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.
Earlier this month, I was watching the variety game show "VS Arashi" as I usually do on Friday evenings, and the show regularly brings in a fairly wide spectrum of actors and tarento and comedians. Well, that one night, I encountered one fellow in his early 20s who was quite overwhelmingly ebullient.
His name is Ryucheru/りゅうちぇる (real name: Ryuji Higa/比嘉龍二), and he's a young magazine model who has recently made his way to TV fame, often amusing and/or bemusing his fellow celebrities and hosts.
While I was trying to find out some information about Ryucheru, I found out on both J-Wiki and Wikipediathat he has a sister in her 30s who is Okinawan singer-songwriter Chiharu Higa（比花知春）. Then moving onto YouTube, I found this very pleasant song by her titled "La La Life" which had been released earlier this year as part of her single, "Good".
Higa has this refreshingly soothing and velvety voice and paired up with the mellow happy-go-lucky melody that's she created, "La La Life" is a pretty nice way to pick up the spirits especially after some of the sad news I've been getting about the deaths of George Michael and Carrie Fisher. The video has Higa and everyone encouraging folks to put up that thumb. Everything's OK.
Like a number of other popular acts that have come from Okinawa such as SPEED and Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, Higa herself attended the Okinawa Actors' School in her early teenage years before picking up a guitar at 17 and then writing songs at 20. In 2002, she made her major debut with "Kimi wo Wasurenai"（君を忘れない...I Won't Forget You）.
Good golly! George Michael on Xmas Day and then today I get this news. I'd heard about Carrie Fisher's heart attack on that flight over to Los Angeles before last weekend and knew that she was in a bad way but the prognosis was that she was stabilizing. I took that to mean a hopeful thing. Unfortunately, the news came out this morning that she had passed away earlier today at the age of 60.😢
Fisher may have worn a number of hats in her career but it would always be her cinnamon bun do that I will remember her for. Of course, it's Princess Leia. When I had first heard of "Star Wars" decades ago and finally got to see it at the theatre, my impression as a callow youth was that as a princess, she would be the usual Disney damsel-in-distress. Instead, she was a 19-year-old cranky, snarky and tough belle who could go toe-to-toe with dashing-but-mercenary Han Solo. She didn't smile all that much during "A New Hope"...and frankly, how could she when the Death Star blew up her adopted planet and all her loved ones right in front of her eyes?
However, there is a trope that I found on the website "TV Tropes" called "When She Smiles" which describes a usually dour-faced character in pop culture who suddenly lights up the room...and fans...when he or she finally gives that rare happy look. That smile finally happened at the end of "A New Hope" during the medal ceremony for Luke Skywalker and Han, and I can remark that those guys' reward was just as much Leia's smile as it was those medals and recognition that they struck a blow against the evil Empire. Carrie Fisher probably melted a whole lot of hearts when she smiled in those photos but her passing broke a whole lot of them today.
So I was left thinking about how to pay some tribute through the blog, and decided to go with an old Princess Princess song. Nope, it isn't a smooth segue but it's the best I got. In fact, I have here the band's debut single under their Princess Princess moniker, "Koi wa Balance" (Love In Balance). Strangely enough, there is something fitting about going with this song for this tribute to Carrie Fisher since there has been that overarching theme of providing balance to the Force.
Released in April 1987, "Koi wa Balance" wasn't an in-band creation as would be the case with many of their future hits. Vocalist Kaori Okui（奥居香）didn't provide the music; instead it was veteran composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）who I usually associate with the much different Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）. However, guitarist Kanako Nakayama（中山加奈子）wrote the lyrics.
It's always interesting to see how a famous band started from humble beginnings. And watching the video above, all of the ladies looked a lot less rock and somewhat more GAP Kids. The song itself was definitely more on the poppier side of things and the underlying melody reminded me of this old Italian standard from years ago. Apparently "Koi wa Balance" didn't chart but that's OK. Obviously the best was yet to come for Okui and company.
It's been a tough 2016 for our pop idol icons, folks...
(December 28th: And the sadness deepens....her mother Debbie Reynolds just passed away earlier tonight.)
