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.
One of the reasons that I've enjoyed Reimy（麗美）so much is that she can create some pretty nice ballads. It's a bit hard to imagine that the aidoru in the early 80s under the wing of the Matsutoyas could blossom this nicely and romantically. This particular ballad, though, is definitely more in the "grab a hanky" category.
"Last Fragrance" was the 2nd-last track on "Magic Railway", itself the 2nd-last original album that the singer-songwriter released back in July 1992. As with all of the songs on the album, Reimy took care of everything: writing, composing and arranging. The song describes the gradual disintegration of a relationship and the woman's desire to break it off permanently, and the tempo takes on that feeling of sadness, shock and inevitability that anyone would feel at the end of a long romantic era. The music video at YouTube shows that rather well.
For some reason, this is one of a few Reimy songs that continues to pop up to mind whenever the name itself is remembered.
There are 3 bases for Mood Kayo: Jazz, of which I'm guessing is the one with the lonely sax or trumpet. Hawaiian, with its exotic feel that makes you envision the band members in gaudy tropical shirts and orchid garlands. And lastly Latin, listening to its music just makes you want to get up and sway to the beat. Out of the 3 I'm most familiar with Jazz and Hawaiian, but I can't say the same for Latin.
In fact, the only Latin Mood Kayo song I knew was Los Indios' hit from the early 80's, 'Wakarete mo suki na hito', although I did think the Latin group names were pretty rad, like the refrain as well as Akira Kurosawa & Los Primos (黒沢明とロス・プリモス)... well, the Los Primos part. And just so you know the Akira Kurosawa here's not the same guy as the famous movie director.
Anyway, I finally managed to catch the Latin MK group in action on Tuesday's 'Kayo Concert: Mood Kayo Fest' (I'm still ecstatic from watching a bunch of MK veterans on TV, bear with me on this one), and out of the 2 songs they sang the one that piqued my interest was 'Tasogare no Ginza' with its signature, "Ginza, Ginza, Ginza", which was really quite fun to listen to when combined with the cha-cha beat. So I guess from that moment on I could finally check off Los Primos from my list of Mood Kayo groups I've yet to listen to... boy, I've been waiting for that for quite a while actually!
'Tasogare no Ginza' (Ginza's Evening) was Los Primos' 8th single, released in 1968 and was either the 2nd or 3rd installment to the group's 'Ginza series', with the other 2 being 'Koi no Ginza' and 'Ame no Ginza' (恋の銀座 . 雨の銀座). All had its music composed by this guy Hiroyuki Nakagawa (中川博之), but 'Tasogare' was penned by Hanae Furuki (古木花江).
Being a big hit in 1968 and one of their 4 songs to be in the year's Oricon HOT 100, 'Tasogare no Ginza' got Los Primos their first and sadly only ticket to the Kohaku. Hmm, funny how they got invited for this song and not the seemingly more popular 'Love you Tokyo' (ラブユー東京) from 1966.
This would be a pretty good song to listen at a low volume while sitting at the counter of a quiet bar (in Ginza, perhaps?) sipping on something like brandy on the rocks, or through the earpiece as you take a stroll down the pavement of the posh district of Tokyo as the sunsets and as the store signs light up. Now that's nice... ... And then again, there's that perpetual crowd that pretty much ruins the mood.
The "song" here is a mere 23 seconds long. However, most likely for those purveyors of Japanese TV born in the 80s and earlier, the rapid-fire scat will get that tinge of nostalgic recognition...and a slight leer on a number of faces.
When I landed in Japan in 1989 for my JET tour, I had already known that late-night TV there could get pretty weird and racy. Case in point: one time I was watching a video in Toronto from Nippon Video which featured a late-night suspense program. Before the suspense began, there was a first-person interview segment in which a pretty woman sitting on one of those Hollywood director chairs was babbling about something. A minute later, the scene faded out and back in. This time, the babbling continued but this time, the woman was completely naked and unfazed. Go figure!
