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 Yoshihiro Yonekura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yoshihiro Yonekura. Show all posts
Looking over the file for Rie Ida（井田リエ）& 42nd Street, I was somewhat shocked to see that all of the six songs that I've featured on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" have been from 1980 such as "Star"（スター）. I'm not sure if I'd had some sort of fixation on that year.
Allow me to expand on her discography, temporally speaking, by going back to their 1977 debut album"Street Talk". The track that starts it off is the wistful "Koi no Arashi" (Love Storm). Written by Hikari or Kou Kurashiki（倉敷光）and composed by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）, it's a pleasant slow simmer of disco and soul which certainly doesn't come across as something that Ida was trepidatious about. Her breathy vocals, the silvery strings and the sax solo give a good sign about the next few years in 42nd Street's career. I will always appreciate a song which brings images of enjoying a beer at the top of a New York brownstone at the end of a day.
It's been well over a decade since I was last in Yokohama. Would still love to take a stroll through the city at night (or day), especially through Chinatown and the Minato Mirai area once more. I still remember the all-garlic restaurant that my friend and I patronized in the Landmark Mall in Landmark Tower. Good stuff and we were "guaranteed" empty subway seats when we were on our way home.🧄
I also remember the last time that I posted a song by Rie Ida（井田リエ）& 42nd Street back in late 2020, lamenting that more than a year had gone by since the previous entry for this City Pop band. Well...I was even worse this time out at nearly three years. 😓 Therefore with plenty of sheepishness in my heart, I bring you "Blue Harbor Street", Ida's single from December 1980.
Some of my guilt is being assuaged by the soothing urban and urbane City Pop vibe of that turn of the decade. I've usually reserved my "caviar-and-champagne" expression for the Bubble Era variety of City Pop at the end of the 80s, but "Blue Harbor Street" which is all about Yokohama simply has that feeling, too and that was all the way back over forty years ago. As I said, I would love to walk through the area again someday. "Blue Harbor Street" was written by Naoko Nishio（西尾尚子）and composed by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）, the same songwriters behind that previous Ida song that I'd written about, "Silver Airline", also from 1980.
Anyways, enjoy the top video, courtesy of Virtual Japan.
Well, it's more like a snowy morning there. It was one of the relatively rare times that heavy snow got plopped onto Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture back in 2010. I hope that I didn't have to go to work on that day.
But it was a "Velvet Morning" for Hitomi Penny Tohyama（当山ひとみ）when she sang this track from her October 1985 album"Human Voice". I guess I'm following Miho Nakayama's（中山美穂）"Keep Awake" with another romantically satisfying (and remarkably guilt-free) morning-after situation. Shun Taguchi's（田口俊）lyrics tell the tale of a tryst at what seems like a seaside Motel 6 with the lady declaring that she's more than happy with a Coke and a rusty bicycle rather than champagne and a limo when it comes to spending time with her guy. Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良宏）came up with the oh-so-calming melody thanks to the keyboards and the guitar plucking away.
My most recent Hitomi Penny Tohyama（当山ひとみ）article on "Heartbreak Calendar" was a little less than three weeks ago, and it's usually been my personal policy (and mine alone) to wait a month or so before writing about the same singer or band. However, I found the following.
J-DIGS, the official Nippon Columbia YouTube channel, put this video up about a month ago showing an interview by British radio DJ Nick Luscombe with Tohyama herself at music bar 45 in Shibuya, Tokyo. Of course, being the usual late comer to these things, probably a whole bunch of Penny fans and City Pop enthusiasts in general have already gone through this video a ton of times. Still, it's great to find this English-language interview with a singer from the City Pop genre when even encountering any local news reports on this genre in Japanese are still fairly rare or on the level of "WHY NON-JAPANESE PEOPLE?!". The only other recent interview that I recall that I believe was done in English with a City Pop Japanese artist was Junko Yagami（八神純子）in a newspaper.
