Bay Bridge Blues by Yoshiaki Ohuchi

One of the anime series I grew up watching — and was definitely too young for — was MD Geist. It was a pretty typical post-apocalyptic, hyper-violent sci-fi OVA from the ’80s and '90s. One thing I can always count on with OVAs is a killer soundtrack, and MD Geist was no different.

As it turns out, the soundtrack for MD Geist 2 was composed by Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）, who not only worked on other anime soundtracks like City Hunter, but also composed songs for other artists. Unsurprisingly, he also has his fair share of solo albums. I first recognized his voice on his 1989 solo debut, Back Seat, whose album cover appears to be an homage to Tetsuji Hayashi’s Back Mirror. But where I was truly impressed was his second album from 1990, Remember Blues.

Hotdamn, this guy cooked.

You can definitely feel the blues in this album, intertwined with some good old-fashioned AOR. It helps that Ohuchi himself has that unmistakable ’90s anime opening-theme voice that instantly gives every song a sense of drama, momentum, and presence. It’s hard to pinpoint my favorite song on this record, but it’s a tie between Bay Bridge Blues and Trouble Maker. Trouble Maker has a great danceable beat and strikes the perfect balance between funky and rockin’. Bay Bridge Blues has that classic ’80s kayō ballad feel. I can envision Kazuma Kiryu — for all my Yakuza fans — sitting at a bar, reminiscing about his life over a few shots of whiskey. It helps that Yoshiaki himself has that 90s anime OP voice that brings a presence to each song. 

I know J-Canuck has written about Ohuchi in the past, especially since he composed music for Kahoru Kohiruimaki (小比類巻かほる), but Remember Blues is a great starting point for exploring his solo career.

Yoshiaki Ohuchi -- Back Seat de Koi wo Shite（バックシートで恋をして）

 

I remember the 1970s American sitcom "Happy Days" for many things, one of them being the running gag of Inspiration Point, a hallowed place somewhere in Milwaukee where cars containing a young couple can park so that the couple can...park.😉I think Richie, the Fonz and all of the other guys can relate.

That was the setting that I was reminded of when I first heard the late Yoshiaki Ohuchi's（大内義昭）"Back Seat de Koi wo Shite" (Make Love in the Back Seat) which was the first and basically the title track for his 1989 album "Back Seat". It's quite the jovial horn-fueled City Pop number that is pretty reminiscent of the music from the early part of the 1980s. Ohuchi took care of both words and music and for me, it's the second song to show that the musician also had his flair for the urban contemporary after covering his "Zero de Hajimaru Number"（ゼロではじまるナンバー）last year. Even the cover for "Back Seat" is a riff off Tetsuji Hayashi's（林哲司）classic 1977 album "Back Mirror".

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Frontier (album)

Amazon.jp

Some days ago, a commenter asked me about a track from Kahoru Kohiruimaki's（小比類巻かほる）"Frontier" album from September 1992 and I realized that it's been some years since I gave the CD a proper run on the stereo. So, I gave it another listen. I've already posted on a couple of the tracks: the first track "Control" and the title track which was written by the singer and composed by the one-and-only Maurice White from the legendary Earth Wind & Fire, Billy Young and Brenda Russell.

(5:18)

Now, I'll give a few more tracks from "Frontier" some exposure here including the upbeat Track No. 2 "Let's Share Love". A nice piece of gospel-like 70s soul, this was also a creation by Kohhy with her old songwriting partner, the late Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）. As the title says, it's all about shedding the sadness and enjoying each other.

The following track is "Tears of Joy" which was written and composed by Kohiruimaki. The song goes into full funk mode (some fine wacka-wacka guitar work) and for some reason, whenever I listen to it, I get thoughts that this could have been a theme song for some 1990s cop show in Japan. I have a feeling that some of Prince's influence was still hanging around when "Tears of Joy" was being produced. To be honest, I've often thought that a number of Kohhy songs could have belonged to the soundtrack for the original "The Equalizer" series in the 1980s. 

"Tangerine Moon Night"（タンジェリン・ムーンナイト）was the one song that commenter had been inquiring about, and it's the one other track on "Frontier" that Maurice White collaborated with Kohhy on. Also, Bill Meyers and Sheldon Reynolds contributed as well on the songwriting. I believe I made a misspelling when I responded to the commenter by referring it as "Tangerine Moon Knight". Perhaps with "Fantastic Four" in theatres now, I had a bit of Marvel on the brain. It's indeed "Tangerine Moon Night" with the protagonist hoping for that meeting with a significant other. A goodly amount of EW&F brass stuff and rhythm shuffling populate this one.

