Tatsuro Yamashita -- Tsuite Oide （ついておいで）

(cover version above)

I think that duo of Tatsuro Yamashita and Minako Yoshida （山下達郎・吉田美奈子）was golden for City Pop. They've worked together on a number of songs such as the catchy "Let's Kiss The Sun" and the relaxing "Blue Midnight".

And here's another one which, in terms of tempo, inhabits that middle ground between those two collaborations. Yamashita (music) and Yoshida (lyrics) created "Tsuite Oide" (Follow Me Along) as a track on the former's 3rd studio album, "GO AHEAD!" from December 1978. Despite the winter release, there's still quite the summery sheen to it (I think summer and City Pop go together hand-in-glove). Lyrically, the two of them send out the message that if the folks are feeling blue, then they should just follow ol' Tats (and Mina, by association) for a good ol' singalong. Nothing like whistling a happy tune to chase the blues away.

I guess that's why karaoke boxes and bars popped up like rabbits in Japan. "GO AHEAD!" only got as high as No. 75 in its original release, but when it was re-released in 2002, it soared up to No. 25. Nice to get that re-appreciation.

Plus for me, it's nice to hear another new and shiny Yamashita song. "Tsuite Oide" starts off like an old bluesy ballad but then takes off at a nice skippy beat once the clouds part and the sun comes streaming through.

http://music.163.com/#/song?id=542869

Sayuri Kokusho -- Summer Blue

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Back on Thursday night, I wrote an article about Bread & Butter's relaxing song "Summer Blue" as I was commenting on the fine summer weather for getting together with a few buds for some brewskis at the outdoor section of the bar. Well, I didn't exactly do that today but I did enjoy catching the latest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's franchise "Ant-Man" today with a good friend, sipped some Iced Chocolates at the nearby café before his wife arrived from work so that all of us could have a delicious Italian dinner.

Strangely enough, I came across another "Summer Blue". This was sung by late 80s aidoru Sayuri Kokusho（国生さゆり）for her 1988 4th album, "Summer Snow", and instead of the laid-back vibe enjoyed by a couple of older folk for B&B's "Summer Blue", Kokusho's namesake song has that young spirited feeling of running along the beach. After listening to it a couple of times, I think it's a notch up on the usual aidoru song with the Latin-tinged synths sounding like something that I would have associated with an early Miki Imai（今井美樹）contribution. Kokusho's high-pitched vocals kept it in the aidoru arena for me. Kudos to writer Yuriko Mori（森由里子）and composer Minoru Komorita（小森田実）.

Yujiro Ishihara -- Showa Tazune Bito (昭和たずねびと)

I just got myself some CDs online not too long ago - Kiyoshi Maekawa's newest single, Yuzo Kayama's 2012 compilation album, and volume 14 of the "Towa no Utagoe Yujiro Ishihara no Subete" (永遠の歌声 石原裕次郎のすべて) series. The last one was slightly more troublesome to get than the first two as CDJapan doesn't sell it as one of their products, but through their special order service, they were able to locate and get it for me. It cost me an arm and a leg though, and I even had to forgo my Teruo Ikeda CDs to keep within my budget - including shipping fees of course.

My main priority for going through all that trouble rather than to just get the regular Yujiro Ishihara (石原裕次郎) compilation albums was to be able to listen to "Kimagure Dori wa Tasogare te" (きまぐれ通りはたそがれて), a song that I could only find in this one album (that's not as expensive on its own), without having to go online. However, with that quickly fulfilled, I've noticed that in the entire "Towa no Utagoe" album, I was familiar with that one tune and had to do some "exploring" with the other 19 tracks. As Maria sung in "The Sound of Music", "Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start." And so I did with "Showa Tazune Bito". A very good place to start indeed.

"Showa Tazune Bito" has got a very soothing and jazzy score to it with the elegant strings and the lonely blare of the saxophone brought to you by Takashi Miki (三木たかし), and to a certain extent there's also a feeling of nostalgia in it. It reminds me of this one show that had the hosts taking old tram rides in the old part of Tokyo, and then alighting at the various stops to check things out - little stores that have been open since the beginning of time, residential districts, etc. - at different times of the day. Late afternoon and its orange sun shining down on to the said residential districts seems to fit "Showa Tazune Bito" best. The lyrics to this tune were written by Norihiko Sugi (杉紀彦), who happened to be the same guy who penned "Kimagure Dori wa Tasogare te".

