Maria Muldaur -- Midnight at the Oasis

 

"So sensual and evocative that it was probably one of the most replayed records of the era and may be responsible for the most pregnancies from a record during the mid-'70s."

The above quote was by AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwald via the Wikipedia article for "Midnight at the Oasis", a song that had first seen the light of day through singer Maria Muldaur's self-titled debut album from August 1973. As a kid of course, I used to hear it all the time on AM radio at home and in the car, and I just thought it was a really nice song to listen to instead of it being considered to be the aural equivalent of oysters, ginseng and other vaunted aphrodisiacs. Of course, as a wee kid, I shouldn't have been privy to that sort of information back then in any case. Then again, I didn't know the truth behind guitarist David Nicthern's words until just a few years ago since I've never been a huge lyrics person.

So here I had thought that "Midnight at the Oasis" was referring to a lovely romp at a nightclub called The Oasis instead of a lovely romp on the oasis. Well, we all learn something every day, don't we? It was released as a single the following year in February, and it did very well on the US Billboard chart by placing in at No. 6 but it did even better in Canada where it hit No. 1 on RPM. On the yearly charts, there was a switch in results in that it placed in at No. 13 on Billboard while finishing at No. 45 on RPM.

All in all, though, I think "Midnight at the Oasis" is just the tonic while heading home late at night or very early in the morning in the car. Good times on the radio!

In terms of what was being released in Japan at the time that people first heard "Midnight at the Oasis" on Muldaur's album back in August 1973, I found these three songs that may actually have been re-releases rather than original releases, according to Showa Pops.

Chieko Baisho -- Sayonara wa Dance no Ato ni （さよならはダンスの後に）

Pinky and Killers -- Koi no Kisetsu (恋の季節）

Naomi Chiaki -- Yakan Hiko （夜間飛行）

Mai Yamane -- Lady Luck

 

There is a Marvel character specifically within the "X-Men" community named Domino, a good buddy of Cable who just happens to be the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor and yadda yadda yadda. If I went on any longer, I would get rather soap opera-ish about the whole thing which is something that sometimes annoys me about the intertwining nature of the comic superheroes. But in any case, Domino's mutant power is her ability to warp probabilities. In other words, she can generate oodles of good luck for her and her allies.

Now, Zazie Beetz did portray Domino in "Deadpool 2". But I figure that if Domino were to make a second appearance on the big screen, I wouldn't mind having this song by Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）as her theme tune. Yeah, I realize that it's a little too obvious having a song titled "Lady Luck" for her, but heck, Yamane has done some great things for anime such as "Cowboy Be-Bop" so why not have this adorning any iteration of the character?

Besides, I've always seen Domino (when I used to collect the various X comics even in expensive Tokyo) as the kickass rock-n'-roll type and that's how I see "Lady Luck" which is a track on Yamane's August 1988 album "Woman Tone". Neither the song nor the character suffers fools gladly and they seem to love a great time in the city. Yamane and Eiko Yamane（山根えい子）provided the lyrics while Masayuki Iwata（岩田雅之）of PAZZ fame came up with the rollicking melody. Of course, Mai gives her velvety and growly best behind the mike.

Anzen Band -- Anzen Band no Fushigi na Tabi（あんぜんバンドのふしぎなたび）

 

Weather in my region of Southern Ontario should be seen as a treasure trove or a Valhalla for meteorologists around the world. As I've often said to my students asking about what weather is like in my area of Toronto and beyond, it's predictably unpredictable. It was broiling hot a couple of days ago with a Humidex into the low 30s Celsius and yet tomorrow afternoon, we will be lucky if we even reach 7 degrees! My brow wouldn't even twitch at any reported prediction of snow. It would be quite the magical carpet ride for weather forecasters here.

Well, speaking about magical carpet rides, I found this one album, "Anzen Band no Fushigi na Tabi" (Anzen Band's Strange Trip) by Anzen Band（あんぜんバンド...Safety Band）, and no, I'm not referring to the 1980s hit band Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）. For one thing, the considerably more obscure Anzen Band had its time merely within the 1970s (1971-1976) and their sound has been described as something in the progressive rock vein.

I couldn't find very much on this group at all except through a blurb at Recochoku. In 1971, guitarist Tamio Aizawa（相沢民夫）, bassist/vocalist Hiroyuki Nakazawa（長沢博行）, and drummer Junichiro Ito（伊藤純一郎）formed Anzen Band, later to be joined by guitarist Tomokuni Aizawa（相沢友邦）. Not sure if the Aizawas were related. Their debut album, "Album A"（アルバムA）, was released in 1975 and gained some popularity for its emulation of its American rock sound akin to that of the Doobie Brothers at that time. 

"Anzen Band no Fushigi na Tabi" was their 2nd and final album (love that cover, by the way) released in 1976 after which Anzen Band broke up despite good critical reviews. I haven't really written about albums that I don't already own for a while now, but listening to some of this LP, I've gotten intrigued enough to at least give it a go for the first three tracks.

