Kaientai -- Start Line（スタートライン）

 

Moving on from Remioromen's（レミオロメン）"San-gatsu Kokonoka"（3月9日）, an initially wedding-celebrating song turned into something more for graduations, I have here one of two songs that I heard on last night's episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）which began with a tribute to the diploma season.

When I heard that Tetsuya Takeda's（武田鉄矢）old folk band Kaientai（海援隊）was starting things off, of course, I naturally thought that they were going to perform that graduation kayo "Okuru Kotoba" (贈る言葉）since it is arguably the band's most famous song. However, I was surprised to hear a completely different tune by Takeda and the guys instead.

"Start Line" does share a commonality with the 1979 "Okuru Kotoba" in that both songs were themes for Takeda's famous show "3-Nen B-Gumi, Kinpachi Sensei"（３年B組み金八先生...Mr. Kinpachi of Class 3B）in different years with "Start Line" being the theme for the fourth series in the franchise going from October 1995 to March 1996. As was the case with "Okuru Kotoba", this particular theme was handled by Takeda and fellow Kaientai member, guitarist Kazuomi Chiba（千葉和臣）, providing the music as it was released as the group's 25th single in November 1995.

Kaientai seems to have taken a different approach for this graduation song in their discography. Whereas "Okuru Kotoba" feels like a farewell to the old life at school, "Start Line" comes off as being even more hopeful than bittersweet as graduates take those first steps into their next stage in life. That familiar folksiness still remains in this song and it peaked at No. 28 on Oricon.

Back in 2017, I made my list of graduation kayo in KKP so have a gander at that.

Remioromen -- San-gatsu Kokonoka（3月9日）

 

Well, after that weird shortened broadcast from last week, NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was back doing its full episode tonight, and I was delighted to get a bit of City Pop via young singers Little Black Dress and Ms. OOJA covering Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）"Simple Love" and Yasuha's（泰葉）"Fly-Day Chinatown"（フライディ・チャイナタウン）respectively. I swear that LBD was pretty much channeling Ohashi in those 1970s.

However, the beginning of the show, true to March in Japan, had its tribute to graduation season and I got to hear Kaientai（海援隊）and Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）do their tributes to the students getting their diplomas with all of the happiness and tears so I'm gonna be covering those songs tomorrow. In the meantime, though, before I forget to do this one and since it is technically March 9th in Japan now, I'll be starting off the graduation-themed songs with this one.

"San-gatsu Kokonoka" (March 9th) is the third single by rock band Remioromen（レミオロメン）, naturally released on March 9th 2004. My last article on the band was on New Year's Eve covering "Ohmisoka no Uta"（大晦日の歌）which translates to "Song for New Year's Eve", so I guess that Remioromen can be that group to commemorate holidays and events. The strange thing, though, is that although "San-gatsu Kokonoka" has been used to celebrate the diploma-receiving season (and for singing competitions), songwriter-vocalist Ryota Fujimaki（藤巻亮太）had actually created the song originally for the band to sing at a friend's wedding reception on March 9th 2001! Even the music video mostly has wedding footage although there are also some scenes of one teenager played by actress Maki Horikita（堀北真希）going through her school's graduation ceremony.

However, according to the J-Wiki article on "San-gatsu Kokonoka", when an Internet survey was conducted with 1000 people in their teens and twenties back in 2007, this particular song hit No. 1 when asked what the quintessential graduation song was. It hit No. 11 on Oricon going Double Platinum and was placed as a track on Remioromen's 2nd album "ether" which came out in March 9th 2005 and peaked at No. 2 on the album charts, itself going Platinum.

For those who may be graduating this month in Japan, my congratulations to you! 🎓

Time Five -- Carnival（カーニバル）

 

According to what I've been hearing from contributor and KKP co-administrator Marcos V., it looks like that the big samba parade for Carnival in Brazil is ready to go as of April. I'm hopeful for it since it would be a huge boost to tourism and spirits down there after two years of COVID, and I heard today on the news that the nation is lifting most of its restrictions due to lessening numbers.

