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.
It's been a while since I've seen Mako Ishino（石野真子）. Being the late 1970s aidoruand then going on to a career in acting and appearing as a tarento, I also have to realize that she also made a transition into straight pop going into the 1980s. Although a lot of folks on this side of the Pacific, which includes orthodontists, will not agree with me here, she was also known for having one of the cuter smiles due to her yaeba（八重歯）or what we would call a snaggle-toothed smile. Since then, Ishino has had that corrected.
Anyways, I have found this track from her October 1985 album"Saffron"（サフラン）called "Boushi" (The Hat). Even though I could find the lyrics by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）, I still couldn't quite understand them so I gather that this was more of an image-laden dreamscape that was being portrayed. It would seem that Mako-chan has found herself in a café and she takes notice of an enigmatic figure under a hat, rakishly slanted over the man's head.
The composer for "Boushi" was none other than keyboardist extraordinaire Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, the man behind the City Pop/J-AOR classic "Awakening", and I'm pretty sure that he's also the one behind the keyboards in this particular song. His seemingly delicate playing (along with Ishino's vocals) also adds to the dream-like quality of "Boushi". It's kinda like the equivalent of a cup of chamomile tea.
Well...just when I thought things were starting to quieten down a tad in Marvel Land (haven't seen "What If?" yet) before "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" makes its premiere next month, out comes not only the final trailer for "Eternals" but also "Spider-Man: No Way Home". Man, Marvel is really pushing the whole multiverse thing now.
In any case, in a similar way to how "Captain America: Civil War" looked like "Avengers 2.5", this latest Spidey movie featuring Tom Holland is making me wonder if this is "Doctor Strange 1.5". There's plenty of bang for the buck here and I'm sure that just like "Avengers: Endgame", there is a lot in this movie that is not being shown in the trailer, although we get to see an old welcome face again at the end.
Now going back further in the "Spider-Man" lore, earlier in the spring, I had devoted one of my ROY articles to the finger-snapping theme song for the original "Spider-Man" cartoon series from the 1960s, and as such, I related my memories of watching that series. Since then, I had heard that somehow Marvel gave permission for someone in Japan to create a manga series (can someone confirm?), I believe, and then came an actual tokusatsu show in the late 1970s.
Yup, Toei Company was allowed to produce a one-season series of Japan's own "Spider-Man" spanning a year between May 1978 and March 1979 according to the Wikipedia article. The iconic suit was indeed worn but that was about it for similarities. The hero wasn't photo-shooting Peter Parker but motorcycle-racing Takuya Yamashiro（山城拓也）, and this time, he even had a ship called Marveller (ahem) which could transform into the robot Leopardon. Plus, like any tokusatsu hero, this Spider-Man was now battling alien enemy threats to Earth all on his lonesome.
YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! WOW! I'll be honest here and say that the opening theme for the Japanese "Spider-Man" won't ever eclipse the original jazzy theme song by Paul Francis Webster and Bob Harris, especially after hearing Michael Bublé's take on it. Still, "Kakero! Spider-Man" (Run! Spider-Man) has that heroic and disco tokusatsu esthetic complete with syn-drums galore. The singer behind it is Yuuki Hide（ヒデ夕木）, someone that I have known for his joint recording with Kotaro Asa（朝コータロー）and Singers Three（シンガーズ・スリー）of the folk singalong and commercial jingle "Hitachi no Ki"（日立の樹）back in 1973. This time, though, Hide is putting more of his growliness into the theme. Chuumei Watanabe（渡辺宙明）was behind the music with Tohru Hirayama（平山亨）on words under the name of Saburo Yatsude（八手三郎）, a collective pseudonym used by a number of Toei producers.
To bring things full circle, Diandra Ross, in a November 2019article for the "Screen Rant" website, stated that Yamashiro and Leopardon will make their debut in the Marvel universe when the sequel to "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018) comes out late next year. Who knows? Maybe they'll even work side-by-side with Holland, Garfield and Maguire. Multiverses are just that unpredictable.
April 28, 2022: I've written about the ending theme!
It was just last week that I encountered this compilation of Neo-City Pop tunes from uploader Tone by Gridge, and the first song simply grabbed me. The track is titled "Staying in the Groove" and the band is ALI. Man, does it contain a number of styles including funk, jazz, soul and hip-hop, and the whole effect reminds me of what Jamiroquai was doing back in the late 1990s.
Wow! It's just like there's a party on my screen and everyone's invited. "Staying in the Groove" was the third digital download single by Shibuya-born outfit ALI from April 2019, and it sounds like the ideal theme song for a night out in the Youth Mecca of Japan itself. It's cool and supremely busy as if it's intentionally pushing you to run all over the neighbourhood from the famous Shibuya Crossing, up and down Spain-zaka, to the Shibuya 109 building...and enjoy it. Good golly...I think that I can even pick up on a little Stevie Wonder in there as well.
