Ryo Kawasaki -- Raisins

Some of us of a certain age might suddenly get that "Pepperidge Farm Remembers" sensation on reading the following.

I certainly remember when my father got us our first computer, the Vic-20 by Commodore in the beginning of the 1980s. Oh, the excitement of getting 3,583 bytes of power in a keyboard and loading up our favourite video arcade games through a dedicated Commodore tape recorder! But even then, my brother and I were probably very jealous of other friends who upgraded to the Commodore 64.

The games were more advanced and there was one interesting software tool called the Kawasaki Synthesizer which used discs to upload the program, and then the musically-minded among us could have its way with sound and images and fury...such as boogeying aliens from outer space! I never got the Kawasaki Synthesizer but I did get a Casio keyboard later on...which is still sitting somewhere fossilized in one of our closets.

Now, the fellow who came up with this tool didn't start out as a computer-programming geek. Actually, he was jazz fusion guitarist and composer Ryo Kawasaki（川崎燎）originally from Tokyo, and he came up with a ton of albums since the early 1970s. In fact, his Wikipedia file states that he was one of the pioneers of fusion.

One of those albums was his 1976 effort "Juice" and the lead track is "Raisins". It begins life sounding like another one of those really funky themes for a gritty New York-set movie. I'd say that I can almost feel those platform shoes hitting the hot pavement on a July day in the decade of disco when I listen to "Raisins". As the song goes along, though, the fusion and rock begin to percolate through as the jam session also comes into play. The YouTube page has a list of the musicians who were involved in the making of "Juice".

Looking through his Wikipedia profile, it looks like he lived quite the life in music and computers, and as for the latter pursuit, he spent all of the 1980s there in between his times as a musician. Kawasaki in his later years also worked with a number of Estonian musicians and contributed his expertise in that part of the world. I wouldn't mind getting to know more of his creations but unfortunately, I've read that he passed away only a few months ago in April at the age of 73 in his home in Estonia.

Hiroko Kokubu -- Sunset Beach

I figure that since it is Ocean Day or Marine Day in Japan, one of the more recent national holidays added to their calendar, I ought to pick something apropos tonight. Perhaps I have found just the song.

"Sunset Beach" is a calming track from jazz pianist Hiroko Kokubu's（国府弘子）"Diary" album from October 1998, and it makes for a fine aural digestif while sipping some of that other drinkable digestif, brandy (I'll take suggestions for which vintage is best)🍷. As Kokubu stated on her website in Japanese concerning this particular piece (while I translate in English):

"Just idly hanging out on the pier with those sand-filled sandals in one hand. A refreshing cool breeze penetrates into hot skin like a cold lotion. The fishermen, the seagulls...the sound of the waves."

Yes, wouldn't it be nice doing all that on a clear evening by the seashore...preferably with that significant other leaning on your side? I think that Kokubu's languid piano sets the pace of the stroll quite nicely here. "Sunset Beach" is also on her "Moments" BEST album released in America which apparently has different release dates depending on the site. J-Wiki states that "Moments" came out in January 1996 while Amazon says that it was released in February 2000. It doesn't matter, of course. "Sunset Beach" is simply pleasant listening.

Kaela Kimura -- Butterfly

When I first heard Kaela Kimura's（木村カエラ）"Butterfly", I thought it was the perfect pop song for a children's musical about the moral of a shy young girl metamorphizing into that beautiful and confident and splendid lady. Certainly the music video for the song helped in my impression (unfortunately the above video has been truncated).

But then, I started to hear about "Butterfly" being put alongside songs such as Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi's（長渕剛）"Kanpai"（乾杯）and Yuming's（ユーミン）"Anniversary" as wedding reception-friendly tunes, and yeah, I guess there is a certain celebratory regality to Kimura's 1st-ever digital download single released in June 2009. And in fact, the whole project began when a friend asked the singer to write and perform a song at a wedding party which in fact she did. Pretty soon, the wedding-themed magazine "Zexy" picked "Butterfly" up as its campaign tune on commercials which led the single to not only hit No. 1 on iTunes and No. 2 on Sony's online music store mora for the entire year, but also get her first invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 2009.

The "Butterfly" snowball continued to gain speed as her Kohaku performance got even more love from the masses to the extent that the song had over 2 million downloads. "Butterfly" would get onto CD, though, as a track on her 5th major album "HOCUS POCUS" which came out in the same month as the download single. That album peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and ended up as the 37th-ranked release of the year. A couple of years later, the song would be used in a TBS matchmaking variety show hosted by the Osakan comedy duo 99.

