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.
Looks like Akira Terao（寺尾聡）wasn't the only cool actor on a cop show to try his hand at the City Pop genre. A fellow thespian Jun Miyauchi（宮内淳）was on the famous "Taiyo ni Hoero!"（太陽にほえろ！）for about 4 years (1975-1979) as Detective "Bon" Taguchi before his character joined a long list of other detectives to die in the line of duty. Taguchi's departure from this mortal coil can be seen above.
But hey, he's OK. He apparently even had his own jeep (not sure if that was a goodbye present after leaving "Taiyo ni Hoero!") according to the cover of his own single "Tasogare ni Ai wo Mikakete"（たそがれに愛をみかけて...Look for Love in the Twilight）. Not sure when exactly that single came out since it hasn't been listed among the four singles that are given for his discography on J-Wiki, but that particular song and the B-side "Blue na Kimochi de"（ブルーな気持ちで...In a Blue Mood） are tracks on Miyauchi's 2nd album"Kimi ni Tadoritsuku Tame ni" (To Reach You) from 1981.
So, I've decided to cover a few of those songs from the album. First off, "Tasogare ni Ai wo Mikakete" is the first track, and it's a jaunty City Pop number for which I can easily see Miyauchi having a fine evening drive on the highways and byways via that jeep of his. He's got a pretty decent voice, all told, and that bass line and the Fender Rhodes keep things humming. Rui（るい）took care of the lyrics while Yasushi Nakamura（中村泰士）provided the melody according to the JASRAC database.
That B-side,"Blue na Kimochi de", starts off with a crashing guitar and then smooths itself out into a mellow downtown duet at some bar. It's been described as a 16-beat kayo AOR number according to a few sites such as Disk Union, but I think City Pop can also be a good category. As for the woman singing beside Miyauchi, unfortunately I couldn't find out who it was but she sounds somewhat like Rajie. Daiko Nagato（長門大幸）was the composer here while Daimon Nazuki（奈月大門）was the lyricist although I've come across a Twitter feed which intimates that Nagato and Nazuki are one and the same person.
One more that I will cover here is "Heartbreak Highway" with a slight reggae beat. This also strikes me as another pleasant strut on the streets of Shinjuku despite the title. Perhaps the ghost of Bon is having a good time to this one. Singer-songwriter Masa Takagi（高木麻早）provided the lyrics with Hachiro Ito（伊藤八郎）composed the music.
Not sure if "Kimi ni Tadoritsuku Tame ni" is quite on the level of Terao's"Reflections", but from what I've heard so far, I wouldn't mind having the album on the shelves somewhere, provided that it still exists at Tower Records.
September 6 2020: Unfortunately, it was reported at "Sponichi Annex" through Mixi and J-Wiki today that Miyauchi had passed away on August 14 2020 at the age of 70.
It's been announced today that for the first time in a few months, the number of new infections in Ontario has gone down below 200 (knocking on wood). That welcome news along with the fact that the number of people getting together at any one spot can now go from 5 to 10 has most likely buoyed spirits considerably in Toronto, although unlike the rest of the province, we here in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area will have to wait at least another week before we can join the rest in Stage 2, so no restaurants for dine-in and no haircuts for the time being. A second wave may be in wait like a pack of hyenas but for now, we can all bask in some relief and glory.
Would like to show off the perfect song for that feeling. It's the optimal bench-sitting sort of number called "Romance Kouro" (The Romance Run) by the band Sentimental City Romance（センチメンタル・シティ・ロマンス）from their 1976 album"Holiday". "Romance Kouro" certainly is far away from any enka or aidoru tune, and that's not to slag this song or either of the genres that I've just mentioned; it's simply to illustrate that I think it's a fine and relaxing New Music song which can perhaps also be placed into the centre of that Venn diagram for New Music, City Pop, AOR, and J-Rock. Along with those calming elements at the beginning and ending (helped by the soothing delivery of the lyrics), there is also a middle part that seems to consist of a jam session among the band members. It sounds all-so-nostalgically 1970s.
I guess in a way, "Romance Kouro" pretty much sums up the three words in the band's name. Nothing better for a summertime walk on a weekend. Hope yours is a good one!
Well, the title of this happens to be French so I tried to look for something appropriate for the usual thumbnail. Best I could do was this photo of one of my favourite chains, Vie de France. I always liked the very buttery pastries there although I'm sure that my doctor wouldn't. The branch above is in the Akihabara plaza across from the AKB48 Café and the Gundam Café. I only learned a couple of nights ago from the YouTube channel, Active Otaku Channel, through his most recent video that both places have shut down, the former one permanently as of last year. Apparently the adjacent JR AkihabaraStation is still planning for some more renovations so AKB48 Café just had to go (with some hopes that it may return in another location), but according to Active Otaku Channel, the jury is still out for the Gundam Café.
