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.
That's the most amusing line from the B-side of Enka-Rokyoku veteran's debut single, "Funakata-San yo". Nah, it's the most amusing line out of all the proper songs I've listened to. Why? Because it reminds me of the way most Singaporeans call for someone's attention, or sometimes even to admonish the person. Yup, they (including me) would just utter (or in most cases shout) a sharp and simple, "Oi!", it's kinda like snapping one's fingers. And this... um... I think it can be loosely considered a word... is a fundamental part of speaking the country's widely-used unofficial language, Singlish, a combination of English and whole lot of other languages and their dialects, e.g. Mandarin and its more commonly used dialect here, Hokkien.
Anyway, time to get back to Haruo Minami (三波春夫). I wasn't too sure about what the lyrics that Hachiro Kadoi (門井八郎) wrote for "Funakata-San yo" really mean, but after reading the translation - in Mandarin - I think Minami may be in the shoes of the boat's passenger striking up some friendly conversation with the captain as they make their way to other side. Well, I would talk to the fella too in order not to get bored since boat rides seem to take a long time, and he may have some tales to tell about the different passengers he had ferried in the past. The music composed by Kazuo Harukawa (春川一夫) is really jaunty and cheery, very much like Minami's stage persona. Just by listening to the song itself can make you instantly envision the very genteel and jolly-looking fellow singing with that crowd-pleasing, radiant grin across his beaming face!
This video here is just the karaoke version of "Funakata-San yo". I don't usually put karaoke videos up, but I just find it rather entertaining to see the man himself in it, first shown rowing the dinghy... in a suit, then riding on it with that perpetual smile of his, again. It kinda makes me wonder if his cheeks ever get tired from doing so. Along with Minami's hit "Chanchiki okesa" (チャンチキおけさ), "Funakata-San yo" was released in 1957. Just like the A-side, "Funakata-San yo" had a movie with the same name, and Minami appeared in it as well.
I prefer "Funakata-San yo" though, not as festive-sounding as "Chanchiki okesa", but its definitely more lighthearted.
I'd known about Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）for some years since my JET days and during the years I was back in Toronto to get my TEFL Certificate. Then, returning to Japan in 1994, I started hearing word that Kubota was heading Stateside to record some stuff over there. He was big in Japan and he was trying to become big in America.
I didn't know what the name of what his first album in the USA was going to be, but when I did hear the title of his first single over, I almost guelphed up my coffee. The title was "Funk It Up". I simply misheard it the first time although for a few seconds I wondered whether someone in Kubota's marketing team had fu---...nope, I won't go there.
The singer was responsible for the writing and composition of "Funk It Up" which was first released in August 1995. I knew there was a music video, but it was only tonight that I finally got to see it in its entirety. However, I remember hearing the song first thing when it came out and it was pretty cool and groovy in my estimation. I didn't think it was going to crack the Top 10 on Billboard but I was a bit disappointed for Kubota that it scored no higher than 91 on Oricon of all places.
As for the video, it's pretty slick and it was obvious that the producers were really to trying to make it big for the singer. For some reason, I started getting reminded of Jamiroquai although it would be another year before Jay Kay would hit pay dirt with "Virtual Insanity". Of course, there just had to be some of those images of Japan in there, and I was wondering who took care of the colourful cinematography. My bets were going down on Apple or United Colors of Benetton.
"Funk It Up" would make it onto Kubota's debut album in America, "Sunshine, Moonlight" which came out in September 1995. It would hit the top spot on Oricon.
Today is the International Day of Happiness according to the United Nations. Not that I'm much of a smiler on the outside. However, there are certain Japanese songs that I have heard over the years that have usually uplifted my spirits and provided me with some of that emotional caffeine I appreciate. And so on that note, here are my choices for Happy Songs in no particular order.
Yup, there are some anison that make me want to salute ("Space Cruiser Yamato"), get me wistful ("Omoide ga Ippai") and then there are the ones that get me happy enough to dance (or at least tap my right foot really, really vigorously). "Viva Namida" is one of those happy feet songs. There is just so much space funk going on there. Just look at the above videoat Yasuyuki Okamura. The man looks like a middle manager...and yet he's dancing....like a middle manager. But, hey, he's having so much fun doing it! Gives the rest of us middle-aged guys hope to dream.
