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.
This was another song from the Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）2-CD tribute album that I purchased many months ago, and it was another example that has cemented my view that the legendary composer really liked his R&B.
Wow! Can you dig it? Tsutsumi composed "Roxy no Yoru" (Roxy's Night) for musician-producer Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）as his first debut solo single in August 1977, although it's also known as Haruo Chikada and Haruophone's（近田春夫&ハルヲフォン）4th single due to their work on the B-side, "Yami ni Jackknife"（闇にジャックナイフ...Jackknife in the Darkness）.
"Roxy no Yoru" really struts and shuffles just like a young buck making his cocky way on the rough and ready streets of Tokyo. I really enjoy the funky guitar and bass accompanying Chikada along with those disco strings. I guess nothing says 1970s sunset City Pop more than this one. The only thing that comes anywhere close to destroying the cool image of this song is my observation that Chikada sometimes sounds like Pokey, Gumby's equine buddy. Takemi Shima（島武実）, lyricist and someone who would later become a part of the New Wave band Plastics, took care of the words.
Speaking of New Wave, I've also realized that the City Pop"Roxy no Yoru" is perhaps not the usual Chikada song according to what I've learned from nikala'sarticle on him, "Electric Love Story". Since that very first Chikada article, my impression had been that he was more for the eclectic blips and bleeps of a synthesizer.
I gather that perhaps both the Tokyo and Osaka halls for NHK were occupied with something else this past week to explain the latest episode of "Uta Kon"（うたコン）just involving the two hosts showing off past clips and footage of interviewing frequent guest singers on what their favourite lunch is. It was a combination effort of the music show and the show that appears right after, "Sara Meshi"（サラメシ）which is all about people and their noontime repasts.
(short version)
So, going back to the episode of "Uta Kon" from the previous week, I have to say that I was charmed by Kaori Kozai's（香西かおり）latest single from June this year, "Kuchibeni Moyou" (Lipstick Patterns). The story of a probably middle-aged woman who's going through her history and wondering about the path not traveled with someone who may have become the love of her life, I can't be sure whether this could really be classified as an enka or a Mood Kayo, despite the facts that Kozai is wearing her trademark kimono in the video above and the overall theme is that of regret over a lost romance. Plus, there is that now-familiar enka electric guitar.
I would be more than happy to say then that this is a modern-day pop song in the kayo style. There is something both old and new in the arrangement. Koyomi Asa（麻こよみ）was the lyricist here with "Kuchibeni Moyou" while Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）provided the dramatic yet wistful music.
One of the many topics that my friend and I briefly touched upon during dessert at Amausaan yesterday was Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）...notably what he's been up to recently. We went over his Oscar win along with David Byrne and Cong Siu for "The Last Emperor" soundtrack back in 1987, the fact that his "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" is as much of a perennial Xmas song in Japan as Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Christmas Eve", and of course his work as one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra. I actually checked his website and aside from a supposed update regarding his "Essentials" album, there wasn't any action there. I'm indeed hoping that the throat cancer scare in 2015 has been totally quashed by now.
Although I didn't go blazing into the record stores to ravenously search for his material when I was living in Japan, I think the 1990s were a time when Sakamoto shed at least most of his ties to technopop and veered into a more New Age direction. The two songs that I've remembered him for during that decade were the piano instrumental "energy flow" from 1999 and one that came earlier "The Other Side of Love".
Unlike "energy flow", "The Other Side of Love", which was released in January 1997, did have vocals from Sister M. However, this wasn't a lateral relation of Sakamoto but still someone very close to him. Namely, Sister M was Miu Sakamoto（坂本美雨）, daughter of Ryuichi and singer-songwriter Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）. She's already been covered by nikala through her article "Tetsudoin"(鉄道員)/Child of Snow.
Worthy of introspective silence and relaxed breathing, "The Other Side of Love" was Sister M's debut single, and like the later "energy flow", it was one of those songs and music videos that seemed to have a long-term residency on the TV rankings shows. It's a languid song but it's not something that would be heard passively in a neighbourhood cafe...I think the powerful piano from pere Sakamoto and the clear vocals of Miu, who was only 16 years old when this was recorded, demand something more active from listeners' ears.
"The Other Side of Love" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. It was also used as the theme song for the NTV drama "Stalker -- Nigekirenu Ai"（ストーカー 逃げきれぬ愛...Inescapable Love）.
I couldn't quite believe it when I first heard about this Japanese cafe's existence in Toronto (as of this writing, it's been open for about a year). Not that I didn't think that a Japanese sweets establishment would actually show up in my city (we've been getting a diversity of Japanese restaurants over the past decade: ramen, izakaya, udon, tonkatsu, etc.), but I had never assumed one with that particular name, Amausaan Uji Matcha, existed.
The reason is the anime "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか?）which deals with happy-go-lucky teenagers taking care of their own distinct cafes. The prim and proper young lady with a subversive streak, Chiya Ujimatsu（宇治松千夜）, is the proprietress of Amausaan「甘兎庵」, a cafe specializing in traditional Japanese sweets. If I'm not mistaken, the same kanji is used to describe the one that I went to yesterday afternoon, and with that rabbit logo, I just had to go "Hmmmm...". Getting back to the real Amausaan in Chinatown, apparently, Toronto is the latest in a number of branches in Asia and North America with this particular one being the biggest in floor size.
