Cyndi Lauper -- She Bop

 

Let me preface this regular Reminiscings of Youth entry by saying that I was never the sharpest billiard ball in the rack. And as I've mentioned in the past on the blog, I didn't pay much attention to lyrics as I did to the melody when it came to music. In the 1980s, I was enjoying the waves and waves of music that were crashing on my shore from both Japan and the West. Cyndi Lauper, the Unusual Girl, was one of the regulars that came onto land via radio and music video. 

A little over a year ago, I did a ROY on her 1983 classic "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" which I had discovered was a cover version of the original by Robert Hazard in 1979. I was a big fan of the song and then the melancholy ballad "Time After Time" came to our eyes and ears. That was OK but then I got really interested in her 3rd single from her debut album "She's So Unusual", "She Bop", which was released in July 1984.

For me, it was the fact that the original single already sounded like one of the coolest dance remixes before even getting the remix treatment, including those amazing rumbling deep synths. I guess "She Bop" can be considered to be one of my early aural earworms following the sight of the Ceti Alpha Eel on "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". So, it was always me trying to catch "She Bop" on the radio as often as I could and then when the official weird and wonderful music video came out, it was pretty much all hands on di...deck.

But then after reading some newspaper and magazine articles on the hit which peaked (climaxed?) at No. 3 in both Canada and the United States, I rather reacted "Say what now?!". I took another closer look at the music video, and I realized that "She Bop" was all about mastering one's domain (look up "Seinfeld"). Ahh, well. I was still looking long and hard for a remix version of the song and I was lucky to finally hear it on the Saturday all-night remix programs on the radio. Hey, nearly 40 years later, "She Bop" still gleefully explodes. 

Anyways, now that we're past the PG-rated double entendres, what was on Oricon's Top 10 list for July 1984? We have Nos. 2, 3 and 4.

2. Asami Kobayashi -- Ame Oto wa Chopin no Shirabe （雨音はショパンの調べ）

(with special guest star Yumi Matsutoya since all of Kobayashi's renditions have been scrubbed from YouTube)

3. Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Main Theme （メイン・テーマ）

4. Yuko Ishikawa & Chage -- Futari no Ai Land （ふたりの愛ランド）

Kaori Mizumori -- Matsushima Kikou（松島紀行）

 

My anime buddy is currently in East Asia right now, and he will be visiting the Matsushima（松島）area up in Miyagi Prefecture（宮城県）during his return to Japan. I'm expecting that he'll be taking hundreds of photographs of what is one of the three big Japanese landscapes. The above video is from Planetyze.

The Queen of Go-Touchi Songs（ご当地ソング...geographically-based kayo）, Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）, appeared on an "Uta Con"（うたコン）a few weeks ago where she said that she only has two more prefectures to sing about before completing her epic journey of providing enka tunes for all 47 territories of Japan. And then she went on the stage to sing about one of her earlier go-touchi songs.

"Matsushima Kikou" (Matsushima Travelogue) is her 18th single from April 2010, giving tribute to the titular region. Written by Takashi Taka（たかたかし）and composed by Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）, Mizumori gives one of her gallant and gentle renditions of the area as she relates the story of a lady running away to forget the death of a romance but try as she might, she can't keep the dark cloud away from the sky above her head. 

The song hit No. 2 on Oricon and became the 57th-ranked single of 2010, earning Mizumori her 8th invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of that year. 

Kimiko Kasai -- Melody of Love

Suruga-ya.com

 

Of course, this isn't an APB that I've occasionally called out for myself or someone who wanted to know about the identify of a singer and/or a song. I know both the singer and the song here but I'm at a loss regarding its release date. Try as I have, the song hasn't popped up on the relevant Wikipedia sites or anywhere online. I was just lucky even to find one image of the CD single.

I'm talking about "Melody of Love" by City Pop/jazz chanteuse Kimiko Kasai（笠井紀美子）. It was actually used as the campaign song for Charle Co. Ltd, a producer of women's undergarments. Kasai and her husband Richard J. Rudolph created this sultry love song that definitely has that big hint of Burt Bacharach's famous "The Look of Love" from the very first "Casino Royale" soundtrack (I recently wrote on another Bacharach-inspired J-Pop tune a few days ago) thanks to the jazzy bossa. It's very languid...maybe even a bit too languid.

"Melody of Love" first came to my ears when I heard it off of JTM's kind contribution of music that he had sent me. Intrigued by Kasai's whispery vocals and its similarity to "The Look of Love", I tried looking it up but for some reason, I couldn't find it via her J-Wiki or Wikipedia discography, and riffing through her albums didn't show anything. Perhaps Kasai treated "Melody of Love" more as her contribution to Charle and not as an official song of hers. However, since the singer stopped performing in the 1980s and her final album "KIMIKO KASAI" was released in 1990, I will use that year as a stopgap date until someone confirms or corrects me. "Melody of Love" though did show up on her 1999 BEST compilation "My Favorite Songs Vol. 1 ~ Love". 

QYPTHONE -- Mustache

www.goodfreephotos.com

 

No "Uta Con"（うたコン）this week due to the Golden Week holiday in Japan but perhaps folks over here are already feeling the strain of the work week despite it being Tuesday. If they're anything like the guys in the old series "Mad Men", they probably want to hit home as soon as possible and crawl into a comfy martini.

