Sunny Day Service -- baby blue

Way back in the 1970s, in terms of television coverage, my area had the two major Canadian networks, CBC and CTV, along with their affiliates, and then the original Big 3 American networks (CBS, ABC and NBC) via their Buffalo affiliates. Aside from them, there was the regional network for the nearby city of Hamilton, CHCH, and perhaps OECA which was the local educational channel. But that was it, and I realize that saying that probably has younger folks accustomed to their 1000-channel packages and streaming channels hyperventilating. My apologies. 

However, there was one local Toronto station, City-TV Cable 7 Channel 79 (or was it 57?), that was seen as this upstart among the big boys that began broadcasting in the early 1970s. Led by the enterprising Moses Znaimer, it took some unconventional approaches to get people to tune in including news reports that had their anchors just standing or sitting on stools sans news desks. Another interesting feature was that City-TV also used to feature something called "The Baby Blue Movie" late Friday nights which presented soft core pornography (with some old-fashioned saucy stripper music as the theme). Regrettably, I was too young at the time to even be aware of the concept of sneaking peeks at midnight in our old apartment.

Since then, I've seen that combination of "blue" and "baby" a few times, and one of them happens to be the title of a 1982 Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次）album that nikala covered several years ago. Then, I found this particular song recently.

"baby blue" is a track on an October 1997 album "Sunny Day Service" by a band called Sunny Day Service（サニーデイ・サービス）. I first heard about this group which dabbles in all sorts of rock such as alternative, folk rock and pop rock through another band that I'd written about earlier this month, The Chang, which apparently shared some things in common with Sunny Day Service.

With "baby blue" which launches the band's 4th album as a major act, there is a certain reassuring calmness in Keiichi Sokabe's（曽我部恵一）vocals and lyrics as he invites his significant other to simply accompany him on a journey without any specific destination. The journey is half the fun, after all. There is a fairly lengthy description given by Sokabe in the J-Wiki article for the album, sourced from a November 1997 article in the music journal "Rockin' On Japan" in which he admits that aren't too many concrete details in "baby blue" but the message of striding bravely out with these half-baked ideas and making something of them is there. Even when tackling Sokabe's melody, there were no particular instructions to the other band members; they were free to interpret "baby blue" in their own way. Sokabe felt that there was no judgement on whether the music going forward was good or bad; it just seemed as if all of the instruments were united and marching forward like an armoured vehicle.

I haven't listened to the rest of "Sunny Day Service" but from just hearing "baby blue", it looks like Sokabe's approach worked quite nicely. Along with the feeling that there was some of that early 90s Britpop in the arrangement, I want to also give my compliments to the poignant piano added. The album hit No. 7 on Oricon.

Up to 2020, Sunny Day Service has released 22 singles and more than 13 albums since their start in 1992. Even during an eight-year hiatus between 2000 and 2008, there were 5 albums which came out. There have been changes to the lineup but at this point, the band has Sokabe, bassist Takashi Tanaka（田中貴）and drummer Mikio Daikuhara（大工原幹雄）.

And just to finish this article properly, I give you the sign off for City-TV in 1984 when just about every channel signed off for several hours overnight (TV test pattern and Moses included at the end).

Kenji Sawada -- Sakaba de DABADA（酒場でDABADA）

 

It would take a Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）to sing out a song about drinking and death and their connection, and indeed this did come out as "Sakaba de DABADA" (DABADA at the Bar), Julie's 31st single released in September 1980.

Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）, maybe this rollicking number could be heard as an example of City Rock, punctuated for emphasis with that scatting by Kenji (the DABADA of the title). Aku's lyrics speak of drinking lots, loving lots and living lots before achieving the peace of the grave. After all, life is short by nature; grab the gusto when you can.

