Hi-Fi Set -- Danro de Marshmallow（暖炉でマシュマロ）

 

Yes, I realize that it's hardly the time to think of fireplaces. Toronto is reporting 27 degrees Celsius out there with lots of summery sun, and my room is an entire fireplace right now. The fan is doing its best. By the way, the fireplace above is supplied by Relaxing Fire Sound.

However, I felt the need to introduce yet another track from Hi-Fi Set's（ハイ・ファイ・セット）"The Diary", their September 1977 album which is fast becoming one of those New Music/City Pop releases that needs to be brought into anyone's genre collection. I've already gotten the album's "Koi no Nikki"（恋の日記）and "Memorandum" (メモランダム) onto the blog, and here is "Danro de Marshmallow" (Marshmallows Over a Fire).

Written by the recently retired Kei Ogura（小椋佳）and composed by Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）, the intro sounds like the beginning to an Elton John song, but listeners quickly enter a world of completely relaxed and refined jazz. Usually, it's Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）as the lead vocalist but this time, "Danro de Marshmallow" is sung by who I believe is her husband Toshihiko（山本俊彦）. The wonderful Hi-Fi Set harmonies are there and I would have said that the setting for this swaddling cloth of 1970s City Pop/New Music could have been in any place ranging from a Manhattan penthouse apartment to a well-appointed lodge out in Vermont. However with that sax solo in there, I'm thinking it's more of the former than the latter. In any event, the happy couple is roasting those marshmallows among some soulfulness whether the melody is within New York, Chicago or Philadelphia.

Ah, thanks to Purplesound for uploading this winner. I usually don't pounce on videos that have just been put up because that seems a little unseemly but I couldn't resist "Danro de Marshmallow".

Sayuri Kokusho -- Hidari Te ga Kirai（左手がキライ）

 

Outside of an inclusion within my "Valentine's Choices" Author's Pick in 2019, I have to confess that the last time I wrote an article on the Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）aidoru Sayuri Kokusho（国生さゆり）was all the way back in the summer of 2015. And that was for a song, "Summer Blue", from her 1988 4th album, "Summer Snow".

"Summer Blue" was an aidoru tune that I thought was a cut above the usual Japanese teenybopper fare. I also think the same is true for this track which launches "Summer Snow", "Hidari Te ga Kirai" (I Hate the Left Hand). It's a really odd title for this song of romantic jealousy and impatience as a young lady is probably rapidly clacking her expensive heel while waiting for the target of her ardor to dump another lass and come to her. I tried to look for some different metaphorical meaning to hidari te outside of the literal meaning but I came up with bupkis.

Megumi Ogura（小倉めぐみ）, who has also written a lot for aidoru Yoko Minamino（南野陽子）, came up with the lyrics for "Hidari Te ga Kirai". But it's the basic melody by Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）of Spectrum（スペクトラム）fame as arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）that caught my ears. As the lone commenter thus far for the video has stated, I've never heard a song come off like this before. Beginning with some sparkly and jangly synths, despite the very green-eyed envy taking place in that stylish restaurant, it's undeniably Kokusho's cute-as-heck vocals but the surrounding music absorbs that champagne-and-caviar age of late 80s City Pop partially anchored by some very bluesy guitar and lightly seasoned with bossa. Plus, although I couldn't differentiate a G7 Major chord from a licorice cord, I can imagine that there are some insane levels of chord shifts and other manipulations happening that only a musician and a musicologist can pick out, and I am unfortunately neither.

"Hidari Te ga Kirai" is a fascinating song to be sure and the reason that my Vulcan ears pricked up here was that a friend of mine had sent me a link a few days ago to this amazing interview of former Megadeth guitarist and longtime Tokyo resident Marty Friedman by Rick Beato. When I read the opinion that Friedman feels that J-Pop is much more complex than current North American pop, I kinda went "What?!". Maybe this particular song by Kokusho isn't the finest example of what Friedman is claiming but I have to admit on reading the blurb and then listening to "Hidari Te ga Kirai", a light bulb did pop up over my head.

