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.
Ahhh...to be young, footloose and fancy-free in early 1960s Japan as the nation was coming out from the shadow of the early postwar years. Not quite certain who the really popular actresses in Hollywood were at around the same time: were they Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn? I think I may have a slightly stronger handle when it comes to the Japanese equivalent...Sayuri Yoshinaga（吉永小百合）.
Of course, Yoshinaga has been represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for a long while. One of the first songs that I put up on the blog in that first year of existence was "Itsudemo Yume wo"（いつでも夢を）, her 1962 duet with Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）that has become a kayo classic and a song that I heard early in my life.
Well, the B-side of that single was "Asu no Hanayome"(Tomorrow's Bride), this time only performed by Yoshinaga. Written and composed by the same duo behind "Itsudemo Yume wo", lyricist Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composer Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, this was the theme song for a 1962 Yoshinaga movie of the same name regarding a young woman born and raised on Shodo Island (just off of Kagawa Prefecture) but starting a new life as a student at a university in Kobe on the mainland. Of course, from what I've seen in the above video, she encounters all sorts of ups and downs including those of the romantic variety, everything to sate a Sayurist.
Not surprisingly, "Asu no Hanayome" has a similar sound to the much more famous "Itsudemo Yume wo" but it comes across as a sleepier and more contented ballad.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend out there. My province of Ontario is gradually re-opening for business as it appears that our Premier is aiming for a regionalized approach. For instance, it's possible that the eastern part will go into Stage II earlier since the infection rates are nowhere near as high as they are in Toronto. Overall, although the rate of daily new cases is still pretty high in the 300s, we're being reassured that we are past the peak for at least the first wave.
Anyways, getting past my COVID-19 report, one of my friends has been making good use of his Stay Home time. Before the pandemic walloped us, he was working as a librarian but he and his family have obviously been taking advantage of their love for cooking by posting up some of their creations on Facebook. I neither have my friend's level of enthusiasm nor his obvious talent but I'm still taking care of the roast chicken and steak within my family's schedule of dinner.
However, recently I've subscribed to food researcher Koh Kentetsu's YouTube channel. Koh is a fellow who I've seen on NHK with his own show about traveling around Asia in search of the region's local specialties. When I went to his channel, I discovered the above video for making crispy chicken steak with Japanese-style onion sauce and saw it as scrumptious enough that I decided to make it for the family last night.
It didn't come out too badly but I have two observations: ① Chicken over here is usually sold bone-in while in Japan, it's boneless and ② Gas heats hotter than electricity at any particular setting. The sauce isn't bad but I think it's frankly a tad too sweet for my taste especially when onions can generate their own sweetness when fried. I do enjoy the crispy skin on chicken so when I make this next time, I'll go for something more savory in the sauce or simply pour shoyu on the finished dish.
All of the above preamble for my culinary prowess (or lack of it) is due to the foodie article that I wrote under Author's Picks the other day, and the fact that commenter Matthew Cole was kind enough to inform me of another food-based J-Pop song by Asako Toki（土岐麻子）.
"Fried Noodles" is a dish...a quirky song created by Toki and DJ/singer-songwriter G. Rina for the former's 2017 album"Pink", and it's an 80s-ish technopop tune with some funky bass thrown in for good measure. Not sure at all, but it seems as if Toki may have been providing her own foodie report through music about a recent trip to a nation in Southeast Asia. Shrimp and mushrooms are apparently her toppings of choice; that's good for me, too, but I would also include water chestnuts and cha siu pork.
Recently, I've been curious about life in Singapore, and of course, that includes the cuisine there. One day, I will have to visit and visit the hawker centres.
Nope, not exactly a view from a veranda but it was actually a shot that I took from the pier in Mexico during the family cruise back in 2017. Kinda hard to imagine people taking cruises nowadays but perhaps when the pandemic is all over...🙏
Yet another lovely song that I found on "Light Mellow ~ Moment" recently, this is "Veranda no Carib" (Veranda Over The Caribbean) by musician/songwriter Naoki Watanabe（渡辺直樹）. He got to finally sing the number through his first of four original albums "She" released in 1987.
Watanabe armed with his bass has been with a number of his bands in his career which is now approaching 50 years. He and Ichiro Nitta（新田一郎）started up the brass funk band Spectrum (officially, Watanabe is known as Spectre No. 4), and then he later joined up with other City Pop giants such as Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）on AB's. In fact, fellow AB's bandmate Yoshihiko Ando（安藤芳彦）provided the lyrics to "Veranda no Carib" to the Watanabe-penned song.
I have to say that Watanabe has got a pretty resonant mid-level voice as he sings "Veranda no Carib" and Ando's lyrics indeed take his partner out onto a cruise liner in the Caribbean. Not surprisingly, the 5-minute song has that same effect as a relaxing nap on the outer deck of the Harmony of the Seas while docked by Puerto Vallarta for the day.
