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.
I hear this one from time to time during my friend's anison hour, and later found out that it was part of the "Idolm@ster" collection. Specifically, this is seiyuu/singer Chiaki Takahashi（たかはし智秋）with her 2009 "Tonari ni..." (Next To You...) as her character Azusa Miura（三浦あずさ）.
A mighty epic ballad, I had first imagined that this was some showstopper song from an elaborate musical. I mean, the first time I listened to "Tonari ni...", the inspirational music had me thinking "YES!! I WILL LOSE 20 KG BY THE END OF THIS YEAR!!". But instead of Broadway, this was a song by a character from a popular game of over a decade ago.
I never lost those 20 kilos, by the way (cough, cough). "Tonari ni..." was written by Yuriko Kaita（貝田由里子）and composed by NBGI, and the song can be found in the album "THE IDOLM@STER MASTER ARTIST 07 ~ Miura Azusa".
Apparently, there was even a jazz version by Takahashi on "THE IDOLM@STER Vol.1 Vocal CD「PERFECT IDOL 01」" although I'm not sure when that disc came out.
If I'm not mistaken, my collection of Off-Course（オフコース）CDs consists of their BEST compilations at this point which is a pity, especially when I consider the song here.
"Omae mo Hitori"(You're Alone As Well) is a track from Off-Course's "We are" album from November 1980, and like its trackmate, "Yes-No", it's one pretty cool dude of a pop song although I don't think I would place it as a City Pop tune per se. "Yes-No" was written and composed by Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）, but for "Omae mo Hitori", it's Off-Course guitarist Yasuhiro Suzuki（鈴木康博）taking care of things with bassist Hitoshi Shimizu（清水仁）also working on the lyrics.
As is often the case with an Off-Course song, "Omae mo Hitori" is a case of love gone wrong where a boyfriend is psyching/chastising himself to do what he thinks must be done and break things off with his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. The overall beat seems to imply that determined walk from home to wherever she is waiting for him. I gotta admit that the guitar play before the refrain is very kakkoii.
"Omae mo Hitori" wasn't an official single but the album "We are" hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 6th-ranked album of 1981. The album also earned Best Album honours at the Japan Record Awards in that year. I think that I will need to break that habit of merely getting BEST compilations of the band and actually get a studio album by Off-Course, starting with "We are".
My anime buddy was wondering when this would finally come in, and it finally came in a couple of weeks ago: "Gokudol Music" the song album.
Considering that a majority of anime have 12 or 13-episode seasons, I was a bit caught off guard on hearing that "Back Street Girls" finished up after just 10 episodes. I actually enjoyed the show as did my friend although a number of anime fans didn't buy into it since the animation was more of no-animation. Usually when a live-action J-Drama wraps up after a mere 10 episodes, that's not a good sign, but I'm not sure what the case is like in anime land. Personally, I hope that there is a second season.
When I first saw "Back Street Girls", the theme song and the day-glo opening credits grabbed me right from the start. Of course, it was the post-operation Niji-gumi（ゴクドルズ虹組）who took care of the singing of the fun and bubbly "Gokudol Music" for most of the episodes, but for Episode 7, the pre-op Kan-gumi（ゴクドルズ漢組）, consisting of the three gangsters played by Daisuke Ono（小野大輔）, Kazuyuki Okitsu（興津和幸）and Satoshi Hino（日野聡）, took over the microphones.
A lot of comments have been made stating that the Kan-gumi version is better than the Niji-gumi original. I don't agree but I have to say that the Niji-gumi's take is more hilarious especially when the guys go into the chants near the end. Just imagine the guys in the Corleone family singing ABBA's"Dancing Queen" at karaoke (Take it away, Sonny!). As I mentioned in the article for "Gokudol Music", Masayoshi Oishi（大石昌良）wrote and composed the opening theme that has ensured that I will never be able to hear that yakuza trumpet fanfare the same way ever again.
A number of songs were showcased through the 10 episodes of "Back Street Girls", and in-universe, they were all written by the Godfather of the Inugane Gang and the guy who started off this whole gangster-to-aidoru craze, Kimanjiro Inugane（犬金鬼万次郎）. However, in real life, it is Jasmine Gyu（ジャスミン・ギュ）on lyrics and the band Gesshoku Kaigi（月蝕會議）on music.