One more track that I'll show you happens to be the final one. I'm surprised that I hadn't included the Space of Love version of "Smile for Me" with the original version which was Kohhy's 18th single from April 1992 although I did mention it there but at least I get to do it now. Compared to the original R&B-flavoured "Smile for Me", this one ending "Frontier" indeed sounds rather spacy as would befit the Space of Love label and it almost takes things for a cooldown feeling. If it had been toned down any further, it could have gone ambient which is unusual for the singer.

Yoshiaki Ohuchi -- City Kobe（シティ神戸）

Good Free Photos

I've been to the city of Kobe three times in my life and one of my regrets is that out of those three times, I don't think I've ever taken any great pictures of the Kansai metropolis outside of some shots of the Portopia Hotel and Port Island. It is a picturesque city, though, with areas such as Sannomiya Station, Chinatown, Kitano Ijinkan and Kobe Port Tower.

It was only a little more than a month ago that I posted the late singer-songwriter Yoshiaki Ohuchi's（大内義昭）1990 "Zero de Hajimaru Number"（ゼロではじまるナンバー）, a City Pop/rock song. Well, he also put out something a little different around five years later in 1995 titled "City Kobe". According to his J-Wiki article, the song had already been ready to release on January 18th that year as this refined love song to the city, but then the preceding day, the Great Hanshin Earthquake wreaked havoc in Kobe and the surrounding area. That day was a day off for me from work and when I turned on the television, every station was focused on the devastation. At first, the grogginess from waking up had me wondering for several seconds about what the heck happened before it finally dawned on me that a major disaster had occurred a few hours earlier. It was such that I called up my relatives in Osaka to see if they were fine.

Getting back to "City Kobe", Ohuchi's song took on a more important meaning and outside of the first batch of singles, any future issues of the CD included some catchphrasing encouraging support for Kobe. "City Kobe" was written by Yoshiro Yashima（八島義郎）and composed/arranged by Ohuchi. For the most part, I would call it a refined New Adult Music creation with some underlying enka feeling and sophisticated pop strings but Ohuchi also decided to throw in some old-fashioned exotic kayo measures for good measure, perhaps to reflect the international nature of the port.

Yoshiaki Ohuchi -- Zero de Hajimaru Number（ゼロではじまるナンバー）

 

Thought it might be nice to have something with atmosphere above so I went with this AI picture of a gaslight avenue at night.

It's been a while but fellow City Pop fan Rocket Brown and I finally got to meet and talk for the first time in a few months. We were playing some telephone (or Internet) tag for a bit before we got to chat on Discord earlier this afternoon. He and his father will be having some participation at the Los Angeles Comic Con next week so I wished them well in their venture.

He also introduced some of his recent discoveries including the late musician-producer Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）who tragically passed away nearly a decade ago in 2015 at the age of 55 due to esophageal cancer. Ohuchi already has a fairly long list on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" since he's been composing tunes for a number of other singers including Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）through songs such as "Hold On Me" and "Moving Action". He also had a hit with his singing partner, actress Miwako Fujitani（藤谷美和子）, with the 1994 "Ai ga Umareta Hi"（愛が生まれた日）.

So, though he has a loaded KKP file, he barely shows up on the byline, but allow me to rectify that for tonight at least. Ohuchi does sing and he did release five original albums between 1989 and 1996. Rocket told me about one track which leads off Ohuchi's 1990 second album "Remember Blues" and that would be "Zero de Hajimaru Number" (A Number That Begins with Zero). Writing and composing this song, it starts off with a lone elegant piano before it goes to a melody and arrangement that straddles the line between pop/rock and funky City Pop. Ohuchi's vocals are slightly raspy and whispery and they trip the light fantastic on those concrete streets before the last minute lets the electric guitar rip.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Time The Motion (Follow-Up)

 

Happy Monday! Earlier this morning, there was this video on singer-songwriter Kahoru Kohiruimaki's（小比類巻かほる）YouTube channel for one of the tracks on her scintillating 1989 hit album "Time The Motion", and it was there that I found out that a video featuring the entire album was up. Very good news for me and KKP because when I wrote up "Time The Motion" all the way back in 2014, it was much more difficult to find tracks from there and Kohhy's channel wouldn't be up for a few more years. So it's time for a follow-up!

Along with the article for "Time The Motion", I've already written about the most famous track, the hit "Dreamer" and the uptempo "Wild Generation" which starts things off. 

As mentioned in the original article, most of the tracks (there are a few special exceptions) were created by Kohhy and the late Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）but I failed to mention that the arrangement was handled by Canadian David Campbell and Junichi Kawaguchi（川口淳一）.