Ah, final thing: I was just reminded that Watanabe's sister is singer Shoko Minami（南翔子）who is also represented on KKP via "Nakimane"（泣きまね）.
I listened to this song some hours earlier in the afternoon and then again just now following dinner, and I have an interesting thought about it. Perhaps it was the chicken steak in Japanese-style onion sauce that did it.
Yasuhiro Kido's（木戸やすひろ）"Love Magic" is one interesting mix. A track from his lone 1978 album"Kid", it was composed by him and given lyrics by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）, and it's one of those songs that has some different genre flavours. For instance, it starts off with a bit of contemporary jazz before Kido goes into his singing while I hear some City Pop here and then even some 70s art pop there, courtesy of Queen and Electric Light Orchestra. Plus, Kido's delivery and the overall arrangement reminded me of some of the work of Shinji Harada（原田真二）.
There was mention of the word wine in "Love Magic", and I think perhaps if I were to make an analogy here, there is that feeling of all sorts of flavour notes in this aural glass of vintage red. As for that interesting thought I spoke of in the first paragraph, I kinda figure that if the band Kirinji（キリンジ）in their current form had been around in the 1970s, "Love Magic" is the sort of tune that they would have distilled. I ought to make that chicken steak more often.
As I've mentioned in the past, singer-songwriter Asami Kado（門あさ美）was seen to be one of the representatives of a certain type of especially refined pop known as fashion music, the name that was put onto her by the media. It's the sort of music where you expect any music video for that singer to have her lying on a chaise longue quietly asking "My grape please...".
Well, the lead track on Kado's 1979 debut album "Fascination", which has both the title track and "Blue", is "Morning Kiss", written and composed by her. I wouldn't say that it was fashion music this time around since on hearing this one, I can't really imagine the singer lying down; in fact, I would say that she was fairly skipping about town with a parasol over her head. As well, I really couldn't dub this one as either a City Pop or an AOR tune (seems a little energetic for the latter genre), so I will go with New Music and regular pop.
For such a bouncy (hm...maybe I shouldn't be using that particular word😊 considering the circumstances here) song, Kado's lyrics describe a young lady simply enjoying waking up next to her bedmate in the early hours. Living life well, I see.
Over the decades, there have been some singers who have been seen as one-hit wonders such as Saburo Tokito（時任三郎）for the comic vitamin-drink hit, "Yuuki no Shirushi"（勇気のしるし）and Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）for "Fall in Love". However, even if that particular song has been the only thing that has gained them fame and fortune, their die-hard fans (and that includes me for both Tokito and Kobayashi) know that that they've continued to provide some fine music for years.
That can also apply to singer Tomoko Kuwae（桑江知子）. Whenever she has appeared on TV, it is to almost always sing "Watashi no Heart wa Stop Motion"（私のハートはストップモーション）, her only hit and first single in 1979. It's a light and breezy kayo that can open up all of those nostalgia pores like heat in a sauna. Of course, that song has already been given its due here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and some years after that, I was able to cover a 1990 song by her called "Tasogare wo Wine ni Somete"（黄昏をワインに染めて）which is an example of those lush ballads that I often heard at that time last century.
Song No. 3 in the Kuwae file is "WHOSE WHO", a song whose title could potentially strike terror in grammar teachers😏, but still has me in its thrall as a nice funky City Pop number. Originally released as a track on her 1983 album, "Tomoko 1 I Can't Wait", I was able to first hear it as a part of "Light Mellow ~ Moment" recently. Lyrics are by Arisu Sato（佐藤ありす）as Kuwae sings about a woman realizing that a complicated love triangle is on the verge of forming, and the funk is provided by singer-songwriter Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志）. Incidentally, I love that particular synth that comes in between Kuwae's vocals; I've heard it before in other City Pop songs, probably Junko Yagami's（八神純子）contributions, and I will dub that particular sound Cool Steel.😎
Kuwae has that appealing vocal quality which balances between light and rich, so I'm a tad surprised that she wasn't able to garner any more big hits on the scale of "Watashi no Heart wa Stop Motion". But as I said before, her supporters know what's what and who's who.
I think that this is more on the AOR or Resort Pop side of things (by way of Hakone or Shonan) than straight City Pop, but I refuse to split hairs here. Seishiro Kusunose's（楠瀬誠志郎）"Boukensha-tachi"(The Adventurers) is definitely one song to chase the blues away while bombing down the highway.
His 3rd single and also the title track from his 2nd album both released on the same day in April 1987, "Boukensha-tachi" begins gloriously with that guitar and no one should be blamed if they think that Kusunose was channeling some of that inner Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）through the song. In fact, according to his J-Wiki file, the singer-songwriter focused on those wonderful harmonies of Tats for a lot of his early songs, and he had even worked as part of the background chorus for the City Pop legend himself.
Indeed, Kusunose was behind the music with Akira Inoue（井上鑑）handling the arrangement. The lyrics were by Shigeru Okawa（大川茂）, one-third of the vocal group Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）.
