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.
Blue Midnight....the name of a cocktail or the title of a Charlie Parker song? Well, neither actually (as far as I know), but it is the name of a Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）ballad that could make for a nice theme song in the Tokyo Western-style bar which could possibly make that sort of cocktail or have a guest who could play the jazz of ol' Bird.
"Blue Midnight" made it onto Yamashita's 1983"Melodies" when it didn't quite get included onto "For You", his album from the previous year. It just sounds ready-made for some good nighttime imbibing while gazing out onto the Tokyo night sky from Shinjuku or Roppongi. Yamashita came up with the music while Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）wrote the words. I think the addition of the Tadanari Ohno strings and Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）piano helps give the song a bit more of a yesteryear feeling....like something that Nat King Cole would have sung. And of course, the sax by Hidefumi Toki is just the cherry on top.
The album "Melodies" also has "Christmas Eve", the first instance of the Yamashita classic on an album of his. As I have written, Yamashita kinda created the Xmas song as an "I'll show you!" to those who may have knocked him as "just" a summer song guy. However, "Blue Midnight" also illustrates that the singer-songwriter can make music that can appeal to any night of the year.
I don't buy too many CDs nowadays opting mostly to get most of my music via iTunes however when I recently came across this CD at Amazon Japan, I just had to get it. 「J Cover 80's ダンス&バラー(Dance & Ballad)」 (ASIN: B004P0A16E) was released in 2011 by GT Music, a division of Sony Music Direct's "Ootona"
line of nostalgic compilations geared towards those who are in their
30s-40s who grew up in the 80s. It is very similar to Sony's fantastic
「クライマックス・ベスト (Climax Best)」 series (which I also have) in which they
released various themed 80s and 90s music compilation sets sporting such catchy tiles such
as ""Sapphire", "Ruby", "Green", "Blue", "Yellow", "Fantastic" and
"Dramatic". While most of these CDs
generally covered most of the major and well-known J-Pop songs of the
80s, this particular compilation I thought was pretty unique in that it
featured a near-complete compilation of all the Japanese covers of
various European and American pop songs from the 80s.
It's been almost 2 years since I mentioned about the Sendai-born singer Miyuki Hatakeyama（畠山美由紀） in this blog through an article about Tomita Lab. "Taegatakumo Amai Kisetsu"（耐え難くも甘い季節） is this wonderfully hammock-friendly song that was featured on TL's album, "Shipbuilding", but actually I had heard Hatakeyama before that one came out (although that album was released in February 2003). It was her 4th single, "Umi ga Hoshii no ni" (But I Want The Sea) which came out in July 2003.
As the release date intimates, "Umi ga Hoshii no ni" is this summery light disco-soul tune that was composed by Hatakeyama and written by Shingo Sato（佐藤慎吾）. It reminds me of some of the stuff that singers like Bird and Misia released around the same time (and perhaps I can see British group Swingout Sister doing an English version of it). And yet Hatakeyama's voice remains mellow and distinct from the splendid voices of the other two. I think the song would make for fine listening at any of the trendy little cafes in the Harajuku area of Tokyo.
I'm not sure if that sort of music is still coming out of Japan now, but just a few hours ago, my Skype student mentioned that the 80s were back on the upswing in terms of popular culture over there. Perhaps he was just referring to the aidorus back as well as the fashion statement of letterman jackets, but it would be nice if the 80s boom also included some of the current singers bringing back some of that good ol' American R&B from those days.
I noticed on taking a look at the J-Wikiarticle on Shinichi Mori's（森進一）"Fuyu no Riviera" (Winter Riviera) where it identifies the genre, the song was labeled as enka but in brackets, the description in a somewhat rationalizing way that it was "pop music that an enka singer would sing".
And that was my exact initial response when I had first seen the veteran sing the song on an old VHS tape of an enka special many years ago. From that distinctive voice, it was indeed Mori but the song didn't sound like the usual enka ballad. At the time, I hadn't known about Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）but even then the music for "Fuyu no Riviera" struck me as being decidedly un-enka. It sounded very Western heroic which I have stated in some of my other articles for Ohtaki as being one of his characteristics when it came to his compositions. I was just able to catch the word "Riviera" as Mori sang it for safekeeping in my memory since I did enjoy listening to it. As for that title, I had assumed up until recently that it was referring directly to the famed resort area by the Mediterranean, but according to that J-Wiki article, Ohtaki and Takashi Matsumoto were looking to use it as the Italian word for "shores".
Matsumoto （松本隆）wrote the lyrics for the song that the late Ohtaki penned. It was released in November 1982 for Mori and became his first Oricon Top 10 hit in 9 years. And up to the present day, it would be his final Top 10 hit on the charts....it peaked at No. 10 where it stayed for 4 weeks and would become the 41st-ranked song for 1983. It would also win a Special Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards and get Mori his 16th appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen to perform it. In 2012, he would appear for the 45th time to perform it again.
Once again, I'm going to refer to that J-Wiki article but when Ohtaki passed away suddenly late last year, Mori commented that "Even now, 'Fuyu no Riviera' is a treasured song for me. I will sing it with all my heart so that it reaches him."
Having heard Miharu Koshi's（コシミハル） quirky"Hashire Usagi"（走れウサギ）on one of my compilation albums and seeing some of the album covers of this interesting singer, I decided to do a bit more scouting on YouTube to see if I could find more of her mid-80s stuff.
