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.
The anime"Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）on Fuji-TV has become as much of a Sunday evening televised institution as "Sazae-san"（サザエさん）has although the latter's history has been much longer. Still, I remember watching the first year of the program from 1990 whose first run lasted almost 3 years before going on a hiatus for just as long. Then, it came back in 1995 and hasn't looked back since then.
This morning, the breaking news that came in on NHK's "News Watch at Nine" was that the author behind the original manga, Momoko Sakura（さくらももこ）, had passed away on August 15th from cancer at the age of 53. Usually, NHK wouldn't mention any program that was on a commercial network, and they didn't mention Fuji-TV by name, but they did mention about the long-running anime.
It was a pretty big shock since I had no idea that Sakura had ever been sick and especially since I do catch "Chibi Maruko-chan" with the rest of the family on Sunday nights here on TV Japan when I am at home on those nights. Maruko may act like a brat from time to time but it's still relaxing viewing to see the Sakura family in their home in Shizuoka in the 1970s.
The news is even sadder because just a couple of years earlier, the seiyuu who had played Maruko's older sister, Sakiko, Yuko Mizutani（水谷優子）, had passed away from cancer as well at around the same age. And then there was the recent passing of 70s aidoru Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）who was a frequent presence on the show as the heartthrob that both Maruko and Sakiko were massively in love with, especially the latter.
It's hard to believe but there was a time when "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）wasn't the de facto opening theme song for "Chibi Maruko-chan". It had started out as the ending theme during the show's first run with the opening theme being the very nice "Yume Ippai"（ゆめいっぱい）by Yumiko Seki（関ゆみ子）. There were a number of other opening themes before "Odoru Ponpokorin" permanently became the song in its various cover versions for the opening credits from 2000 (although "Odoru Ponpokorin" served as opening theme for over a year between 1998 and 1999).
The first opening theme for the second and current run when "Chibi Maruko-chan" returned to TV in 1995 was ex-Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）member Marina Watanabe's（渡辺満里奈）"Ureshii Yokan" (A Happy Premonition). Veteran listeners of Japanese popular music could probably pick up that this was an Eiichi Ohtaki（大瀧詠一）tune right from the jingly melody which includes the chorus arrangement by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. Sakura herself wrote the lyrics.
"Ureshii Yokan" was Watanabe's 16th and second-last single to date and was released in February 1995. Ohtaki's old bandmate from Happy End, Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, was on guitar during the recording, and the surprising thing I read on the song's J-Wikiarticle was that Ohtaki borrowed the intro riff and perhaps the harmonica solo by Toshiaki Chiku（知久寿焼）from The Beatles'"Please Please Me". The single managed to get as high as No. 31 on Oricon and was also placed as a track on Watanabe's 9th studio album, "Ring-A-Bell", released in March 1996, which was also produced by the late Ohtaki.
As sad as her untimely passing is, Sakura has left her legacy of manga, songs and the anime for us to enjoy for many more years.
It's close to 11 pm as I type this but I wanted to put in just one more before calling it a day since a video that I saw was so fascinating.
The video was put up almost 10 years ago by a fellow named Nobuyoshi Maeda, and it features the band Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）playing a good ol' rock n' blues song titled "Bye Bye Baby" with singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）pouring it on while Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）is backing him up. I don't get to see either performer actually singing on a YouTube video so it was an interesting exercise to see them back in the 1970s jammin' away. There's also a bit in the above video where Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and friend were actually trying something that might have looked like an embryonic form of the Moonwalk.
Considering how "Bye Bye Baby" sounds, I had initially thought that Tin Pan Alley was performing a cover of some tune from the United States. But as it turns out, it's a wholly Japanese original that had been composed by Hosono himself and written by Yoma Fujita（藤田洋麻）. And the original performers were Makoto Kubota & Yuyake Gakudan（久保田麻琴と夕焼け楽団）on their 1975 debut album"Hawaii Champloo"（ハワイ・チャンプルー）.
Fujita's lyrics talk about a traveling band going from town to town doing the gigs on a seemingly never-ending train ride through America. And the band just sounds like they've lived the life and have been enjoying it, or at the very least, treating it like a good enough living. One would almost think that some of the members would have picked up a drawl or a twang in their speaking.
