Talk Talk -- It's My Life

 

So, how is that post-Xmas dinner digestion doing by you? Sleepy from all the turkey? We had ours tonight but thanks to a cup of strong coffee and a really good Strawberry Dream Cake, I'm still doing quite well. Not feeling really sleepy but I figure that within an hour, all that sugar and caffeine are going to wear off and I'll simply collapse like an old lung.

Anyways, I had assumed that the article on the final Xmas article for KKP's Christmas season 2023, EPO's "Twinkle Christmas" would be the last one for today. However, I realized that I had to complete my other tradition of putting up a Reminiscings of Youth article on a national holiday, and after all, since I'm filled with beans (or what used to be beans) at the moment, I might as well do something danceable because I'm vicariously needing to dance it up as we enter the final week of the year.

I am talking about Talk Talk's big hit "It's My Life" from January 1984. Yup, we're fast approaching the 40th anniversary of its release and I remember it first of all for its strange video featuring the late vocalist Mark Hollis at the zoo as it looked like a nature documentary was going all New Wave and dance remix on me. I always loved Hollis' haunting delivery and the combination of synths/percussion banging away, and in fact, I was looking for its remix version on the dance remix radio shows of my youth. 

"It's My Life" hit No. 31 on Billboard Stateside although it hit the top spot on the dance charts down below. Meanwhile in Canada, it peaked at No. 30 and in the band's native Great Britain, it did a modest No. 46, although I read on its Wikipedia article that it did get a third lease on life and reached No. 13 when it was reissued in 1990.

Dance your dinner away please! Anyways, I'll give you Nos. 8, 9 and 10 from the January 1984 Oricon weekly chart.

8. Seiko Matsuda -- Hitomi wa Diamond （瞳はダイアモンド）

9. Rumiko Koyanagi -- Ohisashiburi ne (お久しぶりね）

10. Tomio Umezawa -- Yume Shibai （夢芝居）

EPO -- Twinkle Christmas

 

It was exactly a month ago that we launched the 2023 Xmas season at "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and the first official song was EPO's "Shiroi Machi Aoi Kage"（白い街 青い影）, so I think it would be appropriate if we ended the season with another EPO Xmas song.

First off, let me give some quick background information such as the above video by Karafuto Channel（樺太チャンネル）on YouTube. It shows the department store Le Trois（ル・トロワ）which is a local establishment in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

Well, Le Trois used to be the MALSA Department Store back in the 1980s and as a commercial jingle of the season for it, EPO wrote and composed a special song, "Twinkle Christmas". I found out about it for the first time on Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast for the MIDI album compilation "Winter Tales 2" from 1992. On the podcast, it begins at 27:49 and Scott gives an interesting story about "Twinkle Christmas" since it was never officially a part of EPO's discography, and in fact, until "Winter Tales 2" was released, the only way that any EPO fan could get a copy of it was through somehow tracking down a promotional copy of the song that had never been meant for release in the stores.

With EPO handling the songwriting duties, the arrangement was left to Sapporo native Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）who had just begun Pizzicato Five, a group that was still some years away from becoming the Shibuya-kei darlings of the world. "Twinkle Christmas" has got quite the bouncy beat that had me thinking of ol' show-timey performances on television. The melody is upbeat but Scott mentions that the lyrics aren't all that happy since a woman is waiting for a Prince Charming with all of the Xmas frills in her apartment but in reality, everything is all in vain. So, basically skip happily to the traditional supermarket floor of MALSA and then end up picking up a Cup O' Noodle for one over there.

In any case, let's not all fret about that. Personally, I've got a turkey breast roasting in the oven right now with family coming over in a couple of hours. And I'm certainly hoping that all of you will continue to enjoy your Christmas as well. We'll see what happens next Xmas season with a potential new batch of J-Xmas tunes.

Ah, as a PS, this is the 1080th article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" this year so we've just broken another record set last year with the largest number of articles in any one year. Perhaps we can go for the big 1100 by the end of 2023!

Shoko Inoue -- Merry X'mas wo Agetai （Merry X'masをあげたい）

 

Singer-songwriter Shoko Inoue（井上昌己）is someone that I have written about in the past. This was specifically in September 2016, when I provided the article on her 5th single "Kamisama no Mystique"（神様のミステイク）from May 1990. 

Well, jump ahead several years here on KKP and several months ahead in her own discography. This is her 9th single from November 1991, "Merry X'mas wo Agetai" (I Want to Give You a Merry Christmas), and as written by Katsuya Koga（古賀勝哉）and composed by Inoue herself, the underlying rhythm kinda hearkens back to another more famous J-Xmas tune. However, unlike that tune and for that matter, "Kamisama no Mystique", it's all love and positivity here as a couple enjoy their first Xmas together starting with that fancy dinner.

The way it's all structured, I think "Merry X'mas wo Agetai" would have made for a wonderful campaign song in a TV commercial. Maybe it actually was. However, I know that there was a music video for it as shown below.

Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Christmas Avenue（クリスマス・アベニュー）

 

Ahhh...yes, the equivalent of "Teen Beat" in Japan, "Myojo"（明星）also has their Xmas issues. Kinda wonder what the magazine looks like now.

