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.
Yup, spring did come and along with it, the second season of an anime that even the animators hadn't been sure about during its initial run in 2018. Reading my own article on the opening theme for "Zombie Land Saga"（ゾンビランドサガ）, "Adabana Necromancy"（徒花ネクロマンシー）, it looks like it didn't really even register with either me or my anime buddy that the show about zombie aidoru in Saga Prefecture was going to become a sleeper hit until midway through Season 1. But like the overarching plot for the show, the actual series became "The Little Anime That Could" as its characters and the music started insinuating themselves into fans' minds.
Well, I haven't even watched Episode 1 yet since I've got a couple of more shows to finish up on but thanks to all of those YouTube excerpts and the like, I've already gotten a good snifter of how "Zombie Land Saga Revenge" proceeds. It certainly appears as well that my anime buddy, who's a huge fan and had been eagerly anticipating the return of the aidoru group Franchouchou, is going to be busy buying up the various examples of music generated from this sequel.
And I gather that it's time for me to restart the Franchouchou file with, logically enough, the opening theme for "Revenge", "Taiga yo Tomo ni Naite Kure" (O Saga, Cry With Me). Once again, taking that tokusatsu/cop show feeling into the song are lyricist Shin Furuya（古屋真）and composer Yusuke Kato（加藤裕介）with each of the group's members taking a turn at the mike. This time, though, in comparison with the opener from Season 1, "Adabana Necromancy", there is not really any of the Takarazuka Revue sensation in "Taiga yo Tomo ni Naite Kure"; it's more of that dynamic 1980s aidoru pop adorning the exciting opening credits which seem to be painting a picture of an Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick involving the ladies. They'll be back indeed.
From hearing some of the new stuff from Franchouchou, it looks like I'll be busy for the next few months at least writing on their file here on KKP.
If I'm not mistaken about my date, July 5th will be an auspicious one for me. Tomorrow will be 40 years to the day since I boarded that Air Canada (or was it Canadian Pacific?) flight with the rest of my graduating class from the Toronto Japanese Language School for that one month in Japan. Over the years of writing for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've mentioned about that fateful summer 1981 trip in various entries, probably mostly for 1981 songs, in which being in Tokyo, Nagoya, Nara, etc for that one month changed my life so much that it became all about learning of Japanese culture for me. Of course, that Japanese culture also included pop music.
As such, on this personally special ROY article, I thought that I would end this blogging day by listing all those songs that I remember hearing during my time there and then watching on the TV music ranking shows over and over again. Initially, I'd thought about just listing the Oricon Top 10 for July 1981 but seeing that I've already done that, well, this particular list is more heartfelt.
Perhaps it's a tad over-the-top, but without that July 5th departure for Japan, there would be no fascination for the nation of my heritage, there would be no decision to major in Japanese Studies, no life and music in Japan for close to 20 years, and no "Kayo Kyoku Plus". It's been quite the ride and I hope to not get off the bus quite yet.
First off, Happy Birthday to the United States of America and best wishes to all of my friends who are living there and that includes KKP contributor Larry Chan and Come Along Radio's Rocket Brown in California, another friend to the blog, JTM in Hawaii, and all of the commenters as well living down in theUSA.
My usage of one of Francis Scott Key's lyrics from "The Star-Spangled Banner" (composed by John Stafford Smith) wasn't just to recognize the fact that today was the Fourth of July but to also highlight the fact that Los Angeles AngelShohei "Sho-time" Ohtani（大谷翔平）has been launching baseballs out of stadia like missiles with great frequency over the past several weeks. NHK Sports has been all over him like flypaper and the YouTube videos have also been covering this huge 6'4" behemoth of a baseball player from Iwate Prefecture.
Now, what does Sho-time have to do with the two Japanese music acts of very different styles? And no, nothing salacious here. Actually just to provide background for a few lines, I think this has been the case as well in Major League Baseball depending on the team but I gather that in Nippon Professional Baseball, teams have specific songs for star players whenever they first make their presence known on the field for a game.
Since Ohtani has been both a pitcher and a hitter, during his time with the Nippon Ham Fighters in the NPB, he apparently had two songs for his field appearances that changed from season to season. Whenever he came up to bat during the 2014 season for instance, the song "Kitto Kanau" (Surely Come True) would be played over the speakers at home.
"Kitto Kanau" is a coupling song for the 13th single"Faith" by singer-songwriter miwa which was released in February 2014. miwa has always left me with an impression of that lanky long-haired lady with megawatts of smile and an acoustic guitar since she has appeared on a number of music shows including NHK's Kohaku Utagassen. She first came to my attention when she along with 96 neko provided the jaunty theme song for the heartwarming anime "Flying Witch" (ふらいんぐうぃっち) . And although I'm sure that she's released her fair share of ballads and sad songs, my image of her has always been her high voice and very upbeat and down-home music.
