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.
All I can say here is "What a difference 16 years make!".
My only knowledge of Michiyo Azusa（梓みちよ）had been for her recording of the adorable kayo classic "Konnichiwa Aka-chan" (こんにちは赤ちゃん）back in 1963 when she was around 20 years of age. Then earlier today, I found this video of this song titled "Yoroshikattara"(If It's OK With You) by Azusa, released in September 1979 when she was in her mid-30s.
It's definitely not for babies. Recorded as a commercial song for Partner Cigarettes, Azusa takes on vocals reminiscent of those for Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）in character as the done-it-all, seen-it-all woman who doesn't suffer fools gladly. However, she adds on a further layer of what seems rather chanson-like; the accordion that comes in and out adds to that Frenchness.
Categorizing "Yoroshikattara" was intriguing since it felt like a somewhat updated Mood Kayo with some fast horns and bass, so that there was an additional tone of City Pop. I've always thought that City Pop was not exactly a son of Mood Kayo but more of a with-it nephew. Kudos to composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）while Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）, who has provided sultry lyrics to the aforementioned Yamaguchi's later hits, weaves a tale of high living and loving, and perhaps a hint that she can handle both men and women. Of course, since this was for Partner Cigarettes, the lyrics even have that actual word sewn in there, too. "Yoroshikattara" made it all the way to No. 30 on the charts.
It was an exciting time for me once the 1980s came in. With my trip to Japan in 1981 finally opening my ears and eyes up to music as an enthusiast...on both sides of the Pacific...the genres flowed right in. Two of the genres that hit me immediately were New Wave and technopop. Of course, at that time in my youth, Yellow Magic Orchestra was the band for the latter genre on the Japan side of things, although in Canada and the United States, the computer music was also getting my attention here, too, with acts such as Gary Numan and The Human League. At the same time, New Wave had gotten my attention with bands such as Blondie but also from Japan via Plastics. Quite heady bands, they were.
But I've been having to play catch-up over the past several years, and this blog has been helping out since it has inspired me to search through the long history of Japanese pop music. Some digging was needed, and I've realized that though YMO was the most visible of these way-out bands, there were other acts that should have gotten my attention. Plastics did get some of that, but now I've discovered this other group whose members had started their musical career as a progressive rock band called Mandrake only for the vocalist/guitarist Susumu Hirasawa（平沢進）to become disillusioned over its direction into commercialism, according to this Wikipedia article.
However, Hirasawa got his mojo back, so to speak, through witnessing the advent of punk music and then being introduced to the New Wave-loving Nylon 100% cafe/live house based in Shibuya, Tokyo. The band underwent a dramatic metamorphosis and emerged as P-Model, a New Wave/synthpop band born on New Year's Day 1979. Strangely enough, this was a group whose name I'd heard in the wind over the years but never knew what they were about until very recently.
Although it looks like the lineup has changed over a number of times, Hirasawa has been the one constant axis. Several months into the summer of 1979, P-Model released their first single, "Art Mania", created by Hirasawa, in July. The Japanese title was the far longer "Bijutsukan de Atta Hito darou" (美術館で会った人だろ...You're the One I Met at The Museum). Their first album came out the next month titled "In A Model Room".
With YMO, I've learned that initially at least, the technopop there was all about giving tributes through older genres such as surf music and exotica through the filter of synthesizers. But with P-Model, it was definitely embracing the New Wave. As soon as I heard "Art Mania", which is about a visitor to a museum getting rather hung up on another fellow art lover, memories of Plastics washed through me once more along with the weird and exciting music videos that I had seen as a kid sneaking in some midnight viewing through local Toronto programming such as "The All-Night Show" and "City Limits". I can hear Devo, Plastics and Blondie, and wonder whether Japanese outfits such as Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）and POLYSICS had gotten some inspiration from P-Model. All hail the spiky haircuts and loud plaid tight pants!
I mean, the music is as spiky and frantic as a punk rocker (although the band members had pretty conventional haircuts [very nice conditioner, it seems like] in the videos), and the arrangement seems to represent the transition from punk into New Wave with that thrash of the guitar and the tinkly synths that remind me of early video game music. Still, the relentless pinball-bumping music may have gotten folks into a slam-dancing mood. At this point, I may ask my old friend and fellow music connoisseur about his thoughts on "Art Mania".
