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.
A few days ago, when I was looking up information on composer/arranger Joe Hisaishi's（久石譲）"Jinsei no Merry-Go-Round"（人生のメリーゴーランド）, just another one of the maestro's wonderful songs for Studio Ghibli, I also opted to see what else he had done early in his career. After all, it's always interesting how a veteran in the music industry began everything.
Well, in his J-Wiki profile, I saw in his singles category, his very first contribution was a song called "Night City" that he had released all the way back in August 1988. Looking at that title, I wondered whether he had actually concocted something City Pop, since it was the late 1980s. I rather scoffed at myself at first. This was the guy who had provided the music for "Nausicaa" and "Laputa" earlier on after all.
But then I discovered and played the video on YouTube, and man, was I in for a surprise! The video had been posted up almost two years ago, so I was definitely late to the party, but still, I was rather gobsmacked that he not only composed this fast-moving case of sophisti-pop in the big city, he also sang the tune. And would you get a load of his appearance on the CD single? He's ready to paint the town red! Warm up that sports car!
Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）provided the lyrics for Hisaishi's debut single. "Night City" was also a part of his 4th album, "illusion", which came out later in December that year.
It's been amazing that this is yé-yé and chanson singer France Gall's fourth entry in "Kayo Kyoku Plus" starting back in 2018 when her "Le temps de la rentrée" was an unlikely choice as an ending theme for the anime "Hisone to Masotan"（ひそねとまそたん...Hisone & Masotan）. But hey, it worked in a great way and the ending credits were always fun to watch even though the anime itself didn't end with a particularly satisfying conclusion, in my opinion.
Gall was still in her late teens when she released the April 1965 album"Poupée de cire, poupée de son" which included the swinging "Le Coeur Qui Jazze" with jazz pianist Alain Goraguer and His Orchestra backing her up. Goraguer composed the song with Robert Gall, France's father, coming up with the lyrics. Some nice vocalese by the singer as well. I almost feel like booking those tickets to Paris and hitting a jazz club with champagne.
Just about a year ago, I first mentioned the Shibuya-kei band Les 5-4-3-2-1 and their interesting take on Burt Bacharach's classic "Bond Street". That was in 1996, but even earlier than that in 1993 via their album "UN", they recorded their version of "Le Coeur Qui Jazze" translated into "Jazzuru Kokoro". It comes with a rather graphics-filled music video to help viewers get into the swinging mood, and the arrangers even threw in some psychedelic electric guitar, to boot, and it even gets to play some of the French national anthem at the end.
It's ironic...years before I started up the ROY series here on KKP, I still had been able to squeeze in great 80s collective Art of Noise into the blog with their "Legs" because the song had been used as the theme for veteran magician Mr. Marikku（Mr.マリック）and his "hand power". I even used the above thumbnail although I didn't even refer to "Dragnet" even though I gave some of their other hits a shoutout. But today, I finally give the band's second go at an iconic American crime show theme its just dues. However, I need to go through quite a bit of background.
Dum...de...DUM...DUM!
Yup, that musical cue isn't only one of the most famous musical cues in pop culture history, it's probably one of the first cues that I had ever heard and remembered as a toddler. Now, it wouldn't be for some years that I realized that the US police procedural program "Dragnet" had started as a radio program in 1949 before it became a long-running television show in the 1950s, both starring Jack Webb as the unflappable and intrepid Sergeant Joe Friday and a lot of others as his partners over the decades.
The whole franchise was famous for a number of tropes: the quick even-toned patter of Friday and his partner, Friday's narration of the progress of the case that episode, the description of Los Angeles, and the fact that the guys seemed to circulate like air through all of the police station's various departments. But my first exposure as a little boy to "Dragnet" was in its final years in the late 1960s when the older and portlier Friday was partnered with Officer Bill Gannon, played by veteran actor Harry Morgan.
Of course, there was that opening blast of ominous horns which launched the "Dragnet"song, one of the more recognizable themes in all of television. Officially titled "Danger Ahead" and composed by Walter Schumann, it not only struck me as foretelling of danger ahead but it also meant "Uh oh...police in back!". I've heard my old buddies in school intone it to signal big trouble...usually of a parental nature.
"Dragnet" the original series finished its run very early in the 1970s and since then, cop shows evolved to show a more fallible side to their characters and even what they were up to outside of work hours. So it was with some surprise when I was already in university that a new movie version of "Dragnet" was hitting the big screen in 1987. I just saw the promotional picture of Dan Aykroyd as Joe Friday and Tom Hanks as new partner Pep Streebek, and thought "OMG! Are these guys actually going to do a serious movie?!". Aykroyd was the comedian from "Saturday Night Live" and "Ghostbusters", and Hanks at that time was also a comedic actor.
