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.
Nope, this particular song isn't from Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）"More Relax" album.
Actually, "Ushirometai Yoru"(Guilty Night) is from Aran's debut album"Shikisai Kankaku"（色彩感覚...Sense of Colour）which came out in July 1982. Not really sure if this is more of a pop song than a City Pop number but I think that there is enough of a bass-heavy groove in there and considering Aran has been so associated with the genre, I think it deserves at least honorary status.
Written by the singer and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, the points that stand out for me is some of that spacy synthesizer floating over the melody, and also the fact that part of it reminds me of Olivia Newton-John's1981 hit song "Physical". Had a friend of mine from high school who was absolutely enamored with Olivia that he brought over the LP and played it over and over again on our family RCA Victor. I like her songs and all, but past the second time, it was starting to get on my nerves. I do have to admit that the video is so 80s!
In any case, any guilty night for me will involve one too many trips to the Pringles canister.
Not too bad a day today. The increase in new cases of COVID-19 has abated a bit today, the weather is pretty glorious out there, and for the first time in several weeks, I was able to track down two mini-cans of Lysol disinfectant spray. Good times!
Also, my Twitter account was followed by a musician named Masa (thank you, by the way...I'm now following you also) based in the United Kingdom (I'm hoping the situation there is slowly improving) who also has a YouTube channel called "Masa -- Blues City Pop". The first video there that was presented to me was a first in a multi-video series on how singer-songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）weaves his magic in songwriting.
The video goes into the intros of some of those Tats hits "Sparkle", "Big Wave", "Magic Ways" and "Daydream". I've learned some interesting points so far such as the facts that "Big Wave" (originally known as "Mahou wo Oshiete") all came about due to a little story concocted through the singer's 1980s radio show for his Sugar Babe buddy Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）, how difficult it is to create groove because of the way the Japanese language is structured, and Yamashita's process in making a song.
One other reason I appreciate Masa starting this project up is that he makes the good point that it's very difficult to find English information on Yamashita's songwriting method. And this blog is no different since I'm neither a musician nor a musicologist...just a music fan, so I'm grateful that there is a musician (and maybe other musicians out there) who's willing to divulge the nitty-gritty on the legend's (magic😁) ways in composition. To be honest, guitar players, such as my anime buddy, will get the most out of the last half of the video but I've always appreciated anybody from cooks to massage therapists who take the time to explain the techniques, so even though I know more about licorice cords than musical chords, the whole of the ten minutes and change were great for me.
So, if you are a Yamashita fan as I am, why not take a gander at this one along with the other videos of him tackling some City Pop favourites?
I've been holding back on the CD purchases for the past several weeks. That's no surprise even under the cloud of COVID-19. My policy is that I don't go on the kayo kyoku-buying binge until much later in the year around The Holidays, and certainly not around tax return season.
However, if I did break my own protocols, I would be getting at least something by actress/singer Ritsuko Kazami（風見律子）. I've already covered a couple of her tracks from her 2nd album"Aventurier" from August 1986, the romantically sweeping Mancini-esque title track and the Ohnuki-quirky "Onna Tomodachi: Reira no Baai"（女友達ーレイラの場合）.
Now with this third entry, I'm actually going to her debut album"Kiss of Fire" which was released in April 1985. Having taking a dip into some of the songs, it seems like Kazami with the help of producer Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）, who also wrote, composed and arranged all of the tracks, was swinging between jazz and City Pop with an underlayer of synthesizers.
Case in point is the first track "Kon'ya mo Tanoshiku" (Tonight's Fun, Too) which has that feeling of the South Seas as Kazami plays the beautiful chanteuse behind the huge mike in a concert hall from yesteryear. It's got that atmosphere of Tin Pan Alley and Kid Creole & The Coconuts along with that mix of Latin, jazz and synthpop, although I think that last genre is a little less dominant until near the end when the cutesy chorus starts singing away with its "Wah". That last part actually reminds me of how Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）"samba de mar" from "Aventure" finishes off.
My impression of "Kiss of Fire" is that it might join Harumi Ohzora's（大空はるみ）"VIVA" and Kazuhiro Nishimatsu's（西松一博）"Bouekifu Monogatari"（貿易風物語）in that jazz cantina on Tatooine as a release celebrating that small mini-genre which brings together the old guard of jazz instruments and the new breed (at that time) of computer-run music makers. I did forget that today is indeed May 4th, aka "Star Wars" day.
Happy Monday! It's been a few decades but I've wondered what it must have been like for my parents and their Japanese friends when they attended that Toronto special concert featuring enka singer Masao Sen（千昌夫）and his then-wife Joan Shepherd. As I've said before, we simply didn't get any of the big kayo singers here in this city unless they had happened to be doing a gig in New York City (it's only a 1-hour flight from The Big Apple to The 6ix) the day before.
But Sen and his wife did show up and in the past, there have even been visits by Hiroshi Itsuki （五木ひろし）and Sachiko Kobayashi（小林幸子）. Of course, the audience dressed up to the nines and maybe even the tens to show up for such geinokai royalty.
(guide vocal version)
The other day on NHK's"Songs of Japanese Spirit", Sen appeared to sing this jaunty and boisterous enka/kayo tune called "Jinsei ni Kanpai"(A Toast to Life). On first listening to it, I'd assumed that it was one of his older hits from, let's say the 1970s, along the lines of his trademark "Kitaguni no Haru"（北国の春）.
