Hiroshi Sato -- Eve no Asa wo（EVEの朝を）

From fujiya-peko.co.jp

Just finished listening to the entirety of Rocket Brown's interview of Scott for his "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast via Discord, and you can find out about the Mixcloud version of the show through my article on Yosui Inoue's（井上陽水）"Merry Christmas" article that I wrote earlier this afternoon. From the playlist today, it looks like I may have a lot of material this Yuletide season.

As one fellow commented on Discord when this song was played, "Man, what an intro!". Yep, I can agree with that assessment. We're referring to Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）"Eve no Asa wo" (Xmas Eve Morning), an October 1989 single and the first killer track on what is a compilation album by the singer-songwriter called "Hiroshi Sato '90 ~ Snow Land" also released on the same day. I was fortunate enough to discover that "Music Avenue", that Japanese-language music blog that I've often seen, also provided an article devoted to "Snow Land", and author kaz-shin stated that Sato had intended the album to be played on the car stereo while heading over to the ski resort. At the time, skiing was becoming a very popular leisure activity, something that the album cover makes abundantly clear. 

From Discogs.com

Going with what I've already mentioned, "Eve no Asa wo" has quite the intro with guitarist Takayuki Hijikata（土方隆行）blasting mellow Xmas tune-accustomed ears with a sound that is reminiscent of a scene from the first "Back to the Future" when Marty woke up his father with his own guitar. Sato really must have wanted everyone to have that ton of aural coffee. It's almost as if he had wanted to say, "SCREW YOUR NOG AND RELAXING FIREPLACE! I'M PARTYING ALL OVER TOWN TODAY!!" 

Once everyone is awake and assuming that the musician is going atypically metal, those familiar synths and Sato's soothing voice come rolling in for what comes across as folks taking a fun trip through a future city of glass and steel on Christmas Eve. Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）joins in with his own guitar and saxophonist Masato Honda（本田雅人）helps out with some of that Steely Dan sound that's further accentuated with some of Sato's own layering vocals. Couldn't have asked for a more dynamic Xmas song but admittedly, if I hadn't heard the title and the fact that it was on an Xmas-themed podcast, I wouldn't have known that "Eve no Asa wo" was anywhere related to the holiday.

Miki Matsubara -- Juu-ni Gatsu no Paris（12月のパリ）

 

In my last article, Yosui Inoue's（井上陽水）"Merry Christmas"（メリー・クリスマス）, I mentioned about Rocket Brown's latest Xmas episode. Well, as I was listening to the music and the banter between Scott and Rocket, I came across this little treat.

The voice was instantly recognizable: Miki Matsubara（松原みき）. But the song wasn't...it was something that I had never heard so it was time to start punching in words into the Google Japan search engine and fairly quickly, I was able to glean that the song for this article is named "Juu-ni Gatsu no Paris" (December in Paris), all about some Joyeux Noel romance in the City of Lights.

Written by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）and composed by Casiopea（カシオペア）keyboardist Minoru Mukaiya（向谷実）, this was actually the first track on Matsubara's 8th album "Lady Bounce". It's basically the synths doing a lot of the heavy lifting but I wouldn't really categorize "Juu-ni Gatsu no Paris" as a technopop tune, but in fact, I'd say that it has that City Pop beat with some jazziness thrown in for good measure, especially when one of the keyboards decides to masquerade as a trombone.

I also gotta say that the album in general has got the backing of some pretty big studio musicians. Along with Mukaiya on the keyboards, there's also Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）on guitar, Jake H. Concepcion on saxophone, and trumpeter Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）just to name a few.

Yosui Inoue -- Merry Christmas（メリー・クリスマス）

 

Welcome to the first weekend of December 2020. First, I'd like to mention that Rocket Brown has put up another Xmas-themed episode of "Come Along Radio" but this time with his special guest being Scott who has his own podcast specializing in J-Xmas songs from all decades called "Holly Jolly X'Masu". You can take a look at it on Rocket's Mixcloud site and you can also find out Scott's website there, too.

