Some Wake-Up Songs

From Pharmasave

You may have noticed yesterday that I didn't exactly put up a couple of voluminous articles onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus"; it was basically just a Top 10 list and then the APB for Gilbert's mystery song. Well, the reason for that was that I had been preparing for a colonoscopy that took place yesterday afternoon at the local hospital. The procedure itself was as easy as cake but the preparations for it were a bit arduous with me having to glug down the above four litres of PegLyte laxative solution and multiple litres of other fluids within a set amount of time in the day before and the day of the procedure. Mind you, PegLyte wasn't bad taste-wise; it was kinda like a gin cocktail but I had to drink pitchers of the stuff to clean me out.

I was still a tad nervous when I finally faced the procedure and the colonoscopy team including the anesthesiologist plunked me down onto the bed surrounded by doctors and nurses and monitors while I was in that drafty blue gown. The anesthesiologist informed that I wasn't going under a general anesthetic but just something to keep me drowsy so in went the needle, the nurse exposed my bare bottom and the lights went down with only the soothing monitor lights lighting the way. I was feeling like I was going to be seduced. The only thing missing was hearing some Luther Vandro---

OK, sir! You can wake up now. The procedure is over.

Wha...? What the heck?! I was back with the living again which I couldn't believe. When I asked the nurse what time it was, I realized that I was out for 60 minutes but it was like those 60 minutes were completely excised from my memory. And just to emphasize that the procedure was over, there was a huge banner in front of my bed in the recovery bay stating:

YES, YOUR PROCEDURE IS OVER!

Happily, I found out from the doctor that the colonoscopy revealed no signs of cancer and just a couple of polyps that were quickly taken out. After I got dressed, my brother was there in the waiting room to drive me home. My latest medical adventure was over just like that.

Anyways, to commemorate this event and out of a sense of whimsy, I figured some wake-up exhortation songs wouldn't be too bad. And this time, I'm mixing in a couple of the ROY tunes, too. Just for the record, I'm still feeling a bit tired after all of the exertions of yesterday but otherwise I'm not doing too badly.

(1979) Kazuo Zaitsu -- Wake Up

(1983) Van Halen -- Jump

(1984) Robert Armes -- Jump To It

(1985) PSY-S -- Wake Up

(1986) Akina Nakamori -- Desire

Van Halen -- Jump

 

The 1980s were the blooming decade for music videos. MTV and Much Music and all that, and I think my brother and I were fortunate that we were growing up during that time with all of the music and the visuals that now accompanied it. One of the shows, therefore, that we always tried to catch here in Toronto was the "City TV CHUM 30 Countdown" based on our local channel City-TV and the popular radio station CHUM-AM at 1050 on the dial. Roger Ashby would show at least some of the Top 30 songs with videos during that one hour on the weekend.

One song whose video had tonnage-level heavy rotation on the CHUM 30 was "Jump" by the band Van Halen. It was a weekly thing to see the leonine David Lee Roth jumping and singing about while legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen gave off that supremely beaming smile while working magic with his fingers on the guitar, as he also did on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" among other songs. I didn't realize it until much later since I was still figuring out my genres, but "Jump" was a song by a hard rock band that fully featured a synthesizer in the main melody...the Oberheim OB-Xa, to be exact.

Strangely enough, I first found out on NHK's morning news show a few hours ago that Eddie Van Halen had passed away from throat cancer. I saw the news topics and there was the name in katakana and when I read it and saw the kanji characters for "dead", I just went "Wow!" since I couldn't quite believe it. I never thought that he was that old...and he wasn't. He was just 65.

Ironically, last night I was talking with my anime buddy on the phone (as we now do since our biweekly Sunday anime-and-food routine has been derailed for the past seven months) and because he's also a hardcore guitar buff, some of those names including Van Halen's were bandied about. Less than 24 hours later, to find out that he has left this mortal coil is sobering, to say the least.

It wasn't surprising to know that "Jump", which Eddie had a hand in creating, was a regular video to catch on the CHUM 30 since it did hit No. 1 in Canada after its release in December 1983, and it also did the same on Billboard in the United States. To quote Lenny Kravitz's statement on Twitter on the news, "Heaven will be electric tonight".

For this special ROY article tonight, since "Jump" came out so close to the end of the year, I will go with three of the award winners at the Japan Record Awards for 1983 since they're given out around that time.

1. Grand Prize: Takashi Hosokawa -- Yagiri no Watashi (矢切の渡し)

2. Best Performance: Masako Mori -- Ettou Tsubame （越冬つばめ）

3. Best New Artist: THE GOOD-BYE -- Kimagure One-Way Boy（気まぐれOne Way Boy）