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.
Found this one not in the "Light Mellow ~ Twilight" as you can see above but in the "Breeze" CD.
Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）has been known as a Latin jazz/fusion specialist and also as the composer behind Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）big hit "Meu amor e" in the mid-1980s. Through "Breeze" though, I found out that the first single (his debut album was "Joyful Feet"in 1977) of his to come out was a collaboration between him and singer-songwriter and R&B chanteuse Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）in 1979 called "Lovin' Mighty Fire" as a 12" single.
With Matsuoka behind the music and arrangement, Yoshida handled the lyrics under her pen name of Minnie Shady. The result is a 7-minute-and-change disco groove interlude that had me thinking Chaka Khan. Minaka Khan? In any case, the first time that I heard this, I just had to make sure within the liner notes of "Breeze" that it was indeed only Matsuoka and Yoshida involved without any help from the Chicago-born R&B legend. Indeed, the jazz/fusion specialist and Minnie Shady took care of this, and it's a corker of a tune. The additional funkiness was provided by Matsuoka's band, Wesing（ウィシング）.
Happy Sunday! Or I hope that everyone is having a Happy Sunday in the immediate vicinity since not every person is a big fan of heat and humidity. Like me. Today will probably end up being one of the hottest days of this summer, and so I've got my electric fan on behind me.
Perhaps I can try for some aural cooling down with this October 1969 song by kayo veteran Chiyo Okumura（奥村チヨ）. This was actually the B-side to her "Koi Dorobou"（恋泥棒...Love Thief）, "Kitaguni no Haru wa Mijikai" (Springs in the Northern Country are So Short), and from the slightly anguished vocals by Okumura and the title, I can surmise a bit that the ballad is a melancholy one about love lost so early in the year, far from the traditional breakup season of fall.
My previous article about Okumura last September was about the similarly titled "Kitaguni no Aoi Sora"（北国の青い空...Hokkaido Skies） composed by The Ventures in 1967, and I had to listen to that one and "Kitaguni no Haru wa Mijikai" a number of times in alternating succession since they also both sounded quite similar. But for this B-side, it was Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）on lyrics with Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）taking care of the music. As is the case with "Kitaguni no Aoi Sora", there is something faintly enka-like with "Kitaguni no Haru wa Mijikai" but in the end, I think this is also a straight-up pop kayo.
Another J-Drama that has been getting a lot of hype on TV Japan these days alongside "Haken no Hinkaku"（ハケンの品格...The Pride of a Temp） is the TBS show "MIU404". Its catchphrase is "You only have 24 hours...catch the perp before anyone else!", and I think it's about this police mobile investigative unit of motley characters that has been given short shrift by every other department as they try to grab the bad guys.
Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）is the fellow behind the cool and funky "Motivation", the theme song for "Haken no Hinkaku", and "MIU404" has singer-songwriter Kenshi Yonezu（米津玄師）providing the funky and groovy "Kanden"(Electric Shock). Up to now, I've had three of his creations on "Kayo Kyoku Plus": one serious, one for the kids, and one fairly inspirational.
But with "Kanden", Yonezu has something light, jazzy, bouncy and danceable as if the title truly wants to get you off your feet in a hurry. Written by Yonezu and composed by him and composer Yuuta Bando（坂東祐大）, it's another song by him that stands out from the other three which in turn stand out from each other. The music video is also quite the treat with the singer himself looking like some muscle for a loan shark in Tokyo as he plays around with some mirror-men that could have been bred by Reynolds Wrap. J.J. Abrams would certainly appreciate the last minute. Incidentally, the video was filmed at Tokyo's Toshima-en amusement park and some parking lot in Shibaura.
Taking a look at the lyrics and from what I've seen by one other YouTuber's attempt at translation and one person's commentary on the song, they seem to be about some young kids trying to live life large for the moment since there doesn't seem to be much to live for beyond that.
"Kanden" was released as a digital download single on July 6th for which it hit No. 1 on the Oricon digital charts. It's also available on Yonezu's 4th major album"Stray Sheep" which is due out on August 5th.
Approximately a couple of weeks ago, commenter Michael and I were talking about theme songs to those old police shows on either side of the Pacific after I'd written about Hiroshi Suzuki's（鈴木弘）"Shrimp Dance". Lo and behold, I found another scintillating theme song for another fast-paced Japanese cop caper.
Now, the above video was apparently for the 2017 sequel of the original "Daitsuiseki" (The Great Chase), but the opening credits are supposedly in line with what the 1978 show presented every week: going through Tokyo at the speed of The Flash. The original starred Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）and introduced a young Kyohei Shibata（柴田恭兵）who would make his own history on a later cop show. According to the Wikipedia article on "Daitsuiseki", the show was pretty tongue-in-cheek with a lot of ad-libbing and comedy; maybe there was even a goodly amount of fourth wall-breaking. Kinda strikes me as the Japanese cop show version of the original "Ocean's Eleven" with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.
Of course, for the feeling of the show and the opening credits, the theme song just had to be absolutely dynamic. So, at the time, the go-to composer was going to be Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）via his You & Explosion Band, and Ohno is one fellow who's familiar in crafting soaring brass-and-string powered theme songs considering what he's done for "Lupin III" and at least one other cop show.