I was kinda wondering about devoting an article to the works of longtime lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）but was musing about the approach. This is a fellow who is currently 3rd in terms of best-selling lyricist in modern Japanese music history behind Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and the late Yu Aku（阿久悠）, but he far outstrips either of them in terms of entries on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". In fact, with this entry being the 97th article with his name involved, he is the one human Label with the highest number of entries.
There really wouldn't be much to say except to suggest to readers to look at his J-Wiki entry provided they can read Japanese or go through the Takashi Matsumoto Label here and scroll down the songs (advance apologies if a number of those YouTube videos have been taken down). His own homepage was discontinued years ago and even the J-Wiki entry doesn't give any insights about his songwriting style. And the fact is that I couldn't really glean any patterns from the lyrics (aside from a love theme) that he has given to his too-numerous-to-count clients over the decades. He is just one prolific lyricist who can work with any genre save enka or Mood Kayo. However, since I have given space and time to some of the other major Creators, I would be remiss if I didn't mention him in this category. At the very least, I would like to present some of those famous hits he was partially responsible for although they have already been represented in their own articles just to let folks know that, yep, he actually did write them.
Takashi Matsumoto was born in the Aoyama neighbourhood of Tokyo on July 16th 1949. According to the Wikipedia entry for him, even as an elementary school student, he was already proving himself quite the aesthete by listening to the works of Igor Stravinsky and reading Jean Cocteau. But thanks to the Beatles, he plunged into rock music and got a drum kit.
Matsumoto's first band was Apryl Fool with Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）but that didn't last too long so his more famous outfit with Hosono was Happy End (1969-1972) as the band drummer. He already started practicing his lyricist chops since he provided the words to a good chunk of the band's output.
After Happy End broke up, Matsumoto started working with Moonriders while at the same time continuing writing lyrics and even getting into producing records. He did so with Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）debut album"Matenro no Heroine"（摩天楼のヒロイン...Skyscraper Heroine）which was released in September 1973. However on completion of the project, Minami remarked that there was too much of Matsumoto in the lyrics and that "Matenro no Heroine" was really Matsumoto's album. If this scene had played out as an anime, Matsumoto's face or the background behind him would have cracked like a mirror. Ouch! In any case, any more ambitions about producing quickly leached out of him and he stuck with writing.
Matsumoto's first go as a professional lyricist, post-Happy End, was an Agnes Chan（アグネス・チャン）song "Pocket Ippai no Himitsu"（ポケットいっぱいの秘密...A Pocketful of Secrets）released in June 1974 as her 6th single. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, the gig may have been the result of a misunderstanding when Matsumoto had asked to write a commercial song, his friend in the industry had assumed it meant a pop song rather than a jingle for an actual TV ad.
But it all worked out in the end. Matsumoto's song (with composer Yusuke Hoguchi/穂口雄右) about a girl giddily asking a guy to keep their tryst under wraps got up to No. 6 on Oricon and ended up as the year's 60th-ranked single.
The band Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）came up with a cover version of "Pocket Ippai no Himitsu" in 1977 and you can read about it here.
Of course, one of Matsumoto's earliest hits was Hiromi Ohta's（太田裕美）"Momen no Handkerchief"（木綿のハンカチーフ）from December 1975. As sunny and cheerful as a spring day, the couple may have been parted by circumstances but somehow the feeling was that everything would be all right.
Matsumoto has had some long and successful working relationships with a number of composers. Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）was one example; he was behind the music for the aforementioned "Momen no Handkerchief". Another was fellow songwriting legend Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and together they came up with a number of classic hits for 80s aidoru Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）. Case in point: "Akai Sweet Pea"（赤いスイートピー）, also a karaoke favourite. The lyric "I will follow you..." will follow me to the end of my days as one of my beloved Seiko-chan phrases.
But it wasn't all about the aidoru for Matsumoto. One of his greatest achievements was providing the words for Akira Terao's（寺尾聰）"Ruby no Yubiwa"（ルビーの指輪）in 1981. It just happened to become the No. 1 single of the year and perhaps the highest-ranking City Pop song. This would be the theme song for any walk through the hotel district of West Shinjuku when the sun is going down.
