Mariko Takahashi -- dear

Keeping on the City Pop scene, I just wanted to introduce one of my heavy rotation discs. This is "Dear" by chanteuse Mariko Takahashi （高橋真梨子）which was originally released in April of 1982. After coming back from Japan in 1981, I started listening to a radio program on multicultural CHIN-FM on Saturdays called "The Sounds of Japan". Most of the program seemed dedicated to enka but once a month, the DJ would spin some more "modern" fare.

(cover version)

One of the first tunes I'd heard was from Mariko Takahashi who was definitely no aidoru. She has this beautifully rich and deep whiskey-and-cigarettes voice...perfect for jazz. And in fact, she had first debuted in the early 70s with folk/latin/jazz band, Pedro & Capricious, before striking out on her own in 1978.

Takahashi, who hails from Hiroshima Prefecture, jointly produced "Dear" with her former bandmate and husband, Henry Hirose（ヘンリー広瀬). It's an album of torch songs and City Pop mid-tempo tunes. Although there are two other tracks which have become included on any hits package of hers, the above song is one of my favourites. "My City Lights" highlights her voice wonderfully; vocally, she illustrates the end of a wistful love affair in the big city. You can almost see her nursing a whiskey-on-the-rocks by herself in some empty bar in Roppongi. The other highlight is the electric guitar solo by veteran session artist, Tsuyoshi Kon. Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and Kingo Hamada（浜田金吾）created the song.

One of the big hits from the album (and perennial karaoke kayo kyoku choice) is "for you..."This is a recent concert of her performing the song, and going with the album's overall theme, it's a song of pining for someone who's already been taken. The famous refrain is "Anata ga hoshii..."(I want you..). Some years ago, Hikaru Utada may have lobbed a verbal grenade at Takahashi or kayo kyoku in general by stating that that particular lyric was frankly too sentimental, and truth be told, probably a lot of songs in that era made liberal use of it. But that still doesn't take anything from the song.which musically and unabashedly puts its heart on its sleeve. Takahashi bats this one out of the park.　As a postscript, the song also received the Gold Award at the 11th Tokyo Music Festival in 1982.

I've created the follow-up to the album right here.

Yasuhiro Abe -- Irene （アイリーン）

One of the very last singers that I discovered before coming home was Yasuhiro Abe （安部恭弘）who has been around since 1982. I only found out about him via my guide on Japanese City Pop, although the man has had this solo career for a few decades and has been a backup singer for some of the biggest names in kayo kyoku, such as Mariya Takeuchi, EPO and Jun'ichi Inagaki.

As far as I know, the Tokyo native and Waseda University grad has never had a Top 10 hit but listening to his tunes via his Best CD and his 1985 album, "Slit", he's got this crooner's voice which can hit the high notes almost to the extent of Michael Jackson. He's got a rugged handsomeness; looks like a cross between Karl Malden and Jackie Chan...really you ought to take a look.

He's also the composer and lyricist of his tunes, much like his contemporaries listed above (although Chinfa Kan provided the lyrics for "Irene"). His work is very much City Pop...the Japanese equivalent of American AOR. City Pop is called as such since the music supposedly gives that sound of big city life, namely life in Tokyo during the 70s and 80s when Japan could do no wrong economically. Apparently the representative instruments for The Economic Miracle were Fender Rhodes keyboards and Steely Dan's guitars.

"Irene" is a representative Abe tune...as far away from an enka song or an aidoru tune that one can get. Having become the City Pop fan over the past number of years, I really enjoy the overall arrangement of the song: from the opening piano to Abe's high-stepping vocals to the synths & guitar often punctuating the proceedings. Get out the Perrier and the Polo shirt!

Ikuzo Yoshi -- Yukiguni （雪国）

OK, I'll lay it out on the line for you. I do like my enka. Perhaps not to the extent of some of the other avenues of kayo kyoku, but I sometimes see it as a bit of a palate cleanser if I ever get stuck hearing too much plain pop. After all, the music, despite using a lot of Western melodies, is heard as something quintessentially traditional Japanese. Comparisons have often been made between enka and American country & western or even Portuguese fado. Certainly between enka and C & W, there are similarities in themes: lost love, drinking in the local bars, or traveling the lonesome highways in a truck.

