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.
I have to confess that the cover for jazz singerAnli Sugano's（アンリ菅野）1978 debut album"Anli ~ Ichi"（アンリ～いち...One） is terrifying, Try to imagine purchasing that, placing it on the bedroom floor, and then having it stare at you while you go to sleep (or try to).
"Akujo Street" (Wicked Woman Street) is one of the tracks and it isn't even a jazz number. It's actually more of a rock-infused City Pop tune as it describes the story of a woman in the metropolis who has been given the titular label and has probably become so infamous that even the street she works/lives on is named after her. And she likes the notoriety. I do like the beat of "Akujo Street" because it perhaps illustrates the strut the akujo possesses as she holds court on her turf while other folks give her a lot of leeway. I can only think the tough streets of Kabukicho in Tokyo when it comes to this song. Norihiko Sugi and Toshiyuki Kimori（杉紀彦・木森敏之）were behind words and music respectively.
I did find a lovely video with Sugano performing a jazz number, "Take the A Train". Born in 1948 in Tokyo, she was born into a musical family with her father being a jazz vocalist and her mother a pianist. Attending Musashino Art University, Sugano was learning oil painting when she also entered a study circle on modern jazz and ended up starting a career in jazz singing. After studying languages and dancing among other subjects in the United States, she made her professional debut in 1978 and released a number of jazz albums and performed in a number of venues including New York City's Blue Note. She even had a stint as a co-host of an NHK program "That's Music" for a couple of years in the late 1980s. Sadly, though, Sugano would pass away in 2000 from cancer at the age of 51.
I bookmarked this particular song by aidoru Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）not only because "Mayuzukiyo" (Crescent Moon Night) is her 38th and final single to date, but the arrangement is also rather intriguing to me.
"Mayuzukiyo" was released in September 1983, and by that point, Sakurada had basically made a full transition into acting as her days at the top of the Oricon charts had long passed by. Her last three singles going back to 1981 including this one didn't even get onto the charts. Furthermore, she didn't even make any TV appearances to perform the song and there were no other filmed examples of her ever singing "Mayuzukiyo".
Still, it's interesting in that the song and the singer together make this recording sound like something that was created by Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）, although it was actually written by Mebae Miyahara（宮原芽映）under the pseudonym Yuu Kayano（茅野遊）and composed by Kei Ogura（小椋佳）with arrangement handled by Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）. There is something very fresh and open-air about "Mayuzukiyo" as its lyrics deal with a woman's own handling of sudden heartbreak while at the same time sounding a bit like a 1950s puppy love ballad. I can even imagine someone like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）covering the song as well.
The song was also included on Sakurada's 15th album released in the same month, "Naturally"（ナチュラリー）. It would remain her final album until February 2018 when that 16th album"My Idology"（マイ・アイドロジー）was released in commemoration of her 45 years since her debut. "My Idology" contains a new song and covers of four of her own hits among the 8-song album.
Just finished off writing an article on a commenter-recommended number on his own Happy Song list, and this is also from another commenter with a similar name of Mike with his own smile-creating summer tune.
I'll first let Mike himself talk about this obscure group called Kaja（カヤ）through the comments that he posted:
I suppose my list would start off with “Marine Blue Sky” by Kaja: I listened to it just before reading this post, and it always makes me think of summertime, always puts a smile on my face. Kaja (no relation to the Kajagoogoo spinoff) were another Yamaha Festival act. Award winner at the 19th Popcon in May of 1980, and a finalist at the 11th World Popular Song Festival in November of that year. It seems they only ever recorded one more single, 1981’s“Anata e no sanka.”
Aside from Mike's information, I couldn't find anything else new about this band aside from the fact that they lasted between 1978 and 1982. Their debut single was indeed "Marine Blue Sky" which has been noted on Hip Tank Records as a 1981 release, and from their originating year of 1978, I can assume that Kaja did a lot more touring about than recording singles or albums.
