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 aren't too many Japanese singers who can make fans weep right from the get-go. I can probably count them on one hand: Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）, Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）and Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）. And then there is enka singer Shinichi Mori（森進一）.
When he was young, Mori had that boyish face and puppy-dog eyes that could set tear ducts to kill. Then when he sang, that anguished warble in his voice would pretty much wipe out a lot of the audience right then and there.
I gather that one of his weapons was his 10th single"Hitori Sakaba de" (In A Bar Alone) from July 1968. The old-fashioned bluesy music by Kosho Inomata（猪俣公章）has that sad and somewhat tipsy feeling as if it were representing that poor guy down on his luck as heads to his favourite watering hole for solace, liquid or otherwise. Then, Shizuo Yoshikawa's（吉川静夫）lyrics of being the loneliest man in Tokyo, the city of millions even back then, probably finished everybody off.
The thing is, though, the song sounds like it was done in a major chord so there is also that feeling of hope perhaps done as a lullaby. The bartender, having his ear bent, could be giving the down-on-his-luck guy some very sympathetic replies and maybe even advice on how to get back on that horse again. "Hitori Sakaba de" peaked at No. 12 on Oricon.
Well, I not only have done this blog for a little over 6 years and lived in Japan for most of the 1990s, and yet I completely forgot about this fellow! Gibbs slap upside the head for me.
But that's not exactly true. I did remember him as a part of visual kei band LUNA SEA. However, Ryuichi Kawamura（河村隆一）did have a mighty auspicious year as a solo artist. According to his J-Wiki entry, his first 4 singles, all released in 1997, were hits but arguably perhaps his most famous song was the last one to be released that year, "Love Is..."
I do remember seeing the music video for "Love Is..." make regular appearances on the rankings shows with cosmetic-free Kawamura pouring out his heart to the camera weekly. Now that I've heard the song again after so long, I'm kinda torn whether his hit was following a hymn or a classical piece such as Pachelbel's "Canon".
Whatever his intent, Kawamura definitely had the vocal power. I wonder if he had ever thought about a career in opera. Anyways, "Love Is..." was released in October 1997 and got as high as No. 4 on Oricon while managing to finish the year as the 44th-ranked single; not too bad for a song that was released 2.5 months before New Year's. He even got a quick invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen to sing this very song. Kawamura and Michiko Yoshida（吉田美智子）wrote the lyrics while Yoshida took care of the heavenly music.
Now from the sublime to the ridiculous, as the saying goes. And nope, I'm not referring to Earth Wind & Fire. Not at all...are you kidding? I love those guys! "September", Boogie Wonderland"? Those are some of my favourite songs from my childhood. And then there is "Let's Groove"! If I needed to feel better sometimes, EW&F would be the tonic.
OK, I repeat...from the sublime to the ridiculous. Recently, I was made aware of the coming of this manga-based-anime titled "Pop Epic Team" or, as it is nicknamed in a tongue-spraining way, "Poptepipic"（ポプテピピック）. Surreal and absurdist are merely some of the adjectives that I would throw its way. Frankly, I haven't found too much of it funny but I think that is really the point here...to be aggressively inane.
I kinda see it as something akin to Monty Python's"Confuse A Cat" sketch with we viewers as the felines to be finagled. From what I've seen on YouTube so far, I've been more bemused than amused, and perhaps even though my anime buddy has said that there may be as many as 20 other anime that he may be interested in catching this season, I've got the feeling that "Pop Epic Team" won't be included in that august list.
One of the gimmicks of the show is that each episode has a rotating duo of seiyuu coming in to voice the characters of short volcanic Popuko（ポプ子）and tall laconic Pipimi（ピピ美）. Not only that but each episode has a pair of female seiyuu do the first 15 minutes while the last 15 minutes have two male seiyuu doing almost the same sketches.
