MANNA -- Gotanda

Over my years commuting through Tokyo, I think I've managed to get off at just about every station on the JR Yamanote Line. For those who don't know about it, the Yamanote is the loop line that goes around downtown Tokyo in about an hour. Of course, I'm quite familiar with the major stations such as Shinjuku, Tokyo, Akihabara and even the above Takadanobaba.

Gotanda Station is one stop on the Yamanote that's somewhere between Shibuya and Shinagawa Stations, and it's one of those places that perhaps I've gotten off at just once perhaps. It was only because my good foodie friend in Tokyo found this great hambaagu restaurant near the station that got all of us to make a stop there one Sunday night. Hambaagu would do that to me.

Well, strangely enough, I managed to find a song with the title of "Gotanda" and it was through MANNA's debut album "Chabako Trick" from 1979. I've actually already written about one other track from the album, and that was a cover of Tin Pan Alley's "Yellow Magic Carnival" which was also MANNA's debut single. 

Unlike the disco of that song, however, "Gotanda" is fairly straight and light pop...something to take a walk through Gotanda by. As I was listening to it for the first time, I wondered how it would sound covered by Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）since the arrangements sound as if it were made just for her. Well, oh, goofball me. It was indeed Yano who had wrote and composed the song for MANNA. The song fairly trips and skips quite happily through its four-and-a-half minutes.

Yuzo Kayama -- Yoru no Taiyo（夜の太陽）

One person that I had wanted to include on my recent list of favourite summer Japanese pop tunes was the Wakadaisho（若大将）himself, Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）. However, I found out that the song that I wanted to include hadn't even been covered yet. And regrettably, I forgot what the title was. Well, it'll come to me eventually.

In any case, I've decided to go back to the very beginnings of Kayama's long career, and so I ended up in July 1961 when his debut single "Yoru no Taiyo" (Night Sun) was released. It was one of the songs included in the first of the "Wakadaisho" movie series, "Daigaku no Wakadaisho"（大学の若大将）. It's been translated as "Sir Galahad in Campus" although I prefer the more conventional "Big Man on Campus". Of course, Kayama stars as the Big Man himself and the heartthrob ace swimmer.

With lyrics by Kyouji Mita（三田恭次）and music by Hachidai Nakamura（中村八大）, "Yoru no Taiyo" breaks out of the starting gate with a brassy blast, and the beat takes on that jazzy Latin kayo style which was pretty popular at the time, dodonpa（ドドンパ）. The term is even included in Mita's lyrics. Although I don't think the song was the theme for the movie, it certainly could sum up some of the Big Man's confidence and swagger as he paints the town red at night. However, although I've only seen a few scenes from some of the movies, my impression is that the Wakadaisho was always a good kid and probably retired from his activities early. Maybe he even drank a glass of milk before hitting the sack.

Mariya Takeuchi -- Koi no Arashi（恋の嵐）

After 70 articles related to Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）, I'm surprised that I had yet to cover this one since although I could never remember the title, the melody has been very familiar to me.

"Koi no Arashi" (Storm of Love) is this cute mix of Mariya's earlier 50s/60s candy pop and what sounds like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" which was released as her 13th single in March 1986. Of course, her husband's voice is in the chorus back there, and the singer wrote and composed the song.

It sounds oh-so-sweet but actually the lyrics are about a woman's imminent arrival at the point of no return in terms of an affair that she is about to kick off with a friend on a dark, stormy night. Perhaps that's why I kinda find the cover for the single somewhat sinister with Mariya wearing that red outfit and a slightly devilish grin. Temptations, temptations...

Not surprisingly, "Koi no Arashi" was used as the theme song for a TBS drama "Tonari no Onna"（となりの女...The Woman Next Door） which dealt with the same topic. It peaked at No. 20 on Oricon and was also placed as a track on her 7th album "Request" from August 1987 and on her second BEST compilation "Impressions" from July 1994.

