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 think it was just ten days ago that I put up a Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）Xmas song. Looks like she's the one that still keeps on giving. Just thought of it right now...what do the Yamashitas (Mariya and Tatsuro) do on a normal Christmas Day? Are they busy in the studio coming up with more music or do they enjoy a quiet Yuletide with family or with a generous heaping of friends?
Well, while we're munching on that thought like a mouthful of turkey and stuffing, I can provide another Mariya Xmas tune via "Special Delivery ~ Tokubetsu Kokuubin". No worries on the Japanese; it's just the direct translation of the English. This was actually Takeuchi's 8th single from September 1981 and a track on her 5th studio album"Portrait" which was released a month later.
Since it was still relatively early in her career, "Special Delivery", which was written and composed by the singer with Yamashita arranging everything, has that 50s/60s American pop beat that used to imbue a lot of her music at the time. Just the whole thing seems to describe that giddy young lady hopping, skipping and jumping toward the mailbox with that letter for her beloved, presumably overseas currently, in the hopes that he will be back for the Holidays. If she had actually performed "Special Delivery" on a show, it would have had plenty of happy-go-lucky choreography.
Well, no choreography perhaps but she does look quite appropriately seasonal here and nice shoutout to an old Xmas classic, too.
Merry Christmas in Japan and Merry Christmas Eve here!
This is not only a collaboration between the Labels of Reminiscings of Youth and Xmas here on the blog, but it's the farthest back that I've gone for a ROY article. In fact, I should correct the category here and say that it's more of a Reminiscings of Babyhood or Just-Graduated-From-Foetushood because I was only born some weeks before "A Charlie Brown Christmas" made its debut on CBS on December 9th 1965. Certainly, there's no way that I can remember the first time that Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and the rest of the bunch made their way onto television screens together for the first time, since in all likelihood I was in the crib getting my 18 hours of beauty rest (which failed utterly) but I know that I've been watching it since I was a little kid.
I've enjoyed the whole thing over and over and I even bought the DVD for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" about a decade or so ago in Japan. Of course, a lot of things debuted for the first time including the characters and the famous "Linus & Lucy" theme which is arguably the theme song for the entire she-bang known as "Peanuts" (geez, ol' Chuck can't even catch a break there). One of my favourite scenes in the special is most of the characters boogying away to "Linus & Lucy" with Schroeder on the piano, Snoopy on the guitar and Pig-Pen on wood bass. My brother and I always giggled at Frieda's dancing.
Of course, if I got the DVD for the special then I just had to get the classic soundtrack with the Vince Guaraldi Trio. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and the music are absolutely inseparable and at the time that I saw it annually, I heard and treated the soundtrack not as jazz but just "Charlie Brown music" because of that distinct Guaraldi piano. From what I read about the production of the special back in 1965, though, was that inserting wistful jazz music into a kiddie program was thought to be downright insane at the time.
Happily, braver heads and ears prevailed. But along with "Linus & Lucy", "Skating" and all the rest, there is the opening theme "Christmas Time Is Here" by Guaraldi and television producer Lee Mendelson with the chorus from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in San Rafael, California. I cannot imagine the introduction for the show without this song, and whenever I get introduced to a jazz pianist that I hadn't heard before, I immediately compare that artist with Guaraldi via "Christmas Time Is Here". That was the case when I first heard the velvety tones of Bill Evans back in Japan. I listened to Evans' trademark "Waltz for Debby" and found the lilting and romantically swinging melody reminiscent of Guaraldi's "Charlie Brown music" (although I know that Evans started his career before Guaraldi), and internally remarked, "Yep, he's my guy!" and ended up buying a number of his albums.
The soundtrack is a must-play at this time of year, and I will listen to it again later tonight just before Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day. Wow! That's something...55 years since it was released. But what was released in Japan back in December 1965? Thanks again to "Showa Pops" for the answers.
I've been hearing about this song off and on for the past few months, and then came the announcement that this Kanagawa Prefecture-born singer-songwriter Eito Takahashi（高橋瑛人）or just Eito was selected to come onto the Kohaku Utagassen this year.
Eito has already released 6 digital download singles up to December 18th this year but everyone has been talking about his very first single, "Kousui" (Perfume), which actually was released all the way back in April 2019. In fact, the song title has even been nominated as one of the words/catchphrases of 2020.
