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.
Well, that was the last time I ever used the sparkle function on my old Casio camera while under the influence. Incidentally, that was...barely...Tokyo Tower.
Speaking of one of the megalopolis' prominent landmarks, I have this debut single by singer-songwriter Mutsumi Inoue（井上睦都実）titled "Boyfriend" and its coupling song "Tokyo Tower" from October 1992. I actually first wrote about her last month when I featured her "Nitamono Doushi"（似たもの同志）from July 1994 and that particular number was quite the smooth summery tune and it does distinguish itself from the two songs from Inoue's first single.
For one thing, both "Boyfriend" and "Tokyo Tower" have varying levels of Shibuya-kei in there. There's some swinging jazziness in "Boyfriend" which was written by Inoue and composed by Tsugumi Kataoka（片岡嗣実）from the duo Parquets. The marimba does help too in conveying that Shibuya-kei although I think it's more of a light dusting over a jaunty pop feeling. From what I hear from Inoue's lyrics, it seems like the most cheerful kiss-off of a relationship that I've heard in a while.
At 4:04 is "Tokyo Tower", another fairly rollicking song with some deeper Shibuya-kei imbued in its genes, thanks to Takao Tajima（田島貴男）from Original Love providing the melody this time around, and the marimba is still there along with a happy electric organ. To remind folks, Tajima had also been a vocalist for genre icon Pizzicato Five some years earlier. Inoue also penned the lyrics here. For both songs, Inoue has got some fine crisp and clear vocals as she would for "Nitamono Doushi".
This morning on NHK News, I found out that the creator of manga's currentlongest-running series (since 1968), "Golgo 13"（ゴルゴ13）, Takao Saito（さいとう・たかを）, had passed away from pancreatic cancer last week on September 24th. He was 84.
Compared to anime, I was never a huge manga fan although I've gone through the "Dr. Slump"（ドクタースランプ）series and a few books of "Ultraman"（ウルトラマン）. A large chunk of that has been due to the language barrier; I still can't say that I can read Japanese all that well and I was even worse back on the JET Programme when I encountered my first "Golgo 13" manga. My host father in Gunma ran a chiropractic clinic so he had a ton of those books on the shelves. I gave them a go but as Saito himself described it years ago in an interview, he had always wanted to create a manga and a character for adults. As such, there was a lot of sex and violence, but there was also the international intrigue involving politics, international relations and economy, so you can imagine me trying to navigate the rich language without a dictionary. Frankly, I couldn't generate enough of an interest to read manga.
Still, Golgo 13 is one of the most recognizable pop culture figures from Japan. With that short haircut, death glare eyes and intimidating figure, the mystery man of assassinations may not even need a ballistic or bladed weapon. He can probably down his targets with a glance. I read that he got his own anime treatment in 2008 for about a year with none other than TV tough guy Hiroshi Tachi（舘ひろし）voicing him.
According to the J-Wiki article for the character, the anime had a couple of opening themes but several ending themes. The ending theme for the first twelve episodes was "Glass no Highway" (Glass Highway) by the band doa...and no, it's not pronounced D-O-A as in Dead On Arrival but simply dough-ah. The band delves in various types of rock music including country rock and hard rock. This 10th single of theirs from April 2008 seems to feel like more of the former, although parts of it had me remembering "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", the theme song from Michael Bay's"Armageddon".
"Glass no Highway" was written and composed by doa leader and band co-vocalist Akihito Tokunaga（徳永暁人）, and the lyrics could almost come across as a message by Golgo himself to a former lover (of whom he has many) about the necessities of his life and the memories of theirs. Although the recording company was GIZA studio, there is something about the delivery and the arrangement which faintly hints at a BEING tune, and interestingly enough, before the band formed in 2004, Tokunaga had provided arrangements for songs created at BEING. The song reached No. 14 in the Oricon weeklies and was also a track on doa's 4th album"Prime Garden" which was released later in November 2008 and peaked at No. 31.
The Wikipedia article for doa states that the name came about from the initials of the three members: Daiki Yoshimoto（吉本大樹）, Shinichiro Ohta（大田 紳一郎）, and Akihito Tokunaga. Between 2004 and 2011, they released 15 CD singles but since then, doa has decided to go for digital download for which they have put out 14 up to 2020. The band has also released 12 albums and 4 BEST compilations.
As for Saito, he stated that he would like "Golgo 13" to keep on going beyond his death and apparently the Saito Production Group will now take the baton to do exactly that.
I think that singer-songwriter Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）has a very loyal cadre of fans but she's one of the more underrated talents that have in the kayo world. She's gone through the gamut ranging from folk to City Pop, and a few years ago, I mentioned her in that list of Fashion Music singers since she can provide some of that laconic baroque version of kayo along with contemporaries such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）and Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）.
