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.
Yumi Tanimura (谷村有美) was such an unknown name for me
some weeks ago. She was a singer-songwriter with aidoru looks that debuted in the late 80s and released some
interesting songs. One of them is the fun and happy-go-lucky “Ganbare Broken
Heart”, which was released as a single in April 1989.
With a very
light vibe, “Ganbare Broken Heart” showcases a typical late 80s arrangement
with synths in place of horns and a prominent electronic bass line accompanying
it. Also, a typical but always nice sax solo can be heard during and after the bridge. Although not groundbreaking, it’s a nice and pleasant piece of pop music
that has a summery and playful vibe going along. I especially like it when I’m
traveling to Rio de Janeiro in a sunny afternoon (which is almost always).
As for Yumi
Tanimura, her vocals are not bad at all, and she is also a very competent live
singer. Based on that and in the fact that she wrote some lyrics, I probably can’t categorize her as an aidoru. All in all, "Ganbare Broken Heart" is a nice song from the late 80s, and the video is
very cute with Yumi Tanimura being goofy and pretty while miming the song.
Lyrics for “Ganbare Broken Heart” were written by Nobuyoshi Tozawa (戸沢暢美) while music and arrangement were done by Nishiwaki Tatsuya (西脇辰弥).
When it comes to J-Pop songs tied into the Olympics, my all-time favourites are Maki Ohguro's （大黒摩季）"Atsuku Nare"（熱くなれ）which was the official theme song for NHK's coverage of the Atlanta Summer Games in 1996 and Misia's"Hatenaku Tsuzuku Story"（果てなく続くストーリー） for the national broadcaster's coverage for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002.
However, Anri（杏里） came up with a pretty pleasant summery tune also for the 1996 Games in July of that year. Her 33rd single was titled "Ano Natsu ni Modoritai" (Wanna Go Back To Those Summer Days) and was used for the TV Asahi segment of those Games. Although I don't think it will ever break into the Top 10 of Anri hits, listening to it again still brings some nice memories of just that early time in my stay in Ichikawa. Written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之水） and composed by Anri, the song also got onto her 18th album for 1996, "Angel Whisper".
In a few more days, the Sochi Games will begin in Russia. I hope both Japan and Canada do well, and I hope all of the nations' athletes there stay safe.
Provided that the above doesn't get taken down (it has but still have the original song), I have to say that this is probably one of the more quietly surreal videos that I have ever imported into this blog. After all, what is more intriguing after 3 a.m. (and I'm pretty sure this is 3 in the morning since I can't recall seeing any Japanese network put up a music video at 3 in the afternoon) than having a bleary-eyed night owl watching a video of a balloon flying up a Shinjuku skyscraper followed by a bird's-eye view of the Tokyo neighbourhood while one of the cutest songs known in kayo kyoku history is playing? I hope that the above stays up for a good long time since I would have to change the narrative completely here if it gets taken down.
November 4th 2019: Well, the Shinjuku video did get taken down but you can look at the really cute video in its place above.
In any case, the above video here is perhaps more appropriate and cuter for Warabe's（わらべ）"Moshi mo Ashita ga"(If Tomorrow) although the song is a shorter version. Exactly a year after the variety-show aidoru trio hit the pop charts with "Medaka no Kyoudai"（めだかの兄妹）, their most successful single came out in December 1983. And it wasn't just Warabe's most successful single; it was 1984's most successful single, selling just under 1 million records! On the Oricon weeklies, it stayed at No. 1 for about a month.
The same fellows who created "Medaka no Kyoudai" also made "Moshi mo Ashita ga",Toyohisa Araki and Takashi Miki（荒木とよひさ・三木たかし）. The lyrics come off sounding like a 3-minute version of "He loves me, he loves me not...." with Atsumi Kurasawa and Mami Takahashi（倉沢敦美・高橋真美） singing of various next-day scenarios for a lovesick girl and that guy. And the melody is perfectly kid-friendly like its predecessor from a year earlier with a touch of Dixieland. The background chorus consisted of other members from that variety show I mentioned in the previous paragraph, "Kin-chan no Doko Made Yaru no?"（欽ちゃんのどこまでやるの）, including one pint-sized actor/comedian who has become a household name in afternoon TV, Kazuki Kosakai（小堺一樹）.