As it turned out, "Dragnet" in 1987 was a homage and a parody to the original Webb classic and the trailer above made that clear. Webb's Friday would never have reacted in the way that Aykroyd's Friday did when the car ran over his foot.
Then I found out through one of the music video shows that Art of Noise was tackling the iconic theme song for the movie. They did a great job with another legendary theme, "Peter Gunn", the previous year so I had great expectations. Well, to my initial disappointment, I wasn't all that impressed with the original version of AON's "Dragnet" theme. I mean, it was nice seeing the kid and her three buddies from the band's "Close to the Edit" don their California togs and have fun with scenes from the upcoming movie but in retrospect, this version seemed like a beta test take.
That didn't dissuade me from catching the movie though since I was interested in seeing how everyone involved, including Aykroyd and Hanks, would treat "Dragnet". As it turned out, the movie was OK but not great. I thought that Aykroyd gave an impressive and endearing Joe Friday impression, but like a number of comedies centering around successful characters from "Saturday Night Live" (with the exception of "Wayne's World" and the first "Blues Brothers"), "Dragnet" wasn't quite able to stretch out the story adequately beyond some of the funny gags.
But the intro was spectacular with it opening like a classic "Dragnet" TV episode under the narration of good ol' Joe and then the epic "Danger Ahead" horns and march. It was funny and awesome seeing Friday walk over to the station before the new version of the Art of Noise theme exploded on the screen. And this time, AON hit it out of the park with this dance remix version incorporating all of the jittery vocal excerpts. Before the advent of YouTube, I'd been searching for this take of the theme for years and years and so I was extremely happy for my ears to get reacquainted with it again.
I also have to say that the final scene of the movie was incredible and hilarious, too.
The following year, Art of Noise released a number of remixes. I ended up getting one of my own.
"Dragnet" the movie was released in June 1987 so what were three of the singles that got released at the same time? Two of them were actually the debut singles for these singers.
As I noted in the Yokohama musician's 2016 article for his "Burning", George Yanagi（柳ジョージ）passed away in October 2011 at the age of 63. Had he lived, he would have been 74 on January 30th. So to start off the final January 2022 Thursday for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", allow me to give a little tribute through one of his tunes.
To be accurate, though, it should be the tune of George Yanagi & Rainy Wood（柳ジョージ&レイニーウッド）, his old band which had their initial run from 1975 to 1981. Yanagi's group specialized in rock, blues rock and R&B according to their J-Wiki profile, and "Nemuri no nai Machi" (The Town That Never Sleeps) was the leadoff track for their November 1979 4th album"Rainy Wood Avenue".
Written by Toshi Sumikawa（トシ・スミカワ）and composed by Rainy Wood's co-vocalist and guitarist Kiyoto Ishii（石井清登）, the title might suggest that Yanagi's town in question is an exploding hub of partying and all sorts of action. But Ishii's melody and Sumikawa's lyrics are more about the sweet boozy and bluesy and relaxing haze of someone with their head on the counter of their favourite hole-in-the-wall in the overnight hours. Meanwhile, a couple of other buddies are just nursing their tumblers of constantly refilled whiskey at the table nearby as the sky takes on that dark blue turning into light peach.
Yep, "Nemuri no nai Machi" has got that blues in there but I also hear some country and even a pinch of City Pop. All in all, it can act like a mature lullaby or a cheerful wake-up (last) call. Somewhere, there's a Japanese whiskey brand kicking itself for not using the song in its commercials. By the way, "Rainy Wood Avenue" was the band's first Oricon No. 1 album.
A little over a year ago, I covered a milet song for the first time via her "inside you" which she'd also performed on the special COVID-influenced 2020 Kohaku Utagassen. She does have a distinctive voice which makes her one that can be easily recognizable in pop music. It also sounded rather familiar when compared to other singers and I was wondering which singers. I finally thought milet's vocals rather blended the timbre of Alanis Morissette and the soar of Adele, but that's just my opinion.
Near the end of the year, milet showed up on comedian Sanma Akashiya's（明石家さんま）year-end special where she basically broke down in adorable embarrassment and hilarity after boasting that she could peel a hard-boiled egg lickety-split on an Olympic level and then failing miserably. Apparently, the egg never got the memo.
