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.
I have finally come to the scene of the crime when it comes to me and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. Her 6th single, "Kinku"（禁区） may have been the very first song of hers that I had ever heard, but it was her 8th studio album, "D404ME" that brought me into Akina World. I first borrowed a tape cassette of the album from a classmate in 2nd-year Japanese who was the biggest Akina fan, and ended up listening to it twice in quick succession. But before I ended up destroying the thing in repeated play, I decided to fork out the cash at Wah Yueh or another record store across Dundas in Chinatown to purchase the actual LP as my own copy. Then I set out to abuse the needle on my record player instead of the heads on my tape recorder.
As you can see from the photo above, it looks like the album cover decided to reflect the eclectic direction that Akina was continuing from her previous album, "Bitter and Sweet". Apparently the title (which had always sounded like something used to fix that squeaky doorknob or kill cockroaches in their tracks) was derived from the registration number of a warehouse. And it certainly looked like the photo shoot for the cover was held inside that warehouse. It looks like a 3-year-old's concept of the Batcave.
Anyways, listening to the tracks again had me realize how much I missed this album after so long. As with "Bitter and Sweet", it has a lot of dynamic songs...8 out of the 10 tracks...created by a number of veteran singer-songwriters. The album starts out with "Endless" (the above video), which starts out like something from "The X-Files" before it launches into a funk-and-groove City Pop tune. The huskiness of Akina's voice continues to develop and her delivery has that sort of Siren-like effect, enticing listeners to enjoy the temptations of the city. Looking over the liner notes for "D404ME" again, I was a bit surprised to find out that it was Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）who had composed the opening track with Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）providing the lyrics. At the time I got the album, Ohnuki was just the name of someone who had flittered around the edges of my kayo kyoku/J-Pop mind, and it would be several years before I finally got who she was and appreciated her own brand of music.
The 2nd track, "Nocturn", written and composed by one-half of Chage & Aska, Ryo Aska（飛鳥涼）, is a pop/rock piece driven by Masaki Matsubara's（松原正樹）electric guitar. The lyrics hint at the darker side of love. Just in terms of Akina's delivery and the arrangement, the song sounds like something that late 70saidoru Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵） would have sung. Considering that in the early years of my acquaintance with Akina's music, it was often said that there were similarities between the two singers from different eras, the sound of this 2nd track is not lost on me.
When I was putting the album on heavy rotation on the stereo, my favourite track was the third one, "Allegro Vivace". Compared to almost all of the other songs, I think it's one of the two relatively slower ballads. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子） and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, it's soaring and elegant, and was one of the first hints for me that Akina was no ordinary aidoru, and in fact, by the time "D404ME" came out, she really no longer was.
The first track on Side B of the LP is "Blue Ocean". With lyrics by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子） and music by the rock band NOBODY, its technopoppiness comes out right from the get-go with that tinny synth and snippets of Akina on repeat mode. In a way, the song sounds like her singing a combination of an aidoru tune and an old-fashioned tropical ditty from an old Ealing Studios movie taken into outer space. The guy on keyboards was pretty interesting; it turned out to be Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）who whipped up all those wonderful scores for the Studio Ghibli movies, and arranged this particular track.
(cover version)
Singer-songwriting buddies EPO and Taeko Ohnuki teamed up to give Akina this fun song with a little tech and a lot of funk called "Magnetic Love", which seems to describes falling in love as a power surge through a major metropolitan grid. I wouldn't be surprised if SONY or Hitachi had actually used the song as a jingle for one of their products. The one other thing I'll say about it is how much I enjoy Akina pronouncing "magnetic love".
One of the things I also enjoyed about "D404ME" is the horn section. I've always been a sucker for a good group of trumpets and trombones accompanying the saxes. "Mona Lisa" has a bit of this Barbee Boys vibe in the arrangement and then in come the full set of three trumpets, three trombones and Jake H. Concepcion on sax. Goto was once again involved in the composition but the lyrics were provided by Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）.Akina sings about not wanting to actively have anything to do with loving anyone else but instead just wants to be admired from afar by freezing herself like the proverbial eternally beautiful smiling titular figure. Along with the horn section, the other thing I like is the bell-like keyboard, especially when it goes off like a fire engine siren.
