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 missed it by three days but September 19th was the 40th anniversary of the release of Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）1980"Ride On Time" album. You might say that I didn't ride on time with that one. Thanks for the round of indifference.
However, I've already written on both the album and the single with the same title along with some of the other tracks in there independently. What's a Tats fan armed with a blog to do? Well, as insane as it may sound, I realized that I have yet to do an Author's Pick for my own favourite songs by the famed singer-songwriter. That's rather galling to know especially when I provided an Author's Pick on my favourite Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）songs at the end of 2015. Must compensate and that time is now! So indeed, this is an opportunity.
No particular order to my favourites...I love them equally. And it was rather difficult to whittle down the choices to half a dozen, but basically almost all of them originate from "Ride On Time" and his 1982 album "For You".
Wouldn't you love to listen to this while riding in a red convertible down the Ventura Freeway? It's not just the City Pop/J-AOR but also an old-time 60s/70s lounge feeling with "Amaku Kiken na Kaori" that provides pure relaxation as I inhale some of that titular bewitching scent. The horns are just wonderful!
Couldn't get any more David Foster 80s romantic ballad than this one. Still not sure if this was a tribute to Mariya but if a guy needs to propose to the love of his life and he knows that he/she is a Tats fan, well, the choice is fairly clear, isn't it? It's one of the great J-AOR sunset songs and only the man himself can get away with yelling "I LOVE YA!" over and over at the end.
I can always listen to this one and never get tired of it. Plus, if I'm in a bad or down mood, "Loveland, Island" makes for the ideal pick-me-up. I was never a fan of the Japanese summer (there's something about physically melting into a puddle that never quite appealed to me) but this is one of the tunes by Tats that can help me happily remember the hot season there without the need to sweat tons.
Another thing that I will never tire of...that boppy bass in the intro for "Someday", the opening track to "Ride on Time". Those wonderful lyrics of hope are carried on top of that remaining melody of sharp horns and gentle keyboard to create this happy shuffle down the city sidewalks. It must have been a wonderful time to stroll in Tokyo.
I have to thank Japan Railways for having the idea to put Yamashita's atypical song about being lonely on December 24th onto their late 1980s end-of-year commercials, thereby giving "Christmas Eve" another chance to make it big after having a rather soft opening in its originating year of 1983. Arguably, it's probably the most famous J-Xmas song even if it's not a favourite with everyone. I also would like to thank those critics from earlier in the decade who may have ticked off Tats by just brushing him off as merely that summer song guy since he opted to show them by creating a Xmas tune.
Of course, I just had to finish the list off with "Ride On Time", now the City Pop song to hear when one is about to head out on a flight to climes hot and tropical. I've preferred the single version to the album take simply because of that baritone saxophone which butts right in as soon as Tats goes into the main chorus for the first time. The rest of the horns and piano, the sax solo, the backup vocals by frequent songwriting partner Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, and last but not least, Tats' singing make "Ride On Time" one of the best songs of the genre.
In any case, congratulations are in order for the album "Ride On Time" on its 40th and I hope that the fans are still here in another decade when we celebrate its golden anniversary.
That early 1990s City Pop arrangement for "Aikagi" made me wonder whether this could have also been an ideal song for someone like Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）back around the same time.
Martin also enjoyed having the synths around him as much as he did his horn section. However, "Aikagi" (Spare Key) belongs to singer Michiru Kojima（児島未散）. This was the opening track for her 6th album"Yorokobi no Asa no Tame ni"（喜びの朝のために...For A Joyful Morning） which was released in October 1992. I think the title itself springs off all sorts of ideas of intrigue and mystery and that melody by Kenjiro Sakiya（崎谷健次郎）with arrangement by Akihiko Matsumoto（松本晃彦）more than keeps up the pretense. Accuse me of having an overactive imagination but when I hear "Aikagi", I think that this could have been the perfect theme song for a Japanese legal drama in those early 1990s.
Lyrics are by former aidoru Mie Takahashi（高橋美枝）under her pseudonym of Miki Fuudo（風堂美起）, and she does weave a story of suspense and possible betrayal by a beau as a woman decides to drop the affair like a bad penny. Both Takahashi and Kojima collaborated on another track on the album "Bayside Blue ~ Yorokobi no Asa no Tame ni"（ベイサイド・ブルー〜喜びの朝のために〜）.
About a month ago, I put up a Fantastic Plastic Machine song,"The King of Pleasure" from his 2003 album"too". I always appreciate an artist who keeps his album titles nice and concise.
One other track from "too" is "Reaching for the Stars". With vocals by the British acid jazz band, INCOGNITO, compared with "The King of Pleasure", I think "Reaching for the Stars" has got more of a neo-disco sound and more of the sensation of some fellow spinning the discs for the beachgoers at sunset on Ibiza.
Plus, that music video seems to be plowing forth a couple of American sci-fi cultural references. If the Starchild from "2001: A Space Odyssey" grew up to become a beautiful woman with a terrifying manicure, she would be the one featured there. Then, there is that starscape and those space fighters which must have come from "Babylon 5".
Maybe this is more of a Friday night article, but I figure that for the final full day of summer, some FPM delights were in order.
I've done a couple of Yukiko Haneda（羽根田征子）songs in the past and while those were quite jazzy, her debut single from July 1988 is much more in the pop vein.
In fact, I would say that "ENCORE" reminds me of some of the uptempo pop that Miki Imai（今井美樹）was releasing at about the same time in the late 1980s. There's that certain synthesizer being used in the song that immediately rang nostalgia bells for J-Pop in that decade of the Bubble. It was written by Ayako Naito（内藤綾子）and composed by Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）.Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）took care of the arrangement which automatically peaked my interest.
