Eiichi Ohtaki feat. Rajie -- Velvet Motel

 

Forty years ago on March 21st 1981, the late singer-songwriter Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）released an album that would become his magnum opus, "A Long Vacation". It would get a ton of accolades and it finished just behind Akira Terao's（寺尾聰）"Reflections" as Oricon's No. 2 album of the year.

I've already covered the album along with some of the other tracks that I've covered individually, and in fact earlier today, some of us got together on Rocket Brown's "Come Along Radio" to go over "A Long Vacation" (which will be appearing on some platform sometime in the weeks to come). One song that I had yet to profile on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was the second track on Side A, "Velvet Motel" that was a work between lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composer Ohtaki.

Imbued with that iconic Ohtaki sound that imbues most of the tracks on "A Long Vacation", "Velvet Motel" is kinda like that Act I in a romance-comedy: it's carefree and comical before the more dramatic elements enter and contrasts nicely with the epic "Kimi wa Tennen Shoku"（君は天然色） that begins the album. And interestingly enough, Matsumoto's lyrics actually relate a story of a couple checking into that titular motel with the guy ending up sleeping on the couch due to a tiff that night, although there is some amiable teasing back-and-forth between Ohtaki and special guest Rajie（ラジー）that becomes more prominent once the headphones are put on.

I found out yesterday that in November 2009, a tribute album to the works on "A Long Vacation" was released titled "A Long Vacation from Ladies" in which a number of veteran female singers do their cover versions of Ohtaki's tracks. Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）, Miki Imai（今井美樹）, Hiromi Ohta（太田裕美）and Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）are included in the list.

Circus -- Beautiful Our G

 

Happy Saturday...and most definitely so for the sun worshippers because we're under a heat warming here in the GTA. This is indeed rich since last Friday, we were hit with winter which included snow flurries. There's never a dull moment in Southern Ontario if you're a meteorologist.

Currently, I'm in a bit of a holding pattern just before another taping session with Rocket Brown for another album but while I'm waiting, I think that I can put in an article before show time. This is "Beautiful Our G", a song by the vocal group Circus（サーカス）, and the video above is thanks to Marty McFlies.

I was trying to figure out the meaning of the title for a while when I found out that this most optimistic-sounding tune was meant to be the theme song for a festival that was held in 1985 on Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture. Released in December 1984, the Our G part in "Beautiful Our G" is a pun on Awaji. Amazing what a lax attitude to English syntax can bring to Japanese pop song titles! With lyrics by the legendary Yu Aku（阿久悠）and shiny and happy melody by the one-and-only Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）, the sweet vocal stylings of Circus provide a summery sheen to this tribute to the island. Marty has put up the whole single consisting of the original song followed by the instrumental version.

TINNA -- Little Bit Bad Thing

 

When I was a little kid, I remember reading the entertainment section of the Toronto Star and there used to be a lot of the movie listings, including the ones for (ahem) more adult viewing. 😙 There was a blurb for one of them stating "When she was good, she was really good, but when she was bad, she was REALLY BAD!".

That catchphrase is what coalesces in my mind when I hear TINNA's "Little Bit Bad Thing". A track from their December 1978 LP "Long Distance", it's got oodles of disco funk in there and the man behind the music was Yasunori Soryo（惣領泰則）who had been married to one-half of the duo, Tomoko Soryo（惣領智子）. According to the JASRAC database, Melanie Strain came up with the English lyrics, and Soryo and her singing partner, Mariko Takahashi（高橋真理子）, and no, I'm not talking about the singer who used to be the vocalist for Pedro & Capricious, really get down and go sultry with the delivery about a woman who feels that the cad in her life is a bad influence but can't help but remain smitten.

All in all, I kinda wonder whether "Little Bit Bad Thing" is a little bit of Stevie Wonder arrangement with a little bit of Donna Summer enunciation.

Kazuhiro Nishimatsu -- Hong Kong Bojou（香港慕情）

 

Considering the target song here, I thought it would be nice to bring back a bit of J Utah and his driving videos, specifically the one for nighttime Hong Kong. That's definitely one municipality that I wouldn't mind visiting again someday when things have truly become safer (politically and medically). It has such a different feeling from either Tokyo or Toronto, and being a foodie, the culinary fare can't be beat...will always remember the steamed crabs in sauce.

I have to keep on the Kazuhiro Nishimatsu（西松一博）file and his unique brand of music, especially where his 1985 album "Bouekifu Monogatari"（貿易風物語）is concerned. I've already given a couple of articles' worth of attention to this album mixing in the past and the contemporary and the jazzy and the synthy, thanks to this wizard Nishimatsu. However, there are more tracks to cover.

