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.
Have a bad day at work? Feel kicked down to the curb? Have a frothy cold mug of this song and see how you feel afterwards. "THE HERO! ~Ikareru Kobushi ni Honō wo Tsukero"(The Hero! ~Set Fire to the Furious Fist~) could work even better than a 3000-yen bottle of Yunker vitamin drink.
"THE HERO!" is also the most appropriate opening theme song for the anime "One Punch Man". I've already mentioned about the hit manga and now anime through the article on the very different ending theme by Hiroko Moriguchi（森口博子）, "Hoshi yori Saki ni Mitsukete Ageru"（星より先に見つけてあげる）. That theme may be humorously ironic but "THE HERO!" is definitely as straight-on and powerful as one of Saitama's right crosses. Right from the slow burn of the guitar in the intro right to the throat-shredding scream of JAM Project member Yoshiki Fukuyama（福山芳樹）at the very end, the power song even had me banging my head in front of the screen (not on the screen...that would be bad). Although the hero Saitama may not have the happiest attitude to his destined career, "THE HERO!" sounds like something that some of those corporate cogs would love to wake up to before trundling off to work in the wee hours of the morning.
JAM (Japan Animationsong Makers) Project has been around since 2000 and has had a shifting lineup which now includes veteran anison singer Masami Okui (奥井雅美...wow!). Their description can be had at Wikipedia, but I can mention that "THE HERO!" is their 62nd single released a couple of months ago in October, and apparently peaked at No. 19. Founding member Hironobu Kageyama（影山 ヒロノブ）wrote and composed the song. The other current members are Masaaki Endo and Hiroshi Kitadani（遠藤正明・きただにひろし）.
Although I didn't know the name of the group until "One Punch Man" was introduced to me in the last few months, it's possible that I may have come across their earlier incarnation while I was still living in the Tokyo area. I was just crossing the intersection just by Tower Records in Shibuya when a smaller version of one of those glitzy advertising trucks turned the corner while blaring a hard rock version of the famed theme for "Space Cruiser Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）. Well, I figured...if there could be a classical take on "Uchuu Senkan Yamato", why not a headbanging one? Personally, I'm waiting for a jazz version.
P.S. I'm gonna have to cover that "Fist of the North Star" theme pretty soon.
I gotta say that the above picture of Junko Yagami（八神純子）is probably the best one of her that I've seen on an album cover (sorry about the flash). And it's just one of the reasons that I got her 7th album"Full Moon" from December 1983. I noticed from her J-Wiki record that she was quite the busy singer that year since she released two earlier albums in the same year, "Lonely Girl" in February and "I Wanna Make A Hit Witchoo" in July.
As I said, that is one fine picture of her on the cover (indeed...bow ties are cool). But another reason I got "Full Moon" was for her 18th single which also became a track here, "Tasogare no Bay City"(Sunset Bay City). The single came out in November just before the album and was written and composed by Yagami with arrangement by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）. It's about as City Pop as you can get, and considering that I covered her early Latin and later R&B sides of her for the last couple of Yagami articles, it was time to get back to her 80s Japanese urban contemporary facet.
"Tasogare no Bay City" doesn't specify a particular Japanese city but I always think of Yokohama when this song comes on. It's got some of that funky Japanese bass and sparkly keyboard work while the lovely singer paints this strutting image of a young lady who probably got loved and left by the usual love 'em-and-leave 'em cad in the big city. But is she in any particular pain? Not by the way Yagami sings it. It's more of a happy shrug by the heroine and back to the boyhunt. I also got that image of a hundred stories in the city with "Tasogare no Bay City", and perhaps the heroine is thinking she's in one of those tales.
Hey, if it worked before, why not try it again? Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）got her first No. 1 on Oricon with "Romance"（ロマンス）, thanks to the winning duo of Yu Aku and Kyohei Tsutsumi（阿久悠・筒美京平）earlier in the summer of 1975. The triumvirate did it again with her next single (her 3rd) in October of that year with "Sentimental".
I heard this on one of the two Hiromi-chan cassette tapes that Mom got me when she and Dad came back from vacation in Japan in the mid-80s. It was a BEST compilation with all her songs dating up to 1984, and all of her earliest material just happened to wrap Side B. So I got to hear "Romance" and then "Sentimental" which is a bit more whimsical-sounding than the former song. Depending on my mood, I've often it liked it better than "Romance" .