Little Glee Monster -- Sekai wa Anata ni Waraikaketeiru（世界はあなたに笑いかけている）

Earlier today, "Kayo Kyoku Plus" contributor Larry Chan and I got together for our semi-annual lunch and we went to our usual favourite Japanese restaurant Kingyo. Actually, the photo above is from the Xmas dinner with my fellow translators at Kingyo last year, but suffice it to say, the food at lunch is still darn good. Larry had the tonkatsu set (with really thick pork) and I had the mabo dofu set. Yes, I know, I know...mabo dofu is a Szechuan dish, but it is truly beloved in Japan. Plus, the wonderful thing is that several hours have passed and the mabo has yet to dissolve my intestines. Good, mabo, good!🙆

Of course, one of our topics was the blog and the music. The two of us conversed about the fact that the Japanese reign period will for the first time in a few hundred years change over due to an abdication/retirement of a sitting emperor rather than his death. So we know that the Heisei Era will end next year on April 30th, I believe. And I figure that in the months to come, there will be some sort of assessment on what the music was like between January 8th 1989 and April 30th 2019.

With the change over to a new period next year, I also expressed some hopes about what Japanese pop music could be like. For one thing, I hope that there can be an even bigger influx of some good old-fashioned soul to the proceedings.

(short version)

Tonight, I caught the first "Uta Con"（うたコン）after a brief summer hiatus, and the vocal group Little Glee Monster appeared. My memory then reminded me that I said that I would write up an article about one of the group's singles after having mentioned them in "Hey Wa"（Hey和）last week. But I am new to the LGM oeuvre so I had wondered which song I would sample.

It looks like I didn't have to wait too long. The song was right there and then on the program tonight. Little Glee Monster performed their latest single (their 12th) "Sekai wa Anata ni Waraikaketeiru" (The World is Smiling at You), and I realized that there was some nice light soul in that tune.

Guitarist/music producer and former member of the band SUPERCAR, Junji Ishiwatari（いしわたり淳治）, and singer/songwriter Manabu Marutani（丸谷マナブ）came up with the lyrics while Marutani also composed the happy and funky melody. "Sekai wa Anata ni Waraikaketeiru" was released this month and was also used as the commercial song for Coca-Cola. Well, if we can all teach the world to sing, why wouldn't it smile at us?

Little Glee Monster started up in 2013 and has a current lineup of five women (with three ex-members): Serina, Asahi, MAYU, Karen and manaka. Along with the 12 singles, there is a digital download single which is a cover of the song "Jupiter", a mini-album, and 3 original albums.

Haruo Oka/Hachiro Kasuga -- Tokyo no Sora, Aoi Sora（東京の空青い空）

A couple of days ago, I was watching enka singer Hiroshi Itsuki's（五木ひろし）NHK music-variety show (I really ought to talk about that program sometime soon) which seems to get plugged into a time slot on TV Japan whenever the usual program has been pre-empted for whatever reason. The theme for the episode was Tokyo-based kayo, something that has also been done on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）in the past.

However, one of the songs that was featured was an old kayo that I had never heard before. It was titled "Tokyo no Sora, Aoi no Sora" (Tokyo Sky, Blue Sky) and the original singer was Haruo Oka（岡晴夫）, the same fellow who had sung the jaunty "Akogare no Hawaii Koro"（憧れのハワイ航路）in 1948. It's a song that I've heard myself over the decades but have only gotten to know and pay attention to in the last number of years.

"Tokyo no Sora, Aoi no Sora" was released in March 1949, and like the more famous "Akogare no Hawaii Koro", it's got plenty of jump. In fact, I would say that Yoshi Eguchi's（江口夜詩）music is quite the whirling dervish of kayo, probably to match Miyuki Ishimoto's（石本美由起）lyrics of a young couple painting the town red on what must have been one heck of a weekend date. I'm sure that Oka must have gotten quite the workout recording this in the booth. But it's got plenty of optimism; I don't know what the state of Tokyo was in 1949, some four years after the war had ended, but if it's anything like singer, lyricist and composer have described it, then perhaps the capital city was really turning a corner. Incidentally, both Eguchi and Ishimoto were also responsible for the creation of "Akogare no Hawaii Koro".

There's a clearer and crisper cover of the original song by Hachiro Kasuga（春日八郎）who recorded it in 1976 as a part of his album "Kasuga Hachiro Oka Haruo wo Utau"（春日八郎 岡晴夫を歌う...Hachiro Kasuga Sings Haruo Oka）. Listening to both versions, I got that feeling of Tokyo being that hive of industry and activity, and if I were to compare the tune to a Hollywood movie, I would think it was kinda like the first few minutes of "An American in Paris" with George Gershwin's magnificent score in the background.