Kimura did write the lyrics but the music and arrangement was left to Atsushi Suemitsu（末光篤）, aka SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH, the fellow who came up with the theme song for the anime version of "Nodame Cantabile" (のだめカンタービレ) in 2007. In coming full circle with my comparison of "Butterfly" to the ideal song for a children's musical, there is something very down-home contemporary pop in the verses, but when the chorus comes around, I keep thinking that there is also a Gilbert & Sullivan sensibility as if Kimura is singing alone on the stage in a prim Victorian dress while her hands are clasped in prayer and her face is pointing toward the heavens.

Ai Furihata -- CITY

Well, my age-old question has finally been answered. What if an aidoru-esque Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）and Michael Sembello from the 1980s collaborated?

Yes, rather tongue-in-cheek for a Tuesday but that's the favourable impression that I got when I first saw "CITY", a track from the mini-album "Moonrise" which isn't even due to be released until late September 2020. The singer behind it is Ai Furihata（降幡愛）who is also a seiyuu hailing from Nagano Prefecture.

Furihata wrote the lyrics with Akimitsu Honma（本間昭光）providing the music. That melody sounds so much like early 1980s Billboard-friendly pop that I felt like Honma must have been inspired by Sembello's "Maniac" from the immensely popular "Flashdance" soundtrack or maybe even Oliva Newton-John's "Twist of Fate" hit single. As for lyricist-singer Furihata, a good chunk of her voice reminds me a lot of singer-songwriter Karashima because of that nasality. Then, there's that music video which pretty much yells out "I LOVE VAPORWAVE!".

Along with her work on anime, I also found out that Furihata is also a member of the anime aidoru group Aqours found in "Love Live! Sunshine!!". Shuka Saito（斉藤朱夏）, who I wrote about recently, is also a member.

Here's "Twist of Fate"!

Jiro Sugita -- Hitori ni Nareba（ひとりになれば）

I mentioned this in passing in my article for Akiko Kobayashi's（小林明子）"Kokoro no Honoo"（こころの炎）, her cover version of "Somewhere Out There", the poignant duet between Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram for the 1986 animated movie "An American Tail". Although the single was released with just Kobayashi singing the tune, she actually did do a duet version of "Kokoro no Honoo" with singer-songwriter Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）at one of her concerts which was recorded on her "In Concert ~ A Changing".

That was actually the first time that I had ever heard of Sugita, and from his performance of the song with Kobayashi, my impression was that he was more of a jazzy crooner like Akira Fuse（布施明）. Little did I know at the time that he was responsible for the 1971 folk hit "Senso wo Shiranai Kodomo Tachi"（戦争を知らない子供たち）when he was in his folk group Jiros（ジローズ）.

Last night, when I was listening to the New J Channel radio, I heard this haunting and attractive song from Sugita's first solo album "Apartment 1109"（アパートメント 1109）which was released in October 1972. "Hitori ni Nareba" (If I Were Alone) struck me with a woman's dreamy reprise of the title that swept through my headphones as Sugita gave his gentle view on loneliness. Written by Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）and composed by the singer, "Hitori ni Nareba" has that folksy lilt but I think the melody even tilts a tad close to New Music or City Pop because I could envisage that individual young person making his/her way through life in the big city while cooped up in the danchi.

Although according to Sugita himself in the above concert video footage, it's Hiro Yanagida's band backing him up here, I read in his J-Wiki file that Off-Course（オフコース）had also been his backing group when they were still paying their dues. Regarding that video, it's just too bad that Sugita's live performance couldn't have that woman's haunting reprise included. For me, that's the secret sauce for "Hitori ni Nareba".

Yumi Matsutoya -- Harujoon/Himejoon（ハルジョオン・ヒメジョオン）

One of the more interestingly titled Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）songs that I've ever encountered, I kinda wondered what the deal was with "Harujoon/Himejoon".

The second track on Yuming's（ユーミン）5th original album "Benisuzume"（紅雀...Strawberry Finch） from March 1978 and her 10th single from that same month, it's got a lot of that exotic kayo atmosphere so I can compare it with a few of those songs which were popular for that feeling of overseas travel such as Judy Ongg's（ジュディ・オング）"Miserarete"（魅せられて）and Saki Kubota's（久保田早紀）"Ihojin"（異邦人）. Therefore, I was left wondering whether that unusual title was referring to a certain language's deep expressions or actual locations in another country.

As it turns out, it was neither. Actually, those two words refer to a couple of species of daisy of which only one is even mentioned in Yuming's lyrics. In English, those daisies are scientifically named Erigeron Philadelphicus and Erigeron Annuus. Speaking of those lyrics, my image is that a lady has returned to her hometown to give a final goodbye to a loved one who has unfortunately left this mortal coil far too soon, and realizing that although the town has remained the same, she hasn't. I guess that it might be like the expression "You can't go home again", and the melody has that certain melancholy feeling.

