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.
Came back home from a driving rain today after a pretty hefty foodie session with some old friends in Chinatown and then some gourmet donuts at a place called Jelly. I no longer feel like donuts but I am currently feeling like a donut. Anyways, to get to the heart of the matter, I came home to see my parents watching TV Japan as usual, and the program was some concert special featuring the old kayo. Unfortunately, the special was in its last 10 minutes.
However, I was there to catch Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）, that venerable Hawaiian-tinged Mood Kayo band perform what was their debut single, "Nakanaide"(Don't Cry), from all the way back in August 1958. Amazing that it's well over half a century and the Stars are still at it. And I think the sound of that steel guitar is well embedded in my long-term memory since I used to hear that instrument being plucked away on the various old records played on the stereo; because my parents were also into American country & western at the time, the sound has been further implanted.
"Nakanaide" was written by Seiichi Ida（井田誠一）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）. Original vocalist Naoki Matsudaira（松平直樹）sings as this fellow reassuring...or trying to reassure...this inconsolable woman that everything will be alright and that they have a good chance of meeting again the next night. Although the lyrics are not blatant about it, it seems that the guy may be a regular at some sort of hostess club in Ginza or Akasaka (the perfect setting for a Mood Kayo) and that the woman may be a hostess working there with the two of them...gosh darn it...complicating matters by ending up falling in love with each other. Of course, there are obstacles in the way, and as the song proceeds, it becomes apparent that the fellow is becoming less confident that there will be a happy ending to the affair. That last line in the refrain, "Ashita no ban mo aeru janai ka"（明日の晩も会えるじゃなか...We might see each other again tomorrow night, won't we?）sounds like a temporary-at-best salve. Ahhh...the trials and tribulations of love in the big city. May want to grab that bottle of Hakkaisan for an ochoko or two...or twenty.
I saw this performance not on this past week's "Kayo Concert" but the one the week before when the theme was on duets, so it was Yuuki Seguchi and Airi Suzuki（瀬口侑希・ 鈴木愛理）above (sorry, but that video has been taken down but here's Mieko Hirota's version) who performed this summery and sepia song titled "Suna ni Kieta Namida"（砂に消えた涙...Tears In The Sand）. I found out from the introduction that it was originally done by The Peanuts.
So it wasn't too difficult to find the YouTube video with The Peanuts' performance of "Suna ni Kieta Namida" from 1965. It is vintage Peanuts but what I found interesting about the song was the arrangement since it sounded like the type of tune that Eiichi Ohtaki（大瀧詠一）and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）would perform a decade or so later. As I mentioned earlier, there is a laid back and summery vibe to the song that brings to mind those old "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "Gidget" movies that I used to see on Sunday afternoons. Strangely enough, I couldn't find the song as a single release but perhaps it was inserted into one of their albums.
In the same year that The Peanuts released the song, singer Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）gave her own version of "Suna ni Kieta Namida". I actually like this version even more than The Peanuts' take since it's even more relaxing. Ito's velvety voice also helps in that regard. Kenji Sazanami（漣健児）provided the Japanese lyrics, but as you can hear on this version, Ito sings part of the song in Italian.
The reason for this was that the song had first been sung by legendary Italian songstress Mina in 1964. "Un buco nella sabbia" was the title which meant "Hole In The Sand". The original songwriters were Alberto Testa and Piero Soffici.
Well, I did mention Mariya Takeuchi, didn't I? Just by happenstance, I discovered this old video of her and Kaguyahime's Kousetsu Minami（南こうせつ）doing their own sweet duet of the song. Not sure how long this will stay up, so savor the moment.
As I may have intimated in some of the other articles on anime theme songs, my interest in anime was revived only within the last few years...basically after I actually returned from Japan. All those 17 years I was living and working in the Kanto area, I really didn't touch the genre at all...except for viewings of "Chibi Maruko-chan" and "Sazae-san" on Sunday nights. The overarching reason is that I simply didn't have time. Being an English conversation teacher meant that I needed a full night's sleep and that didn't chime in with the scheduling of a lot of the good stuff which was in the really wee hours of the morning. Plus, my anime buddy told me that it was easier to be an anime fan outside of Japan rather than within the originating nation itself. Apparently, it still isn't too cool to be too public about being an anime fan despite all the festivals and the stores in Akihabara and Ikebukuro.
However, what I hadn't been aware of when I was a resident in Japan was that theme songs and excerpts of anime soundtracks were and are being used all the time to be provided as background music for variety shows or news program segments. In fact, just today on NHK's "Asaichi" morning show, the producers used an excerpt from the stage musical-worthy soundtrack of "Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii"（それでも世界は美しい...The World Is Still Beautiful）, an anime that I had seen last year, as the BGM for the introduction of a venerable actress.
