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.
It was rather a heavy-eating sort of day today after meeting up with friends to welcome back another old friend and his family coming in from Vancouver and then seeing my brother's family for the first time in several weeks. Could have used some orange slices as something refreshing.
Yup, not a great segue for "Orange Mystery" but I tried somewhat. One of the opening themes for the classic 80s anime "Kimagure Orange Road"（きまぐれオレンジロード）, this was released by singer-musician Hideyuki Nagashima（長島秀幸）as his first single under this name (he had released 2 singles previously under his real name of Hideyuki Suzuki) back in 1987. Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and the band NOBODY took care of words and music respectively.
Although I never saw "KOR", "Orange Mystery" and the other various tunes associated with the show were able to enter my memories, I gather, from my friends' ardor for it. "Orange Mystery" is a nice fit since it has that summery feeling of a guy falling head over heels with a gal and perhaps there's even a hint of Eurobeat in there. It was indeed the time for the genre back in the late 1980s.
Nagashima would release one more single under his stage name before going on a long hiatus from the 1990s. But apparently according to his online blog in 2011, he was making a comeback under his real name（鈴木秀幸）. However, that one entry is has been his only entry, it seems.
Earlier in the week, commenter Luis Henrique asked me about a BOOWY song whose official music video he had been trying hard to search for. Since I only knew the 80s rock band for "Marionette", I decided to see if I could find it. In the end, I couldn't but luckily Luis could track it down to NicoNico.
Unfortunately, the music video (uh...check again) isn't on YouTube but I found BOOWY's 6th single, "Kisetsu ga Kimi dake wo Kaeru" (Only You Can Be Changed by the Seasons) to be pretty catchy because of that guitar beat. Not surprisingly, it was guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）who came up with the melody with vocalist Kyosuke Himuro（氷室京介）behind the lyrics. The single was released back in October 1987 following the release of the aforementioned "Marionette" in July.
The above has Himuro performing the song during his solo career. "Kisetsu ga Kimi dake wo Kaeru" peaked at No. 4 on Oricon, and like "Marionette", was also included on BOOWY's 6th and final album"PSYCHOPATH" which came out in September 1987.
The official music video is quite striking. The powers-that-be sent an invitation through the band's fan club, "BOOWY HUNT" for regular young folk from various walks of life to appear in the video. Each person or set of persons would just stare at the camera while it backed up; some of those folks looked quite intimidating. Since I am talking about a time some 30 years ago, I'd be interested in knowing how some of these now-middle-aged guys feel about seeing their young selves in the video. Himuro, Hotei and the rest of the band also show up on screen but just by themselves. I gather that the fans were informed that they wouldn't be able to sidle up with their heroes.
Anyways, many thanks, Luis, for introducing me to the song!
An article whose time has come is how I will describe this. Yesterday, I was watching the Friday edition of the NHK morning variety show "Asaichi"（あさイチ...Morning Market）which will be coming to an end after 8 years of daily broadcast next week. Usually, Fridays are set aside for a long-form interview with a celebrity, and in all likelihood, yesterday's guest was the final one since I'm going to assume that next Friday's show will be the very last entry and so will probably be a tearful retrospective.
Well, what a guest! It just happened to be Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）herself. My eyes kinda boggled out of their sockets for a few seconds since she doesn't make it any sort of regular habit to appear on a live broadcast. In fact, if my hearing didn't fail me, Yuming（ユーミン）even said that the last time she actually showed up on a live show outside of the Kohaku Utagassen was back in the early 1990s on the former noontime program on Fuji-TV, "Waratte Ii Tomo"（笑っていいとも）.
Considering the status of "Asaichi" at this time, it's no surprise that NHK managed to entice her on what would be the final long-form interview of the series. I caught the first 15~20 minutes in which she spoke on her regular life (she goes shopping and takes the bus in her area just like any other housewife) and the stamina for her spectacular concerts. I had been hoping that I could have heard some insights about her songwriting, especially on specific numbers but unfortunately I was in the middle of work yesterday and duty did call.
However, Yuming's appearance on "Asaichi" did inspire me to do something that I had not done before, and that is to write an Author's Picks on my favourite tunes by the legendary singer-songwriter. Yup, believe it or not, I hadn't done one before today. And man, it was difficult to come up with a list since there are so many of her songs that I have enjoyed over the decades.
