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.
Another sign that autumn in Toronto is just around the corner: the annual Toronto International Film Festival. Depending on the weather, and they are saying that thunderstorms might be welcoming the stars, cinephiles and media, the first day of TIFF tomorrow may be a very soggy one which is too bad but the second day sounds far more promising. But I'm sure that the autograph hounds will still be out in force, rain or shine.
Under the circumstances, maybe I can put up a list of some of the songs that I heard on the big screen throughout my life.
(1970) Kiyoshi Atsumi -- Otoko wa Tsurai yo (男はつらいよ）from "Otoko wa Tsurai yo"
(1972) Mari Amachi -- Hitori Janaino (ひとりじゃないの）from "Aitte Nandaro?"（愛ってなんだろ）
(1997) Yuji Oda & Maxi Priest -- Love Somebody from "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）
(1997) Akihiko Matsumoto -- Rhythm & Police from "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）
Along with his contribution of a Ken Hirai（平井堅）article a few days ago to the blog, commenter and writer Fireminer asked me about a song that the dream duo of Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）and Brian Setzer (of the rockabilly group The Stray Cats) did almost twenty years ago. He also mentioned that he didn't know anything about rockabilly. Well, rockabilly can be found out easily enough at Wikipedia.
Hotei and Setzer under the moniker of BRIAN SETZER vs. HOTEI released their "Back Streets of Tokyo" in August 2006, and nope, this isn't rockabilly (possibly aside from a riff or two). It's just good ol' rock...and a (probably necessarily general) summarization of the two guitarists/vocalists' genuine adventures on the side streets of Roppongi within Tokyo. I've got the impression that they've been good buddies for a long time inside and outside the studio. Certainly inside it, Hotei and Setzer are just having a grand ol' time singing and playing away.
Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown might be the modern and family-friendly commercial complexes in the area but there was the original main drag which has its seedy nature, and I'm pretty sure that the guys are singing about this part. I've walked along this area but it was only to dine at the much tamer restaurant Hard Rock Café. Mind you, there is also the infamous Gas Panic that I've heard tons about but never entered.
Setzer himself wrote and composed "Back Streets of Tokyo" which was used for a Sapporo Beer commercial as the single peaked at No. 19 on Oricon. It's also available on Hotei's 11th album"Soul Sessions" which was released in December 2006 and went up to No. 15.
On Friday, NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）program had its usual Premium Talk segment and the guest just happened to be the one and only Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, a musician whose reputation certainly preceded him as the hosts looked pretty nervous and tongue-tied around the man initially, and it wasn't just because he towered over everyone at over 6"1' (that's still considered very tall in Japan), although still not quite as tall as Shohei Ohtani.
However, in his gray hair, spectacles, and a one-button blazer that looked almost like a comfy cardigan around him, Hotei looked practically grandfatherly (which I shouldn't say because his daughter isn't even married yet) and nothing like his hellraising self on stage with all of the leather and spiky hair. And he was very self-effacing in his talk about his life in London and his approach to his guitar, although we also all found out that he is one heck of a whiz in the kitchen and he has a green thumb.
But getting back to the music, I found this one track which acted as the final track of his March 2002 8th album"Scorpio Rising". His composition "Dreaming in the Midnight City" sounds something like a good way to finish up the album as it has this rather elegiac feeling with Hotei exhorting Yukinojo Mori's（森雪之丞）lyrics of being someone who's gone through the late nights of paying one's dues to get where he is today. I'm not sure if Hotei was indeed singing about himself or about certain people in general but he's definitely gone the anthemic way about it. "Scorpio Rising" itself reached No. 6 on Oricon.
I've always wondered about titles in Japanese songs where the sky was concerned. In addition to the topic of this article, I was reminded of Mariko Takahashi's（高橋真梨子）1979 classic"Anata no Sora wo Tobitai"(あなたの空を翔びたい...I Want to Soar in Your Sky）. There don't seem to be such expressions of love in that form in English, so the best I can speculate is that it could mean "I want to be yours" or "I want to be with you".
As I said, this article is on "Watashi wa Anata no Sora ni Naritai" (I Want to Be Your Sky) which was Miki Imai's（今井美樹）14th single from November 1997. It was truly a husband-and-wife love ballad with Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）composing the tune while Imai created the lyrics. The song weaves in style between a simple romantic fireplace pop song and a late Beatles type of production, perhaps in a baroque pop fashion.
Oooh...there's even a jazz arrangement for it that she did at the Blue Note! Marvelous! Anyways, I had thought that "Watashi wa Anata no Sora ni Naritai" was a theme song for a typically romance-filled J-Drama, but actually it was the ending theme for late-night TBS news broadcast "News 23". The song hit No. 32 on Oricon, and it was termed a double A-side CD with its "partner" being the Christmas tune "Shiro no Waltz"（白のワルツ）.
