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.
Folder5 was a cute Avex aidoru group that was active in the early 00s with a mixture of idol-pop and Eurobeat. In reality, they were a spin-off from a grop called Folder, which consisted of five girls and two boys. The five girls, after Folder’s disbandment, were put together in Folder5. Maybe thanks to Morning Musume.’s (モーニング娘。) success, Avex thought it was lucrative to maintain an aidoru group.
From Folder5’s singles, one that I like a lot is “Final Fun-Boy”, which was released as the group’s fifth single in June 2001. Like many of their songs, it has a light Eurobeat feel, and it’s understandable because the late 90s and early 00s experienced a heavy Eurobeat/Para Para fever, thanks to SMAP’s Takuya Kimura (木村拓哉), who danced Para Para on popular TV show SMAPxSMAP in the late 90s.
Back to “Final Fun-Boy”, I always wondered what the title meant... without much success, of course. Besides the weird title, it was fun to sing along with English lines such as “tell me why final fun boy” or “show me why final fun boy” (I can see this song as an easy choice for karaoke). In the end, it’s an infectious and energetic pop tune with a very catchy chorus.
“Final Fun-Boy” reached #14 on the Oricon charts, selling 49,410 copies. Lyrics, music and arrengement were all done by PIPELINE PROJECT.
From time to time I have my CoCo days, and this week I decided to give their discography a big try, which was great because I found some pretty nice songs. The one I chose for today is not a hiddem gem or anything. In fact, it’s just "Sasayaka na Yuuwaku", a song that was released as the group’s fourth single back in September 1990.
I probably ignored this song in the past, but after hearing it with more affection, I as astonished at how cool it sounded. Like I always say, it’s not revolutionary, but just a poppy Latin song with a memorable melody and an interesting arrangement consisting of house beats and synths portraying horns and strings (typical early 90s arrangement). Strangely enough, I like the beginning with the studio female singers taking care of a not very understandable line (they repeat the lines through some parts of the song). Also, I truly enjoy when the arrangement breakdown is quickly followed by the girls “zutto zutto zutto hanasanai de...” (ずっとずっとずっと離さないで), and then, finally, Rieko Miura (三浦理恵子), the girl with a cute baby voice, starts singing “sasayaka na yuuwaku...” with just the beat and some twinkles behind.
(That particular video has been taken down but here is another concert performance.)
As we can see above, it’s a live performance from “Yoru no Hit Studio” (夜のヒットスタジオ). I confess that I always feel kind of sad when watching Yoru no Hit Studio's performances from 1990 because, thanks to J-Canuck’s article about the show, I know it was the year that marked its end (they still recorded some specials through the 90s, but the feeling wasn’t the same). Like I said in J-Canuck’s post, I just love this show, and I’m always searching for good quality performances from the 80s on YouTube.
One funny anecdot about the song was when I asked my nihongo teacher what “Sasayaka na Yuuwaku” meant (I just thought about the title while going to my nihongo class). After answering that it was something in the lines of “Modest Temptation”, she made a joke about the thematics of the songs I usually listen to. I thought about explaining that CoCo was a cute aidoru group, but I just laughed and said it was nothing risque. “Sasayaka na Yuuwaku” reached #3 on the Oricon charts. Lyrics were written by Neko Oikawa (及川眠子), while music was composed by Takashi Tsushimi (都志見隆). As for the arrangement, it was done by Satoshi Nakamura (中村哲).
Out of the numerous Chage and Aska albums I have collected over the span of 3 to 4 years, their 16th addition (1993) has got to be my favorite - I enjoyed all 13 songs in it. Also, the cover art for the album is pretty cool; An abandoned dinghy in the middle of a desert with red sand (keeping to the name Red Hill) and in the distance, the silhouette of an Arabian-looking city is seen. Atmospheric, don't you think? But none of the songs have any Middle-eastern influence on them, just so you know... although there is one song with an interesting arrangement which I would touch on later.
For its statistics, Red Hill peaked at 1st place for 2 weeks and eventually settled at 8th for the year. Not surprising to see that since it was released during one of their banner years. It's also a million-seller. And from the 13 songs, 9 of them were used in commercial/show tie-ups.
Well now, that's enough introduction, let's get started.
