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.
Although I've loved some of the Pixar films such as "The Incredibles" and "Toy Story", I never had much interest in the two "Cars" movies. But in my last several months in Japan, I did hear a fair bit of excitement in the Japanese media regarding "Cars II" since "Polyrhythm" by Perfume was going to be featured in the movie somehow. I saw the clip on YouTube where the cars got into Tokyo and "Polyrhythm" was playing as background music, and it was perfectly fine. However, just in terms of the title, I kinda wondered whether "Linear Motor Girl" would have been even more appropriate.
My anime buddy was kind enough to give me a copy of "Perfume - Complete Best" from 2006 which included "Linear Motor Girl". When I listened to it for the first time, I hadn't known anything about it, and just assumed it was part and parcel of Perfume's heyday when "Polyrhythm" came out. Actually, it was Perfume's debut single under a major label, Tokuma Japan Communications, coming out in September 2005. It was another peppy tune by the ladies that helped me get through part of the usual slog of translation work.
Listening to the song for the first time didn't key me into the fact that this was the beginning of the trio as a major act, but when I saw the official music video above, I just thought that things seemed a bit different, probably because of the different appearance of one of the trio and the partially hiccupy choreography.
"Linear Motor Girl" was composed and arranged by Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）and written by Kinoko（木の子）. One of the other startling things I found out about it was that it got no higher than No. 99 on Oricon with about 2,600 copies sold. Of course, this was just the beginning of many better things to come for Perfume.
I was having a nice conversation with a fellow PSY-S fan by the name of Skye Tronn the other day when I realized that it was time to put up another song by the unique band. Well, I'm gonna go with "Parachute Limit" which was their 9th single from October 1988.
I did not know that there was an actual music video that went with "Parachute Limit", so I'm indebted to my commenter since it was indeed Skye that found the video. I first came across the song on PSY-S' BEST album,"Two Hearts" from 1991. Composed by Masaya Matsuura（松浦雅也）and written by Seira Asakura（あさくらせいら）, I'm unsure what the inspiration was for the title, but it is a soaring tune that doesn't let up for a minute, powered by CHAKA's blockbuster vocals.
The lyrics are quite imaginative as well: cellophane skies, glass deserts and gold & silver trees. I wonder if Asakura was thinking about Gallifrey when he/she was coming up with the lyrics, but the gist of the song seems to be a couple trying to have as much fun as possible as quickly as possible before gravity-laden reality sets in. Unlike the title, I don't think these kids want parachutes.
Not quite sure whether "Parachute Limit" was ever a theme song for an anime but I wouldn't be surprised if it had been so. It would make for quite the heroic and inspirational theme for the main character. Along with the relentless melody, I simply love CHAKA's delivery of the lyrics and the slight echo during the refrain which makes me think of that couple finally escaping gravity (and the bad guys) and heading into space.
I may have found "Parachute Limit" on a BEST album, but the song was originally on PSY-S' 4th album, "Non-Fiction" also from 1988.
I guess I've been doing quite a few articles based on albums and singles from 1977 this week. However, I just had to add this one as well concerning former jazz singer Kimiko Kasai（笠井紀美子）since I finally got her album "Tokyo Special" in the mail today. It took several weeks for it to arrive since there was a sticking point with the other album that I had ordered with it...a compilation of techno kayo that would never come since the originating company eventually stated that there wasn't enough interest to make it worthwhile to print another batch of the CD. C'est dommage! However, the funny thing was that the postman who usually called me up at the security door must have arrived while I was out getting the paper at the nearby convenience store. He ended up literally squeezing the package with Ms. Kasai in it into the family mailbox. I had to do some emergency surgery with a box cutter to extract the CD!
