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.
Showing posts with label Yokohama Ginbae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yokohama Ginbae. Show all posts
Reporter: Congratulations on your new post, Prime Minister Ishiba.
Ishiba: Thank you.
Reporter: What do you plan to do first?
Ishiba: Uh...dissolve the Lower House in about a week and then have general elections on October 27th.
Reporter: Ah....
Well, I guess the newest Prime Minister of Japan didn't waste time and actually, this is the second time that a Japanese head of government called for dissolution and elections right after he got the job, so it isn't exactly unprecedented. But I'm not here to focus on the PM but the JM...Junko Mihara（三原じゅん子）, to be specific. I've noted in her file on KKP that she has been a Parliamentarian for a good long while now and she now has her first portfolio as a cabinet minister; she'll be taking care of child policy.
But of course, over four decades ago, Mihara was in the entertainment industry as a singer and an actress. She released 21 singles and 15 albums between 1980 and 1991 and though from the brief file she has on the blog has also covered some of her City Pop material, whenever her name pops up in my memories, I usually think of her as an 80s rock-n'-rolling lass because of the time that I first got to see her on the 1982 edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen singing "Honki de Love Me Good"（ホンキでLove Me Good).
"Honki de Love Me Good" was her 10th single released in October 1982 which did OK by peaking at No. 28 on Oricon. However, her 8th single from earlier in May did even better by scoring a No. 11 ranking. "Datte ~ Fall In Love ~ Totsuzen"(But...Falling in Love...All of a Sudden) is a twist-happy rock-n'-roll number that was written by Reiko Yamada（山田麗子）and members of the rock-n'-roll band The Crazy Rider Yokohama Ginbae Rolling Special（T.C.R横浜銀蝿R.S.）and composed by TAKU. If anything, "Datte ~ Fall In Love ~ Totsuzen" is an even faster-paced rocker that brings up images of those dancers in Harajuku that I mentioned in yesterday's article on Toshihiko Tahara's（田原俊彦）"Harajuku Kiss"（原宿キッス）. Man, time does fly!
When I first saw the name Johnny, I naturally assumed that this had something to do with one of the early singers from Johnny's Entertainment with folks like Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）and Hikaru Genji（光GENJI）.
I was definitely wrong on that point. Johnny is actually the stage name for Masato Asanuma（浅沼正人）, and he has been the guitarist for the rock n' roll band THE CRAZY RIDER Yokohama Ginbae ROLLING SPECIAL（横浜銀蝿）all these years. However, outside of his time with the group, Johnny has also had his solo career with six singles, a couple of albums and four BEST compilations.
His second single from June 1982 was "Hyaku-man Doru Baby"(Million Dollar Baby) which was composed by him and written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）. A cool Kawasaki ride of a song with a guitar solo as a heck of an engine, Johnny's vocals lightly soar over the pavement as he implores his girl that she is indeed every penny of those million bucks. The thrumming single, which hit No. 1 and finished the year as the 32nd-ranked song, never got onto any of Johnny's original albums but did make it onto the 1984 "Johnny vs. Yokohama Ginbae"（Johnny VS 横浜銀蝿）.
The single was released on King Records, and many years later, Johnny ended up becoming one of the senior operating officers of the recording company and its second creative director. Just out of trivia's sake, a million dollars in 1982 would now be worth a little over three million today.
In the past few weeks, we've had a rash of some famous folks passing away and that sadly includes the drummer and the leader of the rock n' roll band THE CRAZY RIDER Yokohama Ginbae ROLLING SPECIAL（横浜銀蝿）, Yoshiyuki "Ran" Tamiya（田宮淑行）. He died on July 4th several days ago at the age of 67 from pneumonia.
So, to pay tribute to Tamiya, I've decided to write about the band's very first single"Yokosuka Baby" which was released in September 1980. A short but fleet-footed rock n' roll tune written and composed by the group, it feels like the perfect tune to hit the floor during a sock hop. Feel free to put that coin into the jukebox.
According to the lyrics, a guy remembers the good times with this gal who has decided to move away from Yokosuka to chase down her dreams. All things considered, he seems to be taking things quite well. Perhaps in the same way, I would probably think that the remaining band members Sho, Taku and Johnny are mourning their loss but also remembering the good times with their leader.