Marcos' comments came in the article that I wrote up back on February 27th on Cherish's（チェリッシュ）"Kasukabe Samba"（春日部サンバ）, a song that we both agreed was definitely not samba but a pleasant pop song extoling the virtues of the city of Kasukabe in Saitama Prefecture. Still, I was rather looking for a nice samba in the kayo area.

And it looks like I have found one, thanks to a conversation that Rocket Brown and I had last week regarding the vocal group Time Five. Back in 1979, the group originating from Doshisha University released an album called "Gentle Breeze" which has been seen as one of their City Pop/J-AOR projects. I've already written about one track called "Silent Night", but here is this other one titled "Carnival", and yep, this time, this is a good deal closer to what I've envisioned as a samba melody.

Written by Masumi Ono（大野真澄）, the melody was provided by Japan-based Brazilian singer Sonia Rosa, and I do believe that this is indeed her harmonizing with Time Five. The samba flavour is in there, and I'm not sure whether a sax solo would be a regular thing in a traditional samba, but since it is in there, I think that I could also place "Carnival" within City Pop, too. In any case, I hope that the Brazilian Carnival does come off without a hitch.

Satoshi Kishida -- Tasogare（黄昏）

 

Throughout this decade of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've become more sympathetic to those fans behind the so-called one-hit wonders. In the past ten years, I've not only written about superstars that I've enjoyed and new singers that I'd never heard of before with a catchy tune, but also those other artists who have been around for years but either never got that huge mega-hit or did gain fame for that one song before seemingly disappearing from the charts and the media. That last group of singers I've come to realize has had their dedicated fans because they (and I) have found other wonderful and worthy tunes by them. Maybe those songs didn't get used in a popular commercial or didn't climb up Oricon but they are just fine just the same.

As such, I've tried to spotlight some of those singers' material whenever I can, and one such song is "Tasogare" (Dusk) by singer-songwriter and actor Satoshi Kishida（岸田智史）. Whenever his name is mentioned on television or radio these days, it's because of that huge hit that he had in 1979, the comely "Kimi no Asa" （君の朝）, which spent five straight weeks at No. 1 and sold over half a million records.

Written and composed by the singer, "Tasogare" was actually his 2nd single from March 1977 and it's in that folk/New Music vein, as arranged by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, as Kishida sings not about the daily sunset but the sad sunset of a relationship and one half of a former couple having to deal with the bittersweet aftermath. Kishida begins "Tasogare" introspectively before he lets his emotions come out during the refrain via that resonant voice of his. The setting might be in some big park in autumn in Tokyo but the introduction of what sounds like a quiet French accordion near the end could actually transport the grieving fellow to some other nation.

(short version)

In October 2016, a new version of "Tasogare" by Kishida was released with some added elegance. By the way, the kanji for his name was changed from「岸田智史」to「岸田敏志」by that point (the pronunciation remains the same). His real name is Hidehiko Inada（稲田英彦）, and his son, percussionist Shintaro Inada（稲田しんたろう）, was a co-arranger for this new version. Also, on the family front, Kishida's daughter is Mizuki Inada（稲田みづ紀）, a musical actress while his father was a famous calligrapher.

Mirei Kitahara -- Bara no Ame（薔薇の雨）

 

Yesterday, I wrote about enka singer Hiroshi Miyama's（三山ひろし）debut single "Hitokoi Sakaba"（人恋酒場）and the fact that I'd assumed that it was one of his newer singles when he performed it on NHK's "Songs of Japanese Spirit" last Saturday, only to find out it was released many years ago. Well, I had the opposite thought process when I saw veteran singer Mirei Kitahara（北原ミレイ）on the same show.