I'm a bit surprised that I hadn't already written this one up in its own article but Matsumoto also gave his lyrics on that sudden rejection by the titular "Bachelor Girl" for Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）, his 9th single from July 1985 with Inagaki himself providing the music.
I was happily reminded that Matsumoto was also responsible for the lyrics for one of my favourite J-Pop tunes, the oh-so-smooth "Nemuri no Mori"（眠りの森）by Tomita Lab from his album "Shipbuilding" in 2003. You gotta have a nice cup of tea while listening to this one.
But to finish off this admittedly short list of Matsumoto's contributions to Japanese music, I want to head back to 1979 with Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"September" which paired his lyrics with the boppy disco-pop of Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）. This was one of the keystone songs that got me into this music in the first place and therefore this blog. Just so many items in the Labels that I couldn't fit her name and year in.
As I said from the top, I was a little unsure about how to approach "The Works of Takashi Matsumoto" but I'm now glad that I got it out of my system. Please consider this as a very brief stopping-off point or launch pad describing the variety of songs he has provided singers over the past 40-odd years. It's ironic that the last two Japanese song articles before this Creator article focused on Matsumoto-written tunes but I am positive that this will not be the final period on this very prolific lyricist.
I think some of the viewers looking at this will have had their second round of turkey, stuffing and gravy in as many nights so Xmas dinner exhaustion will be setting in right around now. We did the same here but all of the turkey has been ingested so we'll be back to normal eating from tomorrow.
The above is an old photo from 1981 during that Japanese Language School graduation trip with the guys and those Tezukayama Girls' High School students whose families hosted us for a few days in July. Amazing those hairstyles back then. Still, bell bottom pants were already a thing of the past so quite happy there.
When I think of Hideko Hara（原日出子）, I think of bathroom grout. Nope...that's an overly harsh assessment, but the actress/tarento has been a fairly familiar face on television through many commercials and variety show appearances. She always has had that cheerful and confident countenance as a housewife and mother. But she's also had her share of thespian performances including her stint as the main character on an NHK morning serial drama all the way back in 1981.
She even had a brief time behind the recording mike. Hara released just 3 singles between 1980 and 1982, and "Yakusoku" (Promise) is her sophomore song. Released in November 1981, it was created by the dream pair of lyricist Takashi Matsumoto and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（松本隆・筒美京平）, and although the first couple of bars sounded as if it were going to be a City Pop tune, "Yakusoku" is just a happy-go-lucky pop song with Hara giving a decent if not spectacular round at the mike. I like the melody since it is rather reminiscent of those innocent songs from a decade prior.
I don't know how it did on the rankings but I think it would be a major coup for the die-hard Hara fans if any of them manage to find a copy of this single.
Strangely enough, this was going to be another Xmas song that I was planning to put up alongside Mariah Carey's"All I Want For Christmas Is You" since like that tune, WHAM!'s"Last Christmas" beat Carey's classic by about a decade as a standard Yuletide tune in Japan.
Just within the last few hours, though, my planned article has now become a eulogy on hearing the news of George Michael's passing at the age of 53. My brother and I were talking about him over Xmas dinner tonight and although I knew that the man had his problems, I had no idea that he would leave this mortal coil so early.
"Last Christmas" was released all the way back in December 1984 as this amiable song with synths and jingle bells and Michael's soulful voice. I first heard it as a track on one of the two CDs that I have of the band, "Music From The Edge of Heaven", that came out in 1986. It automatically appealed to me but I didn't know that it also appealed to a great many people in Japan and Japanese pop culture, for that matter. I've seen it used as a background song for a fantasy movie starring Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）and there's at least one cover of the song by a Japanese artist, Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）.
On its release in Japan just a couple of weeks after its release on December 4th 1984, "Last Christmas" managed to peak at No. 12 on Oricon.
At this point, I'm pretty sure that the news has started to trickle out over in Japan and there will be some very shocked people that the golden voice behind this Xmas standard has been silenced permanently. And to think that Michael passed away right on Christmas Day has given "Last Christmas" a certain darker tinge.
2016 began with the deaths of Natalie Cole and David Bowie after which followed a veritable flood of music artists passing in an untimely manner. Now, it's George Michael and we still have a week left.