The piece de resistance, though, is Akina's 11th single, "Meu Amor e"（ミ・アモーレ） which has its special version at the end of the album. However, I'll save that for the next article. To be honest, it's been years since I listened to "D404ME" due to the fact that I never got around to getting the CD version of the album while I was in Japan, and although the original LP is sitting next to my feet as I type this, my stereo has long ago joined the proverbial audio store in the sky. But being able to hear just about all of the tracks again via YouTube has been very reassuring for me.
"D404ME" was originally released in August 1985 on LP (a month later on CD), and hit No. 1 on Oricon right from its launch where it spent the next 2 weeks. However, even after falling from that lofty perch, it hung around the charts for a further 26 weeks to become the 7th-ranked song of the year. It also earned an Excellent Album prize at The Japan Record Awards. I think having both this album and "Bitter & Sweet" is a must just to show the transition Akina made from aidoru to pop superstar.
Long before the Tokyo local Narumi Yasuda (安田成美) made a permanent switch to acting, she started off as an aidoru in 1984, putting out 6 singles and 2 albums until 1988. Her debut single was created as a theme song for "Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind" (風の谷のナウシカ), the film responsible for launching the mighty force that is Studio Ghibli. Yasuda herself has often been referred to as "Miss Nausicaa" because her ethereal voice reminded the listeners of the main character. Because I haven't yet gotten the chance to watch the film myself (it is on top of my "to see" list), I cannot speak of how the lyrics reflect any of the scenes there. One thing I can say is that it's one of my top favorite aidoru songs ever.
Written and composed by the team of Takashi Matsumoto (松本隆) and Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣), the song emits the aura of girlish sweetness combined with a sense of wonder and mystery. Yasuda was never a strong singer and every live performance I've seen of this has been terribly underwhelming, but I can still vouch for her studio vocals being a perfect fit for the song's fantastical atmosphere. Hosono's presence is evident in that quirky melody and light techno synths throughout the verses, though it was actually Mitsuo Hagita (萩田光雄) who arranged the song. With a huge repertoire dating back to 1973, Hagita's approach was always along the lines of traditional kayo kyoku, which is what you hear in orchestral backing of the chorus. I still think Hosono was partly involved in the arrangement, just uncredited. The combination of those two elements is what makes this a classic techno kayo piece in the purest sense of the word. I have to say the best part is that flute that blows through the bridge like a gentle breeze before the triumphant strings launch the march of the chorus. Makes me want to look out the window at the blue sky hovering over green hills. In my case, it's the range of tall green mountains surrounding Gifu City.
The single "Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa" peaked at No.10 on Oricon weeklies and became the 63rd-ranked song of 1984, selling 209,000 copies total for the original release. It was also remastered 3 times in CD format in 1988, 2000, and 2004.
One of my other memories from that very first Kohaku Utagassen I watched in 1981 was seeing a vivacious young woman walking up to the microphone in a nice bright dress and huge smile. The singer was Miyuki Kawanaka（川中美幸）, someone that I've seen on TV as actress, TV personality and, of course most of all, enka performer.
Born in Metropolitan Osaka in 1955 as Kimiko Kawanaka（川中岐味子）, she started her music career with the stage name of Harumi Kasuga（春日はるみ） in 1972. At that time, her management company was grooming her to be an aidoru but when that plan failed, she made a second debut as Miyuki Kawanaka with "Anata ni Inochi Gake"（あなたに命がけ） in 1977. Then in March 1980, her career got a huge boost when she recorded "Futari Zake"(Sake For Two), a song written by Takashi Taka（たかしたか） and composed by Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）, who would later create another enka hit, "Amagi Goe"（天城越え） for Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, another failed aidoru-turned-successful enka singer.
