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.
Unlike for the inaugural article for Yutaka Kimura Speaks, there will be less J-Canuck blah, blah, blah and more of Kimura.
Number: 001
Lyricist: Lorraine Feather
Composer/Arranger: Hiroshi Sato
From his 1982 album: "Awakening"
This is his most contemporary mellow groove song from his landmark recording which established his distinct style after his encounter with the Linn drum. It may be a silly love song based on lyrics talking about the negotiations between a man and a woman, but thanks to Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）splendid taste, I can immerse myself in an aurally luxurious sensation within the dry air of Los Angeles. With the quality of the melody and the sound, it's of course very hard to dismiss "I Can't Wait" with the flavour that he imbues into it.
Continuing on from Part 1 that is "Who Influenced Toshiki Kadomatsu (Pre-Debut)", I bring you Part 2 with the singers and songs that helped in shaping this man's sound following his official start in 1981 as an entertainer. Again, as mentioned in that article, this is based on a section of Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）J-Wiki biography which has listed these pre-debut and post-debut influences. Unlike yesterday's pre-debut batch in which the majority of the songs have been well-known to me since my childhood, most of the post-debut entries coming up were fresh at the time.
(February 11 2023: That whole section on Kadomatsu's pre-debut and post-debut influences has been excised from the J-Wiki article, possibly since it was never sourced. Still, I don't think the person who put up all of these songs was simply picking names or titles out of a hat so at the very least, these choices can still provide a topic of discussion.)
Hiroshi Sato and Wendy Matthews -- You're My Baby (1982)
I mentioned this in the KKP article for Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）classic "Awakening" in which Kadomatsu gave his stamp of approval to this 1982 album, a release by the keyboardist and singer that is perfect as a cool-down AOR project. According to that section on his post-debut influences, Kadomatsu did listen to "Awakening" after his own debut and found it so polished that he felt that he could never match that level of goodness. He even said that as a fellow just barely into his 20s at the time, he didn't have the vocabulary to respond or express for the chords and melody, and didn't have any hope in replicating them. Geez! I can only assume that Sato gave him a pep talk to buck up.
My take on what I just read there is one of surprise considering that Kadomatsu had already released a few albums such as "Weekend Fly to the Sun" before "Awakening" came out in June 1982. I personally found "Weekend Fly to the Sun" a great album, so I can only assume that Kadomatsu was totally in awe of "Awakening". I wonder whether he had been searching for a certain leavening agent to help take his music into more dreamier and introspective circumstances.
Steely Dan -- Aja (1977)
This influence on Kadomatsu made me go "Ah...naruhodo". Considering how much Steely Dan's riffs have been incorporated into many a Japanese City Pop/J-AOR song, I guess that I wouldn't be surprised that Kadomatsu would see "Aja", one of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's greatest creations, as a factor in how he developed his own sound. He said that he underwent a major learning experience from "Aja" which amassed all of the important things in music including musical sophistication, composition, freshness and the challenge itself.
Kadomatsu may have found out about "Aja" a bit late into the party, but he was much better than me because I only...finally...purchased the album only a couple of years ago, much later than Fagen's splendid solo work "The Nightfly". However, I have known about "Peg" and "Josie" for decades since that got regular airplay on the radio, and I've totally fallen in love with "Deacon Blues" and "Black Cow".
Once again, another blessed song from my youth and it's up there in my love for EW&F tunes alongside "September". I actually first heard "After The Love Has Gone" on an episode on an old American sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati" during a more contemplative scene, and that is perhaps the perfect scene in real life to hear this one by David Foster, Jay Graydon and Bill Champlin. For Kadomatsu, this was the first Foster song that he had ever heard, and found it had this amazingly sharp and sophisticated mood. He's even stated that "After The Love Has Gone" evokes the best emotion while hearing it during a summer evening. Works for me, too! And you know, I can now get the influence of this ballad upon some of his slower songs.
Christopher Cross -- Sailing (1980)
And perhaps that is also the case with Christopher Cross'"Sailing" when it comes to influencing Kadomatsu's mellower efforts. According to Kadomatsu, apparently when Cross' self-titled album carrying "Sailing" was released in Japan, it sold like hotcakes upon hotcakes, and when he, who at the time was listening to his fair share of disco, heard this number, he felt that AOR had also finally landed in his country.
Luther Vandross -- Sugar and Spice: I Found Me A Girl (1981)
This is the one song that I had never heard before today, and yeah, I'm Gibbs-slapping myself. But better late than never, and don't we live in a wonderful time (COVID-19 excepted) when we have access to decades of great music that we can discover via sites such as YouTube?