I forgot to mention today that this week marks the beginning of Diwali celebrations for many people including Hindus, so I would like to wish them well during their Festival of Lights.
At the same time, our province of Ontario is having a whole rash of mayoral elections today with results coming out as I speak, so there will be celebrations of a more political nature. I can imagine that some of the music will involve quite a bit of rock, and as such, I figure that I can end the KKP broadcasting day with something from that genre. So, here is "Beat Emotion" from the one and only rocker Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）.
His 3rd single, Hotei concocted all of "Beat Emotion" and released it in June 1991 to get his first No. 1 ranking as a solo artist. According to the J-Wiki writeup for "Beat Emotion", Hotei felt so good making this one that he felt that just had to make this a single release. As for the title, it was something that Hotei himself made up to describe that impulse sparking a heartbeat, and he felt that it was a phrase which suited him to a T. The same title was actually used to name an album for his old band BOØWY back in 1986, and Hotei felt that there was still plenty of meaningful juice in the phrase to also use it for his own single.
I'd probably say that "Beat Emotion", after listening to it a few times, is a song whose impulse can actually spark a typhoon. The single finished 1991 as the 53rd-ranked song. It also appeared on his 2nd album"GUITARHYTHM II" from August that same year, and that release also hit the top spot on Oricon with it becoming the 45th-ranked album.
Exactly a month ago, I put up an article on one of Masayuki "Martin" Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）earliest songs as a solo performer, "Tandem Run". Well this time around, I'm getting back to the relative present in his career by covering his March 2019 16th original studio album, "Funky Flag".
Arguably the most famous track for a lot of anime fans is "Love Dramatic"（ラブ・ドラマティック）as the opening theme song for the first season of the hit "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~ Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen"（かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜）. Yup, this guy is now 65 years old and as a lot of the comments underneath the video have pointed out, Martin has charisma for kilometres.
I just want to take care of some of my own highlights from "Funky Flag", including the title track, "Ai no Funky Flag"（愛のFunky Flag...Funky Flag of Love） which, not surprisingly, has dollops of funk and even some Motown sprinkled in there. One big observation is that the album has a lot of big songwriters involved in the album and that includes lyricist Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composer/musician Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）coming up with this quintessentially Martin tune (and yep, Hotei is on the guitar here) as the singer exhorts folks to get ready for a good party night. Martin and Hotei also provide the background vocals along with R&B songbird Harumi Tsuyuzaki（露崎春女）.
Good golly Molly! Suzuki has so much charisma that he needs five bodies to hold it all!
"Secret Boogie"（シークレット・ブギー）by Kiyoshi Matsuo（松尾潔）and Yoshihiro "Maestro-T" Toyoshima（豊島吉宏）is sultry and snaky as the lyrics go into somebody lusting for that target of desire. To be honest, the first time I heard "Secret Boogie", I almost did a double-take at one of the lyrics (if I'd been drinking water, I would have made Danny Thomas proud) but reading the liner notes for the song, I saw that it was "Funk with me"! Ah.
Not sure whether Martin or anyone else involved saw something at that massive Shibuya intersection, but "Scramble Kousaten"（スクランブル交差点...Scramble Intersection） is pure love across the rain-slicked pavement. I mentioned those famous songwriters and here, we've got Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）from Kirinji（キリンジ）and Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）, aka Keiichi Tomita（冨田恵一）, on lyrics and melody respectively. There's something so very 60s Bacharach about the style and arrangement of "Scramble Kousaten" that the joy-filled fellow in the story is willing to do a Fred Astaire pirouette during the crossing.
"Turn off the light" was composed by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）and written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）. Abe has been involved in creating a number of songs for Martin over the years such as the 1989 "Kuu na"（くーな）, and here, he and Matsui weave a melancholy mid-tempo song with a bit of bossa nova about how although love can bring a lot of wonderful things, it can also trap someone in a time-stopped room of woe if it's broken. Martin really can wear his heart on his sleeve.
One more song that I'll put up here is "BAZOOKA" which was all created by Gota Nishidera（西寺郷太）of the band NONA REEVES. It also has tons of funk but in the intro, I think that I even heard some New Jack Swing. "BAZOOKA" fairly percolates all throughout as Martin buzzes about getting that first blast of fall-in-love right between the eyes.
Hopefully, I'll take care of the remaining tracks in the months to come but for those who have discovered the wonders of Suzuki as the King of Love Songs through "Kaguya-sama", then have a go at "Funky Flag" which peaked at No. 8 on Oricon. In addition, you can take a gander at his most recent "ALL TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL".
