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.
Haven't listened to these guys in a while so I decided to pop "Every Best Single 2" by Every Little Thing into the player. Indeed, absence makes the heart grow fonder. It was nice to hear Kaori Mochida（持田香織）sing and Mitsuru Igarashi（五十嵐充）and Ichiro Ito（伊藤一朗）backing her up with the ELT sound.
The first track on their BEST compilation was "pray", Every Little Thing's 13th single which could have been one of the first J-Pop singles released in the 21st century since it was put out there on New Year's Day 2000. Starting off with a "Lamp Unto My Feet" organ riff by keyboardist Igarashi (who also wrote and composed the song), "pray" goes off into another uptempo and high-energy ELT round of happiness. Considering it had been 10 months since their previous single, "pray" was a nice way to launch things into the new century.
The music video makes a nice thing of transplanting the band members into different areas of Tokyo. I was quietly making my "I was there!" remarks while it was playing.
"pray" went Double Platinum and peaked at No. 2 on Oricon. By the end of 2000, it became the 62nd-ranked single of the year.
Just to show that Mochida has a sense of humour, she's seen here laughing up a storm as one of those monomane artists, Miracle Hikaru（ミラクルひかる）, does her impressions of a whole bunch of female singers including Mochida herself.
Another pleasant discovery. A few years ago, I wrote about the first Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）song that I had on any media in my household, "Suteki ni Cinderella Complex" (Wonderful Cinderella Complex). It was on a compilation tape of Japanese music that I had purchased at Wah Yueh back in university, and even earlier, I had seen Go himself perform it on the 1983 Kohaku Utagassen. Go sang it like a dramatic disco tango as he took over the Shibuya NHK stage like the world's biggest Latin Lover.
The legendary lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and Off-Course（オフコース）member Yasuhiro Suzuki（鈴木康博）collaborated to create yet another hit for Go. What I didn't realize that Suzuki himself did his own cover of "Suteki ni Cinderella Complex" the following year in 1984 as the B-side to his 4th single, "STARLIGHT SERENADE" when it came out in November.
Suzuki's version is quite different with more of a City Pop vibe, especially one felt while driving down a highway to the nearest resort. The drama is still intact but instead of the action happening at a night club downtown, the setting might be more apropos to a beachside inn. In any case, it's a refreshing cover of the old Go hit.
One thing I learned from "Banana Zero Music"（バナナ♪ゼロミュージック）the other day was that Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, songwriter, producer and owner of his own musical boom in the mid-1990s, revealed on the show that he had his own key to creating at least some of his big hits. Apparently, whenever he started working on his songs, he began with the chords A-minor, F, G and C. He said that "DEPARTURES", his successful tune with his band globe, was based on this golden combination.
And when Komuro was with his old band TM Network, the chords came in handy for one of that band's signature songs, "Get Wild". Now, Marcos V. provided the article on the 1989 version of the catchy hit but I also wanted to talk some about the original version (the band's 10th single) which had come out in April 1987 as the first ending theme for the anime "City Hunter".
"City Hunter" has had plenty of cool songs...certainly enough to have had a lot of different soundtrack albums provided at the CD shops. But I think "Get Wild" may be the theme song for the show (and one of the great anison) although personally it's a flip between it and the very first opening theme "Ai yo Kienai de"（愛よ消えないで）by Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）as to what my favourite "City Hunter" song is. It is probably also TM Network's most famous contribution to its discography.
The original version may not be quite as zazzed up as the 1989 retake but "Get Wild" still packs a lot of punch with Komuro's keyboard work and that kickass line "GET WILD AND TOUGH!". Run through West Shinjuku among the skyscrapers at night while listening to the song at full volume (I won't take any responsibility for any claims of deafness) and see how energized you feel. That rather reminds me to take photos of the area at night next time I return to Tokyo; I've got quite a few during the daytime as you can see at the very top.
The crazy thing is that I had only known "Get Wild" as a TM Network song for many years before I discovered that it was connected to "City Hunter" as a theme. One day, the show was on TV when I was living in Japan and saw the closing credits to the first season. Ah, naruhodo, I went.
Komuro was indeed behind the music but the lyrics were provided by Mitsuko Komuro（小室みつ子）, who actually doesn't have any familial relationship with Tetsuya at all. "Get Wild" peaked at No. 9 on Oricon and went Double Platinum, appearing also as a track on the band's first BEST album "Gift for Fanks" from July 1987. That went all the way up to No. 1.
I never went there myself but my English circle of housewives, being quite adventurous and having traveled together to all sorts of place within and outside of Japan (including my neck of the woods), has visited Oze（尾瀬）, the famous marshland that straddles the three prefectures of Gunma, Fukushima and Niigata. Oze has been characterized by that man-made wooden pathway that snakes through the entire area.
Last night, NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）came back on and the theme was the end of summer. One of the songs featured was "Natsu no Omoide" (Summer Memories), a very sepia-toned tribute to the Oze marshland.
Written by Shoko Ema（江間章子）and composed by Yoshinao Nakata（中田喜直）, "Natsu no Omoide" was first heard on an NHK kayo radio program in 1949 when it was performed by chanson singer and essayist Yoshiko Ishii（石井好子）. However, her version was never released as a 45". In fact, it wouldn't be released as a single until 1954 when venerable singer Ichiro Fujiyama（藤山一郎）did a cover version with the Columbia Women's Chorus Group.
"Natsu no Omoide" hasn't belonged to any one singer but has been covered by a variety of artists over the years. It has become a standard, and the song which seems perfectly made to be sung by high school chorus groups has been listed in school textbooks and music books, and even became a part of the long list of tunes introduced on the NHK five-minute music program "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた...Everyone's Songs）in 1962.