Now, there is one name missing here from the roster. Last year, there was also the eldest of the "sisters", Tomoko Takabe（高部知子）. Unfortunately, early in 1983, between "Medaka" and "Moshi", there was a rather large scandal involving the then-15-year-old in photographs of her saucily holding a cigarette while supposedly nude in bed with a futon covering her. Well, lots of stuff hit the fan ultimately resulting in her getting expelled from Horikoshi High School (the Tokyo high school for the teen celebs), Warabe and the program. However, she did return to show business 15 years later.
If I were a fly on the wall....I think that's what the director behind the video for Tatsuya Ishii's（石井竜也）"Hi-Tension Love" was thinking about when he came up with the concept. But the fly here seems to be the mirror ball looking in on the hijinks at an old-fashioned disco (unfortunately the official video has been taken down.).
In any case, this was Ishii's 5th single as a solo singer away from Kome Kome Club（米米クラブ）. I first heard it at a karaoke box along with several of my students at the time. One of them was a fairly timid young lady in the classroom but once she got into the lounge with a microphone, it was all hands on deck. And she was a huge Ishii fan, to boot, so she was more than happy to find "Hi-Tension Love" in the thick tome of listings. As I was listening to her warble the tune, I realized it was a pretty hyper song (as would be the case for a K2C single) with a tribute to good ol' disco.
Not long afterwards, I was doing a bit of rummaging through the used CD single section of one of my favourite music haunts, RECOfan, in Shibuya (just a few floors below The J-Pop Café where some of Rinko Kikuchi's scenes from "Babel" had been filmed), and I came across "Hi-Tension Love". It obviously was once in a CD rental shop according to the markings on the cover but the disc still sounded fine. It was indeed Carl Smokey's voice there but no sign of Big Horns Bee. Still, the thick disco bass was plucking away like a rabid turkey farmer before Thanksgiving. Not quite up there with K2C's best stuff but still fun to listen to nonetheless.
According to J-Wiki, all or most of the fawning women at the disco club where Ishii's character, the Disco King (or Pimp), held court actually belonged to his fan club. I can imagine that all of those expressions on their faces were quite genuine. I know that my student/No. 1 Ishii fan probably tore her hair out in envy. As for the almost unrecognizable Ishii, to me he actually looked a lot like the foppish Toshihiko Takamizawa（高見沢俊彦） from ALFEE right down to the dark nail polish.
Well, the above video has Ishii looking more like himself. "Hi-Tension Love" made it as high as No. 28 on Oricon after its release in December 1998, and was written/composed by Ishii. It's also a track on his 2nd album, "DEEP" which came out in January 1999. The album peaked at No. 10.
A lot of appraising comments have been attributed to Happy End (はっぴいえんど) over the years thanks to the mark this band has left in Japanese popular music in the early 70's. Rolling Stone Japan even went as far as to call “Kazemachi Roman” (1971) the greatest Japanese Rock Album of all time in 2007. We all know that story and it certainly generated some debate. I must say, compared to other quintessential albums of the period like Yuming's “Hikoki Gumo” and Yosui Inoue's “Koori no Sekai”, “Kazemachi Roman” hasn't gotten that many rotations from me. I still think it's great, but I tend to view it more as a catalyst that paved the way for the commercial success of folk and New Music in the 70's and influencing even greater records rather than a masterpiece in itself. The album, along with their previous self-titled effort (which I enjoy more as an album), were unlike anything else Japan has produced up to that point and certainly were a breath of fresh air when compared to enka, jazz standards and Group Sounds from the 60's. Even though the melodies sounded Western and even country at times, there's an inexplicable quality to them that depicted Japanese sentiments and settings and that's why they struck a chord with the listeners.
One of the songs I've enjoyed the most from "Kazemachi Roman" is “Hana Ichi Monme” (花いちもんめ), titled after a famous Japanese children's game that's similar to Red Rover but also has a janken twist to it. I played it so much with my students without even realizing what it's called. Takashi Matsumoto's (松本隆) lyrics, however, have nothing to do with the title but rather paint a dreamy picture of Tokyo in the midst of industrialization in the 50's and 60's and contrast it with natural landscapes, while the final lines refer to grim factories spewing yellow and red smoke everywhere. Listening to those rolling guitars and organ just plants this image in my head of being lost on a busy street crammed with commuters, buses and streetcars. One does not know whether to welcome or be overwhelmed by such environment. Hey, that sounds a lot like Queen Street in downtown Toronto. It's a pretty dynamic song but with a melancholic undertone, considering the content. The guitarist Shigeru Suzuki (鈴木茂) was the one who composed and sang it, by the way. He's a talented guitarist and even though his vocals aren't great, they suit this kind of folk rock. According to English Wiki, Matsumoto liked the song well enough that he thought it should represent the band. It was also released as a single a month after “Kazemachi Roman” on December 20th, 1971.