The news came in on the local CP24 feed earlier this morning. Sir Sean Connery, the very first James Bond on the movie screen, passed away at the age of 90. As I was telling commenter Scott an hour or so later, I knew that my favourite 007 was ailing for some time but still it was very sad to hear that he finally left this mortal coil. Eerily enough, yesterday Connery popped up in my memories for some reason and it was the scene in "The Untouchables" when his character of Jimmy Malone is brutally assassinated by Frank Nitti.
As a Bond fan, I will always remember that first scene where he introduced himself as "Bond, James Bond" in "Doctor No", the huge fight in the train compartment between him and Red Grant in "From Russia With Love" and him on that slab with the laser beam threatening his second-most lethal weapon in "Goldfinger". As you can deduce quickly, three of my favourite 007 movies were those first three with Connery.
In another example of a slight coincidence, I found out about Tomoyasu Hotei's（布袋寅泰）theme for the 2014 live-action version of "Lupin III" being compared to the early pieces of music from the Bond franchise, according to TV Tropes.
I had a chance to see this live version with Shun Oguri（小栗旬）as the charming titular thief via TV Japan, but that night I had my student online so didn't quite make it. I'll have to PVR it next time although I heard that reviews were rather mixed. According to the J-Wiki article on the movie, Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the composer of the iconic anime theme, was simply too busy to participate in this particular project, so apparently that theme was nixed in place of Hotei's "TRICK ATTACK". The official guidebook (via J-Wiki) mentions that Hotei still wanted to pay some respect to Ohno when creating this new theme that comes out in the nifty closing credits (was shocked to see Nick Tate [aka Alan Carter] from "Space:1999" in the cast).
For me, I could pick up on the respect to Ohno but aside from that ending strum on the guitar, I didn't really hear any of that "love letter to James Bond" that TV Tropes was writing about. Still, it's 100% Hotei with the rat-a-tat horns and of course, his own guitar. Good try but it won't make me forget about Ohno's original or Hotei's own "Kill Bill" theme.
Will miss Sir Sean...but at least, he and Lois Maxwell are back together again.
With a title like "Hohoemi no Hito" (Smiling People), isn't it perfect for someone like songbird Miki Imai（今井美樹）to handle it? She is famous for that wide-as-the-Mississippi smile of hers, and she even got a shoutout in the training manual for the JET Programme for that smile since she was becoming quite famous in the late 1980s.
Mind you, "Hohoemi no Hito", her 21st single wouldn't come out until May 2002. Even though, I've gone on record to state that my favourite period for Imai's songs was the latter half of the 80s and a bit into the early 90s, this particular single is something that I would invest in, although most likely I would purchase the album that it appears in, her BEST compilation "Ivory III" from June 2004.
Written, composed and arranged by her husband and "Kill Bill" theme song creator Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, "Hohoemi no Hito" is leagues away from "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" in terms of tone. Something more in the light & mellow vein of music, I guess it can be considered to be an updated version of sunshine pop with a touch of bossa nova and some of Hotei's guitar work with longtime Imai collaborator Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）also helping out on the guitar solo. Plus, something as light and silky like "Hohoemi no Hito" will also have its need for those horns including the flugelhorn.
The single reached as high as No. 25 on Oricon while "Ivory III" peaked at No. 2. I think that during these uncertain times, a song about smiles will not cure things but perhaps it can give some solace and support.
Tomoyasu Hotei's（布袋寅泰）18th single"Bambina" has a melody that has stuck with me all these years when I remember the guitarist's name. One fellow on YouTube put it thusly when he/she wrote that only Hotei himself can play that fiery guitar and sing out those rapid-fire lyrics written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）. However, I'm sure that hasn't prevented any of his fans from trying the song out at karaoke.
"Bambina" (Italian for baby girl) was released in April 1999, and it's Hotei style all the way on stage and in the music video. I was surprised to find out that the girl in "Bambina", model Niina Uchida（内田仁菜）, was perhaps all of thirteen years of age at the time, so along with that and the lyrics of the ardor for the titular girl, I couldn't help but feel that the director may have been partially inspired by "Lolita". To be honest, I was a tad creeped out especially when I saw Uchida in the suitcase.
Still the song is an energized tune of rockabilly fun and I'm sure that anytime it gets played at a Hotei concert, the joint will be jumping. "Bambina" went all the way up to No. 2 on Oricon and became the 70th-ranked single of 1999 as it went Platinum. Its first appearance on an album was for Hotei's "Greatest Hits 1990~1999" which came out in June of that year, reached No. 1 and ended up as the 21st-ranked album, becoming a million-seller.
My observation on the various tarento/comedians that have appeared over the years while I was in Japan is that a number of them got their 15 minutes of fame due to some signature move or catchphrase which for whatever reason really resonated with or tickled the viewing public.