Perhaps not many would agree with Julie but hey, that's fine. "Sakaba de DABADA" makes for a good barhopping song while walking (or ambling) throughout Shinjuku's Golden Gai or Yokohama's Chinatown. Certainly, Sawada's dissipated look on the cover of the single says it all. He only needs a couple of aspirin and he'll be right as rain once more. Anyways, the song peaked at No. 14 on Oricon.

Naoko Isamu -- Centre Line ga Owaru Toki（センターラインが終わるとき）

 

Happy Monday! A week following the Blizzard of 2022 here in the Toronto area, we may be facing an additional 5 cm of snow this afternoon. The kids might be swooning at this but commuters are probably groaning once more.

Back in 2016, Marcos V. introduced us to 80s aidoru Naoko Isamu（勇直子）through her cover of Paul Lekakis' notorious "Boom Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To Your Room)" in 1987. At first, when I saw that three-character name, I'd assumed that it was an unreadable mononym for me until I realized that the first character was the family name and that the last two made up her given name of Naoko.

While her cover of "Boom Boom Boom" was released as her 4th single, she started her singing career with "Centre Line ga Owaru Toki" (When the Centre Line Ends) in July 1986. Beginning with a rather buzzy guitar scream, "Centre Line ga Owaru Toki" then quickly settles down into a regular if slightly dramatic aidoru melody. I couldn't find the lyrics for the song but considering the arrangement and the centre line in the title, I'm assuming it involves a girl stuck in the middle of a bad pack of teen hoodlums hitting the pavement on their motorcycles. Although I couldn't find the information at Isamu's J-Wiki article, another website called "Kayo Kyoku ga Suki!"（歌謡曲が好き!...I Love Kayo Kyoku!）has listed the fact that the debut single got as high as No. 32 on Oricon, selling around 25,000 records.

Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）provided the lyrics. What's interesting is that multi-instrumentalist and composer Kazuhiko Matsuo（松尾一彦）laid down the melody while drummer Jiro Ohma（大間ジロー）produced Isamu's single. Both men still belonged to the famed band Off-Course（オフコース）at the time, so try to imagine Kazumasa Oda's（小田和正）group having to do with a twinkly 80s aidoru single.

Isamu was born in Urawa, Saitama Prefecture but due to the demands of her father's job, she quickly had an early spate of moving all over the country including Yokohama and Hiroshima, before finally settling in the city of Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture. At around the age of 17 in 1985, she was scouted by an entertainment production company, K-House (whose president is folk singer Iruka) at Harajuku Station after her ballet lessons.

Also getting into acting and appearing in commercials, both aidoru guru/lyricist Akimoto and the president of Oricon itself lauded Isamu for having the talent to go far in the industry. However, the lass only released a total of 6 singles and 2 albums before retiring from show business in the 1990s. Some years later, she married the lead vocalist of rock band Jun Sky Walkers, Kazuya Miyata（宮田和弥）, and began a family. However in 2002, she made a return to the geinokai and is currently working as an actress and commercial pitchperson.

Kiyoshi Hikawa -- Gunjou no Ito（群青の弦）

 

I've brought back a clip of Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）performing Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）"Uta wa Waga Inochi"（歌は我が命）last week, which he had also sung at the Kohaku Utagassen last month. It didn't strike me as being too strange at the time, but I'm not sure whether Hikawa showed up for any of the interview segments and I don't think that he performed any other songs that night. Perhaps my memory was addled but, in any event, he kept a very low profile on Tuesday, and now that I've seen the last few seconds where his final words sounded very much like a goodbye, maybe I did miss something significant.

Well, I didn't since the message was thrown at us loud and clear a couple of days ago. I watched NHK News which announced that Hikawa, the Prince of Enka who's appeared on the Kohaku for 22 straight years since his first appearance on the annual special and has been singing and performing non-stop, was taking an extended break as of New Year's Eve last year. So I gather that his "Uta Con" appearance was indeed the swan song for now.