Now that I've given enough of the background for the premise, why the whole introduction of Earth Wind & Fire? Well, in episode 4, one of the sketches involved Popuko and Pipimi doing a parody of the legendary band's "Let's Groove" called "Let's Pop Together". Of course, there was a female version above and the male version below. The ladies above were Yui Makino & Yui Watanabe（牧野由依・渡部優衣）. I only know Makino because she played the pivotal guest role of Freckles in that "High School Musical"- inspired episode of "Space Dandy" a few years ago. As for the male seiyuu, they were Kenji Akabane & Shunsuke Takeuchi（赤羽根健治・武内駿輔）.
Of course, "Let's Pop Together" is an intentionally nutty parody but I found it funnier seeing the responses by some of the Japanese fans on sites such as Anicobin who were like "What the hell is THIS?". Evidently, even post-disco was way before their time. Still, the show succeeded with me in that the song has burrowed deep into my brain like a Ceti Alpha eel. Perhaps my love for "Let's Groove" has helped in that manner. In any case, "Let's Pop Together" was provided by lyricist Kazushige Touma（当真一茂）and composer Gin（吟）, the latter of whom is behind the music for "Pop Team Epic".
For all those Python fans, here is the famous "Confuse A Cat" sketch. It's not my favourite by the British comedy team. "The Bishop" and "The Lumberjack" song will always be my beloved creations by the guys.
You may need a mug of the stuff after seeing some more of the craziness of Popuko and Pipimi. I realize that this article is a bit out of left field but, heck, blogger's prerogative!
Another Friday night and I'm quite happy to be at home digesting a juicy tenderloin steak. I quite deserved it, too, since I had a humongous bunch of files to translate this morning and afternoon, but I got it done and basically I should be free and easy for the weekend.
If I actually could drink hard liquor, a nice sherry would be just the thing right now. But instead, I will be more than happy with the melodic equivalent, and that would be Miyuki Utsumi's（内海みゆき）"Sepia Moon".
I had forgotten that Noelle wrote up the first Miyuki Utsumi article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" almost a couple of years ago. Utsumi had come up with her 1982 hit "Yopparachatta"（酔っぱらっちゃった）, a fun and party-hearty kayo that had that old-fashioned edge.
Well, last night I found this other Utsumi song from the other end of that decade. I don't know if it did become another hit for her but it's quite pleasing to me. "Sepia Moon" was the title track for her 1989 album and not only did Utsumi change the writing for her name but this particular ballad took her more into the late 80s/early 90s sophisti-pop when compared to "Yopparachatta". So I guess it was less izakaya and more rooftop hotel bar. Plus I gotta say that in the first few bars of the song, she almost sounded like Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）!
Couldn't find out much more than that for the tune. Not even who was responsible for words and music. Still, "Sepia Moon" goes down smooth.
A little over a week ago, I did my first article on Mioko Yamaguchi's（山口美央子）third and final original album"Tsukihime ~ Moonlight Princess"（月姫）from 1983. Tonight, I will be devoting this space to her debut album from 1980, "Yume Hiko" (Dream Flight).
Comparisons are inevitable, of course, and I think they can make for some good discussion, so allow me here. The one difference right off the bat between "Yume Hiko" and "Tsukihime" can be seen right at the bottom of the two articles where I always place my categories. And from there you can see that the latter album is more of a technopop album and an introspective one for the most part. On the other hand, "Yume Hiko" is not so much of a flight through different areas of the world as it is Yamaguchi's flight through a number of musical styles, and that is indeed reflected in the categories I've put down. The technopop is definitely in there as you'll soon hear, and according to the J-Wiki article for her, Yamaguchi was even referred to as The Diva of Synthesizers.
"Yume Hiko" starts off with "Arabian Rhapsody"（アラビアン・ラプソディー）. After having listened to "Tsukihime", it was a bit of a surprise that I got on hearing this pretty darn skippy song that had that atmosphere of the exotic kayothat was fairly popular in Japanese music in the late 1970s. One interesting thing that I got from Yamaguchi's commentary in the liner notes was that the singer-songwriter had originally wanted "Arabian Rhapsody" to have more of a reggae rhythm; in fact, she mentioned a few times in the notes about tracks in "Yume Hiko" where she wanted to put the reggae in, only to have the songs morph into different forms over the course of production. By the way, I have to say that I enjoy the vocal syncopation that she puts into the song.