Time for another weekly ROY article. Steely Dan made their presence known on the radio when I was a kid through multiple songs with arguably the most famous one for me being "Peg" from their famous 1977 album"Aja".
Another song that managed to filter into my brain through heavy rotation over the airwaves was "Time Out of Mind" from Donald Fagen & Walter Becker's 1980 album"Gaucho". I've got "Aja" but I have to admit that "Gaucho" is not up on my shelves as of yet, although it and "Aja" have vied among the Dan fans to be the best album that they've ever put up.
"Time Out of Mind" actually came out as a single from the album in March 1981, and when I was listening to it on the strawberry milk-pink Sony, I never knew that the lyrics were referring to drug use (then again, I also didn't pick up on the lyrical content of "Peg" until many years later), and little did I know that Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler handled the guitar solo.. As I've said a number of times on the blog in the past, I was far more of the melody persuasion than I was for lyrics (although "perfection and grace" did enter my brain), and "Time Out of Mind" was another one of the funky and cool shuffles by Steely Dan alongside "Peg". If I only had appreciated them back then as I do now.
So, who was in the Top 3 of Oricon for March 1981?
It's a comfortably lazy Sunday out there (at least until the thunderstorms roll in later) so perhaps it might be appropriate to bring in an old rock n' roll ballad.
First off, I have Miyuki Yokoyama's（横山みゆき）5th single from August 1982, "I Make You" which was written and composed by Shokichi "Sho" Tamiya（田宮将吉）, the main vocalist of the rock band THE CRAZY RIDER Yokohama Ginbae ROLLING SPECIAL（THE CRAZY RIDER 横浜銀蝿 ROLLING SPECIAL）, with Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）handling the arrangements. At first, I'd thought that the title was similar to the sentiments of "You complete me", that famous quote from the old Tom Cruise movie "Jerry Maguire". However, there is the repeated lyric of "I make you...lonely girl" which actually describes the melancholy feelings of a guy after breaking up with his love. Still, I cannot deny the lovely electric guitar in "I Make You" along with those shimmering strings that sweep on in. It may be a breakup but it's one beautiful and poignant breakup.
Yokohama Ginbae did a cover of "I Make You" a year later for their December 1983 6th album"Bucchigiri Reverse"（ぶっちぎりR...Breaking Away Reverse）, and their take feels even more 50s rock n' roll, especially with Sho's heartbroken and raspy delivery before everyone comes in.
Ahhh...good heavens! Rockabilly greasers twisting away in Yoyogi Park have been in existence since the late 1970s probably. I even remember America's "Entertainment Tonight" focusing on those guys one night. Just kinda wonder what the trigger was for the young folks back then to emulate the rock n' roll of the 1950s.
Maybe part of it was the advent of the Downtown Boogie-Woogie Band with their eternal "Minato no Yoko, Yokohama Yokosuka"（港のヨーコ・ヨコハマ・ヨコスカ）in 1975 (and of course, I also think about the band Carol even earlier). However, another band that brought that rough n' tumble rock n' roll image was THE CRAZY RIDER Yokohama Ginbae ROLLING SPECIAL（THE CRAZY RIDER 横浜銀蝿 ROLLING SPECIAL） at the turn of the decade into the 1980s. I saw them perform once again on NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）a few weeks ago.
Commenter T-cat contributed the first full article on Yokohama Ginbae (Yokohama Silver Fly) back in 2018 via the band's "Shogun Kaoru ‘Wolf Ryu" (羯徒毘路薫狼琉), and T-cat was also good enough to provide the original lineup. However, I have to make one correction on the name of one of the members. The drummer is actually named Ran, as in Yoshiyuki "Ran" Tamiya（田宮淑行）, and not Arashi. Ran is just one other reading of the kanji（嵐）.
Yokohama Ginbae's performance on "Uta Kon" was for their 2nd single"Tsuppari High School Rock n' Roll" (Delinquent High School Rock n' Roll) released in January 1981. Specifically, it's been given the additional moniker of the "Toukou Hen"（登校編...At School Version） in contrast with later versions (including a special "Social Distancing" version on the show). Ran was behind the words and music of this short and spicy ode to all things troublemaking 50s teenage rock n' roll. Still in the song, main vocalist Sho（翔）wants to let the mothers know that although they may be a bit rough around the edges, they're still good lads at heart following their own paths...I hope.