One song that I heard fairly often next to the opening and ending themes was "Koi no Sakazuki"（恋のサカズキ...Sake Cup of Love）by the Niji-gumi. I think Gyu and Gesshoku Kaigi got the alphabet aidoru group thing down pat when they whipped this one up. The song is AKB-lovely but the lyrics are also funny since they talk about exchanging sake cups and likening them to the famed anime trope of kansetsu kiss (indirect kiss). Plus, I don't think I've ever heard the description of cutting one's pinkie off being so fluffy.
"Okottenno?"（怒ってんの？...Are Ya Mad?）is perhaps even closer to AKB48, and I think the oyabun may have created this to let out his frustrations on paper instead of using his bat on the noggins of his young charges. It happened quite a lot on the show.
To finish off, we're back to the Kan-gumi and their rendition of the ending theme "Hoshi no Katachi"（星のかたち）. It's not quite as hilarious as their take on "Gokudol Music" (aside from the sighing), but one wonders what the scene must have been like in the recording booth. Once again, Ono and the gang got their chance in the sun at the end of Episode 7.
Over the past number of days, I've been enjoying that 50th anniversary collection of songs by composer emeritus Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, and as I mentioned in the article on the short-lived group Zariba（ザリバ）, I've encountered a few surprises from listening to CD 1 especially. The one surprise was that the aforementioned Zariba had a teenage Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）as the vocalist with a voice much more different than the one that I've been used to for so long.
Well, another surprise from the CD was on discovering that the kayo classic "Mata Au Hi Made"（また逢う日まで）by the late Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）wasn't the original incarnation. When I was looking through the J-Wikiarticle for the song, I had somehow overlooked a rather important piece of information.
Now, in the original article for "Mata Au Hi Made" on the blog, I let readers know that the song had first been created by Tsutsumi and lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）as a possible jingle for a Sanyo air conditioner commercial back in 1969 but after a number of tweaks and even a performance by singer Michiru Maki（槇みちる）, Sanyo basically said "No thanks". After that, I had assumed that it would eventually land in Ozaki's hands.
Ah, however, what actually happened was that before Ozaki, the song was given over to the Group Sounds band, Zoo Nee Voo（ズー・ニー・ヴー）, as its 4th single under the title of "Hitori no Kanashimi" (One's Loneliness). Released in February 1970, the song is virtually the same in terms of melody with that cheerful blast of horns and drums at the beginning but the lyrics are different. But alas, the song didn't become a hit. Still, once Ozaki tackled it under its new and final title of "Mata Au Hi Made" over a year later, the song would enter kayo history.
As for the unusually named Zoo Nee Voo (I couldn't find out how that name came about), their time ranged from 1968 to 1971, and despite a few lineup changes, it seems that the membership at any one time was 6 people led by Yoshito Machida（町田義人）. Their big hit came with their 2nd single in 1969, "Shiroi Sangoshou"（白いサンゴ礁...White Coral Reef）, so I will have to find out about that one pretty soon.
For a few days, I had been scratching my head, thinking that I had actually covered Zoo Nee Voo before so I was quite mystified to see that there was no such band in the Labels. I had assumed that I talked about them in association with a song by folk group Alice（アリス）, but it turned out that the band there was actually another group with a similarly odd name, Woody Woo（ウッディ・ウー）.
I've always seen the singer-songwriter Iruka（イルカ）as a 1970s and early 1980s singer from the folk, City Pop and regular pop genres, but her career has actually gone well into the 21st century through her singles and albums. So it's nice to be able to find one of her songs on YouTube which dates from after the 80s.
For this article, that would be her 31st single from January 1993, "Onna wa Tsurai yo" (It's Tough for a Woman). I liked this song right from the get-go since it has a bit of that jazz and country swing in its melody, but strangely enough, I can even pick up on some old-fashioned kayo as well. Iruka's gentle story talks about a woman lucky enough to have that fellow to come home to and unload some of everyday life's trials and tribulations. The singer's voice even seems to provide some "There, there" mollification of its own.