"Tokyo Lover"（東京LOVER）is her 2nd single which came out in 1981. The album version is a nice and mellow technopop tune with a bit of that Asian taste and it has a really pleasantly creamy synth solo in the middle. Then the synths get rather busy at the end with their riffs. Meanwhile, the original single tends more toward City Pop.
If I were to describe Mioko Yamaguchi and her works through analogy and other Japanese singers, I would say that her voice has the mellow depth of Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and that her music has that hint of Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）combined. But her voice itself is all its own. It isn't sexy but it still has appeal. Her third track, "Hidamari no Naka de"（陽だまりの中で...In A Sunny Spot）is a creation that Yamaguchi says is the gentlest among the tracks, and it was the first song to really come out and grab me on first listen.
It is a cute and romantic song but it also has that City Pop vibe with those opening chords. In fact, I couldn't help but be reminded of Akira Terao's（寺尾聡）songs from "Reflections". The technopop is virtually non-existent and with that guitar near the end, I think Yamaguchi fully embraced her urban contemporary. "Hidamari no Naka de" seems to be about the aftermath of a fight between two lovers with the lady stalking off but still realizing that her now-sparring partner is still a decent man despite his moments of jerkdom.
Tracks 4 and 5 are "A Dream of Eμ" and "O-Matsuri"（お祭り...Festival）. This is another eye-opener in that "A Dream of Eμ" is a brief introduction into the next song with Yamaguchi fully embracing her Yellow Magic Orchestra this time. If I had been drinking something at the moment this tune came on, I would have spit it up since it sounds so YMO! I'm not sure if she has met the members of the famous technopop band but on meeting Hideki Matsutake（松武秀樹）who worked with both them and her, she was suitably impressed according to her notes.
Anyways, "O-Matsuri" was another song that Yamaguchi had meant to be a reggae-influenced number but it turned out to become this whimsical technopoppy visit to a summer festival. Somehow, I could have seen this tune used in some of futuristic anime.
The final song I will show here for tonight is "Koi no Airplay"（恋のエアプレイ...Airplay of Love）which Yamaguchi based on the works of the band Airplay (David Foster and Jay Graydon). Well done, Mioko! I think Airplay would have been quite happy at her first try at Yacht Rock.
To be honest, I didn't even know about Airplay or even the fact that Foster had even been in a band until I read the liner notes. Well, I just heard "Nothin' You Can Do About It" and now I even want to get that album. Thanks, Mioko!
But getting back to "Yume Hiko", it has been quite an interesting ride with Yamaguchi's debut release, and with Akira Inoue's（井上鑑）production, I got to hear a few different styles from this singer. There are a few more tracks that I would like to cover but I will do those individually including the title track.
Did anyone catch that Blood, Blue, Super...any colour in the Crayola palette...Moon a few days ago? Nope, I didn't. Didn't need to, either, since NHK's "News Watch at 9" was more than happy to batter us folks at home over the head with the coverage.
However, the cosmic phenomenon provides me with the perfect segue to a nice new discovery. "Tsuki no Ura de Aimashou" (Let's go to the darkside of the moon) by those grand funksters, Original Love. Now, I've been a fairly good fan of Takao Tajima（田島貴男）and his group since my friend introduced me to them back in the late 1990s but there is still a lot of their earlier material that I have yet to be exposed to. And I was delighted to first hear their 4th single "Sunshine Romance" from 1993.
This goes back even further. Their 2nd single"Tsuki no Ura de Aimashou" from November 1991 is another soulful and funky piece of moonglow. Tajima composed this one with Ryutaro Kihara（木原龍太郎） providing the lyrics. But the amazing thing about hearing this for the first time is Tajima's vocals. I'd been accustomed to hearing Tajima with this slight depth in his delivery but on "Tsuki", it wasn't there. His voice sounded almost whispery to the point that when I first heard it, I swore it was actually Flipper's Guitar behind the mike!