The brief Recochoku description for the album states that "Fushigi na Tabi" highlights some more of the band members' personal tastes in the music. For instance, the first track (right at the top), "Hatenonai Tabi"（果てのない旅...The Endless Trip）, is an instrumental appetizer that is dreamy, jazzy and breezy...perhaps something to be heard at an outdoor concert in a park on a Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, the second track, "Jikan no Uzu"（時間の渦...Time Vortex） below , has more of that prog rock flavour with some blues and the usual frills of the genre (including some spooky vocal bits...maybe they were watching "The Exorcist" back then) thrown in. It's a fascinating track that goes on for nearly 6 minutes (so perhaps it's a more conservative progressive rock piece?), and it makes me wonder if I should explore more of that 70s prog rock with bands such as Genesis and Supertramp.

Track 3 is "Yuuhi no Naka e"（夕陽の中へ...Into the Setting Sun）. With some glorious riffing by the electric organ and some triumphant electric guitar, it aurally takes listeners like me into suborbital space with the sun glowing in the darkness. There's even some jazzy smoothness thanks to a saxophone solo so maybe following that launch, everyone got invited to some club to mellow out.

Anyways, give "Anzen Band no Fushigi na Tabi" a try. I will delve a little deeper myself.

VIZION -- Dancing Generation

 

Yeah, har-de-har-har! I'm going to be profiling a band called VIZION so of course I'm going to add a video featuring The Vision from Marvel. Well, I figure that it's a bit more exciting than putting up the usual 1983 thumbnail photo.

Still, this is a fascinating band not just because of "Dancing Generation", one of the tracks from the band's one-and-only album "Psychotic Cube" which was released in that year of 1983. The intriguing part is that VIZION consisted of at least a few members whose solo work has already been shown on the blog from long ago. For one thing, there is the vocalist, singer-songwriter Kenjiro Sakiya（崎谷健次郎）, bassist Nobuo Ariga  (有賀啓雄) who KKP writer nikala first introduced all the way back in 2014 through his "Rain Dolphin", and keyboardist Akihiko Matsumoto（松本晃彦）who would come up with the snazzy soundtracks for the cop show franchise "Odoru Dai Sosasen" (踊る大捜査線）from the late 1990s onwards. The other members were drummer Hisanori Ikuno（生乃久法）, guitarist Jin Ishiyama（石山仁）, and keyboardist Tetsuo Otake（大竹徹夫）.

VIZION, which lasted only between 1981 and 1983, styled itself as a pop unit with some R&B funkiness. And I think with the catchy if mysterious "Dancing Generation", there is plenty of that in there although that intro had me thinking initially of synthpop. Sakiya, who composed the song alongside Rinko Yuuki's（有己林子）lyrics, plays a bit with those vocal effects, too, and come to think of it, the vocalist also reminds me a little of Noriyuki Makihara（槇原敬之）who was still a few years away from his own debut.

Yoshiko Miyazaki -- Orgel no Koiuta（オルゴールの恋唄）

 

Last month, I introduced Yoshiko Miyazaki（宮崎美子）onto the pages of KKP through a track that was on one of her three albums "Mellow" (1981). Up to then, I'd known Miyazaki as the cheerful veteran actress/tarento who first got her fame from her bikini-clad figure in a Minolta commercial.

Well, that track that I first talked about, "Ima wa Heiki yo"（今は平気よ）, is quite the technopop treat provided by Akiko Yano and Ryuichi Sakamoto（矢野顕子・坂本龍一）, and I mentioned there that although Miyazaki's vocals weren't supremely strong, the bubbly synthesizers rather compensated for that. However, Track 3 on "Mellow", "Orgel no Koiuta" (Music Box Love Song), is a straight-ahead mellow pop song written and composed by singer-songwriter Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子）who has had her own hits of the past. 

"Orgel no Koiuta" is a pleasant song to be sure with arrangement by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）and it's got a pretty interesting bend in the melody when it goes into the instrumental bridge. In fact, I would say that this was something ideal for someone like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）who has tackled the more romantic and baroque pop (aka Fashion Music) of the time. Again though, Miyazaki's vocals aren't the strongest and the wobbliness especially shows up in the higher notes, but at the same time, there is something about that which reminds me a little of Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）who was just starting her own career in music at the same time.

Aido -- Natsu no Futari（夏の二人）

 

This is the first time that I've featured the short-lived rock band Aido（愛奴）on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but I have mentioned this group before. It was actually back for a March 2015 article featuring singer-songwriter Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）"Ai no Kakehiki" （愛のかけひき）since it was one of his very early singles as a solo performer after being the drummer and co-vocalist for Aido.

