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.
Another new find for me here in the form of Marica Hiraga（平賀マリカ）, a Tokyo-born jazz singer. According to her website and her J-Wiki page, she graduated from Komazawa University and then trained under the jazz singer Martha Miyake（マーサ三宅）while working in a company. Under Miyake's encouragement, she entered The Amateur Asia Music Festival in 1981 which won her a Gold prize after which Hiraga turned professional.
Interestingly though, her biography and discography make a big leap into the 21st century, and there is no mention of her 1987 album"Kurage"（海月...Jellyfish）under just her first name, Marica. On the Discogs page, "Kurage" is categorized as being "Avant-garde Jazz, Experimental, Leftfield (sic), Post-Punk, Synthpop". Doing this blog has introduced me to a lot of different specialty genres including those in the techno field, but this was the first time I ever heard of Leftfield. In any case, that's quite a mix of genres for one album and I'm now curious what else is on this mystery release. Perhaps the album has been left out on her website since it doesn't really fit into the jazz mold that she represents now.
However, "Angel in the Night", is a smoky evening number that is sung very capably by Marica, and I especially like it when her voice rises up suddenly. It isn't jazz by any means but some very reassuring City Pop for a Friday night.
If I ever have the need to wear a suit again, I will go to the same tailor that Ryohei Yamanashi（山梨鐐平）frequents. Mind you, I think I've got the same sort of tie that he's sporting in the thumbnail.
Anyways, I have a song from his 1982 album"Tweed". I already have one up from that release titled "Taiyo ga Shitteiru"（太陽が知っている）, and whereas that one comes across as a song about the disco high life in Tokyo via Akasaka, "Midnight Motion" is slightly more sedate and silky. It's not the horns from "Taiyo ga Shitteiru" that have sway here this time around, but those strings that stand out. It feels like the action is taking place actually in Paris more than Tokyo, and in a way therefore, I get a bit reminded of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. Truly, it may be midnight but the motion is still going on.🌛
Just the right song to put up right now since we had a major cloudburst about half an hour ago, and it's now gleaming sunshine.
There's virtually nothing that I could find out about singer-songwriter Michihiro Kobayashi（小林みちひろ）outside of the information that I could glean from the Hip Tank Records website. By 1980, he had released three albums including "Nice to Meet You" from that year, and there is this one track on the album, "Giniro no Ame" (Silver Rain).
According to the blurb for the album, "Giniro no Ame" has some elements of a typical Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）melody line, although for me, I get more hints of the music of AOR darlings Ambrosia. But I'm not going to quibble. "Giniro no Ame" is pleasant and relaxing, and as I listen to this for the third time, the afternoon sunshine is looking very nice out there. The cover photo of Kobayashi laying back with his hands behind his neck is an apt one.
Speaking of Ambrosia, why not listen to their wonderful "Biggest Part of Me"? It was also released in 1980.
When it comes to the Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）collection, I've been able to get a couple of her BEST compilations including "History: 1978~1984" but as for her studio albums, it had been her early works ranging from 1976 to 1984. Basically then, I've mostly been acquainted with her New Music/City Pop era in the 1970s and her French-feeling and her technopop material of the early 1980s, that last category through her collaboration with Yellow Magic Orchestra'sRyuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）.
But recently, I bought her October 1987 12th album"A Slice of Life" which now represents the "latest" that I've gotten of her studio releases, although of course, that one other BEST collection has included her much later work such as "Happy-Go-Lucky" from 1997.
The above video by hadji junci provides all of the tracks so I will leave the times as I usually do in these cases. "A Slice of Life" is another fascinating Ohnuki release and the impression that I've been left with so far is that it brings together the past and the present (circa 1987). Furthermore, what is even more interesting is that the tracks hinting at her musical past, though they don't include any of her technopop stuff, do bring back that French-feeling arrangement courtesy of past collaborator Jean Musy and perhaps a "What If?" situation in the form of tracks that sound as if the singer-songwriter hadn't left those 1970s New Music roots and continued that path deep into the next decade. Of course, all tracks were written and composed by Ohnuki.
"Anata ni Nita Hito"（あなたに似た人...Someone Like You）, the first track, is the contemporary-feeling and probably the only out-and-out City Pop song on "A Slice of Life", and it's an immediate winner for me. In fact, it is the reason that I decided to go for the album via Tower Records in the first place. Ohnuki's distinctive vocals are right out in front, surrounded by a melody that comes across as if it had been meant as a theme song for a Tokyo-based detective series. Guitarist Kenji Omura（大村憲司）gives a Santana-esque solo performance which amps up the "cool dude" factor, and he's also the one behind the arrangement.