Indeed, "Sentimental" was her second No. 1. And in the short time before the end of the year, it managed to become the 78th-ranked song on the annual charts which all the way up to No. 17 for the same charts for 1976. Of course, Iwasaki would continue to do well for the next several years, but her 3rd and final No. 1 up to now wouldn't come until 1982 when she had another megahit with "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby"（聖母たちのララバイ）.
(empty karaoke version)
One piece of trivia I gleaned from the J-Wiki article for the song is that the original title was supposed to have been "Kanshouteki na Juu-nana Sai"（感傷的な17才...Sentimental 17）. However on the advice of a fortune teller called Shinjuku-no-Haha（新宿の母...Shinjuku Mama）, the title was changed to its katakana version of the English word since Iwasaki was told that her first three songs should have katakana titles. Thus, Singles 1-3 were "Duet", "Romance" and "Sentimental". But I guess she, the songwriters and everyone else on the staff decided to play things even more safely and dubbed the 4th single into katakana as well: "Fantasy"（ファンタジー）. I gather that it is not just athletes who are superstitious celebs.
Although I'm not a big fan of Kiyoshi Hikawa (氷川きよし) - I appreciate his singing ability and I admit that he is indeed good-looking - but holey moley, that is some photo of him on the C-type single cover for "Itoshi no Tequila" and "Otoko Bana" (what you see up there)! He's really rocking that rogue-ish look. Yup, it even makes the eyes of yours truly, who much prefers the older, refined gentlemen of the genre, pop wide open. Not enough to make my jaw drop though. But I had read that the pictures on the 3 versions of the single were banned for a while due them exuding too much sex appeal. I'm pretty sure the fans were miffed to put it mildly, so eventually the powers that be lifted the ban not too long after. People can now enjoy Hikawa either showing off some skin or staring seductively into the camera on their single covers.
Moving on... My, my, those bohemian moves, that hip gyration, the filmy scarves billowing in the wind with his hair for gracefulness, that fan service... No wonder the fans go absolutely nuts whenever Hikawa comes on to sing "Otoko Bana". And judging by that smirk on his pretty-boy face, he knows full well that the fans love it when he rigorously sways his hips from side to side. When the short MV of "Otoko Bana" came out in July to promote his album, "Shin Enka Meikyoku Collection Sasurai Bojou" (新・演歌名曲コレクション ～さすらい慕情～), I was thoroughly impressed by its music. Along with Hikawa's loud, boisterous voice as he belts out the words with all he's got is the thumping of the taiko and the powerful sting of the electric guitar, which makes this wild, rock-themed enka song really cool and manly and dramatic. Makes me think of a captain braving a storm and trying to steer his boat through the dark, choppy seas.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
He kinda looks like an off-duty bellhop in this performance. Anyway, Akira Umehara (梅原晃) was responsible for both writing and composing "Otoko Bana", and from the lyrics, I think "Otoko Bana" may be a metaphor for striving to make it/achieve something in life... or something like that. Y'know, with the Kohaku coming up in just a few weeks (wow, already!) and with Hikawa being one of the guests on the annual year-end competition, I wonder if he'll sing this raucous tune since it's such a fan favourite.
"Otoko Bana" wasn't released as a single until 29th September when it was paired with "Itoshi no Te quiero" (I'm honestly not sure if that's the way it's romanized, but I'll just go with this for now), forming Hikawa's first single with 2 A-sides. I have not a clue how that works.
Anyway, with "Itoshi no Te quiero" being a love song, its a lot more subdued than "Otoko Bana" and the image of Spanish streets aglow at night comes to mind rather than the raging sea. That bright red casual suit and low-cut V-neck shirt is really a contrast to the blue outfit with trailing scarves, but it fits the Latin and romance theme better. Seeing Hikawa dance flamboyantly to the strumming of the Spanish guitar and shed his enka-ness in this clip, I kept wondering what this guy is doing in the world of enka when he seems more at home as a regular J-pop singer or aidoru. Well, but I suppose he has his reasons for that. "Itoshi no Te quiero" was written by Ryoko Hashizume (橋詰亮子) and composed by YORI.
Not surprisingly, "Itoshi no Te quiero" and "Otoko Bana" did well on the Oricon charts; peaking at 2nd on the regular charts and 1st on the enka-yo one.
A-type picture... Nah, I prefer the C-type, he looks cooler in that one.