The above video from her channel has the whole album and beginning things here is Track 4 "In The Rain" at 14:33 with a great riff at the start and then some dramatic kickass horns. In fact, I think Kohiruimaki's work here seems to be weaving a contemporary film noir's final scene where the femme fatale and the anti-hero are in different cars going off in different directions. She's doing fine whereas the guy has a tiny permanent hole in his heart which she had once occupied.

At 24:38 is one of the special exceptions, namely "Bliss" which along with "Mind Bells" (that got its due in the original article for "Time The Motion") was created by the Prince and Levi Seacer Jr. "Bliss" is the aftermath of some rather heavy romancing, and it's so funky Prince (well, the guy is providing backup chorus) that it was a wonder that he hadn't included it with "Batdance" a month earlier. It is so out there that it took me a while to get used to it.

My opinion on "Everything's All Right" at 29:09 is also a bit out there since because of that synthesizer work in the song, I can't but feel that this could have been just at home on The Police's Stewart Copeland's soundtrack for the original CBS version of "The Equalizer" from the mid-1980s. But there is no need for an ex-CIA vigilante here since as the title says, everything is all right; heck, in fact the guy even took up a Cessna to do so some skywriting to emphasize this.

Remember at the very top where I mentioned that I saw this Kohhy video that started things off here today? Well, this is the video for the track "Asphalt no Kaeri Michi"（アスファルトの帰り道...The Asphalt Way Home） and it's one of my favourites on "Time The Motion". I just had to include this particular video although in the video for the entire album, it's located at 33:39. The music by Kohhy is more reminiscent of her earlier pop-rock material rather than the R&B that she was displaying on the rest of the album and that she would be singing more of in later albums. Lyrically, it's about remembering a childhood friendship that no longer exists due to the passage of time and circumstances.

The title track is at 38:24 and it sounds like Prince couldn't help but come back in at the intro, but "Time The Motion" is a purely Kohhy concoction. This was another song that I had always wanted to cover, and again "The Equalizer" pops up in my head. Wouldn't it be great to see Robert McCall dispense his special brand of justice while this song is playing? Keyboards are working overtime at time and a half here!

"Silent Blue" is the final track at 48:47 and it's a soulful and slightly jazzy mid-tempo finale bringing back those notions of film noir as someone stands on a nighttime pier realizing the good times and bad times of life. I guess that it would Kohhy's version of "Que Sera Sera". 

It's been a while since I got to put up a Kohiruimaki song or album so I'm glad that I could find all of the songs from "Time The Motion" to provide some finality to one of the first CDs that I bought in Japan during my time on the JET Programme. I think that it did prove to be a turning point in the singer's career.

Megumi Shiina -- 29 ~ Twenty-Nine

Dining inside a favourite restaurant, pub or fast-food joint is simply not impossible right now here in Stage 2 of the re-opening of the economy, although patio dining has become OK as of yesterday. Fortunately, the summer season is upon us, though. However, I'm sure that there are some of us who are hoping for the night that we can enjoy some fine dining in the good clothes with full courses and vintage wine and impeccable service. Me? I would just be happy with the Classic Breakfast at the nearest Eggsmart with family or friends.

When I listen to Megumi Shiina's（椎名恵）"29 ~ Twenty-Nine", her 10th single released in May 1988, I get that sophisticated dining experience in a French restaurant vibe. Yoshiaki Ohuchi's（大内義昭）melody is a bit reminiscent of 1960s Henry Mancini with that gentle infusion of jazz and bossa nova while Keiko Aso's（麻生圭子）lyrics are bittersweet as they describe a woman who has learned her share of wisdom in love at the age of 29 and would like to apologize to that man who she had fallen for when he was 29, and perhaps caused some consternation in his life. Good heavens! The lyrics could describe a plot line for a movie that would be scored by the late legendary Mancini.

In any case, this song is in one of the corners of City Pop that I've enjoyed...the one residing in that classy and expensive hotel in Tokyo. And I love Shiina's smooth and creamy delivery here...just like a glass of Baileys Irish Cream. Up to now, I've only known Shiina for her lovely cover of Charlene's "I've Never Been To Me" so it's nice to hear her tackle something in the uptown area of the city. Plus, it's a revelation to see that Ohuchi composed "29" because I've known him mostly for his uptempo pop/R&B compositions for Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）. "29" is also the title track for her June 1988 4th album "29 Twenty-Nine ~ W Concerto II".

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Halloween wa Curiosity（ハロウィンはCURIOSITY）

I'm sure that at about this time the kids in my neighbourhood have been getting their candy. And not surprisingly, the weather forecaster on my local news show has been decked up as Frankenstein and making all sorts of merry. This kinda brings about this cross-cultural observation from me. Weather forecasters over here in North America seem to be the Court Jesters of the news teams while their equivalents in Japan are all very button-downed professorial types. Things that make me go Hmmm...