Chie Yokoyama -- For Me

The last time I wrote about Chie Yokoyama（横山知枝）was for her "For You" which was a cover of Ami Ozaki's（尾崎亜美）soft love song from her October 1979 5th album "Little Fantasy".

I gather then that a couple of years later, it would be logical for me to write about "For Me" from Yokoyama's discography which ended up on her debut album "Bloomin'" from 1992. Not surprisingly, both "For You" and "For Me" are side-by-side trackmates with the latter also being written and composed by Ozaki. The difference is that "For Me" is a fairly bouncy 90s synth-driven number although it has quite a bit to do with love as well. The intro reminded me a lot of the one for DEEN's "Hitomi Sorasanai de"（瞳そらさないで）from 1994.

For that matter, a song by Yokoyama that I first heard years ago when I used to watch the Fuji-TV variety show "Yamadakatsutenai Terebi"（やまだかつてないテレビ）, "Happy Birthday" starts off "Bloomin'". For all intents and purposes though, this was the only album by Yokoyama with a much later album "Furano Chapel Concert"（富良野チャペルコンサート）in 2000 being a commemorative compilation featuring different singers including Yokoyama who was then going by the name of Chiemi.

Gershon Kingsley/Hot Butter/Denki Groove -- Popcorn

Popcorn 

For this week's Reminiscings of Youth, how about a little popcorn? Well, actually I was talking about "Popcorn".

Before Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）, before Yellow Magic Orchestra and even before Kraftwerk, there was composer and electronic music pioneer Gershon Kingsley who was the champion for the legendary Moog synthesizer. He was the fellow who came up with the instrumental "Popcorn" in 1969. Even hearing this original version in 2023, "Popcorn" still stuns me with its otherworldliness even in a world where synthesizers have become as familiar as the piano in pop music. I can't imagine how listeners fathomed this 54 years earlier. "Popcorn" can be found on Kingsley's "Music to Moog by".

Have a look at this part of a documentary on Kingsley as he talks about how the title for the song came to be. As he himself put it back then, it's not what you think. At about 1:15 in the footage, I may have come across the inspiration for Yellow Magic Orchestra donning the tuxedoes in the music video for "Tong Poo".

Kingsley may have been the original composer for "Popcorn", but the version that I heard as a kid first via those K-Tel compilations had been recorded by the band Hot Butter for release in July 1972 (my other personal experience with the song involved trying to dance to it as an exercise in elementary school, but the less said about that, the better😱). For the lack of a better word, I think this version had a bit more down-to-earth disco and the popping sounds for the main melody did engrave into my head the feeling that this was the melodic version of Jiffy Pop being made.

And for those who may not know what Jiffy Pop is...yep, we had this too in the old days.

Hot Butter's cover of "Popcorn" became an international hit as it reached the top of the charts in several European countries including France and Germany. It didn't too shabbily here in the United States and Canada either as it hit No. 9 and No. 15 respectively. Over the years, it's been covered by various other bands around the world including Japan's own Denki Groove which brought in its own distinctive take via their No. 5-ranking 1993 album "VITAMIN".

Going with Hot Butter's version of "Popcorn", what was also being released in July 1972?

Yumi Arai -- Henji wa Iranai （返事はいらない）

Takuro Yoshida -- Tabi no Yado （旅の宿）

Hideki Saijo -- Koi no Yakusoku（恋の約束）

(karaoke version)

Yuuki Tokunaga - Nantokanaru sa（なんとかなるさ）

 

It's someone that everyone needs. That father figure or good buddy who comes to you after you've experienced a major screwup and got a major chewing out because of it and lets you know that everything will be OK eventually. As was illustrated in "Star Trek Into Darkness" above, maybe it was the father figure himself who kicked your butt twelve ways from Sunday but still lets you know afterwards that he still believes in you and that you'll improve. 

"Star Trek" may have provided the analogy here but for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've got the song. This is the first time that enka singer Yuuki Tokunaga（徳永ゆうき）has appeared on the blog, but he's been around for a while in the industry and on television. In fact, I think he debuted about a decade ago after becoming the Grand Champion of a certain year's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）contest on NHK. 