There was also another excerpt that I heard fairly frequently when I was watching the news and variety shows. It was a snazzy Big Band piece with some really tight horns that livened up any feature about heading out into some especially tony Tokyo neighbourhood or just any segment that needed something spicy and exciting. I didn't know anything about it except for the fact that it was cool-sounding, and it was only when I was back here in Toronto that I found out the piece was the theme song for the much-acclaimed anime "Cowboy Be-Bop", "Tank!". Another anime enthusiast and friend who used to come up to the apartment in Ichikawa from the wilds of Mie Prefecture for a visit used to tell me about this particular show, but aside from the title, I never cottoned on to it.
The above video contains the opening credits for "Cowboy Be-Bop" which first came out in 1998, and after having taking a look at it for the first time last night, I gotta say that those are some of the slickest opening credits I've ever seen for an anime. Now I know where "Space Dandy" got its inspiration. "Tank!" and the credits just seemed to have come out from an imagination fed on reruns of "Peter Gunn", the original "The Thomas Crown Affair" and any other ring-a-ding-ding spy caper from the 1960s.Henry Mancini would see this and smile sagely.
"Tank!" was created by composer and musician Yoko Kanno（菅野よう子）, a name that I've seen a lot on various credits for other anime. and I had known she was involved with "Cowboy Be-Bop". She was also helping out with the spiritual descendant of the show, "Space Dandy", (including the arrangement of the ending theme, "X-Jigen e Yokoso") and was also behind the composition of the ballad in dedication of the recovery from the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake for NHK, "Hana wa Saku"（花は咲く...Flowers Will Bloom）.
Kanno was also behind the formation of The Seatbelts, the ensemble responsible for the blast radius of jazz that makes up "Tank!". According to the Wikipedia write-up on the band through a fictional description in "Cowboy Be-Bop", the name supposedly "...derives from how the performers wear seatbelts to be safe while they play hardcore jam sessions." I think that could also be applied to the audience members.
All those years ago, I had thought that the song came from some sort of 60s caper flick...the sort which contained lines like "Headin' out on a heist, Johnny?" and scenes with plenty of dollars and dames surrounding Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Instead, it's from an anime near the end of the century. Who'da thunk?
When credits as iconic as those for "Cowboy Be-Bop" come along, I guess it's pretty much inevitable that parodies will arise. I was taking a look at the Internet meme database "Know Your Meme" and discovered those opening credits but with characters from another popular anime. It's really well done and I had a nice laugh, too.
I have already mentioned the legendary composer's name once, so I will finish things off here with Henry Mancini's version of "Sing, Sing, Sing". The famous swing piece created by Louis Prima and popularized by Benny Goodman used to be the go-to song in trailers for movies taking place in The Jazz Age, but Mancini's take was the very first version I got to know through my Dad's collection of standards. And when I listened to "Tank!", I was instantly reminded of "Sing, Sing, Sing". The latter may not be as constantly over-the-top as the former, at least not until the last several seconds, but I wouldn't mind calling Mancini's "Sing, Sing, Sing" a proud ancestor of one of the coolest anison I've heard.
Man, the things you can learn when doing a blog...
I was wondering which song to write about tonight when I decided to pull out the 1978 discs from the "Seishun Uta Nenkan"（青春歌年鑑）series, and second from the top on the CD 1 list was Candies'（キャンディーズ）"Hohoemigaeshi". Coming across a Candies' entry on the 1978 disc was a bit surprising since I had been under the impression that Ran, Su and Miki had already hung up their mikes a couple of years earlier, and the title didn't ring any bells. I had actually thought that there was a figurative baton passed between Candies and Pink Lady, but as it turned out, there was quite an overlap between their eras.
Then on listening to the song, I realized that it was something that I have heard a few times at least in the past. It was still the jaunty and perky Candies song, this time by composer Yusuke Hoguchi（穂口雄右）, that I was accustomed to hearing, but as it turned out, it was their 17th and final singlefrom February 1978. And it's from here for the remainder of this paragraph that things get a little shaky in the telling since a number of statements in the source article in J-Wiki have been hit with the "citation required" tag. So, basically, this is not set in stone. Although Candies and their fans strongly consider "Hohoemigaeshi" as the final single, there was an 18th single which was released in November of the same year to supposedly great protest from the trio but the decision was made by higher-ups. And so, "Tsubasa"（つばさ...Wings）was released at the end of 1978.
