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 don't see former aidoru Marina Watanabe（渡辺満里奈）all that much on TV anymore unfortunately, except for the odd appearance on a panel for some talk show or variety program, but at one point almost 30 years ago, I could see her readily on commercials and especially on the old Tunnels' Thursday night show on Fuji-TV.
Therefore, it's always nice when I can hear her material on YouTube. It seems as if not too long after graduating from the Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）in the late 1980s, she also graduated from her aidoru days, period, and went straight on to pop music.
Certainly when I listen to the adorable yet mature "Shifuukei" (My View) , I don't really hear a teenybopper. The song was a track on her December 1989 album"Two of Us", and although Christmas is not directly named in Arihiro Nakata's（中田有博）lyrics, there are enough hints in there (along with the release date) to illustrate that Marina seems to be finding her way in the city around the Yuletide, thanks to mentions of snow, winter wear, and parties. Plus, I can't help but feel that the light and breezy music by Tomoko Ozawa（大沢明子）seems really suitable for a J-Pop Xmas walk. Incidentally, the song was arranged by Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）. She and Watanabe collaborated on a number of other tunes together, and one can be heard on my article on Yamakawa's various works.
As for "Two of Us", that album peaked at No. 26 on Oricon.
Earlier this year, I discovered singer-songwriter Yumi Murata（村田有美）and her brand of City Pop/R&B on YouTube, so I figured that I would try giving her songs a listen, and I was quite happy with the results. So I wrote about her 1980 "Krishna" which is about as far away from a Buddhist chant that one can get. Wonderful voice, nice cool bass.
Let's jump ahead in her career about 5 years and here is this album by Murata with the standout title of "Uterus, Uterus" released in 1985. Well, the wonderful voice is back as is the nice cool bass. One track from there is "Fushigi Okite" (Strangeness, Wake Up!), and this time, the voice and bass are joined by some good smacks on the snare and the fine feeling of post-disco to create a brief soundtrack for a jaunt downtown on a Saturday night.
Described at the Rare Groove website as a Japanese boogie number, I'm cool with that as well. According to the JASRAC database, "Fushigi Okite" was written by Murata with Masanori Sasaji（笹路正徳）as the composer. Now, if only "Uterus, Uterus" were readily available.
A mere few days ago, I wrote about another similarly-titled tune called "White Xmas" by seiyuu Yui Horie（堀江由衣）under her guise as Miss Monochrome for this year's crop of Yuletide-based Japanese pop tunes.
Well, I can guarantee you here...this "White Christmas" by singer-songwriter Shoko Sawada（沢田聖子）not only has nothing to do with Der Bingle but it's far from a happy-go-lucky number dedicated to December 25th. It's pretty much along the lines of one Japanese trope of the adopted holiday that says that people can be absolutely miserable in romance.
A track on Sawada's 17th album from June 1990, "White Christmas" deals with a couple at home whose love is practically on fumes only as the woman in the relationship tries to get any sort of spark going in their once-happy time together while the guy pretends to be a zombie. It may be a white Christmas but it's nowhere near a merry one. I mean, it sounds very pretty and holy with some pleasant harmonies but this is surely not a Xmas tune for the happy couples. It seems more for the disgruntled single person sucking up Cup O' Noodles on the 25th.
Although I never caught the original "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" in its first run on CBS and NBC since the very last episode of this decade-long show ended a few months before my birth, I've seen the odd monochrome episode now and then about some sort of mystery or thriller hanging about. I certainly do remember ol' Alfred popping up at the beginning and the end with his macabre sense of humour.
Plus, there's the famous theme song for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" which I found out was Charles Gounod's"Funeral March of a Marionette" originally orchestrated in 1879. To be frank, I actually heard it for the first time on an episode of "Sesame Street" when it was used to introduce a cute little turtle...not that I would ever compare one of the masters of cinema to a reptile. This is the version that was closest to what I had first heard and it was only later that I heard about it being used as the theme song for the mystery show, and it's the version that I actually prefer over the one created for Alfred.
Now the reason that I bring up that famous mystery anthology series is that it was also the inspiration for a similarly themed show in Japan on Fuji-TV about 30 years ago from 1990. "Yo ni mo Kimyo na Monogatari"（世にも奇妙な物語...Tales of the Unusual） was something that I had once assumed was more along the lines of Rod Serling's classic "Twilight Zone", but I would find out that "Yo ni mo Kimyo na Monogatari" wasn't filled with too much science-fiction and tended toward the mysteries that the Japanese have always loved.