Kadomatsu was truly knocked out by the upbeat and funky "Sugar and Spice" when he first heard it, and once again, along with his experience with Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）"Poolside" from the pre-debut entries, he felt that Vandross expressed a world that was far away...a world that he himself wanted to experience. The Shibuya-born musician-producer really desired to know that vibe in New York City where he felt that Vandross was bringing out that world view of his, and sure enough, Kadomatsu got his wish a few years later in 1984 when he went to live in The Big Apple (not sure if he still resides there, though).
With the pre-debut and post-debut influences on Kadomatsu over the past couple of days, I kinda/sorta have a handle on how his music developed, but there is so much there that it will probably take quite a bit longer to absorb and understand it all. Hopefully, your brains will be able to sift through all of it better than I can.
One definite benefit from doing these articles is that when I was exploring Vandross' wonderful song, I also discovered "Street Life"(1979) by The Crusaders, formerly The Jazz Crusaders. It's the type of tune that I've always loved.
Was hoping to return to this album, "Awakening" by Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, a release that got the seal of approval by none other than Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）. Most fortunately, I did find a song that I hadn't covered in the original article for Sato's 1982magnum opus.
After listening to the track "It Isn't Easy", my first and continuing thought was that it really doesn't need Sato's introductory vocal because I think it almost belongs to a different song. Once it hits 22 seconds, though, that's when we get the ironically easy melody (considering the title) by Sato, the musical equivalent of a hammock swaying gently on the beach. Wendy Matthews is back to provide her lovely voice for the English lyrics against the background of some synth-Asian arrangement, rather reminiscent of the material by Japanese-American band Hiroshima. Sato himself adds a brief jazzy element on the piano along with the background vocals. Lorrain Feather came up with the lyrics.
Yukiko Haneda（羽根田征子）is a Tokyo-born singer who was definitely blessed when she first started out in the late 1980s. Her 1988 debut album"Beating Mess" was produced by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, and then her sophomore effort in the following year, "Sora", had Hiroshi Sato in the producer's chair.
So it's not surprising then that one of the tracks on "Sora" happens to be a cover version of "It Isn't Easy", given the alternate title of "Renka Senri"（恋唄千里...Love Song Long Distance）. Not sure on my reading of that title although YouTube uploader Keir Hardie's transcription has it as "Renka Chisato" (that first attempt of the second word is based on jisho.org). In any case, Haneda's cover is still within the AOR genre although it tends toward a more soulful arrangement and the singer delivers the song in both Japanese and English; apparently the lyrics in the former language were provided by someone named Yui Masaki（真沙木唯）according to JASRAC.
Haneda has provided 3 singles and 6 albums up to 2008, and according to her website, her full stage name is Johanna Yukiko Haneda, although her real name is Yukiko Ito（伊藤征子）. On finding out that kaz-shin at "Music Avenue" reviewed "Sora", I also discovered that he has proclaimed her 3rd album from July 1997, "Good Times, Bad Times", as an AOR fan's must-have. Therefore, I will have to continue the exploration into her discography.
Well, I would have written up this follow-up on Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）"Awakening" (1982), one of the representative albums of City Pop, sooner but another one of those staffing bombshells at the White House went off again and then there was the news about Major League Baseball's trading deadline which will hit in a few minutes. And it looks like the Blue Jays will be getting Norichika Aoki's services for at least a few months. I don't think he's quite as goofy and lovable as Munenori Kawasaki, though. So, no bush parties (inside joke).
(full album)
Anyways, I listened to "Awakening" again after a while and it's still smooth as fine butter. I've already covered some of the tracks in the original article from 2013 along with individual tracks "I Can't Wait" with singer Wendy Matthews and the bouncy "Say Goodbye". And back in that article, I mentioned that Sato had a number of influences and that the album itself gave off vibes of Gino Vannelli and Boz Scaggs. Listening to it again, I then figured that there were even a couple of Steves in there: Steve Winwood and Stevie Wonder. Perhaps "Awakening" is even more well-titled then since with every listening, some new insight or echo of another singer may come to mind.
First off, I have to give an apology since I omitted a key player in the production of "Awakening" and that person is Lorrain Feather who wrote all of the English lyrics for the tracks.
Track 5, "Love and Peace" at 15:50 is a really low and slow mellow and funky/bluesy instrumental by Sato which is the equivalent of a satisfying sparerib dinner with your favourite liquid poison.