I don't usually listen to this genre but both the original and the cover done by Tin Pan Alley are actually quite fun to the ears. "Hawaii Champloo" has been previously represented on the blog through another track which is much more Okinawan, "Haisai Ojisan"（ハイサイおじさん）.
Yes, I could use with a good vat of sangria over the next number of days since the forecast for my city is Humidex figures in the 40s. Summer is definitely not over with us yet...not by a long shot. And summer is not done with this article, Part 2 of my own favourite summer tunes coming over from Part 1 earlier this afternoon. Without further ado:
I didn't mention this in the original article that I wrote for Jun'ichi Inagaki's dreamy "Natsu no Claxon"（夏のクラクション）but I think I may have heard and seen this through a concert video that was put on Fuji-TV in the early morning winter hours as I was shivering in my futon in Gunma. Oh, the irony. But then again, either Fuji-TV had a very sardonic sense of humour or the network was trying to get us folks thinking of summer thoughts to get us through the bitter snowy season. In any case, I think "Natsu no Claxon" is one of the summer J-AOR classics, and compared with the early summer vibe of "Summer Connection" by Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）who I also listed in Part 1, I like to think of Inagaki's signature song as something more mindful of the last few weeks of summer...namely now.
Ugh! Trying to think of an absolute favourite summer song by Yamashita would be like a parent choosing which one of his/her kids is his/her favourite...in front of all of the kids. I just can't do it and any one I choose will probably get some push back from the Tats fans, so let me just phrase things diplomatically and say that "Loveland, Island" is the representative of the vast number of beloved hot season tunes by the singer-songwriter. And I gotta say, I really love the song. I mean, I'm not too big on traveling but listening to "Loveland, Island" could make even me want to head off to tropical climes. Viva Tatsuro!
When the 2020 Olympics finally hit the big stage in less than 2 years, I hope that NHK will pick a theme song for its coverage that at least matches the epic heights of Maki Ohguro's fiery "Atsukunare"（熱くなれ）which was used for the network's broadcast of the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Living in Ichikawa at that point, I did watch my fair share of the events but I have to confess that the big thing I wanted to watch at the end of each highlight show on NHK was the above video showing the agony and ecstasy of competition while "Atsukunare" was playing. Got the heart pumping, it did.
The above is the extended version but even the single version has been a very pleasurable melodic trip through Brazil. I was wondering in the few weeks before I finally bought this collaboration between music producer Mondo Grosso and the wonderful Bird who created this fun number although I was able to peg the singer in an instant. It's one of the relatively few songs that could instantly make me bop about in my chair...not an easy thing to do when I'm typing, but that's how much I love "Life".
TUBE was definitely not going to be left out of this list by any stretch of the imagination. If there is any Japanese band that could be known as the permanent resident of the beach, it would be Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）and the guys. And again, tons and tons of summer fun have been provided by the band over the years, but if I have to pick something, I will always go with their first bona fide hit, "Season in the Sun". I'm just surprised that it wasn't used by any of the TV networks as a theme song for one of their dramas.
My next two favourites for the summer were picked because I first heard them over my cherished radio program "Sounds of Japan" during the summer itself. 70s aidoru Yamaguchi's"Yume Saki Annainin"（夢先案内人）may have been released in Spring 1977, but everything about it says summer to me. The song could apply to walking through the streets of Tokyo or the beaches of Shonan at that time but the weather is always blisteringly sunny and hot. It may be rather uncomfortable out there in a typical Japanese summer but Momoe makes it darn inviting.
"Mizuiro no Ame"（みずいろの雨）is another tune that I picked up on "Sounds of Japan" back in 1982, and along with the dulcet tones of Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）, Junko Yagami was another wonderful voice who made me realize that there were some truly amazing singers in Japan. Years before I even knew of the Japanese genres of New Music and City Pop, Yagami was already charming me with her brand of cool urban contemporary material with a Latin twist. I know that a lot of folks are going ga-ga over "Tasogare no Bay City"（黄昏のBAY CITY）on YouTube, and I love it too, but I will still have a special place in my kayo kyoku heart for "Mizuiro no Ame".