Basically what I had to do was not touch any of her albums on my shelves and simply think of Yuming and wait until a whole series of songs popped up in my head. These aren't all quintessential, but they are all tunes that personally have stuck to me like flypaper all these years. Plus, as it turns out, they mostly cover the Yumi Arai（荒井由実）era from the 1970s into the Yumi Matsutoya era of the 1980s. I had been thinking of narrowing it down to 5 songs but nah, impossible. I've got 10. So here we go.
I do love that bossa nova in there. Yumi Arai's voice back then was rather creamy compared to the reediness that started coming in as her career progressed so I'm not that surprised when I hear that there are fans who prefer her Arai days. Despite the bossa New Music, I will always think of what Japan was like in the 1970s rather than Brazil in the 1960s, and perhaps that was the point with New Music.
The first track from Yuming's final album under her maiden name of Arai, "The 14th Moon"（１４番目の月）, "Sazanami" is a wonderful road trip song for the singer. Would love to take a drive along the shoreline to this one. I mentioned this in the article for the album but that rollicking piano really gives that feeling of having a happy auto voyage on the highways.
3. Chuo Freeway (1976)
Also from "The 14th Moon", I guess this can be considered to be one of the trademark City Pop tunes of the 1970s. This is the nighttime for the daytime of "Sazanami" so images of evening driving through the metropolis come to mind. Regrettably, not being a driver, chances for me bombing down byways like the Kan-Etsu were very few and far between back in my time in Tokyo.
Not totally sure but this may have been the very first Yuming song that I had ever heard in my life. If so, it's about as different as anything that I had heard in the enka, aidoru and YMO departments. "Yosoyuki Gao de" is simply a down-home pop song out in the countryside with some roiling electric guitar. It was a track from "Toki no Nai Hotel"（時のないホテル）.
Yumi Matsutoya has also released her fair share of J-Xmas tunes but for me, this would be my favourite. A track from her "Surf and Snow" album, this is the usual Holiday song given a rocket boost thanks to the guitars and a propulsive beat. It sounds almost as if Santa Claus had been given a starship with warp drive on December 24th instead of the traditional sleigh with eight reindeer.
For fellow Yuming fans, this choice may come across as being unusual but my favourites, as I said above, don't always include the quintessential. It's the first track from her12th album "Sakuban O-Aishimashou"（昨晩お会いしましょう）and as I said for that album, it's about the most City Pop/J-AOR release that I've come to associate with Yuming. "Tower Side Memory" is a groovy number of its time which I especially appreciate for its intro and the chorus work. Moreover, it's a nice tribute to the Port Tower in Kobe.
7. Mamotte Agetai (1981)
Now, this is a quintessential Yuming hit. Also from "Sakuban O-Aishimashou", despite all that I've said about the album being a City Pop-friendly release, "Mamotte Agetai"（守ってあげたい）is one of the singer's most famous pop hits which feels like being swaddled in the warmest bath towel by Mom...with extra Downy! Any retrospective on Matsutoya will need to include this in the look back on her music.
A dramatic track from one of her most beloved albums "No Side", I think "Blizzard" has long been attached to skiing and perhaps even the Naeba Ski Resort which has had a long association with Yuming. It's somewhat ironic to me since the title and the tone strikes me as being somewhat dangerous for skiers, generally speaking. However, it is also an exciting number that I've enjoyed listening to on the stereo and even attempted at karaoke.
No regrets here with "Seishun no Regret" since the song seems to encapsulate all of the bouncy footloose-and-fancy-free life of the young ones in 1980s Japan. Still, I can imagine some screw-ups amid all of the fun as adults in their 20s make their way through their new independence. Yuming's melody just zips along cheerfully at the speed of a nutty comedy anime. "Seishun no Regret" was a track on her 17th album"Da-Di-Da".
As with "Tower Side Memory" from "Sakuban O-Aishimashou", "Valentine's Radio" was also the first track on its album "Love Wars" which was the very first Yuming album that I bought. There is also a hint of a gleaming metropolitan life amid those notes but the city is right beside a convenient seashore. Very summery, it is, and very cheerful although the times were very close to the end of the Bubble Era. As much as "Tower Side Memory" did for the early 1980s,"Valentine's Radio" melodically reflected its time in the last part of the decade.