No worries though. It's still a great cool and happy song and it was the theme song for a Fuji-TV drama "Banana Chips Love" . There is something about an Original Love tune that can generate a ton of sunshine let alone moonglow inside an apartment. It did modestly on Oricon, only getting as high as No. 86 but that won't dissuade any newcomers or die-hard Original Love fans. The single also became a track on the band's 2nd album"Kesshou ~ Soul Liberation"（結晶 -SOUL LIBERATION-...Crystal） from May 1992 that did far better by hitting No. 10 on the album charts.
Tajima's replacement as the vocalist for Pizzicato Five, the divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）provided her own lovely cover of "Tsuki" in 2014 through her album "Nomiya Maki, Shibuya-kei wo Utau"（野宮真貴、渋谷系を歌う。...Miss Maki Nomiya sings Shibuya-kei Standards）. However, I'm not sure if I can really consider her cover of this particular song as being Shibuya-kei. It seems a bit too mainstream pop and I think even Nomiya's singing is a little different here. But nothing to complain about. Besides, I'm afraid if Tajima ever found out I categorized this song as Shibuya-kei, he'd probably have me mugged!
There are actually ballad-like covers of the song done by Tajima himself and Hitomi Shimatani（島谷ひとみ）but I think the more uptempo versions are better.
November 7th 2023: J-Canuck from the future. I've written a follow-up to the song right here.
I've been looking at the live streaming videos on YouTube for the Tokyo area just now and it's looking positively white out there. The snow has been unrelenting. One would think that Toronto sent an EMS package of winter to the nation's capital. We Torontonians have gotten some more snow ourselves in the past few days. Forgive me for being Captain Obvious but I don't think we'll need that groundhog tomorrow...heck, even the groundhogs themselves aren't gonna bother coming out of their holes on the 2nd. Six more weeks of winter!
Not too surprisingly, this past episode of "Uta Kon"（うたコン）devoted its episode to snow-themed songs with a friendly warning at the beginning of the show for folks going out to be careful out there. Some familiar tunes appeared but then came this one called "Yuki no Furu Machi wo" (In A Snowy Town) made its presence known.
It caught my eyes and ears since the music by Yoshinao Nakada（中田喜直）was weaving back and forth between solemn and hopeful. The opening part had singer Hideo Koh（高英男）sound as if he were trudging grimly through the accumulation while the snow was coming down before the music suddenly changed into something more hopeful...perhaps the blizzard stopped and the sun peaked through the clouds showing a beautiful landscape in white.
Anyways, as "Uta Kon" concierge Shosuke Tanigawa（谷原章介）narrated and as was written on the J-Wiki article for the song, Nakada based the melody on the snowscape in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture where an acquaintance of his once lived. Naoya Uchimura's（内村直也）lyrics aside, I would say that the song was signifying that traveling in the stuff may be hell but once you get back home in the snowy mountains, that scenery is worth it.
Interestingly enough, the genesis of "Yuki no Furu Machi wo" didn't come out of any intention to pay tribute to winter. It was first heard on NHK Radio in 1951 when it was used as an insert song on a drama called "Eriko to Tomo ni"（えり子とともに...Together With Eriko）. The producer found out that for a rehearsal for one episode, there was a bit of extra time hanging so he called out for someone to whip up a tune as some musical padding which brought in Koh and his song. Sooner than you can say "kismet", it became a hit with listeners so that little filler which got pushed into the radio show was extended with one or two more verses to become the full song which was released in 1952.
Koh, who was born in 1918 on the island of Sakhalin, had just returned from studying at the Sorbonne in France when he recorded "Yuki no Furu Machi wo". Although his big hit isn't really in this genre, he was apparently known as the First Chanson Singer of Japan. Koh also appeared 7 times in the early years of the Kohaku Utagassen between 1953 and 1961. He passed away in 2009 at the age of 90.
Singer-actress Chieko Baisho（倍賞千恵子）, along with many others, gave her cover version of "Yuki wo Furu Machi wo" although I don't know when. Her version sounds more like a folksy lullaby. The song even made its way onto NHK's "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）twice in 1961 and 1966, naturally both times in December.
