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 wrote on actress-singer Mayumi Asaka（朝加真由美）was back last December when I posted the article for her "Hold On Me", a track from her lone album, the October 1981"Yasashii Kankei ~ Mayumi I"（優しい関係...A Gentle Relationship）. Well, I've got another track here titled "Toki yo Hohoende" (It's Time to Smile).
Written by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by Daiko Nagato（長門大幸）, it's another City Pop treat with the wailing electric guitar and the boppy bass, but there are also some interesting classical piano riffs ripping through the instrumental bridge. And Asaka's slightly husky voice keeps things within the urban contemporary.
Back in the 1980s, Japan and Coca-Cola pretty much equaled good times in the big city as you can see above. All the more reason to grab the fizzy stuff. Ironically, I don't drink it nearly as much as I used to since the rest of my family prefers the clear stuff: Canada Dry, 7-Up, Sprite, etc.
As I mentioned in my last article regarding singer-songwriter Kaoru Nakahara（中原薫）, she'd been given the rather appropriate if somewhat cringey stage name of Cola Hazuki（葉月コーラ）earlier in her career because she'd become known at the turn of the decade from the 1980s into the 1990s as someone who sang a lot of cola jingles. Hey, if the gigs pay the rent...
In June 1991, Cola Hazuki and comedian Kanpei Hazama（間寛平）put out a single titled "Anata dake wo"（あなただけを...Only You） as the ending theme song for one of Hazama's variety shows. However for this article, I wanted to focus on the coupling song which Hazuki handles on her own called "Day In Vacation". If the song sounds familiar, then you must have heard the original version by the summery supergroup Nagisa no All-Stars（渚のオールスターズ）when they recorded it back in 1989.
Nagisa no All-Stars included the band TUBE and at least a couple of their beloved songwriters, Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, and not surprisingly, those two were the ones behind the creation of "Day In Vacation". Hazuki gives the song her summery best as well and perhaps I'm imagining things here, but it even sounds a bit ZARD-ish. Furthermore, my timing isn't too bad either because next week will introduce the annual Golden Week holidays in Japan. Enjoy guzzling down that Coke!
The first time I heard "Evening Scandal", Mariko Kurata's（倉田まり子）4th single from January 1980, I thought that she was going all Pink Lady on me. And as it is, there's a goodly amount of disco punch in the song, a genre that Mie and Kei utilized effectively in their discography.
Written by City Pop and future TUBE expert Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, and indeed he penned a number of Pink Lady's hits, the arrangement was handled by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, a guy who also knows his City Pop. Although I wouldn't categorize "Evening Scandal" as such a song, it does handle like a dramatic and urban kayo kyoku as Aran's lyrics describe a torrid night on the town between two lovers.
With only a week left before summer officially leaves us for another year, I thought that this might be an appropriate song to post here. Actually, the article was spurred on by a fellow named Gregory who had contacted me a few days ago to ask about a group named BLUEW. And just to calm the nerves of the stricter linguists out there, it is pronounced "BLUE" so no need to worry about distorting the lips or any jaw muscles unduly.
Interestingly enough, I had read of BLUEW before (there really isn't any way that I could forget a band name like that) and perhaps one of the members such as vocalist Keiji Katayama（片山圭司）has popped up in another article as a songwriter but for the life of me, I can't quite remember. But first, let's take a gander at the first track from the band's June 1987 2nd album"Surfbreak", "Natsu, Kimi ni my Love" (Summer, My Love to You). I gather that just from this song alone, other summery surf-ready bands of the 1980s such as TUBE and Omega Tribe can move a little more to the side to allow BLUEW on board. Written by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）, who also wrote for TUBE in their early years, and composed by Katayama, what stands out are Katayama's slightly gravelly vocals, that saxophone which sounds as if it migrated from a Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）summer tune, and the background harmonies that bring to mind the works of the band Spectrum and TUBE. Summer is definitely here to stay if this song has any say in it.
BLUEW first formed in 1986 with four singles and four albums coming out in 1987 and 1988, and although the band would break up in 1989, the members have continued to correspond with each other. In addition to Katayama, there was also Kazutomo Wakashima（鮫島一友）, the drummer who played on the first self-titled album before leaving the group, second drummer Michiaki Ishiwatari（石渡道明）, guitarist Takashi Masuzaki（増崎孝司）, bassist Kaoru Ohhori（大堀薫）and keyboardist Takanobu Masuda（増田隆宣）.