For me, last Saturday was the time that I got to hear "Kousui" in full form when Eito appeared on comedian Sanma Akashiya's（明石家さんま）annual year-end special "Akashiya Kohaku!"（明石家紅白!） where a number of singers and bands that he likes are invited for some chat and song. Not sure if I heard this right, but during the give-and-take between Akashiya and Eito, the latter admitted that he speaks with a voice that sounds as if he's having some adenoidal issues but thanks to voice training, he can sing without the nasality.
As for "Kousui", which was written and composed by Eito under his songwriting moniker of 8s, it's got that appealingly laidback melody which reminds me of Eric Clapton unplugged. However, the lyrics can be analogized by that scene in "Avengers: Endgame" where a post-Snap emotionally-crushed Hawkeye is approached by old buddy Black Widow to whom he pleads "Don't do that! Don't give me hope." In Eito's case, an old flame suddenly calls him up three years after the breakup to see how he's doing and all sorts of emotions including regret and self-pity well up within him along with the scent memory of the Dolce & Gabbana perfume that she probably still wears. According to a Buzzfeed interview via J-Wiki, that particular scent was Sport and it was worn by his old boss at the hamburger joint that Eito used to work at.
Y'know...I actually used a Marvel analogy, but considering that reunion, I also remember that scene in "Casablanca" where Rick rushes out to chew out Sam for playing that song when he sees Ilsa for the first time in several years.
Anyhow, I gather that "Kousui" has been a slow burner up the ladder of success. It was released back in April 2019 but through various actions such as Amazon Japan putting the song onto CD back in February this year and Eito's appearances on television such as the music program "Music Station", the song's fame started growing, jumping from No. 22 on Oricon in early May 2020 up to No. 1 within a couple of weeks. Up to September, it was bobbing up and down in the Top 10.
Then, there have been a lot of singers and TV personalities who have also decided to cover the song themselves such as one-half of the comedy duo Oriental Radio, Shingo Fujimori（藤森慎吾）, and former SMAP member Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）.
"Kousui" will make its way onto Eito's first full album"Sukkarakan"（すっからかん）which is due to come out on New Year's Day, 2021. But let's see how he does on the Kohaku.
I'm not sure what the situation has been of late for those traditional Xmas cartoons and Rankin & Bass stop-motion presentations, but when I was a kid, it was a given that they would be all over the channels. Outside of "A Charlie Brown Christmas", the one that I've known the best is the hour-long "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" with the vets from old Tinseltown, Fred Astaire and Mickey Rooney. It was always heartwarming watching Kris Kringle when he was a young man fighting the imperialistic Burgermeister Meisterburger.
Now, just imagine if the life of Santa Claus and his family were made into a regular weekly anime series spanning between October and March. Well, that is indeed what was done back starting from 1984 when Fuji-TV broadcast "Mori no Tonto-tachi"（森のトントたち）. Known in English as "Elves of the Forest", the show depicted jolly ol' Santa and his elves living life large in a Finnish forest with the rest of the denizens.
I came across this one song from the soundtrack devised by Takeo Watanabe（渡辺岳夫）. Although it's neither the opening or closing theme, it's a pretty jaunty number sung by anison singer/seiyuu Mitsuko Horie（堀江美都子）who I have just written about last week for another anime theme song. "Oide White X'mas" (Come On, White Christmas) is about what I would expect for a J-Xmas tune for the kids: light and positive vocals by Horie and optimistic/industrious melody by Watanabe with lyrics by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）.
I'm gathering that the video below is the Spanish-language version of "Mori no Tonto-tachi" since I couldn't find the original Japanese show.
I love sweets, but this will be what gives me cavities.
I think I've established that enka veteran Hideo Murata (村田英雄), in spite of his larger than life manly man demeanor, can turn on a dime and turn that ferocious scowl into an adorable grin... Pretty much the inverse of fellow kayo-rokyoku artiste Haruo Minami (三波春夫). He's like a burnt marshmallow - crusty and hard on the outside, but gooey and sweet on the inside. His penchant for recording very many meoto (husband and wife) enka over his long career furthers this soft side of his. The best example of that would probably be "Meoto Shunju" (夫婦春秋), with "Meotozake" being a close second.
