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.
Had to dig quite a bit for just the basics for this song but since I really like the nostalgic sound for Yoko Nishigori's（西郡よう子）"Furimukeba Mata" (Turning Around Again), it was worth the effort. I had to go to the JASRAC database to find out that it was Nishigori herself who wrote and composed this 4th and final single.
And then I had to attempt to track down the year that "Furimukeba Mata" had been released. The best that I could do was make an educated guess. According to the Popcon site, she had that big hit with her 3rd single"Kono Ai ni Ikite"（この愛に生きて）in 1978 but then retired initially in 1980 after having released those 4 singles and 1 album. So I guess I will go with 1979.
As for the song itself, I like "Furimukeba Mata" for that sophisticated and languid feeling of exotic climes. Could use a glass of Cinzano for this one. I guess Nishigori can be included in that Fashion Music sub-genre that I've placed Asami Kado（門あさみ）and Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）in. Incidentally, Kurahashi also did a cover of "Kono Ai ni Ikite".
I know that I have written about kayo based on Nagasaki in the past, including arguably the most famous one, "Nagasaki wa Kyou mo Ame Datta"（長崎は今日も雨だった）by Hiroshi Uchiyamada and The Cool Five（内山田洋とクール・ファイブ）. I've visited Nagasaki once back in 1991 in the dead of summer, and man, was I dead in that heat and humidity. Certainly was a beautiful city with the steep slopes filled with houses and buildings that made Nagasaki really distinctive when compared to some of the other major cities in Japan. Chinatown was also a lovely area, and I now regret that I only had that one day there. Doing all those travel article translations up until earlier this year, I discovered that there are so many things to see in that city and many others.
Tonight's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was based on the old-fashioned Showa kayo, so a lot of singers and songs that I've covered on the blog and I got to see the late Mina Aoe（青江三奈）again on the screen. I thought it would be nice to write about her again, and so here is her "Nagasaki Blues", her 11th single from July 1968.
Aoe sang a lot of those Kayo Blues including her most famous example "Isezakicho Blues"（伊勢崎町ブルース）and those geographically-based enka; in fact, I think a lot of her songs covered both types including "Nagasaki Blues" which name-drops sites in the city such as the amusement area of Shianbashi（思案橋）and Maruyama（丸山）while singing of the fragility of love. The feeling is Mood Kayo but that gentle lilt in the melody also makes it feel like an enka tune as well.
Shizuo Yoshikawa and Masanobu Tokuchi（吉川静夫・渡久地政信）came up with the words and music respectively. "Nagasaki Blues" went all the way up to No. 2 on Oricon and only missed the top spot due to the popularity of Pinky and Killers'"Koi no Kisetsu"（恋の季節）. It still sold over 750,000 records and ended up becoming the 10th-ranked single of 1969 almost a year and a half after its release. And eventually, Aoe finally got to perform "Nagasaki Blues" on the 1973 Kohaku Utagassen.
Going back to the theme for tonight's "Uta Con", it was nice of the program to show the revived interest in the old Showa music, and I'm not just talking about 1980s City Pop. Young Japanese and foreigners inside and outside of the nation have shown an affinity for kayo of the 1960s and 1970s also. I already spoke about this place in a past article, but NHK even showed Shibuya's Rhythm Cafe which has its monthly Kayo Nights.
Y'know...in all the years that J-Pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki（浜崎あゆみ）was an omnipresent figure on TV with all of those hits, I don't think I had ever heard of this song, her 4th single from October 1998, "For My Dear..."
The title rings a bell but hearing the song has given me something fresh to listen to. It's a laidback and wistful ballad by songwriters Hamasaki and Yasuhiko Hoshino（星野靖彦）about being afraid to take that step of confessing one's love to someone, and I am quite drawn to that crystal plaintive voice of the singer with the quiet arrangement. Also, the accompanying music video sends some interesting images of various people (not) trying to avoid each other. There is some rather poignant awkwardness in there.
Plus there is Hamasaki herself in that short red hair in that original video before she became that huge superstar. Quite natsukashii. "For My Dear..." went Gold, breaking the Top 10 for the second time by hitting No. 9. There was a re-release of the single in 2001 for which it peaked at No. 33. The song also was on her hit debut album"A Song for ××" which also contained a number of her other singles including "poker face".
A few weeks ago when I was watching the usual stuff at my anime buddy's house, he decided to show the 1981 movie adaptation of "Kido Senshi Gundam"（機動戦士ガンダム...Mobile Suit Gundam）from the original 1979 TV series. It was quite the opportunity since for all these years, I had heard about the popularity of the franchise (being compared to "Star Trek"), the famous movie "Gyakushuu no Sha"（逆襲のシャア...Char's Counterattack）, the lead character of Amuro Ray（アムロ・レイ）and how he became a popular guy to imitate on those monomane specials, and last but not least, all of those Gundam battle suits.
However I had never seen how all those parts first came together, and considering all those incredible numbers of Gundam suits that I observed at the Gundam Museum in Odaiba twice, I had assumed that there would be a ton of those robots flying about in the movie...kinda like "Transformers". Actually, though, it was just the RX-78 Gundam against the multitude of Zeon Zakus. Plus, I had never even heard of the warship The White Base.
The 1981 movie being a distillation of the the entire TV series that ran from 1979-1980, it certainly felt like it. I don't think I've ever seen Amuro get pulled into all sorts of emotional states and adventures as fast as he did during those 2 hours plus of the movie. No wonder he's high-strung. But I can finally say that I have an idea of the origins of the franchise now.
And man, is that ending theme for the movie epic and sweeping! "Suna no Juujika" (Cross in the Sand) sounds like a waltz that would be played at a Zeon grand ball. There were more surprises in store when I found out that the song was sung by the late Takajin Yashiki（やしきたかじん）, who I had known up to now as the pro-Osaka singer behind the power ballad "Yappa Sukiyanen"（やっぱ好きやねん）.