As I said, it's been covered many times but I have to say that I adore Chieko Baisho's（倍賞千恵子）own version. It just seems so motherly. Lyricist Shoko Ema grew up close to the mountains of Iwate Prefecture in the north, and the area was known for mizubasho, a plant known as the white skunk cabbage. In her thirties during World War II, she occasionally visited Oze which also had plenty of white skunk cabbage as well as other examples of flora. As the name hints, the mizubasho isn't exactly the sweetest smelling flower but in spite of that, Ema found the area to be a wonderland and in 1947, when NHK asked her to come up with a song that would embody dreams and hopes, Oze apparently popped up in her head. "Natsu no Omoide" was the result.
When I first heard the name of this Dreams Come True side project involving vocalist Miwa Yoshida（吉田美和）and singer Rinko Urashima（浦嶋りんこ）, I think I did a figurative spit take...since I heard something else at first. I do like my peanuts, after all. My first thought was how in the world did those guys come up with FUNK THE PEANUTS? J-Wiki was not that much help in clarifying matters. Supposedly, whenever Yoshida and Urashima shared the mike during specific tunes in a DCT concert, the duo was simply called FUNK THE PEANUTS.
The duo (who went by the names of MIWA and RIN under FTP or FUN P1 and FUN P2 respectively) debuted in July 1995 with "Koi no Wana Shikakemasho!"（恋の罠しかけましょ...Let's Set A Love Trap!）which was made the theme song for FUNK THE PEANUTS. To be honest, I'm gonna have to re-acquaint myself with the four singles that Yoshida and Urashima had released, although on hearing their 3rd single from January 1997, "Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai!" (Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!), my memory was once again jiggled to remember. It was quite the popular song on one particular Saturday-night karaoke show.
For FUNK THE PEANUTS, the schtick was for Yoshida to whip up songs that came off like comical banter between two girl friends. And with "Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai!", the song sounded like a telephone call between Yoshida and Urashima over the latest romantic failure with one being the sufferer while the other one acted as the shoulder to cry upon/the eye-rolling buddy who has to absorb the moaning and groaning (thus the title). However the refrain lets it be known that any cynicism is trumped by love and support for getting out of the doldrums. Yoshida is credited for composing this one although she went under the pseudonym of Sumire Kannonzaki（観音崎すみれ）when she wrote the lyrics.
The music goes for some good ol' R&B and with the crisp delivery of the "Hai!" by the singers as well as their refrain-ending "HA!"(must be some primal therapy involved), I can only imagine that Yoshida was also inspired by a bit of Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）. "Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai!" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. It was also used for a Suntory beer commercial.
With the grande dame of NHK's music programming "Uta Con"（うたコン）off for half the summer (mind you, it's coming back tonight), some of the other NHK music shows have been coming to the fore on TV Japan. There has been "Utau! SHOW Gakko"（歌う!SHOW学校）hosted by enka legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）but it seems as if the national network has been much more strict in ensuring that even small scenes from that show don't get up on YouTube.
However, there is the other NHK program "Banana Zero Music" hosted by the comedic duo Bananaman（バナナマン）. The two shows make an interesting contrast. Both of them made their debut in April 2016 but whereas "Utau! SHOW Gakko" has Itsuki-sensei instructing his guest "students" (tarento and enka singers) while taking part in some of the old kayo in an ancient junior high school classroom, "Banana Zero Music" goes into the relatively more recent J-Pop stuff on a bright day-glo typically variety-show set.
Plus, it is truly a variety show with a capital "V". Along with the usual appearances of singers, producers and songwriters, there's some location shooting and quiz games involving music with Bananaman and friends even getting in on the singing act. Both "Banana Zero Music" and "Utau! SHOW Gakko" go heavier on the talk and hijinks side compared to "Uta Con" and "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）but I get to learn some more about the lyrics and even some of those songwriters' tricks of the trade sometimes.
Yup, it was a pretty short summer here. There were some hot days in July but now nearing the end of August, those low temperatures are getting quite low...10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I think that would constitute close to winter in Tokyo.
Therefore with the dog days of summer now looking to be over, I think it's time to put on an appropriately seasonal Off-Course（オフコース）tune, "Natsu no Hi" (Summer Days). Written and composed by Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）as the band's 26th single in July 1984, it's as perennially pop as Off-Course ever became in the 1980s when compared to their folk days in the 1970s. That intro with Oda tapping the keyboard and drummer Jiro Ohma（大間ジロー）smacking the syn-drums even had me thinking more along the lines of Yellow Magic Orchestra. Still, when Oda started singing away, I had no doubts about who the band was.
Written as a elegy and a plea for a romance to come back together since the whole thing started in the sunny season, "Natsu no Hi" got an even bigger boost of drama through its own music video. It even starred Ohma as the lovelorn guy trying to make that second chance with his girlfriend, played by TV drama vet Misako Tanaka（田中美佐子）, although I think that prologue with presumably Misako's parents waiting for a call from her kidnapper didn't quite the fit the circumstances.
Still for an Off-Course fan, it was a pretty epic experience since according to J-Wiki, it was the first time that Oda and company ever participated in a conceptual music video, and the setting included filming at a café/restaurant called Marlowe (yup, it's still there) in the city of Yokosuka and Narita Airport. The song itself starts from 2:09 above.
The single itself got as high as No. 15 while it ended up as the 182nd-ranked song for 1984. "Natsu no Hi" also belonged to Off-Course's 11th album"The Best Year of My Life" which did far better. It hit No. 1 for 2 weeks straight and became the 17th-ranked album of the year after its release in June.