Just call me Penny...or else!
Have a listen to Tohyama's vivacious talk on how she got into music and the albums that she recorded. One personal observation is that when I saw the cover for her debut May 1981 release"Just Call Me Penny", I'd assumed from that defiant way she was sitting on the chair and that hooded glare, she was about to have me for dinner if I didn't get her the smoke that she demanded. But according to the interview, she felt like a kitten among the lions.
The song here doesn't come from "Just Call Me Penny" but from her April 1987 album"One Scene". At first, I was wondering about what "7 Course no Prologue"(The 7-Course Prologue) meant; did it have something to do with a major dinner or something? According to Hikaru Kurashiki（倉敷光）and Penny's lyrics, it's about a woman poolside writing a final sad letter to a now-former lover with seven major statements including "What happened to our love?" and "I still love you" but a sudden squall has erased that seventh and final line, and probably the entire letter.
However, those lyrics contrast with Yoshihiro Yonekura's（米倉良宏）melody which is pretty upbeat all things considering, so putting the squall aside, maybe there's some hope beyond the horizon with the lady moving on into the future. And after all, the title has the word "prologue", so this is merely the beginning of a new stage in life. Hopefully, that new stage will include a transistor radio which will give up-to-date weather forecasting.
This will probably be the first and last time that you'll ever read a City Pop equivalent of a Dad joke, so either savor it or spit it out. Still, it's a sunny Friday in Toronto and even better, it's a lot less oppressively humid than it has been for the past few days, but unfortunately heading into the weekend, the 3H (hot, hazy and humid) weather will be back.
Getting back on track, I've found a sunny and relaxing tune by Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama（当山ひとみ）from her debut album"Just Call Me Penny" released in May 1981 (considering that provocative way she's seated in the chair on the album cover, I may have no choice). "Baby, Baby, Baby" is a track written and composed by Yoshihide Yonekura（米倉良広）that possesses that essence of 70s soul, and I'm almost always going to enjoy anything that has a sweet flute and mellow horns in it. Unlike my City Pop oyaji gag above, I'm hoping that listeners will totally savor "Baby, Baby, Baby". Along with that 70s soul, I can also say that some Boz Scaggs got into the arrangement about halfway through.
I feel as if I've already covered a good chunk of "Just Call Me Penny" already since I have written up a number of articles for the individual tracks. You can also look at "Rainy Driver","Door Goshi no Good Song"（ドア越しのGood Song） and "SFO-OAKLAND".
I gather that with any country's popular music, there will be a fair share of songs that are named after women. Japan is no exception and over the years, I've come across "Irene", rumours about a "Cathy" and even "Sachiko".
Well, I've encountered another "Cathy" but this time it's not Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）relating the tale again, but Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama（当山ひとみ）behind this slightly bittersweet tale set to music. A track from Penny's 1983 album"Sexy Robot", it's a mellow and soulful ballad about someone helping out Cathy over the phone as she is crying over some the trials and tribulations of love as relayed in the lyrics by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）. Cathy may be suffering the romantic blues but the fairly happy-go-lucky music by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）lets us know that this is probably nothing new for both the lass and the counseling friend on the phone and everything will be as right as rain in no time.
As usual, Tohyama handles the vocals with aplomb. She hits the high notes and provides some nice smoke in her delivery. My compliments on the keyboardist as well.
Although I hung up my own dancing shoes decades ago in the name of good taste and sanity, I think that there are likely many folks out there right now who wished that they could get onto the dance floor with everyone else and boogey the night away. That's not possible at the moment but hopefully somewhere down the line in 2021, that could all come back.
Meanwhile we City Pop fans can live a tad vicariously and enjoy the sounds of songbird Hitomi Tohyama（当山ひとみ） through her "High-Heel Dancer" from her 1983 album"Next Door". On the same album as "Lovely Days", my first encounter with Penny, this is one happy-dance-in-a-Caribbean-nightclub sorta tune thanks to the melody by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）.
