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.
And thus, another weekend comes to an end...the last one for September 2021, to be specific. Got to talk with a few translator friends over Skype earlier this evening which was nice. It's always good to catch up.
(8:45)
One other nice thing is encountering another Ritsuko Kazami（風見律子）tune. The songs that I've covered on her so far have that cool urban contemporary sensation, but they also possess some of that quirky technopop at times, too. So, from her third and final album to date, "Nouvelles" (July 1987), I give you "Swindler" with lyrics by Kazami herself and music by Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）. I heard the song a few times before finding out the melody maker but when I did learn that it was one-half of Tohoku Shinkansen behind it, I did go naruhodo. Yamakawa just has that great touch with making music.
"Swindler" has got that nice techno jazz in there which sounds somewhat comical and even a bit spooky in the intro but then it progresses gradually into some Big Band. I also pick up on some of that Matt Bianco swing as we seem to be hitting the Mos Eisley cantina once again with this one, but I think "Swindler" is too classy. Maybe some jazz club on Coruscant is the ideal venue.
The first time that I wrote about Kochi Prefecture-born singer Yoshito Machida（町田義人）back in 2017, it was for his "Senshi no Kyuusoku"（戦士の休息）, a mellow and reflective ballad from August 1978. The song was used for the movie "Yasei no Shomei"（野性の証明...Never Give Up） starring the late Ken Takakura（高倉健）. Although I never watched it myself, I could imagine "Senshi no Kyuusoku" being the ideal number for a battle-hardened and world-weary person, whether a spy, soldier or office worker, taking a respite while also taking a long drag from a cigarette on a balcony overlooking the landscape as the sun is going down.
However, the previous month, Machida had released another single, "Akai Karyudo"（赤い狩人...Red Hunter） but it's the B-side to that July 1978 single that we're focused on here. "Ame wa Knife no You sa" (The Rain Cuts Like a Knife, Man) is quite different from the relaxing "Senshi no Kyuusoku" since it sounds like it's meant to accompany that person from the above paragraph in the middle of the battle itself. It's got the downtown funk thanks to the band Godiego（ゴダイゴ）helping out in the music, and what better group to help out since that band's vocalist and songwriter Yukihide Takekawa（タケカワユキヒデ）was responsible for the cool melody.
As for the lyrics, they were provided by movie director and producer Junichi Mimura（三村順一）, who was behind the 1978 documentary "Kita Kitsune Monogatari"（キタキツネ物語...The Story of the Ezo Red Fox） whose theme song was "Akai Karyudo", and lyricist Yoko Narahashi（奈良橋陽子）. They seem to establish a setting for any hard-bitten lone wolf ranging from police detective Baretta to "Cowboy Be-Bop" bounty hunter Spike Spiegel knee-deep in the middle of a case and all of the existential sludge that comes with it. Cold rain hurts much harder when folks are in a bad mood, after all. What adds to the tension is the wah-wah guitar, Machida's seemingly hushed and rushed vocals and that rollicking piano.
If it weren't for this pandemic, I would most likely be over at my anime buddy's house right now watching the finales for the 2021 summer season of anime. Naturally, that hasn't been the case for over 18 months so a lot of anime that I could have seen throughout 2020 and 2021 up to now has gone by the wayside. However, by my own volition, I've been catching a little of the stuff that has been within my "like" range and that has included the second season of "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon"（小林さんちのメイドラゴン...Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid）.
Perhaps one small advantage that I've gotten from choosing my own anime to try out is that I've been able to see shows that my buddy probably wouldn't have chosen for the biweekly viewings. One such show is "Kanojo mo Kanojo"（カノジョも彼女...Girlfriend, Girlfriend）. It's within the same genre of slice-of-life comedy as "Kobayashi-san" but this one is far more in the farce category. I mean, if "Kobayashi-san" is the "I Dream of Jeannie" of anime then "Kanojo mo Kanojo" is "Three's Company" for those who are in the know regarding old American sitcoms.