Well, I discovered a few such videos with that album cover photo of her from her 6th album, "Boy Soprano" (1985). Just seeing that punkish New Wave-y appearance of Koshi was enough to decide to check out some of those songs from the album. One of the videos was of her take on "Ave Maria" which was pretty avant-garde for a Japanese pop singer. And then the next one I tried was "Yuube no Inori"(Last Night's Prayer) which was written by Michio Yamagami （山上路夫）and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）. As with a number of the tracks, the song also had an alternate title, "Prie-Dieu".
I don't know exactly how but I was quickly charmed by this tune. Perhaps it was because of Koshi's little boy soprano vocals or perhaps it was the toy-shop techno march melody, but it wasn't anything that I had ever heard before. Lyrically, Koshi sings about the innocent residents of a mountain village retiring for the night from a good hard day of work and about her character praying for another wonderful tomorrow. It rather comes off like a happy European folk tale told via Kraftwerk.
Because of "Yuube no Inori" and the aforementioned "Hashire Usagi", I decided to head down to my favourite used CD shop in the Jimbocho area of Tokyo, Tacto, and rustle through the shelves to find "Boy Soprano" And I was sure lucky to find the sole copy; I wouldn't have found it (and I never did) at any of the major music shops.
I heard somewhere that one way to learn about one's own country is to live in a totally different one. Yep, I did learn a fair bit about Canada while living in Japan. I think I can also adapt that theory when it comes to music. Having listened to Japanese artists go full throttle into R&B from different decades over the decades, I learned that I really enjoy the genre from the late 70s and early 80s. Notably, I love the groove and the horns (mellow and sharp)....Earth Wind & Fire is one such example.
So, that would explain why I have enjoyed Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）. She just celebrated her 20th anniversary in the business last year with the requisite double-CD BEST pack, but I am going to have my little presentation with her very first BEST album, "TOKO Best Selection" which came out (appropriately enough) on Valentine's Day 1998. To be honest, I have been somewhat laggardly of late over my following of her so I don't really know her recent stuff, but when it comes to her first 5 years, there are some fine entries. Listening to her works, I get reminded of some of the light funk and cool ballads from that particular corner between those two particular decades that I used to listen to on AM radio. All of the songs from the album were written and composed by Furuuchi.
As I said, I love the groove and the horns. And "Peach Melba" provides plenty of it. It wasn't an official single but a track from Furuuchi's 3rd album, "Hug" (1994), and the peach melba that the singer describes doesn't refer to the dessert directly (though I do love a good peach melba) but to the sweet perfume of that woman who passed by. I would be horribly remiss if I didn't mention that I also love Furuuchi's silky and sensual vocals through all of her songs. And for this song, those vocals are just like the best caramel on a peach melba. It would have made for a wonderful fit on a radio playlist back in my junior high school days.
"SLOW DOWN" is Furuuchi's reassurance and admonition to that guy who is getting a bit of cold feet at the speed their relationship is taking. The singer is firmly in the control seat here and just like that veteran airline pilot or mother, she's telling the fellow that things will be OK. What I love about this song is that it sounds almost like an AOR version of a lullaby. Perhaps it could work for that overworked employee hitting home after a bad day at the office. I also love the muted trumpet in the bridge. This song is the title track from the singer's first album from 1993.
"Aitai kara" (I Want To Meet You) is a beautifully done song about a fellow who's in love with a woman (perhaps a longtime friend or an old flame) who is in another relationship and can no longer really keep up the I'm-OK-you're-OK pretenses without his heart disintegrating. Not surprisingly, it was used as an ending theme for a TBS drama titled "Dessert wa Anata"（デザートはあなた...Dessert Is You）. This was also Furuuchi's 2nd single from October 1993 and was a track on her 2nd album, "Distance".
(cover version)
"Usotsuki" (Liar) has this 70s R&B vibe that reminds me of artists like Lou Rawls and Ashford & Simpson. The way her voice just glides and weaves through the music at that relaxed pace makes her great for these bluesy ballads. This track also originally came from the album, "Hug", and considering the suddenly dumped woman in the song, I think she could use that particular title.
"Shiawase no Katachi" (The Form of Happiness) is a mid-tempo song of hope and optimism with that feeling of "plenty of fish in the sea" and "get back on that horse". Although the liner notes don't mention any use of horns in the song, that horn section sounds way too authentic to be just synths. This track came from Furuuchi's 4th album, "Strength" (1995).
Of course, I can't finish this BEST article for Toko Furuuchi without mentioning once more about her biggest hit, "Dare Yori Suki nanoni" from 1996. The individual article for it was my first one for her. And I think any mention of her by anyone will bring this song up first in my head by default.
As for "TOKO Best Selection", it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and became the 61st-ranked album of the year, going Platinum.
Despite the New Wave appearance Kenji Sawada（沢田研二） had on the cover of his 40th single, "Kimeteyaru Konya"(I'll Show You Tonight), when I first heard this song via sources such as "Sounds of Japan" and the video tapes of ranking shows, I thought this was a pretty normal pop song for him. After all, getting those impressions of him as a Japanese David Bowie through the 1981 and 1982 Kohaku Utagassen specials, I thought I would always see him as a New Romantic Dandy with the songs to match.
But "Kimeteyaru Konya" is just a fun and happy song about a guy determined to get that girl, a song that would have been easily covered by Checkers. There's a bit of rock and techno in there, genres that dominated "Stripper"and "Rokuban-me no Yuutsu"respectively, but with this song, I gather that Sawada was going for that 50s-ish sound that was so popular back in the early-to-mid 1980s. And I think he pulls it off well with that Sawada swagger in his delivery.
"Kimeteyaru Konya" was released in September 1983 with lyrics by Sawada and melody by Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）. It went as high as No. 14 on the Oricon weeklies and won a Special Gold Prize at that year's Japan Record Awards (according to J-Wiki, his 6th in a row).