"Marine Blue Sky" is a late 1970s/early 1980s bright summer day of a song, perfect for that drive in the Toyota along the coast from Tokyo to Hakone. There is the disco beat and the resonant soulful vocals by Kayoko Ono（小野賀曜子）who also provided the lyrics of indeed escaping from the city and down to the beaches. As for the melody, that was composed by Norihiko Tachibana（立花紀彦）, the guitarist for Kaja (and the fellow whose YouTube channel has provided this song), and it sounds like the perfect summery tune that I would hear on Japanese radio of those times and also on a number of seasonal commercials. The arrangement was taken care of by Katsu Hoshi（星勝）, formerly of the Group Sounds band The Mops, who I first knew for his work on Anzen Chitai's（安全地帯）"IV" LP. He's also contributed to a number of other singers such as the mysterious Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）.
As for the other members of Kaja, they are Tohru Uryu（瓜生徹）on synths, Yasumasa Ito（伊藤保正）on bass, Shinji Yoshihara（吉原慎二）on piano, and Takayuki Fujiwara（藤原隆幸）on drums, and Kenji Ito（伊藤賢二）on guitar. Uryu especially lets things rip on his instruments bringing some good ol' nostalgic sounds. I do wonder if "Marine Blue Sky" had ever been used for a JAL or ANA commercial.
Happy Civic Holiday to my fellow Torontonians and Happy Monday to everyone else! Last week, commenter Michael gave me his list of his own Happy Tunes in response to my list and one of those tunes was the catchy "Mikakunin no Superstar"（未確認のスーパースター）by Shin Rizumu（シンリズム）.
Another tune on his Happy list was Original Love's"Zeroset", and unlike the other KKP articles for singer-songwriter Takao Tajima's（田島貴男）splendid works, this song isn't from the 1990s but just from early last year due to its inclusion in his 17th album"bless You!" from February 2019.
No surprise that Michael has "Zeroset" on his list since it is very much an "Up with People" type of song. It was only yesterday that I wrote about "Kodoku no Marathon Runner"（孤独のマラソン・ランナー）by the folk band The Natashar Seven（ザ・ナターシャー・セブン）, and like that one, "Zeroset" also uses the metaphor of competitive running to get folks up and at 'em! But instead of the 1970s country-folksy melody of "Kodoku no Marathon Runner", "Zeroset" is a 21st-century driving pop piece with a touch of synth and a rolling thunder of percussion and bass. Furthermore, this time, the sport here might be more about the 100-metre dash rather than the 42-kilometre marathon. The important thing is that Tajima wants folks to leave the tough times and experiences behind, reset everything including the mind, and then once the starter's pistol goes off, run like Usain Bolt.🏃
I wouldn't be surprised if "Zeroset" becomes an athlete's go-to song for pumping the psyche up as "Kodoku no Marathon Runner" did for one fellow on that NHK Sunday sports broadcast. Hey, if the video is any indication, you can possibly end up in really cool duds and a great convertible in Tokyo if you go for the gusto. Tajima must be really lucky with the vehicles considering the car he's driving in there and the automobile he's got in the 1994 "The Rover" from "Kaze no Uta wo Kike"（風の歌を聴け）.
Heh, heh. To be honest, I remember the music video for this song more than I do for the song itself (since it's been parodied on TV) but I've been rectifying this as I listen to it. However, kudos to the folks behind that video; it's a good one and I'm surprised that there has been no mention about it on the J-Wiki article for "Tsuukai Uki Uki Doori" (Street of Exhilaration).
The song is by fun-loving 90s popster and songwriter Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）and it was his 11th single from December 1995. The video indeed has those Christmas images and Ozawa's lyrics talk about a fellow getting that request from his girlfriend to buy some Prada shoes for her, so he heads on down to what must be a truly happening shopping street and ends up enjoying himself far more than he expected in the hoopla. In fact, he ends up forgetting to get the shoes...and most likely losing his girlfriend in the bargain.