I do love that video, too. The band is basically serenading some young women who aren't sure what to do for their evening, but then gradually get drawn into ALI's dance party. Sounds like a typical Friday night in Shibuya. Plus, some of those dancing scenes remind me of that Gap commercial from over twenty years ago.
To give some background on ALI, the name is an acronym which stands for ALIEN LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL. Apparently, it took over a year for the band to come up with that name, but when a couple of members saw the tribute to Muhammad Ali after his passing on television one day in 2016, the decision was finally made. Up to this May, ALI consisted of vocalist Leo, guitarist Cesar, bassist Luthfi, saxophonist Yu, keyboardist Jin and percussionist Alex. The band has dabbled into the genres of hip-hop, house, blues rock, soul, reggae and jazz-funk according to their J-Wiki profile.
I also found out that ALI is also on indefinite hiatus as of May 2021, since one of their currently very former members, drummer Kahadio was indicted on fraud charges along with some accomplices. Supposedly also in penance, the band has taken down all of their songs from YouTube and other platforms, but their fans are still holding the torch for them by bringing back some of those songs. Certainly, I would be interested in seeing them come back someday. Until then, I will be happy to check out some more of their past work.
Not quite a month ago, I put up an article talking about J-AOR crooner Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）6th BEST compilation album from December 1990, "TRANSIT". Because of the two discs containing oodles of his past hits, I decided then to focus on the first disc for that article, and as such, today we'll be taking a look at some of his stuff from Disc 2. As was the case with Disc 1, there are a few tracks here that I've covered in individual articles and I'll probably be leaving a few more here for their own articles in the future.
To be honest, when I first listened to "Ai no Super Magic" (Love is the Super Magic), I was caught a bit off-guard by that opening salvo of the title but when I got used to that particular greeting, I found the song pretty comfortable with that hint of Caribbean and Bacharach. The songwriting team of lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）was responsible for this non-single track that was originally included in Inagaki's 6th studio album"Realistic" from March 1986. The album was a No. 1 hit for the singer and ended up as the No. 16 album of the year.
Inagaki's 7th album was also another No. 1 hit, "Mind Note" from March 1987 and it begat the reassuring love ballad "Toki wo Koete" (Beyond Time). Copywriter Yoshiaki Sagara（さがらよしあき）along with Hiroshi Shigemi（重実博）provided the lyrics about being there for someone during the hard times although I get the impression that there is a one-sided love thing about it all. Actress-turned-singer/songwriter MAYUMI came up with the perfectly AOR romantic melody which fits Inagaki to a tee.
Gotta be with my girl! That's the message from Inagaki's "Kimi ni Aitai Gogo" (The Afternoon I Want to See You), a track from his April 1989 9th album"Heart & Soul". Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）wrote the words about a fellow who's barely enduring the weekdays that he has to go through before being able to see the girlfriend for a weekend of dining, driving and loving. Once again, MAYUMI was behind the music here which has the tropical feeling but also has that unmistakable sense of either Steely Dan or the Doobie Brothers.
I chose "Stay With Me" just to see how many Miki Matsubara（松原みき）fans would perk up, but although Inagaki indeed covered the Matsubara classic years later, this first "Stay With Me" is a wholly different animal. As another track on "Heart & Soul", this was once again written by the aforementioned Akimoto and composed by Junichi Kawauchi（河内淳一）, and though this song won't have anyone forgetting that other "Stay With Me", this Inagaki original is pleasant enough with some hints of Motown. I probably would have preferred some horns over the synthesizers, though.
My final song for the article is Inagaki's 18th single"Shine On Me", a very uptempo and bright-sounding tune released in March 1990. Y'know, I'd always thought that the singer had the demeanor of a button-down mid-level manager in a huge corporation, and maybe the person who came up with the music video for "Shine On Me" thought the same as well. Inagaki looks perfect as a corporate kacho in that open-format office, but of course, he's also fine behind the mike to perform the song which was written and composed by songwriter Tatsuto Kuwamura（桑村達人）. The song was also placed in Inagaki's April 1990 album"Self Portrait".
Following the listen to Disc 2, my general impression is that Inagaki gradually shed some of that Japanese City Pop as the 80s came to and end, and went into a more West Coast pop direction although I don't think that he strayed far from his AOR roots. He will always be my Mr. Relaxation of J-Pop!
Ahhh...the southern entrance for Shinjuku Station. I remember when things really started to get moving for this side of the mammoth JR depot in the late 1990s...1997, I believe. Takashimaya Times Square, consisting of the venerable department store Takashimaya, Tokyu Hands and then Kinokuniya Book Store, was built just across the street from the station, and in more recent years, a commercial facility on top of a new adjunct for Shinjuku Station was constructed. Off in the distance on the left is Tower Records, a place that I visited very often.
