Tomoharu Taki -- Toki（時）

 

Well, it's Hump Day so folks can usually get into the doldrums on Wednesday. Luckily, it actually feels refreshingly cool outside with a stiff breeze blowing all about. I would probably advise a lot of Japanese tourists to come over to our neck of the woods to escape all of the heat and humidity plaguing much of the archipelago...especially the residents of Nagoya.

Speaking about refreshing, maybe I can interest you in a glass of singer-songwriter Tomoharu Taki's（滝ともはる）discography. He's been known for some City Pop but I'm wondering if his "Toki" (Time) from his 1979 album "Taki Tomoharu II"（滝ともはるII）really fits the label. Not that there is anything wrong with it; in fact, I did refer to it as being rather refreshing in a sparkling way. It certainly begins in that manner, and we soon get to hear some laidback singing over a gently percolating Latin-esque rhythm that makes me think of a sunny inner city neighbourhood where everyone knows everyone else. And then comes the saxophone solo.😊Enjoy it with any drink you like.

Takao Horiuchi & Tomoharu Taki -- Minami Kaikisen（南回帰線）

 

As far as I know, I don't think I've ever traveled as far south as the Tropic of Capricorn but I gather that for a lot of Japanese, that particular line of latitude may represent some good ol' traveling in the tropical zones.

Well, one fellow at least decided to have an adventure in Africa and he brought some Suntory beer with him. Just hope that he didn't give some of that stuff to the elephants. Nothing worse or more dangerous than being close to a sick or drunk pachyderm.🐘

Anyways, the jaunty commercial song here is "Minami Kaikisen" (Tropic of Capricorn) which was a duet between Takao Horiuchi（堀内孝雄）and Tomoharu Taki（滝ともはる）released as a single in April 1980. Alice（アリス）member Horiuchi had already gotten a taste of the solo artist life when he came up with his hit "Kimi no Hitomi wa Ichi-man Boruto" （君のひとみは10000ボルト）back in 1978 but didn't have another follow-up hit since then. And Taki was someone that I discovered through the blog a couple of years ago through his City Pop song "Taxi Driver" which was also a 1978 release.

Together, they recorded this footloose and fancy-free duet folk song "Minami Kaikisen" which could probably accompany a great trip down south. I like the rollicking rhythm and also the flourish that comes right after every chorus. Of course, Horiuchi shows his usual vocal flourishes here, too. I'm kinda surprised that I never heard this at karaoke. "Minami Kaikisen" managed to reach No. 4 on Oricon (this would be Taki's first Top 10 hit), selling around 375,000 records. It also ended the year as the 32nd-ranked single.

Horiuchi came up with the melody (and yep, there's a certain similarity between this one and the aforementioned "Kimi no Hitomi wa Ichi-man Boruto") with Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）coming up with the lyrics.

Tomoharu Taki -- Midnight Flyer（ミッドナイト フライヤー）

 

Perhaps JTM can educate me a bit more on the long-running TV series "The Hangman" since he's always been into the Japanese police dramas. However, from what I've read and seen, the show began in 1980 on TV Asahi with the premise of a secret organization of vigilante killers who give their brand of permanent justice to those evildoers who manage to slip through the fingers of the law.

Well, the title is familiar to me because some years ago, a rollicking reggae cover of the kayo kyoku "Arigata ya Bushi"（有難や節）by KAJA was performed as the ending theme for the fourth season of "The Hangman". Other than that, I haven't had much contact with the show.

Back in early December, I first mentioned the name of Tomoharu Taki（滝ともはる）and his "Taxi Driver" from 1978. Well, the singer-songwriter was involved with the second season of "The Hangman" by providing the ending theme for that one. "Midnight Flyer" was actually written and composed by Australian singer-songwriter Paul O'Gorman (along with Steve Groves) with Taki coming up with the Japanese lyrics, and it's so coolly West Coast AOR that Taki may have sprouted a mullet and a skinny tie just by recording it. I don't know whether O'Gorman himself had sung and recorded "Midnight Flyer" but I couldn't find any such evidence on YouTube. 

PS: Actually, there is one more song that I covered that has an association with the series.

Tomoharu Taki -- Taxi Driver

from Yiannis Theologos Michellis

 

Maybe for those who have just begun their Japanese City Pop odyssey (I think it's been about six years since the whole "Plastic Love" thing blew up on YouTube), search for any titles with the word "taxi" in them regarding relevant Japanese songs, and there's a good chance that you'll hit an urban contemporary tune from the old days.

Case in point: I had never heard of Tomoharu Taki（滝ともはる）before but when I saw that title "Taxi Driver" and the cool cover of the man on his 1978 debut album "Taki Tomoharu", I figured that this would be a City Pop song. Sure enough, "Taxi Driver" is a funky driving song on the highways and byways of Tokyo which was written and composed by the Oita Prefecture-born singer-songwriter. With the bluesy saxophone in there, one could love the cab ride even more as this is playing over the speakers. 

Born Tomoharu Tamaki（玉置智治）in 1955, he had just won a gold prize in the National Amateur Folk Contest in 1977 after which he released his first single and then "Taki Tomoharu". I don't know the rest of that album, but after listening to "Taxi Driver", he certainly showed his urban and urbane chops. Taki would release three more albums and nine singles up to 1982. I don't know what happened in the intervening years, but in 2001, he opened up his own live house known as Paradise Café and even set up his own record label of the same name seven years later.