First on the list that I would like to talk about would be the 5th song from the album that seems like the odd one out in terms of its music, 'Konya chotto sa' (今夜ちょっとさ). It has got this Caribbean arrangement that intrigued me upon hearing it since Aska (the one who wrote and composed it) generally doesn't do... reggae. In terms of its lyrics, it's quite the typical ballad where the guy basically just wants a hug (or maybe something more...) from the girl he's so madly in love with before leaving for the night (if he does). Some of the lyrics include "Lying on your (her) knees" and "Holding your hand is sweeter than the doughnut I'm eating"... romantic? Man, if I tell that to my classmates, the ones with a colorful mind would surely be snickering away as their imaginations run wild... well to be honest I would do it too...
Oh yes, and 'Konya chotto sa' was used as the commercial jingle for Ajinomoto's 'Knorr Hokkaido Potage'.
Okay, on to the next one: 'THE TIME'. Also written and composed by Aska, this one sounds awfully grand in its arrangement even though the song's overall meaning is to do whatever you want no matter how stupid, ridiculous or minuscule right now and not give up in the endeavor even if you fail. So to a certain extent, carpe diem, and to a lesser extent, YOLO. It's also quite a long song, clocking in at around 6 minutes. But if you're familiar with C&A's songs, it shouldn't be too bad. 'THE TIME' was used as the ending theme to a show called 'Time Angle'.
Then we have 'Mr.J no higeki wa iwa yori omoi' (Mr.Jの悲劇は岩より重い). This time written and composed by Chage, the song's title means 'Mr.J's tragedy/burden is heavier than stone'. Sounds dark, doesn't it? According to the J-Wiki write-up, this song pretty much answers the question, "What happens after love's 'happily ever after'?" And instead of living an enjoyable life, our protagonist's life spirals down into the abyss instead. Take that, Disney!
Along to the somewhat upbeat music that makes you envision New York's Manhattan, the story of poor Mr.J is being narrated: Finds the special one, get married, whoopdeedoo. Baby comes along, missus couldn't care less anymore. ASPIRIN. Although it's not the happiest song in the world, I find it rather catchy and interesting to listen to.
Next on the agenda is the song the album is named after, Red Hill. The whole song just has this aura of mystery in it, especially its start where it dragged on slowly for quite a while. Unfortunately, that kinda put me off at first. That was until I managed to pull through the first part and get to the chorus.
Nagarenai kaze no akai oka Noboranai boku wo nagameru
That part of the chorus was firmly imprinted into my mind since I heard it... and would now be stuck in my head for the next few days. But anyway, the music (by Aska again, so are the lyrics) coupled with the image of the 2 fellows in black traversing the red sand dunes in the billowing desert wind, probably headed to or in search of the city in the album cover just adds an extra layer of atmosphere to Red Hill. I guess that's why I like the song quite a fair bit. It was also used in a JAL commercial.
C&A actually did an English cover of Red Hill as well and they sang it when they were on MTV Unplugged in 1996. I think the lyrics are a direct translation of the Japanese ones... and Aska's English pronunciation and diction weren't the best on this one.
And finally, the last song I'm going to cover is 'Sons and Daughters soreyori boku ga tsutaetai no wa' (Sons and Daughters～それより僕が伝えたいのは)... that's a huge mouthful. Just like Red Hill, this sweet song with American acapella group 14 Karat Soul grabbed my attention with its chorus. With everything done by Aska, the lyrics basically express what parents want to tell their kids... y'know, that they are their everything I suppose. 'Sons and Daughters' was used as a commercial jingle for a Subaru car, as well as FamilyMart convenience store (keeping to the family theme, eh?).
I may cover the other songs from Red Hill by themselves in the future, but as for now, this is it. The album was one of my first Chage and Aska albums I got from Japan 4 years back, and I remember that I very much enjoyed reading that booklet thing with the songs' lyrics and looking at their pictures - Aska's poetry included.
About a year later, I received another copy of Red Hill - the real deal from back in the 90's! - from a Grand aunt from Hong Kong when she had learnt of my liking towards the duo (it was hers), and it had the Chinese (Cantonese) translations of the songs in a piece of paper! It was difficult to read, but at least I understood about half of it... better than not understanding the song at all.
So, that's how "lemon" is written in kanji, eh? Well, that's why I'm so grateful the Japanese developed the katakana syllabary（レモン）.