I've been checking the pageviews over the past week and it looks like the winner has been the opening theme for this season's anime "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~ Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen"（かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜）, "Love Dramatic"（ラブ・ドラマティック）.
So, all I can say to the main singer is:
Congratulations, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. You are now the proud father of an earworm! Please feel free to get your sunglasses at night by the door.
I've been checking out for any comments on "Love Dramatic" online and most of them have been very positive about the song. The other thing that I've found is that a number of folks have only discovered Martin just in the past few weeks because of the theme song.
So although I was already thinking about doing this first BEST article for 2019 since I discovered that Suzuki did provide his first anison, the comments that I saw over the past few days have pretty much cemented my decision. Therefore, without further ado, I introduce the second of his BEST compilations, "MARTINI II" released in October 1995.
1. Wakare no Machi (1995 acapella version)（別れの街） 2. Koibito（恋人） 3. Mou Namida wa Iranai（もう涙はいらない） 4. Sayonara Itoshi no Baby Blues（さよならいとしのBaby Blues） 5. Chigau, Sou Janai（違う、そうじゃない） 6. Adam na Yoru（アダムな夜） 7. Midnight Traveler 8. Liberty 9. Come On In 10. Shibuya de Go-ji（渋谷で5時） 11. Ai no Okite（愛の掟） 12. Glass Goshi ni Kieta Natsu 1995（ガラス越しに消えた夏1995） 13. Yume no Mata Yume（夢のまた夢 (1995 Remix Version)）
As you can see above, about half of the songs have already been spoken for through past articles, so feel free to link on those. Let's go on with the ones that I have yet to cover starting with the smoky "Sayonara Itoshi no Baby Blues" (Farewell, My Beloved Baby Blues), a track from Suzuki's 5th album,"Fair Affair" from 1992. A whisky-on-the-rocks-worthy soul & blues song about a love gone wrong, the aforementioned drink would be one of the libations needed at that bar with a sympathetic mixologist.
Martin's recording of "Sayonara Itoshi no Baby Blues" was actually a cover of the original song by singer-songwriter Hideki Andoh（安藤秀樹）which was his 17th single from December 1991. The concert video above has all of Martin, Andoh and Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）from Sing Like Talking performing the song, although I think the evening is probably the ideal setting instead of what looked like the afternoon in the video.
(karaoke version)
"Adam na Yoru" is interesting enough just for the title. If I were to translate it as "Adam's Night", perhaps the Japanese would be "Adam no Yoru"（アダムの夜）, but with that "na"（な）in there, maybe it's "An Adam-esque Night"?
In any case, Martin's 20th single from February 1995 was written and composed by the songwriting couple Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子）, who were behind a lot of Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）later hits in the late 1970s, and though it sounds like the perfect tune to hear while prepping up for a banner night out in Tokyo, Aki's lyrics actually portray a scene right from the "Penny for your thoughts?" moment following a tryst in some bedroom. Looks like Adam and Eve took a huge bite out of that apple.
"Adam na Yoru" was also the theme song for a TBS drama titled "Watashi, Mikata desu"（私、味方です...I'm A Friend）which was televised between January and March of 1995. It peaked at No. 17 on Oricon. Do love those horns. Heck, I think it would be great listening on the car stereo while driving through West Shinjuku.
"Liberty" was actually Suzuki's 3rd single from March 1987 but it has been included here in "MARTINI II". Written and composed by the great Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）with AKI, it's a gospel-influenced tune performed in English, and Yoshida provides some of the background vocals. Peaking at No. 64, "Liberty" also made it onto his 4th album "mood" from 1990.
Martin can really rock those suits, can't he? "Midnight Traveler" was his 17th single from October 1993. It basically has the same flavour as the aforementioned "Adam na Yoru" through Yoshiyuki Osawa's（大沢誉志幸）melody but Kitsuma Ohshita's（大下きつま）lyrics provide more mystery in the story of two lovers on a journey for parts unknown, perhaps unable to come back. I already talked about "Midnight Traveler" through its album "Perfume" but my write-up doesn't have the full version that is right above this paragraph.