Mayumi Shibata（柴田まゆみ）is a singer that doesn't have a whole lot of information about her. There is no entry of her on J-Wiki but there is a Facebook page which led me to a website devoted to her on Google. According to her profile, she was born on February 2nd and released what I think was her only single in 1978 titled "Shiroi Page no Naka ni"(On A White Page) which she had written and composed. After that, it would be another 14 years before she released anything new, and then in 2004, there was an album which came out on CD titled "Shiroi Page no Naka ni and more tracks".
So there is some mystery about her but no mystery about her single. I enjoy it very much. It's very much in the relaxing-as-chamomile tea category of ballad. It has that sort of nostalgic arrangement that I've enjoyed with the strings and keyboards, and the lyrics seem to bring an inspiring message about getting over a bad period and starting fresh on that new fresh page. Shibata won a prize at the 15th Yamaha Popular Song Contest in 1978 with "Shiroi Page no Naka ni".
The female duo of Aming（あみん）covered the song in their 2nd album from December 1983, "Memorial". When I heard the intro, I had thought that it was a wholly different song just with the same title but the lyrics were indeed the same. Instead of the wistful and sadder-but-wiser tone in the original, there was an even more optimistic bent to this version which made it sound almost like a City Pop tune, thanks to arranger Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）.
In enka it is common to have the different prefectures of Japan mentioned, but anywhere outside of Japan, not so much. Come to think of it, I don't think I've come across any other song that features an international location besides "Busan Ko e Kaere" (Return to Busan Port).
Having the name of South Korea's second largest city in its title made "Busan Ko e Kaere" stand out whenever I surfed YouTube for enka, and I usually see it being associated with the unassuming and anemic-looking (probably caused by the bout of stomach cancer he had in the late 80's) Jiro Atsumi (渥美二郎). Listening to the song, I must say that it got me hooked with its mysterious air and funky techno beat. The growling electric guitar in the background also added a wonderfully menacing touch, and it also sort of mimics the lonely blare of the ship's horn. Responsible for this composition was songwriter Fan Sun-woo (黄善友), who was known for creating songs that are the Korean equivalent of kayokyoku. However, I find that Atsumi's quiet and delicate voice doesn't exactly match the aggressive music to "Busan Ko e Kaere"; he seems to utter each word with such care and caution.
Eventually I found out that what I have been hearing from Atsumi was only a cover, and that the original was by Cho Yong-pil (조용필), who seems to be quite a big figure in Korean pop music. The first "Busan Ko e Kaere" is not as rock-tinged as Atsumi's rendition, but Cho gives a more forceful and emotional delivery that's more appropriate for this tune about a woman forlornly waiting for her dearly beloved to return to her at the Busan port. Or at least that's lyricist Reiji Miyoshi's (三佳令二) translation of Fan's lyrics, which is almost the same save for one little detail - someone expecting his/her brother, rather than a lover, to return.
Full version of the original.
Alright, on to the statistics. Cho had first released "Busan Ko e Kaere" in 1975, but I'm not sure how well it was recieved then as there's no information on that. All I know is that he sang it at his 4th appearance on the Kohaku Uta Gassen in 1990. I guess it's because it became more popular after Atsumi's cover came out in 1983 and became a hit, selling about 700 000 copies. But if so, I wonder why Atsumi wasn't invited to sing it instead.
Cho actually looks somewhat cute... in a nerdy sort of way.
When NHK News announced the annual lineup for this year's "Kohaku Utagassen", the folks there were kind enough to show some of the new acts performing. One guy who caught my eye was actor-musician-songwriter Gen Hoshino（星野源）. I had never heard of him before but NHK featured a very brief clip of singing a pretty catchy tune by my estimation, and with his dapper attire, I immediately got reminded of KAN and Noriyuki Makihara（槇原敬之）from about a quarter-century ago.
I believe that clip by Saitama-born Hoshino was for his song "Sun" which is his 8th and latest single from May 2015. Surely enough, hearing the whole song (or much of it...there was some promotional stuff in the middle) got me in a rather chirpy mood. As its title suggests, the song is darn sunny (helped by the video including the cute choreography) and Hoshino's lyrics are nothing but pure liquid optimism. He could probably be run over by a car and he'd still have a grin on his face.
"Sun" is his most rankings-successful song so far, hitting the No. 2 spot on Oricon. It is also a track on his latest album, "Yellow Dancer" which was released just within the last week and has already hit No. 1. I'm hopeful that this will be the song that he performs on the Kohaku in a few weeks. By the way, Hoshino is also a member of the band Sakerock.
