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.
Less than a day after putting up the article for Michiru Hoshino's（星野みちる）"Koi no Funfair"（恋のファンフェアー）which was composed by microstar's Seiki Sato（佐藤清喜）, in popped "Tomodachi ni Narou" (We'll Be Friends) on YouTube today.
A song from microstar's 2016 album"She Got The Blues", "Tomodachi ni Narou" stands out from its trackmates, the jazzy "Yuugure Girl"（夕暮れガール）and the disco "Tiny Spark" in that it sounds like a contemporary and bouncy Shibuya-kei entry which could adorn any Japanese romantic comedy soundtrack. Written and composed by Sato and vocalist Yuko Iizumi（飯泉裕子）, the lyrics are a cheerful reassurance that no one needs to be alone and a blossoming friendship is just around the corner if both parties are willing.
Certainly it's one of those songs that can keep the rain at bay. We here in Toronto could definitely use some shielding right now since we're due for some of the heavy stuff later tonight.
Fellow collaborator JTM just came back from a trip to Japan last week, so he was kind enough to allow me to show some photos of Tokyo. Here's one from the bayside Odaiba district with the famous Ferris wheel next to VenusFort.
So I assumed that this would be the ideal time and place to show off Michiru Hoshino's（星野みちる）"Koi no Funfair" (Funfair of Love) which was released as her 6th single from June 2014. At first, I had thought that it was "Koi no Fanfare" but the word fanfare is actually written in katakana as 「ファンファーレ」and not 「ファンフェアー」as in the title. Scuttlebutt says that a funfair is the British equivalent of a circus or carnival over here.
In any case, don't expect any of that organ carnival music here. "Koi no Fun Fair" seems to be a melodically loving tribute to good ol' disco. It would make for some fine background music while traipsing through the aforementioned Odaiba or even the famous amusement park Fuji-Q Highland in Yamanashi Prefecture. The music gets even more epic as "Koi no Fun Fair" goes along when the "Whoo~" backup vocals come sliding in. They give the song a further spacier feeling that makes me fantasize whether this could have been an ideal addition to a "Guardians of the Galaxy" soundtrack.
Speaking of the music, I've been associating the former AKB48 member with the groovy AOR duo of Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）because of her contribution to their album "Retroactive". However, with "Koi no Fun Fair", the music was provided by Seiki Sato（佐藤清喜）who is one-half of microstar (lyrics provided by Hajimu Hase/はせはじむ), and if you've heard his "Tiny Spark", he knows a thing or two of the dance music of the 1970s. So I'm happy to say that Hoshino has connections with a couple of fine bands that I was able to first discover last year.
"Koi no Funfair" was also placed on Hoshino's 2nd album from July of that year, "E・I・E・N VOYAGE" (Eternal Voyage). It didn't rank too highly, only getting up to No. 240 on the Oricon weeklies but just from listening to this one particular song, I'd be interested enough to give the album a listen.
I have started to realize why a lot of Momoko Kikuchi's（菊池桃子）songs from the 1980s have been featured as City Pop tunes on YouTube radio stations (still miss you, Van Paugam!). They just have that urban contemporary sheen to them. She may have been a high school kid at the time, but she was definitely walking through that concrete jungle.
One reason for this is that composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）has often woven those sweet downtown melodies for Kikuchi, and he's the same fellow who's come up with his own City Pop stuff since the 1970s and music for bands such as Omega Tribe in the following decade. He's also behind one of her singles in 1986, "Deja Vu", and although the arrangement takes things far enough into the aidoru genre that I can't really categorize it as a City Pop song, there is still that tinge of metropolitan life in there thanks to the synths.
"Deja Vu" is one of those songs by Kikuchi that I hadn't heard in years so the nostalgic pangs were heavy when I was re-acquainted with it once more. The late guitarist and lyricist Koichi Fujita（藤田浩一）was responsible for the words, and hearing the singer deliver them alongside the swiftly flowing music makes for a really nice combination that takes me back.
The song also made it onto her first BEST compilation released in December of that year, "Sotsugyo Kinen"（卒業記念...Graduation Memories）.