In 1991, Suzuki and 80s pop mainstay Paul Young got together as a duet to sing Sam & Dave's 1969 "Come On In" for a bit of that old-time soul. Originally written by Isaac Hayes and composed by David Porter, the Suzuki/Young single got as high as No. 79 and was also included on "mood".
The final track on "MARTINI II" is "Yume no Mata Yume", which I can think can be translated as "Dreams On Dreams". As much as "Liberty" sounds like a Minako Yoshida creation, "Yume no Mata Yume" feels like Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and the way that he made his songs back in the early 1990s (and he's in the background vocals as well). And yep, it was written and composed by the Off Course（オフコース）singer as Suzuki's 19th single for release in October 1994. In a way, Oda's lyrics can almost describe the tensions in "Kaguya-sama". Peaking at No. 17, it is included in his 7th album"She・See・Sea"which came out in the same month.
"MARTINI II" hit No. 1 and ranked in at No. 27 on the Oricon yearly charts. It also hung in there for 1996 at No. 68. I will have to do another BEST for Martin's immediate predecessor, "MARTINI", since there are some great tunes in there, too but perhaps next month. So until "Love Dramatic" gets out officially on February 27th, you can do a bit of exploration here and on some of the other Martin songs.
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.
When I was translating a lot of small travel articles for a company over a few years previously, I encountered a term called shinrin-yoku（森林浴）. It translates as "forest bathing", and of course initially, yours truly had a few seconds of rather suspicious lewd thoughts until I found out that the concept actually refers to "forest therapy". Now shinrin-yoku has been said to provide health benefits just by folks simply existing among the trees, whether they be deciduous, coniferous or bamboo.
Seeing the cover of Mioko Yamaguchi's（山口美央子）latest album,her first in 35 years, "Tokisakashima" (you can take a look at the article for the title track to find out the derivation of the title), reading about the overall sound and themes in the album, and then finally listening to the songs themselves, I kinda felt that there was a shinrin-yoku effect being effected on me. Given general release a few weeks ago in January, I got my copy from The Logic Store a few days ago and have listened to it twice.
As I've mentioned, I've already written about the title track. I'm sure that more insights will come to me as I listen to "Tokisakashima" further but my overall reaction is that Yamaguchi's 4th original album is something to be savored on a cool spring/autumn day. The singer-songwriter herself has provided her own liner notes, and she has said that "Tokisakashima" is actually a sequel of sorts to her 3rd album"Tsukihime"（月姫）from all the way back in 1983. I can certainly agree with her assessment, because as I stated in the article for the title track, her voice hasn't really changed at all in those 35 years, and there is that dreamscape feeling in this album that was suffused in "Tsukihime". However, this time, there is also some of that joviality added that I heard in her first two albums "Yume Hiko"（夢飛行）and "Nirvana". Indeed, some form of synthesis has been achieved.
Unfortunately, the first track is not available on YouTube but "Seirei no Mori"（精霊の森...Spirit Woods）is the representative song for that shinrin-yoku effect. It has a very calming feel for listeners although it does abruptly go into some musical action as if it were reflecting the sudden darting of deer through the woods. I had to check the track and time to make sure that this was still the same song. Yamaguchi herself noted in the album that she truly realized the power of life through a group of woods that she now lives close to.
I could only find two more new tracks (all tracks were written and composed by the singer) dedicated to "Tokisakashima" at the time of writing but both are very interesting. "Koi wa Karageshi Natsu no Yoi / Ton-Ten-Syan"（恋はからげし夏の宵 / Ton-Ten-Syan...Love is Embers of a Summer Evening）, according to Yamaguchi, is based on a kabuki story and features Japanese instruments that have also popped up in songs such as "Satemo Appare Yume Zakura"（さても天晴れ 夢桜）and "O-Matsuri"（お祭り）from that debut album "Yume Hiko". Starting with those instruments, the song has an adventurous spirit, definitely based in Japan, but also has some nice grounding with those synthesizers making out as low strings. An odyssey is afoot here. Incidentally, if anyone from Logic Store can confirm my English translation of the title, that would be much appreciated.
"Ikoku Choucho"（異国蝶々...Butterfly from a Foreign Land）also starts out with that Japanesque feeling but then it just bursts into a frenetic technopop-ska beat that kinda made me want to bop my head around. There is a joint collaboration of the elegant melody punctuated by the ska and even a few computer bleeps here and there. Yamaguchi points out that the song is based on "Madame Butterfly", but looking at the lyrics, I also thought that they could have been referring to the increasing number of international marriages in Japan.