Yuji Mori and Southern Cross/Toshi Ito & Happy and Blue -- Ashide Matoi（足手まとい）

I was kinda feeling that it was a while since I put up a Mood Kayo tune, and I realized that it has been about 6 weeks. Being a Monday night, I kinda figure that there are probably workers out there who want to get their first nighttime drink of the week, so perhaps it was off to the favourite watering hole after work. That would make for a Mood Kayo atmosphere.

While rummaging through YouTube for an appropriate song, I found this one titled "Ashide Matoi" (A Burden) by a group that I had never heard before, Yuji Mori and Southern Cross（森雄二とサザンクロス）. The group debuted in 1975 and performed for a decade before breaking up in 1985.

"Ashide Matoi", the tearful story of a man who decides to break up with his mistress because he feels that he is just dragging her down, has got all of the enjoyable Mood Kayo tropes: a bit of that Latin guitar, the chorus work, the sorrowful lead vocal, and those strings and alto sax which sound plenty clean and crisp, like a sip of good sake. On the odd occasion that I do drink sake, I usually like it dry. Listening to this, I can only envision the high-flying areas of Ginza and Akasaka.

The lyrics were provided by Junko Takabatake（高畠諄子）and the music was by Hiroyuki Nakagawa（中川博之）. "Ashide Matoi" was released in 1977.

In July 1983, the Mood Kayo group Toshi Ito & Happy and Blue（敏いとうとハッピー&ブルー）performed a cover of "Ashide Matoi" as their 23rd single. I couldn't find the original recorded version but the above performed version on TV doesn't sound too different from the Southern Cross take although there seems to be some more musical flourishes added.

Interestingly enough, former members from both Southern Cross and Happy and Blue along with one other Mood Kayo singer got together in 2002 to form Happy Southern Arrow（ハッピー・サザンアロー）. But earlier in 1995, Southern Cross had decided to re-form and entertain again until earlier this year in April when Mori passed away at the age of 75.

ZARD - Forever You

J-Canuck and I probably share the same kind of feeling towards the 90s.

In summer 1990, I set foot on US soil for the very first time in my life for my undergrad.  I have pretty much disconnected myself from Hong Kong pop music from that time onwards.  The Hong Kong music scene was transitioning from the dominance of Alan Tam (譚詠麟), Leslie Cheung (張國榮), and Anita Mui (梅艷芳) to the 4 Gods (四大天王), namely Jacky Zhang (張學友), Andy Lau (劉德華), Leon Lai (黎明), and Aaron Kwok (郭富城).  Like J-Canuck, I also felt like I missed a lot of actions that’s happening in Hong Kong at that time.  Consequently, music from the 90s always invokes a special feeling within my heart.

Forever You was released in a ZARD 1995 album with the same name, 2 years after the tremendous success of Makenaide (負けないで).  Oda Tetsuro (織田哲郎) composed the music and ZARD, or Sakai Izumi (坂井泉水) was of course responsible for the lyrics.  This song is probably a real story of Izumi’s life, and her reflection at that point in her career.  In the song, she talks about the time when she fumbled along her way to seek her dream, referring to her early days as a race girl and model.  Now that her dream has come true, she has found happiness and just wants to take steady steps and may be, find her true love one day.  Reflecting on her past, she felt no regret, as it is the path she has chosen after all.  She also felt extremely grateful and would never forget all the people who have helped her along the way.

Forever You is one of my favorites among many ZARD’s hits.  It is also one of the favorites of Terao Hiroshi (寺尾広), ZARD’s recording director.  In his interview remembering ZARD’s 10th death anniversary, Hiroshi noted the special arrangement of Forever You.  For around 30 years since the birth of J-Pop, its formula has always been one of verse, pre-chorus, chorus (or hook) type of arrangement.  But in Forever You, it lacks a pre-chorus, and jumps from verse directly to the chorus, which he thinks is a smart deviation.  Personally, I think such simple arrangement enhances the story told by the song.

In that same interview, Hiroshi revealed that almost no song was specifically written for ZARD. Consequently, Izumi had almost no contact with the song writer.  It was because producer Nagato Daiko (長戸大幸) didn’t  want to limit the creativity of Izumi regarding lyrics.  Had she known that a song has been specifically written for her, she might be influenced to make word choices that she otherwise wouldn’t make in order to fit a particular melody, out of respect for the songwriter.  I found this point quite interesting.

Enjoy!