As it turns out, though, "Jinsei ni Kanpai" was actually released last August in 2019 as his 52nd single, but it was created by the same duo that came up with "Kitaguni no Haru" all the way back in 1977. Lyricist Haku Ide（いではく）and composer Minoru Endo（遠藤実）were responsible for Sen's encouragement to all to live that life full of vim and vigour while shedding all that nonsense about the aging process. Mind you, Endo passed away in 2008 (though Ide is still alive) so I'm wondering if "Jinsei ni Kanpai" was a song that was just languishing somewhere for years before it got its time at bat.
Methinks that this particular song must be quite the popular tune in the karaoke boxes for the senior set (or will be again once the pandemic ends), and while listening or singing it at home, Ide's lyrics may strike a pleasant chord for folks remaining safely sheltered. I'm sure that once the all-clear is given, all of us will be willing to give a toast to life.
Several years before that hit came out, there was Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）"Party's Over", her 28th single from August 1979, and yep, I wouldn't say that it was even bittersweet although the music tries to keep things light. It's just plain sad as Sakurada sings about a woman who put on her best black dress to get that dance with the guy she had feelings for. But alas, we all know about best-laid plans, don't we? The night's over, the party staff is putting away the empty champagne bottles and the poor lass is still hanging about while everyone's headed home. Sakurada even sounds a bit shaky as she's singing this as if the frustration and drunkenness is being relayed through her own mouth. The only thing worse that could happen is if an annoyed staffer started turning the lights off and on to pester her to get out. But to make her feel better, no one less than a superhero had been in the same boat, but last year, we all found out that everything worked out in the end.
Words and music were provided by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）, and according to the J-Wiki article on "Party's Over", this was her first creation to be released as a single for any singer. The music here is appropriately sad and wistful. Plus, it's also quite innocent and more sophisticated with those strings to hint at the high-class nature of the soiree. Geez, it's too bad about the romance, but I hope the food and drink were worth it.
"Party's Over" peaked at No. 51 and was also the title track on her 12th album from September in the same year. As for songwriter Ito, she's already got a few songs represented on the blog including her contribution to Anri's（杏里）"Cotton Kibun"（コットン気分）. She had debuted in 1972 as one-half of a folk group called Ryu + 1（龍+１）, later to be renamed Ryu to Kaoru（竜とかおる...Ryu and Kaoru）. Following the breakup, she continued her career as a guitarist in backing bands and also for creating commercial jingles.
Some aural orange juice for those who have just woken up on this lazy first Sunday in May. I think the mention of singer-songwriter Hitomi Kuramoto（倉本ひとみ）came from one of the commenters or one of the fellow writers on the blog, but can't quite remember. Still, I'm grateful since when I did my due diligence, I encountered this dynamic pop tune by her.
According to some of the webpages, Kuramoto only released one single and one album, both in 1994. The album is "Water" and on it, I found "Dakara Watashi wa Hitori de Nakanai" (So I'm Not Going to Cry Alone), a propulsively cheerful tune delivered by a voice that could probably handle both rock and pop genres with aplomb. Kuramoto composed the melody while Ryo Koizumi（小泉亮）took care of the lyrics.
Very little is written about Kuramoto although I found out from the profile of guitarist Keizou Numata（沼田恵三）that the two of them were together in a band called HAN-NA in the late 80s going into the 90s.
Not watching a whole lot of anime aside from what I've been re-viewing from the collection of past shows since the pandemic has postponed the Routine with my friend for the foreseeable future. Nice to see those calming slice-of-life shows.
I caught these opening credits for a 1983anime called "Mirai Keisatsu Urashiman"（未来警察ウラシマン...Future Policeman Urashiman）which involves a young amnesiac who finds himself thrown into the future of 2050, joins the police force there and then, and fights the scourge of Necrime. He even takes on the cute punny name of Ryu Urashima (I guess Taro Urashima would have been way too obvious).
The reason that I picked up on this one is because of those opening credits which made me wonder whether the person or people behind all that Vaporwave imagery from about a decade ago had seen them. I mean, imagine having them and the theme song played at one-tenth the speed. Yeah, that would be the ticket for all those Vaporwave enthusiasts.
Speaking of the opening theme, that would be "Midnight Submarine" by singer-songwriter HARRY. Nothing too mysterious here; the song is a very happy-go-lucky number concocted by lyricist Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）as if Urashima were going for a more adventurous lark than a serious search for the truth behind his identity and time travel. "Midnight Submarine" sounds almost downright folksy.
HARRY is actually Noboru Kimura（木村昇）who was born in Hyogo Prefecture. Coming to Tokyo in 1969 as a 17-year-old, he started performing in bands as an alto sax player, but then a decade after his arrival, he started up the rock band TALIZMAN and became the main vocalist, backing up other acts such as Tetsuya Takeda's（武田鉄矢）Kaientai（海援隊）. Kimura took on the moniker HARRY going into the 1980s but soon found that he wasn't too thrilled with the daily grind of performing live, and left the stage in 1983. But wandering around Hokkaido, he met up with an old friend who performed on synthesizer and actually started performing again but has been keeping things to just that without any more recording or songwriting.
