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.
We're not too far away from the third anniversary of the passing of Olivia Newton-John who left this mortal coil in August 2022. It's hard for me to think of her as anyone else other than that pretty young blonde woman with the softest vocals imaginable, although she died at the age of 73.
For a lot of her file under Reminiscings of Youth, I've covered her discography going from the 1970s into the 1980s when she was tackling pop and dance music such as "Physical". And yet, my earliest memories of her go to the pink SONY radio when she was releasing the softer ballads and country music from the early 1970s. One of her most memorable songs from that period was "I Honestly Love You" which was released in August 1974, and created by Jeff Barry and Peter Allen.
I guarantee if they had played this ballad at her funeral, there probably wasn't a single dry eye in the place. It is one of the most tenderhearted love songs that I ever heard and if I did listen to this one on the day that the media announced her death, I probably wouldn't have been too dry-eyed either. As I recall, this got plenty of airplay, and not surprisingly, "I Honestly Love You" was a huge hit around the planet, hitting No. 1 in both America and Canada among other places. It also won Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the 1975 Grammys.
Couldn't find an exact date for the release of "I Honestly Love You" aside from that month of August in 1974 so why not go with what was part of the Top 10 on Oricon on August 5ththat year? I've got Nos. 1, 5 and 8.
Soulful singer-songwriter Roberta Flack has had representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" via Reminiscings of Youth with two songs, her iconic "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and her 1983 duet with Peabo Bryson, "Born to Love". Unfortunately, her third article on KKP in a special ROY today is being posted on the day that she died at the age of 88.
As I mentioned in the ROY article for "Killing Me Softly with His Song", Flack and her ballad were something that I heard as a boy while being driven home from family friends' houses. Her relaxing vocals and the arrangement stuck with me as I was nodding off to sleep in the backseat of the car while watching the street lamps go by.
Her June 10th 1974 single "Feel Like Makin' Love" is another classic that I used to hear all the time on radio in the car and in the apartment. It's become so ubiquitous through cover versions and the like that I had to do some hunting before I found out that it was Flack who had originally recorded it with Eugene McDaniels taking care of the songwriting. Rather than getting images of late-night dark skies, "Feel Like Makin' Love" (without realizing what the title meant at the time) had me thinking of Sunday afternoon strolls in the park because it was such a relaxing and friendly number.
As one commenter put it, Flack's vocals were like warm butter. I'll raise that person's bet and say that they were like warm butter sliding down a stack of fluffy pancakes. "Feel Like Makin' Love" hit No. 1 on both the American and Canadian charts. My condolences go to her family, friends and fans.
Singer-songwriter Miki Imai（今井美樹）covered the Flack classic in her December 1988 album of covers "Fiesta". I remember placing the CD into the Onkyo stereo and although I knew it was a release of her singing other people's major hits, it was still a shock to hear her covering this particular one. Maybe it was because the song went all the way back to my early childhood.
Anyways, what were hitting the Top 3 on the Oricon chart back on June 10th 1974?
When I first read the title for this Tonosama Kings（殿さまキングス）hit, "Meoto Kagami" (A Mirror for a Couple), I wondered what it meant because I have had the feeling that the mirror has found itself in a number of kayo titles. So I did some digging. I remember from my university education that the Imperial Regalia of Japan included the mirror Yata no Kagami（八咫鏡）which may be enshrined in Ise Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture. Supposedly, the Yata no Kagami could represent "wisdom" or "honesty".
So, perhaps that's where the significance of "Meoto Kagami" might come into play. Maybe it talks about the honesty between a couple...or the lack thereof. This enka ballad was the 5th single by the Tonosama Kings released in May 1974, and it followed up the group's megahit of "Namida no Misao"（なみだの操）from the previous year.
The karaoke video above, which also has the Kings singing the lyrics, shows the situation of a wife who is carrying out her last duties before leaving her husband for the last time. Perhaps she may have found out that the heel was philandering or he was simply paying more attention to his career than to her. The strange thing is that according to Kazuya Senke's（千家和也）lyrics, the wife seems to be intimating that it's all her fault for the breakup and that she no longer wants to be a burden on him.