Anyways, one of the slightly more normal programs that was fixture on the Japanese late-night TV circuit was the legendary "Wide Show 11 PM". Broadcast weeknights on NTV from November 1965 to March 1990, "11 PM" was the first late-night variety-and-information program in Japan which had the atmosphere of something that Playboy's Hugh Hefner would have created if he had ever emigrated to Tokyo. According to the J-Wiki article on the show, the hosts and guests covered the news of the day and leisure topics, did foreign location shoots, played games, showed some stuff that was definitely not for the kids, etc. And from the times I've caught the show near the end of its life, it did all that with a certain ring-a-ding style and with a lot of scantily-clad women.
And to top it all off, there was the theme song for "11 PM" itself. Composed by Keitaro Miho（三保敬太郎）, veteran session singers Kayo Ishuu and Hiroshi Okazaki（伊集加代・岡崎広志）scatted themselves into a lather each night as the old-fashioned animation flashed across the screen while various beauties were draped across the screen. With those brief opening credits, viewers were treated to a visual version of visiting the Playboy Mansion.
While the footage at the very top is from an 1989 show, the one right above these words is from 1983. The raciness of late-night TV continued for some more years after the end of "11 PM", but by the turn of the century, I think most of the titillation disappeared from the wee hours.
Now, for something completely different....speaking about old TV programs, I just had to include NHK's "Renso Game" which was the Japanese equivalent of the American game show "Password". Game shows in Japan almost exclusively have featured only celebrities as the contestants since as one TV official I read in an interview so snarkily put it, "Why would we ever put on boring ordinary people?" Ouch!
So the guys above in the video are all celebs (unfortunately, footage of the original show no longer exists on YouTube but there is the CG mockup above). "Renso Game"（連想ゲーム...Association Game） had a similarly long life on TV, lasting from 1969 to 1991. And it just happened to be the 2nd TV program that I viewed in a tiny restaurant near the Tokyo Prince Hotel on an even tinier TV set. Yup, I'm feeling nostalgic.
Sukisa, sukisa, sukisa I love you, I love you, I love you Wasurerarenain'da, OMAE NO SUBETE!! I can't get you out of my mind, ALL OF YOU!!
It's been a grand while since I put up an article on a Group Sounds song, and I had thought that I put down all that I knew about the bands in that genre, but once in a while, something falls out of the folds of my cerebrum. Last night, it was this one.
The above lyrics are the prime ones that I remember from The Carnabeats' most successful song, "Sukisa Sukisa Sukisa". Way back when, I had thought that the tune was first provided by 80s aidoru rock band, CCB, since there was that high-pitched voice by the drummer yelling that last part of the lyrics I wrote above. I'd also assumed that it could have been the 70s family group, Finger Five. But I was wrong on both counts in terms of band and decade.
The Carnabeats（ザ・カーナビーツ）were formed from a fusion of folks from other bands in the 1960s. In 1967, Ai Takano (高野アイ...all of 16 years of age), who would become the drummer and vocalist, left The Freelancers for the purpose of creating a new band. In short order, he was joined by Jiro Kitamura（喜多村次郎）from another GS unit, Swing West, and another Freelancers bandmate Hiroshi Koshikawa（越川弘志）, along with (and I hope I've got the names correct) Keikichi Usui（臼井啓吉）and Tadao Oka（岡忠夫）. Initially, the lads had called themselves Robin Hood but once "Sukisa Sukisa Sukisa" was released as their launching single, the name was changed to The Carnabeats.
I've heard the name now and then over the decades, but I always thought of car navigation systems. But as it turned out, the probable derivation of The Carnabeats was from the Carnaby Sound that was part and parcel of the music of Swinging London in that same decade.
Speaking of the UK, the original version of "Sukisa Sukisa Sukisa" was from the British band The Zombies'"I Love You" that had been released in 1965. Chris White created the song and when it made the trip over to Japan, Kenji Sazanami（漣健児）provided the Japanese lyrics. Released in June 1967, Takano's delivery of those words apparently had the girls swooning and grabbing their faces in ecstasy. The Oricon charts were still yet to start but I'm pretty sure the song would have hit the top spot in a New York minute. Sales were between 1.2 and 1.5 million.
Sadly, Takano passed away at the age of 55 from heart failure in 2006.