Back to the song at hand, though. When I first heard Tazumi Toyoshima's（豊島たづみ）"Belle Epoque", the first track from her 4th album "Shukujo no Tashinami"（淑女のたしなみ...The Tastes of a Lady）released in June 1980, I had gotten that initial sensation in my brain that there was something Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）in there, but actually it was the prime songwriting combination of lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）.
"Belle Epoque" is cool and sultry, possibly like the lady mentioned in the title for the whole album, and my compliments go out to the guitarist which starts things off as well as the other musicians who have helped to create this soundscape of life in the megalopolis of Tokyo at the turn of the decade. I've read comments underneath various YouTube videos of City Pop songs over the years and they've related how much the writers would have loved to have been walking the streets back then. "Belle Epoque" is one tune that would definitely elicit such dreams.
Argh! How the heck do you respond to that?!😖 Uh...thank you? My condolences? Did he get to run around the bases?
But that is indeed the translation of the title for Toi et Moi's（トワ・エ・モワ）5th single from July 1970, "Hatsukoi no Hito ni Niteiru". There's no major existential consternation here though, folks. It's just some very simple innocent love as a young lady realizes that a man that she's met looks just like the fellow that she'd fallen for years earlier.
Well, maybe I was being a little too optimistic about my earlier reassurance in the previous paragraph. There is some existential consternation to grapple with according to the lyrics as the lady wonders whether she should even admit this observation to him, and of course, whether she's falling in love again although this is a completely different lad. Ahhh...the trials and tribulations of l'amour.💝
Written by Osamu Kitayama（北山修）and composed by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）of The Folk Crusaders, "Hatsukoi no Hito ni Niteiru" is a comfortable ballad that has a bit of country-western infused into its folk, and I do love that sharp trumpet that starts the ball rolling. On Oricon, it made it all the way up to No. 30, but a few months later, Emiko Shiratori（白鳥英美子）and Sumio Akutagawa（芥川澄夫）would do even better with their next single, "Dare mo Inai Umi"（誰もいない海）, the very first song by them that I put onto the blog all the way back in 2012.
Some sad news from the world of Japanese music in that composer/arranger Katsuhisa Hattori passed away today at the age of 83. His name is one that has been familiar to me through television since he not only provided theme songs for a number of shows of different genres but he sometimes appeared on them as well. Hattori also belongs to a large family of music makers including his father, composer/arranger Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）, his son, composer/arranger Takayuki Hattori（服部隆之）, and granddaughter, violinist Mone Hattori（服部百音）.
One thing that I hadn't known not being a gamer was that Katsuhisa and Ryoichi co-arranged the first music CD for the composer Nobuo Uematsu（植松伸夫）for "Final Fantasy" in 1989. In terms of Katsuhisa's touchstones for me, I remember him for contributing his services for Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）when the latter released his Xmas album in 1993.
In a way, Hattori was a regular presence in terms of his music since I had been a regular viewer of Fuji-TV's long-running music show "Music Fair". He was the original arranger of the classy theme song created by Kougo Hotomi（保富康午）and Naozumi Yamamoto（山本直純）.
Moreover, he was also behind the exciting and sweeping opening theme for TBS' "The Best 10". Hattori provided a lot of theme songs for other television shows such as this detective show called "Kyodai Keiji"（兄弟刑事）for which I've already provided an article.
Hattori also provided a number of themes for anime such as "Tom Sawyer no Bouken"（トム・ソーヤーの冒険...The Adventures of Tom Sawyer）. The opening theme for this 1980 series was "Dare yori mo Tooku e"（誰よりも遠くへ...Farther Than Anyone） as sung by Maron Kusaka（日下まろん）with lyrics by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）.
His list of kayo that he composed for specific singers is quite short, though. One example is Tessei Miyoshi's（三好鉄生）"Sugoi Otoko no Uta"（すごい男の唄）, and there is this one for enka singer Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）, the sunny "Hanataba ~ Bouquet"（花束）released in 1990 for which the late Yu Aku（阿久悠）provided the lyrics.
Organizations and events also benefited from Hattori's work. To celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Keikyu railway corporation, he composed a song titled "Ningen ga Suki Dakara"（人間が好きだから...Because We Love Humanity）which was written by Kyoko Tanaka（田中京子）and Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）with the vocal group Circus（サーカス）performing it. Since, according to the Wikipedia article on the company, Keikyu goes all the way back to 1898, I'm assuming that the song was created around 2018.
