Masao Sen/Ikuzo Yoshi -- Tsugaru Heiya (津軽平野)

"Tsugaru Heiya" is a prime example of Ikuzo Yoshi's (吉幾三) works, and listening to him sing it in his gruff, abrupt and intense vocal delivery, I didn't think twice about the possibility that he might have written for anyone else but himself. But it turned out that Yoshi had put together "Tsugaru Heiya" for Masao Sen (千昌夫). I'm not complaining though, since the manner in which Sen sings this song is somewhat similar to Yoshi's (or should it be the other way round?), just that his voice is not as gravelly. Both are also able to express this tune's initial mournfulness and much later excitement well.

(short version)

Anyway, what allowed me to think that "Tsugaru Heiya" has Yoshi written all over it is the lyrics. Don't get me wrong, it's not because he penned it, but it's because of what he wrote; set in the Tsugaru plains of Aomori, it begins to snow, and our protagonist is reluctantly watching his father's lone figure leaving home to go to work (most likely in the city). Though lonely, he patiently waits for coldest season to pass, as that is when Pops is due to return home, hopefully with gifts galore. And by the end of the song, when the snow finally thaws on the mountains, Dad finally returns, much to his joy. A heartfelt set of lyrics that is not difficult to decipher - I was able to understand about 95% of it on the first read... now that's rare! But there are some little bits and pieces I have yet to figure out. The one and only song that I have gained full comprehension in is Hiroshi Mizuhara's (水原弘) "Tasogare no Beguine" (黄昏のビギン).

"Tsugaru Heiya" was released as Sen's 36th single on 25th March 1984, and he sang it once out of his 16 appearances, on the year the song came out. As for Yoshi's version, it was first released as the B-side to his 9th single "Rausu" (羅臼(ラウス)), and then again in 1996, this time as the A-side of his 27th single. The video below features Sabu-Chan's take on "Tsugaru Heiya". I've decided to put his rendition up since I've seen Grandpa enka take on this song a number of times via YouTube and TV, and I must say, he does a fine job with it.

(Sorry the video has been taken down.)

Woah, hey there! :)

Y'know, as with some of the big fella's songs, I wonder if Yoshi was referring to himself in "Tsugaru Heiya"... I mean, he did come from a little village in that area.

billboard-japan.com

Minori Chihara -- Arigato, Daisuki (ありがとう、だいすき)

Well, about a week ago, I wrote about the opening theme song for "Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu"（長門有希ちゃんの消失...The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan）, "Fure Fure Mirai"（フレ降レミライ）which has those echoes of the crazy-popular ending theme from the original "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu"（涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱...The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya）.

However, I have to say that I fell for the ending theme for "Nagato Yuki-chan" first. There is something about Minori Chihara's（茅原実里）singing of "Arigato, Daisuki" (Thank You, I Love You) that just summed up her character of Yuki-chan in this new, non-cosmic world that I wouldn't have thought possible with the original reality-warping version.

The version for the TV series was fine enough but then on hearing the full version, I just thought that she was going for the full Celine Dion...and that's not a bad thing here. As with "Fure Fure Mirai", the song was written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）but the music this time was provided by rino.

I've heard Chihara sing the other themes in the "Haruhi" franchise, but with "Arigato, Daisuki", I think, especially in the first several seconds, that she sounds like a higher-pitched version of Ayaka Hirahara（平原綾香）. In any case, the song was released as her 22nd single in June 2015. On the regular Oricon charts, it managed to peak at No. 15 while on the Billboard Japan Hot Animation charts, it made it as high as No. 9.

There are only 3 more episodes left for me to watch in "Nagato Yuki-chan" after the past month of psychological melodrama, so things might be getting a bit lighter again. My only hope is that Yuki-chan decides to pick up an electric guitar and rock out on the stage.

Misia -- Always

(karaoke version)

I'm writing this past the midnight hour early on a Saturday morning so I thought something with a nice groove would be appropriate...only wish that I had a cup of cocoa at my side...yep, even during a July night.