According to J-Wiki, Aido had its initial origins with percussionist/keyboardist Takao Yamazaki（山崎貴生）, guitarist/vocalist Kanji Choushi（町支寛二）and bassist Nobuhiko Takahashi（高橋信彦）starting up an earlier group as high school buddies in 1968 within the loose amateur grouping known as the Hiroshima Folk Village. However with the rigors of university, this group had to break up, but later on in 1972 when the guys were all attending higher education in Tokyo, they got together again along with a couple of additions in the form of future star Hamada and guitarist/vocalist Tohru Aoyama（青山徹）.

On handing over a demo tape to what was known as CBS/Sony Records, Aido was invited over to do an audition and apparently folk star Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）took a listen, was suitably impressed and then offered the guys to join him on a national tour as the backup band. Incidentally, it was Hamada himself who came up with the name Aido to identify the group which had apparently been the stage name for French literature scholar Isamu Kurita（栗田勇）but it was more about how the kanji sounded and the image (the literal meaning is "love guys") that sealed the deal.

In any case, I found this track from their 2nd and final album (Aido broke up in 1976), "Love In City", released in September 1976. "Natsu no Futari" (The Summer Couple), which was written and composed by Aoyama, is not to be confused by their debut single which was titled "Futari no Natsu"（二人の夏...Two of Us in Summer） and was created by Hamada. In fact, by the time that "Love in City" was released, Hamada had already left the band. To be honest, I was initially confused by the two titles but I'm all cool now and will cover the debut single in a future article.

For the most part, "Natsu no Futari" indeed has that calming effect although Aoyama's lyrics seem to be describing a bit of late-summer bittersweet feeling since it looks like the couple here is having one last dance on the beach before breaking up forever as the season flows into cooler autumn. The other observation is how most of the song is mellow weather interspersed with some sudden vocal squalls. Maybe we're still a few weeks away from the official beginning of summer but considering how hot it's been over the last few days in Toronto, I think "Natsu no Futari" is OK at this time.

Just one more piece of trivia before I wrap up here as I mention that Hamada also invited drummer Atsuo Okamoto（岡本郭男）to join Aido. Okamoto is not to be mistaken for the singer Atsuo Okamoto（岡本敦郎）who sang the kayo classic "Kogen Ressha wa Iku"（高原列車は行く）, and as you can see the kanji for the two people's first names are different. Plus, drummer Okamoto would also join a few more bands, including Spectrum and AB'S.

Ken Takahashi/Naomi Nomoto -- Bucket Ippai no Ame（バケツいっぱいの雨）

 

Usually when it comes to singer-songwriter Ken Takahashi（高橋研）on this blog, I've usually included him as the songwriter behind the scenes but up to this point, I'd only had one article about one of his songs, "Natsukashi no Yon-go Sen"（懐かしの4号線）, in which the Iwate Prefecture-born Takahashi was behind the mike. Well, here is his second KKP article with him actually singing as well as creating the song.

In "Natsukashi no Yon-go Sen", I likened Takahashi to singers such as Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）and Shogo Hamada（浜田省吾）in his good ol' rock-n'-roll approach. Well, I did find a blog posting by someone named Takashi Ikegami in which the singer is compared to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. And perhaps there is a particular connection with Dylan here when it comes to this track "Bucket Ippai no Ame" (Buckets of Rain) because the legendary singer-songwriter behind classics including "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" actually created a song titled "Buckets of Rain" for his January 1975 album "Blood on the Tracks".

Although Takahashi's "Bucket Ippai no Ame" is straight ahead rock-n'-roll (and basically a different animal) compared to Dylan's folk-rock "Buckets of Rain", I can't help but hear a bit of that rhythm from the Dylan song grafted into Takahashi's song as perhaps a tribute (maybe someone can confirm this). In any case, I also hear the Sano and Hamada feelings in Takahashi's creation which was a track on his third album from December 1986, "Freedom". It's definitely a feel-good song as Takahashi sings that every life has its buckets of rain falling down but there is also sun breaking through the clouds, too.

(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)

Up to this point, I had two entries on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for Naomi Nomoto（野本直美）including her "Kanashimi Doori"（かなしみ通り）, and my impression was that she was into the folk/New Music genres. Well, with her 1987 "The Fire" album, Nomoto decided to check out her own inner rock-n'-roll as well. In fact, the above-mentioned Ikegami has likened her to an Osakan version of pop-rock singer Ayumi Nakamura（中村あゆみ）, and strangely enough, Nakamura's big hit from 1985, "Tsubasa no Oreta Angel" （翼の折れたエンジェル）was created by Takahashi.

Nomoto did a cover of Takahashi's "Bucket Ippai no Ame" for "The Fire" and it actually leads off the album. It's got that same motorcycle-on-the-road-friendly arrangement although it doesn't have that brassy E Street Band sensation from the original. However, Nomoto makes it quite clear that she can also provide the good ol' rock-n'-roll chops.