For instance, there was Edo Harumi（エド・はるみ）with her dancing and guuing.
And Waseda University graduate Yoshio Kojima（小島よしお）, a man built like an Olympic swimmer in only a pair of bikini briefs who goes on a maniacal dance with his own catchphrases of "Sonna no kankei nee"（そんなの関係ねぇ!）and "Oppapi~"（おっぱっぴー）.
Then, there is longtime entertainer Egashira 2:50（江頭2:50）. Unlike a lot of the others, this nut doesn't particularly have a catchphrase and has appeared steadily over the years. His shtick is basically terrifying everyone around him including the audience and fellow celebrities by his unpredictability and scary countenance while running around topless in black leggings. Jumping on the audience is one of his particular tricks up his sleeve (if he actually wears a shirt).
Of course, with anyone that...flamboyant, whatever theme song trails him will end up as an earworm. And by accident today, I found out that that opening riff that felt like a melodic Keystone Kops caper belonged to Tomoyasu Hotei's（布袋寅泰）10th single, "Thrill" from October 1995. A song of octane from start to finish, it comes with a music video that should be watched in a well-lit room with some distance from the screen.
Not a huge rock fan but Hotei's voice has been something that I've usually enjoyed listening to. There is a certain quality to it...kinda smooth and velvety despite the genre. Hotei came up with the melody while Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）wrote the lyrics. And I found out from the J-Wiki article for "Thrill" that Fumiya Fujii（藤井フミヤ）from The Checkers（チェッカーズ）helped out in the chorus.
"Thrill" hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 62nd-ranked single for 1995. The song also got onto Hotei's 5th album"King & Queen" released in February 1996. It also hit the top spot on the album charts. The thing is, though, that whenever Hotei plays it at his concerts, I sometimes wonder if the audience has been conditioned to expect Egashira 2:50 to crash the party. In any case, I would love to see the singer participate in the Opening Ceremonies for the 2020 Games. Perform the "Kill Bill"theme? Perfect!
Not sure whether I've mentioned in this in any of my previous postings on Miki Imai（今井美樹）but there is that Japanese social media site called Mixi which is composed of various communities for people to join depending on the raison d'etre of those communities. There are a few for the singer with one specifically geared for her early career....namely before she hooked up with Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）as her songwriter and later on, her husband.
This is not to say that I've particularly disliked Imai's music since the mid-1990s; in fact, I've already written about a number of her songs (which were indeed hits) and even one album with Hotei's contribution. But to be candid, if I had to choose between pre-Hotei or post-Hotei Imai, I would go with the former option. There was just some sort of thing between her and the arrangement of those songs back in the 1980s and very early 1990s that was special which I think was lost. However, of course, I know that a singer has got to evolve over time which means gaining new fans, losing some old ones and keeping the really dedicated ones.
Basically then, although I bought Imai's albums well into the 1990s, I've really only put her CDs from her debut in the mid-80s to the early 90s with any sort of regular rotation. Still as I said, her hits were still coming out well into the 21st century.
For example, one that comes to mind is "Goodbye Yesterday" which is a title that I often hear at karaoke and on any TV program which highlights any of Imai's music. Released in February 2000 as the theme song for the Fuji-TV drama "Brand" starring the singer herself as an employee at a fashion company, this was another hit with Hotei's stamp on it in terms of words and music. From the English portion of the lyrics, it's fairly obvious that the message from the song is about pushing ahead into the future which was probably the overarching theme for Imai's character in "Brand", and perhaps I can use it here to wave goodbye to 2016 and look forward to this coming year.
Listening to "Goodbye Yesterday", which is Imai's 18th single, I think the observation I can make here is that her ballads from the mid-90s onwards have taken on that rather epic quality, thanks to Hotei and especially those electric guitar instrumentals. Any official music video that may have existed for "Goodbye Yesterday" probably would have had, budget willing, Imai standing and singing atop a precipice overlooking hundreds of square kilometres of canyons while the sun is either rising or setting. Compare that to her 80s material which I found a lot more intimate as in spending quiet time in a local cafe.
"Goodbye Yesterday" went Double Platinum and peaked at No. 5 on Oricon. It ended up as the 46th-ranked single of the year as it sold over half a million copies. It was also included in Imai's 12th album"Taiyo to Hemingway"（太陽とヘミングウェイ...The Sun and Hemingway）which was released later in August 2000. The album also did very well by peaking at No. 2.
Speaking of bluebirds, our own version of it in the form of a professional baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, is in danger of letting any chance of post-season play slip away. Ach....I think it's pretty much game over already but hopefully they may be able to snatch the final wild card spot before the regular season ends tomorrow.
