Pal -- Sayonara Gakusei Jidai（さようなら学生時代）

 

This is just my thing but whenever I see or hear the word "pal", my memories automatically bring up Casper the Friendly Ghost. Why? Because there is the usual scene near an episode when one of his newfound friends is in some trouble and good ol' Casper rushes in and angrily admonishes the instigator by saying "Hey! You leave him alone! He's my PAL!". Of course, despite Casper looking as intimidating as a baby rabbit, the instigator takes one look at him and flees in abject terror.

So, for the fans of the Japanese band Pal, my apologies if I start thinking that Casper the Friendly Ghost seems like a mascot for them. Anyways, I guess since posting my first article on one of their songs "Please Catch Me" all the way back in 2019, folks at J-Wiki have put up a proper entry for the band since when I wrote the article, it was obvious that I couldn't find much information on them. That has now been rectified to a certain extent apparently since I now realize that Pal had their run between 1977 and 1982. They also consisted initially of three members: leader Hiroki Harada（原田博喜）, lead vocalist Yuji Ozeki（尾関裕司）and the late Takaki Funabashi（船橋孝樹）until Masahito Arai（新井正人）came in to take over as the second vocalist in 1979 followed by Kayo Watanabe（渡辺香世）.

I can assume that it was Harada, Ozeki and Funabashi then behind their October 1978 single "Sayonara Gakusei Jidai" (Goodbye, My School Days). Written by Funabashi and composed by Harada and Ozeki, there is that wistful and folksy vibe to the song (aside from that City Pop sax near the end) that probably had fans and other listeners getting all sepia-toned over their old school days. In fact, there's a lot of "Sayonara Gakusei Jidai" that reminded me of Garo's（ガロ）"Gakusei Gai no Kissaten" (学生街の喫茶店）from 1972.

Fujimal Yoshino -- 50/50 Fifty-Fifty

 

Decided to dust off the very 80s-ish self-made logo that I usually hide away. 

But one guy who hasn't needed to be dusted off or hidden away is singer-songwriter-musician Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）. Rocket Brown let me know yesterday that Yoshino had celebrated his half-century of music last year with a commemorative album called "50/50" which I believe was released in September 2022.

Within the album is the title track "50/50 Fifty-Fifty" which is this quietly celebratory song created by Yoshino and lyricist Yoshihiko Ando（安藤芳彦）. It's an eight-minute bluesy pop ballad with a barrel full of guest vocalists: Hiro Tsunoda（つのだひろ）, Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）, Kiyotaka Sugiyama（杉山清貴）and Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）. Just some good friends paying tribute who all probably headed for the local pub after recording following the comfortable vibes generated during recording.

Kyoko Isobe -- Fujun?（不純?）

 

One of those 80s singers who quickly came and went, Kyoko Isobe（磯部恭子）first started out as a member of an aidoru trio known as BiOSPECIAL in 1987. At around the same time, she also worked as a model for the brand Mademoiselle NONNON【マドモアゼルノンノン】 .

Then in 1988, she made her start as a solo singer releasing just two singles. The second single was "Fujun?" (Impure? or Dishonest?) which was released in March 1989, and though it's been categorized as a funk/soul boogie on Discogs, I think that it sounds more like a Eurobeat/pop mix. The lyrics were provided by Sakiko Iwamuro（岩室先子）with Ichiro Hada（羽田一郎）as the composer. It's not a bad song at all although it apparently didn't measure up to any ranking on Oricon. Her debut single from October 1988, "CRUSH on LOVE" peaked at No. 93.

Isobe made a few appearances on "Music Station" and "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）among other shows with a couple of appearances on one drama. However, she suddenly opted to get out of show business in 1989 and so a debut album that had already been titled "Spitz"（スピッツ）for release in June that year was given the hook. Strangely enough, a guitar pop/rock band would make better use of that album title in the 1990s as their own name.

Shogo Hamada -- Indian Summer（インディアンサマー）

 

Yes, indeed, I realize that we're still eleven days away or so from entering November but I wanted to throw up the above thumbnail because usually for us here, that's when we get one last burst of warm weather here in our province of Ontario before the inevitable months-long run of cold weather. In other words, I'm talking about Indian Summer.

Mind you, though, our summer seemed to have extended a fair bit into the first week of October so perhaps we've already celebrated our Indian Summer. It's always hard to tell with our home where the weather is predictably unpredictable.