Contrasting with the natural therapy of the eight tracks of "Tokisakashima", there is the final 9th track which is actually Yamaguchi's original 2nd single, "Tokyo Lover"（東京LOVER）from 1981. The album version is on "Yume Hiko" but unlike the happy technopop there, the original single version, arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, has got a light City Pop touch along the lines of Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and EPO of the early 1980s, thanks in part to some gorgeous brassy horns. I gotta admit that though I like both versions, those horns have rather dragged me to the single version's side.
Anyways, thanks to Jazm for giving me the nudge on "Tokisakashima" and to Toshi for sending over the album from the Logic Store!
The only time up to now that I've written a Junko Mihara（三原じゅん子）song was all the way back in July 2012 for "Honki de Love Me Good"（ホンキでLove Me Good）which got Mihara her one and only appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen on New Year's Eve 1982. To be honest, it was the only Mihara song that I got to know.
(7:42)
In that article for "Honki de Love Me Good", I noted that at the time Mihara had been trying to get elected to Japan's House of Councillors. Well, the now-former singer/actress did get voted in and since then, she's apparently held a number of positions including one as Acting Director of the Public Speeches Division in the Liberal Democratic Party.
However, let's return to her music days, shall we? Although I hadn't been totally floored by Mihara's appearance on the Shibuya stage at the Kohaku (albeit she sounded as if she had a menagerie's worth of butterflies in her stomach), I was curious about what else she had recorded in the early 1980s. I found one song from her 1983 studio album"Windy City ~ Junko in Chicago" titled "Silky Rain".
Her voice sounds quite a bit steadier here, and I like "Silky Rain" for its mix of urban contemporary and a bit of dramatic pop/rock. One observation that I've had is that she seemed to have a slightly breathier and deeper version of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）voice back then, and I have to admit that the arrangement of "Silky Rain" is pretty reminiscent of what Nakamori was also singing in those early days of her career. Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）was responsible for the music while Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）took care of the lyrics. I'm now interested in getting the album just for that cover of her and Chicago alone.
My discovery of "Silky Rain" was thanks to hearing it on Van Paugam's City Pop Radio last night. As most of you City Pop fans have already found out, his entire YouTube channel was terminated outright sometime in the last 24 hours which is a pity. Although I wasn't totally surprised that the radio was taken out (even VP hinted that the end may have been near), I was taken aback that the entire channel was wiped out since there was at least one video of his on the history of City Pop that I thought was quite educational. It's too bad that people will no longer be able to see that and it's even worse that the radio is now gone.
I went to Van Paugam's City Pop radio at least once a day and though I very rarely joined the streaming conversation, I did enjoy watching some of the banter that took place. The conversations didn't always involve City Pop or Japanese music per se but that was OK with me. It just seemed like an Internet version of a friendly and open club for people around the world to chat and enjoy each other's company. The club is now closed unfortunately, and though I can understand why JASRAC or other institutions would have said "Enough is enough", I only hope that they can relate to why a lot of us aren't too happy tonight. I ended up getting ideas to write articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and I even ended up getting albums because of what I found on the radio so I'm fairly sure that others have done the latter as well.
Still, I don't want to portray this as a elegy for Van Paugam because he does have other venues that he can use to spread the gospel of City Pop and he has done very well for himself through events and even media interviews. I wish him all the best and thank him for all he's done up to now.
I was watching the news this morning when the newscaster read out that two-thirds of Canadians had little interest in Valentine's Day. Perhaps I would have tut-tutted the information and gone onto a reinforced soapbox and exhorted "What is wrong about LOVE?!", but then again, when I'm frankly as romantic as a Vulcan after a successful Kolinahr ritual, I don't think that I really can earn that soapbox.
Anyways, I was still surprised to realize that I had never put out a Valentine's Day list of my own in the 7 years of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", although JTM did release his "Romantic 80s Playlist" back in 2014. Well, it is indeed Valentine's Day today, so allow me to give some of my choices for the Day of Love. There are of course tons of kayo/J-Pop...way too many, in fact, to even sate a comprehensive list of which this is certainly not. In point of truth, there are songs that are knocking me upside the head like a Gibbs' slap at this moment for not being included. So, all I can ask humbly is that if any of you folks have your own choice for an ideal J-Valentine's song, please inform me.
