Sachiko Nishida/Keiko Fuji -- Namida no Kawaku made（涙のかわくまで）

 

Although I realize that Sachiko Nishida（西田佐知子）had been singing (she's now retired) since the mid-1950s, I kinda pegged when this particular single of hers was released just from hearing the arrangement without knowing anything else about it.

"Namida no Kawaku made" (Until the Tears Run Dry) possesses that big downtown brassy sound with the beefy sax and rumbling percussion, so I figured that it must have come out in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Sure enough, it was released in December 1967 with the legendary Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）behind the melody. Shigeru Tsukada（塚田茂）provided the lyrics of a woman who's beside herself with desperate grief and hate over the impending death of her relationship with a paramour.

The song earned Nishida her 7th appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1967 and it ranked in at No. 27 on the yearly chart for the newborn Oricon in 1968.

There were a number of singers who covered "Namida no Kawaku made" including Mood Kayo specialist Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）. Fuji's version came out in 1973 and has more of a psychedelic rock buzz.

BUCK-TICK -- Aku no Hana（悪の華）

 

Last week, there was the news on the death of singer-songwriter Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）, and now I have to unfortunately report on another departure from this mortal coil of another figure in the Japanese music industry. The announcement was made today on October 24th that the vocalist of the rock band BUCK-TICK, Atsushi Sakurai（櫻井敦司）, had passed away on the 19th from a brainstem hemorrhage during a concert that night. He was 57 years old.

Almost three years ago, I posted an article on BUCK-TICK's first major single "Just One More Kiss" which had been released in October 1988. It would be a little more than a year before their follow-up single "Aku no Hana" (Flowers of Evil) was released in January 1990. Based on "Les Fleurs du mal" by French poet Charles Baudelaire who was apparently a favourite of Sakurai's, the song seems to be the perfect theme for any isolated and angry goth shut-in or a rocking vampire.

Written by Sakurai and composed by guitarist Hisashi Imai（今井寿）, "Aku no Hana" became BUCK-TICK's first and only No. 1 hit although many of their other songs would get into the Top 10, especially in the early to mid 1990s. Selling around 300,000 copies, it would go Platinum and end up as the 52nd-ranked single of 1990. An album also titled "Aku no Hana" was released in February that year which hit No. 1 and became the 20th-ranked album, going Double Platinum.

My condolences go to Sakurai's family, friends and fans. Among the family that he has left behind is his son, Akutagawa Prize-winning author Haruka Tono（遠野遥）.

Mineko Nishikawa -- Mineko no Madros-san（峰子のマドロスさん）

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Noelle Tham has been our resident expert on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" on the older Showa era music for close to a decade now, so it was quite revelatory when I found out from her that the genre of enka only became known officially as enka in the early 1970s. The songs that I had known as enka from before that time had once been scattered among different genres before the great amalgamation took place, and then when everything was put under the enka umbrella, all those tunes were retrofitted as enka songs.

One such genre in kayo kyoku was madros kayo（マドロス歌謡）or "sailor pop" and sure enough, such songs were often about seamen shoving off to the great blue, leaving their loves behind. The Japanese predilection for gairaigo（外来語...foreign loan words） continued here as "madros" came from the Dutch or Flemish word for "sailor", "matroos". Some of the more famous singers sang madros kayo such as Takeo Fujishima（藤島桓夫）and his "Kaeri no Minato" (かえりの港) with the singer often putting on that old-fashioned sailor uniform.

I was watching another grand old episode of "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）the other night when I came across enka singer Mineko Nishikawa（西川峰子）who I first wrote about back in 2016 with her 1974 hit "Anata ni Ageru" (あなたにあげる). She performed her own tribute to the sailors with "Mineko no Madros-san" (Mineko's Sailor) which was her 9th single from July 1976. A very happy-go-lucky enka song that fulfills the requisite of what an old madros kayo was, it's all about a sailor blowing a kiss to his girlfriend before heading out to sea. It was written by Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composed by Kosho Inomata（猪俣公章）; there's nothing melancholy about this at all, and it seems as if the young lady is good with her boyfriend enjoying the marine life.

I'm not sure how well "Mineko no Madros-san" did on the charts but she did get her second invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen to sing the song at the end of 1976.

Hiroaki Igarashi -- Machi wa Koibito（街は恋人）

 

Happy Monday! I had been thinking about putting this song up during my Creator article on arranger Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）last week, but in the end, I felt that it deserved its own article.

"Machi wa Koibito" (The City is a Lover) was Hiroaki Igarashi's（五十嵐浩晃）15th single from September 1991. It was indeed arranged by Shimizu with Kei Takamura（高村圭）as the lyricist and Minoru Yamazaki（山崎稔）as the composer. Although by the time that this single came out, I'd already left the JET Programme to return to Toronto, the song still sounds quite familiar to me so perhaps I may have heard it on a videotape of Japanese shows. My first impression was that it was a commercial jingle for a ski wear company since I had heard plenty of those songs during my time there, but actually "Machi wa Koibito" was promoting the Suzuki Alto in that year.

On J-Wiki, the song has been categorized as a pop song and also as a City Pop tune, but I think that latter label was applied more because of the lyrical content of celebrating a repaired romantic relationship in the metropolis rather than the musical style. Regardless, it's a song sung by Igarashi in that particular upbeat style that I've often associated with the male J-Pop singers at the turn of the decade such as Katsumi and Noriyuki Makihara（槇原敬之）. Compare "Machi wa Koibito" with his first big hit at the beginning of the 80s, "Pegasus no Asa" (ペガサスの朝）. There is also a keyboard riff that even had me thinking a bit of Fashion Music.

The song peaked at No. 36 on Oricon, and it was also placed as a track on his first BEST compilation "Igarashi Hiroaski BEST Selection White & Blue"（五十嵐浩晃 ベストセレクション White & Blue） from October 1991.

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.