Anri/Ami Ozaki -- Namida wo Umi ni Kaeshitai（涙を海に返したい）

Here I was wondering what I was going to do for the final day of August 2021 when good ol' Van Paugam informed all of us via Twitter that Anri（杏里）just celebrated her 60th birthday today. So, definitely a very happy kanreki to her; not sure if she wore anything red but Ms. Eiko Kawashima（川島 栄子）would look fine in any colour anyways.

Anri was all of seventeen when she released her third single, "Namida wo Umi ni Kaeshitai" (I Want to Return My Tears to the Ocean) in April 1979. Just like her debut single, the iconic "Olivia wo Kikinagara"（オリビアを聴きながら）the previous year, singer-songwriter Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）was responsible for words and music for this melancholy song about loss and heartbreak. There is a touch of disco in there, but seeing that it's a very early song in Anri's discography, it doesn't sound like the usual summery City Pop tune that she's long been known for, and for that reason, it can be an interesting song to come across.

The arrangement was handled by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, formerly of the rock band Happy End. I don't see any Oricon ranking for "Namida wo Umi ni Kaeshitai" on its J-Wiki article so perhaps it didn't even quite make the Top 100 (and even "Olivia wo Kikinagara" only got up as high as No. 65 in its initial release). In fact, the single didn't make its album debut until Anri's 5th BEST compilation, "MY FAVOURITE SONGS"  which was released in July 1988.

To be honest, though, I have to say that I enjoy Ozaki's cover of "Namida wo Umi ni Kaeshitai" even more than the Anri original. First appearing on her second album of self-covers, "POINTS-2" from March 1986, the tempo is a little more appropriately slower for a sad ballad and the arrangement by Shingo Kobayashi（小林信吾）is lusher. The music seems to act like that box of chocolates that any broken heart needs to help recover.

LÄ-PPISCH -- Magic Blue Case

 

One of my favourite movies of all time is "Ronin" (1998), which was one of director John Frankenheimer's final movies. A great spy caper movie starring Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno and Natascha McElhone, the plot and the characters all revolve around one little suitcase. What's in it? Who knows and who cares? It is the perfect illustration of that cinematic device known as the MacGuffin, and it was a fun two hours watching everyone stalk and kill each other over it.

For some reason, that was the movie that came to my mind as I listened to LÄ-PPISCH's September 1990 4th single, "Magic Blue Case". Written and composed by vocalist Kyoichi Sugimoto（杉本恭一）, the plot here revolves around a guy who finds a mysterious blue case one day, brings it home and finds himself rich beyond his means, only to find out that there is a fine print of sorts that doesn't bode well for the possessor. At the same time then, the song then reminds me of the tale of young Taro Urashima who brings home that forbidden box from his long time at the Dragon Palace, opens it and ends up older than the hills.

Speaking about the fine print, I should have read a bit more carefully about LÄ-PPISCH since all this time, I'd treated the band merely as a ska group, a la their light and nimble "Payapaya" （パヤパヤ）. However, according to their J-Wiki file, they actually have a much more varied resume as they have performed rock, alternative, New Wave, and funk. Listening to "Magic Blue Case", I get much more in the way of INXS than Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra.

Hitomi Ozaki -- Soushunki（早春期）

 

Ah, once again I bring you one of those many 80s aidoru that quickly came and went while getting those five minutes of fame. Additionally and as is often the case, there's very little information to be found out regarding this young lass.

Hitomi Ozaki（尾崎仁美）was born in 1969 and had an aidoru career lasting a little over two years according to what her page on "Idol.ne.jp" says. Her debut single from February 1986 was "Soushunki" which I believe means "Early Spring", so I can assume that the lyrics by Haruki Tango（丹古晴己）are talking about heartfelt falling heads-over-heels in love. The melody that hints at some of that haunting romantic uncertainty is by Kyoko Kosaka（小坂恭子）with arrangement by Eiji Kawamura（川村栄二）.

What strikes me about Ozaki though are those high-pitched clear-as-a-bell vocals that make her sound even younger than those sixteen years that she was registering when "Soushunki" was released. I don't know as of yet about her remaining four singles going into early 1988 but I think that with this inaugural song, she actually had a promising beginning. Then again, perhaps she didn't really stand out significantly enough from the rest of the aidoru crowd.