So let us go with Misia. "Always" was not an official single by the lady with the boomer of a voice but it was part of her 4th album, "Kiss In The Sky" from September 2002. And the first time I heard it was through a concert video when she performed the DJ Gomi remix version of it. She was standing in front of a huge fan as she sang it and with the winds flowing right through her outfit as she was expertly giving full throat to this love song, I just thought that that was one of the coolest performances I've ever seen from anybody. Too bad that the footage isn't currently on YouTube, or for that matter, any version of the song.

It was one of the many reasons that I ended up getting "Kiss In The Sky" and also "Misia Remix 2003 Kiss In The Sky -Non Stop Mix-". When I heard the original version on the former album, it was this very gentle and relaxing ballad, but I have to say that the remix version is my favourite. Misia still has the stately and proud delivery of her lyrics but the backing music by DJ Gomi (the song was originally composed by Jun Sasaki/佐々木潤) just made it feel like this was THE theme song for the testing of a new 21st-century state-of-the-art jet (hey, just my crazy imagination here). I guess it must've been that fan behind the singer.

The million-selling "Kiss In The Sky" managed to get up to No. 1 and within a few months became the 14th-ranked song for 2002. As for the remix album, that was released in April 2003 and peaked at No. 3. By the way, the music163 link above is for the original version while the one below is for the DJ Gomi remix.

Ippu-do -- Moonlight Magic （ムーンライト・マジック）

Well, I figure it was going to happen to me someday, but I got word from CD Japan that my order for a certain compilation on Techno Kayo would have to be cancelled since not only was the disc out of print but there wasn't enough demand to make it worthwhile for the originating producer. I'm a bit disappointed, of course, but knowing that I usually go for the older and rarer albums, I was due for some rejection.

So, in the meantime, I came across this catchy Techno Kayo number by New Wave-y Ippu-do（一風堂）titled "Moonlight Magic". Written and composed by the vocalist, Masami Tsuchiya（土屋昌巳）, as the band's final single in April 1984, I'm not sure how it did on the charts but it was used for a Mitsubishi commercial. And for me, it has that really delectable poppy beat filtered through all those 80s electronics that had me getting all electro-nostalgic again.

Maxmizor -- Can't Undo This!! (Juliana's Tokyo)

When I woke up this morning, "NHK News at 9" was on as usual, so my parents and I were watching that over breakfast. One of the reports dealt with the sale of a bunch of grapes called Ruby Roman which went for over 1 MILLION YEN! Well, according to current exchange rates, that would be about $8,203.45 in American greenbacks or $10419.54 in Canadian dollars (buy Canadian, you Japanese tourists!).

Good golly, Molly! The news report went further in their calculations to state that each grape in the bunch would be worth about 30,000 yen or $312 CDN. My family went into a bit of a scoffing fit. We can always count on Japan to come up with mangoes that demand a down payment and installment plan, and watermelons that would more likely be stored in a bank vault than a fridge. Now I find out about grapes that could earn a place in a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria.

Wow. As I was sluicing down on my 50-cent bowl of porridge, I started thinking about the blog and about what kind of kayo I could talk about that would address such high-money lunacy. Of course, Japan's Bubble Era of the late 1980s came to mind. But I couldn't really come up with any Japanese tunes that could reference those high-flying days; the Japanese may have spent and lived large but I don't they flaunted it too much through lyrics and music.

Then, I remembered that famous dance emporium in Tokyo, Juliana's Tokyo. Images of decadence flew through my head as women in tight bodicon (wow, that's a blast-from-the-past expression) swished and swayed on top of elevated stages flapping ridiculously huge feather fans. The men seemed to look like they just came straight from the office, though. And of course, that song! HOO!

Tons of music must have been pounded out of the speakers at Juliana's Tokyo at ear-shredding levels, but there was that one song which was the theme tune for the disco to the public at large. I never knew what it was called or who was responsible for it....until tonight. It's apparently called "Can't Undo This!!" by Maxmizor.

Strangely enough, as I had been associating the Bubble Era with Juliana's Tokyo, I had to correct my assumptions. The disco actually opened up in May 1991 when the Bubble had already burst. So, all that hedonism was going on as the tatters of the bubble were coming down from the ceiling as glitter confetti. Go fig.