My anime buddy will most likely show some disappointment at my revelation, but I have never seen "Bubblegum Crisis"（バブルガムクライシス）. In fact, I had to look up the Wikipedia article for the early 1987 anime to find out what it was all about. But seeing some of the footage did get me nostalgic about how Japanimation, as it used to be called, appeared back in the old days.
Another thing that got me nostalgic? The opening theme song for the pilot of the multi-part OVA series. I mentioned "Kon'ya wa Hurricane"（Tonight is a Hurricane） several years ago in the article for Silk's "Dream Shift"（ドリーム・シフト）, another anison whose singer is actually named Kinuko Ohmori（大森絹子）, and she's the one behind "Kon'ya wa Hurricane". So, I guess it's about time that I finally gave space and time to this one.
Created by a couple of heavy hitters in the songwriting industry, lyricist Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）, "Kon'ya wa Hurricane" has that 80s anison vibe of relentlessly chugging electric guitar and thunder-pounding drums, as if Tylenol meant nothing to the musicians involved. The single was Ohmori's debut release, having come out in December 1986, a few months before "Bubblegum Crisis" premiered.
Over a decade ago, I came up with the KKP article "J-Canuck's Nighttime Playlist" which was composed of songs with a nocturnal theme or mood thanks to a "Myojo"（明星）songbook collection. Of course, feel free to peruse that old chestnut. However, last night, my mind was wading through the usual dross as I was zoning out from watching the baseball game when I realized that there were a fair number of kayo kyoku with the word "night" in their titles. So, why not provide a small modest list of such songs for fun?
I've heard all about the trials and tribulations of producing an anime from my anime buddy over the years, and among some of them, "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia"（不思議の海のナディア...Nadia, The Secret of Blue Water) and the legendary "Evangelion" suffered quite a few setbacks (if I'm not mistaken, these two were under the aegis of Hideaki Anno who had his own demons to slay). Apparently, that was also the case with a 1980s mecha anime called "Chō Kōsoku Galvion"（超攻速ガルビオン...Super High Speed Galvion） that ended up not being too popular and even its one run got truncated by a number of episodes due to its sponsor going belly-up just a few months after its premiere in February1984.
That was kinda too bad since its opening theme, "Lonely Chaser", by Riyuko Tanaka（田中利由子）wasn't too bad at all. Written by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by Masayuki Yamamoto（山本正之）, the song has a catchy beat and is arranged in that 80s way reminding me of all of those scenes in Hollywood action movies back in the day when the main characters show up in a disco or aerobics studio in Los Angeles.
As for Tanaka, she started in showbiz when she was 16 as a magazine model after which she shifted into recording commercial jingles and anime theme songs. It wasn't too long after that she made another transition into jazz.
The above video here is Episode 22 which was the last aired episode of "Galvion" out of a scheduled 26 episodes (supposedly) according to the Wikipedia article on the show. The June 1984 No. 22 did finish but then a 35-second segment was tacked onto the end with a dramatic voiceover explaining what was to happen to everyone while stills of the characters popped up. FIN
Ah, yes...black coffee. That is the question. Is it indeed the drinkable arbiter of true adulthood or perhaps the judge on whether you will become a coffee connoisseur or merely a coffee drinker? For myself, I'm unrepentantly the latter...gotta have at least cream in there. When I hit Tim Horton's, I also end up ordering a Double-Double (double sugar, double cream). Connoisseurs might sniff at whether I'm actually drinking coffee at all.
If I had known about this song earlier, I probably would have included it in my "Coffee, Tea or Milk?" article from several days ago. "Mou Ichido Black Coffee" (One More Black Coffee) was then-aidoru Noriko Hidaka's（日髙のり子）third single from October 1981. My last article on Hidaka was her January 1980 second single, "Hatsukoi Sunshine"（初恋サンシャイン）, which was her gift to the Nio Sun Exposition（仁尾太陽博）in Kagawa Prefecture. This time, though, "Mou Ichido Black Coffee" is her tribute to sharing that coffee with that special someone.
