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.
1. Rumiko Koyanagi Watashi no Joukamachi
2. Tokiko Kato Shiretoko Ryojou
3. Kiyohiko Ozaki Mata Au Hi Made
4. Koji Tsuruta Kizudarake no Jinsei
5. Hedva & David Naomi no Yume
6. Hiroshi Itsuki Yokohama Tasogare
7. Norihiko Hashida & Climax Hanayome
8. Masayuki Yuhara Ame no Ballad
9. Shinichi Mori Boukyou
10. Masaaki Sakai Saraba Koibito
It's an irony that is worthy of any of the plots on this anime, but in all of the years that I was in Japan, I never saw "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン...Great Detective Conan） over there, but I have ended up watching the long-running adventures of Conan Edogawa and his buddies every Thursday night on TV Japan over here in The Great White North under its official English title of "Case Closed". My parents and I have been enjoying it although my overall impression is that it never really caught on all that much in North America for some reason (maybe those 10 minutes of the shrunken pipsqueak explaining how he cracked the case were just too much for anime fans).
I'm not quite sure about how successful that other long-running adventure caper, "Lupin The Third", has been here, but the one thing that probably did strike pay dirt was the legendary theme song. In the case of "Conan", however, the series has usually relied on ever-changing theme songs by folks like Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）, Zard and Garnet Crow.
Then there is B'z. Y'know...I never took Koushi Inaba and Takahiro Matsumoto（稲葉浩志・松本孝弘）to be anison guys, but apparently they have been providing theme tunes for "Meitantei Conan" since 1999 with "Giri Giri Chop"（ギリギリchop）. And the one I've been hearing for the past several weeks on the family TV is their 49th single from June 2011, "Don't Wanna Lie".
Inaba wrote the lyrics and Matsumoto provided the melody. It's definitely a B'z tune with the blistering guitar and it's appropriately heroic as well. There's almost something operatic as well which has me comparing it to some of the more dramatic Queen songs from my youth such as "Bohemian Rhapsody". And according to Inaba (via J-Wiki), that was his intention for the overarching theme for the song: Don't lie to yourself at that important time in your life. In fact, the temporary title before its release was "Moment of Truth". After reading this and listening to the song in its entirety, I simply want Conan to come clean and tell Ran-chan who he really is. Not that it's going to happen any time soon or ever.
"Don't Wanna Lie" debuted at No. 1 and hit Platinum. By the end of the year, it was the 28th-ranked song. The song also was a track on their 18th album, "C'mon" from July 2011. Not surprisingly, it also hit No. 1 and was the 11th-ranked album of the year. It also got onto "The Best of Detective Conan 4", an album of the various theme tunes from the series.
All those years in the 1980s and all those Friday nights at Kuri had imprinted on my memories that Checkers（チェッカーズ）would always be that group of guys singing 50s doo-wop. Therefore, listening to their 25th single from September 1991, "Mrs. Mermaid" was more atypical for me. I'd already gotten back from my first tour of duty in Japan, so I managed to see the song being performed on the old videotapes again, and of course, the Kohaku later that year.
For one thing, the song struck me as being more Adult Contemporary in beat. I'm not quite sure if it went as far as City Pop but it was definitely different from what I had been accustomed to hearing from Fumiya Fujii（藤井郁弥）and the rest of the Checkers. It was almost as if they decided to walk the path of Rats & Star, another group of cool former doo-woppers under their old name of Chanels.
In any case, it was a pretty cool song. Fujii came up with the lyrics while side vocalist Masaharu Tsuruku（鶴久政治）composed the tune. "Mrs. Mermaid" may have conjured up images of painting a night in late 20th-centuryTokyo more than it did bobbysoxers and tail-finned Cadillacs, but I think Fujii's words were still in the Checkers vein of pining for that desirable woman in a nice summer setting. Despite the relatively late entry, Checkers got onto the Kohaku Utagassen of 1991 for their 8th appearance in a row. And the song broke into the Top 10 by peaking at No. 4 and ending the year as the 77th-ranked song.