Keizo Nakanishi -- Precious Love

 

Good heavens, it's been a while since I've written about singer-songwriter Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三）so I'm glad that I could find another song by him on YouTube. His heyday was in the 1990s and I think that he was up there with The King of Love Songs Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）himself when it came to Japanese soul singers. One thing about Nakanishi is that he often also added a touch of Motown to his creations.

This particular song, "Precious Love", finishes up his third original album "Steps" from March 1993, but I first heard it as part of a mix tape that my cousin had sent me decades ago. With lyrics by prolific Masao Urino（売野政男）, music by Nakanishi and arrangement by Takao Konishi（小西貴雄）, "Precious Love" is another quintessential Keizo tune with the percolating beats, the upbeat melody and of course the singer's soulful tones. Along with those beats, I think another highlight is the sax solo; I can be an absolute sucker for them.

"Steps" was a No. 1 hit for Nakanishi and the album also contains another supremely catchy track, "Ticket to Paradise". 

Rui Tachihara -- Kita no Daichi（北の大地）

 

via Wikipedia

As far as I know (and if I'm wrong, please correct me), the two main air routes to Japan from Toronto via Air Canada are the ones going to Tokyo and Osaka. I don't know whether there are flights coming and going to the northern island of Hokkaido but certainly I wouldn't mind getting there directly someday. My one and only time to Sapporo was a good one, and I wish that I can actually attend the annual Snow Festival there along with visiting some of the other areas such as Hakodate, Furano and Otaru.

Hokkaido was the place that I imagined as I listened to singer-songwriter Rui Tachihara's（立原累）"Kita no Daichi" (Great Land of the North). When my ANA flight landed at Shin-Chitose Airport close to Sapporo, I noted how similar the land seemed to my impression of my home country of Canada, and thanks to my favourite sketch comedy show "SCTV", we are known as The Great White North, after all. 

I never heard of Tachihara before and there's very little written about him on J-Wiki; in fact, it doesn't even say where he comes from. But the way that he sings "Kita no Daichi" which was a 1974 single, his resonant vocals show a good amount of personal passionate investment in that big land of the north. He was behind the folksy music while Keisuke Aso（麻生啓介）provided the lyrics relating the land's changes throughout the four seasons.

"Kita no Daichi" may be Tachihara's debut single and since then, he's released a number of other singles and albums at least as far ahead as 1979 and most likely into the early 1980s. I see that he also has some representation on YouTube so I'll have to give some of his other creations a look-see.

Sonny Curtis -- Love is All Around

 

Apologies for throwing in another Reminiscings of Youth article so soon after the last one but on hearing about actor Ed Asner's death earlier today, I just had to include this one. Many folks might recently remember the Kansas City-born TV and movie star from the 2009 Pixar-produced computer animated film "Up" where he played the main character of Carl Fredricksen. However for people of my generation, I will always remember Asner as crusty but lovable news director Lou Grant from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". Can hardly believe that the show first started almost 51 years ago.

With the announcement of Asner's passing, I've only just realized that almost all of the stars from that famous 1970s sitcom, including Mary Tyler Moore, Gavin MacLeod and Ted Knight are now gone. I think actress Betty White is the only actor from that show who is still here. From what I've gathered over the years since its run between 1970 and 1977 and beyond is that "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", which was about Mary Richards and her personal/professional life involving her work buddies at WJM-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, could also have been originating network CBS' first attempt to break out of its reputation of being the farm comedy network since many of its successful sitcoms in the 1960s were based on characters who came from the countryside such as "Green Acres" and "The Beverly Hillbillies". 

Even as a kid, I remembered "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" right from its first season since Mary herself had such long hair. The very first time I ever saw the actress was when she was playing Laura Petrie on the black-and-white "The Dick Van Dyke Show", another beloved sitcom from the 1960s, so there was some confusion about her new hairdo and the fact that I was seeing her in colour. And for that matter, where was Dick?

I also remember seeing episodes from time to time in its initial run right from Season 1 along with the tropes of Mary's first apartment, the camaraderie among her and the WJM staff, and the appearance of the cute kitten at the end of the ending credits for each episode. But for me, I think it was in the latter half of the show's 7-year run when I was laughing my guts out at a lot of the episodes including the one that is represented at the very top of the article, "Chuckles Bites the Dust", when the local TV clown is killed in a hilarious accident. It's been voted as one of the top episodes of all time for all American television and it has even merited its own Wikipedia entry.

