Yuko Kanai -- Morning Air

 

Ah, yes...that is a photo of my first full day back in Tokyo on November 4th 2017. I took the shot of the R&B Hotel in Otsuka. If I'm not mistaken, I was just taking a morning stroll around the area after having the complementary breakfast in the hotel. Certainly it was nice being back in the old city again.

Just the thing for me to put up an article on singer-songwriter Yuko Kanai's（金井夕子）"Morning Air" from her 2nd album "invitation" which came out in June 1979. The entirety of Side A was taken care of by the miracle tandem of lyricist Takashi Matsumoto and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（松本隆・筒美京平）, and "Morning Air" is Track 2 of that side with veteran arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）working with the songwriters to provide some mature and sophisticated Resort Pop sensibilities to their contributions.

Sure enough, "Morning Air" feels like that refreshing walk around the hotel in the cool early morning although Matsumoto's lyrics describe a couple enjoying breakfast consisting of Tibetan tea and rye toast (quite the combination!) before having their own stroll in the neighbourhood. It's all very soothing to listen to, especially during these tense times. There were also quite a few known names helping out in the recording booth such as saxophonist Jake H. Concepcion and guitarist Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）.

Now, I'm not sure whether Matsumoto and Kanai were referring to Tibetan Butter Tea, but have a look at how its made.

Yuko Kanai/Noriko Matsumoto -- Pastel Love （パステル ラヴ）

I only found about singer-lyricist Yuko Kanai（金井夕子）by accident last night when I saw her YouTube video of "Hashire Usagi"（走れウサギ）, a song that I had thought was solely in the territory of 80s avant-gardish chanteuse Miharu Koshi（コシミハル）. Whereas Koshi added that extra whimsy to the proceedings with her high voice, Kanai's vocals were quite a bit huskier.

Kanai made her debut just before her 20th birthday in June 1978 with "Pastel Love" which was written and composed by Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）. And as would befit a song by the great Ozaki, Kanai's 1st single is mellow and sunny, and rather nice to stroll in a park with while wearing those rose-coloured glasses. Although according to her article in J-Wiki, in a world of new aidoru, she never really got that hit, I think her voice was just right for me and for this ballad. It was also on her debut album, "Feeling Lady" which came out in November of that year, and is a collection of mellow tunes and City Pop. Apparently each of her four albums had a certain melodic theme in mind varying from the aforementioned two genres above to a more 80s Taeko Ohnuki-like sound which her original version of "Hashire Usagi" would represent.

I'm not sure whether Kanai is still active in the music business but supposedly she is now managing a handbag shop somewhere and is also teaching yoga.

For the longest time, I had once thought that former aidoru Noriko Matsumoto（松本典子）had been one of the members of that first big aidoru supergroup, Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）in the 1980s. But she actually started out a few months before them. The Tokyo-born and Gunma-raised Matsumoto debuted in March 1985 with "Haru Iro no Air Mail"（春色のエアメール...Spring-Coloured Air Mail） which was created by City Pop princess EPO.

Virtually all of my knowledge of Matsumoto was through TV since I knew her only as a tarento acting as the giggling straight person against the nutty comedian Ken Shimura（志村けん）on his old Monday night show on Fuji-TV (yup, years before "Hey Hey Hey Music Champ"). On the B-side of her 7th single, she did a somewhat more tropical and twinkly cover version of Kanai's "Pastel Love". She didn't exactly impress me in that video above but the original recording below is a bit easier on the ears. Strangely enough, that A-side was actually her cover of the Kim Wilde hit, "Keep Me Hangin' On" from April 1987.

As I mentioned, Matsumoto was a regular on "Shimura Ken no Daijoubu da"（志村けんのだいじょうぶだ...Ken Shimura's It's OK） on Monday nights. One of the usual segments involved her being the good daughter calmly putting up with her zany and argumentative parents played by Shimura and Masashi Tashiro（田代まさし）, former member of doo-wop group, Rats & Star. That was my go-to program at the beginning of my week when I was living in the mountains of Gunma.

