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.
There are certain melodic touchstones when it comes to the individual decades that I've known kayo kyoku. For the 1980s in the aidoru department, it would be the early Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）numbers with the spritely synths anchored by the soaring strings and the galloping electric guitar. Whenever I hear that instrumental combination, the old days start flowing like spring water.
So why not have a Seiko number here with the ideal "Sukoshi Zutsu Haru" (A Little Bit of Spring)? I think I've pretty much exhausted all of the A-sides for her heyday singles so that I'll probably be doing the B-sides now. And "Sukoshi Zutsu Haru" is the B-side for the singer's 4th single"Cherry Blossom"（チェリーブラッサム）that I've already written about.
Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, the same duo behind Seiko's big hit "Aoi Sangoshou"（青い珊瑚礁）, this quintessential early Seiko song weaves back and forth between super-cheerful and coquettish as the lass sings about the usual tribulations behind young love. I would say that there is an echo of "Aoi Sangoshou" as well in there.
The above video has the all of the instruments taken out, just leaving Seiko's bright voice in acapella mode. An interesting experience.
"Sukoshi Zutsu Haru" apparently didn't make it onto an original album by Seiko but it did make it onto "Seiko Box", her 4th collection of greatest hits from November 1985. That got up to No. 7 on Oricon.
For all of you kayo fans of a certain age, do you remember Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）"TOKIO"? It was all sorts of musical fun regarding the wonders of the largest city in Japan. With a bit of techno infused into the pop and rock, it just seemed to advertise Tokyo as that dream-like gleaming technopolis.
Well, several months after the release of "TOKIO", rocker Shogo Hamada（浜田省吾）decided to speak up and say "Whoa, dude! It ain't all strawberries and cream here." As a result, he came up with "Tokyo", his 11th single in October 1980.
Compared to the cute and slightly technopoppy "TOKIO", Hamada's answer song (which he wrote and composed) is its brassy and brawling cousin from Kabukicho. The singer-songwriter puts in a goodly amount of reasons for folks living out in the countryside to sigh relief that they are not living in Tokyo: prostitution, exhausted commuters coming home on packed trains and some other sordidness in the big city. But Hamada doesn't frame this in a slow and downbeat melody. On the contrary, the music is as upbeat as the one for "TOKIO" but with a darker side, and drivers bombing down the highway will like to rock their heads and sing to it. Especially love the horns and drumming.
The above video has a Hamada copy band, J. Club, providing a cover of "Tokyo". I don't know how the single did on J-Wiki but the album that it also came on, "Home Bound", from October 1980, peaked at No. 20. It was released in the same month as the single.
The impetus for the article and my interest in the song is from commenter Arc who has started getting into Hamada's music. And as per Arc's request, I've provided a translation of the lyrics.
Some girl is selling her body in the back alley Kids are making gangs and searching for prey Sprawled out poolside, full of money, and looking for work on the midsummer streets People just hanging out...oooh Oooh, how long can you hold out? A bed is creaking beyond the wall The TV is shouting out at full volume below the floor, Tokyo Don't twist me around, Tokyo Don't tear that girl apart, born under the expressway Dying over the subway, Tokyo Don't go overboard with yesterday, Tokyo Don't paint over tomorrow, Tokyo The exhausted faces on a packed train Children are getting crushed in school Loneliness is being bartered under the neon, the old people Say nothing in the middle of their despair....oooh Oooh, how long can you hold out? Engines are roaring beyond the window Ultra-low jets are flying over our heads, Tokyo Don't come after me, Tokyo Don't shake that girl, falling in love with her at the disco, making love to her in the hotel Saying goodbye to her at the drive-in, Tokyo Don't blame it on the times, Tokyo Find the light, Tokyo
Went out with some good friends to catch "Wonder Woman" today. It's been a while since I've seen a blockbuster flick so early in its release so it was actually rather nice to hear some laughter and emotion from the larger audience. As for the movie itself, I was quite happy for DC that they finally got the successful superhero movie they had been desperate for. No guarantees on what "Justice League" will be like later this year but at least they've got one hit on their hands.
I wrote my first Ayumi Hamasaki（浜崎あゆみ）article just a little over 2 years ago and related the fact that I was never such a big fan of hers aside from a few exceptions such as "SEASONS". However, I cannot deny that a decade or so ago, she was pretty much the female pop superstar in Japan. Figuratively speaking, I could have thrown a rock somewhere through the TV airwaves and there would have been a good chance that it would have struck a performance or a music video of the lass.
Furthermore, even with my relative apathy toward her music, I'm fairly certain that if a few bars of her music flowed into my ears, I would still be able to identify it as a Hamasaki tune. She was that widespread in the pop culture zeitgeist going into the 21st century. Even listening to her very first single "poker face", there was a certain piece of melody that fired off some memory engrams in my head.