"Tsuppari High School Rock n' Roll" peaked at No. 2 and became the 15th-ranked single for 1981. As for how the band got its name, Sho, Taku, Johnny and Ran got started in September 1979 and one time, the owner of an establishment that the guys frequented once blasted out "You guys are as annoying as silver flies!" which had Ran going "Hmmm....", according to an interview with Yokohama Ginbae to commemorate the band's 40th anniversary at Hama Repo viaJ-Wiki. Sho also mentioned that he and the guys had wanted to be No. 1 at something right from the get-go, so they opted to go for Japan's longest band name, and thus officially, they took on THE CRAZY RIDER Yokohama Ginbae ROLLING SPECIAL.
As T-cat mentioned in his article, 50% ofpop music is style, so I'd say that Yokohama Ginbae with the ideas in the above paragraph and their appearance/attitude in the sunglasses, leather jackets and pompadours pretty much launched themselves into pop culture style history. They made their mark at the right time and place. No band could have asked for anything more to start a career.
In my years living in Japan, I did have a very few sightings of yakuza in the some of the entertainment districts of Tokyo and there were the annual appearances of the ultra-rightists making tons of noise around Ueno Station on one day over Golden Week. But I never caught any sight of the bosozoku（暴走族）...the motorcycle gangs of pompadoured young toughs rumbling through the streets and highways. I occasionally used to hear the sound of motorcycle engines way off in the distance when I went to sleep in Ichikawa, but...happily...I never encountered these guys in person. Well, considering that I never learned how to drive, I think any chances of encountering them were pretty much negligible to begin with.
Over the years watching TV there, I did learn that there had been a few folks who came from the bosozoku or other forms of delinquent gangs to become tarento or actors or singers. One such fellow is Daisuke Shima（嶋大輔）who was born in Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan but became part of a bike gang in his teens around in the southern part of Kanagawa Prefecture in the Kanto. However, according to the Nihon Eiga Jinmei Jiten（日本映画人名事典...Japan Movie Biographical Dictionary）in 1996, Shima was at a Yokohama Ginbae（横浜銀蝿）concert where he was smoking in a public washroom. It just so happened that the president of the production company handling the band was there at the same time, gave him a scolding and then scouted him into show business (that was quite the stick-and-carrot approach). Shima became a younger brother of sorts to the band.
He got his first acting gig on television in 1981 in the TBS series "Akane-san no O-Bento"（茜さんのお弁当...Akane's Box Lunch） but then made his debut as a singer the following year. A couple of months later in April 1982, his second single"Otoko no Kunshou" (A Man's Honour) got him his first big break.
The reason that I'm writing about this is that I heard the song being performed by the enka aidoru group Junretsu（純烈）on last week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, and I automatically remembered the melody. Although I did say at the top, I would never want to be in a dark alley facing any one member of a bosozoku, let alone an entire gang, there is still a certain poignancy listening to "Otoko no Kunshou" with the wailing 50s-style guitars and good old-time rock-and-roll while watching Shima in that huge hair twisting away. In recent years, the only time that I've seen anyone looking like that has been in Yoyogi Park next to an ancient ghetto blaster. In a way, "Otoko no Kunshou", a tribute to the life of a biker, reflects one aspect of my observation of Japanese pop culture in the early 80s.
The song peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and sold close to 400,000 records, becoming Shima's biggest hit as a singer. It would become the 25th-ranked single of 1982. "Otoko no Kunshou" was also used as the theme for the NTV drama "Ama made Agare!"（天まであがれ!...Get Up To Heaven!）which also starred Shima.
"Otoko no Kunshou" was written and composed by Johnny who was the guitarist and vocalist for The Crazy Rider Yokohama Ginbae Rolling Special (and is now a senior executive for King Records under his real name, Masato Asanuma), the official name for Yokohama Ginbae. The band did their own cover of the song in their 1983 album"Bucchigiri R"（ぶっちぎりR...Breaking Away Reverse）.
Then, Shima revisited his big hit in 2003. He was a little paunchier (please don't kill me, Mr. Shima, sir) but the pompadour and voice are still there.