Yes, I still remember that this is a music blog, and a Japanese one at that, but bear with me. The show was that memorable for me. Besides, it's not the first time that I've given a TV theme song the ROY treatment (see "WKRP in Cincinnati" and "The Odd Couple"). 

 Another thing that I wax nostalgic over when it comes to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is the theme song. There have been a number of variations of Sonny Curtis' "Love is All Around" played over the seven seasons, but I will always choose the original version from Season 1 as my favourite take. Created by Patrick Williams, the original is cool and swinging like a Burt Bacharach song (especially with the more pronounced horns), and even the instrumental version of "Love is All Around" used for the ending credits is also my favourite among the variations used during the show's run.

Well, I can perhaps say that almost all of the WJM staff have gotten together once more in a new and better place with love all around. In any case, since the show premiered in September 1970, what were some of the singles that came out around that time? Two of them are actually re-releases from the early 1960s while the other one is once again showing a discrepancy in terms of release month with Showa Pops.

Frank Nagai -- Kiriko no Tango （霧子のタンゴ）

Yukio Hashi and Sayuri Yoshinaga -- Itsudemo Yume wo （いつでも夢を）

Toi et Moi -- Hatsukoi no Hito ni Niteiru（初恋の人に似ている）

Anzen Chitai -- V (Friends, Side 2)

 

Well, it isn't exactly early August now, but I did promise to bring Side 2 of the "Friends" LP portion of Anzen Chitai's（安全地帯）mammoth undertaking "V" from December 1986 at that time. At least, I still got it in within the month itself. Side 1 has been up since July 24th.

The original Side 2 began with a brief and lonely instrumental version of "Friend" that I had talked about in the very first article on "V" that I created back in 2012, but then it goes into the darker and introspective "Chigiru Night"（チギルナイト）. I'd always wondered what that title meant and a part of me rather darkly, as it were, thought "Chigger Night" which of course had me going "Ick". The last thing anyone needs on the mattress is a horde of biting chiggers. 

But then I checked out good ol' Jisho, and I found out that chigiru（契る）can mean "having sex". Well, that would be a great improvement over having to grab a can of Raid. Still, there doesn't seem to be any sort of romanticism in this particular song created by vocalist Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）and lyricist Goro Matsui（松井五郎）. There is quite a bit of urgency and mystery, though.

Then, we come to "Kowarerushikanai"（こわれるしかない...Gotta Break It） which brings back some of that old Anzen Chitai sound and maybe even a soupcon of Beatles near the end. With the background of crickets sounding off in the background, it's another fairly serious song about a breakup that is inevitable and cold to the touch. Love isn't always a fun thing, apparently.

"Fushigi na Yoru"（不思議な夜...An Odd Night） has Anzen Chitai's brand of bossa nova with a synthesizer or some contraption making like glass bottles. It all sounds rather woozy after a night of carousing with the final destination being bed. Tamaki's vocals especially have a certain sinister and sneakily tempting tone as if the man himself were offering a Faustian deal to a fellow who has a little too much romance on the mind.

"Yakusoku"（約束）already has its own entry and as I mentioned there, it's a summer sunset sort of a song with plenty of mellowness. The following track also hints at happier themes compared with the first few tracks of this side. The romantic "Omoide ni Tsutsumarete"（想い出につつまれて...Wrapped in Memories） was actually used as the commercial jingle for Osaka Gas portable heaters, but aside from that point, the song is another example how Tamaki's falsetto can send any listener into rapture. Y'know, if "Chigiru Night" is about plain ol' sex and "Kowarerushikanai" is about the ugly breakup, "Omoide ni Tsutsumarete" can just be the melodic equivalent of snuggling up close. Incidentally, the song was also Side B for Anzen Chitai's hit "Suki sa"（好きさ）.

The final track is "Kioku no Mori"（記憶の森...Memory Woods）, a short ballad but one of the most beautiful that the band has ever created with the piano phrasing and then the entry of some epic strings. And Tamaki has never sounded so gloriously haunting through his vocals as he describes gradually being unable to remember many things as time passes except for that one kind voice in his heart. I can imagine a ballet or some form of contemporary dance being set to this song.

Generally, I think Side 2 of "Friends" has more of that exploration into the sadder and darker places of the heart but with some glimmers of hope. It makes for an interesting juxtaposition with Side 1 which had that party hearty atmosphere for the most part. Anyways, the next entry in "V" will be Side 1 of the "Suki sa" LP.