Nana Hazono's (はぞのなな) words to "Meotozake" (Husband and Wife sake) talk about a couple who's been through some really rough times but have now achieved the happiness they strived for, and so are having a drink to that and to many more years to come. With words like that, one could imagine that "Meotozake" is like a sequel to "Meoto Shunju"; the latter highlighting the beginning and trials of the relationship and the former a celebration at how far they've come. Chiaki Oka's (岡千秋) rather grand sounding melody seems to aptly fit this celebratory, maybe even triumphant occasion. In true Murata fashion, he fiercely growls out certain bits and has his eyebrows set in a frown a third of the time, but somehow that just makes it sweeter every time he breaks into a smile and emphasizes the fact that the message is coming from a stoic showa era man who's usually too shy to bear his heart to the woman he loves.
"Meotozake" was released in 1980 and I think it was popular enough since Muchi sang it during the Kohaku in that same year.
Anyways, although I have "Meotozake" in one of my Murata compilation albums, the live versions just hit better, as with a number of songs I like in general. But, no live version of this ode to a happy marriage hits better than Murata and Minami's version in a rare joint performance in 1983, the whole of which can be watched here. Every enka fan's dream come true, the hilarious duet is easily my favourite part of this amazing collaboration. The biggest kicker being the moment the announcer said, "One of you has to be the WiFe, though." I think it's pretty obvious who took on that role... And I love how Haru-san is able to make Muchi blush. 10/10 I don't know how many times I've watched it already.
Objectively speaking, though, I like this duet because I thought the back and forth between man and wife fit the context of the song well. But, after being blessed with this rendition, I can never hear/see the studio-recorded "Meotozake" the same way again.
My heart...
OH, if the enka world EVER did shipping they'd surely be number one. Not even Hachi and Michi can top that. So, I tried giving them a ship name and settled with "Haru-Hide" because combining their names otherwise gave either "Haru-o" or "Hide-o" which defeats the purpose of a ship name... I'd drink to that. Oolong tea, of course.
First off, congratulations to singer-songwriter LiSA for making it onto NHK's Kohaku Utagassen for the second year in a row. Japan's national broadcaster announced what the participants will be singing on the show in about 9 days' time, and for LiSA, it will be a "Kimetsu no Yaiba"（鬼滅の刃）suite following the success of the anime TV series and movie. With our luck in North America, though, TV Japan will likely block out the performance visuals if any of the anime or movie is shown behind her like they did at last year's Kohaku due to the usual copyright issues.😒
Probably a whole lot more people discovered the Gifu Prefecture native through the opening theme for the anime series last year, "Gurenge"（紅蓮華）, which pretty much feels like a typical rocking battle between the hero Tanjiro and the monsters to be defeated. However, as I was watching the NHK children's music vignette "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）some time ago, LiSA had contributed a song for the kids back in 2017 called "Ring a Bell".
Written by the singer and composed by musician Kousuke Nouma（野間康介）, "Ring a Bell" is as comfortable as a mother's hug, and the "Minna no Uta" video has very much of an "Awwww..." component. It's just too bad that the video doesn't exist on YouTube. According to the J-Wiki article for the song, LiSA came up with the title after hearing the expression from people close to her; plus, she wanted to create to have a title that even children could remember.
The video was first shown on "Minna no Uta" between December 2016 and January 2017 but the song was released as a track on LiSA's 11th single, "Catch the Moment" in February 2017. It had also come out as a digital download earlier in that December.
Sometimes the whole thing about Christmas can get to be a bit much with all of the music blaring out the speakers, all of the good cheer and the gaudy decorations everywhere. Maybe that's why we've had Ebenezer Scrooge and The Grinch all these years to provide the other point of view although they eventually found their way to the other side.
A similar point is being expressed (breezily, mind you) by the lady in this song, "Juu-ni-gatsu no Atsui Natsu" (Hot Summer in December) as sung by singer-songwriter Megumi Shiina（椎名 恵）. She composed the late 1980s City Pop tune while Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）wrote the lyrics of the woman in question fleeing to a more exotic environment during the Yuletide season to rid herself of any memories of a lost romance. Christmas simply brings back too many melancholy memories.
However, what she has lost in love, I think that I have gained in pure City Pop enjoyment with those familiar keyboards and the bass thrum. "Juu-ni-gatsu no Atsui Natsu" is also a track on her "29 Twenty-Nine ~ W Concerto II" album from June 1988. I've already written about the title track back in June. With all due respect to the protagonist within the song, I would prefer being in Tokyo listening to this instead of some tropical country.
