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.
This was before I saw them on that fateful Music Station episode, before Miwa Yoshida（吉田美和）with that wide-as-the-Mississippi smile launched into "Ureshihazukashi Asagaeri"(うれしはずかし朝帰り) when I first started out on the JET Programme.
Believe it or not, Dreams Come True did have two prior singles before "Ureshihazukashi Asagaeri" started the band on their way to super success way into the 90s. Their debut single was "Anata ni Aitakutte" (Wanting To Meet You) which came out in March 1989, and listening to it, I don't think I would put it among their most popular hits (and it didn't get into the rankings) but the ingredients of DCT were there: Yoshida's boomer voice, that synth sound that seemed to come in from another country, and, even watching her performing the song, that neck jive.
"Anata ni Aitakutte" was also on their debut album"Dreams Come True" which was released on the same day as the single. That release got as high as No. 27 on Oricon and actually ended up as the 88th-ranked album for the year 1993! Talk about late bloomers! From an original output of 8000 albums, by June 1994, that first album sold 900,000 copies, going Double Platinum.
From such humble beginnings, dreams came true for Dreams Come True.
Had another anime-and-food outing with my friend today. It's hard to believe that the Winter 2017 season is approaching its end, especially since we've been enjoying more shows than we had expected this time around. It'll be a pity to see them go.
One of those shows has been "Gabriel Dropout" (ガヴリールドロップアウト) with the episodic hilarity involving two teen angels and two teen demons in the same high school. I've already written about the earworm opening theme "Gabriel Dropkick" (ガヴリールドロップキック) starring the seiyuu behind those 4 characters: Miyu Tomita（富田美憂）, Saori Onishi（大西沙織）, Naomi Ozora（大空直美）and Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）.
Well, they're also at it again with the ending theme "Hallelujah Essaim". I had to look up what essaim means, and apparently it is the French word for swarm. I'm not quite sure what the connection is, though.
Written by Ryuji Sakai（坂井竜二）and composed by Shingo Yamazaki（山崎真吾）, it wasn't quite the immediate earworm for me that "Gabriel Dropkick" was but it's grown on me gradually over the weeks. And it has that similar back-and-forth banter among the seiyuu while the rock and techno (a bit of chip tune, perhaps?) are blasting away. From what I could get from Sakai's lyrics, it sounds like I'm hearing how the girls really feel for each other despite all the over-the-top bickering in the episodes.
It's been a while since I've posted anything by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra（東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ）so I've forgotten how much these guys can swing. Time to rectify that matter.
So I offer you "Utsukushiku Moeru Mori" (The Beautifully Flaming Woods) which is TSPO's 22nd single from February 2002. Written by saxophonist Atsushi Yanaka（谷中敦）and composed by bassist Tsuyoshi Kawakami（川上つよし）, I'm not sure what the title and the lyrics are quite talking about but I can't deny the kakkoii bounciness of the beat. Plus, they get some smoothly raspy (a weird description, I know) vocals from singer-songwriter Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）from Unicorn. The ska beat is indeed in there but there is also a good dollop of pop to keep things nice and mellow. I like the video as well...nothing too fancy; just all of the performers showing off what they do best.
"Utsukushiku Moeru Mori" went as high as No. 4 on Oricon and ended 2002 ranked at No. 60 going Gold. The single also made it onto the Orchestra's 9th album"Stompin' On DOWN BEAT ALLEY" from May 2002 which hit No. 1 and became the 42nd-ranked album of the year. Pretty nice way to finish a Saturday night.
Bringing in a bit more summer to you through this song and the commercial that it will eternally be attached to. Yoshiko Miyazaki（宮崎美子）is a veteran actress and tarento who I've seen as this very smiley and kindly presence on the various shows she's appeared on. However, her default image will always be the one she presented on a Minolta commercial way back in 1980 while in her early 20s. It's the one where she stripped off her T-shirt and jeans to reveal her buxom figure in a blue bikini. It's often the case that when she appears on a variety show, that particular commercial will be shown.
