Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Eiichi Ohtaki -- Ame no Wednesday（雨のウェンズデイ）

 

Number: 007

Lyricist: Takashi Matsumoto

Composer: Eiichi Ohtaki

Arranger: Eiichi Ohtaki

From his 1981 album: "A Long Vacation"

Found within an excellent album that needs no explanation, "Ame no Wednesday" (Rainy Wednesday) is a stylish* ballad that stands out for its simple band sound from the lineup of Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）. The interweaving of Ohtaki's（大滝詠一）unpretentious melody and Matsumoto's（松本隆）superb depiction of a scene is just like something out of the movies. Anyone who likes this song must have their own Volkswagen, a sea and that special someone.

*The word "stylish" is something that I came up with after seeing the original word of sumire iro（菫色）to describe the ballad. It literally translates as "violet" which had question marks popping up around my head. My usual dictionaries didn't go beyond the literal translation but going to a Japanese site regarding colours, I found out that the colour has been associated with haikara（ハイカラ）or "high collar" meaning "stylish" or "fashionable".

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Tan Tan -- Nigai Hohoemi（苦いほほえみ）

 

A nice shot from one of the relatively new skyscrapers overlooking Shiodome nestled in between Shimbashi and Ginza. I'm no fan of heights but this was a good view.

If we can recap the life and career of the late Taeko Morino（森野多恵子）, she was once a member of the Group Sounds band The White Kicks alongside bassist and future solo singer/actor Akira Terao（寺尾聰）, and then into the 1980s, she took on the name Harumi Ohzora（大空はるみ）in techno jazz mode. But in between she was also known as Tan Tan in her City Pop element.

The last time I spoke about any incarnation of Morino, it was for Tan Tan's lone 1981 single "Weekend Love" which was some jazzy footloose-and-fancy-free City Pop. On the B-side is "Nigai Hohoemi" (Bitter Smile) which has quite a bit more boogie piano, boppy bass engine and a melodic purpose that is repeated over and over. The lass really needs to get to the disco! The same fellows who took care of the A-side also came up with the catchy "Nigai Hohoemi": lyricist Yoichiro Fukuda（福田陽一郎）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）. It does sound fit for a drive downtown.

GWINKO -- Kiss Kiss Kiss

 

We have some more of the Okinawan dynamo who went by the name GWINKO when she was singing in the late 1980s. From her September 1987 debut album "Yesterday, Today, Forever", this is "Kiss Kiss Kiss" by the teenage R&B singer.

Written by Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）and composed by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, I have to apologize in advance if I don't have my R&B sub-genres accurate here, but I'm considering "Kiss Kiss Kiss" as an early form of New Jack Swing with some Prince-ly funk and maybe even some Janet Jackson attitude. Regardless, the nostalgia waves are flowing in loud and clear here. 

I don't think that I ever put up this piece of trivia regarding GWINKO but according to J-Wiki, she was one of the first graduates of the Okinawa Actors' School which was founded in 1983 to make it big in show business. Afterwards, Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, the group SPEED and Da Pump made their own mark in music.

Yogee New Waves -- Climax Night

 

Yup, that's Tokyo's Hard Rock Café on top of Tony Roma's in Roppongi. I've been to both establishments many times. They can be accessed through a small alley just off the old main drag in the neighbourhood. I think it was Tony's that had the famous Onion Loaf: a deep-fried block of onion shreds that could be the restaurant's equivalent of the Outback's Bloomin' Onion. Try as we did, we could never finish either of them. Maybe that's a good thing.

Believe me, it wasn't by design that this and the previous two entries have involved song titles that ended with the word "night". Yet, we have here "Climax Night" by Neo-City Pop and rock band Yogee New Waves. A story of a man pining over a woman who is possibly on the verge of leaving him, the song was written and composed by vocalist Kengo Kakudate（角舘健悟）, and there is something imbued into the arrangement that reminds me of the band War's most successful hit "Why Can't We Be Friends?" from 1975. 

