I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
This song is even more poignant when I consider that both Yuki Katsuragi（葛城ユキ）and Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）are no longer around with us. "Gray no Asa ni"(On a Gray Morning) is a fitting power ballad as a B-side to growly Katsuragi's arguably most famous rock song "Bohemian"（ボヘミアン）from May 1983.
Written by Ryo Shoji（東海林良）and composed by the late Inoue as a duet involving Katsuragi and Inoue, "Gray no Asa ni" seems to be a elegy to a relationship and perhaps the beginnings of new hope in the future. Although there is still some rock in there, I think the melodic inspiration for the ballad also comes from some Motown soul. I like the song but at this point anyways, the sudden crescendo into an epic horn fanfare kinda goes a little too high into the stratosphere. However, if there were ever a joint tribute to Katsuragi and Inoue, this would be the ballad to send them off with.
I think when it came to the kayo kyoku of the 1970s, I can finally envisage at least two of the popular arrangements. One was perhaps derived from the Group Sounds wave of the 1960s: beefy bass, rollicking percussion and horns. The other one was less assertive and perhaps suited for ballads: what sounded like a harpsichord or celesta accompanied by those wistful strings and maybe a harp.
"Kayo Kyoku Plus" has shown plenty of examples of both over the years and I believe that this particular song is an example of the latter. "Hakurankai no E"(Paintings at an Exhibition) was performed by Rumi Asada（麻田ルミ）from Osaka Prefecture. Released as her 6th single in October 1974, the song is quite the quintessential 70s kayo kyoku by a female singer and it's delivered delicately well by Asada. Haruo Hayashi（林春生）was the lyricist with Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）composing the melody.
Asada has been categorized as an actress on her J-Wiki profile but not as a singer despite the fact that she released a total of nine singles between 1970 and 1979. Well, I guess putting out what basically amounted to simply a couple of songs per year doesn't quite a singer make. Born as Atsuko Asada（麻田淳子）in 1955, she first studied ballet as a child before getting a role in a TV drama in 1970. She then had a steady stream of work in television through shows such as "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）and "G Men 75" before most likely leaving show business after 1979.
Writing the blog over the past couple of weeks, we've lost a few stars on either side of the Pacific. Stateside, Suzanne Somers passed away last week which I noted in the previous ROY article, and a couple of days ago, actor Richard Roundtree died at the age of 81. Roundtree played a lot of roles since 1970 in films and TV shows, but he will always be known as John Shaft, the private detective who was "...hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt". Roundtree and that movie were tied to each other at the hip, and I remember Eddie Murphy forever referencing him in his comedy routines on "Saturday Night Live" back in the 1980s.
I've only seen a few scenes of the original 1971 movie but I've only needed to see the first five minutes to find out what Shaft the detective was like. He walked through one of the most dangerous cities in America as if he intimidated it rather than vice versa. And that was one weaponized theme song for him by the late Isaac Hayes. Interestingly enough, the first time that I heard the funk-and-disco classic wasn't through the movie but when I was watching some kind of TV program where a bunch of scantily-clad female dancers were strutting their stuff to it. It worked for me but it didn't work for my parents who promptly yelled at me to get to bed immediately.
Perhaps to one generation, Hayes will always be famous for his role as Chef on "South Park", but for me, he's the guy who made and sung "Shaft" with his backup singers. The velvety tones of Hayes, the wacka-wacka guitar riff and then the rapid-fire bullets of horns near the end are what has made the song for me. It was released as a single in September 1971 and hit No. 1 in both the United States and Canada. It also won Hayes an Oscar for Best Original Song and a couple of Grammys.
This time around, I could only find one song that was released in the same month as the theme from "Shaft". My condolences to Roundtree's family, friends and fans.
Always amused by the Japlish that I've encountered and used over the decades. Take for example, the term "roadshow". Even when I was a kid, I didn't hear it all that much in conversation and my impression was that it was used to describe a band or an acting troupe performing out on the road with the destinations being the various municipalities, big and small. But in Japan, it wasn't a band or an acting troupe but actual movies. Basically it has the same meaning as "theatrical release". There was even a Japanese-language movie magazine that I bought occasionally with that very title.
Well, "Roadshow" also did find itself as a title for the debut single of the folk duo Furudokei（古時計）. I wrote about Hirokazu Ohba（大場弘一）and Masahiro "James" Nishida（西田昌弘）back in early September as my introduction of them on the blog. The calm and slice-of-life "Roadshow" was released in March 1976 with Kei/Megumi Itami（伊丹恵）as the lyricist and Tatsuo Yamamoto（山本達夫）as the composer, and it deals with a man admiring a young lady from afar at the local cinema one day.