One is "Hong Kong Bojou" (Yearning for Hong Kong) which once again features an old-fashioned jazz love song that simply screams for Nishimatsu to be in a tuxedo and pencil-thin moustache while cradling a huge microphone stand in his arms. Yet, the melody has that technopop shine so the audience could be populated by robots as well as the well-heeled. It certainly fits the mood of the album. Nishimatsu was behind the music while Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）provided the lyrics.

Yuko Asano -- Moonlight Taxi（ムーンライト・タクシー）/Ringo no Kokoro（リンゴの心）

 

Pretty much any station in Tokyo will have its fair share of taxis waiting for fares (and I'm hoping that over the past year, the industry has been hanging in there, although it seems that the megalopolis has been quite relaxed in its restrictions compared to here), and above is one of the main stations in the city, JR Shinagawa Station. I can't quite remember whether I ever took a cab from this particular depot but I did go there a number of times and even partook in some McDonalds across the street. In fact, I took the photo here in front of the Golden Arches.

For her December 1976 10th single during her aidoru days, Yuko Asano（浅野ゆう子）released "Moonlight Taxi", a quick and chipper tune about her enjoying that time in the big city with her chariot being the good ol' cab. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by his frequent partner Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, the arrangement by Tsutsumi and Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）has got some of that romantic disco interwoven with that high-pitched teen voice of Asano. The horns are plenty funky and the strings shimmer even more in the instrumental bridge thanks to some sort of filter, it seems.

The strings continue to stand out on the B-side of "Ringo no Kokoro" (Heart of An Apple) since their arrangement reminds me of a similar thing for Pizzicato Five's "Ice Cream Meltin' Mellow" from the group's "Romantique '96" album. Everyone on the songwriting team for the A-side is back here for "Ringo no Kokoro" which starts off with a playful piano and bass/guitar before it all gives way to those soaring strings. I gather that both songs are the quintessential semi-disco aidoru tunes of the decade.

Taxis never lacked for business
at JR Shinagawa!

Toko Okabe -- Vacancy

 

We start off today's crop of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" articles with another little-known singer-songwriter who rather came and went. In fact, 1989 was her sole year in the limelight.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1kP4y1Y7iY/

For any singers named Toko, the one that always comes to mind is the silky and svelte Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）who had her big time from the 1990s. However, there was that one singer with that same first name who appeared in that final year of the 1980s: Toko Okabe（岡部東子）. Very little information is available online about her and I couldn't even find where she hailed from.

However, she did release two singles and two albums in 1989 and the one album that I'm featuring here is "Stay the Sun" which came out in October. As one Japanese blogger noted, Okabe was going for a more mature sound with this second and final album, and as he put it, the results were pretty humdrum. Still, I don't have any axe to grind with that first track "Vacancy" which was written and composed by her. Okabe has some light and pleasant soul in her voice and "Vacancy" possesses some nice and understated groove. I'm never going to turn down any light and mellow R&B.

Flying Kitty Band -- Boku wa Uchuu Hikoushi, Parts 1 and 2（僕は宇宙飛行士）

 

A couple of years ago, I wrote about Flying Kitty Band (フライング・キティ・バンド）, a trio which consisted of singer-songwriter Kei Ogura  (小椋佳）, Hiromi Yasuda  (安田裕美）and Katsu Hoshi  (星勝）. I mentioned that I had known Ogura especially as this writer of tenderhearted kayo for singers such as Hibari Misora（美空ひばり） before realizing that he was once a member of this New Music group which released just one album, "5･4･3･2･1･0", in September 1977. The concept for the album was about a kid and his dreams to head for space.

For that first article for Flying Kitty Band, the song was "Boseki wo Sora ni" (墓石を空に）, a 1970s AOR tune whose cheeriness belies that rather morose title which can be translated as "Tombstone to the Sky". However, there were two other songs, "Boku wa Uchuu Hikoushi" (I'm An Astronaut), Parts 1 and 2 which were Tracks 2 and 5 respectively on the album.

As opposed to the AOR for "Boseki wo Sora ni", the totality of "Boku wa Uchuu Hikoushi", which is provided by k kaz in the video above, is about the kid and his buddies' desire to go to all of the nearby stars and constellations such as Sirius and Pegasus within a folksy and swinging French jazz milieu (although I really hope that the capsule doesn't have any boxes of Gitanes laying around...children shouldn't be smoking those!). It's quite the happy way to send off the junior astronauts and it ought to take the edge off during launch.

Ogura was responsible for the lyrics while Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）brought the happy melody and Hoshi arranged everything.