The Natashar Seven -- Kodoku no Marathon Runner（孤独のマラソン・ランナー）

For anyone who knows me on sight, to realize that I actually ran a half-marathon would probably have that person performing the biggest and wettest of spit takes to make the late entertainer Danny Thomas take notice. Mind you, that was back in 1981 a few months before the trip to Japan when a classmate and I ran the annual Toronto Zoo marathon...when I actually was thin. Even with months of training, the half-marathon of 21 kilometres almost knocked me out although I did finish it much to my own pride and health. Soaked in the tub for a good long time.

In late June, I gave this story about watching the weekend NHK sports broadcast and seeing how one athlete listened to The Blue Hearts' "Hito ni Yasashiku"（人にやさしく）to encourage him. Well, on an even earlier broadcast of that same show, there was a marathon runner who also had his own special song to rely upon.

That song was "Kodoku no Marathon Runner" (Lonely Marathon Runner) from 1977 which is a spritely folk tune by The Natashar Seven（ザ・ナターシャー・セブン）. According to their J-Wiki profile, the band was first formed in 1971 with the meeting between singer Tomoya Takaishi（高石ともや）and Junji Shirota（城田じゅんじ）, the latter having already taken up some Bluegrass banjo. With later additions including Shogo Sakaniwa（坂庭しょうご）and Takasuke Kida（木田たかすけ）, The Natashar Seven polished their brand on a mix of Bluegrass country, American traditional folk and Japanese minyo. As for the derivation of the band name, it was based on a slight alteration of the name of the village where Takaishi had lived, Natashou（名田庄）in Fukui Prefecture (although the village merged with the town of Oi in March 2006). The seven part was added merely because it sounded nice although quite a few people joined the band's ranks between 1971 and 2002.

Written and composed by fellow folk artist Osamu Kitayama（北山修）under his pen name of Haijin Jisetsu（自切排人）, this happy number reminds me a lot of what I used to hear as a kid in my own country of Canada and also on some of those country-western music shows such as "Hee Haw" produced in the United States. It's just so jaunty that I could almost be persuaded to put on the shorts and sneakers and run a few kilos again (as if).

I thought Kitayama's lyrics were literally on that lonely marathon runner, but looking at them, I think they are actually more of a metaphor for all of those young people getting on the treadmill of work and adult life. Perhaps The Natashar Seven and Kitayama were doing their part to give the lads and lassies that encouraging push through society. If that is indeed the case, then that athlete who was featured on NHK probably chose his song wisely.

Daddy Takechiyo & Tokyo Otoboke Cats -- Itsuwari no DJ（偽りのDJ）

This is a band that seems to have had a fair bit of history. I found Daddy Takechiyo & Tokyo Otoboke Cats（ダディ竹千代&東京おとぼけCATS）on one of the "Light Mellow" CDs, "Dream", and the name of the band alone grabbed my attention immediately.

Daddy Takechiyo was born Go Kajiki（加治木剛）in Kagoshima Prefecture although his family moved over to Yokohama when he was little. Soon after graduating from high school, he got involved in live performances and then he joined the staff of the band Carmen Maki & Oz（カルメン・マキ＆OZ）for which he had songwriting duties and overall management at one point.

In 1976, he took on the stage name Daddy Takechiyo and brought together the musicians that would form the comic band Tokyo Otoboke Cats with a debut single coming out in 1978, "Denki Kurage"（電気クラゲ...Electric Jellyfish）. Then in 1980, the band released their first album, logically titled "First" with a follow-up release called "Idiot Plot" （イデオット・プロット）in 1981. The Cats broke up that same year but then got back together a number of times up to the present day with a few more albums released.

Supposedly, being a comic band (with talented musicians), Daddy Takechiyo & Tokyo Otoboke Cats were happy to take the piss out of all musical artists through parodic songs and controversial lyrics, and they became known for some over-the-top performances. According to their J-Wiki article, they were even banned from performing in some of those venues. Still, despite all of the potshots, the guys had good connections with a number of singers and musicians, and that included who I would call The First Couple of City Pop: Tatsuro Yamashita and Mariya Takeuchi（山下達郎・竹内まりや）.

In fact, Yamashita composed The Cats' 3rd single "Itsuwari no DJ" (False DJ) with Daddy's lyrics under his real name. When I first heard the song on "Light Mellow ~ Dream", I got all sorts of Electric Light Orchestra vibes along with some Elton John and Billy Joel feelings to a certain extent. Daddy takes a good poke at that smooth-talking disc jockey as he attempts to salve broken hearts as an ultimately superficial pop psychologist. I thought that for a comic band, the recording of "Itsuwari no DJ" is just as smooth as that DJ they are making fun of, but perhaps that is the point. It's well-produced and performed slick City Pop and New Music but there's nothing deeper than that.