OK, this will probably be my last Halloween J-Pop song for this year, and it's one by Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）, "Halloween wa Curiosity" (Halloween is a Curiosity), a track from her 1991 album "Silent". For me, my favourite track from that album is the first one "Mirage Mirror" especially because of that amazing bass intro.

"Halloween wa Curiosity" probably won't ever become one of my favourite Kohhy songs although it was created by the singer and her longtime songwriting partner, Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）. The pair have come up with many other songs that I like better, including "Mirage Mirror". Still, this one is interesting to hear since the two seemed to have wanted to go for a Beatles/Rolling Stones vibe. I mean, I think there is a melodic shoutout to "Day Tripper" at the beginning. Also, taking into account that at the time, Kohiruimaki was going more for an R&B sound, I think this particular track takes things back more to her late 80s pop/rock days.

It looks like "Halloween wa Curiosity" goes into a couple's date during October 31st, and considering the time that it was first released, Halloween truly was a curiosity for a lot of Japanese at the time. Perhaps Kohhy encountered the annual hijinks during a trip to Los Angeles which is the city out of Japan that I often associate her with. Evolving from the hijacking of a Yamanote Line train car by drunken English teachers back in that decade to that now-annual massive party in Shibuya, Halloween is as much of a holiday in Tokyo (at least) as Xmas is.

Well, since I'm here, I might as well put up a couple of my favourite Halloween-themed songs. Of course, there is "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. Despite the fact that it was the conglomeration of folks from both "SCTV" and "Saturday Night Live", I don't recall laughing too hard (except for that "This man has no dick" snark) when I first saw the movie in 1984. Still, I enjoyed it since it did have a heart among the Ghostbusters themselves. The theme song itself was definitely a hit as one of the most muscular (fictional) commercial jingles ever made, although its performance at the Academy Awards for that year fell regrettably flat for some reason.

The other one is "The Great Pumpkin Waltz" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio for "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" from 1966. I don't think anyone would have thought about creating a romantic jazz waltz as a Halloween song, but Guaraldi did, and even hearing it tonight, I still got that ASMR shiver as soon as I heard that opening piano. Truly one of the classics.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- On The Loose

The news over the past few days on NHK and, presumably, on the other commercial TV stations in Japan has been about this fugitive Junya Hida（樋田淳也）who managed to escape from the Tondabayashi Police Station in Osaka Prefecture by bashing through the clear partition in the meeting room where he had met with his lawyer. And apparently, no one was keeping an eye on the guy. Anyways, he's been on the loose for close to a week as of this writing and allegedly committing a new rash of purse snatchings in the area, while the police are desperately trying to bring him to ground. Not surprisingly, the residents are very worried since Hida has already been indicted on theft and rape.

The Hida case has gotten me to remember this Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）single which was released on New Year's Day 1988, "On The Loose". For those Kohhy fans who first discovered her music at around the turn of the decade such as "Dreamer", "On The Loose" is more reflective of her pop-rock days when she first started. And to me anyways, it almost sounds like it could have been arranged with the 1980s James Bond in mind. Whether it be pop-rock or R&B, Kohiruimaki and her vocal chops could handle the genres with aplomb. I don't think I've ever said this about her in my previous articles, but there is something rather reminiscent of Pat Benatar in her.

"On The Loose" was her 8th single which was written by the singer and composed by her longtime collaborator Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）. It got as high as No. 15 on Oricon and was also a track on Kohhy's 5th album "So Real" which I've already written about.

In any case, I hope the police do finally catch up to this fellow.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Like A Factory

Looks like I won't really ever need to do an article on Kahoru Kohiruimaki's（小比類巻かほる）7th album "Distance" from October 1990 since I've covered almost half the album already through "Moving Action", "Twilight Avenue" and "Crazy Lover". Today, I get to do the oddly-titled "Like A Factory".

I gotta say that Kohhy has hardly aged since her debut in the mid-1980s which would put her in the same enviable category as Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）. Sometimes I wonder if there is an ominous picture of Dorian Gray hidden in her home somewhere.

Anyways back to the song. "Like A Factory" was also her 15th single from November 1990 as well as a track on my favourite Kohhy album. When I first saw the title, I kinda thought that this song must have been about the most joyous manufacturing depot on the planet, but of course it was actually about the singer's metaphor for bringing all these different parts in life together to create the wondrous whole that is love. In any case, it's a fusion tune with some gospel overtones and a nice kick of horns to bring some happiness into people's lives.