I already let the cat out of the bag in the posting on their second single"Kisetsu Hazure no Soumatou"（季節はずれの走馬燈）, but "Roadshow" was Furudokei's big hit by selling 600,000 records and earning a few awards. The song also ranked in at No. 16 on Oricon.
As has been the case for the past few years, I'm betting that R&B/pop singer Misia will be finishing up the Red Team's contributions to the annual Kohaku Utagassen in a couple of months' time. We should be hearing the announcement on the lineup in a few weeks.
When I first came across this song by her last night, looking at the thumbnail, I'd assumed that Misia contributed her song to the NHK children's song vignette program "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）. I failed to look at "the fine print" a little more closely as I now know that the name there is "Minna no Sada"（みんなのさだ...Everyone's Sada）. In other words, I was looking at the cover of singer-songwriter Masashi Sada's（さだまさし） tribute album to commemorate his 50th anniversary in the music industry. The album came out today. I wouldn't be surprised if "Niji ~ Hero"（虹～Hero...Rainbow ~ Hero） were the song that she will perform on December 31st on NHK since it's the type of soulful showstopper that she's done in past editions of the New Year's Eve special and it's been written and composed by Sada himself, someone who's made his presence known on the Kohaku as well.
It's happened often enough before and I'm glad that it has, but this particular song has taken me down the rabbit hole because it has a pretty long history. So, allow me to go back. Misia's "Niji ~ Hero" was originally known as "Niji ~ Singer"(Rainbow ~ Singer) and a recorded orchestral version of the song performed by Sada himself was placed onto his June 2013 BEST compilation "Appare ~ All-Time Best"（天晴〜オールタイム・ベスト〜...Clear Sky）. Not surprisingly, his version is the type that can wrench tears out of a slab of granite. From what I've read on J-Wiki though is that an earlier version of Sada's performance first appeared on his multi-disc April 1994 live album"Nochi no Omoi ni"（のちのおもひに...For Later Memories）.
However, Sada had created "Niji ~ Singer" for veteran singer-actress Izumi Yukimura（雪村いづみ）to commemorate her 40th anniversary in show business back in 1994. With a similarly epic orchestra backing her up, it was the title track for her own April album "I'm a Singer". The arrangement is probably reminiscent of those appearances of pop singers back in Yukimura's early days as a teen on the televised music-variety shows such as "Yume de Aimashou"（夢で逢いましょう...Let's Meet In Our Dreams）, musicals back then, or even the early editions of the Kohaku Utagassen on which she appeared ten times up to 1989.
It's darn rare for me to put up a quartet of articles on a Tuesday and it's pretty darn unusual for me to post an article on a particular episode of any show, let alone NHK's "Uta Con". However, after having last week's broadcast of the kayo kyoku program cancelled on Japan TV because of all of the copyright concerns regarding Western musical tunes being covered in that one, we (and notably I) were given a memorable episode this week since a lot of the songs featured were ones that got me into this crazy musical world (and blog) in the first place. I just had to mention this episode and well, this is a blog after all. I can use it as a diary.
As I mentioned only some minutes ago in the previous article, there was the somber announcement that Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）of Monta and Brothers had passed away on October 18th. However before and after that, I was able to catch a lot of the Japanese songs of my youth that got me interested in kayo kyoku, enka and all that jazz. A lot of it was powered by a tribute to singer-songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）with the appearance of the man himself along with guests EPO, Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）, Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, Masaki Ueda（上田正樹）and Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）. In a way, it was like getting a sneak preview of that Hayashi tribute concert that will be happening in Tokyo on November 5th.
That was quite the wallop. I was watching "Uta Con"（うたコン）an hour ago and right after the opening act of Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, the hosts solemnly reported that vocalist and songwriter Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）of Monta and Brothers（もんた&ブラザーズ）had passed away a few days ago on the 18th. He succumbed to an aortic dissection at the age of 72. The stunning thing was that he had appeared on "Uta Con" less than a month ago for what I believe was the first time. I'm also posting this only some hours after writing on the tragic loss of vocalist Atsushi Sakurai（櫻井敦司）of the band BUCK-TICK.
For most people, Monta will be known for his band having the No. 1 hit of 1980, "Dancing All Night". However, what I have here tonight is his 4th single"Desire" which was released in October 1981. A City Pop tune with a bit of rock in there, it was written by Kazunori Sonobe（園部和範）who also goes by the name Rio Rinozuka（里乃塚玲央）. Monta came up with the urgent melody for the song about being thrown into the maelstrom of that titular emotion as it applies to that crazy thing called love. Of course, it wouldn't be a Monta and Brothers song without that distinctive raspy voice by Monta himself.
"Desire" peaked at No. 7 on Oricon. I have seen a lot of tributes from YouTube commenters toward Monta. My condolences go to his family, friends and fans. It's been a pretty poignant couple of weeks.