Along with Yamashita whipping up the melody for "Itsuwari no DJ", Takeuchi also participated in "First". Then, Daddy along with the First Couple of City Pop, rocker Masanori Sera（世良公則）from the band Twist, and Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）of Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）decided to create a band, Takenoya Central Heating（竹野屋セントラルヒーティング）, within (what I think is) Takechiyo's radio program. As a treat, you can listen to this group handle The Beatles' "Twist and Shout" below with Kuwata on lead vocals. Talk about an all-star lineup!

First Impression -- Taiyo ga Kureta Kisetsu（太陽がくれた季節）

August has come in like a very welcome lion. It's sunny and warm and it's a good start to what is a holiday weekend here in Toronto. Unfortunately, the remaining days look to be rather wet and cloudy so Saturday is gonna have to be the one to celebrate. Ironically, the National Hockey League has begun the playoffs after several months of COVID-induced shutdown.

Back in September 2016, I wrote about this very snappy and soulful band called First Impression that had a brief two-year run in the 1990s, led by the late drummer Shigeo Miyata（宮田繁男）. Well, my first impression (pun definitely intended) was a good one, so I'm feeling a bit sheepish that it has taken me nearly four years to write about a second song by Miyata, guitarist Takashi Murayama（村山孝志）and vocalist Reiko Tanaka（田仲玲子）.

My second impression of First Impression is that their track "Taiyo ga Kureta Kisetsu" (The Season The Sun Gave Us) from their 2nd of two albums, "Supernatural" (1996) is another cool winner with that sensation of updated 60s British soul horns via Shibuya-kei and some R&B wacka-wacka guitar. Written by Takami/Sorami Akiyama（秋山空実）and composed by Miyata is an appropriately weekend song to greet the final full month of summer. Kinda too bad that First Impression didn't last too long, although I think in a way, the band microstar got passed the baton.

Al Jarreau -- Breakin' Away

Al Jarreau's "Breakin' Away" is a touchstone song for me, considering my choices in music. I mean, not only does its namesake album have one of the most iconic covers in the AOR genre (I don't know of any person who could make pink and white look so cool as a fashion statement; he'd be perfect in Ueno Park in the spring!), "Breakin' Away" the single is an uplifting number whose first few bars can still elicit happy comfortable shivers up and down my spine. The entire song is one joyous walk in a city park with jazz in the fresh air and soul in my feet. And of course, there are the wonderfully velvety vocals from Jarreau who I still miss dearly some 3.5 years after his passing.

Since then, my love for Jarreau has grown through "Mornin'", "After All" and the theme song from "Moonlighting" among other highlights from his career. I may be exaggerating here, but I think that if it hadn't been for songs like "Breakin' Away", my entry into the world of Japanese City Pop and its own AOR genre wouldn't have been as easy (-listening) as it was. Indeed, there were people involved in the creation of "Breakin' Away" and the rest of the album who have had their own involvement in the urban contemporary scene of that time in Japan such as Airplay (David Foster and Jay Graydon), Jeff Porcaro from TOTO, and Jerry Hey probably among some of the other musicians. In fact, Graydon helped in the creation of the song along with Jarreau and Tom Canning.

The album was released on June 30, 1981. Strangely enough, my last ROY article was on Hall & Oates' "Private Eyes" which came out in late August that year around a month after my return from that fateful trip to Japan. "Breakin' Away" was released only a few days before I headed on out with my graduating class from Japanese Language School. It hit No. 1 on the US R&B and Jazz charts and broke into Billboard's Top Ten at No. 9.

Since it was released at the end of June that year, why not go with what was hot on the Oricon singles chart as of July 1st? Here are the Top 3.

1. Chiharu Matsuyama -- Nagai Yoru

2. Masahiko Kondo -- Blue Jeans Memory

3. Toshihiko Tahara -- Kimi ni Kettei!

To finish off, I will never forget Jarreau's appearance on Canada's venerable "SCTV" comedy show in a parody of "The Jazz Singer". Here he is singing another track from the album, "We're In This Love Together" which was also released as a single.

Jin Kirigaya -- Return to the Sky

It's after dinner as I write this and I need time to digest the Friday meal (especially with all of that fibre). Well, I don't really drink so no digestif for me.