There are plenty of karaoke, instrumental and Vocaloid versions of this song on YouTube, but I just had to have the original here. When I want to blow the blues away, this is my go-to song. It's pretty wistful but also manages to get that goofy grin in my mind if not on my mouth. As I've said before, when Yuming does have to leave this mortal coil, this will be THE song that will be used as my ultimate tribute.
Ever since nikala introduced me to "Hitotsudake"...the original version...in one of her articles, I've really enjoyed this mix of spacy yet heartful by Akiko Yano who could really come up with the fun AND quirky. The synthesizers during the intro and their musical launch taking me on a wild carpet ride are what do it for me. This is a 5-minute condensation of a comedy-drama alien adventure on Earth.
Now, with that title, isn't this the one song that has to be on this particular list? I mean, this is the ultimate Dreams Come True tune that would absolutely fit the wide smile of Miwa Yoshida. Sounding Japanese and not-Japanese, when I first encountered this early hit by the band, I thought Japan had come up with its equivalent to Swingout Sister! The clouds just part and I want to take a walk through London or Tokyo.
Had to get an enka in here, and it was pretty darn easy which one I would pick. It's the melodic story of getting the buds together and going for a round at the neighbourhood pub. Through Hosokawa's jaunty vocals, I could hear the camaraderie, see the dimly lit lane of nomiya, smell the yakitori sizzling away on the grill, feel the mug and taste the beer glugging down my throat. I blame/praise Japan for getting this former teetotaler to be able to imbibe alcohol, and this is the theme song.
When I first heard those keyboards just riffling down the speakers in the intro and then the disco strings, I figured that I was in for something good. And with Junko Yagami's voice, I knew that it was going to be even better. Even now, the song still elicits some good ol' blood-pumping as she sings about the Big Apple. A lot of City Pop tunes are cool and slow-burning (love those, too) but "Purpletown" is a fun spree through the big city. Many thanks to the Canadian connection with one of Junko's finest, David Foster, for the arrangements.
"Chance" has that feeling of second chances, strangely enough, for me. It evokes that feeling of better times arriving after some not-so-great ones, and that gorgeous instrumental bridge with Ohnuki and Ryuichi Sakamoto feels like soaring up in a rocket. And considering the musical evolution she was undergoing at the time, it doesn't have that sweeping European feeling nor her old New Music pop. It's another fun & quirky little technopop piece.
Started this Happy List with one funky song...gonna end it with another. Man, I must secretly crave to strut along the sidewalk somewhere. Sing Like Talking's"Together" is absolutely virtuoso. It's got the funk but it also has some jazz connections with Django Reinhardt's"Dinah" and just that feeling of a really hot jam session. There is that one concert performance of the song on YouTube and the joint is jumping but I can imagine it even hotter with a lot more dancing on stage. Another great song to drive the blues away.
There are probably loads more happy songs that I have failed to remember but I'm satisfied with this lot. Hope you are, too.
Today I'm still recovering a bit from writing Part 1on Yu Aku's（阿久悠）body of work (Part 2 to come perhaps sometime during the weekend...I hope) and then there is the new pile of translations to complete. So I decided to keep things rather light tonight.
Actually, I was happy to get my newest 3 CDs in the mail this morning, so I got the BEST of Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）and Yukiko Okada（岡田有希子）and a rare album by this relatively obscure chanteuse by the name of Keiko Kimura（木村恵子）. Speaking of which, I also decided to give another listen to another singer who didn't quite make superstardom but has quite the nice voice, singer-songwriter Kyoko Endo（遠藤京子）. I listened to that BEST CD of hers which I got several months ago and again noted her willingness to cut a wide swathe through the genres from jazz to City Pop.