Wow! Haven't heard this one in quite a while. Miki Imai's（今井美樹）"Shizuka ni Kita Solitude"(The Solitude That Came Quietly) was not only her 3rd single from March 1988 but it was also on her 3rd original album, "Bewith" which was the second album that I had ever bought by her after getting her 1989 "Ivory".
There's nothing like a pre-1990s Imai song to bring in the nostalgia since I've tied in a lot of her songs back then with my time in Gunma Prefecture. Written by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, "Shizuka ni Kita Solitude" has that adult contemporary laid back beat with the soft Imai vocals that had me falling in love with her material in the first place. The lyrics may be sad as the singer pines for that lost love but the melody itself is so comfortable.
The song did pretty modestly, reaching No. 25 on Oricon but it won Nakazaki a Japan Best Composition Award at the TBS Tokyo Music Festival in 1988. As with many a Miki Imai song during the late 80s, "Shizuka" is great to sip a coffee to in some cafe...which is how I got introduced to Imai in the first place.
First off, a bit of humble Canadiana from me. Back in the 1980s...and yep, I actually lived during the fashion of that decade which you can see in all its blow-dry glory in the above video...there was a local music news program on City-TV called "The New Music" (no connection with Yuming's genre) which not only featured the latest hitmakers but also the up-and-comers in Toronto and the rest of Canada. For all of the cable news nuts out there, that fellow sporting the electric guitar and mullet? It's John Roberts...currently at FOX; he used to be known as J.D. Roberts 3 decades ago.
Now, why did I bring that first paragraph up in a blog about old Japanese music? Well, one night back then, "The New Music" devoted its one hour to the wild and wacky world of Japanese popular music years and years before AKB48, Perfume and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu made the scene. And during those fascinating 60 minutes, I got to see Pizzicato Five for the very first time. There was the divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）looking like a disco diva flouncing about in some music video and then there was some concert footage of P5 with Nomiya crazily spouting out the following lyrics: "Nice to meet you, nice to meet you, nice to meet you..."
Yep, that was pretty nuts. OK, I thought...they probably won't be getting onto "Music Station" any time soon. Well, little did I know. And many years later, I would pick up one of the band's albums, "Romantique 96" from September 1995. I'd already gotten used to and started to enjoy Pizzicato Five's"new stereophonic sound spectacular" from the land of Shibuya. And I would make my re-acquaintance with that wacky song that first introduced me to Nomiya and company, "Good".
"Good" was that hypercaffeinated tune that mixed in that part of the distinctive P5 sound which resembled the stuff from DeVol, the grand master of American sitcom theme songs of the 60s and early 70s, and French pop. Lyrically, I thought it was a recording of some of my English lessons after copious amounts of alcohol or something in a more weed-like form. Personally I would have loved to have seen Maki dance to "Good". It would have been an epic medley of all of the big dance moves from that decade from The Swim to The Hitchhike.
I've mentioned about earworms, especially when it comes to anime theme songs. Well, I think I may have across the very first example of an eyeworm (as disgusting as that sounds) via the above video. At first, I thought it was another example of the GEDDAN phenomenon. Not sure where that CG footage came from but it relates the crazy happy-happy-joy-joy to a royal T. Try not watching under the influence.
Then I got some more bonus information. Thanks to some of the comments for the YouTube video, I managed to find out that "Good" hadn't been an original P5 tune after all. It was actually a cover of New Wave band Plastics' 3rd single from 1980. Well, that was a bit of a full circle starting with an 80s Canadian show and then finishing up with an 80s Japanese song, wasn't it? Anyways, the original song has that somewhat avant-gardish vibe that I would usually associate with something that would appear on another old Canadian music show that I used to know called "City Limits". Written by co-vocalist Chica Sato（佐藤チカ）and written by guitarist Hajime Tachibana（立花ハジメ）, I think their "Good" could be considered to be the ancestor of the image of all that is appealingly nutty and wacky about J-Pop from overseas.