I guess if I were to "psychoanalyze" and summarize my choices for my very favourite Yuming tunes, I could reply with the words "nostalgia", "salad days", "speed" and "city". Perhaps this being the 45th anniversary of Ms. Matsutoya's debut in music, there may be a goodly amount of retrospective analysis of her works to come. Well, I'm certainly game for it.
Some weeks ago on an NHK afternoon talk show, the amiable actor Goro Kishitani（岸谷五朗）appeared as a guest. As the usual interviewer tactic on such a lighthearted program, the list of favourites would be asked of the guest. But this time, the hosts actually asked a fellow actor and close buddy of Kishitani about Kishitani's favourite things including favourite karaoke song. The man showed his long friendship by answering all 5 questions correctly. Kishitani's favourite karaoke song happened to be "Oh! Claudia" by Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）.
Hold the fort here! I'd never heard of this one by Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）and company. Mind you, I'm not a die-hard fan of Southern All Stars so I should know that there are probably a lot of very good SAS tunes that I have not been apprised on. Up to this point, really, I've most likely only known the biggest hits such as "Itoshi no Ellie"（いとしのエリー）.
"Oh! Claudia" is actually not a single, but a track on Southern All Stars' 5th original album"Nude Man". I think even a lot of folks like myself who aren't huge fans know the album through its cover which shows the bottom end of a naked guy diving into the ocean. According to Kuwata's own radio show "Kuwata Keisuke no Yasashii Yo Asobi"（桑田佳祐のやさしい夜遊び...Keisuke Kuwata's Gentle Evening Fun）from 2014 via J-Wiki, Kuwata himself said that the photo had been taken on the coast of either India or Pakistan and the fellow was a local resident.
But I digress. Listening to "Oh! Claudia", I can understand why Kishitani loves this ballad. It is very soulful and introspective, and it deals with a man pining over Claudia who's no longer with him for whatever reason. It's not quite as epic as another more famous Kuwata song featuring a beloved woman, the aforementioned Ellie, but it's still a wonderful number all the same. What's also notable about it is the instrumental bridge which almost sounds like something classical and European but then the electric guitar comes in to bring us back to the beach.
I've covered another song that was on "Nude Man" and that was "Niji Iro The Night Club"（匂艶「にじいろ」THE NIGHT CLUB）, so I've mentioned that the album became the 3rd-ranking LP for 1982. I can also state that it hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and stayed there for 5 straight weeks.
Ah, incidentally...Kishitani's wife, for those who may not know, happens to be the lead vocalist for another band.
Well, I did say for some of the other articles associated with anime's Winter 2018 season that there haven't been any crawling earworms. I may have to swallow down a slice of crow to go with those worms. And it's all because of "Pop Team Epic"（ポプテピピック）, the crazy anime that I've had to watch excerpts on YouTube since my buddy really won't get into it.
It's rather ironic since the one other semi-earworm this season also came from "Pop Team Epic" through their parody of "Let's Groove" originally by Earth Wind & Fire.
A few episodes ago apparently, there was one segment in which Popuko（ポプ子）demonstrated this little jig called the Eisai Haramasukoi which may or may not have been inspired by minyo. Popuko innocently asked her best buddy Pipimi（ピピ美）whether her invention would sell after which Pipimi considered two potential consequences and decided...wisely...to go with continuing friendship.
Then in the penultimate episode, the seiyuu for the female half of the show were Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）and Mamiko Noto（能登麻美子）portraying Popuko and Pipimi respectively. Mizuki put on her best traditional singing voice on for those vital few seconds, and basically the same skit occurred from the original version a few weeks back. Pipimi gave her blessing.
Guess what? Inspiration broke in the form of a dance remix which became the opening credits for the episode. And I gotta say...nice piece of dancing by Popuko. Furthermore, it's the techno version that has dug itself into my brain. I don't know for sure who came up with the music but most likely it's the fellow behind the music for the show in general, Gin（吟）.
Along with "Who shot J.R.?" and "Who is Keyser Soze?", "What is Eisai Haramasukoi?" initially did pop up in my head as one of the biting pop culture questions. Assuming that it was based on an actual traditional dance, I tried looking it up but I couldn't find anything online. So for now, I will think of it as another crazed creation by the good folks at "Pop Team Epic". That final episode should be rather the last word in the title.