Although Hattori didn't provide many direct compositions for singers, he did arrange a lot of them that had been created by other songwriters. One that has already been talked about on the blog is his more regal version of the classic "Sotsugyo Shashin"（卒業写真）as performed by Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）in 1975 with Yumi Arai（荒井由実）as the original lyricist and composer. He also handled strings arrangements for many other artists such as the aforementioned Tatsuro Yamashita, Masashi Sada（さだまさし）and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）.
The one big surprise that I've had in Katsuhisa Hattori's file thus far was in his 1985"Juicy and Crispy" album for his long-running "Ongaku Batake"（音楽畑）series. The second track is "Secrets", one lovely AOR piece that was written by Linda Hennrick; I'd never imagined that Hattori would come up with something in the light and mellow genre but out of all the songs featured in his long discography, "Secrets" has been the one tune by him that I would make a beeline for if I were having a bad day.
Discovered another couple of great tunes from Side B of "Juicy and Crispy". At about 21:00 is "Japonica" which seems to be Hattori's attempt at T-Square sports-loving goodness, and then at about 26:40 is "Costa Del Sol", a wonderful tropical cocktail of fusion. Really would love to get my hands on this album although my first attempt at it a few years ago sadly ended in failure.
From video games to classical music, Hattori has left a lot of fans with a wide variety of music that we will probably need years to discover and re-discover. He took up the baton for songwriting passed on by his father and now he has given it over to his son and potentially future generations.
Discovered this one some time ago, and I find it to be a really relaxing and polished pop tune which was actually treated as an aidoru song for Mariko Shiga（志賀真理子）. Her first official single"Freesia no Shonen"(Freesia Boy) came out in February 1986, and for those (like me initially) who don't know what a freesia is, you can take a look through the Wikipedia link.
It starts off oh-so-aidoru-innocently but then Shiga comes in with the rest of the beautiful melody, and here I am thinking that this is a cut above the usual aidoru tune. Shiga herself does come across with that aidoru voice but there's nothing cutely off-tune; she actually sounds quite refined, and she's surrounded by lovely music provided by Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）. As soon as I saw Etsu's name in the credits, I figured that the singer and her listeners would be in good hands and ears. Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）was the lyricist.
"Freesia no Shonen" was the ending theme for the 1986 anime"Mahou no Aidoru Pastel Yumi"（魔法のアイドルパステルユーミ...Pastel Yumi, The Magic Idol）for which Shiga played the main character of Yumi Hanazono. She also provided the opening theme song "Kin no Ribbon de Rock Shite"（金のリボンでRockして...Rock with A Golden Ribbon）. In total, she released four singles and a previous single in April 1985 under the Victor label which wasn't considered official for some reason. There was also one album released in June that year titled "mariko".
It looks like "Mahou no Aidoru Pastel Yumi" was Shiga's only foray into the anime industry but she also acted in a number of dramas as well as appear on radio and a couple of variety shows. Tragically, though, she would die in an auto accident in Arizona on November 23rd 1989, just shy of her 20th birthday.
For the first time in over 2 months, NHK's"Uta Kon"（うたコン）refrained from its regimen of several weeks of viewer requests and past video footage, and finally put on a live show onstage. Mind you, it was just the house band and no orchestra, and of course, there was no audience, but it was a start at having something close to the old days of multiple singing guests appear while the hosts sat appreciatively in the seats with some chats. In a way, it was rather cozy seeing singers such as Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）and Yoshimi Tendo（天童よしみ）talking about the past few months in isolation.
Ah, speaking of Yoshimi Tendo, one of the grande dames of enka performed her 75th and latest single from March 2020, "Hinode Mae". Initially, I took a look at the arrangement of the title in its native Japanese and wondered it would be translated as either "Before the Sunrise" or "Home Delivery of the Sun". Y'know, I think that I'll tempt fate and go with the former. The short version of the music video above pretty much proves my choice anyways.
"Hinode Mae", written by Reiji Mizuki（水木れいじ）and composed by Masato Sugimoto（杉本眞人）, is truly a grand enka, a traditional ballad that sounds tailor-made for the late Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）to whom Tendo has often been compared. It gives great tribute to the wonder of nature and the push for people to take those long strides forward into life. The electric guitar, the timpani and the low brass really punch the message through while the singer gives a performance that would probably have Misora nod in affirmation wherever she is now.
