Supertramp -- The Logical Song

from Discogs

Since it is a major holiday today in Canada and the United States, I thought that it would be nice to have another special Reminiscings of Youth article up here detailing some of the songs outside of Japan that I heard in my teenage years. 

I think that cover for Supertramp's 1979 award-winning "Breakfast In America" is absolutely iconic. The crazy thing is that though I remember the photo of that really welcoming diner waitress with her orange juice raised up high, I'd always thought that up to an hour ago, the backdrop was truly a photo of Manhattan Island in New York State instead of it actually being a bunch of dining table paraphernalia made up to look like Manhattan. 

By the way, welcome to KKP, Supertramp! The English rock group was a regular on the radio airwaves when I was growing up, and being the kid that I was, I had known them as that band with the fellow with the really high voice. That's about as descriptive as I could get about Roger Hodgson at the time, but his voice did serve as a calling card for me to be able to recognize the band's music...well, that and the Wurlitzer electric piano. 

"The Logical Song" from March 1979 which has been called Supertramp's greatest contribution to music was indeed the lead single from "Breakfast In America", and yep, I heard it all the time on radio. But like the simple mind that is quoted in Hodgson's lyrics, I had no idea of the significance of them until many years later. I thought it had a rather odd title back then and being a budding Trekkie at the time, images of Mr. Spock kept flittering around in my head instead of the debate about what formal education was really worth (to this day, I still don't really know how learning about matrices in math meant anything).

Over the years though, Hodgson's music for "The Logical Song" has gotten increasingly cooler and though I have yet to encounter any official literature about the structure and progression of its melody, it seems to flip between the hecticness of life in the big city and a more dream-like state wondering what life is all about. Then the end with the band members playing their cowbell, castanets and whistle might be showing the protagonist finally going a bit mad.

Certainly my imagination wasn't going mad when it comes to the "The Logical Song" and how often it was hitting the airwaves. It was the No. 1 song in Canada for 1979 while on the US Billboard chart, it scored No. 27.

Well, I might have found a new site providing information on which singles were released in which month and year. And so, I can provide a few singles that did come out at the same time as "The Logical Song".

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Be Silent（美・サイレント）

Satoshi Kishida -- Kimi no Asa （君の朝）

Southern All Stars -- Itoshi no Ellie （いとしのエリー）

Off-Course -- Hitori de Ikite Yukereba（ひとりで生きてゆければ）

 

The band Off-Course（オフコース）has had a CD compilation series with songs representing each of the four seasons, but when it comes right down to it, I'm always going to see Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and his group of the 1970s and 1980s as an autumn thing. Frankly, it does have some part to do with the fact that their wonderful "Aki no Kehai"（秋の気配）was the first song that I had ever heard by them, but they tended to create and record a lot of music that often was sad and contemplative which was also a common theme with autumn-based kayo.

Ironically, Off-Course's 8th single "Hitori de Ikite Yukereba" (If I Live On My Own) was actually released in the spring...May 1976, to be exact. However, the sadness and contemplation are still baked in this song by Oda. The story here deals with a man who has left everything and everyone behind, including his girlfriend, to start a new life of work in Tokyo which would in a way make "Hitori de Ikite Yukereba" a New Music version of those chestnuts of the 50s and 60s kayo of trying to make a life in the big city away from the warmth of home and hearth out in the countryside.

Not surprisingly, the man is filled with trepidation for this big and lonely step, and he asks for strength in his time of life change. I think that many of us have been through this including myself when I left home for the first time back in 1989 to start my teaching career on the JET Programme. "Hitori de Ikite Yukereba" is also a track on Off-Course's November 1976 4th original album "SONG IS LIFE" which peaked at No. 34 on Oricon. That tenderhearted guitar and the harmonica really hit home.

Miho Yonemitsu & Yuko Anai (from Tokyo Performance Doll) -- Akiiro Concerto（秋色協奏曲）

 

Happy Labour Day to all involved countries, and no, I realize that we're still almost two months away from Halloween, but I couldn't find any other picture on short notice to depict the autumn season. And this song does signify the season in its title.