To be honest, I'm not sure if there is a certain age when drinking black coffee and at least getting used to the bitter taste is seen as a sign of maturity in Japan. Hidaka herself was still just nineteen years of age when "Mou Ichido Black Coffee" but of course I'm not sure if she was already glugging down the java unadulterated at that point, but there is a certain serious tone in Jun Irie's（入江純）horn-filled arrangement (despite or because of the hint of disco) of this aidoru tune as if the lass were singing "Dang it! I'm gonna drink down my joe and be an adult about it!" although I think Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）lyrics were describing something more cutesy. Her co-lyricist was someone named Daimon Nazuki（奈月大門） (a number of readings is possible for both names but I'm going to go with this particular one) which was actually a pseudonym of Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）who also composed the song.
Four years old, this kid is! He may have ended up bouncing off the walls later on...and maybe much later on, he will end up as the president of his own coffee distribution company.
A few years ago, I posted an article for Shinichi Furukawa's（古川真一）"Cool Romantic"（クール・ロマンティック）, a B-side that was quite the AOR goodie. As I mentioned there, I couldn't find a whole lot of information on the singer and songwriter or all that many songs by him online, but this B-side was the flip side to a 1987 single titled "Day Dream".
The uploader for the video here, Lotus Ladybug, also noted the dearth of Furukawa's discography on YouTube, so we are all lucky that they were able to put up "Day Dream" itself. Written by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by Chiho Kiyooka（清岡千穂）, I had wondered about waiting until Urban Contemporary Friday (aka tomorrow) to put this one up but listening to this pleasant medium-tempo number, I felt that "Day Dream" was straight-ahead pop compared to its AOR B-side. I didn't quite notice it with "Cool Romantic", but I realized that Furukawa's vocals remind me a bit of the golden voice of Christopher Cross.
Anyways, good to hear that "Day Dream" is back up and running.
A couple of years ago, I posted an article regarding "My Endless Scene", a City Pop song recorded by actress/singer Mayumi Asaka（朝加真由美）as the first track for her one-and-only album, "Yasashii Kankei ~ Mayumi I"（優しい関係...A Gentle Relationship）, from October 1981. It's a relaxing slice of urban contemporary for all those high-rise dwellers and visitors.🌇
This time, in contrast to that Side A, Track 1 song, I have Asaka's Side B, Track 1 song. "Sasowarete..." (Enticed...). And I would like to emphasize the contrast since this particular number starts off with a brief soliloquy by the actress herself in a rainy milieu for the first several seconds before the melody by Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）begins with a revelatory chorus which turns into a comely arrangement of lilting country and blues. With lyrics by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）, "Sasowarete..." also has that reminder of a 1950s or 1960s ballad, especially with that saxophone solo in there.
Some of you may remember that Author's Picks article I did on some of those Camellia Diamonds commercial songs including Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）and Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. They were some of the classier stuff that I've covered.
Well, I recently discovered that there was another song that deserved to be on the Camellia Diamonds list, and that was Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）"Everything". A track on the singer-songwriter's 9th studio album"Sunny Side Memories" from April 1990, it was written by her and composed by Seiichiro Kuribayashi（栗林誠一郎）as this fairly dramatic number with a soupcon of Latin. Admittedly, it kinda hovers over the City Pop/pop borderline but I couldn't help but get some of those metropolitan music vibes from this one., and to be honest, I think "Everything" could have even become an ending theme for some romantic drama or cop show. But hey, diamonds are good, too!
Yesterday, I was speaking with KKP friend, JTM, and I noticed that there was a very Mariya Takeuchi-esque（竹内まりや）poster hanging on his wall. My curiosity piqued, I asked him what it was all about and he told me that he found it at this site called Displate which specializes in metal posters, and apparently there is a City Pop section so for all of you fans out there, you can check it out.
It's been a few years since I've posted singer-songwriter Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）name on the byline although she has continued to maintain her presence on the blog through her songwriting. The last time I wrote about her verbatim was through "Noah no Hakobune"（ノアの箱舟）, a New Wave-y track on her 1981 debut album"Shinkei Suijaku"（神経衰弱...Nervous Breakdown）. Every time I look at the album cover though, I wonder whether the photographer was asking Aran to make like Ultraman.