"From Me To You" at 20:29 (it was the first track on Side B of the original LP) is a track that I've talked about before in the original article. It's the cover of a Beatles song so Lennon and McCartney were responsible for it, but the notable thing about Sato's version is how much he sounds like British 80s singer Howard Jones.
Track 8 is "It Isn't Easy" at 28:39. Wendy Matthews is back to sing about getting back on one's feet after the end of a relationship and although she's well on the mend, she still misses the lug. There is an interesting Asian element in the music.
The instrumental title track as Track 9, "Awakening" at 33:13, has a near-YMO vibe. Perhaps it's not surprising since I think there are at least a few of the instruments used that Yellow Magic Orchestra has taken control of such as the Synclavier. It's the most technopoppy and trippiest track of the album.
Here's hoping that the album stays up for a little on YouTube while at least and that at least some of the listeners will decide "Awakening" is deserving of a spot somewhere on their shelves.
Ahhhh....a mellow glass of brandy for the ears and soul. "I Can't Wait" is another track from Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）wonderfully comfortable album, "Awakening" (1982) that I wrote about a little over a year ago. Wendy Matthews once again adds her lovely pipes to Sato's vocals and keyboards to create this slow and dusky ballad which fits it hand-in-glove with the rest of the album.
I listened to "Awakening" again on the stereo since I knew that I hadn't covered every song on that album and wanted to find another gem there to profile. And it was "I Can't Wait" that caught my ear once more. I'm definitely not one of those romantically mushy people by any stretch of the imagination, but I could see a couple of those folks suddenly go into a slow dance on hearing the lyrics.
And for those who have never seen the singer, this is Wendy with "The Day You Went Away".
Well, first off, I'd like to give my tribute to Revenue Canada for providing the tax refund that made my mini-splurge on 3 Japanese discs possible. Yep, I did a bit of shopping online and got myself Minako Yoshida's"Twilight Zone"(1977), "Loft Sessions Vol. 1"(1978), and musician Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）"Awakening"(1982). I've listened to each of the discs twice, and I think at this point, the one that has gotten the majority of my attention is "Awakening".
My three choices came from the book "Japanese City Pop", and Sato's magnum opus was especially recommended by singer-songwriter-producer Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）through an interview given in the book. I gotta say that I gotta go with Kadomatsu. It's the musical equivalent of a really smooth brandy.
After a short instrumental introductory track, "Awakening" starts the ball rolling with "You're My Baby"(above) with him and Canadian-born, Australian singer Wendy Matthews giving this dreamy ballad covered in soft wool. Continuing on with the alcohol analogy, I always see these connoisseurs come with these high-falutin' descriptions of the wine they've just tasted that bring out references to stuff like strawberries, chocolate and sandalwood. Well, listening to Sato's 4th album (June 1982), I have to admit that the same sort of thing is happening here. Sato was apparently influenced by The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles, but "Awakening" gives off vibes from a number of singers, some of whom figure prominently in AOR. "You're My Baby" alone hints at a bit of Gino Vannelli and Boz Scaggs, in terms of the vocals and arrangements. And sometimes I can pick up a bit of YMO's Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏） as well from Sato, along with some Chaz Jankel (keyboardist with Ian Dury & The Blockheads).
But Track 6 is a jawdropper. Sato does give his tribute to The Beatles via "From Me To You", but the way he does it is by singing like British pop singer Howard Jones....over a year before the man himself debuted with "New Song"! I actually had to scour through the liner notes just to see if Jones had indeed performed a really early tune in there.
Another notable song is "Blue and Moody Music", another relaxing ballad with that hint of jazz, thanks to Sato's prowess on the keyboards. Nice song to enjoy with that glass of wine during sunset. However, I think I prefer the second, more uptempo version of the song at the end of the album with Wendy providing the main vocals. Above is the Wendy version and below is the original have-a-sip-of-wine-my-darlin' version.
The Kagoshima-born, Kyoto-raised Sato worked with and received accolades from some of the most famous figures in Japanese popular music, with Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, according to the write up on Sato in J-Wiki, stating in the liner notes of his re-release of the album "Spacy" that he was Japan's best pianist. Kadomatsu mentioned in a 1995 issue of "Music Magazine" that his piano playing was a Japanese treasure, and even Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣） invited him to join YMO, although Sato opted to go across the Pacific to the United States to work in music there in 1979 for a few years.
And the above is "Only A Love Affair", another collaboration between Wendy and Hiroshi.
Sadly, Sato passed away late last year at the age of 65. I've only started to explore one of his albums but I have a feeling that "Awakening" may be one of those discs that will amount to a musical version of "The Little Prince"; each time I listen to it, there will always be something new to my ears...an awakening of sorts.