In any case, let's pivot to a happier version of bluebird....namely Miki Imai's（今井美樹）"Bluebird", her 9th single from July 1993. I was more of a collector of Imai's full albums and BEST releases rather than her individual singles so this one nearly slipped by me until I purchased her second compilation of hits "Ivory II" since it was probably the first album that included this really upbeat tune. Not that I ever considered Imai a singer of downbeat material but my impression of her is that she has had a good mastery of love ballads and mellow fare.
But of course, the singer with the wide-as-the-Mississippi smile has released her fair share of happiness and "Bluebird" has it in spades. Written by frequent Imai collaborator, Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）, and composed by future husband Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, this is a song that is a jump start for getting out of the blues and into the sunshine again. Certainly the concert performance above puts an emphatic point on that statement along with the rock guitars. It also feels different from the tone of her previous singles and albums.
And going on with this different feeling is the coupling song to "Bluebird" which was "amour au chocolat"...quite the pretentious title. I bought Imai's 1992 album, "flow into space" through "Eye-Ai" while I was back in Toronto, and this is where I first heard this dreamy and mellow piece. As I mentioned on the article for Imai's old-style "Blue Moon Blue" which is another track on the album, "flow into space" is notable for showing a more "organic" side for lack of a better expression. With a lot of her ballads and mid-tempo entries from the late 1980s, they could be heard at a small town cafe, but the tracks from her 7th album come off as if they were meant to be played over the speakers at a coffeehouse in a trendier neighbourhood in Tokyo, say, Aoyama or Shimo-Kitazawa. Probably for you readers who have never visited my old stomping grounds, that last sentence may not mean a whole lot but I tried. And I encourage you to go and visit!
"amour au chocolat" (at least the original album version...apparently, the coupling song is a new take) is the yang to the yin (or should that be the other way around?) of "Bluebird". Hotei's music goes at a leisurely pace with his guitar adding a dramatic Western twang and then even going a bit "drunk" near the end. I can imagine him having composed this on a wooden porch outside with a slight rain coming down. Meanwhile, Imai coquettishly delivers her own lyrics about helplessly falling in love with a man who is already taken. Perhaps that title might be analogizing the addictive properties of that emotion to one of the most beloved flavours. I can certainly sympathize. I'm no longer a rabid chocoholic but I still get those cravings for a Hersheys once in a while. The whole song was arranged by Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）, the fellow behind all that wonderful Studio Ghibli music.
The single "Bluebird" managed to get as high as No. 12 on the charts. And before I forget to mention it, the song was used as the theme for the TBS variety show "Hitachi Sekai-Fushigi Hakken!"（日立 世界・ふしぎ発見!...Discovery of the World's Mysteries）, a long-running educational quiz program based on some of the weird and wonderful things from around the planet that has continued to be shown on TV since its beginnings in 1987.
Years ago, when I saw the teaser for Quentin Tarentino's"Kill Bill Vol. 1" (much shorter than the above trailer), I thought it was vintage QT with his promise of a 1970s chop-socky flick. And there was that song...yes, that song. At the time I first heard it, I never imagined it was by a fellow who was part of a couple of 1980s J-Rock bands, Boowy and Complex.
My friends and I caught "Kill Bill" in Japan when it was released in 2003. I think everyone went totally gaga in the States and Canada but when we viewed it, the audience in Tokyo was somewhat more nonplussed and engaged in a mass headscratching session at some of the scenes. I was never sure whether the folks around me were aware of QT's love for the yakuza movie and his tribute to them through "Volume 1". By the way, the lady to the right of O-Ren in the dark suit is played by Julie Dreyfus who was a regular face on Japanese TV as a tarento and panelist. I was surprised to find out from Wikipedia that she is apparently distantly related to "Seinfeld" actress Julia-Louis Dreyfus.
Still for me, the one scene that made QT's movie all the memorable was O-Ren's entrance into The House of Blue Leaves with her lethal entourage (well, lethal until The Bride made mincemeat out of them)...all to the tune of "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" by the walking force-of-nature guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）. Along with the fact that he was the terrifying tower for those two bands I mentioned, I knew him later as the songwriter and later husband for Miki Imai（今井美樹）.
And here I thought that the fellow was getting mellow in his middle age when he came up with the ultimate song for a power walk. Hotei is great with the guitar but then the horns come in and you feel as tall as he is as you're walking down the red carpet, and to me his 187 cm of height isn't anything to sneeze at.
The thing though is that "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" was actually lifted from the 2000 movie "Shin Jingi Naki Tatakai"（新・仁義なき戦い...New Battles Without Honor or Humanity）, a remake of Kinji Fukusaku's（深作欣二）original 1973 yakuza film "Jingi Naki Tatakai". Hotei, who had also starred in the movie as a nightclub owner with no love for mobsters, created the song under the title of "Shin Jingi Naki Tatakai no Tema"（新・仁義なき戦いのテーマ...Theme from New Battles Without Honor or Humanity）. Well, you can imagine the need to have the title shortened for "Kill Bill". And I think most folks would probably remember it more easily as the Kill Bill Theme.