Regardless, I'd like to present singer-songwriter Shogo Hamada's （浜田省吾）"Indian Summer" from his 4th studio album "Mind Screen" which was released in May 1979. Composed by Hamada, written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and arranged by Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）with strings arrangement by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, "Indian Summer" doesn't strike me as being the typical Shogo rocker. Instead, it's a contemplative pop ballad with a melancholy piano, synthesizer, shimmering strings and a horn accompaniment that has had me thinking of the movie "Love Story", Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）music, 1960s pop and French pianist Richard Clayderman. Quite the musical potpourri there which is always interesting.

Ryu's lyrics are also a little clever as she calls Indian Summer a mean little trick by the four seasons to have people remember of romantically happier times in the middle of a more desolate reality. As is often the case with the autumn as it pertains to kayo kyoku, the season is the time for love and romance to wither away and die like the brown leaves. In a way, "Indian Summer" reminds me of Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）"Aishuu no Casablanca"（哀愁のカサブランカ）.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Minako Yoshida -- Koi wa Ryuusei, Part II (恋は流星）

 

Number: 028

Lyricist/Composer: Minako Yoshida

Arrangers: Minako Yoshida and Tatsuro Yamashita

From Yoshida's 1977 single: "Koi wa Ryuusei, Parts I and II"

"Koi wa Ryuusei" is a Tokyo urban soul masterpiece with a connection to Original Love's "Seppun"（接吻）. Three versions of the song exist on Yoshida's album "Twilight Zone" and the A & B sides of the single, but the true version which strips everything away except for the hook and focuses on the rhythm has the highest degree of rare groove and its feel-good vibe has an irresistible charm. It's incredible that the combination of Minako（吉田美奈子）and Tatsuro（山下達郎）could create this in 1977.

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

Butter Field -- Make Me Smile

 

I've encountered a couple of videos on YouTube categorizing this particular song as either City Pop or Shibuya-kei. Personally, I think that it hews closer to the former category as a 90s version of the genre  umbrella (or I can just go for groovy pop) but you can all decide at your leisure.

Provided that memory is serving me correctly, I may have first experienced this one via One Step Communicate's "True Paradise". In all likelihood, it popped up on the right side of the YouTube screen while I was listening to that 1994 song. Butter Field was a duo consisting of singer-songwriter Yoshihiko Seki（関美彦）and former 80s aidoru and actress Yoko Kikuchi（菊地陽子）. Kikuchi only released a couple of singles in 1983 but she had a fairly good go in front of the camera for several years.

Butter Field, according to Kikuchi's J-Wiki profile, got its start around October 1993, culminating in an October 1995 mini-album, "Early Autumn". The first track is "Make Me Smile" which is indeed a nice slice of groove. Written and composed by Seki, there's something about the song that reminds me of some of the tunes that Original Love was concocting at around the same time. Soon after the album was released though, Butter Field broke up. It's also sad to note that a few years later in December 1999, Kikuchi would lose her battle with leukemia at the age of 32.

Kengo Kurozumi -- My Sweet Lady

 

A bit of an announcement here since Rocket Brown and I will be working together once more on his podcast "Come Along Radio" via Mixcloud for the first time in several months. We'll be going live at 9:30 am Pacific Time/12:30 pm Eastern (provided I finish lunch fast enough) Saturday October 21st 2023. The topics that we will be covering are the legacy of singer-songwriter Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）who passed away earlier on the 8th, Tetsuji Hayashi's（林哲司）upcoming concert on November 5th, and then we'll be going over singer-composer Kengo Kurozumi's（黒住憲五）October 1982 debut album "Again". Coincidentally, the 21st will mark 41 years exactly since the album was put onto record store shelves.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to procure my own copy of "Again" but luckily some generous souls have been able to upload the album onto YouTube so I've been doing some listening to all of the tracks in preparation. I've covered some of the tracks, actually, in the past: "Lusia" and "Pastel Love" which was my first KKP posting on Kurozumi.

Well, this Kurozumi article will be on "My Sweet Lady" which was his 1982 single ("Lusia" was the B-side). Composed by the singer, written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and arranged by Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）, "My Sweet Lady" has had me thinking of some of those 80s West Coast AOR songs, and singers such as Christopher Cross and even Neil Sedaka because of that first verse sounding a bit like "Calendar Girl". There's nothing like a wailing electric guitar to get visions of mullets and skinny ties once more into my head.