Rock’n
Roll
is such a broad term (second only to Jazz) that pretty much anything can be
stuffed into it but there’s no questionTHE
CRAZY RIDER Yokohama Ginbae (横浜銀蝿) ROLLING SPECIAL are
Rock’n Roll. Founded in 1980, they were
a classic drum (Arashi; 嵐) / guitar (Johnny) / bass (TAKU) /
guitar/vocal (Sho aka Xiang;翔) group that lasted until 1983
(ending by mutual agreement). In 1998 Arashi, Sho, and TAKU revived
the group (Johnny was off doing his
own thing) and shortened their name to Yokohama
Ginbae (Yokohama Silver Fly). In 2002
they formed – for the summer – Shonan
Ginba which was then dissolved and reformed as THE CRAZY RIDER Yokohama Ginbae ROLLING SPECIAL RETURNS. Along the way Arashi survived a stroke, and his younger brother Sho a few busts for
methamphetamines. 2016 saw their 35th
anniversary and they have a series of concerts scheduled for 2018 with
originals Sho, Arashi, and TAKU still
at it (plus a few friends):
Half of popular music is style and Yokohama Ginbae didn’t disappoint, wearing trademark sunglasses,
leather jackets, white pants, and riesent/regent hair. The guitar-driven songs have a definite Chuck-Berry-meets-the-Ramones feel – mostly short, fast, loud, and aggressive. Representative is their third single “Shogun Kaoru ‘Wolf Ryu” (羯徒毘路薫狼琉), a
turn-it-up-to-11 head-banger with a raucous call and response:
Sho likes
sound effects and recorded motorcycles and rain, the latter used to great effect
in his lovely and wistful “Rainy Shonan Street” (雨の湘南通り) from
their third album “仏恥義理蹉䵷怒”:
A surprise was hearing the background falsetto taken from
“Little Darlin’” by Maurice Williams & the Gladiolas (later
a cover-hit by the Diamonds, a group
from – Toronto). Coupled with the mid-song spoken section we’ve moved into doo-wop territory, so Yokohama
Ginbae were certainly not one-chord wonders. (I’ve linked the best quality audio version but if you go to the one posted by TOSI5944
and read the Comments, you’ll find this group and song deeply affected a lot of
people.).
TAKU was
responsible for writing quite a few songs for others, among them Iwai Sayuri (“Dream-Dream-Dream”) and Junko
Mihara (“Love Me Good” and “Suddenly Love” – I believe the only 2
of her songs she meows in).He’s still active in the industry and you
should check out his very entertaining site:
Where do I begin here? From what angle do I approach this?
Well, let's see...the very first Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）song that I heard was "Kinku"（禁区）on the 1983 Kohaku Utagassen and then came a number of her early hits on broadcasts of "Sounds of Japan" followed by my first purchases of her albums "Bitter and Sweet" and "D404ME" when she was already hitting superstardom. And then, I just had to buy her BEST compilation of those first few years of her still young career. So I basically got my grounding for Akina-chan, pre and post vocal change.
Then somewhere down the line, I ended up borrowing a video tape titled "NEW AKINA Etranger - Akina Nakamori in Europe" which had the bonny lass taking a nice little trip through France. Some of that video is right up at the top there with the young aidoru of my memories traipsing around Paris with that big hair, crinkly eyes and winning smile. Of course, the music from her just-released album was also playing in the background.
It took a couple of years but during my time in Gunma Prefecture, I finally bought that album, "NEW AKINA Etranger" which was originally released in August 1983 as her 4th album. According to the write-up on J-Wiki, it was touted as somewhat of a reboot for the singer with the catchphrase being:
"Recording and filming in Europe, and encountering new songwriters. The second history of Akina begins here."
Pretty bold words. Aside from her early singles, I don't have anything to represent her first 3 albums so I can't really make any comparison about Stage 1 Akina and Stage 2 Akina....with the exception of that high voice that she once had at the beginning.
(cover version)
Not sure why there was a need for a re-launch of Akina since my assumption was that she was already going fairly well as an aidoru. My only guess is that the powers-that-be that hovered over and around her felt that their client was someone who was ready to take that next leap up. As I said, I bought "Etranger" about a quarter of a century ago but it hasn't been until recently that I actually started to appreciate what this album has (nothing like a blog on kayo kyoku to focus one). After listening to it a couple of times through, it's got quite the potpourri of styles thanks to those different and famous songwriters and I think the album overall reflected Akina's past, present and future at that time whether or not that was ever the intention.