Whatever the case, it is very cool. According to the liner notes for the song, the motif was not to have it bang you over the head immediately but to have it percolate slowly like water coming up to a roiling boil before it starts coming over the sides of the pot. Power walk, nothing....I wanna make a 12-minute egg to this song!
Years ago, I had seen some sort of campaign ad for Suntory on TV which starred guitarist-singer Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）and his wife Miki Imai（今井美樹）having a bit of fun. Didn't pay a whole lot of time to it except to internally remark that that was one glam couple.
Then, some time later I was at some vending machine in Tokyo where I plunked in the coins to get a drink. There was a solid KER-PLUNK and out came the orange drink. But then as I was turning away, I heard a softer ker-plunk which had me put my hand into the bottom once more to pull out a tall white can with cool Hotei and beaming Imai on it. Inside it was the red rectangular disc that you see above at the top.
Apparently, Hotei had released a limited single via stylized DVD in 2001 only distributed through the Suntory vending machines titled "Party Time!" featuring him and his wife in a short, sweet and slightly repetitive video directed by Hiroyuki Nakano（中野裕之）. It wasn't quite a duet between husband and wife but Imai was on the "la, la, la" chorus and had a few lines in there. And I gotta say that seeing her in the video made me realize why she started out as a model.
It was an interesting gimmick and I was surprised that I could still play it on my computer DVD player although the picture was far smaller on my screen than it is on YouTube. "Party Time!" was written and composed by Hotei.
The DVD on my screen
I'm just throwing the above in here but Hotei can do a pretty blistering version of "Mission: Impossible". It could deserve some air time on the next entry of the franchise but I would still prefer the original jazzy arrangement during the opening credits.
This article will have a few parallels with the one I wrote for "Pride" last year. For one thing, this is another 90s Miki Imai（今井美樹）song and for another, "Sleep My Dear" is another Imai song written and composed by Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）as a theme song for another Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）of SMAP TV drama, "Yomigaeru Kinro"（蘇える金狼...The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf）. Mind you, comparing this show with Katori's earlier "Doc" would be like comparing coffee and blood. In "Doc", the usual lovable goofball played a taciturn Vietnamese man living in Japan while in "Yomigaeru Kinro", he was a tightly-wound assassin disguised as a mild-mannered corporate cog out to destroy the company he was working for.
Another parallel comes up with the fact that I was doing some channel-surfing when I came across both programs. With "Yomigaeru Kinro", I had just finished watching one of my favourite travelogue shows on TV Tokyo when I switched over to NTV to see the ending credits of the show with Katori as Asakura walking alone in Odaiba while the Imai song was playing. My impression was that it was a pretty cool way to finish off a show.
"Sleep My Dear" has that perfect title for a theme song to a suspense-thriller series. I mean, it sounds like a title for one of those hard-boiled novels by Mickey Spillane before it gets made into a Humphrey Bogart film noir. And Imai's creamy and reassuring vocals work to make me feel as if she were an angel singing to Asakura to let go of the vengeance and rest (the dreamy arrangement especially at the beginning by Hotei also helped). Not that it really worked...Imai had a small role in the show itself and she didn't quite make it to the end. In any case, the song also had Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）as one of the backup vocals.
This was Imai's 17th single from May 1999 which didn't quite have the Oricon success that "Pride" did, only getting as high as No. 25 on the charts. It was placed on her 2000 album, "Taiyo to Hemingway"（太陽とヘミングウェイ...The Sun and Hemingway）which peaked at No. 2.
Sorry...very bad joke there. However, I have to say that when I first saw the title for this Miki Imai（今井美樹）song, "smells like you", I just went "ick" and "eww". Let's say that I was never much of an optimist when it came to the topic of body odor. Yep, I realize that there are such things as perfume and cologne, but again that's not the first thing I think of when I see that title on an album, even for someone as lovely-looking as Imai.
However, the soft bossa nova by Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）is pleasant enough and when I took a look at Imai's lyrics, I realized that the sylph-like singer was just quietly cooing about how much she missed her lover and how much the summer air reminded her of his scent when they were holding each other close. Yep, that's romance for you! Methinks she would be the type to take a deep whiff of his favourite sweater in the closet if he's off on some business trip.
It's been a very long time since I heard "smells like you", and so I had thought that the song came out on Imai's 1992 album, "flow into space", her very atmospheric release and her first time collaborating with Hotei. However, I was quite wrong on that point since it actually was a track on a later CD, "Love of my Life" from 1995 (peaked at No. 2). Imai does quite a nice job with bossa nova-flavoured tunes so it's a bit of a wonder that she hasn't devoted an entire album (at least not that I know of) to the Brazilian genre. Perhaps it's time to revisit some of the mid-90s Imai releases again.