When I was doing my Japanese Studies major at U of T, one of the things I read about my target country was that it had something called a "bar culture". Yup, the Japanese definitely love to drink. Whereas over here, it would often be a weekly visit to the local bar/pub, I think the folks back in my adoptive country like to make it a near-nightly ritual (depending on hepatic conditions). Although "Futari Zake" has a rather calming beat, the lyrics have this lusty feeling reflecting bar culture: life may be rough but nothing beats that drink with friends at the end of the day. And even though the song is enka, I think the feeling fits anything from the tiniest nomiya in Shinjuku's Golden Gai to the vast beer hall in Ebisu Garden Place. Although I was never anything more than a social drinker when I went out to the bars and izakayas of Tokyo and Chiba, I enjoyed the jovial atmosphere of men and women pouring for each other beer, shochu and sake....mind you, in my case, I relished the food that came out like yakitori and sashimi and karaage even more
Kawanaka sings "Futari Zake" from the male point of view according to the masculine personal pronouns that are written into the lyrics, although I've met my fair share of women who could potentially drink their male counterparts under the table just like Indiana Jones' old flame, Marion Ravenwood, did in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". But no matter. The song is a proud statement on enjoying each other's company while knocking back a few.
For someone who had been in the music business for almost a decade at the time, I can understand the huge smile Kawanaka sported when she strode up to the microphone at the Kohaku Utagassen, her first of 24 appearances on the NHK stage, the latest one being in 2011. "Futari Zake" peaked at No. 9 on Oricon and was Kawanaka's first million-seller. She would sing the song two more times on the Kohaku in 2006 and 2009. For 1981, it was the 31st-ranked song....quite the upward odyssey, considering when it debuted.
When Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）sings a ballad, he has the potential to squeeze tears out of a slab of granite. Case in point, the beginning from his 1993 2nd album, "Akogare"（あこがれ...Yearning）. The titular introductory track, composed by Tamaki, is a throat lump-inducing elegiac instrumental. Then, he starts giving voice on the 2nd track, "Roman"(Romance), a song that was also made by Tamaki and given words by Akira Sudo（須藤晃）. His tender vocals provide a really sentimental tribute to the power of romance and love, and the piano and lush strings figuratively carry a huge heart on their proverbial sleeve. Although I never got into the Korean dramas that became big hits in Japan from the mid-2000s or so, I just think that "Roman" would've been a perfect song as one of those shows' themes.
I bought Tamaki's first solo album, "All I Do" some years before getting "Akogare". I haven't really listened to that debut album all that much lately, but I remember it as Tamaki getting down and funky (although the ballads are in there as well). However, listening to the first two tracks from "Akogare", the contrast between the two albums couldn't have been greater. It's Tamaki as a sadder if wiser man....not quite as cocksure as in the previous album.
"Akogare" was released in March 1993 and peaked at No. 4 on Oricon.
I'm dedicating this song to an old friend of mine who I first met at around the same time as this album's release. She definitely made an impression on all of us in my university club with her enthusiasm and a mile-wide smile. A few years later, I would be a guest at her wedding which was held at one of the nicest Italian restaurants in Tokyo. A few hours ago, I found out from a mutual friend that she had passed away too soon from pancreatic cancer.
Singer-actor-TV personality Muneyuki Sato（さとう宗幸） first came to my attention in the early 80s as his songs got fairly frequent airplay on "Sounds of Japan". However, the one song that will always come to mind to me and just about everyone who listens to kayo kyoku is his debut, "Aoba-jo Koi Uta". The literal translation for the title is "Aoba Castle Love Song", but I rather like how one page on www.drillspin.com translated it: "A Love Song to Sendai".
Sato was born in 1949 in Gifu Prefecture and had an early career as a semi-professional folk singer, releasing one album that he produced himself in 1976 titled "Bara Iro no Jinsei"（バラ色の人生...Rose-Coloured Life）. A year later, he started a stint as a DJ on "FM Request Hour" for the NHK affiliate radio station in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. In June 1977, during one episode of the show, a listener by the name of Senichi Hoshima（星間船一） provided a poem about lost love in Sendai for which Sato added a melody. Thus "Aoba-jo Koi Uta" was born. Aoba Castle, by the way, is the alternate name for Sendai Castle.
(Unfortunately the Dark Ducks video got taken down but you can enjoy Chieko Baisho's version.
Uh, actually, I did find one by DD below.)