I have to admit that listening to the whole song and watching the music video at the top, I did get some flow of nostalgia due to the 90s synthesizer work and seeing a fresh-faced Hamasaki performing. There was none of that heavy makeup, blonde tresses and the glamour that would characterize her looks during the prime of her career. It was just that Fukuoka-born woman barely in her 20s launching her way to stardom.
"poker face" was released in April 1998 with Hamasaki writing the lyrics and Yasuhiko Hoshino（星野靖彦）providing the melody. It peaked at No. 20 on Oricon. The song (and her next 4 singles) was also part of her debut album"A Song For xx" from January 1999 that had a couple of consecutive runs at No. 1 before ending the century as the 16th-ranked album of the year. It not only went Platinum but also earned Best Album honours at the Japan Record Awards.
Good heavens, I did forget about this one by Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）although it is included in at least a couple of my BEST compilations on her. I should have remembered due to that lyric sung by her at the very top and that piano intro with the ominous flute flutter.
And there is that title "Sayonara no Banka" (A Elegy of Goodbye) which seals the deal on a foreboding story. This was Iwasaki's 15th single from November 1978 with the singer relating about a romance which seems to have had its love evaporated like moisture from a now-crumpled autumn leaf, a symbol that pops up throughout the lyrics by Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）. The heroine is now at her wit's end, practically begging for release from the poisonous relationship.
The ever-prolific Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）created the bouncy melody which almost takes the song into City Pop territory. Although the song has been classified as an aidoru kayo on J-Wiki, it's a bit difficult to imagine it as the typical aidoru tune, due to Iwasaki's one-cut-above vocals and Tsutsumi's arrangement. I mean, it just has that smart and classy vibe to it.
(cover version)
"Sayonara no Banka" didn't crack the Top 10 but it did peak at No. 13. In terms of official single A-sides, the song is reputedly the first one that didn't have Yu Aku（阿久悠）providing the lyrics but Aki who was probably more famous for writing for Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）at the time. I'm not sure whether the single actually had been put on an original studio album but it did get placed as a bonus track onto the 2007 re-issue of Iwasaki's 7th original"Pandora no Kobako"（パンドラの小箱...Pandora's Box）which had been released in August 1978. The original LP went as high as No. 11.
Was doing a quick browse of YouTube after getting my last article up and I encountered this name Haruhi Aiso（相曽晴日）who I had never heard of before. So I gave her "Coffee House nite" (At The Coffee House) a try.
Sure enough, my instincts were spot-on for me. It's a lovely tune and so Aiso comes under that category of the 90% of the iceberg that is underwater when it comes to wonderful Japanese popular music. During the early 1980s, I think when it came to female singers, the aidoru were pretty much front and centre so to hear someone who was not named Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）from that same time, coming out with a pure pop song is refreshing.
"Coffee House nite" (and that last word isn't the colloquial for "night") was Aiso's 2nd single from March 1983. The singer-songwriter hails from Shizuoka Prefecture and first took her steps into the music biz professionally by winning a prize at the 19th Yamaha Popular Song Contest in 1980. The year after, she also won a prize for the song of this article with lyrics by Toshio Otake（大竹敏雄）, although its release as an official single wouldn't come for another couple of years. The song was also included in her debut album "Twilight no Kaze"（トワイライトの風...Twilight Winds）from November 1982.
I've got two different versions of the song. The one above sounds a bit more folksy so I'm wondering if this had been the one used in the 1981 Yamaha contest with the video below showing the final official single for 1983. Alternately, the one above might be the official single with the other video being a new arrangement around the late 80s or early 90s. If I had to make a choice, I would go with the one below. I like it since it has that pleasant innocent sound with a hint of Boz Scaggs in there. Besides, I've always enjoyed the coffee houses of Japan. A cuppa might cost a small fortune but the taste of the coffee and the atmosphere can't be beat.
Incidentally, my photo at the very top is of the Mister Donuts just underneath Tokyo Sky Tree. No, I wouldn't qualify it as a coffee house but it was quite relaxing in there.
Took a walk outside today. Fortunately there's an industrial park area near my home that's largely devoid of vehicular traffic outside of driving school training cars and taxis on break so it's nice to take that healthy stroll. Couldn't ask for a more gorgeous day either. It definitely feels like a June weekend out there with the sun and warmth.
Perhaps another reason for my sunnier countenance is that I'm here to talk about my latest acquisitions, and this time it didn't take a quarter of a year for them to get over here from Japan. Tracked EMS is the way to go if you're in Canada and you want your Japanese CDs to get here within a week or so.
