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.
Yoko Tanaka (田中陽子) is another one of those obscure aidoru singers who tried a singing career during the late 80s/early 90s in Japan. Her discography is, of, course, very limited, but, from the scarse material, there’s this cute little song called “Kagerou no Etude” that I probably enjoy much more than I should.
Released in October 1990 as Yoko Tanaka’s
third single, right before the release of “Invitation”, her first – and also
final – album, “Kagerou no Etude” tries to be that strange mix of Latin pop
song with an Eurobeat arrangement. Personally, it’s obvious that I like the
harsh and now-dated synths that dominates the song, but Yoko’s delivery is weak
and generic, just like many other similar aidoru singers from the same time
period. She was also kinda cute, but that’s another obvious thing when it comes
to aidoru.
Apparently, her marketing strategy was similar to
Eriko Tamura (田村英里子) and Lemon Angel (レモンエンジェル),
since she also had an aidoru anime based on herself, which was called Aidoru
Tenshi Youkoso Yoko (アイドル天使ようこそようこ). In fact, “Kagerou no Etude” and many other of her
songs were related to this anime. Even with all this marketing behind, she didn’t
take off, unfortunately.
Here’s the full studio version, alongside the single’s
b-side, “Houkago no Boukenshatachi” (放課後の冒険者たち).
Lyrics for “Kagerou no Etude” were written by Junko
Kudo (工藤順子),
while music was composed by Megumi Ishii (いしいめぐみ). As
for the arrangement, Shiro Sagisu (鷺巣詩郎) was the responsible.
Good weekend to you all. It looks like I got back a good deal sooner than expected from my Saturday chores so I can wrap up my list of some of my favourite non-single album tracks that I had begun last night with Part 1. As was the case with Part 1, I've got a variety of singers in a variety of genres with songs that were never made singles but occupied a very nice place in their originating albums.
There's a very small sub-genre in kayo, usually within Mood Kayo, that involves songs which take place at airports as settings for romance to begin or end. However, Junko Yagami's（八神純子）soaring "Yakan Hiko"（夜間飛行）hovers somewhere in the nexus of the Venn diagram of New Music/City Pop/J-AOR. But without having to move things unduly to my junior high school math classes, let me say that this is another fabulous showcase for Yagami's vocals. Moreover, if someone ever asked me to introduce anything by the singer that hadn't been heard beyond the singles, this would be one of a few that I would gladly expound upon.
8. Anzen Chitai -- y no Tension/Album: "Anzen Chitai III ~ Dakishimetai" (1984)
This wasn't a single? Nope, it wasn't. It was just the leadoff track for "Anzen Chitai III", and it fulfilled all of the things that made Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）click: Koji Tamaki's（玉置浩二）wonderful vocals and that mysterious but very seductive atmosphere created by the band. This is definitely one song that I would love to hear on a car radio while being on a Tokyo highway at night. I cannot say that "y no Tension" is a prelude to partying in the megalopolis, though. It's more of a theme for a shibui cruise through the city while giving some hard thoughts to something.
I've read a few things here and there by other commenters on YouTube that "Perspective" is their favourite YMO song. Although "Rydeen" and "Technopolis" still occupy the peak of my favourite Japanese technopop band, this one track from "Service" has soon become a beloved part of YMO tunes that I cherish. If a Hollywood movie set in modern-day Tokyo or even just a Japanese movie in that same city about an initial nebbish going through the motions ever comes out, I would suggest "Perspective" in a heartbeat.
10. Tatsuro Yamashita -- Itsuka/Album: "Ride on Time" (1980)
Also slightly surprised that this didn't get its own single, but then again "Ride on Time" and a few other Tats（山下達郎）albums are so filled with wonderful tracks that a good majority of them have to be heard on those original releases. Feeling down in the dumps? Yamashita's "Itsuka"（いつか）could be the tonic that heals what ails you. And of course, for those City Pop bass addicts, those first several seconds will have you bouncing off your chair or couch.
As I mentioned in the original article for "Seventh Avenue South", the first track "COOL" was the prime recommendation for me to get this 1982 album by Minami（南佳孝）. It was about as effective as that cook in that "Nighthawks" eatery on the album cover recommending the full meat loaf-and-mashed potatoes special with extra gravy. Wouldn't it be something for an actual diner like this to be made somewhere in Japan for folks to visit at night after painting the town red? If this were actually in Tokyo, I would be so there and I would make a request for the owner to pop in "Seventh Avenue South". The only thing is that I wouldn't know whether I would be able to keep my eyes open in the wee hours at my age nowadays.