"Like A Factory" was written by Kohiruimaki and composed by her and the late Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Forget the Memories (フォゲット・ザ・メモリーズ)

It's around this time that I start thanking my blessings and "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is no exception. I'm grateful for this wonderful hobby and project that is now approaching its 5th anniversary. I am also very thankful to the various people who have commented and collaborated with me such as Noelle and Marcos right now and those in the past such as JTM and nikala.

Moreover, I'm grateful for those Japanese singers who have their own YouTube channels with videos of their songs available for import. I know that they weren't meant to be imported by little ol' me but I'm still happy that I've been able to make use of them for the many articles without having to worry too much about losing them someday....at least for a good long while.

Such is the case with Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）. The Aomori-born singer-songwriter's YouTube account is chock-filled with video goodies. And one of those videos happens to be for "Forget the Memories", a track from her 8th album "Silent" from 1991. As is the case with the bass-heavy starting track "Mirage Mirror", "Forget the Memories" is anything but silent. It's not quite up there as one of my very favourite Kohhy songs but it still has that nice combination of horns and disco strings. The video made me wonder if it were made to be the funkiest tribute to Lassie, though.

The song was written by Kohhy and composed by Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）. I'm not sure if I had ever mentioned this in any of the recent articles but I was surprised to find out that Ohuchi had sadly passed away in May 2015 at the age of 55 due to an undisclosed illness. Some of the singer's best material was due to the collaboration between her and Ohuchi. I had thought that the duo was so tight that they may have been a romantic pair but actually, the late singer and composer was married to a former NHK announcer. In any case, I certainly won't forget what he was able to forge during those prime years in the late 80s and early 90s.

Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Hoshi Kiko （星紀行）

"Hoshi Kiko" (Star Travelogue) is the 4th and final album by Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）from July 1987 that went along with the pattern of a three-kanji title before she would release "Sincerely Yours" in 1988. The one other album that I've talked about so far when it comes to her discography is "Yume Juuwa"（夢十話）from 1985.

As you can see above, I bought the actual LP from Wah Yueh. It wasn't because I wanted to follow the tradition of that three-kanji title that I got it, though. Nah, it was because of that cover with Yakushimaru looking pretty darn high...and beaming a smile! When I took a gander at that album, a few words came to mind such as "electric socket" and "marijuana" since usually my image of the singer-actress had been that of the demure young lady with the bob hairdo. Instead, for "Hoshi Kiko", it looked like she fully enjoyed a university kegger!

I listened to "Hoshi Kiko" for the first time in well over 15 years on the record player, and although I can't honestly say that it is quite on the same level as "Yume Juuwa", the album has its moments. The one song that I still remember quite well is the opening and title track itself which has the added title of "Caramel no Densetsu"（キャメルの伝説...Caramel Legend）.

The melody by Tetsuya Tsujimata（辻畑鉄也）reminds me of all those kayo describing exotic climes that had their heyday in the late 1970s, something that is further confirmed by Shizuka Ijuin's（伊集院静）lyrics about the trials and tribulations of love somewhere in an arid country. I gather that from the get-go, Yakushimaru and her colleagues had wanted to release an album with some more oomph this time.

The second track, "Koufuku no Kishi e"（幸福の岸へ...To The Shore of Happiness）takes things back a bit to her cuter and softer roots. However, there is a bubblier and happier layer to this song that the title hints at. With Yasuhiro Mitani（三谷泰弘）providing the music this time, Ijuin once again wrote the lyrics which seemed to hint at Hiroko-chan happily running away from home to see her true love at a new place she's never been to. The above video is a short cover by sundaytube02 and I think she does a very nice job of singing it.

https://music.apple.com/jp/album/hoshikikou/1443299776

(excerpt only)

The last song I could find from the album on YouTube is Track 3, "Marine Blue no Sasayaki"（マリーンブルーの囁き...Marine Blue Whispers） which stands out for those soaring strings. The music here is provided by the late Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）, the composer who often partnered up with R&B singer Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）, but this melody is all Yakushimaru as she sings Ijuin's lyrics of being blissfully in love in the summer. Of the three songs that I've put in tonight, I think this one is the most reminiscent of the mellow tunes from "Yume Juuwa" but even so there is that added layer of happiness. That certain jauntiness with "Marine Blue no Sasayaki" also had me thinking of another departed songwriter, Eiichi Ohtaki（大瀧詠一）especially when it comes to those strings..

"Hoshi Kiko" peaked at No. 3 on Oricon selling a little over 20,000 albums.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Wild Generation

Well, it's been a wild day and not in a good way. The hot water pipe burst above our condo which flooded our kitchen and some small parts of the living room with plenty of ceiling stains. So, along with my translation work, I spent over an hour sloshing and squeezing plenty of towels trying to mop up the mess. And currently, there are four huge industrial fans and one mighty dehumidifier airing things out for the next few days. Nope, not a good day.