The song was released in May the following year. However, at around the same time, word about the existence of this song reached the powers-that-be managing a vocal group by the name of Dark Ducks which was formed in 1951. There was a bit of a race between Sato and Dark Ducks to find out whose version would win out (if it was actually successful). The Dark Ducks version came out a month after Sato's debut, with the conventional feeling that the vocal group had the edge since they were a famed veteran team compared to Sato who was basically an unknown. Then, just 11 days following the release of "Aoba-jo Koi Uta" by Dark Ducks, the Miyagi Earthquake struck the Tohoku area creating widespread damage to homes and the surrounding environment. In order to boost spirits in his adopted prefecture, Sato did a live performance of the song; a month later, sales for his version started soaring to ultimately reach 1.1 million records. Meanwhile, the version by the Ducks sold a relatively smaller 300,000 copies. Below is their performance of the song on "Yoru no Hit Studio".
The Ducks' version is perfectly fine, but there is just something about Sato's rendition of "Aoba-jo Koi Uta" that will always have me imagining bright green woods and fresh clean air whenever I hear it. And although the lyrics mention about the yearly Sendai Tanabata Festival and the covered shopping arcades, it will always be a countryside song to me. According to J-Wiki, it was labeled indeed as such a song during the 1970s, a time that was famous for having the catchphrase, "Chiho no Jidai"（地方の時代...The Countryside Era）. By the way, according to the video outline above, the Dark Ducks' version is the 4th one after Sato, Kaori Mizumori and Yuzo Kayama.
The song peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and became the 31st-ranked song of 1978. It also won Sato the Newcomers' Prize at the Japan Record Awards, and an invitation to that year's Kohaku Utagassen. And finally, it hit further immortality by becoming the departure song at several tracks at JR Sendai Station. Not surprisingly, whenever Sato appears anywhere on television, everyone knows it will most likely be to perform that song.
Of course, the song has been covered by many other singers such as Masako Mori（森昌子）and Chieko Baisho（倍賞千恵子）.
This was another discovery made at my anime buddy's house a few weeks ago. I had never heard of the original manga or the anime of "Mizuiro Jidai" (Aqua Age....probably Salad Days is the proper idiom here), but when my friend played the theme song on his giant airplane wing speakers, and then that soulful saxophone started blowing some sweetness, my first thought was "Is this an anime song?!" It sounded more like something from a Smooth Jazz album. Pass the mineral water, please.
There were also the rich vocals of Jun Yoneya（米屋純） which reminded me of another singer that I couldn't figure out off the top of my head. Then, I googled the song and found out none other than veteran Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美） had written and composed "Mizuiro Jidai". The theme just sounded like Ozaki herself was singing it. This was the Fukuoka-born Yoneya's 5th single released in May 1996; she debuted in 1994 and released a total of 8 singles and 3 albums up to 1998.
Not quite sure what late-night TV is like in your countries. In Canada and the US, it's often filled with talk shows such as "Late Night With David Letterman" or "The Tonight Show" and infomercials. On the other hand, in Japan, there is a bit more variety in terms of the content. Late-night variety shows could run anywhere from 30-90 minutes and could be a bit more racy about the content; music ranking shows and sports highlight programs were there for the young folk, and then there were these rather specialized 5-10 vignette shows. One of them that I used to catch on Fuji-TV back almost 2 decades ago was an interesting show called "Rooms", and it was broadcast sometime after midnight on the weeknights. Basically, the camera focused on one person's individualistic 1K apartment somewhere in one of the big cities (usually Tokyo) while the resident gave out his thoughts. Then, in the last couple of minutes, there'd be some odd poetry reading by one of the Fuji announcers followed by an ending theme that would change every few months.
It was from "Rooms" that I found out about TRF's"Samui Yoru Dakara"（寒い夜だから） and "Chiisana Koro Kara"（小さな頃から） by Judy & Mary. They rather acted like my lullabies before I turned off the telly. But there was also this entry by Kaoru Nakahara（中原薫）titled "Sabishigariya Futari Bocchi" (The Lonely Couple). This was her 2nd single released in 1995 and was composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）with lyrics by Nakahara herself. I was rather taken by this lush ballad as "Rooms" ended with a sunset view of Tokyo, and I noticed how similar Nakahara sounded to Zard's Izumi Sakai. There were a few more viewings of "Rooms" before I decided that I had to get the CD single.
I wonder if Fuji-TV ever decided to release "Rooms" on DVD.