As mentioned before, my main interest in utahime Miki Imai（今井美樹）centres around her late 80s and very early 90s period when she was singing that comfortable cafe-friendly pop. However, I did continue buying her albums into the 21st century although I haven't really put those later discs into as high a rotation as I have with her earlier releases.
Still a few songs have stood out from those later albums, including one from her 13th album, "Aqua", which came out in August 2001. I can't really say that Imai has become a slinky jazz chanteuse but her "JOHNNY CAN'T PLAY GUITAR" is a pretty polished affair. It was written, composed and arranged by her husband, Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, and it has that laconic downtown feeling that probably would make it ideal to be covered by Osaka group Ego-Wrappin'. In fact, I would love to hear how vocalist Yoshie Nakano（中納良恵）would interpret this tune since I think her chops are richer than Imai's when it comes to the genre.
In my early years in Ichikawa, I recollect a Fuji-TV Thursday night romance drama that starred Narumi Yasuda （安田成美）and SMAP's resident goofy guy, Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）. Titled "Doc"（ドク）, the first scene had Yasuda playing a Japanese-language teacher traveling in Vietnam who wanted to cross a street, only to be wholly intimidated by the crazy traffic. Then, Katori as the titular Vietnamese character rather nonchalantly and suddenly came to her assistance and navigated a miraculous path across. Just as miraculously, the two crossed paths again in Tokyo when Doc decided to go up to Japan to learn the language at Yasuda's school. The drama debuted in December 1996 but it didn't take long for a lot of year-end and New Year's parties to have the resident cut-ups pretend to be Katori pretending to be a young man from Vietnam.
However, I think the more lasting legacy connected with "Doc" was its theme song. Miki Imai's （今井美樹）12th single, "Pride", was actually released some weeks before the premiere of the drama in November. And as written and composed by future hubby Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, it's a quietly joyful ballad about the pride of a woman as she is in love with that special somebody. According to the J-Wiki article on the song, the lyrics especially hit a soft spot with young women and karaoke fans which led the song to a No. 1 ranking on Oricon not just once but twice. It first got to the top spot a couple of weeks after its release, and then about a month later, it hit No. 1 again for 2 weeks straight just after "Doc" made its own debut. It ended up selling over 1.6 million copies and would become Imai's greatest hit up to now. To put the cherry on top of things, "Pride" became the 6th-ranked song for 1997.
The song has been covered by a number of other singers and the above video has Hotei himself giving his own piano version. And below is a cover by AKB48 member Misaki Iwasa（岩佐美咲）.
Tomoyasu Hotei （布袋寅泰）has been popping up in the background, so to speak, in several of the articles here, whether it be for BOOWY, COMPLEX, or Miki Imai（今井美樹）. So I gather it's time to have him front and centre.
And it's about time. Any person who can come up with the theme of all themes to accompany an epic power walk such as "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" from the Quentin Tarentino movie, "Kill Bill" should be given his own star on a walk of fame somewhere. Not to mention that Hotei himself back in his younger days looked pretty darn intimidating with that huge hair and costume from "The Road Warrior".
However, I will be starting his file with a song that I enjoyed from his solo career from the 90s called "Last Scene". When it comes to a Hotei single, it first came to my attention through the official music video, and "Last Scene" accompanied the interesting choice of a mini-movie featuring the day in the life of a young woman who has a sideline as a ballet dancer. The song stood out for me because of its rhythm line, which reminded me of the one from Bruce Springsteen's"Hungry Heart" way back when. The Boss' classic was a tune that our high school band class had to go over and over, so that rhythm line is pretty much embossed in my brain. And so when I came across "Last Scene", it all came back to me.
And for all those times that Hotei was strutting and thrusting away with his guitar behind folks like Koji Kikkawa and Kyosuke Himuro（吉川晃司・氷室京介）, I also realized that as a soloist, he's got a pretty distinctly decent voice....kinda like especially rich caramel laced with a shot of fine brandy. With "Last Scene", he doesn't just sing his words so much as he rather weaves his way through and around them like a bee who hit a fairly potent batch of nectar. Despite the video of that ballerina, the lyrics has Hotei treating the end of a romantic relationship with as much brio as he would a joyous wedding celebration. He's a die-hard romantic as he intends to give the end as much epic bittersweetness as the final scene of a sappy Hollywood flick. However, I'm not sure if Hotei himself is also covering up a massive ball of hurt underneath that layer of bravado.