Hosted by veteran entertainer Tamori（タモリ）, who seems to have pretty much emceed just about every genre of show known to Japanese TV viewers in the last 30+ years, "Yo ni mo Kimyo na Monogatari" also has a well-known theme song. But unlike "Funeral March of a Marionette", this song was a contemporary piece made specifically created for the show called "Garamon Song" by Saitama-born songwriter and arranger, Kuniaki Haishima（蓜島邦明）, who has made music for a number of other shows in other fields such as anime and commercials.
Compared to the whimsical "Funeral March", "Garamon Song" definitely has more of a spookier edge as if it needs to be listened to while the room is dark and silent. Plus, that main melody takes listeners on quite the roller-coaster ride before it gradually settles down into...something with a haunting chorus behind your back before the ride picks up again. As I listen to it, I usually imagine some heinous goings-on in a huge mansion somewhere...kinda Gothic.
"Garamon Song" is a tune that I would connect with "Yo ni mo Kimyo na Monogatari" but not particularly with Tamori himself. The man has hosted so many programs since the 1980s that I don't think any theme song would really stick with him in the way that "Funeral March" has with Hitchcock.
Man, when I saw that this particular song didn't even chart on Oricon, I just reacted "What an absolute pity!"
Now, Yuiko Tsubokura's（坪倉唯子）2nd single"Nettaiya"(Tropical Night) also known as "Dancin' in the Middle of Night", which was released in June 1986, was also a track on her debut album"Always in Love" (also released on the same day). There is also that song on there that will forever be my definitive Yuiko number.
However, "Dancin' in the Middle of Night" is also a great number which can happily fit into City Pop, but it has those dynamic West Coast dance-pop beats of the time. The arrangement by Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）is such that this could be something in the background of a soundtrack for a movie starring Arnie or Sly. And it isn't just the pedigree of Toriyama. The lyrics were written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and the music was by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）...some pretty big wigs here. But everything is cemented together with Tsubokura's amazing voice....include her and the song at your next City Pop dance party!
On hearing that Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）has released her first album, "Neuf Neuf"(No. 22) in over 20 years today, I think it was time to put up another article for Miporin.
Never read the manga or even saw the 1985 live-action movie, but I do know about "Be-Bop Highschool"（ビー・バップ・ハイスクール）which involved young toughs at a high school with pompadours stiffer than their backbones. I think the boys were more than happy getting into brawls, but then one day, a young girl arrived and made them an offer they couldn't refuse...guess who played the girl?
Yup, and the theme song for the movie was also performed by Miporin with the logical title of "BE-BOP-HIGHSCHOOL". What caught me as being a little different about her 3rd single from December 1985 is that the song doesn't sound anything like a rough-n'-tumble rock tune with wailing guitars and screaming vocals (not that I would ever think that Nakayama would ever growl out a lyric at that time or really at any time). Nope, instead, "BE-BOP-HIGHSCHOOL" is a an adorable aidoru number that would be along the same lines of an early Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）tune, and it's even got what sounds like a country-n'-western steel guitar in there for some added interest.
Such is the genius of lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）with arrangement by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. "BE-BOP-HIGHSCHOOL" made it all the way up to No. 4 on Oricon and became the 54th-ranked single for 1986, so it had quite the long run on the charts. Considering how her character probably had the toughest of those punks wrapped around her pinkie, I wouldn't be surprised if she could have had them dancing backup behind her.
Leave it to Julie! In the 1980s, it seems that every song that I've heard by singer and bon vivant Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）has been quirky and catchy.
The same goes for this track from "Julie Song Calendar", Sawada's 19th original album released in March 1983. "Menuki Douri no Roku-gatsu" (A Fashionable Street in June) starts off with a riff which sounds like "Yankee Doodle Dandy" on acid before realizing that this is a high-energy Italian tune of intrigue created by Julie passed through a New Wave filter.
Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）came up with the lyrics about the good life on a boulevard in an Italian metropolis, and the images reminded me of these Italian comedy-drama movies that always showed up on the local multicultural channel here in Toronto every Saturday night around midnight. Same level of energy, too.
"Julie Song Calendar" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and until 1991, it had only been available as an audiotape release, making it rather difficult to purchase. But luckily since then, it's been sold on CD.