(shortened version)

However, Hikawa has recorded one more single which will be released on February 1st this year, "Gunjou no Ito" (Ultramarine Strings). Written by Fumihiko Hara（原文彦）and composed by Chiaki Oka（岡千秋）, Hikawa's final single for at least a while was arranged by Masahito Maruyama（丸山雅仁）and it was apparently simmering on the back burner for a few years. But with the arranger's death in June 2020, the go-ahead was given to release this as a single in tribute.

Hikawa has gone into the pop and rock genres and has even provided an anison or two, so to hear him go back into the genre that he started his career with, enka, was nice, especially now that we won't be seeing him for an extended time. And wow, "Gunjou no Ito" is quite the atmospheric enka which seems to grandly gather together all of the elements of nature ranging from the seasons to the sound of fog (!) for mutual appreciation. Everyone involved even brings in those enka tropes of a loving mother and tears, and perhaps all bound together with the titular strings. Admittedly though, I don't have a full grasp of what's going on with "Gunjou no Ito", so if anyone can perhaps explain the meaning of it all, I'd greatly appreciate it.

This video also has the recorded version of the song, but I just wanted to show how Hikawa's presented here. If he were going to still appear on TV programs and on stage, he probably would show up looking like this dignified and fantastical figure. The single is going to be presented through three different arrangements (unfortunately that video has been taken down).

I'm certainly grateful to Hikawa for all he's done for enka and entertainment thus far including "Gunjou no Ito" which will be KKP's first official article for a 2022 song. He can happily have his time off and I wish him well in his future endeavors. Hopefully, it won't be too, too long before he returns to the stage.

The Ventures/Yuko Nagisa -- Nagasaki Bojou（長崎慕情）

 

Over the years on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've included the legendary instrumental rock band The Ventures and not as part of the Reminiscings of Youth series. If you can take a look at their entries on the blog, they not only had their day in the United States with surf rock but have become stars as well in Japan by providing their own tunes for Japanese audiences that have been sung by Japanese singers. In fact, there is one section in the J-Wiki article for The Ventures which talk about Ventures kayo, some of which are part and parcel of KKP.

Well, it's sad to say but co-founder and guitarist Don Wilson of this very group passed away yesterday morning at the age of 88. As such, I wanted to provide another one of The Ventures' creations in Japan in tribute.

One of the kayo that I wrote about all the way back in 2014 was "Kyoto Bojou"（京都慕情）which was a November 1970 release by The Ventures. Several days later in December, Yuko Nagisa（渚ゆう子）did a cover of the song with lyrics added. In both cases, "Kyoto Bojou" was quite the quietly cheerful affair.

A year later in November 1971, The Ventures then went further west in Japan to provide "Nagasaki Bojou" (Nagasaki Memories) which was a more contemplative and perhaps more melancholy tune thanks to the guitar and what sounds like the electric organ. That rhythm guitar, presumably by Wilson, has a somewhat mesmerizing effect on the ears like a murmuring stream.

Also in 1971 and maybe just after The Ventures' release of the song once again, Nagisa's cover of "Nagasaki Bojou" came out with Haruo Hayashi（林春生）providing the lyrics just as he did for "Kyoto Bojou". It does have more of that kayo feeling with the addition of the soprano saxophone, the thwack-y drumming and the strings although I also hear that electric organ again. 

All of my condolences to Wilson's family and friends. I'm sure that fans in Japan are also mourning the loss but are also celebrating what he has left everyone.

C.C. Girls -- Namida Nashi ja Ienai（涙なしじゃ言えない）

 

Although I couldn't find the actual footage of it, the first time that I had ever heard of the group C.C. Girls（C.C.ガールズ）was actually via a "Crayon Shin-chan"（クレヨンしんちゃん）episode in which the main character was getting hot and bothered over the ladies. Strangely enough, we saw this through a VHS video at one of our JCSA weekly video meets at the University of Toronto in the early 1990s.