According to J-Wiki, Juliana's had its time between May 1991 and August 1994 so I was just ending my time on JET when the party got going. And even during my time back in Toronto when I was trying to earn my TESL certificate, some folks that I'd never met at the weekly language exchange one day were showing around their CD of Juliana's music. I think even by that point, the place had already peaked. Some years later, it was VELFARRE which became the dance place to be seen in Roppongi. One time, a bunch of students and teachers including myself actually went into the place one Saturday night, and by that point, I think even it was starting to head into history. Considering most of the kids on the dance floor in the cavernous basement, I felt like the nervous science teacher who had to act as chaperon.

However, my most bizarre experience with dancing occurred some years earlier during my JET stint in Gunma Prefecture. My other colleagues and I ended up in a karaoke joint in Numata City. And apparently the rule was that 40 minutes out of the hour was dedicated to wailing away into the microphone but then suddenly for the remaining 20 minutes, clouds of dry ice fog rolled in and it became a disco...for 20 minutes.

Enjoy your grapes...

Seiko Matsuda -- Only My Love

A commenter reminded me of this song by Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, "Only My Love". I didn't recognize it by title but when I heard it through the videos and the original recording, it all came back to me. The weird thing is that I hadn't realized or remembered that this was an original Seiko (the aidoru, not the watch). I had heard it before sung by other artists over the years, so I gather that it has become a standard of sorts. Still, when I saw it performed by the lady herself, I was a tad surprised.

Now "Only My Love" was written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, the same duo behind one of her big singles in Seiko-chan's early years, "Aoi Sangosho"（青い珊瑚礁）. However, unlike that soaring summery aidoru classic, "Only My Love" starts off like some sort of Walt Disney tune before it goes off into a 50s-ish bobbysoxer ballad...something more along the lines of what Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）could have tackled at around the same time or even an earlier Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）before she discovered her inner R&B diva. There is even Seiko's attempts at a bit of falsetto just like in the way that some of those vocal groups of 60 years ago performed way back when. Speaking of her vocal style, since it was still early days, that famous Seiko delivery wasn't fully formed as of yet.

"Only My Love" was never released as an official single but it was part of Seiko's 2nd album, "North Wind" which was released in December 1980 and hit No. 1 on Oricon. The other interesting thing that I discovered about this particular song via the J-Wiki article is that whenever she performs a New Year's concert, this is the one that tends to start things off. Not a bad song to listen to while noshing down on the o-sechi.

Goro Kagami -- Kagamigawa (鏡川)

It's a pity that I had not bothered to pay attention, let alone listen, to Goro Kagami (鏡五郎), even after watching him perform on a few uneventful, forgettable episodes of "Nippon no Uta" a while ago - I'd usually be spacing out at times like that. But all this time I had been missing out on Kagami's pleasant and smooth singing voice that was not nasally or husky, as I had once envisioned him to sound. I only learnt of it while listening to "Ah Furusato yo" (あゝふるさとよ), which was a collaboration with fellow enka singers Teruo Ikeda (池田輝郎) - the reason for checking it out - and Shinichi Sasaki (佐々木新一), and it was only then where I popped my usual question upon realization, "Why haven't I been listening to this guy more often?"

And so, to answer my own question... a few months later (this weekend)... I got myself to check out "Kagamigawa", one of Kagami's recent singles released early in 2015, since I had seen it on the Oricon enka-yo charts a number of times. For most of the song, "Kagamigawa" is elegant with the all those strings, the occasional accordion and shakuhachi, and then there's also the thundering drums that make it quite manly and dramatic. However, in that one line before each chorus, the gentle score turned menacing with the deep blare of the trumpets; it actually gave me a little fright with how quickly it became intense and severe, it did not help that I was listening to the song at a high volume. And after Kagami sang about half of that one sentence, the music switched back to its elegant self at the drop of a hat. Talk about unpredictable! This was brought to you by Takeaki Yamazaki (山崎剛昭).

As the title, "Kagamigawa", implies, this song is based on the Kagami river in the Kochi prefecture, and from what I understand from the lyrics that Toshiya Niitani (仁井谷俊也) penned, it's about life being similar to that of a river... or at least the Kagami river.

 

blog.us-inc.net

Heh, Kagami Goro singing "Kagamigawa"... ...