Of course, there is that campaign song which came with the ad titled "Ima no Kimi wa Pikapika ni Hikatte" (You Are Now Sparkling) by singer-songwriter Tetsuo Saito（斉藤哲夫）. Categorized as a folk and New Music singer, Saito's June 1980 single though has much more of a mainstream summery pop feel to it. Written by Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里）and composed by Keiichi Suzuki（鈴木慶一）of The Moonriders, the singer delivers this hit as if he were just strumming away at his guitar while sitting by a palm tree and admiring Miss Miyazaki from afar.
I think the song and commercial are pretty much tied at the hip now and forever since whenever I see the latter, I will always hear the former. "Ima no Kima wa Pikapika ni Hikatte" peaked at No. 9 on Oricon.
At this point, I think I have two albums by the velvety-voiced Asako Toki（土岐麻子）, one of them being in the shot above. Still love that cover design for her 2011 "Light" album which is a BEST collection for the Tokyo-born singer.
She may have been born in The Big Sushi but for my own reasons, I've seen her as a Chiba lass. I remember seeing her for the first time on TV doing her version of YMO's classic "Kimi ni Mune Kyun"（君に、胸キュン）which got my curiosity. Then one time I was in the Tsudanuma district of Narashino City, Chiba Prefecture, not too far away from Chiba City since I usually taught my English circle there on Tuesday mornings. I had a few hours of time to kill before my next lesson in Tokyo so I had lunch in one of the commercial complexes in the area which included a CD shop. It just so happened that "Light" was on sale there and so the CD was playing on the speakers. As I said, I did love that 80s-looking cover and the music was quite nice so I picked it up right then and there. "Light" has been one of the touchstones that has helped me remember that shop and Tsudanuma in general.
This article would be the 6th Asako Toki entry on the blog, so 5 of them are from this album: "Komugi Iro no Mermaid"（小麦色のマーメイド）, "Gift", "I-ke-na-i Rouge Magic" (い・け・な・いルージュマジック), a cover of Michael Jackson's"Human Nature", and this one, "Summer Nude". A nice glass of smooth sherry of a song, it's got that lovely laidback and tropical feeling to go with those wonderful Toki vocals. I'd say enjoy that glass while swinging in the hammock. It might be cold out there wherever you are; put this on the player...you'll warm up. All kidding aside, the first time Toki sang this one was on her 2008 album"Summerin'".
What I didn't know was that "Summer Nude" was a Toki cover of a song that had been originally performed by a rock and soul group Magokoro Brothers（真心ブラザーズ）. I did hear of the name but never experienced their music before. And what a pity that is. Because I was really impressed by the original version of "Summer Nude".
Released in April 1995 as their 12th single, "Summer Nude" is a funky and jazzy delight by Magokoro Brothers that reminded me of another group which was quite popular around that time, Original Love. Love the horns! It may have only gone up to No. 81 on the charts but let's say that this wonderful song can be our own little secret. Once again, that analogy of some wonderful stuff in the underwater 90% of that J-Pop iceberg is coming into play.
"Summer Nude" was created by Magokoro Brothers, Hidetoshi Sakurai（桜井秀俊）and Yoichi "YO-KING" Kuramochi（倉持陽一）. The two first met in the late 1980s while students at Waseda University with Sakurai in the Faculty of Law and Kuramochi in the Faculty of Education. Their first single, "Umi" (うみ...Sea) was released in September 1989. "Summer Nude" was first included in an album through their 2nd BEST compilation, "B.A.D.(Bigger and Deffer) 〜MB's Single Collection" in June 1997. That album peaked at No. 10.
Bird released her rapid-fire version of "Summer Nude" as her 23rd and final single to date in July 2008. I'll have to be honest, though, and say that this was not quite up to the level of the ones by Toki and Magokoro Brothers and not even up to Bird's early wonderful material.
The Brothers came up with an improved version of their own masterpiece: "Endless Summer Nude" in 1997.
Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you folks since as the saying goes, on March 17th, everyone is Irish! And because I'm not a big drinker and I only observe the goings-on of St. Patrick's Day from the comfort of a TV screen, I thought maybe I could pay some tribute to the holiday via the blog. So I searched for a kayo kyoku with the word midori or green in the title.
