Friends -- NIGHT TOWN

 

Perhaps things have improved a bit since the early days and nights of my time in the Tokyo area when the transit system in one of the world's largest metropoles shut down just shy of midnight. Yes, as crazy as it might sound, Tokyo wasn't and isn't a 24-hour city...well, it could be, provided that one didn't mind staying up at an all-night café (regular/Internet/manga) or got a taxi that charged a whole lot more overnight. At least now it seems as if Tokyo Metro and the JR are at least closing down at around the sinful time of 1 am, and that is for the very latest trains. My student told me that during the pandemic, things were shutting down even earlier to get folks to not carouse all that much in the big city. So, the moral of the story is...always check your schedules if you want to paint the town red in Tokyo.

But for those who are OK with a relatively early evening, try "NIGHT TOWN" by the pop band Friends（フレンズ）. I wrote about this Tokyo-based group right in the middle of the pandemic with a 2016 song titled "Yoru ni Dance"（夜にダンス）that probably had a lot of KKP viewers swooning back then about being able to have a night out on the town. Well, several months later, the fun continued with a November 2017 mini-album "Petit Town"（プチタウン）that got up to No. 33 on Oricon.

I don't know whether a lot of Friends' discography revolves around nocturnal activities in the big city. However, "NIGHT TOWN", which was written by band members singer-songwriter and vocalist Emi Okamoto（おかもとえみ）and keyboardist/rapper Hirose Hirose（ひろせひろせ）, has taken the baton from "Yoru ni Dance" with another copacetic melodic trip through the trendier areas of Tokyo in both the song and the music video. Would like to know exactly where everyone was tripping the light fantastic.

The current official membership of Friends is around four to five including Okamoto but Hirose took a leave of absence at the end of 2020 and then announced his official departure from the band in April 2021.

Midori Hagio/Yoshiko Miyazaki/Keiko Masuda/Yumi Matsutoya -- Tamerai（ためらい）

 

OK, just to confirm...that is indeed a thumbnail photo of Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）above and the song involved here is a Yuming-penned tune but not a Yuming-performed one in its entirety since an original Yuming tune has become rather scarce of late on YouTube. However, the legendary singer-songwriter looms large over the ladies that have also performed "Tamerai" (Hesitation).

First up is Midori Hagio（萩尾みどり）who's had a long career as an actress and TV personality but there has been no mention about her being a singer on her file in J-Wiki. In fact at this point, I only know of one 1977 single that she's recorded called "Dairen Bojou"（大連慕情...Yearning for Dalian）. The B-side is "Tamerai" and both songs were created by Yuming and arranged by Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）. The first several notes had quickly pegged this one as a tune by the Queen of New Music herself and it comes off sounding like a breezy 1960s love ballad of pining away. The lyrics describe a walk between a man and a woman who may be on the cusp of elevating their relationship to bona fide boyfriend-girlfriend but the lass is sulkily grinding her teeth because the lad has yet to commit.

Pretty much all of the songs that I've covered on Yoshiko Miyazaki（宮崎美子）have revolved around her 1981 album "Mellow" and just from my memories, my impression of that album has had me thinking technopop. However, Miyazaki's cover of "Tamerai" has the arrangement of how Yuming and her husband would have taken care of their own discography at that time: with a bit of rock anchoring the breezy pop.

Last but not least is Keiko Masuda（増田恵子）, aka Kei formerly of Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）. She gives a breathier performance of "Tamerai" which was her 2nd single from June 1982. Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）arranged things here but the arrangement is similar to that for Miyazaki's take. As for Yuming's own cover, you can listen to an excerpt at Apple. The song was a track on her 9th album from June 1980, "Toki no Nai Hotel"（時のないホテル）.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Haruomi Hosono -- Koi wa Momo Iro（恋は桃色）

 

Number: 027

Lyricist/Composer/Arranger: Haruomi Hosono

From Hosono's 1973 album: "Hosono House"

"Koi wa Momo Iro" is a masterpiece with a country rock flavor, recorded at Hosono's house in Sayama at the time, in the style of The Band's "Big Pink". "If rain falls/Inside of you/I wonder whether I'll get wet when I close my umbrella" is a splendid phrase and "Koi wa Momo Iro" is a wonderful title. At this point, this is a precious legacy by the quintessential singer-songwriter known as Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）.

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

Naoya Matsuoka -- 2500-nen: Takeru no Ai（2500年 - タケルの愛）

 

Usually the fifth article on Urban Contemporary Fridays is set aside for the weekly Yutaka Kimura Speaks translation, but I did want to put this one in (no worries...Yutaka will still be getting completed tonight) since I actually referred to him earlier today in the MASH article.

Yup, the late Latin jazz musician and arranger Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）was also involved in the anime project for Seizo Watase's（わたせせいぞう）"Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）in the 1980s. In fact, Volume 2 of the soundtrack series for the show is under his purview. Specifically, he brought in the music for this episode in 1987, "2500-nen: Takeru no Ai" (The Year 2500: Takeru's Love). This time, "Heart Cocktail" takes us far into the future for a sci-fi story where love and City Pop still co-exist apparently. 