As with any town or city in many parts of the world, there is plenty of Christmas illumination and other decorations adorning the streets. One place that I've enjoyed viewing is actually a little north of us here. It's called Unionville and during the Holidays, it gussies itself up into basically the ideal Christmas town as you can see from the video by Intuitive Imprints. Heck, watching this, I wouldn't mind pulling up stakes and moving over to the community myself although I think realistically one would need a car to get around.

Coincidentally, singer-actress Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）was singing about the same thing basically when she recorded "Christmas Avenue". It is a track on her August 1985 2nd album "Yume Juuwa"（夢十話...10 Dreams） and I've already written about the album that I have on audiotape but at the time, "Christmas Avenue" wasn't up on YouTube apparently. Well, it's up here now and this time around, this whimsical J-Xmas number has nothing to do with partying or romantic wonders/breakups, it's just about Hiroko enjoying that pleasant walk down the (Unionville) street around the Holidays. Can't be beat.

Written by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, composed by Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）and arranged by Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）, "Christmas Avenue" is a pop song that has that hint of old-style variety show jazz standard within it. I could imagine if Hiroko had ever performed this on TV or stage, she would have been accompanied by a bunch of dancing folks in candy cane or penguin suits.

Nanatsuboshi -- Juu-ni-gatsu no Tokubetsu na Yoru（12月の特別な夜）

 

Merry Christmas to everyone out there. Hopefully, folks are waking up to happy family, friends, good food and a joyous occasion...the occasional turkey leg and hot chocolate are welcome too. Perhaps many Japanese families have enjoyed their Kentucky Fried Chicken and Fujiya shortcake in the last several hours. 

Being December 25th and all, this is the final day for the J-Xmas season on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" so I would like to bring out the remaining seasonal songs beginning with Nanatsuboshi's（ななつ星）"Juu-ni-gatsu no Tokubetsu na Yoru" (A Special Night in December). Now, back on December 1st, I mentioned about this mystery merging of aidoru trio Lip's, another aidoru trio called Rakutenshi（楽天使...Happy Angels） and aidoru Rumi Shishido（宍戸留美）to form this unit Nanatsuboshi（ななつ星...Seven Stars） which not only eschewed any media exposure but even a few members of this septet admitted that they hadn't even come together for recording. In fact, the article where I mentioned Nanatsuboshi doesn't even have Nanatsuboshi on the byline; it's actually just Lip's who provided an Xmas tune, "Splendid Love (in December)" for the December 1990 Nanatsuboshi album "Seiya Nanatsuboshi"（聖夜七つ星...Holy Night Seven Stars）.

OK, deep breath here. 😤 A month before the album's release, there was a one-and-only single by Nanatsuboshi titled "Ribbon Musubi no Waku Waku"（リボン結びのWAKU WAKU...Ribbon-Tying Excitement） that actually had all seven aidoru participating if not at the same time and place. The coupling song is what I wanted to start off the Christmas Day edition of KKP, "Juu-ni-gatsu no Tokubetsu na Yoru". Written by Chiroru Yaho（谷穂ちろる）, composed by Tsukasa and arranged by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）, the song is a lightly soulful and mellow number tenderly delivered by all involved. As the title would suggest, it emphasizes the second Valentine's Day aspect of a Christmas in Japan with much love a-plenty. I figure this couple is probably aiming for something higher than the usual KFC and Fujiya.

Kiyohiko Ozaki -- White Christmas

 

Let's imagine that the live-action Kayo Grace Kyoku is spending some Christmas time in a bar which is obviously well stocked. I don't drink a whole heck of a lot but one of the things that I've always wanted to do is spend a pleasant evening in a classy bar during the Holidays while a jazz trio is performing for the customers.

For the last article of Xmas Eve 2023, I'd like to offer the late great Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）as he gives his jazzy and soothing rendition of the classic "White Christmas". I don't know when this footage was originally filmed and I'm not even sure whether Ozaki had even recorded his version of the song on any of his albums in the past, so I'm just placing it as a 2023 number. This would be the "White Christmas" I'd like to hear in that bar.

I'm surprised that I hadn't done it earlier but here is Bing Crosby's original "White Christmas" as he sang it in the 1942 "Holiday Inn". Anyways, wherever you and whatever you are doing, I hope that all of you have a wonderfully Merry Christmas.🎄

Merry Christmas from Kayo, too!

Masamichi Sugi -- Christmas no Wedding（クリスマスのウェディング）

 

Last month in November, I covered Masamichi Sugi's（杉真理）"Saigo no Merry Christmas"（最後のメリー・クリスマス）which turned out to be the unofficial first Xmas song that we covered on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" this year about a week early, after which we let Yutaka Kimura give his two cents on the matter. We both agreed that the fellow mentioned in the lyrics was going to have his worst Christmas.

Happily, Sugi must have learned that not all Xmas tunes have to be about breaking up which is really hard to do. Instead, he went all the way to the other end of the spectrum with his "Christmas no Wedding" (A Christmas Wedding) which has a couple enjoy the most significant day in their lives with Christmas Eve nuptials. Once again, Sugi was behind words and music which is appropriately twinkly, chaste and reassuring. "Christmas no Wedding" is a track on his 10th album "Ladies and Gentlemen" from October 1989.

There was a period while I was living in Japan when weddings involving friends and family were occurring almost once a year. I can't say that I was able to attend an Xmas wedding but I was lucky enough to go to a wedding held in Nagoya, and Nagoyans really have huge reception parties. Bring an empty stomach if you've been fortunate to be invited to one.