My first choice for that street the protagonist was on was Takeshita Street in Harajuku with all of the young folks and the variety of stores, but when the lyrics mentioned Prada shoes, I thought maybe this was Ginza. I know that neighbourhood better than I do Takeshita (although I can most likely afford the latter more than the former).
Still, the comical adventure in shopping and what-not is accompanied by Ozawa's merrily-as-we-go-along melody whose horn arrangement was provided by members of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra（東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ）:Gamou, Nargo and Masahiko Kitahara（北原雅彦）. Those horns provide some more of that lovely marshmallow to the cocoa that is "Tsuukai Uki Uki Doori".
The song hit No. 4 on Oricon and sold a little under 300,000 copies, and it's also a track on Ozawa's BEST collection"Setsuna"（刹那）from December 2003 which peaked at No. 29 on the album charts. One interesting piece of trivia about "Tsuukai Uki Uki Doori" from J-Wiki is that originally, lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）had requested Ozawa to come up with a song for the comedy team The Tunnels. Thinking that it was going to be for a duo, the songwriter felt that a Wham!-type song would do and so he whipped up a tune that was inspired by "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" which had been titled for Japanese audiences as "Uki Uki Wake Me Up"（ウキウキ・ウェイク・ミー・アップ）. But Ozawa just loved the sound of that uki uki so much that he ended up taking the song for his own. 😜
Yesterday, I wrote about "Itsuwari no DJ"（偽りのDJ）by the comic band Daddy Takechiyo & Tokyo Otoboke Cats（ダディ竹千代&東京おとぼけCATS）and at the same time, I discovered something rather special. During my research, I found out that Daddy had been involved in a fun little lark with some good buddies from the music industry called Takenoya Central Heating（竹野屋セントラルヒーティング）thanks to a radio program called "Pioneer Sound Research" on FM Tokyo in 1980.
Those good buddies happened to be Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）, Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）, and Masanori Sera（世良公則）, and they had a nice little jam session. On the "Itsuwari no DJ" article, I put up TCH's cover of The Beatles' "Twist and Shout". I was so charmed and delighted by the fact that these legends pulled an all-star gig that I have also decided to provide another couple of songs that they did.
One is another Beatles' classic, "All My Loving" (1964) for which I first heard the original on the airplane stereo offerings while on that flight to Tokyo in 1981. Then right after that, TCH gives their rendition of the kayo chestnut "Koi no Vacance" originally done by The Peanuts in 1963. I was able to find out on the J-Wiki article for "Koi no Vacance" (along with the information on the radio program) who was on which instrument: Tats was on drums, Mariya was on keyboard, Daddy and Kuwata were on guitar, and Sera was on bass. Apparently, both Tats and Kuwata have played the songs on their respective radio shows in the past.
Sunday would be the ideal day to put up this track from Hitomitoi' s（一十三十一）9th album"The Memory Hotel" from October 2015. It's written by the singer and her contemporary, Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）from Ryusenkei（流線形）and composed by Takiguchi, but it's not the usual Neo City Pop that we've seen them do together on projects such as the 2006 Ryusenkei album"Tokyo Sniper".
One commenter for the YouTube video above put it best: "Labyrinth ~ Kaze no Machi de" (In The Windy City) would be the ideal song to listen to while soaking in a bath. This pop tune is as soothing as the conclusion of throwing in some of that special onsen powder into the hot water, and it's no surprise that it was placed as the final track in "The Memory Hotel". Even the video comes off as a strange but oddly comforting dream in Hitomitoi's head. The combination of synths and strings acts like some sort of relaxation-inducing lullaby. Methinks that this would also be the type of song to hear once that Friday night of a long hard work week comes to pass, although Sunday is nice, too.
As for "The Memory Hotel", it peaked at No. 69 on Oricon. Another one to put on the wish list.
