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.
Yes, I took a lovely virtual drive from San Franciscodown to California wine country, thanks to the latest J Utah video, and my musical accompaniment for most of it was Come Along Radio's latest entry, Rocket Brown's"Summer Connection: City Pop Mix #1". It's nice to have the likes of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）, Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）, Circus（サーカス）and the others being your sidekick in the passenger seat while taking that road trip in the Golden State.
(33:19)
One of the songs on the playlist was one that I hadn't heard by the great Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, "Sunshine ~ Ai no Kin Iro" (Love's Golden Colour), because I have yet to get the source album "Moonglow" from October 1979. Incidentally, the album also contains "Storm", "Hot Shot" and "Touch Me Lightly", songs that I have also covered.
"Sunshine" seems to be the right song for that J Utah drive into Napa Valley just from the title alone, but of course, there's more with this one. There's simply that melody of happily moving somewhere, the sunny chorus and Tats' repeated mantra of SUNSHINE. He could break the clouds and let the rays penetrate. Would like to know though who was on the synthesizer during the instrumental break and would like to confirm whether it was indeed Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and/or Taeko Ohnuki backing him up. However, we did get that famous Tats falsetto right as "Sunshine" was fading away.
I hear that Van Paugam has got his own mix up. Maybe I can try that one out along with J Utah's drive through Malibu tomorrow.🌞
Should also mention that realizing the current situation in the United States regarding COVID-19, I hope that everyone down south is keeping safe but enjoying their Fourth of July.
Happy weekend as I slowly broil in my own juices. Yes, it's a hot one in the big T.O. today and will be for at least a week. Perhaps I can interest you in a mild segue as I provide another smoldering Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）song.
Commenter Jim Laker and I were talking about one of the most famous 1970s aidoruand he was kind enough to introduce this first track "Rinne" (Reincarnation) from Yamaguchi's album"This is my trial" from October 1980. As I've probably mentioned before, I haven't been a die-hard fan of hers but definitely knew and enjoyed her hits to the extent that I've got a couple of her BEST compilations, so it's still a time of exploration when it comes to her original studio albums of which "This is my trial" was her 22nd and final album before retiring from show business at the age of 21. It did very well on Oricon by placing in at No. 4.
"Rinne" is a bewitching number. It starts off rather spookily before the late-career sultry vocals of Yamaguchi come to the fore as she purrs about being a woman of ice who will always prefer coming back over and over as a woman so that she can cloud men's minds and wrap them around her fingers in one grand game. I guess that my description almost describes Yamaguchi as a superhero or supervillain on the same level as The Shadow, Dr. Strange or Catwoman. The music by Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）and arrangement by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）strikes me as being rather appropriate as a theme song for a larger-than-life figure of the darkness. Of course, if Uzaki is there, then his wife Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）is also there with the lyrics.
Overall, I found "Rinne" to be emblematic of the songs that she put forth when she collaborated with Uzaki and Aki such as "Imitation Gold"...about that cynical and hard-bitten woman wiser beyond her years. And a question popped up in my noggin about which era of Momoe-chan I preferred. Was it the early 70s when I kept envisioning her in that very short haircut and high school uniform while singing lyrics that may have shocked listeners with their rawness a la "Hito Natsu no Keiken"（ひと夏経験）or was it the late 70s when that more mature image of the singer caught up to her and her songs? Mind you, even during that latter part of her time on the stage, she had hits through more innocent entries such as "Yume Saki Annainin"（夢先案内人）, which had also been created by Uzaki and Aki, and the classic "Ii Hi Tabidachi"（いい日旅立ち）.
For me, although I've enjoyed Momoe all throughout that decade that she held court in the fans' eyes on stage, TV, radio and movies, I would probably go with her late 70s era. The reason for that is because of that collaboration with Uzaki and Aki and that persona of a toughened and older seen-it-all, done-it-all woman in the fancy dress (have I mentioned that she retired at the age of 21?) with the lower and more intimidating voice. When she was performing, she came off as attractive yet hard-to-approach, hard but maybe(?) with a soft centre.
Wow! Haven't used this photo as a thumbnail for a long time, and this was taken over 10 years ago when the English school where I was teaching at was located in Nakano-Sakaue, Tokyo (west of Shinjuku). The view was from the window right by the table where the student and teacher had their lesson, and it faced east toward the skyscrapers in West Shinjuku including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (basically City Hall). Always loved the fact that I could take this shot at sunset.
Appropriately enough, I have another City Pop tune for tonight, but this one is straight out of the 1980s. This would be the band Stardust Revue（スターダストレビュー）and their 6th single"Omoide ni Kawaru made" (Until My Memories Change) from January 1985.
Nice beat in there carrying the melody along, and it reminds me a lot of the rhythm in Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）classic "TOWN". Words and music were provided by band keyboardist Yasuhiro Mitani（三谷泰弘）and those lyrics tell of a melancholy story of the breakup and resulting shock for a fellow possibly at high noon and by a major intersection. Not exactly looking for privacy, I take it? Well, the music is pretty jaunty anyways. The single was also included in Stardust Revue's March 1985 3rd album"Thank You".
Another reason that I went with vocalist Kaname Nemoto（根本要）and his band was that I just saw them on an episode of NHK's "Lunch ON!" show about working folks and their lunch habits. Apparently, Nemoto does love his spicy curry!
When it comes to soulful female vocalists from the era of City Pop, I can easily identify them as Kimiko Kasai（笠井紀美子）and Noriko Miyamoto（宮本典子）. So I gather that it's no surprise that the two songstresses have performed the same song on their own albums.