Of course, the singer has been known for her City Pop as well as the New Wave stuff. But the very first track of "Shinkei Suijaku" is actually another genre tangent for all of us. Aran begins with the most cordial soft-shoe jazz ditty "Secret Desire". Written by her and composed by saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）, there may be a bit of New Wave in there after all, after listening to some of those saxes sounding as if they went through some electronic filter. With this song and "Noah no Hakobune", I have to admit that I'm curious about how the rest of "Shinkei Suijaku" sounds. I just hope that the potential multi-genre album approach didn't strike the lass down with the album title.
About this time last month, I introduced a band called Spinach Power and their "Style". The band was notable for having certain individual members who were already quite well-known or would become well-known in their own right, and they include Tetsuo Nishihama（西濱哲男）from the band Tranzam（トランザム）, singer-songwriter Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）and rock singer Kyosuke Himuro（氷室京介）.
Now, as I noted in the article for "Style", Spinach Power was seen as a disco group although "Style" itself didn't fit that genre. It was more of a guitar pop tune for the most part. However, I have found an earlier single from their discography that absolutely reflects good ol' disco. Their 3rd single"Funky Disco Princess" released in January 1979 was provided by lyricist Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）, as she did for "Style", and composer Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）. The vocals were sung by Oda in a way that had me thinking of Tiny Tim for some reason...at least until the end when Oda just went nuts on the microphone. Not sure whether Aran was doing backup vocals. "Funky Disco Princess" was most likely the band's best showing on Oricon as it hit No. 86.
We're back at the AI art gallery for this Friday night and of course, Fridays mean the more urban contemporary of Japanese popular music. As was the case during the last visit, I got together with my fellow foodie friends including KKP writer Larry Chan for lunch, and this time it was at a nice restaurant existing within a converted former postal station in midtown Toronto. I am still digesting my Steak Frites and Tiramisu as I type.
Found this one only some minutes ago but the back story behind this band was fascinating enough that I've decided to start today's round of KKP with them. Never heard of Spinach Power (and yep, Popeye was an inspiration) which lasted between 1978 and 1981 and according to their J-Wiki profile, they never came up with the hits which would explain their brevity of existence. Part of the fascination lies in the series of main vocalists they had. The first one was Tetsuo Nishihama（西濱哲男）who had been the lead vocalist for the band Tranzam（トランザム）. Then came famed singer-songwriter Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）who naturally handled the song creation. And the third and final vocalist was a fellow named Shuuichi Teranishi（寺西修一）who would later become Kyosuke Himuro（氷室京介）, the singer for the band BOOWY in the late 1980s and a soloist with the hit "KISS ME" in 1992. There was never any mention of this in Himuro's own article in either J-Wiki or Wikipedia.
Also, according to the profile, Spinach Power released seven singles and three albums with the magazines identifying the band as a disco group, although it was seen that only half of their discography was really in that genre. Certainly, the song "Style" in their third and final album"In and Out"from September 1980 doesn't come across as a disco song at all. And despite the cover of the album showing the members looking all New Wave (well, aside from the 70s rock hairdos on most of them...it's more the outfits), "Style" sounds more like a congenial guitar pop tune with some rock at the end. The other part of the fascination is that "Style" was written by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by the aforementioned Oda; those two would later work together to create songs for the summertime band TUBE.
If, by chance, anyone else has any other information on Spinach Power, let me know. As well, one more bit of trivia I can leave with you is that the band's drummer Mamoru Kimura（木村マモル）would become the first drummer for BOOWY.
Well, it's a lovely depiction of my AI request for "Walking under Tokyo skyscrapers at midnight in anime style" but I don't think the streets of my old stomping grounds were ever that empty during the bewitching hour. But I digress.
In any case, I've come to realize that maybe City Pop's favourite hour is indeed 12:00 am considering some of the genre's songs. Perhaps it's because the time is a ripe one to still enjoy painting the town red but with a lot of the folks having raced for their final train or subway, there is now a larger openness to the city boulevards and avenues to fully enjoy the night and inhale that fresh air (or what goes for it in Tokyo). The feeling can be either on foot or in the car although I think that there is probably more of that excitement while whizzing the highways and byways in the latter. Of course, you can get the convenience of hearing the relevant music on the car stereo, too, although pedestrians are also able to listen on their smartphones.