Tokunaga's most recent single is "Nantokanaru sa" (You'll Be All Right) which was released earlier in January this year. Maybe this is an enka tune with a good dollop of tropical folksy pop or perhaps it's a modern kayo kyoku with an enka feeling thanks to Tokunaga's delivery but whatever it is, the melody and wording by music duo youth case fit the good feelings of climbing back up from despair. Come to think of it, I can hear a bit of 1950s doo-wop in there, too. 

The Chirps and Makoto Yuuki/Perfume -- Dekiru ka na（できるかな）

 

Growing up in Toronto, of course we had our own share of children's programs to choose from. One of the most beloved on CBC was the weekday morning half-hour "Mr. Dressup" (1967-1996) starring the late Ernie Coombs as the titular character and we got to see him and his buddies, Casey and Finnegan, sing and do all sorts of arts and crafts in their home. It also had that friendly and chirpy theme song, too. 

Japan's national broadcasting TV station, NHK, also had its own variety of kids' shows as well with one of them being "Dekiru ka na" (Can It Be Done?). The format was a tad different from that of "Mr. Dressup" in that it began its time in 1970 and finished up in 1990, was shown only on Tuesday mornings for about 15 minutes. It did have a friendly and slightly eccentric host in the form of tulip hat-wearing Noppo-san（のっぽさん）with his buddy Gonta-kun（ゴン太くん）but despite the show having its own singing and dancing, one big point is that Noppo-san never spoke a word during its 20-year run.

Well, there was that final episode on March 6 1990 when the kids and parents got a huge shock.

During the run of the show, the theme song remained the same. Basically known as the theme for "Dekiru ka na", it was a kid-friendly jazz tune with some scatting thrown in. Written by Morihisa Yamamoto（山元護久）and composed by Koichi Iwashiro（岩代浩一）, the song was recorded by vocal group The Chirps（ザ・チャープス）and Makoto Yuuki（由起真）. The Chirps have had a long history and already have one article here on KKP. 

The above video, uploaded by coro emon, has both the original version and a more contemporized take that was most likely the one used between 1983 and 1985 with just The Chirps singing it. In its remaining years, a third version was recorded with Michiru Maki（槇みちる）and Shin "Peekaboo" Fujishima（藤島新）but I couldn't find that one.

The technopop trio Perfume provided their own 2020 remix version of "Dekiru ka na" with some oomphed-up jazz and even a bit of twangy rock. I was even wondering whether I ought to have categorized it further as a Shibuya-kei take.

Noppo Takami（高見のっぽ）was born Yoshiaki Takami（高見嘉明）in Kyoto in 1934. Outside of his time as the silent host for "Dekiru ka na", he was also an actor and an author, and judging from some of his Gene Kelly moves on the show, he could dance as well. According to his manager, Noppo-san never talked down to his biggest fans and referred to children as young people. He would even use respectful language to them in the form of keigo. 

NHK reported this morning that Noppo-san had passed away at the age of 88 last September due to heart failure. He had asked that the announcement of his death be held off for several months so as not to cause too much of a stir. His manager decided that the announcement would be made today, May 10th, which would have been Noppo-san's 89th birthday. My condolences to his family, friends and all of his fans.

Gosanke Imagined: Gosanke Girl Bands

 

Well, here I was thinking that I had basically exhausted all of the possibilities on the Gosanke（御三家）file, true and imagined which explains why nothing from that Label was posted over the weekend. And I was wrong, so perhaps there may be some hope to squeeze out a few more trios.

And yep, sticking with my JET days between 1989 and 1991, I remember that the massive blossom of diversification in Japanese popular music at that time included the proliferation of female pop and rock bands. So, when I look back on my two years in Gunma, the following three groups are who I think about.

Go-Bang's -- Ai ni Kite I Need You （あいにきて I Need You)

Pink Sapphire -- P.S. I Love You

Princess Princess -- Diamonds