Kitahara has been in the music business since 1970 when she came out with "Zange no Neuchi mo Nai" (ざんげの値打ちもない) so it's been well over 50 years now, and when she came out to perform her "Bara no Ame" (Rose Rain), I'd assumed that it was one of her older songs. Uh-uh. Actually, this is her most recent single, her 59th to be exact, released in January this year. But I can be forgiven for making that initial assumption because the blurb under this YouTube video describes "Bara no Ame" as possessing that nostalgic Showa Era dancehall sound.

I can certainly agree with that assessment. It's really quite the dandy piece of Mood Kayo with the spicy Latin horns and the jangly electric guitar. "Bara no Ame" does take me back to the 1980s at least and at the age of 73, Kitahara still can sing and twirl around like a lady half her age. Mami Takubo（田久保真見）was the lyricist here while Yoshitaka Higuchi（樋口義高）composed the snazzy melody.

Yoko Oginome -- This is Pop

Truth be told, I’m always a sucker for Yoko Oginome, especially when it comes to Laserdisc/DVD releases of her live performances. Needless to say, I was all the more surprised when I accidentally stumbled on YouTube upon Pop Liberation Force, a compilation of clips from Yoko’s concert tour in 1992.

After a quick investigation online, it becomes apparent that Pop Liberation Force was originally released on Laserdisc as well as VHS, but it also received a DVD edition in the late 2000s. In my opinion, the title itself and the artwork for this compilation are simply awesome. You really get the feeling you are in for military-themed entertainment delivered by Yoko.

Indeed, Yoko wears a military uniform, but unfortunately only for the first four songs of the compilation, which is a shame. Another downer is the shoddy editing, which is certainly not suitable for people suffering from epilepsy. It is almost as if the editors wanted to go full 90s and show how edgy they were with their craft, but the end result is a fast-paced mess that takes you out of the viewing experience.

This is very much evident in the opening song called "This is Pop". The song itself is incredibly catchy. I love how the beat remains constant during the chorus, and all of a sudden, everything goes into overdrive towards the concluding section. Still again, the editing of the performance is painfully insufferable. Yet, I found myself constantly rewatching this clip time and time again, just to make out the dance choreography. It is clear that Yoko put a lot of effort into it, and it must have looked amazing on a stage, but then again… the editing gets in the way!

All in all, I love the song and it’s up there together with "Stranger Tonight" and "Hot Summer Night" as my fave Yoko Oginome’s songs. It really motivated me to study for my university exams which I had to take just recently. Interestingly, Yoko did an updated version of the song for another music video compilation called New Fashioned Love Songs. Evidently, this version is more… hip/techno(?) It is hard for me to describe it. It is longer but low-key at the same time. The concluding section is not that epic anymore. Judge for yourselves and thank you for reading.

 Image sources: 1, 2, 3

Hiroshi Miyama -- Hitokoi Sakaba（人恋酒場）

Last Saturday, there was the usual afternoon broadcast of "Songs of Japanese Spirit" on NHK's satellite channel, and I got to see enka veteran Hiroshi Miyama（三山ひろし）. Of course, he and everyone else got to sing a whole number of songs during the 90-minute show but then I heard this particular jaunty enka tune.

I'd assumed that it was one of his more recent singles but actually, it was his debut single from June 2009, "Hitokoi Sakaba" (Bar of Love). As I said, it's a pretty genki enka although the protagonist in that bar is giving his "Can't live with them, can't live without them" lament about women in general. And yet, he's hoping to see the latest young lady that he's fallen for. Since it is a cheerfully arranged song, I'm assuming that the lad has bent the ears of the bartender and any fellow barfly, and that they are giving each other knowing glances and rolling eyes to the tune of "Ach, here we go again about his treatise of love".

"Hitokoi Sakaba" was written by Toshiya Niitani（仁井谷俊也）and composed by Tensho Nakamura（中村典正）. It was a pretty good start for Miyama since it peaked at No. 17 on Oricon and his first single went Gold, selling more than 100,000 copies.