The music video for "Kitto Kanau" has miwa, apparently doused with Pym Particles, singing and walking on a young girl's desk as it looks like she's been cramming for exams. I also noticed the Kit Kat chocolate which is a popular lucky item to munch on during exam season since the name itself sounds similar to the Japanese phrase kitto katsu（きっと勝つ）which means "surely win or persevere". That can also apply to a particular young batter pounding out runs. The single itself peaked at No. 4 on Oricon, and "Kitto Kanau" was created by miwa and Naoki-T.
Now, as we go from a student's room to the dance floor, I also have to point out that whenever Ohtani hit the mound to throw his pitches in that 2014 season, the song of choice for him there was technopop trio Perfume's "Party Maker", a track from the group's October 2013 album"LEVEL 3". Yow! This is quite the barnburner of a Perfume song, and Perfume has put out a lot of power-packed songs over the years. I still haven't mastered all of the different genres in the dance or techno area but "Party Maker" is straight-on EDM...maybe?
In any case, the beats that often thump away at the ears are enough to envision a crowded dance floor, and in the J-Wiki article for "LEVEL 3", Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）stated that when he first heard the song, he was pretty much forced to get on up. Just imagine how Ham Fighter fans reacted when Ohtani came out on the field to this song. A gigantic disco ball probably descended several dozen metres over the pitcher's head. "LEVEL 3" hit No. 1 on the charts and eventually became the 23rd-ranked album for 2013. Still, I would think that "Party Maker" was also great whenever Ohtani hit one of those home runs out of the park.
My common expression on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" whenever the hot season is upon us is that it's not summer without either a TUBE or a Southern All Stars song on tap. Those songs are as necessary as cold beer or a beach BBQ.
So let us start off this Sunday with a TUBE tune. Vocalist and songwriter Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）came up with the words and music for "Kokoro made SUNSHINE"(Sunshine to Your Heart), a track from the band's 9th original album"Summer City" released in June 1989. This is one of the more relaxing guitar-strumming melodies from the TUBE arsenal and the atmosphere is more cocktails to be sipped and hammocks to be slept on. Wouldn't it be nice for all of us to be in that setting now?
The album itself did very well on the charts as it hit No. 6 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the 59th-ranked release of the year via CD. The title track "Summer City" which was also TUBE's 9th single from that same year has its own profile on my article on the band's BEST compilation "TUBEst".
A bit late in the day, so to speak, but singer-songwriter Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）celebrated her 60th birthday on May 28th, and in Japanese culture, the 60th birthday is an auspicious one on the same level as how a 50th birthday would be celebrated in the West, perhaps. In fact, the 60th is known in Japanese as kanreki（還暦）, and for more information on it, you can take a look at this article on the significance of turning the big Six-O in Japan.
My previous article on Karashima-sensei (one of her nicknames) was back in September 2019 with "Anata wa Shiranai"（あなたは知らない...You Don't Know）. Well, I've got another poignant song of hers with that second-person singular personal pronoun, "Anata ni Kaerenai" (Can't Go Back to You) which was originally recorded on her 2nd album, "Good Afternoon", from May 1990.
Beginning with Karashima's piano playing, it is a really lush ballad especially with those strings backing her up. In fact, the first time I heard "Anata ni Kaerenai", there was that thrill which went up my spine. Karashima was responsible for words and music but Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）was behind the overall arrangement, and my compliments to him for bringing in that string section. I don't know whether "Anata ni Kaerenai", a song of remembrance over a past relationship, was her first dalliance with this sort of arrangement but I think that this combination of piano-and-strings has been a template for a Karashima song.
In 2004, Karashima released a BEST compilation of her self-covers called "Smile and Tears" which was separated into two parts, put out in May and October that year. The latter is "Namida ga Niji ni Kawaru Shunkan"（〜涙が虹にかわる瞬間〜...The Moment that Tears Change Into Rainbows） and it's on this album that her cover of "Anata ni Kaerenai" is placed. It's more stripped down with what sounds like a Fender Rhodes and a Latin guitar standing out as the main instruments.
This is the Sensei herself advertising a concert that was held on May 4th at Kyurian Hall which is basically the community centre for Shinagawa Ward in Tokyo. I actually got to go to the place itself many years ago to see an old friend perform.