When I think of how long Yuming（ユーミン）has been in the music industry and how many albums she has released in 46 years, my mind boggles at how many NSATs are incredible enough to become their own singles. Yes, I have said that my big interest in the legendary singer-songwriter was only within the first 20 years of her long career, but still, there are many album tracks that are worthy of mention. So, she was the one singer that I had the most difficulty with when it came to this list. In the end, though, I went with a song that has often managed to stick in my brain, "Tower Side Memory" about the city of Kobe. Right from the opening notes, it just sounds so cool and wistful with that distinct keyboard sound. Also, there is that futuristic vibe to the opening track for her 12th album; having been to the port city in the past, I could imagine it being quite flattered at Yuming's tribute. Still not sure whether it has even made it onto any of her BEST albums.
As I said in Part 1, starting out with a singer's BEST compilation is fine to hear the hits but then delving into those original albums helps in getting a further appreciation of his/her works. There is an almost ASMR feeling when encountering that album track for the first time or for the first time in a long time and exclaiming "Where have you been all my life?"
Considering that with the many times that I've come to make announcements on this blog, they've been about deaths in the music industry, it's always welcome news when I actually have something happy to write about. In this case, I heard on NHK this evening (which is now November 3rd or Culture Day in Japan) that singer/actor Akira Terao（寺尾聰）is going to be given some level of the Kyokujitsu-shō（旭日章）or the Order of the Rising Sun. Mind you, he was awarded the Purple Ribbon about a decade ago, but it was still nice to hear the announcement for this Order on television today.
So in tribute to Terao, my last article for the day will be his "Nagisa no Campari Soda" (Campari Soda on the Beach) from his 1981 album"Reflections". Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Terao himself, taking into account the title of the song and what "Reflections" is about, I had assumed that this would be either a City Pop or an AOR track.
But I was wrong. It's actually more of a pleasant little rock n' roll number about a fellow inviting his girlfriend for some fun in the sun while drinking down those titular drinks. Just seeing a young clean-shaven Terao in those dark sunglasses while crooning "Nagisa no Campari Soda" brings back memories of the summer of 1981.
Doing some cross-referencing between the Wiki and J-Wiki articles for the Order, I think Terao is getting the 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette. Apparently, Charles Aznavour (2018), George Takei (2004) and The Ventures (2010) were given the exact honour.
A few days ago, I was watching one of the music channels on TV and there was a program which focused on a round-table discussion involving music critics and other professionals from the recording industry. The question of the show was "Are albums no longer necessary?"
Well, in this age of streaming and downloading, perhaps they are not. Listeners are free to pick and choose their own favourite tunes, download them and then create their own compilations of very long length without having to listen to tracks that they don't like in a traditional album or they can even skip them to get to their beloved songs.
Fair enough. But as someone who still prefers to buy CDs and the odd LP of Japanese music albums of decades past, I think that there have been plenty of gems hidden in those albums that never got their single status. Some of the pros on that TV show reminded me of that, and then I was reading Marcos V.'s article on his Omega Tribe acquisition and made the wonderful discovery of songs that I had never heard before because they may not have ended up on either the A or B sides of an old 45" or a BEST compilation.
And that's true for a lot of other singers as well. I've mentioned before in other articles that getting a BEST compilation of a singer that you've cottoned onto is great to get your feet wet where that singer's hit material is concerned, but that it's also splendid to purchase some of his/her original albums as well since you never know what other tracks might also tickle your fancy even though individually they never got blessed by Oricon's light.
Therefore, I decided to create my own list and separate it over two articles about some of those perhaps hidden gems on various albums by some of my favourite singers. Now, by no means, is this a comprehensive list. There are so many good to excellent non-single album tracks out there for me that I can only provide a small taste (plus for some singers, those particular songs don't seem to exist on YouTube). Some of them have actually made it onto BEST compilations.
"Vitamin EPO" was another great album by the singer-songwriter in my estimation but "Payday" just seemed to particularly show off its EPO-tastic nature through the singer's vocals, the arrangement and that feeling of being downtown on a Friday ready to paint the town red. As with some of the other entries in the list, I was surprised that "Payday" hadn't been released as a single on its own.
This did get onto Seiko-chan's（松田聖子）BEST compilation, "Seiko - Box" but this is actually where I first listened to this really quirky tune by Eiichi Ohtaki（大瀧詠一）and Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, and was one of the reasons that I finally got the original album "Kaze Tachinu"（風立ちぬ）. Perhaps it was too quirky to get single status on either A or B side, but as an album track, it sure is something to behold in terms of that guitar and the overall unusual bounciness.
No singles came out from the album "Circuit of Rainbow" but judging from what I heard from her previous album "Boogie Woogie Mainland" via "Sounds of Japan", I figured that I would be getting some ultra-uptempo R&B numbers. I wasn't disappointed. That whole intro for the title track seemed to open up a new world of where Anri（杏里）was now ruling after hearing her much older material at Kuri, my karaoke haunt.
4. Mariya Takeuchi -- Morning Glory/Album: "Miss M" (1980)
Another non-single track that surprised me in that it didn't get its solo appearance, Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Morning Glory" is so mellow yet happy happy, joy joy that after all these years, it's still hard to not sway side-to-side whenever Mariya sings the refrain. As much as City Pop fans are going gaga over "Plastic Love", I think "Morning Glory" deserves some good love, and consider some of the folks who were behind the production of this track.