I didn't quite get all of the story but the main character of Takeru lives in a society where emotions are literally non-existent within a person until one becomes old enough to handle them in a more civilized fashion or they're just kept suppressed for a certain period of time. On the eve of his surgery to get those emotions back, he has some hint of something for the pianist in his favourite bar and the pianist appears to oblige him with a date the next day immediately after his surgery. However, he finds out from his buddy that it was all a ruse by the pianist who's been "processed" in what might have been a "cruel-to-be-kind" strategy to get a lock on his newly-recovered emotions as he also gets a Dear John message via future Skype from the lady. Was she a replicant? Did she end up getting dismantled after fulfilling her final mission? Inquiring minds want to know. 😕

As much as I was left a bit confused by what had happened in the vignette, I really did like the accompanying music which also has the same title of "2500-nen: Takeru no Ai". It's got plenty of variety: a classical streak in there for some Fashion Music, the technopop to represent the future, and maybe some of that City Pop sheen. Unfortunately, the recorded version on "Heart Cocktail: Vol. 2" doesn't have the brief vocals that were displayed while the vignette was playing out. All in all, it's a beautifully enigmatic piece by Matsuoka.

Hiroshi Kakizaki -- Honmoku Bluesy Night（本牧ブルージーナイト）

 

Looks like we're continuing our mini Yokohama City Pop odyssey after my posting of Rie Ida's（井田リエ） "Blue Harbor Street"（ブルー・ハーバー・ストリート）a few minutes ago. This time, the target of this particular song is the Honmoku neighbourhood right by Yokohama Bay. Sadly I have to admit that I may have gone only as far as the northern edge of the area during my sojourns to the famous port metropolis. Yokohama's Chinatown is about as south as I have gotten there. However, you can take a look at an excerpt showing off Honmoku as pretty much a complete city on its own through one of my favourite Saturday night shows while living in Japan, "Admatic Tengoku"（アド街ック天国...Admatic Heaven）, on TV Tokyo.

As for the song portion of our article, I have singer-songwriter Hiroshi Kakizaki's（蛎崎弘）"Honmoku Bluesy Night". Honmoku seems really jaunty now but from the sound of this City Pop tune, things seemed to have been pretty happening there back in 1982 as well when this song was released as Kakizaki's debut single. Composed by the singer, written by Kaoru Asaki（麻木かおる）and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）, this is quite the melodically rollicking ride down to Honmoku for a Friday night.

Kakizaki actually hails from Hokkaido and also in 1982, he released his first album, "Yumeji no Hate ni ~ Sentimental Syndrome"（夢路の果てに ～センチメンタル・シンドローム～...To the Ends of Dreamland） which also has "Honmoku Bluesy Night". Several years later in 1987, he joined up with Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）guitarist Yutaka Takezawa（武沢豊）to form the duo Kakizaki Hiroshi + "r" project（蛎崎弘+"r"project） through which two singles and a mini-album were released. 

Rie Ida & 42nd Street -- Blue Harbor Street（ブルー・ハーバー・ストリート）

 

It's been well over a decade since I was last in Yokohama. Would still love to take a stroll through the city at night (or day), especially through Chinatown and the Minato Mirai area once more. I still remember the all-garlic restaurant that my friend and I patronized in the Landmark Mall in Landmark Tower. Good stuff and we were "guaranteed" empty subway seats when we were on our way home.🧄

I also remember the last time that I posted a song by Rie Ida（井田リエ）& 42nd Street back in late 2020, lamenting that more than a year had gone by since the previous entry for this City Pop band. Well...I was even worse this time out at nearly three years. 😓 Therefore with plenty of sheepishness in my heart, I bring you "Blue Harbor Street", Ida's single from December 1980.

Some of my guilt is being assuaged by the soothing urban and urbane City Pop vibe of that turn of the decade. I've usually reserved my "caviar-and-champagne" expression for the Bubble Era variety of City Pop at the end of the 80s, but "Blue Harbor Street" which is all about Yokohama simply has that feeling, too and that was all the way back over forty years ago. As I said, I would love to walk through the area again someday. "Blue Harbor Street" was written by Naoko Nishio（西尾尚子）and composed by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）, the same songwriters behind that previous Ida song that I'd written about, "Silver Airline", also from 1980. 

Anyways, enjoy the top video, courtesy of Virtual Japan.

Keiko Utsumi -- Sora ni Niji ga Ukandemo（空に虹が浮かんでも）

 

One of the comments that I read for this video was that this song may have been used for some Japanese TV drama but I'm not 100% sure. 

Mind you, "Sora ni Niji ga Ukandemo" (Even If a Rainbow Floats in the Sky) does have its playful bits in there so it may have very well been utilized as a theme tune or an insert song. But for now, we'll just say that this was singer-songwriter Keiko Utsumi's（宇都美慶子）3rd single from January 1991. Written by Utsumi, composed by Shinya Naito（内藤慎也）and arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）, the song is pretty darn smooth although it rather flits over the borderline between 90s City Pop and straight ahead pop. 

As for the drama part, Utsumi's lyrics do talk of a couple having a pleasant stroll on a flowery lane although there doesn't seem to be any sturm und drang in the walk. Everything's copacetic! Ah...well, we have some breaking news...I scrolled further down Utsumi's J-Wiki article where she has a song tie-up section. Apparently, "Sora ni Niji ga Ukandemo" was used as the ending theme for the second half of Series 1 in the NTV series "Deka Kizoku"（刑事貴族...The Detective Aristocrats) which was broadcast from 1991 to 1993. That means the song shares a fellowship with Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）"Mou Namida wa Iranai"（もう涙はいらない）which was a theme song used in Series 3.