(The original video nikala was referring to has been taken down.)
Actually, the main trigger for this entry was this live video of Happy End performing at International Youth Year (国際青年年記念) event All Together Now (I briefly wrote about this splendid concert here) on June 15th, 1985, which I just stumbled across yesterday evening. This was the first and only time all four members of the band got together as a unit since their break-up in 1973 to sing some old classics. “Hana Ichi Monme” is the third song that starts from 7:20. This whole thing seriously gave me goosebumps, especially in light of Eiichi Ohtaki's (大滝詠一) passing last year. He was so elusive when it came to visual media that it's surreal to watch him perform. And then there's post-YMO Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣) looking so unassuming on bass with his bandmates from way back when. This man probably has the most impressive career of all Japanese artists, having been a member of not one but at least two pioneering groups, one for rock music and another one for techno. It was also refreshing to see Matsumoto on drums after all these years of writing lyrics for numerous popular artists in the background. As for Suzuki, I've only heard a handful of his solo albums though he's more prolific as a guitarist for other singers, notably Takuro Yoshida (who also briefly appears in the video) and Kenji Sawada.
I believe I mentioned this back in a past article, but the Canadian program "The New Music" once did an hour-long spotlight on the music of Japan....and not on the classical stuff with the koto or shamisen, but the music that we all have been involved with on this blog. I recollect seeing Pizzicato 5 and YMO and also the good folks of Kome Kome Club（米米クラブ）with leader and bon vivant, Tatsuya 'Carl Smokey' Ishii（石井竜也）, getting interviewed. What was notable about his talk was how subdued and even guarded he was during those few minutes, as if he was afraid that he would divulge something he shouldn't. The record companies have wielded a lot of power over their employees, kinda like how the big movie studios did during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and so perhaps I could understand some of Ishii's reticence.
But on stage, Ishii and K2C were the masters. And Ishii especially was the charismatic ringleading master of ceremonies for the happily chaotic circus that was all his. Another reason for the excitement they've provided over the years was their 5th single from April 1987, "Sure Danse". I'm not sure what made me get this one except to believe that just coming across one of their performances on TV via a music program or one of their stage appearances or one of their occasionally shown official music videos was reason enough to head down to the CD shop and grab the single. And once again, it was the combination of Ishii's silky/booming voice and the propulsive Big Horns Bee, plus seeing Mari and Minako dancing away behind their leader that made this song fun to watch and hear.
"Sure Danse" was penned by K2C and peaked at No. 19 on Oricon. It's also a track on the band's 3rd album, "Komeguny" which came out in October 1987 and went as high as No. 3.
I think it's because of her videos which have often shown the relaxed life out in the countryside, but I have felt that Misia's brand of R&B can be quite heartwarming and homey. Misia's "Believe" is her 3rd single from April 1999 that's also a track on her 2nd album, "Love Is The Message" from January 2000.
With lyrics by the singer and music by Jun Sasaki（佐々木潤）,"Believe" is a warm and sunny ballad that rather sums up that walk along the rice paddies on a summer day. I guess for me, if I were to compare Misia's vocals with anything, the word for me would be "honey". The times I have listened to "Believe", it didn't exactly fill me with power to lift the world on my shoulders despite the optimistic words, but it did reassure me with "Don't worry, everything will be all right". It's the musical equivalent of Honey Hot Chocolate with that extra pat on the back.
The song peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and became the 82nd-ranked song of the year.
I would also like to note that as of yesterday, "Kayo Kyoku Plus" hit its 2nd birthday. It's hard to believe that the blog could get this far and I can't really say when we will all stop putting up articles. However, until that eventual day comes, I would like to thank JTM, nikala, Marcos V. and jari for all of the work they've put in over the past year and hope that they will continue to share with me and everyone their favourite songs from what is admittedly a very niche genre in music. But I think it's for that reason that their insights have been very special. And of course, I would like to thank all of you, the viewers, for taking the time to look in and hopefully enjoy some of what Japanese popular music has been offering in all of its myriad forms for the past number of decades. I'm not sure how things were going to go on January 31 2012, but as of January 31 2014, I can echo what Misia is saying and say "I believe".
２周年まで来て本当に驚いて感謝しています。御覧の皆さんにありがとうございますと言いたくて、参加していただいているJTM, nikala, Marcos V. and jariにもお世話になっていると言いたいです。これからもよろしくお願いします。