"Showa Tazune Bito" was released in January 1978. From what I've seen in Tough Guy's extensive discography, it seems that most if not all of the tracks from Vol. 14 of "Towa no Utagoe" are from 1978 as well.

amazon.co.jp

One more thing that I must note is that the way in which Ishihara sang some parts of the song like "Kaze mo kieru mo ii darou" and "Tooi jidai no mama de yuku", he actually sounded a little like Kiyoshi Maekawa, which made me wonder about the possibility of Mae-Kiyo doing a cover of "Showa Tazune Bito".

Bread & Butter -- Summer Blue

Probably right now in downtown Toronto on this summer night, there are a lot of folks out tonight knocking back the beers or sipping the cocktails in the restaurants and bars in al fresco mode. And I'm sure the happiness has been further elevated by the fact that the Blue Jays won their 11th straight game today down at the Rogers Centre (I prefer to call it by its proper name, Skydome).

All that good mellow feeling can be distilled into this one song by the folk duo Bread & Butter. I just came across "Summer Blue" on YouTube and after one round of listening to it, I almost felt like running to the LCBO to buy a bottle of Kahlua to make myself a Brown Cow (I wonder how it would taste mixed with Silk almond milk?). Anyways, whether you call the calming melody by one half of the sibling duo, Fuyumi Iwasawa（岩沢二弓）, City Pop, J-AOR or even Resort Pop, it definitely isn't folk. I cannot imagine being in a ramshackle one-room apartment overlooking the Kanda River when I listen to this one...it's more like being in one of the nicer hotels in Hakone by the pool. And Kazuko Kobayashi's（小林和子）lyrics pretty much sum up the sensation of a summer vacation by the beach.

This was a track on B&B's 1979 6th album, "Late Late Summer". When it comes to minor missed opportunities and regrets, not getting this album at my student's recommendation is one of them. But then again, I have CD Japan and Tower Records to help redeem myself in this case. I already enjoy one of the other tracks on the album, "Ano Koro no Mama"（あの頃のまま）. By the way, "Summer Blue" was also the B-side to the duo's 15th single, "Aoi Chiheisen"（青い地平線...Blue Horizon）which came out in 1980.

Wherever you are, enjoy that tall cold one!

Yumi Matsutoya -- Niji no Shita no Doshaburi de （虹の下のどしゃ降りで）

For me, this was the final Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）single that struck a chord with me, although there had been several years beforehand where I didn't pay much attention to the Queen of New Music. Basically, my finest memories of Yuming were way back in the 70s and 80s for the most part.

Then one night, I started seeing this ad for the Suica commuter pass in Tokyo starring actress Yukie Nakama and a penguin (after all, this was a Japanese commercial). Of course, I instantly recognized the voice doing the jingle, and much to my surprise, even the little bit she sang stood out to me. 

Yuming's "Niji no Shita no Doshaburi de" (In A Downpour Under A Rainbow) was her 38th single from February 2006, and naturally it sounded different from her New Music days of the 70s and her synthesizer-heavy days of the late 80s and early 90s. However, there was something about the song that was newly refreshing but also reminiscent of the old times. Although it was the singer behind the music and lyrics, with her husband, Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）doing the arrangement, I thought there was also a hint of the cool groove of Tomita Lab in there, and since I enjoyed a lot of the tracks on his 2003 album "Shipbuilding" which had Yuming as a guest performer, I think that was what did the trick for me and got me to buy her 34th album, "A Girl In Summer" from May 2006 which contained the single.

As for the single, "Niji no Shita no Doshaburi de" managed to peak at No. 22 on the charts.

Seiko Matsuda -- Kaze wa Aki Iro （風は秋色）

There's nothing like an early Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）single to bring back memories of my first realization of my love for Showa Era Japanese pop. One of the commenters was asking about Seiko-chan's 3rd single, "Kaze wa Aki Iro" (Autumn-Coloured Winds) since this was the song that hooked him onto the discography of the evergreen aidoru of the early 1980s. And once again for me, this was a tune that I knew more for the melody than for the actual title.

Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）who took care of a lot of Seiko's early contributions as singles and album tracks, "Kaze wa Aki Iro", despite the title and its release date of October 1980, has that summery breeziness that I always associated with Seiko's early material. There is that introductory flourish by the strings before they crash into the aidoru's delivery and the happy-go-lucky melody. The song has that classically Japanese approach....being the melody guy, I used to assume that the tune was that really cheerful story of boy meets girl on the beach. However, Miura's lyrics were actually relating past happiness, current melancholy as the courtship didn't quite take. I think the title was a clue since the season of autumn has had that feeling of an ending to things, including all good ones.

"Kaze wa Aki Iro" hit No. 1 on the charts and stayed there for nearly a month. Despite its release in October 1980, it was so successful that it ended up as the 14th-ranked single of the year, and hung around for another year, ranking in at No. 65. It was also a track on Seiko's 2nd album, "North Wind" from December 1980 which also hit the top spot.

The very first record I got of Seiko Matsuda was her single "Komugi Iro no Mermaid"（小麦色のマーメイド）from 1982. However, the very first time I ever heard of the lady was through a commercial of some product with Seiko-chan singing "Natsu no Tobira"（夏の扉）...the ad featured quick stills of a laughing Seiko playing tennis on the courts. I just saw the ad so many times during my 1981 summer trip of epiphany through Japan that the song could have easily become the theme song for my adventure. Fresh, fresh, fresh indeed! Maybe you can find the ad in the video above. I would go through all of it but I'm on the lowest tier of Internet service here.

It's not quite autumn here yet but I think after this next spate of hot weather coming up, I will be looking forward to the colorful season with open arms.

Masaaki Hirao/The Drifters -- Miyo-chan （ミヨちゃん）

As I mentioned some articles ago, I caught most of the annual "Omoide no Melody"（思い出のメロディー...Melodies of Memories）on NHK via TV Japan over the weekend, and it was a looser and longer version of the weekly "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）with a number of the old vets coming on, sharing a few stories and having fun singing their hits.

Noelle, who also saw the special, mentioned on her article for Saburo Kitajima's（北島三郎）"Guitar Jingi"（ギター仁義）that there was one segment when Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）, Akira Kobayashi（小林旭）and Sabu-chan showed up for a bit of banter with the first two guys doing some retro cosplay of sorts. I definitely have to agree that the first two guys cut quite the dashing figure according to those old photos in the background. Kitajima wasn't exactly the most handsome of fellows but I think the growing admiration for him was due to his down-to-earth man of the people demeanor.

But I'm taking care of Hirao's part in the trio's appearance on August 8th. I've only really known his contributions in kayo kyoku far more through his songwriting than in his singing, although I used to listen to his duet with Yoko Hatanaka（畑中葉子）when they sang the karaoke fave "Canada kara no Tegami"（カナダからの手紙）. Plus, he was the fellow who helped introduce Agnes Chan to the Japanese public in the early 70s.

I found out through his J-Wiki article and then later through one of Noelle's articles that Hirao started out as a rockabilly singer with that de rigueur pompadour. The song that he sang on "Omoide no Melody" that night was a 1960 single of his own making "Miyo-chan" (Little Miyo). The original version has that 1950s swinging Western lilt that reminded me of some of my really old days when a lot of my TV viewing included old shows such as "Gunsmoke", "Bonanza" and "Hee Haw", especially that last one since it was a country music show. However, Hirao's lyrics could be just as appropriate for an enka tune as the singer pines for that titular girl from the 2nd year of high school back in his hometown. Alas, the lad punishes himself for not having enough gumption to show his hidden feelings for little Miyo, and there is an opportunity missed. Back on the lonely road...

I only found the above video purely by chance. But apparently the music-comedy group The Drifters did their own cover of "Miyo-chan" through some movie with Cha Kato（加藤茶）taking on Hirao's protagonist part. We get to see the lyrics visualized!