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Vacance

Forgive the bad timing of this entry. I'm actually returning to school for my final year of post-secondary studies tomorrow, and I'm sure many students around the world aren't that thrilled about this time of the year, but it never hurts to dream about summer vacation. Hope you had a fun one. Here's a gift for you all: a sunny tune by Hiromi's younger sister Yoshimi Iwasaki (岩崎良美). I've listened to a number of her works over the past couple of months, and "Vacance" stands out thanks to those chirpy techno synths, the interludes with galloping drums, and the celebratory vocals in the chorus. The line where Yoshimi sings "Nami ni naritai" ("Kaze ni naritai" in the second verse) is wonderful. The whole melody is an aural equivalent of a freeway drive by a Mediterranean coast. Would like to visit that part of the world someday.

"Vacance" originally appeared on  her fifth studio album, "Cécile", released in June 1982. A month later, it took on a single status as a second half of her double A-side single "Margarita Girl/Vacance" (マルガリータガール/Vacance). The lyrics were written by Yuko Kanai (金井夕子) under her pen-name Mei Aoki (青木茗), but the composer was surprising: the radical rocker Panta (パンタ). Listening to the song carefully, I can sense a subtle rock edge underneath the windy poppiness of it all. The arrangement was handled by Nobuyuki Shimizu (清水信之). I don't have the Oricon data for the album, but according to this page, the single peaked at No.41 spot on the charts and sold 36,000 copies.

Here's Yoshimi performing the song with a glowing smile on (what looks like) "Yoru no Hit Studio". (Sorry that particular video got taken down.)

Source: hitchartmania blog

Miharu Koshi/Yuko Kanai -- Hashire Usagi （走れウサギ）

This was actually the very first Miharu Koshi（コシミハル） song I heard, thanks to Volume 2 of the "Good Times Diva" series that I collected years ago. As I mentioned in one of the earlier articles on this most chameleon-like of Japanese pop singers, I'd seen her interesting CD covers on the shelves in the various shops: one cover for her collaboration with Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣） looking like a slinky sexy French gamine, another later album showing her dressed up like a Can-Can dancer. So I naturally wondered how she sang, especially if Hosono was involved.

Then, I heard "Hashire Usagi"(Run Rabbit) which came from her mid-80s period as a techno chanteuse via "Good Diva". The song was written by copywriter Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里） and composed by Hosono himself, and I found it appealing in a quirky way. The synths are bounding across the plain like the titular lapin as Koshi sings in that new high voice she introduced to us when she took on that new persona from 1983 through her 4th album, "Tutu". "Hashire Usagi" is a track on her 6th album from 1985, "Boy Soprano" which seems to be a good title considering that high register she was singing at. And when you take a look at the YouTube video above, get a load of that new look on the album cover.

In this song, Koshi takes on that musical trope of the aftermath of a crashed relationship as she sings about getting on that Vespa and racing through the streets (of Rome, perhaps?) throughout the night, like the proverbial rabbit, trying to rid herself of the memories of the lost love. I rather wonder if this is what Princess Anne from "Roman Holiday" fame did after she gave her final goodbyes to Joe Bradley (y'know, if she could escape from her royal minders a first time...). I think the way she delivers the lyrics, it almost sounds like a technopop operetta of sorts.

As an extra, I've thrown in a brief performance by Koshi of "Ryugu-jo no Koibito"（竜宮城の恋人....Ryugu Castle Lover）.

Yup, this is a real rabbit. In October 2011, my friends took me
to a Rabbit Café in Harajuku. Very pleasant experience although
there were plenty of bunny "land mines" on the floor, if
you know what I mean.

February 3 2015: I found out by happenstance that Koshi's version was actually a cover of the more City Pop original by lyricist/singer Yuko Kanai（金井夕子）. Her "Hashire Usagi" was found on her February 1982 4th album, "ecran". The technopop is still in there but Kanai's lower vocals and the overall arrangement make it sound less whimsical and more Tokyo downtown.