I had the matcha mille-feuille cake along with the cold hojicha. The cake was good and had both sweet and bitter tastes, and I was surprised that my hojicha was quite sweet...truly like iced tea from down south. It was also nice that it wasn't too busy during our hour there; don't let the interior photo fool you, customers did come in after the photo had been shot.
Since we're on the topic, allow me to throw in "Nantonaku Mirai"（Somehow The Future）, the ending theme for the finale of Season 2 of "Gochuumon". Unfortunately, I could only find the truncated version but it's good enough to give you the idea of how the two seasons and movie have been like in terms of atmosphere: all very positive and gushingly cute. Performed by the main cast in the form of Petits Rabbit's (you can see the cast names in Labels under the article), "Nantonaku Mirai" was the coupling song for "No Poi!"（ノーポイッ!）, the 3rd single by the unit released in November 2015 which peaked at No. 4 on Oricon. Prolific anime lyricist Aki Hata（畑亜貴）was at work here along with Tadashi Tsukida（ツキダタダシ）for the adorable music.
The thing is that when "Nantonaku Mirai" was playing over the ending credits for that second season finale, it just seemed to me and I'm assuming much of the viewing audience that the producers were putting a big period at the end of the "Gochuumon" sentence. However, a movie did come out and an OVA is scheduled for this month followed by a third season sometime next year. The gift indeed keeps on giving.
I don't get a chance to go downtown all that much but I figure that I will probably meet up with a fellow translator for lunch sometime this month and he was pretty eager to try out a new tendon place, Akimitsu, not too far away from Amausaan. The walk between the two establishments will come in handy, although calorie guilt will arise at the end of that day.
A friend and I went out to a Chinatown cafe after lunch today and we got into the topic of some of the Hollywood celebs (some of whom are making their arrival here in Toronto over the next ten days because of the annual film festival) who have ended up doing Japanese commercials. Of course, names like Tommy Lee Jones popped up and I certainly remember seeing Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone saying and doing some weird things all in the name of selling stuff.
I did not know about Edward Furlong, though. The young fellow who caught his break as the young John Connor in "Terminator II" alongside another Japanese CM vet, Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently ended up in a Japanese cup noodle ad soon after finding fame. The interesting thing is that he does look like a half-Japanese high school kid playing soccer.
The other story lies with the song that accompanied the commercial. The voice is instantly recognizable for those fans of 90s J-Pop, singer-songwriter Maki Ohguro（大黒摩季）. "DA・KA・RA" (SO) was her 2nd single released in September 1992, and in a way, I guess this was the "life saver" that got Ohguro to keep on with her solo career.
According to a 2016 interview on Cinra.net with her via J-Wiki, Ohguro had been planning to return to backup chorus work after the not-so-stellar results of her debut single, "Stop Motion" back in May of that same year, and so her recording team was broken up. But then, an old friend in the industry came up to her and asked whether she could come up with some sort of commercial jingle for the cup noodle ad by the next day! Not wanting to let the friend down, Ohguro was able to pull in one assistant and one arranger to help out and doing an all-nighter, "DA・KA・RA", a song about the mystery and demands of love, was the result.
Dang fine result for an overnight brainstorming session, if you ask me. It starts off with an introspective passage that reminds me a lot of the intro for Earth Wind & Fire's "Fantasy" before launching into a short but intense barnstormer of a tune that I think set up the Ohguro template in terms of her melody and vocals.
The Cinderella story concludes here with "DA・KA・RA" hitting a far more superior No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies as her first Top 10 hit and her first commercial tie-in. It even broke the million mark in sales and ended up as the 20th-ranked single for 1992...and remember, it was only released in September of that year. "DA・KA・RA" was also placed on her 2nd album"DA・DA・DA" from April 1993 which also hit No. 2 on the album charts and ended up as the 15th-ranked album for the year.
Probably the only down point for the whole affair, according to that Cinra interview, was that Ohguro didn't exactly pass the news about creating the song to the management company she belonged to at the time, Being, until the commercial started airing. That apparently earned her a solid chewing out from her minders. But in the end, it's the success that counted.
1. Various Soundtrack for "The Greatest Showman"
2. Kenshi Yonezu Bootleg
3. Hikaru Utada Hatsukoi
4. Wanima Everybody!!
5. back number Encore
6. Globe 15 Years - Best Hit Collection -
7. Southern All Stars Umi no Oh Yeah!!
8. Queen Bohemian Rhapsody -- Original Soundtrack
9. Sakanaction Sakanazukan
10. Mr. Children Mr.Children 1992-2002 Thanksgiving 25
Found this one last night by singer-songwriter Kuniko Fukushima（福島邦子）from Okayama Prefecture. As the title above indicates, this song has got some slinky moves.
Titled "Slow Dancer", this was a single by Fukushima released in October 1978. Fukushima came up with the sultry strut through Shinjuku or Roppongi while Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）wrote the lyrics about a disco diva who won't tolerate any surrenders of fatigue from her partners at the midnight hour and is more than willing to strand all of them on the curb (won't even call them a taxi home) while she continues tripping the light fantastic well into the morning. The Lexington Queen may have had its hands full with her in the club.
Fukushima's music comes across as the personification of the Slow Dancer from the bass hips and legs to the strings cattiness/kittenish-ness to the keyboards representing everything else. She's sexy and she knows it. Some cool City Pop striding down the street back in the late 1970s.