However, that's OK since her day job as a singer-songwriter is serving her much better. Strangely enough, since I've mentioned the Olympics, her "Fly High" (written and composed by her with TomoLow also helping out with the melody) has been selected as NHK's official song for the upcoming Winter Games in Beijing starting next week, although for some reason, it's been labeled as "The Winter Sports Theme Song" for the first time instead.
For me, it doesn't quite reach the levels of the truly blood-pumping "Atsukunare"（熱くなれ）by Maki Ohguro（大黒摩季）for the 1996 Games in Atlanta, but "Fly High" has that appropriately Olympic-level inspiration within milet's vocals and arrangement. Also, I think that there is also a bit of "Lion King" flowing through its veins. Indeed, milet not only sang this on the Akashiya special but this was her contribution on her 2nd appearance on the Kohaku almost a month ago. It will be a track on her 2nd full album"visions" which will be released on February 2nd next week.
Ah, I did find her folly with the egg peeling. According to the poor lass, she'd actually practiced with six eggs beforehand.
Last night on NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, singer Kumiko（クミコ）performed a lyrics-filled version of the theme song from the Hayao Miyazaki（宮崎駿）movie "Howl's Moving Castle"(2004), and it was OK. However, my feeling was that the original song had packed more of a punch. By the way, I never saw the actual movie with SMAP's Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）playing Howl himself and Christian Bale dubbing the role in English. I read with some mirth that Bale's work on the movie came on the cusp of him taking on the Batman role and that his performance in "Howl's Moving Castle" was practice for the Dark Knight's terrifying voice. Perhaps in that case, Howl should have been called Growl.
Of course, when it comes to a Studio Ghibli movie with Miyazaki, it's going to be Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）on soundtrack duties, and with "Howl's Moving Castle" came the instrumental "Jinsei no Merry-Go-Round" (Merry-Go-Round of Life). And it's one of those masterpiece creations by the maestro himself that sent shivers up and down my spine. Even more than his wonderful "Hareta Hi ni..."（晴れた日に...）theme for "Majou no Takkyubin"（魔女の宅急便...Kiki's Delivery Service）, Hisaishi encapsulates the pathos, romance, adventure and even some comic relief from the movie into the three minutes and change of this epic waltz. I can see couples in their finest dress whirling around the floor in some European castle while this is playing.
And yet, despite the waltzing nature of the song, it also really sounds like being put on the most amazing merry-go-round of your lifetime. "Jinsei no Merry-Go-Round" was the coupling song for Chieko Baisho's（倍書千恵子）"Sekai no Yakusoku"（世界の約束...Promise of the World） single which I assume is sung during the ending credits of the movie. Baisho played the main character of Sophie in the original version. I'll have to cover that one sometime later on. It was released in October 2004, about a month before the movie came out.
Although I've known about the FOX/Netflix series "Lucifer", I never became a dedicated viewer of the show only because I no longer have easy access to a television to catch my own stuff, I simply don't want to PVR everything in sight, and well, I have "Kayo Kyoku Plus" to do every night (and day). Yet, Tom Ellis, the star of the show playing the titular character, has made quite the name for himself in Hollywood, and there are rumours (which admittedly are worth less than the paper that they are written upon) that he could become the next Doctor Who (which is unlikely). I think that he would make for a very fine and naughty 14th incarnation, but perhaps after doing a series for several years, maybe there are other things that he would like to do.
In any case, I was reminded of "Lucifer" by this song by singer-songwriter Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）called "Akuma ga Sasayaku"(The Devil Whispers), and it's quite the funk-fest and overall jazzy plaything that resides on her 3rd studio album from July 1978, "Stop Motion" which also has the Ozaki classic "I've Been Mellow". Written and composed by her, I probably wouldn't place it as a City Pop tune but it can fit nicely in New Music and R&B. Lyrically, a lady gets involved with a rather devilish young man who has her in his snare of love and she's not particularly too keen in escaping.
Actually, while listening to "Akuma ga Sasayaku" a few times, I started wondering whether Ozaki had been inspired somewhat by the late great Dr. John, the master of New Orleans blues, jazz and funk. Furthermore, in my right earphone, I can hear a rhythm in there that I've also heard in another completely different song from many years later, the eccentric "Apron Boy" by DJ Misoshiru & MC Gohan.
I ought to mention some of the musicians involved as well since they're no slouches. Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）was on the piano and organ, Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）was on the electric guitar, and Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）was on lead guitar, for instance.