No matter....I was just happy to get "Tokyo Special" intact. I got the CD initially because of the ballad "Natsu no Hajime no Image"（夏の初めのイメージ）that is Track 3. Now, I've got the whole kit and kaboodle, and it was nice to hear this alternately relaxing and funky album on a hot Friday afternoon. The first track is "Vibration" which is this funky entry that has Kasai putting on a bit of a sultry cat of a performance evoking images of the hot summer streets of the city. Dang, for a jazz singer, she could really strut on those old platform shoes.
"Vibration", which also has the alternate title of "Love Celebration", has some fine pedigree behind it. Prolific lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）provided the words; in fact, she was responsible for writing for all of the tracks on "Tokyo Special". And none other than Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）gave the groove to the melody.
That skit by The Drifters (ザ・ドリフターズ) in the clip above was one of the first I've watched from the comedy group, and it's also one of my favourites. This sketch has the 5 fellas doing a parody of what normally goes on during NHK's "Nodojiman", and despite some purposely made inaccuracies for laughs and how ridiculously idiotic it got, it was a great introduction to the singing competition for yours truly... although it did made me anticipate the ringing of the bells immediately after the contestants opened their mouths when I actually tuned in to the real deal on TV for the first time last year.
Anyway, since the skit featured "Nodojiman" in post-war Japan, our four contestants, played by Boo Takagi (高木ブー ), Ken Shimura (志村けん), Koji Nakamoto (仲本工事), and Cha Kato (加藤茶) respectively, all "sang" some really, really, old kayokyoku, or should I say, ryukoka. And out of all the 1/10ths of a song I've heard, I took a liking to the one Takagi's characterhad attempted to sing, "Nagasaki no Zabon Uri" as it had a rather cheerful start and I easily understood those few words he belted out, that being, "Kane ga naru naru" (the bells are ringing), right before his time in the limelight came to an abrupt halt when our pretentious and faux courteous MC and bell-ringer, played by Chosuke Ikariya (いかりや長介), appropriately struck the bell once... ...Now you know why I had the impression that the contestants would only survive about 5 seconds on stage.
Now, on to "Nagasaki no Zabon Uri". It did not occur to me to look for information regarding this song, I suppose it's because I was just satisfied hearing that one line or less from that Drifter's skit. In fact, it was only just this Wednesday when I re-watched the video for the nth time that the curiosity of finding out the original singer of "Nagasaki no Zabon Uri" got to me. I found it rather quickly after copying and pasting the Japanese characters for "Nagasaki" and "no" in the YouTube search bar, and I immediately recognized the name of the original singer as I skimmed through the results. He was Minoru Obata (小畑実). I got to know this native of North Korea via a medley of ryukoka that featured Batayan and Dick Mine - the number of times I hit repeat on that video is astronomical - and he seemed like a rather jolly fellow with his face beaming and all as he warbled in a very nasally voice.
Obata had that same merry manner as he sung "Nagasaki no Zabon Uri", an upbeat and jaunty tune about selling pomelo fruits (that's what a "Zabon" is) at the Nagasaki harbor. The music, composed by Obata's mentor, Yoshi Eguchi (江口夜詩), just makes you envision a bustling market scene with people moving in all directions with various goods, including pomelos, on a breezy, clear day. No sadness here! Not even in the lyrics that were written by Miyuki Ishimoto (石本美由起). Well, "Nagasaki no Zabon Uri" is a post-war song (released in 1948) after all, so I guess its meant to lift the dampened spirits of the folks.
Here's some background information on Obata. Born in North Korea as Gang Yeong Cheol (강영철) in 1923, he decided to move to Japan, together with tenor singer Genjiro Nagata (永田絃次郎) when he was sixteen, where he enrolled into the Japan Music School (日本音楽学校). He became one of Eguchi's students after graduating in 1941, and debuted the same year in February with "成吉思汗" (translates to Genghis Khan). He had participated in the Kohaku3 times, first in 1953, then 1954, and finally in 1957.
kingrecords.co.jp
If you're wondering how a pomelo looks like, it's in the picture below. I see them here (Singapore) occasionally at some super marts, but they spike in popularity during the Mid-Autumn festival as they are eaten with the moon cakes. The clear, pulpy flesh is bittersweet, some times more bitter than sweet, and I don't really fancy it, though I don't mind them in this dessert (originating from Hong Kong) called "Mango Pomelo Sago"... Actually I may find myself picking the pomelo out of the mango puree and grimacing whenever I bite into a bitter pulp...