Well, I saw her debut album of December 1981, "Operetta" and the tracks on it. One was the peppy "Kokuhaku Telephone"（告白テレフォン）, her debut single from the same year that I've already profiled, but then I saw this other track's title, "Koi no Nikki"(The Diary of Love). My memory was instantly jogged to another song with the same title and went "Hmm...could it be...?" I listened to it and confirmed that it was the cover of the Neil Sedaka original, "The Diary" from 1958.
The reason I knew was that I had covered this exact song when vocal group Hi-Fi Set did its own Japanese cover back in the late 70s. I loved their jazzy interpretation and I also like Endo's own jazzy version. However unlike Hi-Fi Set's longer and more clubby take on Sedaka, Endo performs "Koi no Nikki" in the original English and it sounds more like a dreamier lullaby. Her English is not native but I was still impressed with the fact that this pop singer went for a straight jazz ballad in her first album and did well with it. I've always liked singers who could try different genres, and perhaps I might actually get one of Endo's studio albums one of these days, including "Operetta".
It's a quotation I've heard countless times over the years and yet I didn't finally find out the source behind it until just a few minutes ago. Apparently, it was made by English playwright and poet William Congreve for the 1697 play, "The Mourning Bridge".
Scoot ahead almost 300 years and go half a world away. I wonder if Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）had been thinking about this quote when he wrote and composed "Kowarekake no Radio"(Broken-Down Radio) as his 10th single for release in July 1990. His lyrics relate his longing to hear the sounds of his old black radio again, the first one that he had ever bought, just to get away from the troubles of the day. The music also has that longing for a more innocent time while Tokunaga's angelic vocals sound even more plaintive than usual because of the lyrical content.
"Kowarekake no Radio" is even more poignant now than when it was first released since I'm not sure whether people listen to radio for actual music anymore. I think it's more for listening to talk or shock or news while most folks can create their own personal radio station through downloads. I was definitely a heavy-duty radio listener back in the 1980s due to my own awakening to music on both sides of the Pacific. I listened to "Sounds of Japan" and dance music remixes on Saturday nights, while going through the dial on weekdays to discover any appealing melodies as well as the Top 10 tunes. My silver SONY was a good companion during the all-nighters in high school and university.
Anyways, getting back to the point at hand..."Kowarekake no Radio" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and became the 23rd-ranked song for 1990. Although Tokunaga hadn't been invited to the Kohaku that year, he was brought on twice in 2006 and 2009 to sing that particular ballad. It was also used as the main theme for a TBS drama called "Tokai no Mori"（都会の森...Forest of the City）.
The trigger for me to talk about one of Tokunaga's most famous hits is that I was watching NHK's morning variety show "Asaichi"（あさイチ...Morning Market）and found out that the broadcaster is celebrating 90 years. Of course, its origins are from radio. Sometimes, I wish "Sounds of Japan" could come back although I know that Internet radio has plenty of J-Pop out there already. There's something about an actual human behind the selection of the tracks that makes things a lot more personable.
November 5th 2018: I've been watching the anime "Akanesasu Shoujo"（あかねさす少女...The Girl In Twilight） which is this intriguing-if-not-totally successful combination of alternate universe sci-fi, adventure and comedy. "Kowarekake no Radio" is covered here by Hokkaido-born singer Ami Wajima（和島あみ）. This was released as her 3rd single in October this year and has peaked at No. 140 on Oricon.
To me, songs by Yujiro Ishihara (石原裕次郎) have this very soothing and mellow quality to them, and his deep, silky vocals are welcoming. Imagine being greeted by such a voice on a rainy night as you step into one of those softly lit jazz bars for a drink after a day at work... It would just melt all that stress away, and "Kimagure Dori wa Tasogare te" would be a nice tune to listen to after you've settled down and have your drink in hand.