"Sukisa Sukisa Sukisa" would not only echo through the decades via nostalgia tours by The Carnabeats, but through cover versions. One came out in November 1990 as the 4th and final single by singer-actress Ayako Kobayashi（小林彩子）.
However, the one cover version I remember was provided by Group Sounds tribute trio, Mi-Ke. Released in May 1991, their version (their 2nd single) was given a bit more of a urgent oomph through some of those 90s guitars. It got as high as No. 9 on Oricon.
One of my other targets for purchase in Tokyo was a Mari Iijima（飯島真理）album and based on nikala's article on "Beautiful Music", I ended up getting her 1990 release, "It's a Love Thing". Then, I was fortunate enough to have been given a present in the form of Iijima's debut album from September 1983, "Rosé". It's an album that I have seen tons of times while leafing through "Japanese City Pop" to which I've often remarked, "Man, that is one PINK room!".
A little more seriously, I read that Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）was behind the production and that Iijima herself wrote and composed all of the 11 tracks. Then, when I finally got to open my own copy of "Rosé", I found out that Sakamoto was on the keyboards, and there were a number of recognized session musicians such as Tsugutoshi Goto (後藤次利...bassist), Tatsuo Hayashi (林立夫...drums) and Masamichi Sugi (杉真理...backup vocals). For a first album from a then-20-year-old with just one single under her belt (albeit along with a voice acting performance of one of the most famous anime characters in history), that is a pretty loaded lineup.
First off, I gotta say that Mari Iijima IS Lynn Minmay and vice versa, as Movie Trailer Voiceover Man would often bellow. So, being the geek that I have been, there was an added thrill to listening to her through her own creations as interpreted by Sakamoto via the genres I have listed at the bottom of the article. As someone who, up to the point that I popped the CD into my computer, had known Iijima largely through Minmay in the "Macross"series, I was looking forward to hearing her own material from the very beginning.
"Rosé" begins with the bouncy "Blueberry Jam". Although I said Iijima was behind both lyrics and music, Sakamoto's early 80s influence is unmistakable from the opening notes (and throughout the album). I thought I had jumped into a Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）or Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）tune from that same time period. Both the album opener and the second track, "Marin"（まりん）below have that bubbly aidoru beat along with the lyrics to match ("Blueberry Jam" is about getting giddy about giving that jar of the titular spread to someone special while "Marin" seems to be referring to cute little Mari herself). However, there is also that quirky technopoppy element that brings some more sparkle to the proceedings. I like the fact that both Sakamoto and Iijima incorporated a trumpet solo and a piece of acapella to the first song. And "Marin" has the singer in Minmay mode but on a song that sounds a cut above.
"Secret Time" is another interesting one in that it is a soaring love serenade with that enhanced Sakamoto touch, but it's definitely Iijima's own song rather than something that the aforementioned Ohnuki or Yano would tackle. The delivery and music both sound like something that a teen girl in love would be feeling. And yet, Iijima throws in her own jazzy riff on the piano followed by an exotically musical carpet ride as if that soaring flight was over continents merely than just a jaunt over the neighbourhood. Finally, it all finishes off with Kenji Omura's（大村憲司）thrilling electric guitar.
"Kitto Ieru"（きっと言える...Tell You Straight） is Iijima's 2nd single from November 1983. It's a bittersweet ballad of having the guts to say goodbye to the boyfriend once it's discovered that he may have more intense feelings for another. I could hear Minmay in there as well but there is also a layer of steel behind the delivery, the question being whether that layer comes from the anger of betrayal or the heartbroken courage needed to break things off. The music, though, still ranges from upbeat to downright giddy.
The one truly City Pop-esque track is "Himitsu no Tobira"（ひみつの扉）that launches with a blast of horns and jangly guitar. This was the B-side to "Kitto Ieru", and in terms of lyrics, "Himitsu no Tobira" seems to literally be the flip side to the A-side song in which Iijima sings about trying to get through to that guy who has frozen her out for some reason.
Another track from the album is "Love Sick"which nikala explains about in one of her articles.