Incidentally, all of these already have their own articles so this is more of a summary.
Let's start with something nice and 70s and kayo-like by the adorable Megumi Asaoka（麻丘めぐみ）. "Watashi no Kare wa Hidarikiki"（わたしの彼は左きき）is a spritely and proud tune about the fact that one lady's Mr. Right is always on her left with the premise being that they are blissfully together and in love. Somehow, I've gotten the impression that is not so much a boyfriend-girlfriend situation but more of a just-married couple starting out on their life together.
Those opening notes from Anzen Chitai's（安全地帯）"Koi no Yokan"（恋の予感）are enough to get me all nostalgically moody. I don't think the song was ever meant to be recorded with Valentine's Day in mind but there's something about Koji Tamaki's（玉置浩二）delivery and the songwriting by him and Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）that makes this ballad ideal for an intimate dinner or a romantic walk in a park on February 14th (we are talking about Tokyo...not Toronto).
If I'm doing a Valentine's Day list of Japanese pop songs, then Sayuri Kokusho's（国生さゆり）"Valentine Kiss"（バレンタイン・キッス）has just got to be included. No exceptions! When compared with the mature themes of the above "Koi no Yokan", "Valentine Kiss" possesses the spirit of a 1950s novelty pop confection and the image of a junior high school girl nervously leaving homemade chocolates secretly in the school shoe box of a boy she likes. From personal experience, I hope that the lucky lad gets to the box early enough, lest those sugary creations end up smelling like feet! By the way, "Valentine Kiss" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and ended up as the 14th-ranked single of the year.
"Anniversary ~ Mugen ni Calling You"（無限にCALLING YOU...Eternally Calling You） is probably one of Yuming's（ユーミン）most heartfelt ballads about a bride ready to take the walk down the aisle, and she's absolutely sure of her life choice. I think that people in that situation would need to grab for a Kleenex when they hear this special single. Although I don't think that this particular song has made it up to my own Top Ten list of Yuming songs, "Anniversary" has most likely made it onto BEST lists by other fans.
"Zutto" was forever and always a love song that wafted through the air and inside the karaoke boxes and bars around that time. And it's the reason that Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）has stayed with me as one of the notable singers during my years in Gunma Prefecture on the JET Programme. Her plaintive "ZU-TTO, ZU-TTO, ne" strikes a nearly automatic Pavlovian response in listeners to start swaying from side to side.
Reimy（麗美）may not have become a huge superstar on the level of Yuming or Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）, but she still has gained a loyal cadre of fans including me for the lyrics and music that she created. "Marry Me" is one of my favourites as an intimate love letter of a ballad with a down-to-earth arrangement and a great guitar solo. Plus, of course, the title itself is an invitation for my list.
Kanchi! Ahhh...life and love in one of the biggest and most vivacious cities on Earth, and with a theme song that brings to mind a certain time and place. Poor wishy-washy Kanji Nagao in "Tokyo Love Story" had to make that difficult choice between the ever-lovable yet unpredictable force-of-nature Rika and the more down-to-earth Satomi, his old crush from high school in Ehime Prefecture. Not exactly an ideal Valentine situation but I still had to include "Love Story wa Totsuzen ni"（ラブ・ストーリーは突然にー）as a song of the season with oomph. The above video is a short clip of the song but at least, it actually has Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）singing one of his best songs.
I not only think that "I Love You" by the late Yutaka Ozaki（尾崎豊）is the song to be performed at a wedding reception but I could easily see it as the ideal proposal ballad. Plus, wouldn't it be something if the proposer sang it with a guitar bandied over his shoulder? An old friend of mine actually did just that when he popped on a Shinkansen from Tokyo to his girlfriend's home hundreds of kilometres away, although I don't know whether he sang this particular Ozaki ballad. But obviously since they did get happily married with kids, it was all good.
Anyways, this was just a sampling of some of my choices for a February 14th custom. Nothing happening here at home today but perhaps I will pick up a chocolate bar tomorrow.