That's not the only commonality here in this article. I mentioned about Rocket's 3-hour Xmas episode on Chieri Ito's（伊藤智恵理）bright "Merry Christmas" song a few days ago. Well, the song here is also titled "Merry Christmas" but this time, it has been penned and sung by Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）. Scott actually told me about some of his YouTube cache of J-Xmas tunes that he's found over the years, and one of the videos is of this very song.

Inoue's "Merry Christmas" was one track on a collaborative effort among him and fellow folk singers Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）, Shigeru Izumiya（泉谷しげる）and Hitoshi Komuro（小室等）in the form of a special November 1976 album simply titled "Christmas"（クリスマス）. The album has also gotten some discussion in that conversation between Rocket and Scott today. As much as a lot of J-Xmas tunes have been about the hearty partying in the city and the lonely predicaments on December 24th, "Merry Christmas" is a bit different in that it's a quiet and heartwarming celebration of the Yuletide in the countryside. I can easily envision Inoue (and I'm assuming that it's indeed his fellow collaborators on backup) playing this for his dear guests at the country home in the woods with the fireplace and falling snow, and the video images are very apt.

Perhaps a lot of people in Japan also had the Christmas spirit back in 1976. "Christmas" reached No. 1 on Oricon.

Asami Kado -- Promise（プロミス）

 

Coming across this new discovery called "Promise" by singer-songwriter Asami Kado（門あさ美）, I got a bit snarky inside and wondered whether this had anything to do with that margarine William Shatner had once hawked on TV or the Japanese loan-sharking company.😈

But no, of course not. Instead, "Promise" was the B-side to Kado's September 1981 6th single "Gekka Bijin"（月下美人）and unlike the boppy Latin of that A-side, "Promise" is a softer, middle-of-a-pleasant-evening mid-tempo City Pop tune written and composed by the singer. Maybe it's not dinner time anymore but it's also not time to retire back to the penthouse suite quite yet. This is the song to accompany the short stroll over to the couple's favourite bar for one more drink...promise!

I especially love the intro with the cool chorus and the arrangement in general reminds me of the AOR by folks like Airplay and Rod Temperton. And then there is that lone trumpet solo...some fellow on the top of a Manhattan brownstone somewhere playing away during his break. I couldn't find "Promise" on any of the studio albums that were released at around the time that "Gekka no Bijin" came out, but perhaps it's popped up on one of the BEST albums by Kado.

Ryusenkei & Hitomitoi feat. Yasuyuki Horigome -- Kinyoubi no Venus（金曜日のヴィーナス）/Ryusenkei & Hitomitoi -- Kanashii kurai Diamond（悲しいくらいダイヤモンド）

 Let's see..."Remington Steele" had a slick and handsome con man and an intrepid but struggling private detective while "Moonlighting" starred a beautiful if suddenly penniless former model teamed up with a wiseass private detective. Both were detective comedies, both were set in Los Angeles, both were broadcast on American TV networks in the 1980s, both had some pretty stylish music, and both were programs that I enjoyed for a while at least ("Moonlighting" had its wheels fall off for some reason in its later seasons).

Those two old shows came to mind when I read the synopsis of this NHK drama that had just finished its run last month titled "Talio Fukushu Daiko no Futari"（タリオ 復讐代行の2人...Talio: Two Agents of Revenge）. From what I found on the website "My Drama List", the show had a young lawyer pair up with a fraud artist to right various wrongs every episode. I had been wondering what that first non-Japanese word "talio" meant. At first, I had assumed that it was the name of one of the main characters, but instead it refers to the Latin expression "lex talionis" or the "law of retaliation". Basically, we're looking at "An eye for an eye". Ah, I see...the more we learn, right?

Because I no longer have much interest in Japanese TV dramas, I've only seen "Talio" through the commercials for the series on TV Japan so I had no idea that the Neo City Popsters of the band Ryusenkei（流線形）and singer Hitomitoi（一十三十一）were responsible for the soundtrack. Aye, I can only imagine what that must sound like. However, at this point, I'll settle for the opening and ending themes starting with "Kinyoubi no Venus" (Friday's Venus).