Actually "Akiiro Concerto" (Fall Colour Concerto) as performed by two members of the aidoru group Tokyo Performance Doll（東京パフォーマンスドール）, Miho Yonemitsu & Yuko Anai（米光美保・穴井夕子）, was ably covered several years ago by my friend and co-administrator of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Marcos V. in 2016. I usually don't do follow-ups of fellow contributors' articles since they have always spoken for themselves without the need for added insights from me. However, I was so charmed by Yonemitsu & Anai's work here that I wanted to write something.

For one thing, I'm always going to be a sucker for some swinging Burt Bacharach-esque horn arrangements since that ties in with the whole Shibuya-kei thing in the 1990s. Indeed, I know that it's the synthesizer providing the horns (kinda PSY-S-like) and there's a part of me that would have preferred the real horns for "Akiiro Concerto", but I'm just whining a tad here. Still, the song created by lyricist Nonoko Jin（神野々子）and composer Kazuhito Fujiki（藤木和人）has got a good beat and the ladies behind the mike give some fine harmonies.

As Marcos mentioned in his article for the song, "Akiiro Concerto" first saw the light of day on the group’s third album, “Cha-Dance Party Vol. 3", in November 1991. I've already provided a few articles regarding Yonemitsu's solo career following her TPD days including her cover of the City Pop classic "Koi wa Ryuusei" (恋は流星）, originally by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）.

Ai Furihata -- Ai wa Kokoro no Shigoto desu（愛は心の仕事です）

 

Since first discovering singer-songwriter Ai Furihata（降幡愛）and her brand of 80s synthpop and City Pop amid the backdrop of Vaporwave aesthetics a couple of years ago, I've been charmed into purchasing her debut mini-album "Moonrise" which came out in September 2020. As well, earlier this year, Furihata released her first mini-album of cover tunes, "Memories of Romance in Summer", which includes her take on Meiko Nakahara's（中原めいこ）classic "Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne" （君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）.

Just by pure dumb luck last night, I found out that Furihata will be putting out a second mini-album of cover tunes "Memories of Romance in Driving" which won't be due out actually for a few more weeks. The release date is September 28th. However, one of the tracks' music video is out now and before I knew about the source album, it took me half the song to realize that "Ai wa Kokoro no Shigoto desu" is a cover of late 80s band RAMU's debut single from 1988.

Also to remind folks, RAMU had aidoru Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）fully envelop that City Pop sensation to become the group's vocalist. I had my own translation for "Ai wa Kokoro no Shigoto desu", but I actually prefer the translation given under the YouTube video: "Love Is A Work Of Mind". The RAMU original had been created by lyricist Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composer Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, and basically the arrangement by Akimitsu Honma（本間昭光）follows the same pattern but there seems to be more of a ramp-up in the spacey synths, and the music video is the Vaporwave anime that no one saw coming but has arrived triumphantly nonetheless. Another point that characterizes this cover is that contrasted with Kikuchi's famously breathy delivery, Furihata packs a fair amount of punch into her singing, especially when she sings out "I My Me Mine, My Boy".

Furihata on her YouTube channel has also provided a tasting platter video for "Memories of Romance in Driving", so enjoy the tidbits.

Dragon Ash -- Let yourself go, Let myself go

 

After writing about actor Ikko Furuya（古谷一行）and one of his songs yesterday, I was reminded that his son, Kenji Furuya（降谷建志）, was also the vocalist and songwriter for the band Dragon Ash. There were those years in the late 1990s and early 2000s when this hip-hop/rock group frequently showed up on television, especially the music ranking shows.

Several of the comments for the music video of Dragon Ash's 4th single from March 1999, "Let yourself go, Let myself go", took on the glow of nostalgic swooning. I have never been a hip-hop fan myself but I can understand those fans' feelings since I used to see an excerpt of the video on a weekly basis for months, perhaps as much as a whole year. As the thumbnail shot shows, the excerpt was always of Furuya bouncing up and down in that blue hat and winter jacket and/or driving in his beloved Ford Mustang according to the J-Wiki article on the song.