Oh, Lord...give me one more chance! No, I realize that lyric is from "4am" which is to Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）current popularity on YouTube as "Plastic Love" is to Takeuchi's own current fame. Well "4am" is getting plenty of chances right now, so I've decided to go with another track from "Mignonne", "Iidasenakute"（言いだせなくて）. It's Ohnuki going Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）Disco on a track which hasn't failed to exercise my goose pimples whenever I listen to it. The backup chorus and the finale sax add some wonderful icing to this cake, and I can't help but reminisce about those late 1970s including me watching the hilarious "WKRP In Cincinnati".
6. Akina Nakamori -- Romantic na Yoru da wa/Album: Bitter & Sweet (1985)
Getting my copy of "Bitter & Sweet" on LP at Wah Yueh back in university, I marveled at the tandem of "Kazarijanainoyo Namida wa"（飾りじゃないのよ涙は）and "Romantic na Yoru da wa"（ロマンチックな夜だわ）. Hearing these two melding into a unit meant that this Nakamori album was cemented as my favourite release by her...a status that hasn't changed in 30 years. For a track that was never released as a single, "Romantic na Yoru da wa" still packs a raunchy punch and considering all of the BEST compilations that have come out for her over the decades, I would be surprised if this second track from "Bitter & Sweet" has yet to show up on any of them. Not surprisingly, the person responsible for words and music is EPO, the lady for the first entry.
I may be a bit busier than usual this weekend, but if I can, I will try and get Part 2 out in the next few days. And once again, I send out the invitation for collaborators and commenters to provide their favourite NSATs.
It's not every day that I come across a contemporary pop band in the 21st century which features a flutist and a violinist as part of the lineup but that is indeed the case with Special Favorite Music.
Getting together in the summer of 2014, the catchphrase on their website is "We are looking for something new!", but in doing so, I think Special Favorite Music has incorporated some of the old appealing groove as have a number of their musical contemporaries.
With a 7-member lineup including two vocalists, lovinyuu and Yusuke Kume, I came across the band for the first time through their video for "Ceremony". That violin and flute start things off for this cool, light and mellow (good golly, sounds like a menthol cigarette) number. As for the video, I kept thinking of it as the opening credits for the Japanese version of "Friends". With seven people, I can only imagine that the apartment that they live in would cost millions of yen more than the pad where Ross and Rachel and the rest of the guys reside in New York. Still, they must have some really great parties!
There seems to be some confusion about the status of "Ceremony". Under the YouTube video, this was supposed to have been their first single from March 2017, but according to their website, it's a track from their 3rd mini-album, "Royal Blue", which came out later that year in August. Heck, it's all good.
Although I think the heyday of Japanese folk in mainstream kayo was perhaps the very late 1960s to the early 1970s, its musical effects still lasted to the end of that decade. There were quite a few songs which had that twangy guitar and rollicking melody at that time even with the advent of urban contemporary rhythms and synthesizers.
I think one of those songs is right here. Singer-songwriter (and current jazz chanteuse) Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）released "Don Juan" as her 5th single in July 1978, and it's certainly a jaunty number about a woman wondering whether to fall for a fellow's charms although she knows full well that he's a love 'em-and-leave 'em playboy.
Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）, one of the pillars of Japanese folk kayo, was in charge of composing this while prolific lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）took care of the words. Considering its contents, I would have thought that "Don Juan" could have made for a bluesy Ginza-soaked Mood Kayo, but instead, it sounds more like a folksy number whose story could have taken place in a much more rural area of Japan.
Saori Yagi（八木さおり）...the name sounded very familiar when I first heard it, and perhaps that was because she has been an actress for a few decades. But no longer being a J-Drama fan, I can't really remember any of the shows that she's been in.
And yet, I did bookmark this YouTube video which features one of Yagi's early songs when the lass spent her early years as an aidoru for a short while in the late 1980s. This thumbnail has her looking rather beatific and according to some text in one of her photo books titled "Metro City" (via J-Wiki), she was born Christian with her baptismal name being Maria Magdalena.
Supposedly, Yagi is also a huge Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）fan but more for guitarist Yutaka Takezawa（武沢豊）rather than vocalist Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）. By the same token, I also found out that Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）was also a huge fan of hers to the extent that he even composed a song for her titled "Tsuki to Koigokoro" (The Moon and One's Love) as a track in her second album"Moon & Love" from November 1987. Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）provided the lyrics.
When I first heard "Tsuki to Koigokoro", there was that certain familiarity in the melody as if this had been made for Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）, although Yagi's delivery is far different from Watanabe's voice, and sure enough, it was indeed Komuro behind the song. In total, Yagi released 6 singles and 3 original albums with her debut single"Hitomi de Kataomoi"（瞳で片想い...Falling In Love with My Eyes）from October 1986 having the highest ranking at No. 20.