But I digress. Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）"Lemon" is her 27th single released in February 1982. Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロ）, the title gives a good hint at the nature of the lyrics which involves Iwasaki sweetly singing about some bitter jealousy against a man with another woman on his arm. At one point in the song, the protagonist wants to pitch a green lemon right at his chest. That's pretty darn harsh. I don't think he'd be able to make lemonade all that quickly.
Over the times that I've written about one of my earliest discoveries in Japanese popular music, I've realized that Iwasaki has dipped her toe in a variety of musical styles: her upbeat aidoru songs from the mid-70s, some of the more disco and City Pop ventures going from the 70s into the 80s, and those soaring epic ballads that often became the ending themes for suspense dramas in the early 80s. But also in that part of the decade, the long-haired incarnation of the singer was known to sing songs that had a mix of jaunty pop, folk and even a bit of European, and "Lemon" fits into that category. The composer Kisaburo Suzuki is a name that I've seen associated with female balladeers such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）and Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）, and the pattern that I've noticed with some of his songs is that he seems to like that rush of shimmering strings (the Joe Kato Group is one unit that I've read in liner notes a lot for these singers). And yep, my nostalgia nerve clusters get plenty pressed when I hear this stuff.
"Lemon" got only as high as No. 16 on Oricon but no worries. Iwasaki's next single would become one of the biggest hits of her career. By the way, the single also was on her 11th studio album in 1982, "Yugure kara...Hitori"（夕暮れから。。。ひとり...From Twilight--Alone）.
Well, it's not exactly Saturday night as I type this...it's Saturday afternoon, actually. However, listening to this old chestnut, it's not too difficult to imagine the evening hours spent at a classy bar in Akasaka, ruminating about life over a tumbler of whiskey.
"Ai no Fureai" (Touch of Love) by Hiroshi Sawa（沢ひろし）& Tokyo 99 has all the makings of a classic Mood Kayo tune: a bit of jazz and Latin muddled into the mix. that male chorus, and the contemplative arrangement. Just like that glass of the good stuff, it's smooth and neat.
I also put up the karaoke version here since I like the different arrangement which includes that representative instrument of the genre: the lonely trumpet.
The thing is, though, Hiroshi Sawa and Tokyo 99 are a mystery group...at least on the Net. I couldn't find anything on the group (and that includes on J-Wiki) outside of the fact that "Ai no Fureai" was released in 1968 and that there have been a few other popular singles by them. I don't know when and where the group was formed, how successful the single was in original release, and what has become of them. But apparently, the song is one of the go-to signature tunes for Mood Kayo according to the number of compilation albums that popped up on sites like Amazon when I typed in the group via Yahoo.
If any of you Mood Kayo fans (including Noelle) can shed a bit more light on Sawa and Tokyo 99, please let me know. Otherwise, I will have to hope that the group will eventually appear on "Kayo Concert" someday.
"City Hunter" was an anime that I did hear about from time to time and I did see a couple of episodes somewhere. My particular memory of that show involved the two strapping leads, Ryo Saeba and Kaori Makimura, and the running gag in the form of a 100-tonne mallet. I just read the summary of this 80s classic on Wikipedia and I'm wondering if I should give it another chance.
Definitely the first opening theme for "City Hunter" makes for a nice draw. "Ai yo Kienai de" (Don't Go Away, Love) was sung by Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）as her 5th single from May 1987, and it followed her breakthrough hit, "Hold On Me". There's something about the anison right from the percussive intro and into Kohhy's delivery that has me thinking that this was just as much a love call to Bubble Era Tokyo as it was an exciting theme song for the City Hunter detective team. I automatically think of night lights, West Shinjuku's mighty skyscrapers, and folks painting the town red. If anyone wants to get that "City Hunter" feeling, try walking through West Shinjuku at sunset or night.
"Ai yo Kienai de" managed to get as high as No. 8 on Oricon, and according to the comments I've read on YouTube, it looks like the song has become a beloved musical memory to many. Kohhy's good buddy Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）was the composer with Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）providing the lyrics.
Many years later, the singer came up with an even more groovelicious version (although I miss the original intro). Kohhy is still looking pretty darn good in the video there.
P.S. Marcos V. took care of the ending theme for the anime, "Get Wild" by TM Network.