However, I can get that effect to a certain extent thanks to a Jin Kirigaya（桐ヶ谷仁）number called "Return to the Sky" from his 1979 debut album "My Love For You". The album also has the melancholy "Yotsuya Yuumagure"（四ツ谷ゆうまぐれ）which involves a man dealing with perceived romantic betrayal. However, "Return to the Sky" is quite the opposite, thanks to that mélange of a bit of jazz here and a good dollop of bossa nova there within an AOR arrangement. Interesting thing I noticed was how Kirigaya's vocals sound like a combination of the voices of Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and Yasuhiro Suzuki（鈴木康博）from the band Off-Course（オフコース）.

Kirigaya took care of the music while Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）provided the lyrics. As I said in the "Yotsuya" article, I purchased that double-CD package "Complete Alfa Years - Jin Kirigaya" which consists of his first two albums, the aforementioned "My Love For You" and then his 1981 "Windy". While "Windy" is more solidly in the City Pop/AOR genres, I think "My Love For You" is a bit more free-wheeling as the singer-songwriter was probably exploring across the music spectrum which might explain some of the influences in this track especially.

Michiru Kojima -- Namaiki CINQ（なまいきCinq）

Another singer that I haven't covered in a while is Michiru Kojima（児島未散）. Just judging from the very first song that I heard from her, "Gypsy"（ジプシー）back in 1990, I simply treated her as a singer of moody pop numbers. It wouldn't be much later that I realized that she did have a past performing some pretty snappy urban contemporary fare.

My feeling is that I really should grab Kojima's 1989 album "Key of Dreams" if it's still available and not piled up on the dreaded hill of haiban. For one thing, the title track is a smooth-as-glass City Pop song for the late 1980s with all of that sophisticated pop goodness. You can listen to it again here as the above video is for the full album and the song "Key of Dreams" starts things off.

Right after that one, though, is "Namaiki CINQ" (The Audacious Five) which seems to refer to what any young lady of Tokyo needs for the good life, I believe. I heard things like luxury, a diary, and a history as some of those ingredients but not quite sure since I couldn't find the lyrics online. There's more of an active beat with "Namaiki CINQ" compared to the slightly mellower "Key of Dreams" as if Kojima is prepping for a night out on the town, and even the synths provide some semblance of jazzy instrumentation.

As with "Key of Dreams", Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）is the lyricist with "Namaiki CINQ" while Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, who arranged that title track, is fully behind the melody for the second track on the album.

Nanako Sato -- Koi no Ryuusei（恋の流星）

Happy Friday, and for my fellow Torontonians and folks in Peel Region, let's all welcome ourselves to Stage 3 of recovery, although I think that we will all need to straddle that tightrope between enjoying our return of lost freedoms and keeping safe from COVID-19. On the other hand, I'm hoping that somehow Tokyo and the rest of Japan get a handle on another wave of the pandemic that has been washing ashore for the past several days.

On a happier note, I've encountered another YouTube video, this time by Kimi no Station: The Home of City Pop, on which a Japanese talk-variety show covers the international appeal of City Pop that has been grabbing the attention of Japanese media over the past several months. Seeing these fellows voraciously browsing and buying up genre albums and CDs in areas like Shibuya has me reminiscing about the old days when I engaged in my pastime of frequently hitting Tower Records, Tacto, Yamano Music and RecoFAN for any of the good ol' stuff. I probably won't be able to head back to Tokyo any time soon but hopefully, when I do hit my old home, I will be flipping through the discs and LPs once more.

The amusing thing about the above report is how while one of the City Pop browsers holding the Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）LP actually sounds quite calm and collected about his potential purchase, the fellow providing the Japanese voiceover translation comes across as if he were about to experience his first orgasm.😤

In any case, it is a Friday so let's provide the first City Pop song of the day. It's actually been over a couple of years since Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）has made her last appearance as a performer on the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so I'm more than happy to bring her back. This time around, we have "Koi no Ryuusei" from her 3rd album "Pillow Talk" released in October 1978.

Written and composed by Sato and with co-composing help by Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）, "Koi no Ryuusei" (Meteor of Love) is a smoothly-running song of the genre, perfect for that sunset or early evening drive on the main thoroughfares of Tokyo. Sato's kittenish vocals are very enticing over the driving rhythms and the snappy percussion. It's almost as if the singer is beckoning us listeners by curling her fingers inward through her voice. Of course, there has got to be the sax solo.

Now, the title "Koi no Ryuusei" is very similar to the title of another City Pop classic "Koi wa Ryuusei" (恋は流星...Shooting Star of Love） by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）who had introduced it the year before, so if you're searching for either, keep an eye out for those Japanese grammatical particles.