fellow in black suit and hat who granted wishes to those who needed help. But before one can say "Be careful what you wish for", the requester/victim invariably gets greedy and ends up in even worse shape. As one commenter has said, there is a certain Rod Serling touch to this relatively modern take on Aesop's fables, but I also think that considering the slightly sadistic punishment that is doled out at the end, Moguro might even be another variant of Loki in the Marvel Multiverse. In the original 1989 anime, he was played by the late seiyuu and actor Tohru Ohira（大平透）.
Apparently in the first run of the anime between 1989 and 1992 (a more recent anime came out in 2017), there was no theme song although there was that squawking oboe music that introduced Mr. Moguro each episode. However, for the specials and any reruns, "Warau Salesman" did get its opening and ending themes in one single released in March 1993. The opening theme was "Kodoku no Uta"(Song of Isolation) was performed by actor and enka singer Tomio Umezawa（梅沢富美男）, who I had known only for his big 1982 hit of "Yume Shibai"（夢芝居）.
Written by Fujiko A. Fujio and composed by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）, this was Umezawa's 15th single and it's done as this grand karaoke-friendly kayo which starts out as waddling as the main character himself, before the singer continues along a slightly spooky melody, finally transitioning to a full-blown orchestral enka/Mood Kayo refrain, perhaps a tad tongue-in-cheek. Fujiko's lyrics seem to describe each of the self-pitying sad sacks that Moguro encounters and "cures".
Lyricist, composer and singer all get together again for the coupling song and ending theme "Kokoro no Uta"(Song of the Heart) which goes back into the Great Japanese Songbook of the past to pick out what sounds like a folksy pop arrangement of the 1970s or early 1980s. It's most definitely Umezawa but I also get some strong Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）vibes from it. In fact, it sounds so upbeat that it feels like there is a disconnect between "Kokoro no Uta" and the episode.
My condolences to Fujiko's family and associates. But I am hoping that the artist has happily rejoined his old partner, Fujiko F. Fujio who passed away in 1996, and might be having a drink in some cosmic izakaya.
As I've said a number of times before, enka is not one of my strong points when compared to some of the other sub-genres within the world of kayo kyoku, but I've been able to remember some of the biggies in this most Japanese of Japanese popular music through their intros. A few of those intros come to mind so easily: the jaunty beginning to Takashi Hosokawa's"Kita Sakaba", the dramatic start to Sayuri Ishikawa's"Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki", and then the intro to this one.
"Yume Shibai" (Theatre of Dreams) launches with some seriously muscular strings before an electric guitar cuts through like a lightning bolt after which a gentle synth tinkles a few notes before the strings and guitar jump in for one more retort. It sounds like a drama was taking place just in those first several seconds....and that's even before Tomio Umezawa（梅沢富美夫）opens his mouth. Umezawa sings the theme that a lot of enka songs follow....that of the trials and tribulations of love. However, he sets that theme as a metaphor for the stage, something that the singer knows like the back of his very gentle hand.
Y'see...Umezawa is a kabuki onnagata actor, a specialist in female roles. When I first found out about him, I only used to see him in full costume and makeup as his characters moved along the stage and gestured with all feminine grace. It was a shock to find out that this was actually a guy....his training and education were that deeply ingrained. But getting back to the lyrics, Umezawa sings about how love is the stage debut where men and women are pulled about on metaphorical strings while they try to say the script lines without enough time to practice.
Judging from the writeup on J-Wiki and his own website, it seems that singing has been a very occasional sideline compared to his stage activities. However, the original version of "Yume Shibai" was a huge hit for him when it was released late in 1982. Supposedly, the key to its hit status (according to J-Wiki) was Umezawa's onsite appearance on stage on an episode of "The Best 10" back in May of 1983 with the kabuki troupe of his elder brother, Takeo. It doesn't go into any detail after that but I think it probably involved one of the troupe, perhaps even Takeo himself, in full onnagata garb performing while Tomio sang the song, since I've often seen him perform it in this way on television over the years. "Yume Shibai" peaked at No. 8 on Oricon and was the 44th-ranked song of 1983. It also earned him a place on that year's Kohaku Utagassen.
The song was written and composed by Kei Ogura（小椋佳）, a Tokyo singer-songwriter who had, at least initially, also been working at his job as a clerk for the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. And when I've seen him appear on shows like NHK's"Kayo Concert", he comes across as that typically mild-mannered and buttoned-down salaryman, but his voice is wonderfully resonant....not like what the usual businessman would sound like in a karaoke box.
Here is Kei Ogura giving his softer version of "Yume Shibai". Ogura is also famous for composing and writing "Ai San San"（愛燦燦）, another huge and wistful hit for Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）.
Below is Teresa Teng's（テレサテン） version which in terms of arrangement seems to hover somewhere between enka and City Pop. I could imagine someone like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）singing this. Considering how popular the song has been, she probably has.