Ah, speaking of the Bubble..."ENCORE" was actually used as an insert song for the Fuji-TV trendy drama "Dakishimetai!"（抱きしめたい!...I Wanna Hold Your Hand） starring Atsuko Asano and Yuko Asano（浅野温子・浅野ゆう子）...indeed The Double Asano. The opening theme for that show is even more famous seeing that it is "Aquamarine no Mama de ite"(アクアマリンのままでいて) by Carlos Toshiki & Omega Tribe (カルロス・トシキ&オメガトライブ) .
Indeed, it is the 21st of September!...which of course means...
Earth Wind & Fire's"September" was the rallying cry last year for all those who wanted to emancipate Area 51, and perhaps it's now one of the songs that will help us try to forget some of the sadness and frustration that has been imbuing 2020. It's also a classic happy-time funk fest that I first heard on the radio when I was a kid and it's never really left my cranium since its release in November 1978.
Yeah, it was actually released a couple of months later than one would imagine but at least it was recorded in September 1978. It hit No. 10 on the RPM Canada Singles chart and then No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart (as well as No. 8 on the overall Billboard), but I think since then, it's evolved into becoming a No. 1 song in many people's hearts and souls. Just hearing those horns and Maurice White yelling out "ba-dee-ya" is enough to get folks dancing out...in their rooms for now. Hopefully, the time won't be too far off into the future when everyone can strut their stuff to EW&F again on the dance floor.
Once again, since I couldn't find any monthly Oricon charts before 1980, I'm going to have to go with kayo that made their debut in or around September 1978.
The above is a photo of Tetsuro Tanba（丹波哲郎）, the star from the 1970s cop series "G-MEN★75" and the 007 flick "You Only Live Twice". He passed away nearly 14 years ago on September 24th 2006 so in tribute, I wanted to see if I could find something connected with his famous TV show to put up onto the blog tonight.
Of course, there is the famous opening theme from "G-MEN★75" by Shunsuke Kikuchi（菊池俊輔）that I covered back in 2015. It is indeed a song reflecting the intrepid cops and their ever-insistent march toward justice. But I kinda figured that any Japanese cop show that has such a proud opening theme will most likely have a mellower and more introspective ballad to finish each episode.
Sure enough, I found out that the show had several ending themes which ran throughout the course of its run. The first of these enders is "Omokage"(Faces) by Yuri Shimazaki（しまざき由理）who recorded this when she was perhaps around all of 18 years of age, but in actual fact, she was already a veteran in the recording booth having released around 8 singles as a child singer beginning in 1968, according to her J-Wiki profile.
Listening to this tenderhearted and melancholy ballad about a past love affair that would probably have been great accompaniment to Superintendent Kuroki (Tanba) and one of his men as they knocked back a couple of scotch-on-the-rocks, I got the distinct impression that composer Kikuchi who also handled "Omokage" brought in some of the melody from the opening theme for this first ending theme. The lyrics were handled by Junya Sato（佐藤純弥）.
(1:12)
"Omokage" became a hit after its release as a single in July 1975 as it peaked at No. 6 on Oricon, eventually selling around 1.4 million records going well into 1976. Shimazaki would provide a few more ending themes for "G-MEN★75" before the program finally ended in 1982.
The song was also a favourite to be covered by other singers as folks like Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）and Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）have. The above is Mizumori's take on "Omokage".
Throughout the time that we've been working on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've been hearing about this NHK music program called "Let's Go Young" which had its run between 1974 and 1986. Among all of those old music shows from Japan that I've known all these years such as "The Best 10" and "Yoru no Hit Studio", "Let's Go Young" is the one program that I've known the least about since I never heard of it when I was a kid which means that my family never picked it up at Nippon Video, and of course, by the time I made it to Japan, the show was long gone. However, I've seen clips of it through current NHK shows such as "Uta Kon".
The earliest broadcasts that I have been able to find via YouTube are the 1977 shows such as the one above. My impression so far is that "Let's Go Young" has been the video equivalent of a "Myojo" magazine...a lot of the aidoru kicking up their heels on stage, but perhaps that's because I was probably watching many of the early 1980s episodes. The above episode, for instance, does have its share of old-style kayo included.
From what I've read so far from J-Wiki is that "Let's Go Young" had a central host who had some connection with the music industry such as a singer or songwriter instead of the usual professional NHK announcer. For instance, composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）who was responsible for weaving melodies for singers such as Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）and Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）was the second host for 1977 to 1978, followed by the late Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）.
There were also regular guests and sub-hosts which included a lot of the popular artists of the day such as Candies（キャンディーズ）, the aforementioned Pink Lady, Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）and Karyudo（狩人）. Throughout the time of the show, the backing dancers were Schoolmates, a select entertainment group that had included tarento/singer Hiroko Moriguchi（森口博子）and enka legend Shinichi Mori（森進一）. There were also the usual segments during the broadcast such as a request corner and some lollygagging around with some of the guests.
I think one difference that "Let's Go Young" had in comparison with other music shows was that it actually had theme songs with sung lyrics. One that was used between 1979 and 1985 was "Moonlight Carnival"（ムーンライト・カーニバル）which was composed by Hirao and written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）. It's a fairly epic samba-esque number that was performed by pretty much everyone appearing on stage that episode.
"Let's Go Young" had its regular slot between 6 pm and 6:40 every Sunday night. Watching some of the old episodes and then also remembering the other shows such as "The Best 10" made me wonder about how the schedules for those singers must have been bursting at the seams. At the same time, young fans back in those days probably looked forward to "Let's Go Young" as one of the last fun things to view before heading back to school the day after.
