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.
Sad to say, but one of the natural phenomena that I have yet to see despite being over half a century old is the Northern Lights. One of my regular students was able to take a trip to the Yukon and braved the very sub-zero weather to witness the spectacular nature of an aurora.
A couple of years ago was the last time that I wrote about singer-songwriter Shiho Nanba（南波志帆）who has been noticed for her whispery voice and some association with the newer J-AOR acts such as Blue Peppers. My article back then was for her 2009 "Pool no Ao wa Uso no Ao"（プールの青は嘘の青）, a Sunshine Pop sort of number that was provided to her by Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）of Kirinji（キリンジ）. It wasn't released as a single; instead, it was a track on her "Kimi ni Todoku ka na, Watashi."（君に届くかな、私。...Will I/It Get to You?）indies album.
The mid-teens Nanba would release her first single as a major artist in December 2010, "Aurora ni Kakurete"(Hiding in an Aurora), and rather than the light and mellow stuff, this particular song has more of a bubbly pop flavour reminiscent of Tommy february6. However, it was Takaki's brother, Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）who came up with the melody while YUKI from Judy & Mary wrote the lyrics regarding an adorable Christmas date. The arrangement was handled by Hiroyasu Yano（矢野博康）from the Cymbals, and as mentioned in the "Pool" article, he was the one who advised Nanba to try the whispery voice treatment.
I've had a fair number of Judy & Mary songs included onto the blog including "Brand New Wave Upper Ground", but I realized that the only YUKI tune that I've had up in the nearly eleven-year history of KKP is "JOY" from 2005. And it certainly deserves to be up there because it is such a quirkily marvelous solo single for the vocalist of J&M.
Well, the second song by YUKI goes up here and it is "Prism" which was actually her 2nd solo single from March 2002. Written by the singer, it was composed by Andy Sturmer of the rock band Jellyfish who also helped out Puffy Amiyumi at one point. According to the J-Wiki article on the song, YUKI's lyrics reflect the hopes and fears of her going solo as well as her gratitude to her fellow band members following the band's breakup in 2001. In addition to her wonderful vocals, there is some great Elton John-esque piano accompanying her and the overall melody is wonderfully wistful.
The video of YUKI as a mysterious sprite has a rather environmental feeling and the besuited company worker getting all sorts of dirt heaped onto him in the forest is played by actor Hidetoshi Nishijima（西島秀俊）. Nishijima would later star in 2021's"Drive My Car" which got an Oscar last year for Best International Feature Film.
"Prism" peaked at No. 11 on Oricon while ranking in at No. 160 on the yearly rankings. The song eventually earned YUKI her first invitation onto NHK's Kohaku Utagassen in 2012 (no error with that year, by the way). It also exists on her first solo album"Prismic" which was released in March 2002, getting as high as No. 3 and becoming the 65th-ranked album of the year.
A couple of days ago, I met up with a fellow translator who has also become a good friend at one of the Touhenboku Ramen shops in Toronto...specifically the one at Yonge St. north of Eglinton which has come to be considered to be a second and less grungier downtown. I have to say that the chicken broth for the chain's ramen is quite good; I'd always been accustomed to having the customary pork soup for the noodles. The photo above is actually from September when I went there with another friend but the bowl I had on Wednesday afternoon was still just as tasty and even more satisfying since it was a cold day.
Anyways, my friend told me as we were slurping away that he was a big fan of the legendary band Happy End (はっぴいえんど). He had mentioned this once before a few weeks ago after that talk on translation that we had given at University of Toronto but he went into more detail about how he came to appreciate the short-lived 1970s group.
Years ago, he was accompanying a fellow friend in southern Japan in his car and on the stereo happened to be a tape playing of Happy End. From the way my friend was describing it, the weather must have been quite warm and sunny, and he told me that the playing of Happy End's music made for the perfect melodic accompaniment to their journey.
Although he didn't tell me the title of the song, I could imagine that it was most likely "Kaze wo Atsumete"(Gather The Wind) as originally sung by member Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）. nikala was the first "Kayo Kyoku Plus" collaborator to provide a Happy Endarticle and though I also like "Hana Ichi Monme"（花いちもんめ）, "Kaze wo Atsumete" is my ideal tune by the band. It is a song that I had heard before back in Japan as part of a commercial, I believe, and I was charmed by it back then, too.
Hosono was the one who composed the perfect-for-a-summer-drive song with fellow member Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）providing the lyrics. Now, I've never considered the future one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra to be a great vocal interpreter of his own music but there is something about that low droning voice of his which fits the overall atmosphere of "Kaze wo Atsumete". That video of him and his bandmates in weird clothing performing the song in a huge arena to a poppier beat might have been fun but I think the original version from Happy End's 2nd album from 1971"Kazemachi Roman"（風街ろまん...Wind City Romance）is absolutely fine. The album was produced to evoke the more serene days of Tokyo just before the 1964 Olympics in the city, and "Kaze wo Atsumete" might have been seen as the nucleus of that theme. That one image is of kids running around on the field under a huge blue sky trying to catch those butterflies.
Little did I know that the song was also part of the soundtrack for the 2003 movie "Lost In Translation" starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. I saw that movie on DVD in my old Ichikawa apartment with my Aussie movie buddy, and to be honest, I didn't pay too much attention to the songs that were used in it since I was paying closer attention to the folks and the scenes. But all I can say is good on you, Sofia Coppola.
Of course, covers of the song by succeeding musicians were a foregone conclusion. Singers KAN and Hiroshi Takano（高野寛）gave their own whimsical take.
YUKI of Judy And Mary plus Kaori Mochida（持田香織）of Every Little Thing also performed their own lovely cover of "Kaze wo Atsumete".
Although with all things being equal, there are probably a number of folks who never cottoned onto Happy End, I still marvel at the fact about who was in this group: YMO member Hosono, prolific lyricist Matsumoto, crooning Eiichi Ohtaki（大瀧詠一）and veteran composer Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）.
Now with the winter not too far away, a little musical warmth and a good bowl of ramen will always be appreciated.
I just love the video for YUKI's "JOY". It looks like the usual henchmen/cannon fodder going up against Kamen Rider decided to take a break and get funky with the lead singer of Judy & Mary. The first time I caught it I was absolutely mesmerized by the quirky choreography and the strangely adorable Yuki Kuramochi (nee Isoya) dancing about and acting like the most innocent-looking 5-year-old. Not surprisingly, the video won Video of the Year honours at the 6th annual Space Shower Music Video Awards.
"JOY" has its own groovy charm which includes YUKI contracting certain words as if they were being pronounced by a native English speaker. And then at the end, she sounds out the final lyrics like that 5-year-old in full wondrous mode. I think the song could've been created by a particularly precocious elementary schoolgirl armed with a Casio synthesizer. However, it was actually created by Koji Tsutaya（蔦谷好位置）, a producer and musician who was a bassist with the rock group, NATSUMEN, with YUKI co-writing the lyrics.
"JOY" was released in January 2005 as YUKI's 9th single as a solo artist, and just managed to peak at No. 10 on Oricon. For the year, it ranked at a more modest 162nd place, but it gets a lot of happiness out of the concert crowds. Heck, I even tried to sing it at karaoke once, but the judgement was that I should let the professionals handle it next time.
The song was also a track on her 3rd album, "joy" which came out in February 2005 and hit No. 1 on the album charts.