In the last few hours, I found out that the creator of "Lupin III"（ルパン三世）, Monkey Punch（モンキー・パンチ）, nee Kazuhiko Kato（加藤一彦...not to be mistaken for the singer-songwriter）, had passed away last week on April 11th at the age of 81. His name was trending on Twitter a few hours ago once the announcement came out, and no surprise, with all of the attractive panache and pizzazz that the devil-may-care Lupin and the surrounding colourful characters exuded. Plus, of course, there has been the iconic theme song and a lot of the other stylish tunes that have been associated with the movies.
Therefore as a tribute to Monkey Punch, I found this theme song for the 1979 Lupin III movie, "Cagliostro no Shiro"（カリオストロの城...The Castle of Cagliostro） which was directed by Hayao Miyazaki（宮崎駿）as his feature debut. Titled "Honoo no Takaramono" (Treasure of Passion), it was sung by singer BOBBY（ボビー）whose real name is Toshie Kihara*（木原敏恵）. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, it retains a bit of that jazzy Lupin flair but also possesses a goodly amount of exotic dreaminess in Ohno's melody. Overall, it also seems to try and get that air of a 007 theme song.
According to her J-Wiki profile, BOBBY started out as the vocalist of a hard rock bandBobby & Little Maggie（ボビー&リトルマギー）back in 1973. Releasing two singles in 1975, the band also held concerts throughout that year and 1976 until it broke up the following year. After that, BOBBY became the vocalist for Kazuo Takeda & All-Stars（竹田和夫&オールスターズ）. Since 1978, she has also been providing commercial jingles and television theme tunes. Although the source of her quote isn't available in the J-Wiki article, she apparently stated that in the past she had once assumed that all she needed to do was to just shout everything out but since then, she's come to realize that going with nuance or not while trying all sorts of things is also good. Certainly, her approach to "Honoo no Takaramono" was a fairly mellow one.
Almost 30 years later in 2008, Miki Imai（今井美樹）provided a cover of "Honoo no Takaramono" for a "Lupin III"OVA titled "Green vs. Red". Imai's cover has got more of a jazzy bossa vibe and so perhaps it might sound even more Lupinesque, so to speak.
In any case, I'm very sure that once I get up next morning, I will wake up to a elegy of sorts on NHK News for Monkey Punch.
*敏恵has a few readings but decided to go with "Toshie".
NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was back at its new slot of 8:30 pm Tuesday nights on TV Japan. The theme for this episode and next week will be those famous Heisei Era hits before the nation enters the minty-fresh age of Reiwa.
In the meantime, though, I want to take things back a tad. I was attracted to this 1993 performance of a song called "Kitakami Yakyoku" (Kitakami Nocturne) by venerable vocal group Dark Ducks（ダークダックス）. For the lack of a better phrase, I think that this is a wonderfully mournful ballad of remembrances of love lost somewhere in the Tohoku region of Japan. I've never been to the northeastern part of the island of Honshu but my images of certain cities there involve foggy nights lit romantically by 19th-century-style street lamps overlooking quiet canals, and so I can imagine a lonely fellow revisiting that particular area reminiscing over happier times.
Dark Ducks recorded "Kitakami Yakyoku" originally back in 1961 and this was also the case for the famed Mood Kayo group Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）as a duet with singer Yukiko Tama（多摩幸子）in the same year. As usual, that Mahina Stars' steel guitar is in there along with their distinctive harmonies.
Norimi Kikuchi（菊地規）was the lyricist with Mutsuo Ando（安藤睦夫）composing the melody. "Kitakami Yakyoku" was a big hit for both groups according to a book on Dark Ducks, "Nihon no Utsukushii Uta ~ Dark Ducks no Hanseiki"（日本の美しい歌―ダークダックスの半世紀...Japan's Beautiful Songs ~ Dark Ducks' Half-Century）, and in fact, the group performed the song for their 4th appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen that same year. Incidentally, they appeared on the Kohaku a total of 15 times between 1958 and 1976.
Yukiko Tama is a Tokyo native who made her debut in 1958 right after her graduation from the Toho College of Music. Although she had initially retired in 1966 due to marriage, she apparently resumed her singing career some years later.
"Kitakami Yakyoku" has been covered by a number of singers but one other singer that caught my attention with her cover of the song is Yukiko Noji（野路由紀子）. She does have a J-Wiki entry identifying her as a singer but for some reason, there is no discography although there is a list of TV programs that she has appeared on, and apparently, she even made appearances on a couple of dramas. As the eldest daughter of a fishmonger in Fukui Prefecture, she had long admired Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）which sparked her interest in becoming a singer.