I managed to find "Kimagure Dori wa Tasogare te" while in the mood for something from Tough Guy's repertoire. So I just randomly picked out a couple of them, the first being his rendition of "One rainy night in Tokyo" (ワン・レイニー・ナイト・イン・トーキョ), a Mood Kayo classic that's been sung by Fubuki Koshiji (越路吹雪), Hiroshi Wada and Mahina Stars (和田弘とマヒナスターズ) and Sachiko Nishida (西田佐知子). Next came "Kimagure Dori wa Tasogare te", and I expected to have the same feel as the former, slow in pace, jazzy, something I've associated Ishihara's songs with. So it surprised me for being quite jaunty, in fact, it sounded slightly cabaret with the background singers chiming in during the musical interludes. There was still a Mood Kayo touch to it with the blare of the trumpets though. Both songs didn't disappoint me, however, I currently find myself preferring the latter.
"Kimagure Dori wa Tasogare te" didn't seem to be one of Ishihara's hits so searching for its release date wasn't as easy as I'd thought it'd be. For one, I had to make sure that it wasn't a cover since Tough Guy was known to do so... in total he had covered 200 songs. With that done, it was time to check out the list of original tracks he had sung over his 31 year career... 350, includes both singles and those released in albums. Eventually, after sifting through about 20 years of his works, I found it. "Kimagure Dori wa Tasogare te" was released in September 1978, and according to the J-Wiki, it wasn't an official single, so I think it only came out in one of his albums back then. It can also be found some of his postmortem compilation albums, like "Towa no utagoe Ishihara Yujiro no Subete Vol.14" (永遠の歌声 石原裕次郎のすべて Vol.14) that was released in 2004.
The song was written by Norihiko Sugi (杉紀彦), who had also penned the lyrics for most of Tough Guy's tracks from 1978, and its music was done by renowned composer Masaaki Hirao (平尾昌晃).
When I started the "Creator" category" for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I knew that I would eventually have to tackle the universe of Yu Aku（阿久悠）one of these days. When I did the first article of the category for prolific composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, I thought to myself that his profile would be quite an undertaking. Well, you can imagine how I feel about the most prolific lyricist in Japanese popular music history. The man wrote 5,000 tunes over a career that spanned over 40 years! And that is just one of his records (the achievement, not the vinyl disc).
To make things more difficult for me is that, as I've mentioned throughout certain articles in the blog, I've been more on the composer side of things than on the lyricist side. I never really paid all that much to the words of kayo kyoku since my understanding of the language at that time was not all that great. However, I figure that if I have this blog, I will have to make some sort of tribute, as inadequate as it will ultimately come out, since there is not a whole lot out there in English about the legendary Yu Aku. The above is a video showcasing a few of those thousands of songs that he wrote.
At the very least, I should give some background on the man himself. Aku was born Hiroyuki Fukada（深田公之）in 1937 on Awaji Island, a part of Hyogo Prefecture. After graduating from Meiji University's Department of Literature in the early 1960s, Fukada joined Senkousha（宣弘社）, a large advertising company, as a copywriter, a broadcast writer and a staffer helping in the production of commercials. Leaving Senkousha in 1966, he continued to work as a writer for music programs and started writing his own songs.
I'm not sure when Fukada took on his pen name of Yu Aku, but the derivation apparently came from a pair of kanji which read "akuyuu"（悪友）or "bad companion". Not sure if that was a reflection on his personal life...hopefully not.
According to J-Wiki, Aku's first song to be released was a B-side, "Monkey Dance", of The Spiders'debut single in May 1965, "Furi Furi"（フリフリ...Shake It）. But it wouldn't be until November 1967 that his career as a lyricist really got off the ground when his "Asa Made Matenai"（朝まで待てない...Can't Wait Til Morning） made it as an A-side of the debut single for another Group Sounds band "The Mops". A groovy (can't believe I said that in the 21st century) psychedelic piece, the lyrics go into how much a guy needs to see that girl again despite trying to forget about her:
Akirame suteta hazu na no ni Koi wa nemuri wo wasure saseru Yami ni mukatte, o-mae no na wo yobu Ima sugu aitai, asa made matenai Although I tried to give up The passion makes me forget about sleeping I face the darkness and call out your name I wanna see you now, can't wait til morning
I couldn't imagine that Aku actually wrote a song that sounded like something that would be played at Woodstock, but that was one of the main points about the lyricist. He wrote for virtually every genre that existed in Japanese pop music: enka, Mood Kayo, anime, folk, aidoru, novelty tunes...you name it. And he wrote for everyone from Sayuri Ishikawa to Sheena & The Rokkets.