But if indeed this was true, then I don't blame Candies and their fans one bit for their resentment at the recording company. "Hohoemigaeshi" has all the hallmarks of being the swan song of a trio which grabbed the hearts of fans hard for over half a decade. Lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）may have set her words to sound like the slightly sad but overall cheerful story of a young couple making their move to a new home, but there was so much crammed into Single No. 17 to not hint but pretty much bludgeon the listener into realizing that this was the end of an era. There are lyrical shoutouts to past Candies' hits such as "Heart no Ace ga Detekonai"（ハートのエースが出てこない）and the even more famous "Haru Ichiban"（春一番）that Aki incorporated as a gift to the fans according to radio personality ANNA on a 2009 bayfm show. And the title means Smiling Back....perhaps as the ladies walk off into kayo kyoku history. I don't think you can get more goodbye than that. The fans had known for several months that Candies would be breaking up but this song must have still stopped hearts.
The other surprise that I received in digging for information for "Hohoemigaeshi" is that for all of their famous past hits, this song was the one that got Candies their first...and last...No.1 on the charts. There probably wasn't a dry eye among Miki, Su and Ran on learning that. This would be the trio's most successful hit with close to a million records sold, and an eventual achievement of No. 5 in the 1978 Oricon annual charts. The song was also a track on their third and final live album, "Candies Final Carnival Plus One" which was released in May 1978. That album would also reach No. 1 and become the 35th-ranked release of the year.
To commemorate Hibari Misora's (美空ひばり) passing 26 years ago, the "Kayo Concert" episode a couple of days ago had just featured some of this veteran singer's songs, and I enjoyed it a lot more than last year's one (my introduction to the show). I suppose it's because most of the guests on board were recognizable by yours truly, like Hiroshi Itsuki (五木ひろし), Aki Yashiro (八代亜紀), Yoshimi Tendo (天童よしみ), etc. and I've already been exposed to the different sorts of enka/kayokyoku that MadamMisora had been known to cover in the past year. But I have to admit, there are still some of her hits that I have yet to be agreeable with, most notably, the heartbreaking and extremely melancholic "Kanashii Sake" (悲しい酒).
Anyway, Itsuki and Yashiro started the ball rolling with one of Misora's tunes from later in her career in 1986, "Ai San San", and although Yashiro nailed the sadness in "Kanashii Sake" near the end of the show, I felt that her vocal delivery was a little out of place when she sang half of this before passing the baton on to Itsuki. And Mom, who's a pretty big fan of Misora by now (I'm genuinely surprised), was less than happy to hear this rendition. Tendo or Natsuko Godai (伍代夏子) would've been a better choice, in my opinion.
Now about the original, "Ai San San" is a really delicate song especially in terms of its music since most of it just has the acoustic guitar tinkling away, and the strings at the later part add elegance to it. I guess you could say that its kind of like Madam Misora, who seems to be singing each word with such deliberation in a voice bigger than herself. And it just reminds me of rainy days where the rain has slowed to a drizzle, and the sun rays are slowly streaming through the dark clouds. This, including its lyrics, was brought to you by singer-songwriter, Kei Ogura (小椋佳). I don't really understand "Ai San San" lyrics-wise, but so far, I'm able to fully agree with these lines:
Jinsei te Fushigi na mono desu ne Life is a strange thing, isn't it?
and Jinsei te Ureshii mono desu ne Life is a happy thing, isn't it?
"Ai San San" did fairly alright on the charts, peaking at 69th place, and there have been quite a number of covers over the years. It was sung twice on the Kohaku, but not by Misora though. It was first sung by fellow Sannin Musume (三人娘... female version of Sannin no Kai) member, Izumi Yukimura (雪村いづみ) on the 40th Kohaku in 1989 in honor of the Queen of Kayokyoku. And then it was sung again many years later in 2007 during the 58th edition of the year end competition by Ogura with "Misora" - video version of her.
Here's Ogura's own take of "Ai San San". He actually sounds pretty good!
Where was I when I bought Tokyo Jihen's（東京事変） 2nd single from October 2004, "Sounan"(A Distress)? Strangely enough, I remember quite well where I was. It was another autumn Saturday afternoon in the dandy Omotesando district of Tokyo when I decided to check out a CD shop in the basement of Harajuku's LaForet shopping complex. There were a lot of far younger and hipper folks than me hanging about but I didn't feel too self-conscious since I've always been able to slip through the masses as a stealth gaijin all these years.
Anyways, I hadn't intended to buy "Sounan" and was still fuzzy about what had happened to the divine Ms. Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）. She made quite a splash when she debuted at the turn of the century and then took some time off to have a baby and then she came back with her own band, Tokyo Jihen (Tokyo Incidents). However, as I was browsing through the CD shop in the basement, the staff started to pipe the maxi-single/mini-album over the speakers, and after hearing all of the three tracks, it didn't take too much arm-twisting to shuck out the yen. Plus, the cover of her swooning while the band rescued her just seemed so appealingly Ringo and retro at the same time.