That song is "Yarikake no Jinsei" (A Life in Progress), and Kasai was the first to record it onto her 1977 album"Tokyo Special". It's a dreamy ballad that has that 1970s City Pop Haze effect from the keyboards, and with that saxophone accompanying Kasai's silky vocals, I couldn't help but feel that the city that's been channeled here is New York City with the singer herself looking out at the Big Apple from the top of a brownstone. There's something quite dusky about the arrangement as well.
Jazz bassist Isao Suzuki（鈴木勲）was behind the melody for "Yarikake no Jinsei" while Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）came up with the lyrics. Suzuki was also responsible for collaborating with Miyamoto for her 1978 single"Push" for which her cover of "Yarikake no Jinsei" was the B-side. Given an additional English title, "My Life" (and English lyrics for Miyamoto), the cover is just slightly more upbeat, maybe a bit more disco, with Suzuki's bass taking over for that saxophonist from the Kasai original. Otherwise, the arrangement is pretty much the same in my estimation although overall with Miyamoto's take, the feeling is more striding downtown than contemplating life on that brownstone.
It was a fairly good catch of interesting acts on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）the other day as the show continues its new normal of no audience and combination of live guests and past performance footage. One group that I was happy to see was Crazy Ken Band（クレイジーケンバンド）.
The ever-cool Ken Yokoyama（横山剣）and his group were there to perform "Ivory" from their first single in about 5 years, "Ivory ep" which was released last month. Nice and summery, I love that underlying groove and the horns that take me back to Bobby Caldwell and "What You Won't Do For Love". Some good ol' relaxing cocktail-friendly AOR with some jazz thrown in. The end even has me thinking of that New Music from Yumi Arai（荒井由実）.
Furthermore, the music video brought back all sorts of memories since some of the traveling scenery reminds me of some of the trains that I took west of Shibuya Station to see some students in places like Den'en-Chofu and Tamagawa Gakuen. Supposedly, it's the view from Ken's car but I still like to think that it's from one of the lines that I rode.
Good heavens! It's been a long time since I wrote about Mika Nakashima（中島美嘉）. Was able to find one of her appealing jazzy ballads from "Love Addict".
Like that title "Aroma", the song is quite heady in the intro with the aural twinkling and the bluesy guitar. Written by Nakashima and composed by singer-songwriter Yoshiko Goshima（五島良子）, "Aroma" has that attraction of listening to it in an intimate basement club...the one with that brick wall behind the performer. Along with the guitar and groovy keyboards, I do hear those drum brushes sliding on the snare and a more subtle bass puffing away. Lovely solo they have, too.
Nakashima's lyrics are bittersweet. She describes someone recovering from a relationship that didn't end too well. There's the hurt and resentment but also the aroma of the former lover that she still can't quite let go of.
"Aroma" first made its appearance in "Resistance", Nakashima's first mini-album from November 2002 and it hit No. 1 for 2 weeks. The one version that I have is her live performance of the song that has been recorded onto "Love Addict" that came out in April 2003 and peaked at No. 5.
When I first got started on my hobby of enjoying kayo kyoku decades ago, there were a number of audiotapes belonging to my parents. One was a compilation of hits (which I actually bought for them as a souvenir during the 1981 trip to Japan) that helped me discover some singers such as Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）and Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）, another was a Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）BEST tape, and there was another one that I hadn't bought but somehow came into their possession (maybe my brother got it when he went over to Japan the following year).
That mystery tape was for an enka singer named Akemi Misawa（三沢あけみ）. I never played it and had no idea who she was. Moreover, I certainly haven't seen her appear on shows such as "Uta Kon"（うたコン）during my time back in Toronto, so I finally decided to do some digging. Born in Nagano Prefecture as Toshiko Miyashita（宮下登志子）in 1945, she became one of the fresh-faced newcomers as an actress in 1960 via the Toei New Face audition process, sponsored by the Toei (Movie) Company.
In 1963, Misawa debuted as a singer with "Furare Jouzu ni Hore Jouzu"（ふられ上手にほれ上手...Good at Rejection and Good at Falling in Love）but certain powers-that-be decided that she was simply too sexy for the small screen and didn't allow her to appear on TV for that particular song...not a great way to sell a record. However, karma paid her back most kindly with her 2nd single later that year, "Shima no Blues"(Island Blues) which she recorded as a duet with Mood Kayo group Hiroshi Wada and Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）.
A huge hit for both Mahina Stars and Misawa, "Shima no Blues" is a go-touchi（ご当地ソング）song or an enka/Mood kayo number about a certain city or region. In this case, "Shima no Blues" was referring to Amami Oshima（奄美大島）, a large island belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture. It's become known as the home of many rare and endangered species of fauna.
Getting back to the song itself, it's quite the majestic enka number with lyrics by Shizuo Yoshikawa（吉川静夫）, and it contains some whistling that I had first thought was someone in the audience providing his/her approval. However, the composer for "Shima no Blues", Masanobu Tokuchi（渡久地政信）, actually whistled this during recording (according to J-Wiki), but I don't know what the significance of this is. Is it some sort of Amami Oshima tradition?
Although the original recording of "Shima no Blues" is that duet between Misawa and Mahina Stars, so far I could only find the one video of them singing it together in the video near the top (the one so nice apparently that the uploader recorded it twice). The other videos on YouTube have Misawa singing the song as a solo, including the one performance by her on the 1963 Kohaku Utagassen. She also earned a Best New Artist prize at the Japan Record Awards that year. Her history on the Kohaku has totaled 5 appearances with the 1968 Kohaku being the last one to date.
Being a song in tribute to Amami Oshima, minyo artists associated with the island have covered "Shima no Blues" over the years. As for Misawa, she has recorded 30 singles and several albums up to 2011, but ironically her list of acting performances is actually fairly short according to J-Wiki. She has also been currently hosting a kayo program on satellite TV.