Strangely enough, it is Kurahashi that I get reminded of when I listen to Nishijima's "Tentai Bouenkyou" (Astronomical Telescope),her 13th single from January 1982 and the lead track from her November 1981 album, "Lost Hour". Composed by the singer and written by Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）who has worked with her a number of times, "Tentai Bouenkyou" has that adorably folksy and innocent lilt to the melody. In fact, it's one of those tunes that I can't quite categorize within one genre. That squealing electric guitar that comes halfway adds some rock, of course, but I surmise that I can perhaps place it in either the straight pop or New Music veins.
In any case, it's a pleasantly relaxing song by Nishijima that doesn't so much talk about the wonders of astronomy but the circumstances surrounding the reason to visit the observatory. This time, a couple of students who may be on a school trip to see the stars realize as they share views through the telescope that there may be love coming between the two. Couldn't ask for a better opportunity to say "Awww!" than this one.
"Sakura Sakura" (Cherry Blossoms) has been one of those traditional Japanese folk songs that I have probably known since birth, and it's likely that it's the one song of Japan that is known even by folks who don't listen to any of the genres of Japanese music. When my family was first introducing me to Japanese cuisine not created by Mom via the general Japanese restaurants in downtown Toronto, the delicate koto-driven sounds of "Sakura Sakura" often greeted me through the speakers. And forgive my primal Pavlovian reaction, but because of the above, whenever I hear the song, I get that old taste of either teriyaki beef or tempura in my mouth. By the way, the first Japanese restaurant that I ever visited was Nikko Gardens.
Information on the song can be found at Wikipedia and the points that got to me were the fact that the songwriter behind the iconic "Sakura Sakura" doesn't seem to be identified and that it's been popular since the Meiji Era! I assumed all this time that it had been created many more centuries before the 19th century.
I did find a version of "Sakura Sakura" from famed composer and jazz musician Hachidai Nakamura's（中村八大）1961"Rainy Night in Tokyo" which I bookmarked since whoever arranged this version (Nakamura himself?) seems to have imbued it with a certain amount of drama as if it were meant to be a romantic movie in itself. I have to say that I really like the cover on that album (sorry the video was taken down and replaced) with a precipitation-soaked Ginza; lends to the intrigue and mystery of the capital city, I gather.
I think for this song, the photo of my Eggs Benedict with Hash Browns and other vegetation was appropriate. Eggs Benny isn't exactly a common sight at my home, and I had these ones on the Harmony of the Seas in the American Icon Grill during the 2017 cruise, but whenever I partake in the brunch classic, I know that it's a pretty sunny and fine day out there.
The song is "Toe to Toe" (and aren't you relieved that I don't have any photos of toes to put in as the thumbnail [or toenail]?), and it was actually the second track of jazz bassist Teruo Nakamura's（中村照夫）1985 album"Super Friends". Due to the admitted accidental swap of the first two tracks by the uploader though, "Toe to Toe" is the first song to be heard on the video above.
Earlier this summer, I put up Nakamura's first article on KKP, the beefy and boisterous New York jazz-funk of "Mr. & Mrs. Funk"from 1979. With "Toe to Toe", though, this is jazz paired with Sunday comfortable AOR. As I said up above, the song is a nice accompaniment for that brunch with friends. It's stylish, relaxing and elegant, and it does have some big names in the recording booth including Steve Gadd on drums, the late Michael Brecker on tenor sax, and Gary Herbig on soprano sax. We can always do with some aural Eggs Benedict from time to time.
The last time I wrote about Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）, it was for her 1982 "Ame no Requiem"（雨の鎮魂歌）, which was about as City Pop as one could get.
Well, it's time to get back to her early aidoru late 1970s period and to start off the last few days of September 2021, let's go to the cheerful 8th single, "Do it BANG BANG" which hit the record shop shelves in October 1978. In all honesty, when I first read the title, a very naughty part of me suddenly envisioned the words "Wham" and "Bam", and then the phrase "Thank you, Ma'am". This had to have been some innocently giggle-worthy double entendre.
Ahhh...actually, the answer is a resounding no. Thanks to Jun Kasama's（笠間ジュン）lyrics, "Do it BANG BANG" is a straight-out demand by an impatient young lady to her boyfriend to ravish her. Stop with the kind and polite courtship, she's yelling. All that sexual frustration is swaddled in a cute aidoru melody from Ben Sasaki（佐々木勉）and an arrangement by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）. Not sure whether Nippon Columbia's switchboard lit up like a Xmas tree with a ton of complaints about the message being sent here...not that I'm having any complaints myself.
Whaddaya know? She even got to perform it on the music shows, but then again, Ikue's star as an aidoru was definitely on the upswing because her previous single was the July "Natsu no Ojosan"（夏のお嬢さん）, her defining hit which had also been created by Kasama and Sasaki. There was no way that she was not going to appear on the shows and the stage from now on especially with that cute countenance of hers. "Do it BANG BANG" didn't do quite as well as "Natsu no Ojosan", but it was still a good earner by hitting No. 15 on Oricon and selling around 125,000 records.
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.