"Sounan" made quite an impression...not that I was surprised. Starting off with a guitar lick that came from "The Twilight Zone", Ringo just jumped in the convertible that was the song and decided to take a drive through the very neighbourhood I bought her CD, up through Shinjuku and make a slight detour into Asakusa...and very much ignoring the fact that there was afternoon traffic. As the title suggests, it's a pretty frantic ride, but Ringo is adamant to get to where she wants to go. Her vocal delivery was just like as it was back in "Muzai Moratorium"（無罪モラトリアム）with those interesting twists and turns. There may have been a band behind her but it still felt like the good ol' Ringo days.
The 2nd song, "Dynamite" was originally a Brenda Lee tune from 1957. I think there was an official music video to Ringo's version, and as soon as I heard it, I just thought, "OK, how far back into the time vaults did she go for this one?" I just imagined some sort of dangerous watering hole in Kansas City in the early half of the 20th century, and the very nonchalant Ringo handling herself with absolute aplomb there. I have to admit that I get quite a kick listening to her English as well as her famous growls. The video above also has "Dynamite".
A bit of a detour. Just for comparison's sake, here is Brenda Lee with "Dynamite". If that Wikipedia date of her birth is correct, she was only 13 years old when she exploded (no pun intended) with this song. Tom Glazer and Mort Garson were the songwriters here.
However, of the three songs on "Sounan", the one that finally got me to part with my cash was the final track, "Kokoro"（心）. Although it is directly translated as "mind" or "soul", the Wikipedia article on the single stated that it "...was given the figurative translation "Spiritual" in English." with the source being at this page. Whatever the winning word is, I liked it since there was another retro feel to it but not of Showa Era kayo....there was more of that feeling of 1970s US radio music. Plus, I enjoyed that lush piano intro along with that jazziness during the instrumental bridge. Compared to the first two songs, "Kokoro" had that laidback air and Ringo was in a groovy mood. I have to admit that I listened to this one song back-to-back.
Aside from "Dynamite", the singer-songwriter took care of the other songs. The whole single got as high as No. 2. I have yet to buy any further Tokyo Jihen albums or singles but with this particular one I purchased, I was definitely not feeling any sounan.
I heard about the sad passing of composer James Horner a few days ago. Although I'm always going to think that John Williams will be the Professor Emeritus for movie soundtracks, there are also people like Horner, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer and Michael Giacchino as the A-Team in that area. As for Horner, he's also done so many movie scores for "Titanic", "Avatar", "Cocoon", "Aliens", etc. But for a Trekkie like me, he will always be the man who came out with the wonderful soundtrack for "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", still for me, the best of all of the Trek movies. Jerry Goldsmith's theme for "Star Trek: The Motion(less) Picture" may be the most popular song for the USS Enterprise, but Horner's score made for the best soundtrack (with Giacchino's score for the first J.J. Abrams'"Star Trek" coming in fairly close).
Knowing Horner for so long as a music weaver for these epic movies, I was surprised to find out that he (along with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil) was also responsible for the soundtrack for the 1986 animated feature "An American Tail", and more notably, the composer for the theme song that can still get a lump into my throat at certain times, "Somewhere Out There" as sung by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram. As I remember it, the ballad was on some pretty heavy rotation on radio and TV when it was released to the masses.
Well, strangely enough, the time that "Somewhere Out There" was hitting the heights of popularity was also the time that I was hitting Wah Yueh for Japanese records and tapes. And being a head-over-heels Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）fan at the time, I was happy to find out that my favourite store to feed my addiction was also pretty well stocked with Kobayashi albums. I actually bought an audiotape of one of her live concerts titled "In Concert ~ A Changing" from 1987, and found out that she did a cover of the Ronstadt/Ingram duet, under the title of "Kokoro no Honoo"(Heart Fire).
If I'm not mistaken, she actually did the same thing herself on stage with singer Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）. I will have to give that tape a listen again as long as it can still handle being played on the recorder. However, many years later, I was able to buy one of Kobayashi's BEST albums, "The Luxury of Life" which came out in 1990 which had the studio-recorded version of "Kokoro no Honoo". That is the version that she does solo. Not quite as epic or as heart-tugging as the original "Somewhere Out There", the arrangement has more of a Xmas-y bent to it and comes across as something that would be nice hearing while making that Yuletide dinner or wrapping the presents; the original version is very much something that almost has to be listened to. The Japanese lyrics, by the way, were provided by Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）.
Well, here is Horner's soundtrack to my favourite Trek flick. As soon as I saw the movie at the theatre (and I can still hear the thunderous cheers as the soundtrack played while the Enterprise and the Reliant were locked in battle, along with the sniffles when Spock died the first time), I made sure that I bought the original LP of the soundtrack.
And this is Horner's talk on how he made that soundtrack. Lost a great music maker this week.