So, I've come to the blog with a bigger need for solace than usual. Happily, I was able to track down this video uploaded by Kahoru Kohiruimaki (小比類巻かほる...or more likely, one of her representatives) for her 1989 song, "Wild Generation". It didn't exist when I wrote the article about the album that it spearheaded, "Time The Motion", so I was quite glad to finally find it (it also has one of my favourites by her, "Dreamer"). Created by the usual tandem of Kohhy and Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）, it starts a bit slowly before things get moving with the happy and cool R&B and those tight horns. After the events of today, I could use a good cup of Kohhy.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Time Goes By

Well, the Pan American Games in Toronto wrapped up a week ago and the Parapan American Games are about to go in another week. A number of my fellow citizens in Toronto (including myself) didn't have all that great an opinion of the Games as they approached, but as it turned out, the Games ended up a success for Canada as they came in second only to the United States in the medal count. I didn't think we had it in us to do that well but I guess there is something to be said about home country advantage. Now, people are starting to get hyped about perhaps going for the 2024 Summer Olympics...whoa, now, let's take a breath here, shall we?

The Games here brought back a few memories going back some 24 years when Japan held The 1991 World Championships in Athletics in Tokyo (how those athletes managed to survive the heat and humidity in August is beyond me...I already hightailed it back to Canada after the JET Programme). I don't quite remember the television hype for those Games being as obnoxious as the commercials were for the Pan Am Games 2015. There was just this one ad where a high school girl ran up the steps of a deserted stadium and then yelled something defiant.

Meanwhile, there was soulful music playing in the background while the familiar throaty tones of Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）came over the speakers. "Time Goes By" was not only Kohhy's 17th single from March 1991 but it was also used as the image song for NTV's coverage of that athletic meet. Written by the singer and composed by frequent songwriting partner Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）, "Time Goes By" is surprisingly quite moving; I hadn't heard it in some time and when I saw the video above, I actually had a couple of chills crawling up my back at the way the music just flowed, especially when the sax solo came in.

Of course, I did get my copy of the single before I left Japan.

Miwako Fujitani & Yoshiaki Ohuchi -- Ai ga Umareta Hi （愛が生まれた日）

Another one of those "Long time, no see" discs. I dug up "Ai ga Umareta Hi" (The Day that Love was Born) from among the few piles of those ancient tiny CD singles. It was released back in February 1994, several months before I left for my second stint in Japan, so I must have seen the song performed on those rental videos of "Music Station" or "Best 10" shows.

Miwako Fujitani's（藤谷美和子）main trade was acting but I used to see her more often as a guest on various variety shows to the extent that I think she probably should have been categorized as a tarento as well. I remember she had quite the bubbly personality to be a TV personality, but I think in those days her star was either rising or at its peak since she just seemed to be popping up everywhere on the videos I was renting and on the first several TV programs I caught after getting into Japan later that November.

Well, I guess either she and/or her staff must have realized that after becoming an actress and a tarento (perhaps), it was time to go for the Triple Crown of Japanese stardom...and wear that chanteuse's cap. So she recorded the insert song, "Ai ga Umareta Hi", for an NTV drama that she was also starring in, "Sono Uchi Kekkon Suru Kimi e"（そのうち結婚する君へ...To You Who Will Get Married Sooner or Later） as her debut single.

As I said, I saw the song being performed a number of times on the music shows but although I knew Fujitani, I had no idea who the fellow behind her was and frankly didn't have much of an interest in finding out. Well, it would be many, many years before I discovered that the name behind the guitar-strumming guy was Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）. Now, if you are a Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）fan like I am, you will know right off the bat who he is since he had been collaborating with Kohhy on so many of her songs like "Hold On Me" and "Dreamer". In fact, if you checked out his name in the Labels section, you would be getting all of her songs with him listed as the composer...at least until this article.

However, Ohuchi has been in the music business since 1980 as a singer-songwriter and as a musician helping out on other projects. I just didn't realize that he was in front of the mike for this one. And "Ai ga Umareta Hi" wasn't even composed by him this time. It was actually created by prolific composer Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）and written by the even more prolific Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）as a song with contemporary arrangements but has that sound of a Mood Kayo that could have been easily performed by folks from that genre on an episode of "Enka no Hanamichi". The fact that it is a duet ballad strengthens that feeling along with the theme of love and the somewhat pensive melody.

I guess, therefore, "Ai ga Umareta Hi" appealed across generational and genre lines. It became a million-seller and broke the Top 10, peaking at No. 5 on Oricon and eventually becoming the 13th-ranked song of the year. It also won a number of prizes including one from The Japan Record Awards, and Fujitani and Ohuchi were able to get onto the Kohaku Utagassen. I'm pretty sure that neither of them imagined that they would ever appear on that special at the time.