I will finish my tunes here with "Summertime Blues" which is not only a great Misato favourite but also one of my musical touchstones of my time in Gunma Prefecture. Perhaps even more than her most iconic "My Revolution", this particular single reflects Watanabe's big and bright presence on stage. I think everything about it brings back the memories of summer in Japan without the annoying heat and humidity...although I will accept the sounds of cicadas.
Well, that is my list and there are quite a number of songs this time around but as I hinted in the first article, it's awfully hard to pare these down. Perhaps some of you collaborators and commenters have your own favourite summertime tunes. If so, let all of us know!
Now that we're in the last week of August, summer is entering its last few weeks. Pretty hot in your area? I know that Japan has been especially sweltering this season and Toronto has had its fair share of heat and humidity although the nights have been quite nice.
Well, I figure that I will do what hasn't been done on the blog before and provide my favourites for summer songs in Japanese popular music. It's one of the more difficult Author's Picks articles that I've done since there have been so many of these summery tunes and so many of them have been performed by the same singer. For example, Tatsuro Yamashita is one of the kings for the music of the sunny season.
As was the case with my favourite Technopop tunes, I will have to split my list into two and again the songs won't be in any particular order. All of them have also been covered in previous articles with the appropriate links to them.
I can probably credit "Natsu no Tobira"（夏の扉）as not only one of Seiko-chan's early classics, but also as the first Seiko song that I've ever heard and the first summer kayo that helped me get into Japanese pop music in earnest. Certainly, that image of the Queen Aidoru of the early 1980s in her bright yellow dress and Seiko-chan cut bopping about as she sang this one on various shows has eternally seared itself into my memories of summer...especially Summer 1981.
Anri is one of the singers who basically define summer music in Japan for me which explains why it was rather hard for me to come up with a favourite summer song by her. There are so many choices but in the end, I decided to go with "Windy Summer" from her "Timely!!" album. Her amazing collaboration with Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）in the early 1980s turned into summer gold, and especially with "Windy Summer", there is no way that I can even envisage a single snowflake popping up as this is playing.
"Manatsu no Kajitsu" is one of those Southern All Stars greats which is instantly recognizable from the first few notes. Keisuke Kuwata's（桑田佳祐）band is another musical symbol of summer in the nation so once again, I had to rack my brain about which one of their songs would be a fine choice but ultimately the No. 9 single of 1990 is my pick. And it's been the only SAS song that automatically conjures up images of summer in my head...specifically, ones of young couples huddling under that blanket in front of the small fire as the sun goes down on the Shonan beach.
Man, she looks adorable on that skateboard! This is one of the songs that I discovered later in life but it soon cemented itself as one of my favourites for the season, and it wouldn't be a summer if I didn't play it at least once in late June or early July. As a track on one of the classic City Pop/New Music albums, Taeko Ohnuki's"Sunshower", I have mentioned in the article for that album that "Summer Connection" has that nostalgic feeling of what summer must have felt like in the big city of Tokyo back in the late 1970s. Bright sun beaming off the pavement with the humidity starting to rise.
I also just had to have at least one incarnation of Omega Tribe included in the list and so I've gone with the first lineup featuring Kiyotaka Sugiyama. As with Ohnuki's "Summer Connection", "Summer Suspicion" also has that nostalgic quality...this time for the 1980s as Japan was relishing its economic boom which seemed to coincide with an increase of the younger generations hitting the beaches for some seasonal frolicking. However, I don't see "Summer Suspicion" as the high noon summer song, but more as the mellower sunset sort of summer song. Speaking of nostalgia, although I wasn't in the country when the song debuted, it still reminds me of my days at the University of Toronto and the JCSA as I regularly visited those Chinatown stores selling Japanese albums and tapes.
When I first saw the ending of Episode 6 of "Space Dandy", I had already been given warning by my anime buddy that this song would be coming up which sounded awfully like one of my favourite singers of all time. Still, my eyes rather goggled and my jaws parted with some distance as I heard Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）coming through the vocal cords of Junk Fujiyama, and yet this was a wholly different and original song by Fujiyama. Wouldn't it even been nicer if someone put up a live-action surfing video set to "Hoshikuzu no Pipeline"（星屑のパイプライン）?
My last entry for Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）was for her 3rd album"Monologue" back in May this year, so I guess there is some logic in getting her 4th album"Tenderness" (March 1981) and talking about this one as well. I've already actually written about the final track from "Tenderness","Tasogare no Machi kara"（黄昏の街から）which gave me further impetus to track down the album.