Track No. 1 above is "Sayonara ne"（さよならね...Goodbye）. With a dramatic blast of electric guitars by Tsuyoshi Kon and Fujimal Yoshino（今剛・吉野藤丸）, Takao Kisugi （来生たかお）pushes forth a strutting melody of strings and guitars that is reminiscent of what Akina's style was like at the time. His sister, Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）, further emphasizes the aidoru's ol' bad-girl image through her lyrics that have the heroine rejecting anything that sniffs of good-guy nobility. Being the full geek that I am, I have been watching the first season of "Gotham", the prequel program of sorts for the Batman mythology, and the awkward relationship between the future Catwoman and the future Batman (as uncomfortable teens) just leaped to mind as I was listening to "Sayonara ne".
(cover version)
The next three tracks on the album rather emphasized all the talk about Nakamori being the next Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）. "Venus Tanjo"（ヴィーナス誕生...Birth of Venus）is this really ethereal ballad with the inclusion of an electric guitar solo that had me thinking of one of Momoe's last songs "Sayonara no Mukou Gawa" (a song that I'll have to tackle one of these days). The lyricist for both songs was Yoko Aki （阿木燿子）with Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）of Tulip fame providing the heavenly music for "Venus Tanjo". This is just one of two songs from the album that I still remember hearing on the video of Akina's travels through France, and it was appropriately used to finish the proceedings.
(cover version)
"Sukoshi Dake Scandal"（少しだけスキャンダル...Just A Little Scandal）is a song that reminded me of Momoe's latter period when she was singing all those singles dealing with jaded women and the men they treat like toys. However, instead of Yoko Aki and hubby Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）penning this one, the songwriter here was Sho（翔）of the rock band Yokohama Ginbae（横浜銀蝿）. I've yet to provide an article on those guys but I saw one of their videos, and they definitely have that teen delinquent image.
As soon as I heard that rolling piano, I was pretty sure that was Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司） behind "Kansho Kiko"（感傷紀行...Sentimental Travelogue）. Tanimura was also behind Yamaguchi's wonderful "Ii Hi Tabidachi"（いい日旅立ち）, and I could imagine Momoe tackling this one as well if she had decided to continue on with her career into the 80s. I'm not sure if Akina had used the same style in her earlier albums, but with this song, she has that breathy delivery that I would also hear later in "Bitter & Sweet".
(cover version)
Haruomi Hosono and Masao Urino （細野晴臣・売野雅勇）were also two of the new songwriters on the album who also took care of the aforementioned "Kinku", Akina's 6th single in the same year that "Etranger" came out. Hosono still had that technopop in his veins, so he and Urino came up with "Mon Amour - Glass ni Hanbun no Tasogare"（モナムール （グラスに半分の黄昏）...Half-Glass Twilight）, which was also the only other song that I remember popping up in the video. Hosono provided the only instruments in "Mon Amour" in the form of an electric bass, a Prophet 5 and some Linn drums. Lyrically, it's about a woman who has just said goodbye to her paramour in Paris while the melody takes on a tone that seems to hearken to a toy soldier theme song filtered through synthesizers. Hosono and Urino also provided another song for the album, "Renaissance", but I just wanted to go with "Mon Amour" since it has the more technopoppy sound.
My final track for this article is "Stripe" which literally knocked me back. The intro was also fairly techno kayo but it wasn't Hosono behind this one this time. Instead it was again the Kisugi siblings who took care of it and the song quickly took on that typical 80s aidorulilt with the strings coming to the fore and the keyboards settling down. However what took me for the loop was Akina's voice which returned to her 1982 high tones. After hearing the first several songs where the singer was evolving her vocal cords to that familiar huskiness, it was surprising to suddenly hear her voice coming out like that again.
"Etranger", Akina's re-launch was a hit. It reached No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the 10th-ranked album of 1983. It also earned aJapan Record Award. My favorite album of hers will still be "Bitter & Sweet", but "Etranger" has come out as a revelation since it seems that the producers and Akina were willing and able to experiment a bit with her sound through this album. And I think it was interesting that no official singles were included...perhaps everyone involved wanted to make sure that the project was its own entity without any influence of any 45" that might provide too easy a familiarity. Not sure if my last statement makes sense but hopefully the readers will understand.