When it comes down to it, having that loving significant other to confide in is far better a balm than the regular visit to the bar (all due respect to bartenders).
Late last week, I received an e-mail from Eamonn at the University of Glasgow who hosts "chOOn!!" on Subcity Radio. His monthly program covers a wide variety of music from all over the planet including some of the more eclectic material from Japan, and so he wanted to let me know how much he enjoyed the works by singer-songwriter Mioko Yamaguchi（山口美央子）. His next show, incidentally, will be broadcast this Saturday (October 6th, 11-1pm GMT) and then available for streaming afterwards.
Eamonn's message reminded me of Ms. Yamaguchi, so I wanted to put up another song by her once more, and I'm going with one of her tracks on her debut album"Yume Hiko"（夢飛行）which I had written about in February this year. And as I had remarked for that 1980 release, Yamaguchi was trying all sorts of genres, which has been a boon for me, certainly, and I hope for the rest of her fans.
A track that I didn't cover in the "Yume Hiko" article is "Itsuka Yurarete Tooi Kuni" (A Distant Country to be Shaken Someday) which starts off right from Note 1 with a pleasant synthesizer hook. It's happily trippy and skippy and rather takes me off to YMO land to a certain extent, and there's indeed an underlying layer of being taken to some futuristic place in Asia for a whirlwind tour. The song definitely doesn't overstay its welcome at a shade over three minutes. In fact, I would say that it almost acts like a song for a montage scene of exploring the megalopolis in some cute Tokyo-based sci-fi/adventure movie.
Welcome to October! It's a brisk one out there and there's quite a cooling breeze flowing through home right now. Hopefully folks in Tokyo and the rest of Japan have been recovering from the latest typhoon to whoosh across the archipelago.
The samurai dramas of my childhood were "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）and "Kozure Ohkami"（子連れ狼）, so my brother and I were often enthralled when the good guys flashed their swords and made mincemeat out of the enemy, although gore and blood were thankfully absent in the shows.
I never caught "Zenigata Heiji" in any of its incarnations over the decades, though. Apparently, the title character was an Edo Era policeman in Edo itself whose claim to fame was nabbing criminals by flinging coins with incredible accuracy. Perhaps he was the equivalent of Batman and his batarangs.
Last Tuesday on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）one of the guest singers provided the theme song from the 1966 show on Fuji-TV. The original singer was Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）, who I've always known as the earnest fellow behind the kayo classic "Koukou Sannen-sei"（高校三年生）and some other young student-based tunes from the 1960s. But he also started tackling the more shibui musical material of the historical dramas.
While Shinichi Sekizawa's（関沢新一）lyrics gave a straight-ahead account of the heroism of Heiji (at first glance, I thought Zenigata Heiji was the full name of the hero, but actually it's a nickname of sorts with the first word referring to those weaponized coins), Sanechika Ando's（安藤実親）melody has got quite the jazzy swing to it although I still recognized it as an enka number. I wonder if Ando had been watching some of the detective shows in America from the same decade and had gotten some inspiration to infuse the usual historical drama theme song with some of that Henry Mancini stuff.
"Zenigata Heiji" was first sold in the record stores as part of Funaki's 38th single"Atsumori Aika"（敦盛哀歌...Atsumori Elegy）, released in May 1966.
Actor-singer Masaharu Fukuyama（福山雅治）covered "Zenigata Heiji", and he gives his unplugged performance of the song above. The song was included in "Tama Riku"（魂リク）, his April 2015 album of cover songs. The album hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 20th-ranked album of the year, going Platinum and winning Album of the Year honours at the Japan Gold Disc Awards.
I was wondering about what "Tama Riku" meant, but it's actually a shortened form of "Tama's Requests" which was a segment of Fukuyama's radio show "Masaharu Fukuyama's All-Night Nippon Saturday Special: Tama Radio"（福山雅治のオールナイトニッポンサタデースペシャル・魂のラジオ）with those last two words referring to "Soul Radio". The show had a long run of 15 years from 2000-2015 on Saturday nights from 11:30 to 1:00. I'm pretty sure that fans flocked to the speakers or headphones to listen to Fukuyama's dulcet tones.