Speaking of Omura, he's not the only person behind arranging the tracks on this album. "A Slice of Life" also benefits from having a few other chefs in there as well. Keyboardist Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）and saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）, who I mentioned here just a few days ago, along with the aforementioned Musy are also arrangers to ensure that the album reflects a few different shades here and there. Getting back to "Anata ni Nita Hito", Sato and Takeshi Kobayashi（小林武史）are involved on keyboards and YMO'sYukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）is on the drums.
The second track at 4:17 is "Mou Ichido Twist"（もういちどトゥイスト...Twist Again）, once again arranged by Omura. This one really threw me for a loop because I feel that it was Ohnuki's take at an Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）tune in her own inimitable fashion...a 1950s sock-hop done through French impressions. Plus, it finishes up rather abruptly as if the stodgy old high school principal suddenly told all the kids to get off the dance floor.
The AOR"Ningyo to Suifu"（人魚と水夫...The Mermaid and The Sailor）at 7:19 is arranged by Sato and it sure sounds like it. If I were to throw in two words to describe it, they would be "Tropical Bouncy". The listener isn't in downtown Tokyo as in "Anata ni Nita Hito" or a high school gym as in "Mou Ichido Twist", but somewhere on the boardwalk of a particularly fashionable beachside resort in Bubble Era Japan. To throw in another name, EPO is helping out on background vocals as she is on that second track.
At 14:57, Track 5 is "Koibito-tachi no Jikoku"（恋人たちの時刻...Lovers' Time）, arranged by saxophonist Shimizu and indeed he's on the jazz tenor sax solo here. Also, Musy is on the piano and synthesizer and guess what? Not only is Takahashi back on drums but old YMO associate Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）is helping out on bass. "Koibito-tachi no Jikoku" is a lilting ballad that seems to hearken back to Ohnuki's French material from the early 1980s. After a few drinks, you may want to waltz to it! The song was also an Ohnuki single from February 1987 and the theme song for a Kadokawa movie of the same name that year.
One more song that I will leave you with is at 23:05, "Hymns" which was arranged by Musy. It's another beautiful slow classical song that will have you sighing at the flower garden. It's somewhat reminiscent of "Kuro no Clair"（黒のクレール）from her "Cliché" album. Plus, it also has the additional characteristic of her vocal effects that I've often heard her use in other songs and commercials. Fans of her sweeping French balladry shouldn't be disappointed here.
Obviously, there is another half of the album to think about, but I will let you folks sample the other goods yourselves so you can come up with your own impressions. I may do a follow-up someday or simply handle the tracks one-by-one. My knowledge on Ohnuki's career beyond 1984 is very hazy right now, but like her "Romantique", perhaps "A Slice of Life" may have also presaged another new turning point in her music. And just like that 1980 album, it's well worth exploring.
Last month, I wrote about "Party's Over", the title track from 70s aidoru Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）12th album released in September 1979. It was the sad and innocent ballad about a young lady who couldn't get that dance with the guy of her dreams and probably ended up as the last person at the ball when the janitorial staff were already well onto their cleaning duties.
Well, when I was writing about that particular song, I noticed that there was another tune in the recommendations on the right side, and it was simply called "Sentimental Boy". It did turn out to be another Sakurada song which was also included in "Party's Over" the album. The other notable point is that its melody was provided by none other than Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）.
With lyrics by Tadashi Iwasawa*（岩沢律）, "Sentimental Boy" seems to be about a girl's love for that shy quiet type, and where "Party's Over" the song is melancholy, this one is effervescent with an almost Dixieland jazz sort of feeling. The intro even starts rather atypically with a keyboard passage that made me first wonder whether this was going to be a technopop tune, but then this is a Tats creation so I couldn't really imagine the whole song being that way. And as the rest of "Sentimental Boy" goes, the shy guy here probably comes out of his shell while fluttering his pork-pie hat and twirling his cane.
It's an aidoru tune and I think it almost goes into AOR territory but it stays within its borders inside the pop zone. Along with those wonderful horns, I also enjoy that electric guitar solo that sees things off to the end. So, if "Party's Over" gets you a little down, I encourage you to try "Sentimental Boy" for that lift up.
*Not quite sure about my reading of the first name for the lyricist so once again, if you can correct me on this, please do so.
You might say that I grew up with the pastime of bowling. In my early childhood, my father and his buddies used to bowl at the huge Thorncliffe Bowling Alley regularly so I used to watch him get his fair share of spares and strikes.
Being a frequent viewer of "The Flintstones" on CFTO-TV here in Toronto and then WKBW in Buffalo, I was very accustomed to seeing Fred and Barney roll the ball down the lanes.
Another Buffalo, New York affiliate WBEN televised weekly episodes of "Strikes, Spares and Misses", and then there were the Saturday-afternoon shows of "Pro Bowlers Tour" on ABC. You may have wondered if I ended up wearing Polo shirts, slacks and bowling shoes to go for multiple rounds at Thorncliffe.
