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'd heard of the band Buffalo Daughter during my days in Japan and I remember seeing one music video by them on one of the music channels on cable, but that was about the extent of my exposure. So, my knowledge of their music is still very limited although I had been under the impression that they were as Shibuya-kei as Pizzicato Five and Flipper's Guitar.
However, according to a Japan Times article via the Wikipedia write-up about Buffalo Daughter, member suGar Yoshinaga（シュガー吉永）has said that she doesn't really think the sound of the band has ever really been about Shibuya-kei. Judging from their snappy song "Oui Oui" from their 2014 album"Konjac-tion"（コニャクション）, I would tend to agree.
Although there is that vague feeling of French pop in "Oui Oui" which is a genre that has been one of the inspirations for Shibuya-kei back in the 1990s, I really see this song as being more of a pop/funk piece (and that's despite the Wikipedia categorization of their music all being various types of rock). Along with the funk beat, I also like the onomatopoeia in there, too.
Buffalo Daughter's other current members are Yumiko Ohno（大野由美子）and MoOoG Yamamoto（山本ムーグ）. They've been around since 1993 and have released six full studio albums. I will probably be playing catch-up with some of their past efforts.
The photo above is of Ito Station in Shizuoka Prefecture when my friend and I stayed in the small city of Ito for that one night four years ago. Of course, being a local transportation hub, the surrounding area had its share of shops, cafes and restaurants, and the ocean wasn't too far away either.
Furthermore, alongside airports, it seems like the train station was also the place where romances went to sadly fade away in kayo kyoku. Case in point, Hachiro Kasuga's（春日八郎）"Kosame no Eki ni Bell ga Naru" (The Bell Tolls at the Station in a Light Rain). Well, perhaps I would rather translate that in a more concise way and go with "The Bell Tolls at the Rainy Station".
Originally released in 1954 as one of Kasuga's early singles, it describes the sweet but sorrowful parting of two lovers at the station. Although I couldn't find out whether the depot was based on a real place, I could imagine that it was probably far smaller than even Ito Station and the stationmaster still punched the tickets with that clacking metal set of pincers. That was still the case when I was living in Gunma Prefecture back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
While Kikutaro Takahashi（高橋掬太郎）was the one behind the bittersweet lyrics, Yoshi Eguchi's（江口夜詩）melody is still quite jaunty as if it were still describing some sort of hustle and bustle around the titular station despite the drama playing out between the man and woman. Perhaps one romantic relationship may be coming to an end (temporarily or permanently), but life still goes on regardless.
The video below has the original 1954 version while the one above, according to the YouTube description, contains a new version which was recorded in 1972 for his "Kasuga Hachiro no Deluxe San-shuu"（春日八郎デラックス３集...Hachiro Kasuga's Deluxe Collection 3）. I have to say that although the original obviously has that nostalgic quality, I really do like the new version since it really brings out Kasuga's voice in a rich way alongside those strings.
Always like getting that pleasant surprise whenever I'm writing on the blog.
The surprise for today has presented itself in the form of Tamao Koike's（小池玉緒）"Kanariya"(Canary) since I found out that it had been the progenitor for a Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）B-side called "Wagamama na Kataomoi"（わがままな片想い）. Until then, I had only known Koike for "Kagami no Naka no Juu-gatsu"（鏡の中の十月）.
In terms of arrangement, it's pretty similar in that "Kanariya" still has as much of that technopop adventure in Toyland feeling as the later "Wagamama". But instead of Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）lyrics in the latter, Koike herself provided the words for her "Kanariya" although Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）is still the one behind the creation of the bouncy melody. From the singer's delivery, it sounds like she was having a slightly difficult time maintaining the high notes and as such, she may have achieved a certain New Wave quality with this song.
The other surprising element is that "Kanariya" had never been released in the 1980s. I'm assuming that it was recorded not too long before "Wagamama" so maybe in 1982 or 1983 (but for the sake of argument, I'm going to go with 1983). It finally saw the light of day, so to speak, through a compilation album of 18 discs called "YEN BOX VOL.2" (check Disc 18) which was released in May 1996. Koike herself offered the song to Matsuda soon after recording her version.
Definitely feeling that headlong pull deeper into autumn. Over the weekend, we in North America turned the clocks back one hour and that made a fairly big difference. The sun basically disappeared just a little after 5 pm today, and so for the next several weeks, night will be creeping on us that much faster until December 21st.
A few weeks ago on "Uta Con"（うたコン）, I heard a rather melancholy ballad that I could easily peg being from decades past. Titled "Shuutou" (Autumn and Winter), it's a song about love lost and the consequences felt by one person. It is an apt autumn kayo since often enough, autumn going into winter has been the setting for the death of romance in Japanese songs.