Here are some of those "midnight" or "mayonaka"City Pop songs.
Well, Valentine's Day has been finished in Japan for a couple of hours as of this writing, but we're still right in the middle of it. Hopefully, you lovebirds are or will be enjoying yourselves with lots of chocolates, wine, etc. I've just decided to give a short list of all of those Japanese pop songs with the word "LOVE" in their titles on behalf of the occasion. Ah, also you may want to take a gander at "Valentine".
The first time that I had ever heard of the term "speak low" was a few years back when I saw this YouTube video which is more than a decade old now. It was the name of a Japanese cocktail involving two types of rum, matcha and a hint of yuzu. Wouldn't mind trying that out...and taking that stretcher back to my hotel room in Tokyo.
Now, how did a cocktail get a name like Speak Low? Well, it may have been inspired by a 1943 pop song and jazz standard composed by Kurt Weill and written by Ogden Nash. The above video has Weill himself singing "Speak Low" with him playing the piano, I assume. Its popularity has been such that folks ranging from Frank Sinatra to Barbra Streisand have covered the song over the decades.
I'm sure that a lot of Japanese jazz singers have also covered "Speak Low" but I can say that Naomi Akimoto's（秋本奈緒美）version of the song is quite different. Now, I just posted a song by her less than a couple of weeks ago which breaks my Prime Directive of waiting at least a month before posting a song by the same artist. Then again, just like on "Star Trek", the Prime Directive gets bent or broken all the time.
Besides, I was so smitten by her "Speak Low" that I couldn't resist. Resistance is futile, after all. A track on her 2nd album"One Night Stand" from June 1982, an album that seems to consist of covers of jazz songs, her "Speak Low" has been rearranged into Japanese City Pop or 80s American urban contemporary. I could almost swear that David Foster or Greg Phillinganes or Rod Temperton had something to do with this one. As for the Japanese lyrics, they were supplied by singer-songwriter Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）.
Up until I started doing this blog, I had only known Naomi Akimoto（秋本奈緒美）as an actress and a TV personality. It was through YouTube that I discovered that she'd also been a singer, and according to her J-Wiki profile and the writeup about her on "idol.ne.jp", she grew up with jazz because of her father's love of the genre and the performances of Sarah Vaughan, notably her "Misty". So, she began her career as a jazz singer.
I was always getting confused by that third album of hers "The 20th Anniversary" from December 1982 since I was always going "She doesn't look THAT old!", but the powers-that-be were probably just trolling fans at the time because the title actually refers to the 20th anniversary of her birth. Akimoto was just on the cusp of her 20th birthday (January 13th 1983) and her official entry into adulthood. It's on that album where you will find the one track that was also her debut single, "Silent Communication". It had been released a couple of months earlier.
Those first several seconds had me wondering what kind of song I was going to get; was it going to be tropical or even synthpop, but the rest of it was some good ol' swing jazz thanks to composer Abraham McCrory with Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）supplying the lyrics. Breathlessly delivering "Silent Communication", I was getting some Marilyn Monroe vibes and "I Wanna Be Loved By You". Considering the jazz in there, I had assumed that the song would be used in some sort of commercial for whiskey, but actually it was used to advertise a Glico chocolate brand called Dione (the commercial above actually has Miki Asakura singing instead).
Along with "Silent Communication", "The 20th Century" also has "Bewitched" which was the first Akimoto song that I had posted a few years ago.
To be honest, I thought that I was pretty much done with the Gosanke（御三家）file with last month's personally imagined Gosanke Girl Bands. However, researching material for Sayuri Aso's（麻生小百合）1982"Candy Jazz" album the other day, I found out that Aso, Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and Naomi Akimoto（秋本奈緒美）had been known as Being Jazz 3A（ビーイングジャズ3A）or The Jazz 3As of Being on account of the first letter of their three family names and the fact that all three chanteuses were under the employ of the Being entertainment conglomerate at the time. Heck, Aran was one of the founders! As for the jazz part, I think Aso was the only representative part of that genre, strictly speaking (ah, but I hadn't heard Akimoto's "Silent Communication" yet), but I gather that whoever had come up with the moniker for the three was probably throwing a lot of genres into the jazz blender which is what City Pop was doing as well.