Last weekend, I had my brother's family come over for dinner when my sister-in-law told me that her sister had gone to an Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）concert over in Hong Kong very recently (man, those guys are still hitting the concert circuit, I see), and was thoroughly charmed by the dulcet vocals of Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）. I can only imagine that she would be; after all these decades, the man may have packed on a number of kilograms but he can still sing like no one else.
In any case, I lent my brother and sister-in-law my entire collection of Anzen Chitai so that the sister can pick and choose among the songs she likes by the band. I've got a feeling that she will be taking quite a bit of time on that, but no surprise there.
Going back to some of the earliest days of the Hokkaido band, I remember one particular song from their second album, the appropriately titled "Anzen Chitai II" from May 1984. "La La La" was a track and not a single, but it had that soothing AC guitar sound that evoked a lot of cool mystery and urban settings. As usual, Tamaki provided the melody and Goro Matsui（松井五郎）wrote the lyrics about this tryst in the making although the lead singer's music felt almost like an Anzen Chitai attempt at a lullaby (well, in a way, the tryst and the lullaby are kinda aiming for the same thing, I suppose). I wouldn't be surprised if a die-hard fan actually played the song right by the bed to head for beddy-bye land and into the arms of Tamaki. The whispery vocals of the singer can work just like some good warm milk.
Well, I read on an old post that I had gotten Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）"Twilight Zone" back around October 2013, and aside from the absolutely gorgeous "Koi wa Ryuusei"（恋は流星...Shooting Star of Love）, I hadn't done anything about the album. That ends now.
The long lag between getting Yoshida's 5th album from March 1977 and finally doing a writeup on it is due to my initial reactions to the album. I had already heard some of her later, funkier work from the early 1980s so when it came to listening to "Twilight Zone", I was caught a bit off-guard at how intimate and introspective it sounded overall. It was as if she had recorded the album while performing at a basement Shinjuku live house with her and the piano just a few feet away from the nearest audience member. To be honest, I was intimidated at how I was even going to talk about it on the blog.
Yoshida was responsible for all of the writing and composing.
Track 2 has that very feeling of intimate introspection. Titled "Love", it's an atmospheric ballad with images like midnight streets, wafting smoke and the wings of sprites. Melodically, there's some soul-searching and hope in there, and listening to Yoshida, I can understand why she was once called the Laura Nyro of Japan after having listened to some of the late Nyro's works on YouTube.
"Runner" , Track 3, is a more uptempo piece which feels quite uplifting as well. I love the horns and the arrangement here which brings back some of my memories of 70s soul from the old radio. I don't think Yoshida ever intended for the title to refer to an actual jogger since I don't think the jogging craze had even begun, but I could imagine a music video of the song showing such an urban athlete happily and dutifully running around the streets of The Big Apple just after a major storm to take advantage of the refreshing coolness and the returning sun in time for dusk. Perhaps the song might be a spiritual child to the album title.
"Melody" , Track 4, is a wonderful gospel-tinged tribute to the city. It's just the balm to listen to after a long day at the office with a beer or a glass of wine. The intro reminded me of some of the ol' satisfied organ that played at the end of the really old episodes of "Saturday Night Live" way back when, and it's the late Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）who's responsible for the organ solo here.
The final track is the title track itself which is another epic piece in which Yoshida seems to be longing for that twilight zone to come back into her life. The first few minutes are uncertain ones for the heroine here until the zone arrives and the tempo picks up. I can only imagine the exciting city once again when that happens.