This was Yashiki's 7th single from February 1981 and it was written and composed by Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）from the folk duo Alice（アリス）. I simply went "Ahh...naruhodo" since the songwriter could make truly amazing proud ballads out of a constellation and even the age of 22. And the way Yashiki sings "Suna no Juujika" just echoes Tanimura's style. In fact, I think it could even reflect Amuro's dramatics.
If I'm not mistaken, this may have been Yashiki's most successful song, selling around 130,000 records and hitting as high as No. 21 on Oricon.
Happy (to be alive) Monday! I'm exaggerating, of course, but we've been in the middle of a massive storm that has seen just about every form of precipitation known to Man: rain, snow, sleet, ice pellets. And things won't finally clear up until Wednesday. Joy...
Yesterday, I mentioned that it was veteran songwriter Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）who came up with the latest single by dancing Mood Kayo group Junretsu（純烈）,"Propose"（プロポーズ）. Today, I would like to introduce one of the songs from early in his composing career which turned out to be one of the final 70s aidoru singles since it was released back in September 1979.
"Julie ga Rival" (Julie's The Rival) was Mako Ishino's（石野真子）7th single in which the aidoru with one of the more winning snaggle-toothed grins sings about her "struggles" with Julie. And yep, for those already in the know about 1970s and 1980s Japanese popular music, Julie is indeed referring to superstar Kenji "Julie" Sawada (沢田研二...I think the above video shows her even wearing the fellow's garb). Reiji Matsumoto（松本礼児...and no, it's not the same guy who wrote the original manga for "Uchuu Senkan Yamato"） wrote the lyrics about a girl trying...figuratively, at least...to shoot down Julie into her waiting arms although on the outside, she might be trying to put on airs that she couldn't care about the pop/rock star in the slightest. We know the truth, eh, Mako?
The song finally punched her ticket for her first appearance on NHK's"Kohaku Utagassen" on New Year's Eve 1979. She was the top batter for the Red Team and she made the most of her 2 minutes while Sawada made the most of those 2 minutes as well by mugging for the cameras while giving off that "What? What did I do?!" look on his face. And yeah, the above video is of that performance. Incidentally, Sawada wouldn't do his contribution to the Kohaku until much later in the broadcast when he performed "Casablanca Dandy"（カサブランカ・ダンディ）.
Ishino would make one more appearance on the Kohaku in the next year, although it wasn't to sing her most successful single"Haru La!La!La!"（春ラ!ラ!ラ!）which came out in 1980. It was actually to sing "Heart de Shoubu"（ハートで勝負...Contest of the Heart）. "Julie ga Rival" was her 2nd-most successful single which peaked at No. 24 on Oricon.
It was a dark and Sunday morning. Well, not exactly dark...the snow on the ground reflected plenty of light back despite the overcast situation. But to see a very wintry snowscape on April 15th almost a month into official spring has probably led a lot of my fellow Torontonians into some dark moods as they mutter internally and externally "When are we finally going to get warm?!" Supposedly, relief is on the way later next week.
(9:45)
That cover of singer-songwriter Akira Inaba's（因幡晃）2nd single, "Wakare"（別涙...Farewell Tears）from June 1976 accurately illustrates what my hair looked like as I went outside to pick up the newspaper this morning. However, it is the B-side that I am writing about here, "Sunday Morning". Cool, not cold, number about a week in the melancholy life of a fellow in the big city beginning with the titular day of the week.
I especially love the collage of bluesy guitar, dramatic strings and that shuffle arrangement. Probably was quite good to hear in a nightclub setting and it could make for a nice theme song for a hard-boiled detective in Japan. The melody does repeat over and over but that's the point of the musical exercise...just to reflect the gray mundaneness of metropolitan living. I can hear the Mickey Spillane voice-over now.
Not sure how well "Wakare" did on the charts but both it and "Sunday Morning" were included on Inaba's debut album"Nanka Ii Wasureta Yo De"（何か言い忘れたようで....I've Forgotten What To Say）. One of his most famous songs is also included, "Natsu ni Arigato"（夏にありがとう）.
One of the other NHK kayo kyoku-based shows that I've seen is the Friday afternoon "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）hosted by tarento/actor Kazuki Kosakai（小堺一機）, and on the episode that I caught a couple of days ago, the Mood Kayo chorus group Junretsu（純烈）made an appearance.
Noelle was the first to talk about this group which seems to be a blend of Arashi（嵐）+ Mood Kayo so you can take a look at her article on "Konya wa Romantic"（今夜はドラマチック）for the details on the guys. However, I wanted to talk here about the song that I heard on Friday, "Propose" which is their latest single from Valentine's Day this year. In fact, for some reason, the powers-that-be have released Type A and Type B recordings for the single.
What I like about "Propose" is how the melody by Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）has that old-fashioned Mood Kayo feeling combined with a big and brassy horn arrangement which almost takes things into the funky side of urban contemporary. And as Noelle hinted in her article, Junretsu isn't satisfied to merely stand around the microphones and stoically sing like the old Mood Kayo groups; leader Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）and company like to use their choreography as well.
Smart idea to release "Propose" on Valentine's Day, too. Miyuki also wrote the lyrics which talk about the encounter of a lonely man and a woman who's afraid of love to bring about a romantic relationship together. You can pretty much squeeze a bucketful of valentines out of this song.
Speaking about songwriter Miyuki, he's had an interesting career. In the early 1970s, he was a percussionist for the rock bandTranzam（トランザム）before getting into songwriting for aidoru beginning in the later part of the decade. It looks like for the past number of years, though, he has been focusing on creating songs for enka/Mood Kayo singers.