The song also appeared on Fujitani's debut album "Singer" which came out in May 1994. Her singing career was brief...it lasted as far as 2001 with 6 singles and 4 albums. And the actress herself stopped her activities in 2005.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- City Hunter: Ai yo Kienai de （愛よ消えないで）

"City Hunter" was an anime that I did hear about from time to time and I did see a couple of episodes somewhere. My particular memory of that show involved the two strapping leads, Ryo Saeba and Kaori Makimura, and the running gag in the form of a 100-tonne mallet. I just read the summary of this 80s classic on Wikipedia and I'm wondering if I should give it another chance.

Definitely the first opening theme for "City Hunter" makes for a nice draw. "Ai yo Kienai de" (Don't Go Away, Love) was sung by Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）as her 5th single from May 1987, and it followed her breakthrough hit, "Hold On Me". There's something about the anison right from the percussive intro and into Kohhy's delivery that has me thinking that this was just as much a love call to Bubble Era Tokyo as it was an exciting theme song for the City Hunter detective team. I automatically think of night lights, West Shinjuku's mighty skyscrapers, and folks painting the town red. If anyone wants to get that "City Hunter" feeling, try walking through West Shinjuku at sunset or night.

"Ai yo Kienai de" managed to get as high as No. 8 on Oricon, and according to the comments I've read on YouTube, it looks like the song has become a beloved musical memory to many. Kohhy's good buddy Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）was the composer with Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）providing the lyrics.

Many years later, the singer came up with an even more groovelicious version (although I miss the original intro). Kohhy is still looking pretty darn good in the video there.

P.S. Marcos V. took care of the ending theme for the anime, "Get Wild" by TM Network.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- CRAZY LOVER

I had no idea that there was a music video attached to this song. Actually, I had known about "Crazy Lover" through the TDK audiotape commercials that Kahoru Kohiruimaki （小比類巻かほる）used to plug for some years. Perhaps this is just as well, since the video seems to make everything in it, including Kohhy, look sluggish for some reason. Even with the quick cutting, it was pretty evident that the singer wasn't exactly too dynamic in the choreography.

Yep, it's probably better just to listen to "Crazy Lover" from the CD or whatever audio medium exists for the average Kohiruimaki fan. The song is from her 7th album, "Distance" which came out in October 1990. After the fanfare-ish title track, "Crazy Lover" slinks in like a panther on the prowl as Kohhy's lyrics describe a potentially dangerous night on the town with the background of Yoshiaki Ohuchi's（大内義昭） combination of down-and-dirty guitar and high-falutin' strings. Perhaps Prince had quite the lasting impression on the duo after his contribution to her previous album, "Time The Motion".

The album also has an even more urgent song, "Moving Action". As for "Crazy Lover", it was also the coupling song to her 15th single, "Like A Factory", another song on "Distance".

Well, the above isn't the exact TDK commercial featuring "Crazy Lover" but it is one of the Kohiruimaki issues.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Control （コントロール）

One of the first purchases I made via the mail order shopping service in "Eye-Ai" Magazine was Kahoru Kohiruimaki's （小比類巻かほる）"Frontier", her 9th album from September 1992. And the opening track is one of two songs from the album that stood out the most for me. "Control" is another high-energy collaboration (which was released in August as her 19th single) between Kohiruimaki and Yoshiaki Ohuchi （大内義昭）with additional thanks to those Jerry Hey horns.

The song may not be the most well-remembered of Kohhy's hits although it was included in at least one of her BEST compilations, "Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Golden Best" from 2005, but any of her uptempo tunes is still good as coffee for me. This specific song was also lyrically interesting since the first verse especially hinted at the Los Angeles Riots that had occurred a number of months before its release, and sure enough, Kohiruimaki gave the famous Rodney King quote, "Can we all get along?" at the end.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- So Real

Although according to J-Wiki, Kahoru Kohiruimaki's（小比類巻かほる） "So Real" from November 1988 is treated as her 5th studio album, it has tracks going back all the way to her 2nd single, "Ryote Ippai no Johnny" and songs that have already appeared on previous albums, so I consider it a BEST album of sorts. Also, this was Kohhy's final album for Epic Sony, the studio that helped her get started, so perhaps the singer and the producers had wanted to leave a nice summary of her early years for the fans.