My own memories of enka start all the way back...even before I took my first steps on Japanese soil in 1972. My dad was always playing his enka LPs of Hiroshi Itsuki (五木ひろし）or Kiyoko Suizenji（水前寺清子） on the huge oaken RCA stereo while I was playing with some toy in front of the speakers. I guess that might explain the eternal warbling in my mind even to this day.

Now, to explain my first choice of enka on this blog. Back in the day, when I was first teaching in Gunma Prefecture, my colleagues often had me accompany them to the various karaoke bars that populated the small towns and cities. Of course, I had to sing in front of not only my drinking buddies, but also to the other patrons and staff in the usually tiny place. Well, I refused to sing anything that would put me in a bad light, although it certainly didn't stop my colleagues from wrecking a tune like that train in "The Fugitive". So, I chose the song above, "Yukiguni" and practiced the hell out of it. The title means snow country...I'm from Canada, get it? And after singing at all of the bars and year-end parties all over northern Gunma, it became my signature song, or as they say in Japanese, "ju-hachi-ban".

Anyways, the real master of the song is Ikuzo Yoshi (吉幾三）who comes from the snowy country of Aomori Prefecture. It first came out in February 1986 but it took a whole year to reach No. 1 on the Oricon charts....quite a feat, especially for an enka song. The YouTube video here is an excerpt from an old TV Tokyo Sunday night show called "Enka no Hanamichi" （演歌の花道）The Flower Path of Enka (the flower path was apparently the premium part of the stage for a kabuki actor that went through the audience). The show was a half-hour of 2 or 3 enka singers crooning their tunes against backdrops of expensive bars or ports. It went off the air several years ago but now lives on in DVD packages....hmmm...something for Dad? 

In any case, Wikipedia has a comprehensive explanation on enka right here.

Mari Amachi -- Hitori Janaino (ひとりじゃないの）

Since I was a tot, I'd been listening to Japanese music such as enka on the old RCA stereo, but it  wasn't until the summer of 1972 that I heard an actual Japanese pop song. And it's the one featured here. A native of Omiya City in Saitama Prefecture, Mari Amachi (天地真理）held court as a national aidoru in the first half of the 1970s. "Hitori Janaino"(You're Not Alone) was the 2nd No. 1 hit for her on the Oricon charts and the biggest hit of her career. In total, she got onto the top of the charts 5 times...not too shabby. But then Seiko Matsuda changed all that in the next decade.

"Hitori Janaino" is classic kayo kyoku....cheerful lilting voice backed by a studio string-and-horns dominated orchestra, and the lyrics have a young couple enjoying a pleasant walk. "Natsukashii" is the one word that hits me whenever I hear it. Novelist/playwright Mitsuhiko Kuze（久世光彦）provided the lyrics under his pen name of Natsu Kotani（小谷夏）while Koichi Morita（森田公一）composed the melody.

I heard it on the taxi taking me, my mother, my baby brother and my grandparents to Ginza from Haneda Airport (when it was the only airport for Tokyo). The cabbie had the radio tuned onto some AM channel when the tune came on. And once I heard it, I gave the only reaction that I could at the time: I THREW UP! Yup, my new white shirt took on some further colors, as did the cabbie. Now, this was not a visceral criticism of the song itself, but a delayed reaction to some airsickness on the flight over from Vancouver....really. I was always a late bloomer. Luckily, though, I don't have any chronic Pavlovian reaction whenever I hear it.

PSY-S -- Fuzzy na Itami （ファジイな痛み）A Fuzzy Pain

I made a new friend on one of the J-Pop Oldies forum some hours ago, and he was interested in some of the more technopop-based stuff. Of course, he knew the Yellow Magic Orchestra but I also steered him to this other unit called PSY-S, which launched in 1985 and lasted about a decade.