It didn't take too much effort at all. I punched in the relevant kanji into the Yahoo Japan search engine, and the first few replies all pointed to this song "Midori no Chiheisen" (Green Horizon) which was originally sung by the late singer Shigeo Kusunoki（楠木繁夫）.
Released in October 1935, it's a pretty lively number created by Sonosuke Sato（佐藤惣之助）and Masao Koga（古賀政男）about what I think is the relating of a tearful parting. I envision the man having to leave either a lover or a family via ship heading for places unknown. Considering how jaunty Koga's melody is compared to the sad lyrics by Sato, I can place it as one of those "smiling through the tears" kayo.
Becoming Kusunoki's most successful single, "Midori no Chiheisen" was used as the theme song for a movie of the same name which was also released in October 1935. However, due to wartime damage, the movie itself went permanently missing with only the song as the one surviving memento (aside from some stills) although the story was also adapted into a TV drama in 1962.
The song has continued to survive through covers by some of the most famous enka singers such as Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）.
Naomi Chiaki (ちあきなおみ) performed her version in front of a grand orchestra.
And I would also like to include Eisaku Ohkawa（大川栄策）.
As for Kusunoki, he was born Susumu Kuroda（黒田進）in 1904 in Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku Island. In junior high school, he wanted to become a musician so against his father's opposition, he moved up to Tokyo and entered what is now Tokyo University of the Arts in 1924 and started singing professionally a few years later.
Now this is where things get interesting in that Kuroda would end up using 55 stage names for himself. Apparently, according to the J-Wiki article, it wasn't all that unusual for celebrities to use a variety of stage names but I think Kuroda most likely took the proverbial cake. For those who want to see this amazing list of aliases and perhaps get some practice in reading Japanese names, you can check out the article and look at the right side under the man's photo beside the kanji 「別名」. I think even Jason Bourne would have to bow down in awe.
Under his name of Kusunoki, the singer released about 250 records but including all of his names, that number has been said to approach 800. All of the above information came from an article about the singer in an April 1997 issue of the Kobe Shinbun.
On another one of my YouTube browsings, I encountered another Yung Bae video which brings together all that Vaporwave or Future Funk to a really sparkly song that goes well with all of those images of planes. Well, I mean that lyric "Fly away" helps out, too. Plus, with that cheerful synthesizer that sounds like a horn section arranged by 60s music whiz DeVol, it really kinda makes me want to take off to Japan again...and I've not liked air travel in a long time. In a way, I guess it really gets me into that aesthetics mood....or perhaps I should say A E S T H E T I C S!
The song hooked me but I had to dig deep to find out what the original title was and who the original singer was. There was no mention of either for the top video so I had to go with what lyrics I could hear and understand. Well, a few tries through the Yahoo Japan search engine finally got me the answer I needed. And I was somewhat gobsmacked.
It wasn't any sort of City Pop or any late 1980s champagne synth-imbued urban contemporary tune but merely an opening theme to a 1988 anime. The anime in question was titled in Japanese as "Don Don Domeru to Ron" (どんどんドメルとロン) based on the original French-Belgian comic series "Cubitus" with the anime being broadcast to the United States under the title "Wowser".
And before I forget, the title of the flashy opening theme is "Fly Away ~ Yume no Hikouki" (Plane of Your Dreams) by veteran singer Mitsuko Horie（堀江美都子）. I've heard her name bandied about in the anime and tokusatsu fields for years but I had no idea that she has been around for such a long time. Born in 1957, she started out as a singer in 1969 and then took on a second gig as a seiyuu which has been going on since 1978.
My impression is that "Fly Away" is to "Don Don Domeru to Ron" as that iconic theme by Hoyt Curtin is to "The Jetsons". Mind you, I think "The Jetsons" has the longer legacy but my point is that "Fly Away" just adds some extra warp drive to the launch of the show every week. As I intimated at the top, I had assumed that this was some sort of paean to all things City Pop, especially with that title.