As was the case with "Monologue", tracking down any Takahashi videos on YouTube outside of her biggest hits still remains as elusive as finding the Loch Ness monster, so as I did with "Tasogare no Machi kara", I've left the link to the iTunes page with the excerpts from "Tenderness". I emphasized on the title line that this is an album since there is also an individual song titled "Tenderness" that Takahashi has sung but has no connection with her 4th album and is actually a track on her 1992 release "Lady Coast". I think that I will probably cover that song next in the Takahashi file.
Anyways, I will begin things with the first track "Ai no Rufuran"（愛のルフラン）which was written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by French pianist Pierre Porte. At first, I was rather curious about rufuran but one visit to jisho.org revealed that it is merely the Japanese version of refrain so I can now translate it as "Refrain of Love". Porte seems to have understood the Takahashi style of music with this gentle tune. It fits in with her early balladry that often takes things into American country-pop. Very relaxing.
Track 3 is "The Time to Say Goodbye" which takes things into a jazzier direction which is a genre that Takahashi also knows and sings very well. It's a very afternoon cocktail-friendly sort of number which brings to mind the works of vocal groups Circus（サーカス）and Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）and individual singers such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）. Takahashi's husband, guitarist/keyboardist Henry Hirose（ヘンリー広瀬）, provided the gently swinging music while Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）came up with the lyrics.
City Pop has been another genre that Takahashi has dabbled in and that's represented with Track 4, "Moesashi"（燃えさし...Embers）. As she sings about the aftermath of a relationship that has burned away, I can hear those keyboards and bass hinting at the hot city streets and hotels, and yet there is a certain airiness provided by one of the keyboards that provides a helicopter view of the grand metropolis. Kazuko Kobayashi and Kingo Hamada（小林和子・浜田金吾）took care of this one.
Track 7 is an even more genteel jazzy number titled "Tea For Memory" provided by primo songwriters Etsuko Kisugi and Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・来生たかお）. The piano simply provides that relaxing and undulating feeling of being out on the balcony in the backyard of some well-tended mansion in the Hamptons while Cary and Katherine are playing tennis nearby.
My last song for the evening is "Good Morning to Love" which once again takes things outside of the city although not as far out as "Ai no Rufuran" would suggest. This one seems to be out around the satellite towns since among the relaxed arrangements, there is still some of that AOR thrown in there. I did mention Hi-Fi Set before and one of the members of that trio, Shigeru Okawa（大川茂）, was responsible for the lyrics while Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, a composer who knows his way around mellowness, provided the music here.
And once again, the commonality weaving through all of the tracks is Ms. Takahashi's great sultry voice. I am so glad that I was introduced to her so early in my interest in Japanese popular music. I had to constantly remember when I was playing the tracks from iTunes that I was only getting an excerpt from each of them. I'm also happy that I finally was able to acquire "Tenderness" since it finally completes my collection of her first ten albums, although I have a few more beyond the early years.
Great voice, great songwriters and great pop. What more can I ask for?
The channel AMC seems to really love playing "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" every 6 weeks or so, and then coming in a close second or third would be "Dirty Harry" (1971) with Clint Eastwood. Of course, "Dirty Harry" has its iconic scene as well.
(3:13)
While I watched Inspector Callahan dispense his rather forthright brand of justice, I realized that it was perhaps time to check some stuff from the 1970s for the blog tonight, and perhaps something on the City Pop level of things. Realizing full well that I had put up a couple of songs of that genre just a couple of days ago, I still think it's been a while since I had anything City Poppy from the 1970s, so I decided to leaf through "Japanese City Pop" for that particular decade.
Strangely enough, I found Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）6th album"Hiromic World" from November 1975. Plus, since I hadn't done a Go article since last October, I decided to see what kind of goodies I could find in that release. I'm not sure about nikala, who has been the only other collaborator on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" to provide Go articles, but for me, I've known and written about the hit singles on the blog but have yet to really delve into the album stuff. For one thing, I don't own any single or an album by the veteran singer aside from some of those hits getting onto compilation albums.