For my anime buddy, "Kanojo mo Kanojo" is probably too farcical for his liking. But I've enjoyed watching the first two episodes so far and it has one seiyuu who I've known since I came back from Japan a decade ago. Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）has been in the business since 2010 and some of the earliest anime that I've seen since getting back into the animated tangled web have featured her in programs such as "Joshiraku"（じょしらく）and "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）. With "Kanojo mo Kanojo", she's playing closer to her short-tempered rakugo-ka in "Joshiraku" as the suffering but bi-curious girlfriend to a fellow who is insanely honest to the point of potentially ending up at the bottom of the Sumida River someday.
Listening and watching the opening and closing credits to "Kanojo mo Kanojo" has gotten me to write about the opening and closing themes today. As for the former, it's "Fuzaketenai ze" (Not Fooling Around) by Necry Talkie（ネクライトーキー）, a rock band which I wrote about less than two weeks ago, so it is with some coincidence that I'm talking about them again. With words and music by guitarist Asahi（朝日）, it begins with an appropriately sultry rock beat which continues into something more upbeat and innocent, probably reflecting the overall harem situation among the characters.
The ending theme is "Pinky Hook" by seiyuu/singer Momo Asakura（麻倉もも）, a funkier tune with some light and breezy synthpop involved which was written and composed by Sho Watanabe（渡辺翔）. I mentioned his name earlier in the summer since he composed a Tokyo Girls' Style（東京女子流）song a decade ago. If I'm not mistaken, the title refers to the Japanese custom of intertwining pinky fingers between two friends to confirm a promise.
And the "Three's Company" award for double entendres goes to...
Not too long ago, I was writing about sumo wrestlers who also decided to make some of their mark in the entertainment world via the recording booth such as Jesse Takamiyama. Along a similar path, comedy duos have also sung up a storm over the decades and "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has encountered a few of those manzai combi such as Tetsu and Tomo（テツ and トモ）with their "Horoyoi Blues" (ほろ酔いブルース) and Saruganseki（猿岩石）with "Shiroi no Kumo no You ni"（白い雲のように）.
Since coming back home a decade ago, I haven't kept up too well with the up-and-coming duos since any TV shows featuring them don't show up on NHK via TV Japan all that much, but occasionally I come across them when they appear on commercial network variety programs such as "VS. Arashi". I have no idea who they are aside from the fact that they look funny and they run off at the mouth at warp speed.
One such duo is EXIT which hail from the Osaka-based Yoshimoto Kogyo stable of comedians, perhaps comparable to comedy troupes in the United States such as The Groundlings or Second City. Consisting of Rintaro（りんたろー）and Daiki Kanechika（兼近大樹）, they started out in 2017 and seem to be one of those duos on the way up according to the number of shows that they've appeared on as regulars and how deep the boys have gotten in the M1 Grand Prix, the big contest to pick the best manzai duo. Also, according to their Wikipedia page, Rintaro and Kanechika came up with their duo name from the fact that they "...can be the exit to everyone's pain and stress". You can take a look at the act above.
Well, in the same vein as their fellow duos Tetsu and Tomo plus Saruganseki, EXIT has also been releasing music on their own since 2018 through digital download and tangible CDs. In fact, almost a couple of weeks ago on NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, the duo showed up in outfits that neglected proper trousers to prove that they are a zany couple of comedians. Aside from that clothing-related attempt at comedy, Rintaro and Kanechika came on the show to perform a song, "SUPER STAR", a track from their first CD album"Genesis" released on the 15th this month.
Written by Shizuka Kuwabara（桑原静香）and EXIT with music by Markus Bogelund, Gabriel Brandes, Kevin Charge and Hide Nakamura, it's a dance-beat tune which is pretty well sung by the guys. The music video isn't too bad either although the CG versions of EXIT are along the lines of the characters from "The Polar Express" from 2004, but maybe that's part of the humour.