I have to leave off with "Koi wa Ryuusei, Part II". It didn't make it onto "Twilight Zone" but it should have. Some very fine riffing here. The liner notes had among all of the musicians, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）on guitar and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）on percussion and background vocals, so it would be nice to know that the two of them were also involved in the jam session.
I haven't been all that prolific on the blog over the past few days since I've been battling a bit of a gastrointestinal issue. It's pretty obvious to say that it hasn't been all that fun but it looks like I've finally started getting a handle on things again. Last night, though, since I wasn't feeling all that happy, I decided to check out an anime once more that brought more than its share of gentle smiles to my face when I watched it for the first time.
"Shirokuma Café"(Polar Bear Café) had a good year. Aside from a certain magical girl franchise or two, it's awfully hard to encounter an anime that actually goes beyond the typical 13-episode cour, and the adventures of Panda, Penguin and Shirokuma went four times as long, from April 2012 to March 2013. It was the anison equivalent of a good hot cocoa with a marshmallow as I viewed this odd fusion of "Cheers" and "Wild Kingdom" with its quirky yet amiable characters and the running gags such as the one above where Panda would frequently fall prey to his Mom's vacuum cleaner.
So, now that some of my energy has been replenished, I've decided to cover all of the three opening theme songs that greeted me through the 50 episodes of the series. The first opening was "Boku ni Invitation"（ボクにインビテーション...An Invitation For Me） by JP which is short for American singer-songwriter John Paul Lam from Hawaii. According to Wikipedia, he collaborated with Misia to write a song titled "Work It Out" for her 2009 album, "Just Ballade". However, "Boku ni Invitation" from 2012 was JP's debut single with Avex Group. JP took care of the melody while Yoshiharu Shiina（椎名慶治）wrote the lyrics.
"Boku ni Invitation" was an appropriately weird and hip-hop way to start off this series about a gently droll animal comedy. I had never heard quite that much Auto-Tune in an anison before, but the song had that 21st-century vibe but was reminiscent of the old welcoming theme song from "The Flintstones" as Shiina incorporated some of the cafe's goodies and the opening credits had the three main characters dancing away. The credits automatically set the friendship core for the series.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down)
Strangely enough, the episode I re-watched last night is represented in some of the stills in the above video. It was the 2nd episode in which the gang hold a picnic in the park. The highlight was seeing a drunk Penguin give his ode to Penko-san, his unrequited love.
Some months later, the opening changed. The credits now centered upon one of the few main human characters, Sasako, as she made her spirited bike commute to the cafe while the new opening theme of "Rough & Laugh" flowed. Of the artists covering the songs here, Clammbon（クラムボン）is the band that I have heard the most about. I've always associated this alternative pop-sounding unit with my old Tower Records in Shibuya since often when I entered the huge emporium, I would usually see either a display of their latest album or hear one of their songs on the store speakers. But to be sheepish, "Rough & Laugh", which was their 11th single from November 2012, was the first song that I've heard by them in its entirety. Written by vocalist Ikuko Harada（原田郁子）and bassist Mito（ミト）, and composed by the latter, I liked the melody which was as spirited and cheerful as Sasako's race to work, and also Harada's sweet vocals. The song peaked at No. 57 on Oricon.
Then, there was the third and final opening theme, "You & Me" by singer-songwriter Rie fu and Saki（紗希）who was behind all of the ending themes sung by the characters of "Shirokuma Café". Splitting up the composing and writing duties, Rie and Saki came up with this huggable tune that seemed to wrap its arms around the entire cast and setting for the series in a sign of affection and thanks for a job well done. Although there were several weeks to go before the show finally wrapped up, "You & Me" and the credits seemed to signify a goodbye of sorts from Shirokuma and the bunch with everyone heading back to that park for another picnic which for me was the first memorable scene from the show.
Allow me to end this tribute to "Shirokuma Café" with another one of the show's rituals, the introduction for the next episode. Also, you can check out a couple of my favourite ending themes from the show by Panda and Penguin.