Prolific lyricist Chinfa Kan（康珍化）was responsible for this story daring anyone to keep up with this eternally pirouetting beauty in her stilettoes as she holds up night after night. I certainly don't think Tohyama or the songwriter ever meant it to be so, but the lyrics almost sound like the ideal storyboard for a Dr. Scholls' insole commercial. That's not to take anything away from the song which is light and fun possibly like the dancer herself, and I do like the keyboard work.
Well, this time around, the gap has been considerably longer but allow me to welcome back Rie Ida（井田リエ）& 42nd Street once more to the files of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I provided a couple of their tunes back in 2019: "Party wo Nukedashite"（パーティーを抜け出して）and "Love Time Good Time"（ラブ・タイム・グッド・タイム）.
Ida and her band provided some of that old-fashioned American soul music via City Pop, and this time I bring you "Silver Airline", the first track on 42nd Street's 1980 album"Step In My Heart". Written by Naoko Nishio（西尾尚子）and composed by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）, compared to the already mentioned and bouncy "Love Time Good Time", which was the 2nd track on this release, "Silver Airline" is a more contemplative and beautiful piece talking of someone's perhaps bittersweet departure from the Big Apple. I would have thought that this would have taken up the third spot in the Side A lineup or even the final track on Side B...not that I'm complaining, mind you.
When I first saw the title of the song, "Silver Airline", my mind immediately thought of what I think is the unofficial logo of the genre of City Pop, that airplane taking off for places exotic and unknown (although I usually conjure up California or Hawaii). It's a bit ironic then that this particular starter for "Step In My Heart" is about actually leaving one of those dream cities in the City Pop realm. Anyways, those stirring strings and bluesy sax make for a fine accompaniment as the titular plane leaves LaGuardia or JFK.
Well, hello to Friday so we've got another City Pop day lined up. Last weekend, I decided to do pull another Van Paugam with the help of J Utah on YouTube, and to explain, a couple of weeks ago, I discovered this YouTube channel called J Utah which specializes in videos displaying long drives through the big cities of the world. In so doing, I realized that I could play one of my "Light Mellow" City Pop/J-AOR CDs and enjoy that Van Paugam City Pop radio experience once more. I actually did that with the "Avenue" disc of "Light Mellow" which had Masataka Matsutoya's（松任谷正隆）"Kizuita Toki wa Osoi Mono"（気づいた時は遅いもの）while watching the Tokyo Skyline video. Pure bliss!
This time around, though, it wasn't with a "Light Mellow" album but I used Rocket Brown's most recent Come Along Radio podcast, his Los Angeles mixtape of City Pop/AOR tunes surrounding his hometown. I listened to that while viewing one of J Utah's Los Angeles drives, downtown specifically. Again, it was a very nice experience indeed.
One of the first songs on the mixtape really clicked with me as the video approached the Staples Center, I believe, and that happened to be "Another Day, Another Love" by Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama（当山ひとみ）. I also realized that this was a cover of Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）original rendition back in 1981 which I had already written about back in February 2019.
Listening to the two of them one after another initially, I couldn't really tell the difference, and that's not a pox on either house at all. But giving it another go today, perhaps I can say whereas Ohashi's"Another Day, Another Love" has that 1970s New York City sunny soul flavour, Tohyama's cover has got more of that slightly mellower West Coast feeling. In addition, being somewhat of the doofus that I am, I only realized today that Ohashi sang it in Japanese while Tohyama did her rendition in English. I am not sure who provided the English lyrics but it could have been Penny herself or the original lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）. Of course, the composer is still Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）.
"Another Day, Another Love" started off her 1982 album"Heart Full of L.A. Mind", so I can understand why Rocket Brown opted for this one for his Los Angeles-themed mix, and yeah, it certainly fits with a nice drive in downtown L.A. Her cover also reminds me of the first song that I had ever heard by Penny, "Our Lovely Days" that she would release the following year.