By the way, my compliments to the guy who created the above video which catches the feeling of those opening credits. Just rev up the speed to warp! It's either going to be The Flash or a cop existing on carafes of cappuccino.
I still remember patches of my first Xmas party outing as a University of Toronto student at the end of 1984. Most people have to learn some lessons the hard way. Well, this was one of my hard lessons about what my alcohol limits were and how even too much of a small thing can lead up to a big, bad thing.
From what I can piece together, a bunch of us went out on the town after exams which isn't too difficult for U of T students at the downtown campus since it is located literally smack dab in the centre of it all. I was knocking back a combination of cocktails consisting of Screwdrivers and Creamsicles at the various stops on our barhopping which included a swanky bar at the top of the Manulife Centre. Now, for everyone who knows their cocktails, a Screwdriver or a Creamsicle isn't exactly the most potent mixology creation on its own but try drinking a series of those in quick succession over about 5 hours. By the time we reached an all-night restaurant in Chinatown close to 3 am, my world was spinning and by the time one of my friends gallantly drove me home in his new car, so were my internal organs. The terror for him was that the cream-coloured interior of his automobile risked taking on a few more colours if he didn't get me home lickety-split (or splat).😵
Thankfully, he got me home intact. The lad literally poured me outside of the building doors and I miraculously got inside and into bed. Some 10 hours later, I woke up in the afternoon having bypassed the horrible hangover phase during my deepest of sleeps, although one of my parents verbally tore into me for my nonsense.😌
Indeed, I was reminiscing about my hard lesson as I was listening to Kirinji's（キリンジ）"After The Party". This is another marvelous track from the band's marvelous 2018 album"Ai wo aru dake, Subete"（愛をあるだけ、すべて）. The album has tracks depicting things like a sci-fi thriller, one of the catchiest love letters to the Doobie Brothers, and a lovely disco tune for middle managers, so why not an adorably comical post-party amble home in the wee hours?
Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）was responsible for this track which keeps things solidly in the pop category. The spacy synths are more subdued here and a bluesy guitar comes more to the fore. If I'm not mistaken, it's Erino Yumiki（弓木英梨乃）on the main vocals as she relates the story of a young woman pouring herself out of the taxi after a long night in a dress that probably needs reconstructive surgery. There is even a shoutout to Siri as she helps her mistress find her way home and the lady even does what probably a lot of folks (myself included) have done after a long night out on the town: drag herself to the neighbourhood all-night conbini to get something refreshing. As it turns out, all of that carousing may have been caused by a romantic breakup necessitating the poor lass to try to drink all of those blues away with buddies. Well, as long as she didn't throw up inside the taxi...🚕
After a few days of relatively cool weather, the roasting temperatures are on their way over here for the weekend. Not a huge fan of those, but 16 Tokyo summers' worth of heat and humidity have proofed me for the meteorological challenge.
Looks like dynamic singer-songwriter-musician Char is a sun worshiper, though. I've just heard his "Shinin' You Shinin' Day" and it's an uptempo funky delight that has been written and composed by him. The B-side from his June 1976 debut single"Navy Blue","Shinin' You Shinin Day" has nothing but English lyrics and it must have been a grand day. At first, when I was listening to it, I had assumed that he was cascading all those wonderful compliments on his girlfriend but as it turns out, his tribute is going all the way up to ol' Sol itself.
About a third of the way into the song, following Char's kind words to the sun, the singer and his fellow musicians go into a nice little jam session which must have created for that point in the drive along the shore when the roof comes down in the convertible. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm no big fan of the heat and humidity in my old stomping grounds but the sun is always welcome. By the way, "Shinin' You Shinin' Day" is also a track on his debut album"Char" which came out in September of that year.
Back in June 2019, I wrote about aidoru Kumiko Aimoto's（相本久美子）"Mayonaka no Heroine"（真夜中のヒロイン）, an interesting synthpop concoction that was a part of her 1981 album "Yume Nanoni I Love You"（夢☆なのにI LOVE YOU...Even If It's A Dream, I Love You）. That 2nd album would mark the end of her recording career aside from her 2015 single"Dearest For You".
Well, I've got another track from "Yume Nanoni", "Itsutsu no Douka"(Five Copper Coins) and it's quite a different animal in terms of arrangement. In contrast with the synthpop of "Mayonaka no Heroine", "Itsutsu no Douka" has got a lot more of that downtown City Pop feeling going for it. It's a pretty active song with those cutting strings and bass, and it sounds slightly like the type of music that Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）had been singing in the latter half of her career, with perhaps a feeling of Junko Yagami（八神純子）.
For such a peppy song, the setting is a telephone booth around midnight in which a young lady has to face that romantic breakup by phone (lyrically, I guess this wouldn't be a Momoe song since she wouldn't wait til midnight to break things off and I think she wouldn't waste her time even bothering to call the lout). At first, I was wondering what the lass was doing with five pennies, and I realized that I was being too Canadian since our own defunct 1-cent piece was copper in colour. Copper coins in Japan actually represent 10 yen each which are good enough for those public telephones. Fifty yen, huh? Must have been a pretty intense call.
"Itsutsu no Douka" was written by Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）who has provided lyrics for singers that have represented the more languid Fashion Music state of things such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）andMieko Nishijima（西島三重子）. Meanwhile, the funky music was created by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, a composer who has backed up folks such as Omega Tribe.