The single didn't do all that well on Oricon, only getting as high as No. 80, although the album "Benisuzume" peaked at No. 2 and finished the year as the 25th-ranked album. Still I'm pretty certain that "Harujoon/Himejoon" has gained in favour among Yuming fans considering that it's been placed on her concert playlists, and also it plays quite well in my head.

I don't know when Keiko Terada（寺田恵子）from the rock band SHOW-YA did her slightly more urban contemporary pop cover of "Harujoon/Himejoon", but according to the video below, it looks like Terada did a one-shot of this song that she has always loved. Perhaps, though she may have included it as a track in one of her albums.

B'z -- Risky/Itoshii Hito yo Good Night（愛しい人よGood Night...）

There is a fair share of people over here in Canada and the United States who have an interest in the supernatural, and that is also true for the Japanese. Folklore abounds there with tales of long-necked women, kappa sprites, and other creatures, and there are plenty of scary tales to chill listeners right down to the bone even in the hottest of summers.

One of the more recent phenomena to get folks' hackles up is the shinrei shashin（心霊写真...ghost pictures） in which faces or other body parts mysteriously pop up behind people and in structures. Personally, I think it's more of a visual coincidence or a double exposure in those photos than anything else but I've watched variety shows in which the tarento turned multiple shades of blue and grey and screamed their heads off at all sorts of weird shots. The above video has about 7 minutes' worth of shinrei shashin so watch...if you dare.😝😝

Another phenomenon is the audio version of the shinrei shashin...ghost sounds. Years ago when I was living in Ichikawa, a couple of my good single friends who used to visit me all the time at home (they are now both happily married with kids) dropped in one time and told me about the urban legend that a Dreams Come True single "go for it!" had some weird voice pop up near the end. Now, I did write about that song all the way back in 2013 but never mentioned this part since frankly I had forgotten the whole incident, but I did have the CD so I played it on the Onkyo a couple of times for them with the volume way up.

Now, the supposed weird voice pops up at about 2:54 in the above video (Sorry but the recorded version has been taken down so you'll have to rely on your own copies) for "go for it!". My good buddies' faces froze when they heard it but I couldn't quite get it myself since I had heard it every time that I played the cheerful DCT song. To me, it was just an added spoken vocal for flavour...not an anguished cry from Hell.😏 I looked at them, both of who were/are far more kakkoii than me, and wondered what the problem was here.

There was a similar story regarding rock band B'z. Their November 1990 album "Risky" was a big No. 1 hit to be sure, but it also garnered some more infamy and the story even reached the popular Fuji-TV noon hour show "Waratte Ii Tomo!"（笑っていいとも！）one day in 1993. Supposedly, certain CD copies of the album didn't start off with that 1-minute-and-change instrumental which was the title track. Instead, as host Tamori and comedy duo Utchan-Nanchan found out, it started out with a moaning female voice. Consider your hackles risen!😱

excerpt only

Anyways, here is that first track "Risky" from the album of the same name, sans spooky voice (although there is some sexy exhalation in there...I'd take that). At the end, vocalist Koshi Inaba（稲葉浩志）poses the question "Where do we go?".

Well, let's go to another track "Itoshii Hito yo Good Night" (My Dearie, Good Night) which also happened to be the duo's 7th single released in October 1990. The song was also tagged as the first B'z ballad to be released as a single, and it sounds like a song that should have been added to the "Top Gun" soundtrack. Just something about that proud and elegiac guitar in the intro and the more emotional heft in Inaba's vocals.

However, it was actually made into the ending theme for the TV Asahi drama "Daihyo Torishimayaku Deka"（代表取締役刑事...Representative Director Detective） from that same year. Well, we've had a busybody maid, two housewives and high school students become sleuths on live-action TV from my memories. Why not a representative director?

Not surprisingly, "Itoshii Hito yo Good Night" hit No. 1 and went Platinum, selling 354,000 copies according to Wikipedia. It would become the 62nd-ranked single for 1990. As for "Risky" the album, it was truly the gift that kept on giving (spooky-voiced copies aside) because it wouldn't only be the 26th-ranked album of 1990, but also the 10th-ranked album for 1991 and finally the 50th-ranked album for 1992. In total, it sold almost 1.7 million copies! For the record stores and supervising studio, not risky at all! Incidentally, "Easy Come, Easy Go!", a previous single, is also included on the album.