Strangely enough, while I was listening to this song, my memories returned to this photo from my 2014 Tokyo trip. This is a shot of traffic in the Daimon neighbourhood somewhere between JR Shimbashi Station and the Tokyo Prince Hotel, and it's one of the photographs in the collection that I enjoy the most because of the buildings in the background and how the late afternoon sunlight strikes their windows just so.
The song is "Love Time Good Time" by Rie Ida & 42nd Street（井田リエ＆ 42nd STREET）which is placed as the 2nd track on one of the band's three albums "Step in My Heart" (1980). I wrote my first article on Ida earlier this year in April since another song of theirs, "Party wo Nukedashite"（パーティーを抜け出して）got placed on one of the many "Light Mellow" compilation CDs.
Unlike "Party wo Nukedashite", "Love Time Good Time" isn't quite as groovy in the arrangement but indeed it's got an upbeat skip and strut in its shoes. However, like that song, Ida demonstrates some fine and hearty vocals (reminds me of Hitomi Tohyama/当山ひとみ) and there is also some nice punchy brass. In addition, I think the reason that I've associated it with that photo of Daimon up above is that it sounds like the type of song that I would like playing on the car radio while driving in that very area. It kinda fulfills what City Pop is all about...a good car drive of a song.
Naoko Nishio（西尾尚子）took care of the lyrics while 42nd Street guitarist Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）provided the bouncy music. As I mentioned, the original LP had been released back in 1980, but it looks like it got the re-release earlier this year at Tower Records.
Found another winner on the "Light Mellow ~ Highway" disc that I would like to feature here for all of you City Pop fans on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Weirdly enough, this lady and her band weren't featured in "Japanese City Pop" but Rie Ida & 42nd Street（井田リエ＆ 42nd STREET）were able to get some of their songs onto the "Light Mellow" series including this track from their 2nd of three albums, "Star" from 1980. Titled "Party wo Nukedashite" (Get Me Out of the Party), it has that nice set of warm honeyed horns and mellow keyboards backing up the light and soulful vocals of Ida.
Unfortunately there isn't much else written up on Ida and 42nd Street but unlike Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）and her lone album, at least Ida was able to get that total of three LPs out. "Party wo Nukedashite" was written by Hiroko Hagita（萩田寛子）and composed by 42nd Street guitarist, Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良弘）, who would later create some other genre songs for folks such as Hitomi Tohyama（当山ひとみ）. Hiro Tsunoda（つのだ☆ひろ）of "Mary Jane"（メリー・ジェーン）fame was on drums here.
In the song, Rie is begging someone to take her out of this stuffy party for much more fun outside in the fresher and healthier air. Considering how smoking must have been back in those days, I wouldn't blame her, although if she had truly been wearing that leopard-skin outfit on the cover of "Star", I would have given her a heavy coat.
Friday night is here. Time to unwind before the weekend is upon us. Perhaps something apropos with a glass of Bailey's Irish Cream.
Och, maybe this one will do. "Another Day, Another Love" is the opening track for Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）August 1981 album"Tea For Tears". It's an interesting mix of 70s sunny soul with 80s arrangement. Blogger kaz-shin mentioned on his "Music Avenue" review of the album that "Another Day, Another Love" was a tune to be enjoyed while positioned atop a hill with the sea breeze flowing through with the sun shining. Good enough for me. I would adjust the setting a tad, though, by making the time of day into early evening just as the sun is setting.
"Another Day, Another Love" was written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Yoshihiko Yonekura（米倉良広）. My compliments also go out to arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）with the nice strings especially. I would like to hear this after completing an especially arduous translating assignment (I may end up listening to it tomorrow then). Incidentally, the song shares vinyl space with a tune that has become famous worldwide via one corner of YouTube (you just gotta remember those digits).