Time for something older and more atmospheric, and for that, I can give you something along the lines of singer-songwriter Makiko Takada's（高田真樹子）"Blues Singer". A track from her 1974 debut album"Makiko first". Arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, I'm not sure how much of a blues song this would be since I'm not well-versed in the genre, but this is definitely in the New Music vein. From the delivery, I'd say that Takada reminds me of a certain Western singer but I can't say who right now. "Blues Singer" is a tune that would demand some sort of sipping alcohol and a contemplative mood in a darkened room. After all, I did say that it was rather atmospheric.
"Makiko first" also has a song that I covered in the past: "Watashi no Uta no Kokoro no Sekai"（私の歌の心の世界）. If I ever get back to Japan in the next few years, I wouldn't mind tracking the album down...maybe at that Tower Records by Shinjuku Station.
My ardor for the "Ultraman"（ウルトラマン）tokusatsu series really only lasted for those mere few years in the early 1970s, although it did spark my very first trip to Japan in 1972. A lot of my television memories from that time consisted of the Nebula M78 heroes popping up to destroy the bizarre monsters weekly, and for me, they were Ultraman Jack and Ultraman Ace. After returning back to Canada, I did realize that there were the next generation of Ultraman Taro and Ultraman Leo but beyond that, I lost my interest although the heroes kept getting churned out. Merchandise sales need to pay for a lot of mortgages, you know.
Of course, my image of the typical theme song for any of the "Ultraman" series was a male vocal group backed up by a children's choir singing a proud militaristic march echoing the virtues and heroism of the titular hero such as the theme for "Ultraman Ace". So you can imagine my surprise on finding out that for a 1990s version of the hero, "Ultraman The Ultimate Hero" or as he was known in Japan, "Ultraman Powered"（ウルトラマンパワード）, the ending theme sounded more like a swinging caviar-and-champagne song of that decade (although the Bubble had long burst by then).
Yeah, that's right. As the Wikipedia article will let you know, "Ultraman The Ultimate Hero" was a joint 1993 Japanese-American straight-to-video production starring a couple of people that I remember: Kane Kosugi as the hero (son of martial arts star Sho Kosugi) and American actor Harrison Page as the leader of the usual special squad designed to tackle alien threats. Page had played the long-suffering detective boss in the short-lived parody series "Sledge Hammer!" on ABC years prior.
Those straight-to-video episodes gradually made their way onto Japanese TV, specifically TBS from the spring of 1995, and that is when the urbane paint-the-town-red ending theme for "Ultraman Powered" appeared. "STARLIGHT FANTASY" was recorded by Hitomi Sudo（須藤ひとみ）, a singer who's another mystery figure since I could barely find anything about her outside of the fact that she released at least three singles including "STARLIGHT FANTASY" according to Oricon. This particular song was most likely her debut single from April 1995 and it was written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composed by Akihiro Yoshimi（良実明宏）.
It does beg the question, though. What would an Ultraman do for some decadent fun? Ah, I know!
Another scorcher in the city...relatively speaking. I still remember the really hot summer days and night in Tokyo, and I try to use the memories of those to keep myself cooler. Yet, the ancient fan behind me keeps rotating.
Truly, I wasn't trying to create some haiku up there (since obviously I was breaking the strict rules on the number of syllables in each line). In any case, let's get onto the topic of this fellow that I've only discovered recently, Makoto Shimizu（清水誠）who usually goes with his nom de guerre, Makoto. His track, "Time", from his inaugural album in 2003, "Human Elements", is quite the banger.
Makoto and British vocalist and composer Cleveland Watkiss created this snappy and propulsive "Time", which also came out as a single in the same year, and considering when "Human Elements" was composed, I've additionally been getting those Mondo Grosso vibes. Perhaps that might be because as much as Makoto is known as a drum n' bass man, he also brings in that 70s soul into the mix (maybe some Bill Withers?). I also read on his J-Wiki page that he was also influenced by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, and that legend of course is someone who knows his way around a hook.
The fan reviews on Discogs for "Human Elements" haven't been all that amazing but for me "Time" is a nice way for me to greet Sunday and even get me to move around in my seat despite the sweltering heat out there.
The brothers Shuya and Yoshihiro Okino（沖野修也・沖野好洋）as Kyoto Jazz Massive applied their jazz and electronica to "Time" for a remix version of the Makoto original. However, I couldn't find out when exactly this version was produced. Speaking of Mondo Grosso, I first mentioned about KJM when the brothers contributed a song to the former's "Sakurahills Disco 3000" compilation back in 2000.