Yesterday, I provided actress/seiyuu/singer Keiko Toda's（戸田恵子）introduction into "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with her "FADE IN", very much a City Pop tune of 1983. However, I also mentioned that she did have a past incarnation as aidoru Akemi Ayu（あゆ朱美）in the early 1970s, so I wanted to include one of her songs from that period. In fact, here is "Hitori Uranai" (Fortune Telling Alone), her fourth and final single under that stage name from November 1976. It's quite the wistful pop tune especially with that haunting background chorus and Ayu's high-pitched voice delivers a rather sad tale of a relationship that is on the rocks and probably will end up staying there getting further battered by the waves.
"Hitori Uranai" was written and composed by singer-songwriter and TV personality Masashi Sada（さだまさし）, and Ayu's rendition of it was actually a cover of the original B-side for the third of six singles, their October 1974"Tsushin"（追伸...Postscript）, by the folk duo Grape（グレープ）, which consisted of Sada and Masami Yoshida（吉田正美）. Their "Hitori Uranai" has a rich-as-mahogany folk arrangement that underlies the tempestuous situation with this particular couple. Never has romantic trouble sounded so warm and comfortable.
Thankfully, the dancehall denizens of Tokyo and Gunma were largely spared from my antics on the dance floor since I basically left all that behind with my university days and nights in the 1980s. Still, I did attend a few of the dance clubs during my two stints in Japan with the biggest one being Velfarre in Roppongi but I was merely a chaperone for the much younger students for that one. When I went in with them and a few of other other teachers, I hovered around the outer ring of the dance floor to make sure everyone was OK; an employee then approached and spoke to me as if I were a parent and reassured me that I could still keep tabs on my kids from one of the tables. I shuffled back there on my imaginary cane. The young'uns did appear considerably more youthful than me.
Anyways, that was about the time when this BEST album by the fantastic Fantastic Plastic Machine made its presence known on the store shelves. "Les Plus" was released in December 2001 (according to J-Wiki and Discogs) and not 2004 as stated on YouTube. Even back then, I knew that I wouldn't have been able to keep up even with the beats on the original FPM mix of "Take Me To The Disco" that launches "Les Plus". Dance stuff and Shibuya-kei are rolled up in this rollicking piece and at 37:05, there is the even more frenetic/funky and extended Malibu mix of the song.
For all those dancehall denizens in Japan, past and present, were FPM's works common things to hear in the discos of the nation? Enquiring minds (or my mind, anyways) want to know.
Occasionally, another source website that I view for anything interesting in the world of Japanese popular music is "90s City Pop Record Book", and that's what I did yesterday. Sure enough, I did find a couple of songs of note, one which is the topic of this article.
Now to be honest, the song "Lemonade" isn't a purely 90s City Pop song and even the author for the article talking about it has said as much. I would say that it is a gryphon of a tune by the band Flying Kids mixing in those 90s City Pop, regular pop and funk elements.
One reason that I'm including "Lemonade" today is that I haven't written anything on Flying Kids in well over 6 years since I covered "Boku de Aru Tame ni"（僕であるために）which is a stylistically different animal and a much beloved anison for "Taiho Shichauzo" (逮捕しちゃうぞ...You're Under Arrest)."Lemonade" just happens to be the title track for the band's 6th album released in December 1992, and as I said above, it's an amalgam of styles with those 90s-sounding City Pop keyboards bringing listeners in. Then vocalist/lyricist Takashi Hamazaki（浜崎貴司）brings in the pop with his delivery and the melody by Flying Kids' keyboardist Tatsuhiko Iino（飯野竜彦）before things get all funky with the horns. By the end, the City Pop and R&B sides begin competing for breathing room.
Although the author at "90s City Pop Record Book" didn't seem too complimentary about Hamazaki's singing vis-à-vis the City Pop aspect, I don't have any particular beef about the vocalist or for the song, for that matter. Perhaps Hamazaki isn't what I would call a buttery crooning master along the lines of Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）or Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）but his voice is still favorably distinctive and goes well enough with what isn't a purely City Pop tune to begin with.