"Last Scene" was written and composed by Hotei, and was his 11th single released in January 1996. Miki Imai was in there, too, along with singer-songwriter Caoli Cano（かの香織）, as backup vocals. It peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and finished the year as the 51st-ranked song, and it also went Platinum. In addition, it is also a track on his 5th studio album, "King & Queen" from February of that year which hit the top spot on the album charts.
Back in October 1994, I was just a couple of weeks away from launching once more to Japan to have another try at life there, so my friends at the JCSA held a goodbye party for me at the International Student Centre at the University of Toronto. During the two hours there, I received a very nice present from one of my friends from Tokyo. And you see it right above the text. I guess I may have blurted out at one point or another that I was a big Miki Imai（今井美樹）fan. Since it was 20 years back, she probably had someone in her family or circle of friends send it over from Japan, so it was a bit weird that I ended up taking it with me back to the country.
I've decided to cover Imai's 8th album from September 1994, "A Place In The Sun" because being in the midst of one of the wintriest winters in recent memory here in Toronto, I think all of us can use our own place in the sun right now. Also, with me getting this disc just before I made my fresh start in Tokyo, I think "A Place In The Sun" was perhaps a bit of a fresh start for Imai herself. For one thing, it was the full beginning of the collaboration between her and BOOWY guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）. Hotei had actually helped out on a few of her tracks from her previous album, "flow into space" in 1993, but with "A Place In The Sun", he was now the producer for the whole album. And to make things more interesting, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一） was co-producer.
For the first number of years that I had the album, I considered this album to be a near-reboot of Imai in terms of the overall sound. I may have been a bit hasty in that assessment; in recent years, on hearing and remembering the various tracks, I think now that there were some echoes of her 80s and very early 90s style in terms of some familiar synth arrangements and the gentle rhythms. And sure enough, her songwriting buddies from that period such as Akemi Kakihara, Yuuho Iwasato and Chika Ueda（柿原朱美・岩里祐穂・上田千華） created some of the songs for "A Place In The Sun" as well. However, there were some other tracks that showed a new direction of sorts. One track is "Miss You" which is the only song from the album that had been released as her 10th single a couple of months earlier. Iwasato took care of the lyrics but Hotei composed the music, and I'm pretty sure that that is him on the guitar solo and the background vocals near the end of the song. Compared to her ballads from her early period, "Miss You" seems more epic and less about Imai spending a Sunday afternoon in the apartment. There is more of a "big picture" outlook here, for lack of a better way to describe it. Because of its status as the lone single, it is the most representative track on the album and perhaps the symbol of this new direction. It hit No. 1 on Oricon and was the 26th-ranked song of 1994.
My favourite track though is "Martinique no Kaze"（Martinique の海風...The Winds of Martinique） which was written by Imai and composed by Sakamoto. There are currently only cover versions but I prefer the original (which I finally got above!). I have to listen to "flow into space" one more time to make sure, but I think Imai's record of including at least one bossa nova-tinged song in her albums was still safe, thanks to this tune. In any case, what I love about "Martinique no Kaze" is just how Sakamoto was able to unobtrusively weave a hint of that old techno into the bossa which makes the whole song sing. It brings to mind running along that tropical beach during a summer sunset.
This is a karaoke version of "Kagayaku Machi de"（輝く街で...In A Sparkling Neighbourhood）. but I just wanted to showcase one track that kinda hearkened back to some of her earlier whimsical ballads. Again the words were by Imai with Chika Ueda creating the melody. Despite the whimsy, Imai's lyrics talk about coming across an old flame out of the blue with all of the complicated emotions bubbling out.
I love the bass thumping away here for the title track, "A Place In The Sun". And Imai's voice just seems to lift spirits whenever she sings this one. It hints at that fresh start that I mentioned at the beginning of the article, and the official video illustrates that very well as she drives a car up a fog-enshrouded mountain until she gets out at the peak and has sunlight rain down on her. That famous beaming smile of hers says it all. Iwasato and Akemi Kakihara were behind the making of this wonderful song.
(karaoke version)
The last track for tonight is "Umibe nite"（海辺にて...By The Shore）. Iwasato and Ueda created this sad but hopeful ballad in which Imai sings about walking along the beach thinking about the love she has just lost and struggling to go forward by herself. She gives a wonderful performance above.
"A Place In The Sun" went as high as No. 2 on the album charts and eventually became the 21st-ranked album of the year. As I finish up writing this article, I realize that the album itself has this overarching theme of new beginnings to go along with the rebirths of sorts for the professional lives for me and Imai. Perhaps that friend of mine had something more in mind than making an Imai fan happy when she gave me this album.
Also, I did mention in one of the past articles on Imai that her earlier music from the 80s and into the new decade was more my preference. That opinion hasn't changed but I also think this album is very worthy.
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