Hitomitoi provides the lyrics about someone who just can't seem to catch a break in life and is desperate for any chance to get out of the rut. Meanwhile, Ryusenkei's Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）has some groovy summery vibes for our ears which is splendid considering the time of year that folks were watching "Talio". The interesting thing is that the singer is another friendly face from the genre, singer-songwriter Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）who this time is only behind the mike and not on the computer helping out in the creation. The mellow keyboards and horns also do the trick here.

Meanwhile, the ending theme is "Kanashii kurai Diamond" (Sad Diamond) which keeps the good times going. Also created by the same folks involved in the opener, "Kanashii kurai Diamond" fairly thrums like the motor of the Cabriolet that's mentioned in the song. Kinda feels like some Rod Stewart disco. Basically, it's time to hop into the convertible and take a drive down the coast. Nice video featuring Hitomitoi and I guess that would be Ryusenkei sitting around. I wonder if that is actually a set from "Talio".

From the lyrics of both songs, I also wonder if they refer to the main character of Mami Shirasawa, the lawyer who needs that leg up from the very person that she probably would incarcerate under normal circumstances. I probably won't catch the series but I'm glad that Ryusenkei, Hitomitoi and Horigome have hopped into another medium.

Rie Ida & 42nd Street -- Silver Airline（シルバー・エアライン）

 

Well, this time around, the gap has been considerably longer but allow me to welcome back Rie Ida（井田リエ）& 42nd Street once more to the files of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I provided a couple of their tunes back in 2019: "Party wo Nukedashite"（パーティーを抜け出して）and "Love Time Good Time"（ラブ・タイム・グッド・タイム）.

Ida and her band provided some of that old-fashioned American soul music via City Pop, and this time I bring you "Silver Airline", the first track on 42nd Street's 1980 album "Step In My Heart". Written by Naoko Nishio（西尾尚子）and composed by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）, compared to the already mentioned and bouncy "Love Time Good Time", which was the 2nd track on this release, "Silver Airline" is a more contemplative and beautiful piece talking of someone's perhaps bittersweet departure from the Big Apple. I would have thought that this would have taken up the third spot in the Side A lineup or even the final track on Side B...not that I'm complaining, mind you.

When I first saw the title of the song, "Silver Airline", my mind immediately thought of what I think is the unofficial logo of the genre of City Pop, that airplane taking off for places exotic and unknown (although I usually conjure up California or Hawaii). It's a bit ironic then that this particular starter for "Step In My Heart" is about actually leaving one of those dream cities in the City Pop realm. Anyways, those stirring strings and bluesy sax make for a fine accompaniment as the titular plane leaves LaGuardia or JFK.

Masayoshi Takanaka -- Straight From Your Heart

 

Not quite sure where I took this picture but it definitely is a very cute one of a Japanese rice omelet. I don't recall having been to any Maid Café in Toronto (recently) although I think there is still that one down in Chinatown.

Speaking of Heart of Hearts, here is a nice one from guitarist/composer Masayoshi Takanaka（高中正義）, "Straight From Your Heart", a track from his 10th album "Can I Sing?" released in October 1983. Quite the sunny stroll on the pier, music-wise, this Takanaka treat seems to infuse some Margaritaville with a bit of Tin Pan Alley. I get images of cocktails served in pineapple shells while sitting in some Tiki bar.

Keeping on with the connections, "Straight From Your Heart" was given lyrics by Chris Mosdell who had a working link with Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）during their Yellow Magic Orchestra days in the late 1970s going into the 1980s. Hosono was also a member of Tin Pan Alley back in the 1970s. Then again, I think Takanaka also had his own relationships with that band as well.

I don't think that I ever mentioned Takanaka's choice in guitars but since I've got my anime buddy who's also a hardcore guitar enthusiast, I can relate that he has an affinity for the Yamaha SG, the Fender Stratocaster and the Mosrite, according to his J-Wiki profile.