Looking at the above video where C.C. Girls were being introduced, there is a good dollop of nostalgia watching them come out with those sauvage hairdos and the dance club fashion. And hey, one of them was playing Super Mario World! As one commenter has pointed out, "...this is the most 90s thing ever".

If I've interpreted the J-Wiki article correctly, C.C. Girls had their origins through something called the Japan Beauty Awards in 1990 from where Noriko Aota（青田典子）, Noriko Harada（原田徳子）, Rie Fujiwara（藤原理恵）and Yuko Fujimori（藤森夕子）began the group. Because of their appearances as singers and variety show guests, this started off the so-called "sexy group" boom of the 1990s which included units such as Giri Giri☆GIRLS（ギリギリガールズ）and T-Backs in comparison with the conventional aidoru groups such as CoCo and Ribbon. Apparently at first, they were called D.D. Gaps but to match that Cool and Classy image, their name was changed to C.C. Girls sometime early in 1992. That combination of initials and noun was inspired by B.B. Queens who had 1990's biggest hit song, "Odoru Ponpokorin" （おどるポンポコリン）.

Their 5th single under either the D.D. Gaps or C.C. Girls banner was "Namida Nashi ja Ienai" (Can't Say It Without Tears) from March 1993. I may have to ask for some help from Marcos V. and/or any other KKP reader/commenter who has some additional knowledge about dance music since I'm not quite sure what this pattern of beats underlying Koji Makaino's（馬飼野康二）melody and Satoshi Nakamura's（中村哲）arrangement is. I can hear some of that early 90s City Pop along with perhaps Eurobeat from that time period. Maybe it can be likened to some of the danceable R&B from the United States at the same time as well but it's a melange that perhaps one of you guys can deconstruct for me. Goro Matsui（松井五郎）provided the lyrics.

(15:33)

A slow changing of the guard regarding the members began around 1995 with a second generation being completed by 1998. C.C. Girls finally disbanded in 2003, but C.C. Girls 3 rose up in late 2019 with a whole new slate of members. As for original leader Aota, she would release some music on her own and provide some photobooks. In 2010, she married Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）vocalist Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）and suspended her own activities to support him at home and on concert tours.

Sayuri Ishikawa -- Hitorizake（獨り酒）

 

Kamiya Bar（神谷バー）is an Asakusa institution that was literally around the corner from my NOVA branch although I only went there once since I was never much of a drinker. Supposedly, it is the oldest bar of its type in Japan and it is also the place where the Japanese cocktail Denki Bran（電気ブラン...Electric Brandy） was invented in the late 19th century.

The website "Cool Material" has a description of what Denki Bran is all about but what goes into the drink and in what quantities are apparently still secret. As for the above video by Sanpo suru Android（散歩するアンドロイド...The Walking Android）, we get to see the young lady enjoy a meal and the famed libation at the source itself. That one time that I visited Kamiya Bar, I did try a Denki Bran and had some of those dishes that go well with the drink, but perhaps unsurprisingly, I don't remember very much. However, I can say that I did visit this famous place.

During my years in Japan, I did visit the various izakaya chains with friends and students to celebrate certain events and/or to just hang out after catching a movie in Shinjuku or Ginza. But I don't recall ever going to a bar just because I wanted to drown my sorrows in drink following a bad day or relationship. Doing such a thing though is definitely one reason to hit the watering holes in any nation.

"Hitorizake" (Drinking Alone) is a lovingly arranged enka sung by veteran Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）as her August 2021 single. Composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）, it's not one of those electric guitar-powered gutsy songs but an enka with a gentle guitar and strings that are as reassuring as the sympathetic hostess of one's favourite nomiya who will always act as the salve. But the lyrics by Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）and singer-songwriter kinuyo don't play up the fact that the typical bar is on the same level as a medical clinic. It is simply the place to drown those sorrows, no better or worse.

Ishikawa showed up on last week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）to sing "Hitorizake" and to talk of the late Kitajo. She mentioned that her single may have indeed been the final song that he wrote before he left this mortal coil in November.