As for the tracks on "So Real":

1. Ryote Ippai no Johnny （両手いっぱいのジャニー）
2. Tobenai Bluebird　（飛べないブルーバード）
3. Tonight
4. Little Sister
5. Together
6. I'm Good At It
7. Cotton House
8. Shiny Rain
9. On The Loose
10. Come On
11. Hold On Me
12. I'm Here

"Tobenai Bluebird" (Lame Bluebird) was Kohiruimaki's 9th single, released in May 1988. Written by the singer and composed by Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）, this track on "So Real" stands out for me since not only is it fun to listen to, it also sounds somewhat like a throwback to the early 80s City Pop genre. Especially love the horns here.

I'm no longer sure which album by Kohhy I had bought first: "Time The Motion" or "So Real". However, I do remember on first listening to the latter album, "Tonight" was the new track (I'd already known about "Hold On Me") that got my attention. Again, she and Ohuchi were behind the creation of this quietly epic ballad that seems to soar among the skyscrapers among Tokyo during the refrain. This was also released as her 10th single and was also the theme song for a NTV drama titled "Shinkon Monogatari"（新婚物語...Newlywed Story）which came out in October 1988. It went as high as No. 16 on Oricon.

Single No. 11 was "Together" which was released just a month after "Tonight", and although it has that early Kohhy sound of power pop, there is also some of that gospel flavour that she would also later use in her more R&B years. And yep, this was another Kohiruimaki/Ohuchi collaboration. It peaked at No. 13 on the charts.

The final track of the album is "I'm Here", another wonderful ballad with also a bit of gospel and inspiration with the age-old theme of love conquering all. This was Kohhy's 6th single from May 1987 which was written by Keiko Aso（麻生圭子） and composed by Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. Coming back to read the liner notes from "So Real" in more detail, I was surprised to see Suzuki's name since I had always imagined him purely in front of the mike, but then he's also acting as backup vocal for Kohhy here.

But of course, there is the song that I will always associate with Kohiruimaki, "Hold On Me". It already has its own article, but I just wanted to bring it in here as well. As I pointed out above, "So Real" is a summary of sorts of her early discography, so I would definitely recommend it for those who want to know about the singer in the mid-to-late 80s. The album did hit the top spot on Oricon.

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Time The Motion

Back in July 2012 when I put up my article on Kahoru Kohiruimaki's（小比類巻かほる） dynamite "Dreamer", I rather lamented the fact that I couldn't find any other of that song's companion tunes from her 6th studio album, "Time The Motion", released in November 1989. Well, there have been some developments since that time and I now have been able to hunt down some of the other tracks. Of course, I've put up "Dreamer" once more above from one of Kohhy's concerts.

I mentioned in the other article that "Time The Motion" was that transitional album in Kohiruimaki's career. Some of the tracks hearkened back to her early brassy pop/rock of the mid-late 80s while others started looking forward into the R&B she would explore from the 90s onwards. Track 3 is "Ii Ko wo Daite Nemuri na yo" （いい子を抱いて眠りなよ....Get That Girl） which is more in that old pop/rock vein. It's a fun bopping-along song which talks about keeping the good times rolling while performing those sets and then partying as if it were 1999 (the reason I used those last 6 words will become evident later for those 80s music fans). No matter which phase of her career it is, Kohhy has always loved having those horns provide that extra oomph. The live version of the song was actually released as her 13th single in February 1990. The singer wrote the lyrics while Yoshiaki Ohuchi （大内義昭）came up with the melody. 

The middle of the album goes into some rather unknown territory with tracks like "Mind Bells" and "Bliss" which were created by The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince and Levi Seacer, Jr, with Kohiruimaki providing the Japanese lyrics. I'm sure getting some of the album produced at Prince's Paisley Park Studios must have been a royal thrill for the singer. The above is "Mind Bells" which is a slice of Princely funk....a little esoteric for my tastes but interesting to hear nonetheless.

The final track I'll show for tonight is "Riverside Park" which is the 2nd-last track on "Time The Motion", and seems to act as musical denouement for the album. It doesn't really spark like some of the other big tracks and it's a bit of a breezy little tune which was once again made up by the singer and Ohuchi. The video above for the song was included in the VHS tape of the "Dreamer" video, and as you can see, "Riverside Park" was used as the background tune for the production of "Dreamer", and to show Kohhy enjoy that drive through Los Angeles via a BMW. Yes, imagine the possibilities....

I'm glad that I could finally concoct up an article for "Time The Motion", although there are some songs I would have liked to have featured such as Tracks 7 to 9: "Everything's All Right", "Asphalt no Kaeri Michi"（アスファルトの帰り道...The Asphalt Way Home） and especially the cool title track itself (with a Prince-like riff at the beginning) since all of them pack their own individual wallops. But perhaps someday, one of them will get up there.

June 6th 2022: All of them are up there now!