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.
It's been fairly busy on the blog today but I'd like to finish Friday off with one more article before I retire.
Hard to believe, but it's coming up to four years since I last put up a song by Yoko Nishigori（西郡よう子）who is now known as jazz singer Kei Hoshino（星乃けい）. But I've got another track from her one and only 1980 album under the Nishigori moniker, "My Name is YOKO", to join "Samidare"（五月雨）and "Futari"（二人）.
"All is Loneliness" was written and composed by Nishigori as a brassy City Pop tune which alternates between light & mellow and dynamic disco. At the same time, I also get some hints to the singer's future as a jazz singer in the arrangement (especially with the sax coda) and some of the soft Cleo Laine-like delivery as she sings the title like a mantra.
A topic that came up in conversation today was my oft-remarked analogy of my discovery of Japanese music via the iceberg in the ocean with the exposed one-tenth representing the Oricon hits and songs that pop up on the TV shows and commercials. The submerged nine-tenths contain a lot of those hidden goodies made by singers that never quite hit superstardom.
One case in point is jazz singerKei Hoshino（星乃けい）who used to sing under the name of Yoko Nishigori（西郡よう子）a few decades ago. I would never have known about her if it hadn't been for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and my subsequent browsings through YouTube. She already has a few songs on the blog which means that she's been alright by me.
In fact, I would now love to get her debut album"My Name is YOKO" from 1980 since it starts off with the urban mellow "Samidare" (May Rain). The uploader for the album on YouTube identified it as "Go-gatsu Ame", and at the JASRAC database, it's been titled the aforementioned "Samidare" and "Satsuki Ame". All three sayings are fine but I distinctly heard "Samidare" in Nishigori's lyrics so I will go with that.
Anyways, Nishigori was also responsible for the music which strikes me as the appealing closer-to-home, definitely established-in-Japan type of City Pop. There is that really soft keyboard and the wailing guitar that remind me of the works of Akira Terao（寺尾聡）on his "Reflections" album. Day or night, "Samidare" works well and as I said, I would like to get my hands on "My Name is YOKO" because of it. The album also has a couple of songs that I've already covered, "Futari"（二人）and "Kono Ai ni Ikite"（この愛に生きて）.
She may be known as jazz chanteuse Kei Hoshino（星乃けい）now but around 40 years ago, she was known as pop singer Yoko Nishigori（西郡よう子）, and I discovered her through a Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）song which was actually a cover of Nishgori's 1978 single"Kono Ai ni Ikite"（この愛に生きて）.
Well, I have yet to purchase any of her material, but I came across this track from her lone 1980 album, "My Name is YOKO" under her original name. Titled "Futari" (Two People), Nishigori goes with the City Pop flow here in a dreamy and creamy sense. With some nice quietly percolating percussion, some mellow bass and thrumming keyboards, "Futari" could make for the pleasant background for an upscale dinner date although the video featuring scenes from the 1980 South Korean movie"A Fine, Windy Day" makes things rather intense. Kazuko Kobayashi and Kingo Hamada（小林和子・浜田金吾）created the song, and I had to track that down to a close-up picture of Side 1 of the LP itself.
Had to dig quite a bit for just the basics for this song but since I really like the nostalgic sound for Yoko Nishigori's（西郡よう子）"Furimukeba Mata" (Turning Around Again), it was worth the effort. I had to go to the JASRAC database to find out that it was Nishigori herself who wrote and composed this 4th and final single.
And then I had to attempt to track down the year that "Furimukeba Mata" had been released. The best that I could do was make an educated guess. According to the Popcon site, she had that big hit with her 3rd single"Kono Ai ni Ikite"（この愛に生きて）in 1978 but then retired initially in 1980 after having released those 4 singles and 1 album. So I guess I will go with 1979.
As for the song itself, I like "Furimukeba Mata" for that sophisticated and languid feeling of exotic climes. Could use a glass of Cinzano for this one. I guess Nishigori can be included in that Fashion Music sub-genre that I've placed Asami Kado（門あさみ）and Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）in. Incidentally, Kurahashi also did a cover of "Kono Ai ni Ikite".
Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）has often looked so ennui-ridden and downcast on her album covers that it's always a surprise (and a pleasure) when I see her actually smiling. And she looks pretty Hollywood on the cover of her 9th single from October 1985, "Kono Ai ni Ikite" (Live Through This Love). This was not a major Kurahashi song but from listening to certain phrases from it, I could recognize it pretty easily and it is a pleasant enough ballad that has that European air which often characterizes a Kurahashi ballad. It's nice to hear in that study on a rainy Sunday.
However, I just found out that Kurahashi's ballad was actually a cover version. The original "Kono Ai ni Ikite" was sung by Yoko Nishigori（西郡よう子）who hails from Fukuoka Prefecture. Debuting in 1976 after becoming known in her area as a folk singer, her version of this song was released in 1978 as her 3rd of 4 singles. I've listened to it twice and Nishigori sounds similar to another singer from that time, Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子）. In addition, the arrangement here also has that jaunty exotic feeling that was being imbued in a number of pop songs in the late 70s such as Saki Kubota's"Ihoujin"（異邦人）. Toshiyuki Kimori（木森敏之）came up with the music while Masami Sugiyama（杉山政美）provided the words.
Nishigori left show business soon afterward in 1980 but returned in 2004 as a jazz singer under the name of Kei Hoshino（星乃けい）.