Oh, YMO...you have been holding out on me, haven't you? Had one more catchy tune, didn't you? Well, it helps out that I was only buying original albums and certain BEST compilations and that "Kageki na Shukujo"(Radical Lady) simply didn't pop up on the two compilations that I do have.
"Kageki na Shukujo" was Yellow Magic Orchestra's 8th single from July 1983. When I first got to know the group in the late 1970s through their amazing numbers such as "Rydeen" and "Technopolis", it was all about this wonderful musical thing called technopop...these instrumental pieces made through synthesizers and other computer devices that often played on old genres like surf rock and exotica. However, as I found out some years later, at the time I was really starting to get into them, YMO had already seemingly diverged musically. The techno and the pop were dividing up; going into the early 80s, I heard some colder and avant-garde techno but then I also came across poppier material that was actually sung by drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）that just used catchy synths.
"Kageki na Shukujo" is one of the latter in my estimation. I once reported in the entry for Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）"Romantique" that although Ohnuki was trying out technopop, she was reluctant to sound like the female version of her buddies at YMO and she was successful in carving out her own little niche in the early 1980s. However, hearing this particular song, I thought that YMO was ironically pulling a page out of the Ohnuki playbook with a melody composed by the band that sounded elegantly cabaret. However, it wasn't any of the members who took care of the lyrics. They were provided by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）old bandmate from Happy End from over a decade previously.
The song made it as high as No. 15 on the charts and it was placed on a YMO BEST album, "Sealed" from December 1984. It peaked at No. 64.
While we're just getting set up here for the family to get together for Christmas today, Japan is already into the 26th so their Yuletide is done for another year. This will mean all that the Xmas gloss and glitter will be taken down lickety-split from the various department stores and all of the New Year's decorations will be going up just as quickly. I can pretty much guarantee that the place in the above photo, Kaminari-mon, the gate for Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa, will be totally crazy in the hours going from December 31st way into January 1st. When my anime buddy was in the Asakusa area once during New Year's, he had naively assumed that it wouldn't be too busy on the 1st since everyone got in their prayers around midnight. Uh...nope. Think about rush hour multiplied by a factor of 10. Anyone going there on that day, you have been duly warned.
Not that I'm saying that this song is a New Year's tune by any means but it's got that traditional Japanese brio which would make things quite festive, and as quiet as it is outside for the first few days of the New Year there (outside of shrines and temples, that is), inside is a whole lot of talking, eating, drinking and all-round carousing with family and friends.
This would be "Isshukan ni Touka Koi" (Come For 10 Days A Week) by singer/actress/tarento Midori Satsuki（五月みどり）. The title is a bit odd but since the lyrics by Koshu Kojima（小島胡秋）talk about a woman lusting for some guy at a bar, I gather that it is showing the depth of her desire that he show up as much as possible. And as for that lyricist's name, I had never heard of him before I first saw the song performed on an episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）, so I'm not quite sure how that given name is pronounced considering that he doesn't have his own J-Wiki page and the kanji doesn't seem to compute on jisho.org. But feel free to correct me if you know the proper way to pronounce it.
Minoru Endo（遠藤実）is a far more familiar name to me as the composer behind the jaunty enka arrangement. Kojima's lyrics may talk about potential romance in a bar as would be the case in any bluesy Mood Kayo piece, but Endo has woven a melody that is much more suited for an old-fashioned town festival. And I think for a certain generation, this would be the sort of song that could be sung together after a goodly amount of beer/sake.
As for Midori Satsuki, she was born as Fusako Omodaka（面高フサ子）in 1939 in Tokyo, and made her debut in 1958 with "O-zashiki Rock"（お座敷ロック...Tatami Room Rock）. However, it seems like her breakthrough hit was in the early 1960s with "Chirimen Vibrato" (ちりめんビブラート...Silk Crepe Vibrato) which led to her first invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen in 1962. "Isshukan ni Touka Koi" was her next song to be performed on NHK's New Year's Eve special the following year, and according to the Tokyo-based Video Research Ltd., her performance set a record in terms of viewership ratings at apparently 85.3%! Nowadays, any producer of the Kohaku would kill simply for half of those ratings.