I was having a conversation with commenter James Noah who like me spent many years in Japan, and he asked me if I'd covered Keiichiro Akagi（赤木圭一郎）in the blog. Sheepishly, I had to admit that I didn't even know who Akagi was since I was never a huge fan of the old movies in Japan ("The Seven Samurai" was pretty much it for me). James was then kind enough to tell me about this young intense actor of the late 1950s and early 1960s who was lined up with other popular stars of the time such as Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）and Akira Kobayashi（小林旭）. According to Wikipedia, J-Wiki and James himself, he was seen as the Japanese equivalent of James Dean through his good looks, tough guy outfits and rough-and-tumble but decent-guy performances. However, in terms of his face, he resembled Tony Curtis which is why he earned the nickname of Tony. Another nickname was The Cool Guy, I guess, to distinguish him from Ishihara's Tough Guy and Kobayashi's Might Guy.
Unfortunately, another commonality between the Tokyo-born Akagi and Dean was the brevity of their lives. Dean was killed in an auto accident in 1955 at the age of 24 whereas Akagi died in 1961 when the go-cart that he was driving at Nikkatsu Studios lost control and collided into a steel door. He was only 21. But during that short film career between 1958 and 1961, he had already amassed 26 movies.
Actually, the above video is of Akagi with actress/singer Ruriko Asaoka（浅丘ルリ子）in the 1960 "Nukiuchi no Ryu"（抜き射ちの竜...The Dragon Lashes Out）, the first of four movies in the "Kenju Burai-chō"（拳銃無頼帖...The Villainous/Independent Record of a Gun） series about a top-notch gunman. The first scene shown in the video indicates how the studios may have wanted to have those comparisons made between Akagi and some of those Hollywood young turks of the time. I swear that first scene must have been inspired by the pivotal one in the 1954 "On the Waterfront" with Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger (unfortunately, that video has been taken down and replaced).
The other movie that Akagi was known for is "Muteki ga Ore wo Yondeiru"(The Call of the Foghorn) from July 1960. A story of mystery, violence, betrayal and heartbreak, Akagi plays a ship's navigator who lands in Yokohama and ends up playing detective when he's told of the death of an old friend under strange circumstances. The film was the final one for Akagi before his untimely death.
Of course, being the star of the movie, Akagi was pretty much obliged to sing the theme song for the movie as would be the case for his contemporaries, Ishihara and Kobayashi. Given the same title, "Muteki ga Ore wo Yondeiru" was written by Kaoru Mizuki（水木かおる）and composed by Hideyuki Fujiwara（藤原秀行）, and it became a big hit for the star. Following in the vocal footsteps of the above-mentioned stars, Akagi gives a laconic, devil-may-care but also melancholy performance as he hints at the plot of the movie via Mizuki's lyrics. Meanwhile, the music has that well-known feeling of the downbeat downtown life through the muted trumpet, mournful saxes and the cutting strings. I think hard-boiled would be an apt description of both movie and theme song.
As I have for Dean, I also now wonder what would have become of Akagi if he had survived the crash.
I always like it when a YouTube browsing unearths something marvelous.
Case in point, this would be the duo Casamila which has been around since the late 1990s but has only put out three albums and at least one maxi-single in 2000, including a promotion album that was never meant to be put onto the market. Casamila consists of Yasuyo Kashima（鹿島やすよ）, vocalist and lyricist from the city of Fukuoka, and Tadashi Shirakawa（白川雅）, keyboardist, composer and arranger from Osaka.
Their most recent album was recorded and released in 2016 titled "Noites De Luar" which translates from Portuguese into "Moonlit Nights", and from what I've heard so far, it sounds like a mix of everything that has been Japanese urban contemporary over the past 30 years including the return of Shibuya-kei with Kashima sounding reminiscent of the Divine Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）from Pizzicato Five. The title track which starts things off has got that languid Burt Bacharach feeling from the past and what can I say about that electric organ solo?
"Cotton Candy" has a hint of that Shibuya-kei but is otherwise more of what Neo-City Pop would sound like right now. Despite the title, it comes across as the theme for some kakkoii film noir set in any of the major neighbourhoods of Tokyo. There's even some synthesized form of sophisti-pop in the instrumental bridge.
"By Oneself" is another dynamic tune that seems to be ready-made for the car stereo as we go driving over the Rainbow Bridge at Tokyo Bay. Of course, there's gotta be a beefy sax solo along with the piano toodling away like crazy.
One more track that I'll provide you is a cover of "Love Squall" which was originally done by Sandra Hohn, aka Sandii of Sandii & The Sunsetz for Season 2 of the iconic "Lupin III"（ルパン三世）anime back in the late 1970s.