In all honesty, I listened to "Let yourself go, Let myself go" in its entirety for the first time only yesterday since I'd completely forgotten about the band and its magnum opus in the years since then. Again, my knowledge of hip-hop on either side of the Pacific is minimal at best, but I find the song to be one of the more melodic examples of such a song, especially getting near the end. In fact, I was wondering whether "Let yourself go, Let myself go" was burgeoning on becoming a hip-pop ballad.

From what I could understand of Furuya's lyrics, they seem to be about moving forward from a bad time, perhaps judging from the title, the sad end of a romantic relationship. I did pick up on a few phrases hinting at stopping to smell the roses and walk into a better and more hopeful future. "Let yourself go, Let myself go" peaked at No. 4 on Oricon, going Double Platinum and ending the year as the 26th-ranked single. It was also a part of Dragon Ash's 5th album "Viva La Revolution" which was released in July 1999. It hit No. 1 on the charts and became the 13th-ranked album for the year breaking two million copies in sales.

Sayuri Ishikawa -- Natsu, Ureshii ne/Osaka no Onna（夏、うれしいね・大阪のおんな）

 

Summer has come back with a blast here today as the heat and humidity have soared once more. The Canadian National Exhibition, one of our local examples of late summer festivities, will be wrapping up its time over the Labour Day weekend. I'm sure that even now the Japanese summer festivals are still being held throughout the nation, although I think the bulk of them got their time last month. All that yukata-wearing, food-noshing, fireworks-viewing and sparkler-holding stuff have become so ingrained into culture that even anime franchises would be lacking if they didn't have a summer festival episode.

I'm covering an entire single by enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）but I'm beginning from the coupling song. "Natsu, Ureshii ne" (Summer's Fun) is an enka/pop tune celebrating the season. Written by Satoshi Tarumi（垂水佐敏）and composed by Masato Sugimoto（杉本真人）, it's a traditional-sounding jaunty song centering around the quintessential scene of romantic couples in their summer garb making the rounds at the festival at night. 

The above video has a number of commercials for mostly Kincho insect repellants, another symbol of summer life in Japan. At 1:00, one ad uses "Natsu, Ureshii ne" as the jingle.

The A-side, so to speak, was Ishikawa's 67th single from July 1995, "Osaka no Onna" (Woman of Osaka). This is definitely solid enka written by Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡治）and composed by Chiaki Oka（岡千秋）, and the lyrics perhaps tell of a story of a woman working at a bar in the titular metropolis falling for one of her customers and quixotically hoping that the magic elixir of sake will change his attitude into a more accommodating one toward her. Well, there are such things called affairs. I didn't see any indication that "Osaka no Onna" was ever used for any commercial dealing with a sake brand, but on second thought, perhaps taking into consideration the lyrics, it was a good thing that it wasn't used in that way.😅

Ikko Furuya -- Juu-nana Sai no Koro（17才の頃）

 

When I heard the news yesterday that Tokyo-born veteran actor Ikko Furuya（古谷一行）had passed away on August 23rd at the age of 78, I was reminded of his appearances in historical dramas and then his role as the famous and popular detective Kosuke Kindaichi（金田一耕助）in the 1970s, which has been played by a number of other actors. In fact, the above video is of a Cup Noodle commercial parodying Furuya's portrayal of the master sleuth with perpetual dandruff issues.

Along with his thespian work, Furuya also released several singles mostly in the 70s and 80s along with five studio albums between 1974 and 1983. One such single that he released in October 1981 was "Juu-nana Sai no Koro" (When I Was 17). My image of the actor was when he was already an old man with a craggy visage, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear him as a young fellow sounding very silky-smooth. His vocals come across as being slightly reminiscent to those of folk/pop singer Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）. Composer Hiroya Watanabe（渡辺博也）came up with a folksy pop melody to match the words by lyricist Kaoru Ichiba（市場馨）whose real name is Haruki Tango（丹古晴己）.

Even as someone who only had a brief time watching Japanese dramas regularly, Furuya's name and face were well known to me. But I still only learned recently that his son, Kenji Furuya（降谷建志）, was the vocalist of mixture rock band Dragon Ash, with his daughter-in-law being tarento MEGUMI. Regardless, my condolences go out to Furuya's family, friends and fans.