Had a nice evening down at University of Toronto being part of a panel discussion on students about to graduate from East Asian Studies and what they can do thereafter. It was rather nice meeting the fellow panelists (one of whom is an old friend of over 40 years) and meeting some students who were crazy to go to Japan...reminded me of yours truly a few decades ago.
Still digesting my Indian dinner which was catered into the venue so I'm keeping things simple tonight with a pleasant number from Tazumi Toyoshima（豊島たづみ）. A little over a couple of years ago, I wrote about her 4th single, "Tomadoi Twilight"（とまどいトワイライト）which was most likely her most successful release back in 1979. Well, her previous single is also eminently listenable.
"Everyday, Every Night" is a nighttime City Pop tune from October 1978 with a twist of bossa with Toyoshima singing it in a gently swinging manner. There is also something about it that reminds me of some of Henry Mancini's music from a decade earlier. Some nice solo guitar as well. Veteran lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）took care of the words and Mutsuhiro Nishiwaki（西脇睦宏）came up with the mellow music. It's a nice way to finish up an eventful night.
One
of the headlines of the K-Pop world this week is the debut of a group called
Honey Popcorn, which is comprised of three Japanese AV idols. Yeah, that’s
right… AV idols in Korea recording cute and virginal aidoru-likesongs. The world
can be quite ironic sometimes, and I just love it to death.
The
other interesting thing about Honey Popcorn is how they’re a somewhat crossover
group, since one of the members, Yua Mikami (三上悠亜), is
also part of Japanese AV idol super group Ebisu Muscats (恵比寿マスカッツ).
Not only that, but Yua Mikami was a member of SKE48 in the past, with a different name, Kito
Momona (鬼頭桃菜), before
starting doing porn… eventually landing in Ebisu Muscats, where she remains as
a member nowadays (alongside her new activities as a Honey Popcorn member and
lead girl). Apparently, other members were also part of aidoru groups before
launching their respective porn careers. For instance, Miko Matsuda (松田美子) was
once a member of NMB48 as Risako Okada (岡田梨紗子), and Sakura Moko (桜もこ) was
formerly known as Yuu Ito (伊東裕) during her time as a member of Bakusute Sotokanda
Icchome (バクステ外神田一丁目).
Honestly,
I can’t even imagine where this crazy thing is going to head in the future, or
if this group will simply fade into obscurity in Korea. In fact, the reception
there, from what I’ve been reading, is far from being good, since the girls are
facing prejudice because of their porn activities, and also from being
Japanese. Well, we all know that both countries have their own share of
historic problems, and no one really thought that a bunch of Japanese AV idols
debuting in the highly competitive Korean idol industry would get praise from
Korean people.
Diplomatic
matters apart, Honey Popcorn’s debut single is called “Bibidi Babidi Boo” and,
quite frankly, it’s better than I thought it would be. Sure, it’s not revolutionary
by any means, but still catchy enough, and surprisingly similar to what cute K-Pop
idol groups are recording these days.
However,
what got me really interested in this whole story was another case of crossover
between these two groups, and this time coming from the song’s title. The thing
is, back in 2016, Ebisu Muscats released a single called “Sexy Beach Honeymoon”,
which had a song called “Bibiru-Body de-Boo” included as one of the coupling
tracks. Of course, the two songs have nothing similar besides the title and the
crossover between members. Yet, for me, it’s too much of a coincidence that
both projects, similar in nature and everything else, have interchangeable
songs for both Asian markets. Well, I don’t know what happened, and maybe Yua
Mikami simply started humming Ebisu Muscats’ “Bibiru-Body de-Boo” in a meeting
for the Honey Popcorn project… which ended in someone liking the title and all,
but I just thought this whole story was quite hilarious to begin with.
That
these girls are trying to make some cash recording virginal songs in Korea (one
of Honey Popcorn’s coupling songs is called “First Kiss”, probably just for the sake of being ironic) while also having careers in both Japanese aidoru and
porn industries is also part of the joke. For me, though, I’ll take Ebisus
Muscats’ “Bibiru-Body de-Boo”, which is quite catchy in its own right, as a nice
reminder of this crazy story that heated up discussions in this yet very stagnant
period of the year, both in Japan and Korean’s music markets. And I just love
its disco sound, of course.