When I first bought "Japanese City Pop" back in 2011 and leafed through this bible of urban contemporary music in Japan, I was frankly shocked that Go was in there since my impressions up until then were that the devil-may-care singer was all about his past pop hits and full-throated love ballads. He actually has a couple of records in the book, "Hiromic World" (on Page 11) and "Super Drive" (1979), and then nikala placed an article covering "Irie Nite"（入江にて）, one of the tracks from the latter album. I was pleasantly surprised that he could do City Pop pretty well with that very recognizable voice of his.
Now, "Koi no Highway" (Love Highway) is part of an earlier stab at City Pop, and compared to "Irie Nite", this particular track sounds more like a mix of urban contemporary and the 70s hits that I usually remember Go for. Still, there is that rumbling and soaring feeling of driving down the highway at sunset in the arrangement with the shimmering strings, the sexy sax and the boppy bass. It would be nice to be in that convertible zipping over the Rainbow Bridge in Odaiba, Tokyo as the day comes to a close while listening to "Koi no Highway".
More surprises were in store since I also found out that theYumi Arai（荒井由実）handled the lyrics while Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）took care of the City Pop melody. I never imagined that Yuming and Go had actually collaborated on anything, but from what I gleaned from the article in "Japanese City Pop", it seems like she and Tsutsumi were handling all of the tracks on "Hiromic World".
DJ Takayuki Fujisawa（藤沢隆行）, the author of the small report on "Hiromic World" in "Japanese City Pop", even remarked that "Koi no Highway" sounded quite similar to The Style Council's "Shout to the Top" which wouldn't come out for nearly another decade. Incidentally, the British band is truly beloved in Japan for that song and my preferred "My Ever Changing Moods". It must be really popular since apparently there is an abbreviated way of saying the band's name in Japanese: StaKan（スタカン）.
In any case, I will have to make that investment in either a BEST album by Go or get either "Hiromic World" or "Super Drive", although nikala did point out when she wrote about "Irie Nite" that a CD version of the album had yet to be released. Well, perhaps I can even go for that LP if it isn't too inflated in price.
Back in high school, I had an English teacher who was rather eccentric, to say the least. He was quite enormous in mind and body but wouldn't/couldn't teach conventionally. Basically, our classes with him were quite reminiscent of any sitcom. In fact, the other students would talk about any time with our teacher as being more along the lines of a tribal experience rather than a regular lesson. I heard that with one other group of students, he actually re-enacted the march of soldiers from Birnam Wood to Dunsinane Hill from "Macbeth" (not sure where he got the branches).
Speaking of tribal experiences, along with my classes with my dear old English teacher, the other phenomenon to which I would apply those two words is the band Afrirampo（あふりらんぽ）. I first heard about this wild and crazy duo, Oni and Pikachu, in an article from "The Japan Times" back when I was still living there.
From what I've read, Afrirampo performs any sort of rock, as long as it's supremely loud and involves a lot of sonic crashing. And just seeing some of the images through Yahoo and Google, their concerts probably define the word raucous with Oni and Pikachu taking on a day-glo jungle look with perhaps some of their fans feeling that the concerts are clothes-optional events.
From Facebook
Apologies to Facebook if they're not happy about me putting up this photo, but I did want to show readers the image I first saw of Afrirampo in the newspaper, and it's the image that I've always had of the ladies...looking like they doused themselves in fine paprika powder before deciding to play a game of Twister.
I had always wondered about how Oni and Pikachu came up with the band name of Afrirampo, and according to their J-Wiki page, they apparently just saw the name in the corner of a diary belonging to one of their elementary school classmates, and basically it doesn't have any sort of meaning. Good enough explanation for me. Anyways, starting in 2002, their first run lasted until 2010.
"Miracle Lucky Girls" is the first track on their 6th album"We Are Uchu no Ko" which was released in May 2010 as their final studio album up to now. I've seen a few other videos by them and the one other thing I've noticed by them is how often the ladies show off some gleaming smiles. It's kinda like being smiled at by Harley Quinn with the X-Men power of Banshee.
Afrirampo came from back from their hiatus in 2016 and have started touring again in Japan and overseas. In fact, according to Wikipedia, the duo is due to release their newest studio album, "Afriverse" next month. Nope, I'm not a fan but I have to admit that the band has made quite an entrance.
Mind you, if anyone is a fan out there, please let us know your Afrirampo experiences.