As I write this, I'm still not sure about my approach. But basically what I think I'm gonna do is to take care of Aku in two parts. Part 1 will be on the big hits that I've enjoyed which have already been profiled here. I figure you, the readers, can just as easily go to the Labels section to the right and click "Yu Aku" to get a measure of the man's work but I also think that perhaps it would be nice to have a capsule form of some of those successes. Part 2 will be on the stuff that we can all discover together....namely the tunes that I don't know well or at all.
As I said, there's not much that I could find about Aku in English aside from a brief article on the English Wikipedia. I really wanted to know about how he had approached his songwriting. One thing that I did glean from an article about Sheena & The Rokkets is that he didn't always write about the happy-go-lucky stuff and that "...his lyrics are far removed from the bland “love and friendship” and “follow your dreams” platitudes of most contemporary J-pop."
Perhaps that may have been true, but Aku's words were then cloaked in very cheerful and uplifting melodies. One example was one of his masterpieces with Tsutsumi, "Mata Au Hi Made"（また逢う日まで）from 1971 for the late Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）. With that fanfare-like intro and exhorting vocals by Ozaki, I had assumed that the song was about a couple of buddies having a great time and then calling it a day until the next time. Ah, but in actuality, things were more bittersweet, lyrically speaking:
Mata au hi made mata aeru toki made Wakare no sono wake wa hanashitakunai Naze ka samishii dake Naze ka munashii dake Tagai ni kizu tsuki subete wo nakusu kara Until that day, until that time we meet again I don't want to talk about why we broke up Cause it's just sad Cause it's just futile We'll hurt each other and lose everything
Well, I gotta say that Ozaki was quite a bit more nice and succinct about romantic breakups than Dr. Phil. "Mata Au Hi Made" received Song of the Year plaudits at The Japan Record Awards that year, the first of five that would be credited to Aku...still an unbroken record.
1977 was a banner year for Aku. In the Oricon Top 100, 16 of his songs were right in there with Pink Lady at No. 1 for "Wanted" and at No. 95, Yukiko Shimizu's（清水由貴子）"Hotaru Zaka"（ほたる阪...Firefly Slope）. But then, in December of that year came another Aku-Pink Lady collaboration which became the touchstone song for me whenever I think of Mie and Kei, "UFO". To be honest, when I hear Aku's name, Pink Lady will always be my response in that association game. It just seemed that anything he wrote turned to gold with these ladies. This was the 4th Song of the Year for the lyricist.
Of course, with "UFO", it will be about Pink Lady's physical dynamism and the choreography. But Aku put in his own indictment of men in general:
Shinjirarenai koto bakari aru no Moshi kashitara moshi kashitara, so na no kashira Sore demo ii wa, chika goro sukoshi Chikyuu no otoko ni akita tokoro yo There are nothing but unbelievable things I wonder if...if it's true That's all right, if they're a little close by I'm fed up with Earth men
Man, things must have been pretty dire if Mie and Kei were willing to head off with E.T. and Yoda.