Ahhhh....that's a musical glass of Perrier. Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）30th single, "Suteki na Kimochi" (A Wonderful Feeling) is just so comfortable that it can make me forget that today's high temperature was only -14 degrees C. Chinfa Kan's（康珍化）lyrics have no hang-ups about love at all. Everything is going swimmingly between the woman and her beau in the romance department, and I believe the blissful couple is probably spending a lovely time at their luxury apartment in Hakone.
Meanwhile Kyohei Tsutsumi's（筒美京平）soft and strolling melody seems to take one on that barefoot walk along a sunny and warm beach. On reading that this song came out in February 1983, my initial impression had been that this was a bit atypical for Iwasaki since she was doing some fairly dramatic ballads during this part of the 80s with all those ending themes for the weekly suspense dramas. "Suteki na Kimochi" sounded more akin to her dabbling in summery City Pop during the turn from the 70s to the 80s. And one commenter for the YouTube video mentioned that the intro reminded him of Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）bouncy "September" which came out at around the same time. But you know, I'm pretty sure that a number of her non-single tracks from her albums were also quite relaxing. As it is, Iwasaki does her usual warm and wonderful work with the song.
"Suteki na Kimochi" managed to peak at No. 32. It is also a track on her 13th album, "Shiteki Kuukan"（私・的・空・間...Personal Space） which came out in July 1983 and went as high as No. 31 on Oricon.
You should've seen the look on her face when I told her that I like this song. A look of pure disgust and resentment on Mom's face can only mean one thing when it comes to Enka, Sabu-Chan is the one behind the vocals. Well, she doesn't dislike "Takao san" per se, she just has very strong negative feelings - to put it nicely - about the veteran singer himself. I myself have gotten used to Saburo Kitajima's (北島三郎) nasally warbling in the months that followed after the discovery of "Kita no Ryoba" (北の漁場), and I am generally okay with seeing him on TV.
Well, moving back to the song itself. I recalled watching Sabu-Chan singing this song on one of my first few Kayo Concert episodes in the later half of last year. I think it may have been pre-"Kita no Ryoba", so I was quite surprised to have actually somewhat enjoyed the noble-sounding "Takao San". But of course, despite making a mental note to look up the song online after the show, it did not come to pass and I just left it in the corner for a few months until it popped back into my mind on one of those days.
enkado.net
As I've said earlier, "Takao San" has got a pretty dignified score, brought to you by the man himself as George Hara (原譲二). You have the manly thumping of the drums coupled with the elegant strings that gives it a gentle side, and to make it a little more realistic, there's the sound of the blistering wind at the start to simulate being up in the mountains.
It's lyrics, written by Haku Ide (いではく), seem to tap on the lush mountain's religious significance and its benevolence, and has Sabu-Chan beseeching the mountain/its "native residents" for protection, out of other things. Y'see, other than having the Yakuo-in, a Buddhist temple, up there, according to folklore, it's one of the places well-known to have this type of formerly-morally ambiguous forest/mountain Yokai called the Tengu (天狗), as well as one of the Daitengu or Great Tengu (presumably the most powerful one of the lot in the area) by the name of Naigubu (内供奉) residing there. These fearsome creatures were known for their destructive nature - as well as their red face and long proboscis, but eventually that view changed and they became seen as more of a guardian, and are considered as a Shinto deity. As someone who loves to read about mythological creatures, I have to say that the Tengu is one of the coolest of the lot I've seen.
"Takao San" was released on 5th June 2014 and it did really well on the regular charts, peaking at 21st place. From that I'm going to assume it hit 1st place on the Enka-yo charts. Also, Sabu-Chan got invited to sing this song at the temple!
Great Tengu from the game "Okami".
I've played this beautiful game, and dang,
is this fella a force to be reckoned with!
okamimythology.tumblr.com
Oh yeah, and if you're currently celebrating the Chinese New Year, Happy Chinese New Year!