I may just have the perfect musical accompaniment, too. Looks like it's some lounge-friendly salsa jazz with a bit of technology, thanks to "Mustache" by the eclectic band QYPTHONE centering around music maker Takeshi Nakatsuka（中塚武）. A track from the band's 5th and final original album "Montuno No. 5", "Mustache" sounds like it came straight from the 1960s instead of December 2002 when the album was released. Nakatsuka came up with the swiveling music while Izumi Okawahara（大河原泉）was responsible for the lyrics.

I've always had a soft spot for these How To YouTube videos. I'm feeling a bit whimsical so I put a couple of them up although I neither drink martinis nor have a mustache.

Gordon Lightfoot -- Sundown

 

It didn't look good about a couple of weeks ago when I learned on the news that Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot had cancelled a round of concerts with recent video of him looking pretty haggard. Unfortunately, what I had been wondering about did come to pass yesterday as the bulletin appeared that Lightfoot passed away at the age of 84. 

Tributes have been pouring in from people such as fellow Canadian singer Bryan Adams to Hollywood actor Ben Stiller. With his many songs talking of his home nation and that distinct crème caramel voice of his, Lightfoot was the personification of musical Canadiana in the same way that enka legend Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）has been a musical symbol of Japonica. His voice was a very familiar one on radio when I was growing up.

One of my bright memories of Lightfoot didn't even involve him directly. Another Canadian legend, the comedy-variety series "SCTV", did a parody via the sale of a "Gordon Lightfoot Sings Every Song Ever Written" compilation. Comedian Rick Moranis ("Ghostbusters", "Honey I Shrunk the Kids") did a brilliant impersonation of him singing a whole ton of songs that of course one wouldn't expect of him. 

Yet, I didn't find it funny. And that's not trying to criticize Moranis and the writers of the piece since I am the biggest fan of "SCTV". I know what they were trying to do. It's just that Lightfoot could sing any song in that inimitable folksy way of his that it could be taken respectfully...even "Seventy-Six Trombones".

There have been and probably will be all sorts of people ranging from music critics to the average Canadian walking on the street who will be asked about their favourite Lightfoot song. Many of them will most likely answer with "If You Could Read My Mind" from 1970. However, the one that I've remembered from radio all these years is "Sundown" from March 1974. The goodtime melody always tugged at my ears and never quite let go so it was with some surprise that I found out that the lyrics relating seething jealousy may have been inspired by his own tempestuous relationship with mistress Cathy Smith, someone who had her own tales of infamy.

"Sundown" reached No. 1 on both the American Billboard and Canadian RPM charts, and it would end the year in Canada as the No. 3 hit. My condolences to Lightfoot's family, friends and fans.

There were a couple of notable kayo that were released in March 1974.

Kenji Sawada -- Koi wa Jamamono（恋は邪魔もの）

Finger Five -- Gakuen Tengoku (学園天国）

Hatsue Kato/Takao Kisugi -- Kurayami ni Sayonara（暗闇にさよなら）

 

There is barely anything about this singer named Hatsue Kato（かとうはつえ）aside from the facts that she hails from Fukushima Prefecture and that she used to sing at the now-gone Ginpari（銀巴里）in Ginza which had been known as a mecca for the genre of chanson. As far as I could find out, she did release at least one February single "Youki na Houmonsha"（陽気な訪問者...A Cheerful Visitor） and one album "Cascade"（カスケード）, both in 1979. 

"Kurayami ni Sayonara" (Farewell to Darkness) is the B-side to "Youki na Houmonsha". Written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）, it's about a woman not quite recovered from the end of a romance but she's getting there. Kato's delivery rather reveals those chanson roots though there is some (intentional?) disjointedness when going from the verse to the main chorus; Toshi Kanazawa's review of "Cascade" hints at the inexperience by the arranger. And it was indeed Akira Inoue（井上鑑）who handled the overall arrangement which kinda wavers between Fashion Music and New Music.

I don't know at this time about what happened to Kato after 1979 but perhaps she went fully into chanson.

Later on in December that year, Takao released his 4th original album, "Natural Menu" with his own cover of "Kurayami ni Sayonara". This time, the arranger was Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）who improved upon the original with a more West Coast soft rock feeling that had me thinking Boz Scaggs or The Eagles. Every entry into the main chorus also feels like a jazzy "Alright, let's bring it home!" climax. Both the Kato original and Kisugi cover are interesting but I don't think that they have ended up as their own favourite tunes.

Sing Like Talking -- Home Town

Well, welcome to May! There might be a major holiday week in Japan but it's just the usual over here in Toronto. The weather forecast said that we would be drenched in rain but the afternoon is looking downright rosy right now so I'm hoping that things have suddenly changed for the better. 

A lot of the old kayo from a particular time, say the 1960s, addressed folks working in big cities like Tokyo while missing the warmth of the old hometown. It appears that the group Sing Like Talking adopted that idea and put it into one of their very amiable pop melodies. Their 25th single from March 1998, "Home Town" is a most congenial tune with a small feeling of rusticity as if the titular hometown was really out in the countryside. SLT keyboardist Chiaki Fujita（藤田千章）was the one behind the lyrics for vocalist Chikuzen Sato's（佐藤竹善）music. Those lyrics start out with someone missing their hometown greatly while in a new community but then realizes they can use the memories and the energy and the good feelings of home to make things better in their area.

I've been back home here in Toronto for over a decade now and though I miss my old neighbourhood in Ichikawa to a good extent still, I remember feeling the same for this place while I was living there. Perhaps it's not too bad a thing to have two hometowns.