I'm always intrigued by a song that seems to have so many influences going for it, and with "Climax Night", I'm hearing Kakudate's alternative-happy slightly loopy vocals, the sudden injection of 70s rock in the bridge, the feeling of nighttime Shibuya and some reggae rhythm. Basically, it's fortified with plenty of melodic juice. "Climax Night" was released as an EP in April 2014 and then became the first track in Yogee New Waves' first album "Paraiso" later in September.

MIO (MIQ) -- Paradise Night

 

Recently, there has been a trend of micro-tours, individualized tours for one person or a pair. So, instead of the generic Hato Bus rides traveling through Asakusa, Shinjuku, and the like, that one tourist can get their own choice of visiting, say, the temples and shrines of Tokyo only. Another example is instead of opting for doing the all-in-one thing at Yokohama's Ramen Museum, they can tour through the most famous ramen joints all over Japan (extra medical insurance and defibrillator not included).

Being a City Pop fan, I have wondered what a City Pop micro-tour would be like. Not sure if it would be easy to put together and it may just be a one-night thing involving a microbus ride on the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo while listening to the sounds of Tats, Miki and Fujimal onboard. However, maybe there can be stops in West Shinjuku (since those early "City Hunter" opening credits include the skyscrapers there) or Roppongi. A stop could be made in front of any of the recording studios where Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）made his greatest hits although I doubt that tourists could get inside.

Alas, I'm just waxing whimsically here. You can figure out what you would like in a City Pop micro-tour and it would be a paradise night...which is why I'm segueing into "Paradise Night" by MIO, a track from her December 1985 album, "Mr. Monday Morning". I've already covered the title track but "Paradise Night", which was created by the same duo behind "Mr. Monday Morning": lyricist Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composer Masahiro Taniguchi（谷口雅洋）, is a romantic ballad that sounds like a night with a happy ending involving a couple after a few too many drinks and not enough discipline. There is something woozy and wonderful in the arrangement which fits the scenario.

Go-Go 3 -- Baby, Good Night

 

Last December, I was listening to Holly Jolly X'masu's podcast regarding the 1987 compilation album "Mint Sound's Christmas Album". There were quite a few interesting tracks including one by a band called Go-Go 3 titled "Yumemiru X'mas"（夢見る X'mas...Dreaming Christmas）, but alas I couldn't track that particular one down on YouTube.

There isn't a whole lot written about this group online on any one site so I've had to pull in the various scraps of information, and if indeed by the name of the band, there are three members, I could only find two of them according to Discogs: Takako Ono（小野隆子）and Tomoe Eno（江野智絵）. From different sites, they've been described in the following genres: rockabilly, punk, garage rock, garage punk and Group Sounds girl rock, for example. 

But from listening to one track, "Baby, Good Night",  from their 1988 LP, "Everybody Prefers", Go-Go 3 sounds like a cheerful pop/rock band along the lines of Princess Princess or a really pop Shonen Knife. The squeaky English-language interlude did have me thinking 1950s and 1960s, too. A couple of sites have mentioned some Motown influence with "Baby, Good Night". 

Junko Tokumaru -- Ai no Shinwa（哀の心話）

 

In December last year, I introduced the aidoru Junko Tokumaru（徳丸純子）who had a relatively brief go behind the mike before changing her career into acting and then modeling instead. As I mentioned then, her March 1983 debut single "Sei First Love"（聖・ファーストラブ）struck me as the quintessential early 80s aidoru tune.

Well, this time around, allow me to introduce her fifth and final single from November 1984, "Ai no Shinwa" (Sad Talk from the Heart). Before I was reminded that this was indeed Tokumaru, I had imagined that the lady on the cover was far older than the 18 years of age that she was. Since her career as an aidoru was so brief, I've kept that particular Label for her, but I think that "Ai no Shinwa" rather takes things into the sophisticated pop area although I don't think that it qualifies as a City Pop tune. 

Written by Kumiko Aoki（青木久美子）and composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, despite the fact that "Ai no Shinwa" didn't even chart on Oricon, I still believe that it is a pretty smooth tune nicely delivered by Tokumaru. The interesting thing is that the intro and outro come straight out of Francoise Hardy's "Comment te dire adieu" from 1968. It was covered by Jun Togawa（戸川純）under the title of "Sayonara wo Oshiete"（さよならをおしえて）a year later.