In that same 1977 Oricon Top 100, there was No. 19, Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）classic "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki"（津軽海峡・冬景色）by Aku and composer Takashi Miki（三木たかし）. It is a melancholy enka ballad about a woman heading up north via the Tsugaru Strait to Hokkaido after an end to a romance. Although it doesn't happen all the time, when I've gone through a bad incident, I have sometimes tended to focus a lot more on my surroundings as I head home or out somewhere...perhaps as a defensive tactic. Perhaps I might focus on the traffic or on that couple bickering some distance away. Perhaps that was Aku's approach to the lyrics as Ishikawa sang about that lone and lonely trip from Ueno Station to Aomori Station to the ferry:
Ueno hatsu no yakko ressha orita kara Aomori eki wa yuki no naka Kita e kaeru hito no mure wa dare mo mukuchi de Umi nari dake wo kiiteiru Watashi mo hitori renraku zen ni nori Kogoe souna kamome mitsume naiteimashita Aaa...tsugaru kaikyo fuyu geshiki Getting off the overnight train from Ueno Aomori Station is in the middle of snow The crowds of people heading north don't say anything I only hear the sounds of the sea I also get on the connecting ship alone Seeing the freezing seagulls, I cried Aah...the Tsugaru Strait in winter
One other thing about Aku's songwriting according to what I read in the J-Wiki article comes from a quote he left: "An impressive story is a long one, not short. A 3-minute song has the same impact as a 2-hour movie." Those two sentences may sound contradictory but they came from his experience not only from songwriting but probably also from his time as a copywriter....trying to size up the situation and the singer and then come up with those killer verses. He wanted to squeeze an entire story into those 3 minutes' worth of verses. There was quite a bit of drama in "Tsugaru Kaikyo", and maybe some time in the last few decades, perhaps a dramatization was actually done of the song.
Not to keep everything in the 70s, there was another fine Aku creation in the 80s as well. Namely, the very karaoke-friendly enka/Mood Kayo tune of "Izakaya"（居酒屋）from 1982. Considering the lyrics, Aku may have been channeling a lot of those movie flirtation scenes in the izakaya between a man and a woman:
M:Moshimo kirai denakattara nanka ippai nonde kure W:So ne, daburu no baabon wo enryo shinai deitadaku wa M:Namae kiku hodo yabo janai mashite mi nouebanashi nado W:So yo, tama tama izakaya de yoko ni suwattadake da mono M:If you don't mind, have a drink with me W:All right, I'll be more than happy to have a double bourbon on you M:I'm not so much of a boor to ask for your name, let alone your life story W:That's right. You're just somebody who sat beside me from time to time
A lot of teasing here and there at the bar but did something come out of this? Aku would have been the one to ask. However, Hiroshi Itsuki and Nana Kinomi（五木ひろし・木の実ナナ）pulled this one with the charm of any two thespians with good chemistry.
Obviously, not knowing anything about Yu Aku when I was a kid, the first Aku songs that I heard were probably by Pink Lady. Having said that, the first non-Pink Lady Aku song I heard was most likely the one that had me racing from my junior high school at the speed of a wave motion engine back home to watch one of the first anime that I've ever seen.
Yep, the iconic 1974 theme for "Uchuu Senkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）was given its heroic words by Aku as well. I remember when I was doing the prep work to write the blog article for one of anime's beloved programs popping my eyes when I saw it was indeed him who wrote up the song that started with "Farewell, Earth...". I've got that urge to salute even now.
Saraba, chikyuu yo Tabi datsu fune wa Uchuu senkan Yamato Uchuu no kanata, Isukandaru e Unmei seoi ima tobi tatsu Kanarazu koko e, kaette kuru to Te wo furu hito ni egao de kotae e Ginga wo hanare Isukandaru e Harubaru nozomu Uchuu senkan Yamato Farewell, Earth The ship beginning a voyage is Space cruiser Yamato Beyond space to Iscandar We're now off carrying the burden of destiny When we surely come home We'll answer with a smile to the waving people. Leaving the galaxy to Iscandar With a faint gleam of hope Space cruiser Yamato
The above translation is, by the way, a mix between my efforts and a translation from www.animelyrics.com. Many thanks to the site. Those lyrics pretty much summarize the story of the good ol' Yamato and her brave crew. Now, mind you, the first version of the song I heard in Canada was the one for the US dubbed version, "Star Blazers", but the same message was basically there. Still, after all these years, it's something to hear the original Japanese version. I just wonder what Aku could have done for "Star Trek".
Again, this isn't anywhere near a full analysis of Yu Aku...more just about some of the music that I've listened to for years that he had a hand in. And I still have Part 2 to consider as well. As for his approach to coming up with the lyrics for his 5000 songs, I'm sure that he wasn't the only one to be bittersweet or relay some particular vignette, but somehow, he just had that ability to couch those words to partially send a good chunk of those songs into kayo timelessness.