Masao Saiki（彩木雅夫）was responsible for the unexpectedly jaunty melody, and both him and Senke were behind "Namida no Misao", most probably in the hopes that lightning would strike twice for Tonosama Kings. There was no need to worry. Although "Meoto Kagami" didn't become the No. 1 single of the year like its predecessor, it was still aNo. 1 on the Oricon weeklies for almost a straight month and sold 1.5 million records. It ended up as the No. 6 single for 1974.
I didn't mention this in the article for "Namida no Misao", but Tonosama Kings struck me as this rather interesting quartet that had that look and sound of a typical Mood Kayo group but actually sang enka tunes. Mind you, the way they sang both "Namida no Misao" and "Meoto Kagami" could have had them straddle the line between the two kayo genres.
Looking through my Dad's old collection of 45s, I couldn't help but notice the cover for this single by this dapper group, Tonosama Kings（殿さまキングス...The Lord Kings）. That fellow at the very front with the Shatneresque pose is Osamu Miyaji（宮路オサム）, the main vocalist and a guitarist. Behind him are leader and bass voice Atsushi Nagata（長田あつし）, Masaru Oda（尾田まさる）and Soubei Tada（多田そうべい）(although I can't match the names with the faces right now). Apparently, Miyaji was quite famous for twirling around the fist during performances.
Osada and Miyaji along with two other people had started their entertainment career as a musically inclined comic group by the name of The Funky Boys back in 1960, but somehow that changed over the next several years to become Tonosama Kings which was formed in 1967. At first, the group made the round of the variety shows on TV but they finally debuted as a musical act in 1970 with "Keiba Song"（競馬ソング...The Horse Racing Song）.
Now, that cover in my photo at the very top of the article is for "Onna no Sadame"（おんなの運命...A Woman's Destiny） which I couldn't find anywhere on the Net. However, perhaps it's best to start off with what was one of their biggest hits, "Namida no Misao" (The Honour of Tears), a love ballad that percolated from the cobwebbed interior of my mind as soon as I heard the intro and then the refrain. Tonosama Kings might look like a typical Mood Kayo unit and the chorus certainly sounds like one, but at least for this song, it was pure enka of the type that would have me imagine a young couple in traditional wear softly padding up a curved bridge underneath falling petals of cherry blossoms.
"Namida no Misao" was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）, a prolific lyricist who also took care of The Cool Five's"Soshite, Kobe"（そして、神戸）and many of Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）early releases. The composer was Masao Saiki（杉木雅夫）who had created the Mood Kayo classic for the aforementioned Cool Five, "Nagasaki wa Kyou mo Ame Datta"（長崎は今日も雨だった）back in 1969. The duo created a number of The Kings' singles for the first few years of the band's career.
The single was released in November 1973 as Tonosama Kings' 4th single. It initially took its time going up the charts, breaking into the Top 10 some 3 months after release but then another 6 weeks later, it finally hit No. 1 and stayed there for an incredible 9 weeks straight. It would eventually sell close to 3 million copies, and more importantly, it became the No. 1 song for 1974. As of September 2011, it is the 25th-ranked song in sales in the history of Japanese single records. Unsurprisingly, the Kings got onto the Kohaku Utagassen.
September 18 2016: I was recently asked if there were a decent English translation for the song. I couldn't find one online so I've decided to do one so I cannot say whether it's a decent one but that will be for you to decide. It was interesting to find out that "Namida no Misao" was sung from the woman's point of view, but then again, a number of enka songs have been performed by male singers from the woman's point of view and vice versa.
My womanly honour has been kept just for you. I will not offer it to another now Because I will not get in your way I want to stay by your side I'd rather die than be apart...because I'm a woman. My womanly honour is imbued with the scent of you. I cannot live after being cast out If there is something wrong with me Please tell me so that I can fix it I will not begrudge this love...because I'm a woman. My womanly honour should be known just by you. If I can become that pristine maiden Anyone can have that crisis of faith But I don't want to suspect that in you I will always wait for you without crying...because I'm a woman.
For the original Japanese lyrics, you can check out the utamap page here, and I was even able to find the romanized version at this page.
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