Wotako -- Daite (GET A CLUE)（抱いて）

 

The first time I heard "Daite (GET A CLUE)" (Hold Me), I figured that it must have been something from the late 1980s thanks to that specific type of funk done in a New Jack Swing style. Well, I was slightly off there; the song was a part of Wotako's（詩子）second of three albums "Yes" from June 1991. 

Wotako reminds me of a couple of other female R&B singers from around the same time, GWINKO and Cindy. I gather that all three of them were embracing their Janet Jackson. Regardless, "Daite" is a snazzy affair with the beat and the sharp horns blasting away. It's too bad that I couldn't nail down who was behind the songwriting. The J-Wiki article for Wotako only lists in "Yes" that several big names were involved in the words and music such as Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）.

From her mid-teens, Wotako, whose real name is supposedly Utako Kida（木田詩子）according to Mojim, began to learn jazz dancing and then set up an amateur girls' band before debuting with her solo single "Runner" in 1988. In addition to those three albums, she released a total of eight singles up to 1992.

AB'S -- Stay in the Night

 

I was just posting about Fujimal Yoshino's（芳野藤丸）50th anniversary in the music business with his "50/50 Fifty-Fifty" this past weekend, and now I'm additionally happy to hear about an earlier milestone. 

One of Yoshino's old bands, AB'S, with Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and Yoshihiko Ando（安藤芳彦）, brought out their 7th album, logically titled "AB'S-7", in September 2020. Listening to one of the tracks, "Stay in the Night", it sounds as if they had never left the 1980s. Written by Ando and composed by Yoshino, the song is an elegant form of City Pop as the video shows those sky-high evening shots above the metropolis. The vocals come across a bit more gruffly and gravelly but I think that adds more character although maybe the gang probably needed some Sucrets after recording.

Maiko Kawakami -- ÄLSKLING（エルスクリン）

 

Maiko Kawakami（川上麻衣子）is an actress who I've heard about over the years but didn't know that she had been born in Stockholm, Sweden to a couple of interior designers (no IKEA jokes, please). However, her family moved back to Japan when she was around a year old.

Another thing that I hadn't known was that she did have her time behind the recording mike. Kawakami released four singles between 1981 and 1983 along with three albums between 1982 and 1984. Her second album from June 1983 was titled "ÄLSKLING"; the title is Swedish for "darling". The video uploaded by mingumangu has the second and ninth tracks.

Track 2 is "Zanshou" (残照...Afterglow) which is some dreamy City Pop concocted by lyricist Kaoru Asaki（麻木かおる）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロ）with some smoky if not all that strong vocals by Kawakami. Track 9 at 4:27 is "Tsumetai Bed"（冷たいベッド...A Cold Bed） which picks up the pace a bit into a more mid-tempo tune with a hint of New Wave. Asaki also provides the lyrics here but this time, the composer is Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）.

One more song from "ÄLSKLING" is the first track "Kanshou"（感傷...Sentimentality） which also was Kawakami's 3rd single from July 1983. It was written and composed by Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）.

Yuki Katsuragi & Daisuke Inoue -- Gray no Asa ni（グレイの朝に）

 

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.

Rumi Asada -- Hakurankai no E（展覧会の絵）

 

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.

Isaac Hayes -- Theme from "Shaft"

 

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.

Feifei Ouyang -- Ame no Midosuji （雨の御堂筋）

Furudokei -- Roadshow（ロードショー）

From Amazon.jp

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.