Anyways, I hope that Ohashi is doing well. After that diagnosis of early esophageal cancer last year, I have been worried about her health.
To finish off, this is an update on Van Paugam's radio. Last night on that Junko Mihara（三原じゅん子）article, I mentioned that the radio and even his whole channel were taken down by the powers-that-be. Well, since that time, it's been happily realized that VP is not going down without a fight. He has set up shop again on YouTube and has a more restricted version of his radio that now has opening and closing times. Basically when it's evening on the eastern part of the United States, it's closed there, but if you go to his Twitter account, you can access the radio (still riding the highways and byways of Japan) there. He's asked to spread the word that Van Paugam's still got 'em so I'm providing this paragraph.
May 22nd 2020: Hitomi Tohyama（当山ひとみ）provided her own version of the song right here.
It took me the purchase of "Japanese City Pop" to find out that R&B singer Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama（当山ひとみ）even existed, and just out of pure luck, browsing through YouTube unearthed her older sister, Keiko "Myrah" Tohyama（当山恵子）. There was some more digging for me to find out that Myrah was indeed Penny's older sister.
The anthropological dig continued as I gradually found out that perhaps the elder Tohyama released one single and one album...at least. The one single apparently was released in 1984 and was titled "My Guy ~ Cafe Sign", a mellow ballad with a hint of Motown in its music and lyrics by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良弘）, the same fellow who came up with "Sexy Robot", Penny's song that I wrote about last night.There was one other person involved in the lyrics but unfortunately I couldn't read his kanji due to the size of the photo of the liner.
Myrah has a slightly higher voice than Penny, and she definitely has got that feeling of some of that 70s soul. "My Guy" is also a track on that first (and perhaps sole) album "What Can I Do?". From what I've read, both the single and album are the rarest of the rare.
About a couple of months ago when we were on that cruise in the Western Caribbean, I didn't find much different with the layout of the Harmony of the Seas (which is currently the largest cruise ship on the planet until the Symphony of the Seas gets its launch early next year) when compared to the Oasis of the Seas that we had shipped on a few years ago. Deck 5, which I guess would be called the Promenade Deck, had most of the shops that we remembered on the Oasis in the same positions on the Harmony. But there were two differences.
One was that the cupcake shop was no longer there (darn!). The other was that there was The Bionic Bar. Two robots, Bio and Nic, and a rotation of handlers took care of their share of the cocktails in one corner of Deck 5. It was one of the few instances that I had ever witnessed where the bartenders garnered more attention than the drinks themselves. And on the fourth day of the cruise, I finally relented, went into the bar and made my order via a Samsung tablet for a simple Rum and Coke.
Not quite sure who took care of my order, Bio or Nic. But one of them dutifully pressed out the requisite cola and double shot of rum, and poured the mixture into my plastic glass. I have to say that it was a good Rum and Coke....probably too good, though. I was fairly floating for the rest of the evening. And if I had stayed at the Bionic Bar, I probably would have found the (TORTURED SEGUE ALERT) robots sexier than the comely young handler/systems operator who handed me the tablet.
OK, first off...I have no idea how Japanese R&B singer, Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama（当山ひとみ）nor the creators of this song, lyricist Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composer Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良弘）, came up with the idea for this song "Sexy Robot", the title track from her 1983 5th album. Perhaps they had some potent Rum and Cokes, too...or they were inspired by some of the robotic forms of breakdancing that were hot at the time in America and elsewhere.
In any case, it's an intriguing funky tune about someone who has apparently fallen for the Cybermen or the Replicants from "Blade Runner". And I can't doubt Tohyama's vocals which go all in for the song. Another notable observation is that she sounds quite a bit like another City Pop singer, Miki Matsubara（松原みき）, with this particular song.