I enjoyed "Rosé" a lot and as nikala mentioned, it has generated a lot of talk among the City Pop and techno kayo fans. In a way, I think the album resembles Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's"Le Petit Prince" in that I will hear different things as I continue to listen to the album over and over again. I've already listened to it twice in the past couple of days, and different tracks have popped up in prominence each of those times for different reasons. Not surprisingly, I can bet that at least a few more of the tracks that I didn't cover this time will get their own articles in the near future. Of course, I will have to cover "It's a Love Thing" as well.
With all the riveting performances on last night's 'Kayo Concert' Mood Kayo fest (GREAT episode by the way, especially to a fan of the genre)... well, as riveting as a bunch of elderly men can pull off, I had a tough time deciding which song to write about. I mean, there were the usual 'Mood Kayo all stars' from the 50's and 60's like the Hawaiian 'Mahina Stars' and the Latin and now reduced to 3 members 'Los Indios' and 'Los Primos', so there was quite a selection. But what took the cake was ex-Toshi Ito andHappy & Blue ( 敏いとうとハッピー＆ブルー) lead singer Hideo Morimoto (森本英世) singing one of the group's 3 big hits, 'Yoseba ii noni'.
Other than the song's pretty dramatic start, another thing I remembered was that I went, "Is that him? The cool guy from Happy & Blue?" And yes, I was quite thrilled by the fact that it was really the man himself looking rather spiffy in a white suit with that little smile on his face. Watching the group's performances in the 70's and early 80's, I always thought that Morimoto just gave them that extra edge they needed due to his interesting and pleasant vocal delivery... and also he seems to like to move along to the music, making for better stage presence.
Anyway, 'Yoseba ii noni' was written and composed by Hiroshi Miura (三浦弘) and was Happy & Blue's 15th single released on 21st June 1979.
The video directly above is to a more recent rendition with new members and a different guy as the lead singer... I think he's Eisaku Tamaru (田丸栄作). Whereas the video above has Morimoto at the helm, as well as some other guy (I think he's one of those guests on the show).
I would have to say that the silliest thing on that episode would have to be Koji Taira (平浩二) in a hard-to-ignore sparkly top that made him look like one of the numerous disco balls on stage. Ah, but that didn't matter since his performance of his hit 'Bus stop' (バス・ストップ) was aMAzing.
I’m
an old SAWA fan, so there’re a ton of great songs from her that I could talk
about today. But after some days thinking which song I would highlight, “Mr.
Brown” was my final decision.
Although
originally a Technopop artist, SAWA started recording more organic songs in
2012. She didn’t abandon the Techno style, but both styles became the norm in
her discography. Her latest mini-album, “RingaRinga”, for example, features
half Technopop, half organic songs. As for “Mr. Brown”, it’s part of the second
group.
Originally
released as a digital single in 2013, “Mr. Brown” is a cute and catchy song
where SAWA explores her signature high-pitched vocals. Because of that fact
alone, the song may not be very suitable for everyone.
About
the song itself, it’s a mixture of pop with light Jazz and Bossa Nova
influences thrown here and there, which actually quite works with SAWA’s clumsy
and awkward vocals. One of my favorite parts of it is when SAWA, after the
first chorus, starts the second verse with a very cute “ii...”. Other
interesting part is, of course, when the song gets into the climax and SAWA
goes up some octaves for one of the last Mr. Brown shouts. In the end, I also
find “Mr. Brown” a very clever song, mostly because during the verses SAWA
seems kinda uncomitted, and in the choruses she just delivers a high and
energetic performance. This kind of up and down takes the listener into an
interesting journey.
As a side note, SAWA wrote, composed and partly arranged Especia’s first notorious single, the retro-styled dance-pop song “Midnight Confusion” (ミッドナイトConfusion). She even recorded a rearranged version of the song for the “RingaRinga” mini-album. Both versions are great, but I just catch myself listening to SAWA’s version more often.
"Mr. Brown" was placed in SAWA's "RingaRinga" mini-album, which was released in September 2014. "Mr. Brown" was written, composed and arranged by SAWA herself.
To finish, here's my copy of the "RingaRinga" mini-album.