Noji made her debut in 1971, and in 1972, she released an album "Kita Shinano Zesshou"（北信濃絶唱...Superb Songs of Northern Shinano） which includes her version of "Kitakami Yakyoku". Her take on the song is a bit more wistful, innocent and folksy. Although I think this version sounds like something between folk and kayo, Noji's vocals strike me as being quite enka-like.
Exactly two months ago, I did a BEST article on Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）"MARTINI II", a compilation of the soul crooner's hits of the early 1990s. Well, I'm going backwards here since I will now be taking care of Martin's very first BEST album, "MARTINI" which was released in June 1991. Allow me to show the lineup along with that cocktail.
Now, if you compare this article here with the one that I wrote for "MARTINI II" back in February, you'll notice that there are more links for the above playlist since I've already talked about a lot of these tunes. I simply couldn't keep a good man's songs down all these years.
"Tatoe Kimi ga Doko ni Ikou to" (Suppose If I Ask You Where You're Going) is one of those few singles that I had yet to cover, and to be honest, it isn't among my Top 5 favourite Martin songs. However, it IS a Martin song with plenty of soul and strut, and I still can't deny its cool factor. Released as his 11th single in February 1991, it was written by Saeko Nishio（西尾佐栄子）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）with its first album appearance being right here. The lyricist relates the urban story about a fellow who has feelings for a woman but is struggling the right way to approach her. It managed to get as high as No. 38 on the charts.
Although it already has its own article, I couldn't resist but put up "Misty Mauve" again. This song IS in my Top 5 Martin singles, and after all, it was created by the killer tandem of Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. Just that horn section in the bridge would be worth the price of admission but of course, we get the whole package including Martin's golden vocals.
"Dry Dry" was Martin's 3rd single from March 1988 and it's some dynamic funk that was written by Nishio and composed by Suzuki himself. If I'm not mistaken, the song is about a woman who's really playing hard-to-get. Rising to No. 36 on Oricon, it was originally placed on the singer's 2nd album"Radio Days" which came out the following month that year. James Brown may approve.
And once again, I'm gonna be putting up another song that I've already parsed about since it was the first Masayuki Suzuki song that I fell for all the way back in my Gunma days between the 1980s and 1990s. As I mentioned in that article, "Wakare no Machi" was the campaign tune for Camellia Diamonds, a company whose TV commercials invited some pretty cool tunes. Damn fine sax and trumpet solos. Plus, of course, this was all whipped up by Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）.
"MARTINI" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. So, for all of those who have gotten onto the "Love Dramatic"（ラブ・ドラマティック）craze, this album provides some more of the good stuff from the so-called King of Love Songs.
When it comes to the many works of 80s aidoruMinako Honda（本田美奈子）, it looks like I will be on the installment plan for eating crow for the foreseeable future. Having scoffed at my first look at her through a live performance on one of the music rankings show of that decade, over the years of doing this blog, I've come to realize that that performance was more of a notorious off-tune one-off and that Honda actually did have some good singing chops even during her aidoru era.
Case in point: her cover of the late Belfast guitarist and singer-songwriter Gary Moore's October 1986 single"Crying in the Shadows", given the title of "the Cross ~ Ai no Juujika" (Cross of Love) for Honda as her 8th single from September 1986. When I heard it for the first time, I just went like "Why wasn't I hearing this stuff from her instead of 'Oneway Generation'?" I think Honda was still an aidoru at the time but from listening to "the Cross", she had apparently made some grand leaps into solid pop-rock.
I wouldn't really compare Honda at the time as a budding rock goddess but the former was really good with "the Cross" especially with that echoing voice. From what I've seen on her "Top 10" and "Best 10" appearances, it looked like she was going for a J-Madonna aesthetic back then, but with this song, I imagine her more as a Pat Benatar.
With Moore having written and composed the original song, Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）provided the Japanese lyrics. "the Cross" went as high as No. 5 on Oricon and was first included on her first BEST compilation, "MINAKO COLLECTION" from December 1986. That album reached No. 13. Moore was also involved in the recording of Honda's cover and also provided his guitar playing for the title track from her third album"Cancel" which also came out in the same month as "the Cross" although the single wasn't included in that album.
To finish off, here is Moore's "Crying in the Shadows" which was included in the CD release of his 1987 album "Wild Frontier".