One of those discs is guitarist-songwriter Fujimal Yoshino's（芳野藤丸）debut solo album, "YOSHINO FUJIMAL" from 1982. After listening and then writing an article on two of the album's songs, the really chipper "Who Are You?" which starts things off and then the ballad "Girl's In Love With Me", it was time for me to pull the trigger. So far, I've heard it twice and no regrets whatsoever.
I read some of the liner notes for "YOSHINO FUJIMAL" and apparently the impetus for Yoshino to come out with his own release was his old buddy, Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, coming out with his debut album"First Light" the previous year. Yoshino loved the sound and wanted to get in on that City Pop/J-AOR action and thus he set out to get his own project done.
An interesting thing comparing "YOSHINO FUJIMAL" and "First Light" is that whereas the latter album takes Matsushita into American West Coast AOR territory, I think Yoshino keeps things solidly in Japan, albeit in the big megalopolis of Tokyo. It's not so much the Ventura Freeway as it is the Bayside Highway.
As I said above, "Who Are You?" is the first track on the original Side A of the LP, which has been dubbed "in the DAY time" while Side B is "in the NIGHT time". Track 2 is "Midnight Plus 1", which I guess would be the day time technically although things are still pitch dark out there if that title is indeed signalling 1am.
The beat is pretty brisk, thanks to Fujimal who composed all of the tracks, and the City Pop tropes are in there with a boss bass and pleasant keyboard as the man himself sings about what sounds like a guy out there on the roads not to paint the town red but just doing his job, perhaps making deliveries. It's not usually something from City Pop I would hear since my impression is that partying in Tokyo is the theme for a lot of the genre's tunes. "Midnight Plus 1" does have that shaki-shaki beat of getting things done on the clock.
Yoshihiko Ando（安藤芳彦）took care of the lyrics and helping out on backing chorus is that Princess of City Pop, EPO.
The last track on "in the DAY time" is "Freeway 5 to South" is another road song although with some more introspection with Kazuko Kobayashi's（小林和子）lyrics against the otherwise sunny upbeat melody by Yoshino. And as one commenter on YouTube said, the chorus work is excellent. One of the guys taking part there happens to be Matsushita who also plies some of his guitar work on a few of the other tracks.
The aforementioned "Girl's In Love With Me" is "in the NIGHT time" along with this one "Shang-hide Night" which sounds quite bright and skippy considering the time of the day. Ando again took care of lyrics, and although the title might hint at Shanghai, I think the song describes a night out in Yokohama's Chinatown.
As I said, "YOSHINO FUJIMAL" is a keeper for all those City Pop fans out there. It would definitely be a pleasure to hear this album and then go straight to Matsushita's "First Light" again for an aural comparison. By the way, the above video is a new more "get down" version of "Midnight Plus 1" from 2014 that isn't on the album.
Well, almost time for the weekend. And it's looking pretty decent out there for a change after a really wet May. As I mentioned, I caught "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2" last Monday and enjoyed it thoroughly. One of the longer-lasting effects from the movie, though, came from one of the old-timey pop songs provided by Electric Light Orchestra"Mr. Blue Sky" during the introductory battle between the Guardians and some creature while Baby Groot was dancing up a storm.
It is quite the joyous earworm that can singlehandedly blow away any storm clouds and it just shows that someone can still discover a new song from the old days. As I always say, better late than never. Apparently, "Mr. Blue Sky" and the opening credits for the movie have even sprouted a video meme of sorts with different movies getting the "Guardians of the Galaxy" treatment. "The Matrix" is one such movie.
Speaking discovering fun new songs from the old days, I also found one just a few days ago by the eternally sunglasses-wearing balladeer, Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）. "Make-up Shadow". Coming out almost a quarter of a century ago in July 1993 as his 33rd single, it's a pretty roving tune that's got a humming engine, thanks to the keyboard work. Written by Inoue and composed by Jun Sato（佐藤準）under his pseudonym of Utsuru Ayame（彩目映） , I think the singer is relating a story of a glam young lady painting the night red. This could be a good Friday night song.
Several years later, the song was used for a Toyota Blade commercial. I probably would have used it for something a bit leaner and meaner like a Porsche, and considering the title and the lyrics, perhaps it would have been best utilized for a bold cosmetics ad. "Make-up Shadow" hit No. 2 on the charts and became the 27th-ranked single for 1993.
A decade after the original's release, a cover version was released by former SPEED member, Takako Uehara（上原多香子）, as her 8th single in March 2003. When I first heard the introduction, I wasn't quite sure if I had the right song but I guess the arrangement went for a slightly more dance remix-y feeling. Plus, I think Uehara in the video would have been the perfect figure for that bold cosmetics ad that I mentioned above. This version peaked at No. 29.
