J-Canuck's Around The World in (about) 32 Minutes

Going to be dating myself yet again but my favourite version of the theme song from the motion picture "Around The World in 80 Days" is Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops' enthusiastic take on the Victor Young original. It's epic, sweeping, romantic and has that nice flavouring of Latin spice. I first heard it on that collection of standard LPs that we got when my parents purchased the humongous RCA stereo player, and through multiple listenings of The Pops' version, it's basically imprinted itself as the version for me.

A few nights ago, I listened to Rocket Brown's latest mixtape of City Pop favourites. This time, his theme was New York so he had folks such as Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Casiopea and Hi-Fi Set to entertain me before bedtime. The next day, I thought about making my latest Author's Picks article and basing it not just on songs about The Big Apple, but on a variety of kayo having to do with those far-flung places outside of Japan. There have been plenty of them, y'know.

On that note, then...let's take a flight.

1. Masaaki Hirao & Yoko Hatanaka -- Canada kara no Tegami (1978)

Well, I just had to start from my nation, eh? Still don't know what had composer and singer Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）decide that The Great White North would make for the ideal setting for a hit kayo, but hey, if it helped inbound tourism to places like Banff and Toronto, all the better. It certainly worked out for the duo of Hirao and Hatanaka.

2. Junko Yagami -- Purpletown ~ You Oughta Know By Now (1980)

Let's take that one-hour flight from Pearson International in my hometown over to Manhattan, and we've come to "Purpletown", a love letter of sorts to The Big Apple (although I never found out why the colour purple was significant for New York City) Indeed, it was the JAL campaign song for tours to ol' Gotham, and just from all that fun funk by Yagami（八神純子）, Foster, Kennedy and Conrad, I can only hope that a lot of Japanese tourists were happily lured over the Pacific.

3. Judy Ongg -- Miserarete (1979)

Well, it was done to me decades ago, but whenever I hear about the Aegean Sea, in a downright Pavlovian fashion, I will always remember Judy Ongg's（ジュディ・オング） most famous hit "Miserarete"（魅せられて）. It stands as one of the most famous examples of that exotic kayo involving adventures in those far-flung places that was the trend back in the late 1970s. Perhaps it helped draw Japanese tourists to Greece. Perhaps it also helped in sales of billowing white dresses.

4. Mayo Shouno -- Tonde Istanbul (1978)

A relatively short hop from Greece to another representative exotic kayo, Mayo Shouno's（庄野真代）"Tonde Istanbul"（飛んでイスタンブール）. I'm not sure whether the melody by the prolific Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）actually reflected Turkish music but it certainly sounded adventurous enough. One piece of trivia from the J-Wiki article for the song that I hadn't included in the original article was that Tsutsumi had actually created "Tonde Istanbul" for 70s aidoru Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）but later realized that a female vocalist would do better justice with his work.

5. Makoto Matsushita -- One Hot Love (1981)

As I hinted in the original article for the album "First Light" by Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, the first time that I heard "One Hot Love", I didn't think of downtown Tokyo but downtown Los Angeles. There was something so Airplay, Doobie Brothers and a ton of other AOR artists imbued into this classic that the ghost of my old SONY radio almost materialized in front of my eyes. It didn't help that the original cover for the album is composed of a glorious photo of LA (at least, I think it's LA). How West Coast sound is that?

6. Hiromi Go -- Aishuu no Casablanca (1982)

Honestly speaking, I never think of Rick and Ilsa when I listen to "Aishuu no Casablanca"（哀愁のカサブランカ）, but there's that feeling of traveling far afield to places surrounding the Mediterranean and enjoying a truly luxurious night. I'm just surprised that one of Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）trademark hits was never used to sell something like an airplane tour, a car or a cologne. The video above has a newly arranged version of the song.

7. Yumi Matsutoya -- Hong Kong Night Sight (1981)

We're finally jumping over to Asia and visiting Hong Kong, a place that I thoroughly enjoyed for a few days with my students over a decade ago. Yuming's cover of her husband's original tune seems to encapsulate a first-timer's visit to the famed area with all of the starry-eyed observations of places like Kowloon and Central. I thought that this was more "Blade Runner" than any place in Japan. I hope that Hong Kong will recover from not only COVID-19 but also the political turmoil that it had been wracked with even earlier.

8. Taeko Ohnuki -- Tsumuji Kaze (1982)

Our final destination is somewhere in France, perhaps The City of Light itself. The reason being the final song is Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）"Tsumuji Kaze"（つむじ風）, a track from her 1982 album "Cliché". Aside from that synthpop intro, everything else about it just has that fragrance of Maurice Chevalier's and Charles Boyer's Paris. Croissants and café au lait come to mind here.

When deplaning, make sure you haven't left any of your belongings. Just follow the signs over to Immigration and Customs. Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, we will all be able to hear the first two sentences again for real.

Tatsuro Yamashita -- Tsuite Oide（ついておいで）

Well, seeing that yesterday's tutorial by Masa on the techniques of Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）was the 99th article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" concerning the City Pop king, I kinda went "What the heck?" and have decided to go for No. 100 today. Go ahead.

"Go Ahead" indeed, as I quote Tats' December 1978 3rd studio album. As it turns out, the last song on Side A of the original LP has ended up as the first track on Rocket Brown's first YouTube mixtape on his Come Along Radio channel (unfortunately the video has been taken down but it's been replaced).

(cover version)

"Tsuite Oide" (Follow Me Along) is another magical collaboration between Yamashita and lyricist Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）. The first minute or so is a slow and smoky intro into what becomes a tempting melodic and lyrical invitation to get out of the blues and join ol' Tats on a magical carpet City Pop ride surrounded by the usual happy-happy-joy-joy beats and claps. But of course, with Yoshida's cooperation on the lyrics, the package has the added goodness of her vocals in the background. Finally at the end, there is a sweet solo by Nagoya-born jazz trombonist Shigeharu Mukai（向井滋春）.

Maybe one of you folks who's better at understanding music theory can help me here. According to the J-Wiki information on "Go Ahead", Yamashita created "Tsuite Oide" because he had wanted to get into some of that 16-beat world that was apparently popular in American pop music at the time. I wouldn't know the difference between a 16-beat tune and two beaten eggs for Sunday breakfast. I just know that the song is Tatsuro-excellent. One other thing that I don't quite understand is how "Go Ahead" only managed to rise to No. 75 on Oricon.

Tomoko Aran -- Ushirometai Yoru（うしろめたい夜）

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's 1981 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.

Masa -- Blues City Pop: City Pop Songwriting Tutorial/Composition Tips 1 Tatsuro Yamashita

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?

Should be good until early summer, I guess.

Ritsuko Kazami -- Kon'ya mo Tanoshiku（今宵も楽しく）

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.

Masao Sen -- Jinsei ni Kanpai（人生に乾杯）

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.

Junko Sakurada -- Party's Over（パーティー・イズ・オーバー）

As Elton John once sang "Sad songs say so much".

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.