I'm sure with the pop cultural references of robots in Japan, there are most likely a lot of Japanese music fans who will listen to "Sexy Robot" and see the title, and figure that it's a most appropriate tune. For my part, I would just like to ask Tohyama and Kan about how the title and lyrics came about. There are many more R&B tunes from both sides of the Pacific that I would place higher than this one, but it's a pleasant enough ditty that does its part to add to the goofy and mystical side of Japanese pop.
My question is whether Bio or Nic was
able to pick up and drop the lemon wedge
into my Rum and Coke.
I've always loved that cover of Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama's（当山ひとみ）1981 debut album"Just Call Me Penny". The way the lady is sitting in that armchair makes me wonder if the title was meant to be more of a command rather than a kindly request. She's got that sexy if no-nonsense look about her.
In any case, I've chosen another track from that album, "Door Goshi no Good Song" (A Good Song Behind The Door) which actually launches "Just Call Me Penny". From the songs that I have heard by her on that 2-disc BEST album that I got online, I've known Penny mostly for her Japanese funk during the 80s. But with her first album, I think she was feeling her way around the genres.
The other song from that album that I've already profiled, "Rainy Driver", is a nighttime City Pop tune, but "Door Goshi no Good Song" has got that 60s American girl pop feel to it (complete with introductory voiceover in darn good English), so I start thinking Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）from around the same time. However, the singer's delivery here has me imagining Ayumi Nakamura （中村あゆみ）with more silk and less husk. It's a light and pleasant song...I would say that it is the musical version of an aperitif that any record marketer wouldn't have pushed as a debut single but it makes for a nice way to profile her pure vocals.
"Door Goshi no Good Song", which also has the alternate title of "So Many Times", was written by H. Kurashiki and composed by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）. Although I have that BEST album, I'm sorely tempted to get "Just Call Me Penny" just on that album cover alone.
NHK News is reporting the annual temporary mass migration that signifies another Bon holiday season. So, there a lot of scenes of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the various highways. Here in Toronto, we also have the similar situation on a daily basis involving the country's largest parking lot known as the Don Valley Parkway. It gives me further vindication to my choice on not learning how to drive.
Not the smoothest segue into today's tune, but I'm still happy to introduce my 2nd Hitomi 'Penny' Tohyama song（当山ひとみ）. The first one was the breezy, Bacharach-penned "Our Lovely Days" from 1983 that I wrote about all the way back in 2012. Today, I listened to CD 1 of the double-disc BEST album for Penny, "W Deluxe" that I got from Tacto some years ago, and came across this number, "Rainy Driver" which had originally been on the Okinawan singer's very first album, "Just Call Me Penny" from May 1981.
Unlike the AOR sunny "Our Lovely Days", "Rainy Driver", which was probably written and composed by Yoshihiro Yonekura (米倉良広...whoever was responsible for the production of the liner notes for "W Deluxe" just threw in the arrangers, composers and lyricists in romaji as if they were corporate cogs on a floor plan), is very much in the nighttime mode of pressing down on the accelerator on the highway as the city lights flash past. Kaz-shin on his Japanese music blog, "Music Avenue" wrote that although he didn't think the song was bad, he said that it was a bit of a waste to bring in a certain kayo kyoku air into "Rainy Driver". He later wrote as a summary for the whole of "Just Call Me Penny" that the music overall sounded somewhat dated, although he conceded that there were many people who enjoyed that sound. Yup, I would put myself into that category...as you readers have all figured out by now. City Pop is indeed my beat.
Listening to the rest of the songs on CD 1 of "W Deluxe", Tohyama did her share of 80s-style power ballads, and explored American funk and soul along similar lines as Irene Cara and Melissa Manchester from that time. And to respond to Kaz-shin's point about some of the dated nature from her first album, I thought that some of the later songs on "W Deluxe" such as "Let's Talk In Bed" went a tad overboard and entered pastiche territory. But as for "Rainy Driver", I'm fine with listening to that on any car stereo...on the passenger side, of course.
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