The answer to that would be "No.". Not that I didn't enjoy the occasional rounds of bowling with friends now and then, but it never became a lifelong hobby for some reason. I think it was because it wasn't all that easy to access a bowling alley from home and none of my friends were all that crazy about the pastime either. And frankly, in the era of video game parlors which only required a small pile of quarters, bowling seemed to appear more and more as a luxury thing.
I would later find out during my studies of Japan in university that the pop culture over there experienced periodic bursts of interest in bowling as well. I guess one of those times was the late 1960s and early 1970s. And yep, during my two different times living in Japan, I did partake in bowling with students and teachers.
To capitalize on the boom of bowling for that turn of the decade from the 1960s into the 1970s, there was a TBS drama called "Utsukushiki Challenger"(Beautiful Challenger) which ran from April to October 1971. It dealt with the story of young Midori, played by Tokyo-born actress Emi Shindo（新藤恵美）, a high school student training in hurdles who somehow finds herself in the world of bowling finding her share of rivalry, competition and romance.
Shindo also sings the theme song "Utsukushiki Challenger", a bright and optimistic pop song punctuated by some sharp horns and an incessant bass thrumming away. There's also a fluttery flute and Shindo's vocals which might be representing the youth and innocence of Midori while those horns and bass may be hinting at the hustle and bustle of life in the big city. Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）was the lyricist here with Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）handling the melody.
Apparently, the song "Utsukushiki Challenger" was a fairly hot commodity since a number of singers recorded their own versions. That would also include Mitsuko Horie（堀江美都子）, who has since become a singer of anison, including "Fly Away ~ Yume no Hikouki"（夢の飛行機）, a tune that has been transformed into a popular example of Future Funk. Horie's cover isn't all that much different from the Shindo original except for an epic French horn helping out.
In any case, all of the bowling establishments that I used to know, including my childhood Thorncliffe Alley have all come down thanks to the wrecking ball instead of the bowling one.
The above video has Cathy Cat of the YouTube channel "Ask Japanese" describing the situation concerning crows in Japan. Now, here in Toronto, if there are any problem avians, perhaps the finger can be pointed at pigeons and their "bombs", but as someone who lived in Japan for many years, it's safe to say that the bird of terror over there is the crow.
Crows are big in Japan (no pun intended) and they do love our garbage. Many was the day that I sauntered downstairs from my apartment in Ichikawa to head to work and I would see a couple of them (about the size of small falcons) attempting to pick at the garbage bags in the trash collection space. They would then glare at me like teenage punks spoiling for a fight (I swore that I saw a tattoo on one gleaming beak) and I would just wave shyly and walk quickly away.
One time in the summer, I was walking on a road heading to the subway station from my apartment and across the street on the fence surrounding one of the elementary schools, there were about five crows roosting at the top, and we made eye contact. Suddenly, I heard "Duel of the Fates" playing in my head. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lightsaber but I was ready to do battle with my umbrella. The Crows of the Sith have been known to suddenly attack.
But almost 80 years before John Williams came up with his most memorable "Star Wars" creation outside of his soundtracks for the original trilogy, lyricist Ujou Noguchi（野口雨情）and composer Nagayo Motoori（本居長世）created a much less dramatic and more calming Japanese children's song about crows titled "Nanatsu no Ko".
First seeing the light of day in the children's magazine "Kin no Fune"（金の船...The Golden Ship）in 1921, I initially translated the title "Nanatsu no Ko" as "Seven Children", although according to the Wikipedia article, it has also been shown as "Seven Baby Crows" or "The Crow's Seven Chicks". In the original J-Wiki article, it was also written that there has been some unresolved mystery on whether the title referred to there actually being seven baby crows or whether the crows were seven years old and were representing children (did anybody think about actually asking Mr. Ujo or was his residence surrounded by crows?). But when I checked this blog on crows, the birds reach sexual maturity at around three or four years of age, and considering that some videos, including the one above, have those seven baby crows in the nest, I would probably go with the former theory.
Also, according to the J-Wiki article, monuments to the song have been erected at sites such as Noguchi's alma mater in Ibaraki Prefecture and also a park devoted to Japanese children's songs in Wakayama Prefecture. One reason that I did put up "Nanatsu no Ko" was that last night, I had written about Saburo Kitajima's（北島三郎）"Kaero ka na"（帰ろかな）, which often incorporated a verse from the song when performed on stage.
So, if any of you reading this are living in Japan and come across a gang of crows, just whistle "Nanatsu no Ko" and be on your merry way. Incidentally, you can also try out another Noguchi song involving another animal "Shojoji no Tanukibayashi"（証城寺の狸囃子）.