My first few entries on KK Plus have been on singles and albums that have hit the Top 10 on Oricon, but I also wanted to introduce some of these other unsung heroes and heroines who (in my opinion anyways) have great voices and tunes. PSY-S is definitely one of these bands. The duo consisted of "vocal powerhouse"(quotes and other info via Wikipedia) Mami CHAKA Yasunori （康則まみ）, and instrumentalist/composer Masaya Matsuura. （松浦雅也）

The two of them carved out a popular niche for themselves with Matsuura's Fairlight CMI synth and CHAKA's unique delivery. Their sound had a bit more of a technorock feel to it, compared to YMO's pop/traditional Japanese approach. And certainly compared to what was on the Oricon charts during that time, they were very different.

According to Wiki, "Lemon no Yuuki"（レモンの勇気）is supposed to be the most famous release by the pair in the West...for anime fans, anyways. However, one of my favorite songs by PSY-S is "Fuzzy na Itami", a hauntingly beautiful tune about heartbreak (I'm really gonna have to find songs which don't deal with this theme all the time), which was released in the summer of 1989.

What ever happened to CHAKA and Matsuura? Well, CHAKA went full circle in her career....she had initially started out as a jazz singer in her native Osaka, and after her decade with PSY-S, she went back to being a chanteuse, releasing a number of albums. Matsuura went into producing video games, including PS 2's "PaRappa the Rapper".

Try some of the other songs by them on YouTube as well.

Oricon's Top 10 Albums for 1985

1. Yosui Inoue         9.5 Carats
2. Wham!               Make It Big
3. Anzen Chitai       Dakishimetai
4. Southern All Stars KAMAKURA
5. Checkers             Motto Checkers
6. Yumi Matsutoya    No Side
7. Akina Nakamori     D404 ME
8. Madonna              Like A Virgin
9. Akina Nakamori      Bitter & Sweet
10. Checkers            Mainichi Checkers

Referring back to the previous entry, Inoue also did his own cover of "Kazarijanainoyo Namida wa" on "9.5 Carats". Nice to see the two foreign entries in there...I heard that they actually became famous.

Seiko Matsuda actually didn't make the Top 10 that year...came close at Nos. 11 and 12.

Akina Nakamori（中森明菜） -- Bitter and Sweet

nakamoriakina.com
Ahhhh...I remember when I was but a wee (well, I was actually quite big but "wee"sounds better in print) lad at the University of Toronto in 1986, my friend, Anthony, and I used to hit the Wah Yueh record store in downtown Chinatown (Dundas and Huron), and searched for Japanese pop albums. I'd already become a full-fledged kayo kyoku freak by then, and had bought Seiko Matsuda's "Train" LP and Akina Nakamori's "D404 ME". I have NO idea how they came up with a title like that for an Akina album, except that it sounds like something you spray on a rusty doorknob. But both albums got heavy play on my record player at home.

But then I came across the album that preceded "D404 ME", "Bitter and Sweet". And it blew me away. I mean, if I were to recommend any album to a KK newbie, this would be the one. Great hooks, great pedigree in the choice of composers, and pretty much every song is a winner. This was the album that finally destroyed the needle on my record player....and perhaps my parents' patience.

The first two songs especially packed a punch. "Kazarijanainoyo Namida wa"(飾りじゃないのよ涙は）was written and composed by crooning KK legend, Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）. Reading the lyrics, I could imagine young Akina walking home after getting her heart wrenched out and stomped on, exhorting to the entire world that these were indeed real tears she was crying ( et tu, Seiko-chan?) The second track, "Romantic na Yoru da wa" （ロマンチックな夜だわ）was created by City Pop princess, EPO, and it's a bit unlike her style since her stuff had been more poppy and happy.

"Romantic" throws out the funk right from the opening groove, and the horn section gives a trashy performance as if they were doing a gig in a strip bar. The lyrics have Akina hinting at something hot and heavy with a potential boy toy. So I guess, in a temporal sense, this song would've come before the first track.

Not surprisingly, the album title has the raunchy bitter stuff on Side A, while Side B has the sweet ballad tunes.

I think it was with this album that Akina graduated from her aidoru days to that of J-Pop diva. The writing pedigree illustrated that. Certainly, her voice started to drop an octave from "Bitter & Sweet" onward, although it had yet to reach her current sultry depths.

Just to give the facts here: this was Akina's 7th album, released in April 1985. It spent 2 weeks at No. 1 just after release and attained No. 9 in the Top 10 albums of the year.

(August 22 2014: I made a follow-up to the album right here.)