May J. and Aya Yamamoto（山本彩）did a duet on "Shuutou", and the arrangement was elegant enough to attract my attention about where this song had come from. And the story behind it adds a further layer of sadness but also happiness to the legend. The original singer and lyricist was Jouji Nakayama（中山丈二）who had recorded "Shuutou" onto a demo tape shortly before his untimely passing at the age of 36 in 1980. Douji Horie（堀江童子）created the music for the song. The above video apparently has Nakayama's actual vocals although since the J-Wiki article on the song mentioned that it was just him and his guitar on the demo tape, the dramatic violins were probably added later.
After Nakayama's passing, some of his friends such as TV personalities Hiroshi Sekiguchi（関口宏）and Maki Carrousel（カルーセル麻紀）, and actor Toru Minegishi（峰岸徹）helped out to get "Shuutou" produced via 400 records. Afterwards, the song started quietly getting known.
In 1983, a singer by the name of Miki Tachibana（橘美喜）released a cover version and it sparked a lot of other singers to provide their own version of "Shuutou". Although Tachibana's cover doesn't exist on YouTube, I could find another accomplished take of the ballad via Daisuke Hara（原大輔）who sings in a number of genres including folk, New Music and chanson. This version was one of the later ones since it was released in October and it was actually his debut single under this stage name (he was born Masaki Takanashi/高梨雅樹 and was one-half of the folk group Leila（レイラ）in the mid-1970s). The single peaked at No. 19 and became the 90th-ranked song for 1984.
From what I found in Hara's file, apparently seven singers including Hara released their version of "Shuutou" in 1983, so Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）must have been the eighth since her version came out right on New Year's Day 1984. This was her 22nd single which actually reached as high as No. 22 on Oricon, selling around 136,000 records. For the yearly rankings, it placed No. 100, just 10 ranks down from Hara's version.
I found Takada's version more in the Fashion Music vein (I really have to talk more about this rather intriguing sub-genre soon) with that tinkly piano intro and even more shimmering strings. She also appeared in the 1984 Kohaku Utagassen to perform this song. The video of that performance is above this paragraph (not anymore unfortunately although I've replaced it with the actual music video), and although "Shuutou" is sad on its own, there was an added reason for all of the tears shed by Takada and some of her fellow members on the Red team. It had been announced that the singer would be retiring from show business midway through the following year so December 31st 1984 was her 7th and final appearance on the special which included 5 straight appearances up to that point.
Although I couldn't find out when exactly Teresa Teng（テレサ・テン）had released her version of "Shuutou", I felt that I needed to feature her as well for her wonderful performance. I think there was even more emotion in her take especially when it came to the refrain. Her vocals also seemed to come across as more intimate due to some of that whispery quality.
"SSSS.GRIDMAN" is one of the new anime that my friend and I have been watching this season, and it's apparently so epic that it has to be expressed in full caps. From what my buddy explained and through Wikipedia, this Fall 2018 anime is a combination of the original tokusatsu series from the 1990s and the US adaptation of that series which came out soon after as "Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad" which would explain the quadruple S at the front of the title.
Not being a fan of squabbling and taciturn student anime, I wasn't exactly all that impressed with the first episode, but once Gridman came into the scene and the kids started getting their act together for the sake of humanity, things started looking better.
Remembering the old tokusatsu shows from the 1970s when I was a kid, the opening theme songs were always arranged as a proud battle march with kids' choruses to amplify the fact that the hero was there for the children viewers. Nowadays, I think the only tokusatsu on regular TV has been the long-running "Kamen Rider"（仮面ライダー）franchise, and it seems like the opening themes have taken on more of an uptempo pop/rock kick.
That seems to be the case for the opener for "SSSS.GRIDMAN", "UNION" by the duo OxT. The pair consists of Japanese musician/composer Tom-H@ck and singer-songwriter Masayoshi Oishi（オーイシマサヨシ）. Oishi provided the super-cheerful opening theme for last season's wacky "Back Street Girls ~ Gokudols"（ゴクドルズ）, but this time, he and Tom-H@ck have come together to bring about this song of rock-driven optimism and hope in tribute to the title character and his support alliance of high school kids and unusual super-agents/mecha. This time, it is Oishi behind both words and music.
Now, OxT's 9th single under their current name (previously in 2013 and 2014, the collaboration was known as Tom-H@ck featuring Masayoshi Oishi) won't be released for another couple of days, so it's just the opening credits for now.
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?"
