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.
Took a while to track this down. It was nine years ago that I posted "Refrain"（リフレイン）by Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）which was the B-side to the song of note for this article.
And this A-side was "Nagareru Mama ni ~ Rakka Ryuusui" (As It Flows ~ Mutual Love), Kokubu's 2nd single from April 1986. A ballad that was used as the theme song for the movie "Kizu darake no Kunshou"（傷だらけの勲章...Scarred Medal）, this is a Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）composition and it sure sounds like it: the soft flugelhorn and the wailing guitar solo; maybe the new thing is the additional flute. I can imagine Hayashi's other major client, Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）doing their own version of the song. Singer-songwriter Kumiko Aoki（青木久美子）provided the lyrics. Incidentally, the footage above is probably not from "Kizu darake no Kunshou" since the movie didn't star the whirling dervish that is vivacious actress Yuko Tanaka（田中裕子）as seen in the video, but I'm not complaining.
An 80s Hayashi ballad is always welcome here. Both "Nagareru Mama ni" and "Refrain" ended up on Kokubu's reissued "Steps +2" album from 2014 (the original had been released in 1987). And guess what? I see that I already put in my two cents on "Nagareru Mama ni" in that one, but hey, I can exercise my prerogative to take another look at it. And of course, I can simply mutter to myself about how my long-term memory is starting to deteriorate again.
Hello there. It's J-Canuck with Part 3 of the translation of music journalist Toshikazu Kanazawa's（金澤寿和）liner notes for Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）one-and-only album"Thru Traffic" from 1982. Today's excerpt goes over the actual production of the album.
After Yamakawa’s entry into Yamaha, she joined Hiroko Taniyama’s（谷山浩子）band as a keyboardist just when Taniyama had debuted as a singer-songwriter. A little later, she also joined Junko Yagami's（八神純子）band because she was recognized for her ability to sing with a similar voice to Junko's. Later on, Narumi, who had become a university student by then, was starting to come to Yamaha frequently, and came to support the bands for Taniyama and Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）. It was around this time that Makoto Matsushita（松下誠） (of the band AB’S and so forth), who was like a senpai to Narumi, began to notice him and gave him an electric guitar (up until then, Narumi just had the acoustic guitar). Then, Kazuo Nobuta（信田かずお）, who had provided support for singer-songwriter Akira Inaba（因幡晃）, had been an instructor at Nemu Music Academy (Yamaha Music Foundation’s original name) and Seiko Matsuda’s（松田聖子）first arranger, brought Narumi aboard for the recording by the band that Matsushita and Nobuta had formed, Milky Way. This was Narumi’s first official involvement in a recording. His strong admiration for guitarist David T. Walker, someone who the connoisseurs would know, came from Matsushita.
One day, there was an opening in Yagami’s band which Narumi filled at Yamakawa’s recommendation. Close in age and musical preference, Narumi and Yamakawa were influencing each other and they gradually came to lending a hand in the stage arrangements while both were in the band. A Yamaha director who was watching this suggested the following: “How about the two of you become a duo?”. This launched Tohoku Shinkansen.
The musical concept would be mostly based on AOR and Black contemporary music of the time. First and foremost, the aim was high-quality and refined urban music. Basically, they were looking at Gino Vannelli, Bobby Caldwell, Earth Wind & Fire, Quincy Jones, George Benson and Eumir Deodato. As well, the two of them, who liked the addition of chorus, shared an admiration for the jazz chorus group The Singers Unlimited. Moreover, neither of them loved songs with simplistic progressions and preferred something with cool tension chords.
Narumi:At the time, rather than us writing the songs, the melodies and the arrangements just seemed to materialize at the same time. For something like the first track, “Summer Touches You”, the song was born right from the intro.
Yamakawa: “Up and Down” was showing its influence from Earth Wind & Fire. Listening to it now, I think that part when the sound clicks out is a bit unnatural but I thought I sang it well.
Narumi handled all of the guitar playing. To him, this album was his starting point as a guitarist and for him to play the instrument on all of the tracks was a great source of confidence. Even on the instrumental track “Spell”, his David T. Walker-style of play was on full display. He would always use Walker’s favourite guitar, the Gibson Byrdland, which revealed an emotional depth of play that couldn’t be imagined within someone who was in his mid-20s. As well, he handled some of the keyboards where he showed some extraordinary prowess. Yamakawa was in charge of all of the keyboard arrangements as well as those for the horns and strings. While the basic arrangement was done between the two of them, Narumi was more than happy to rely on Yamakawa when it came to the score since that was her strong point. However, the biggest strength that the pair had together was their harmonizing. What showed that to its maximum was the jazz ballad version of “September Valentine”. This track was the only one created by a different artist, J-AOR singer-songwriter Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）. The song had been chosen as one where they wanted to make it sound like something by The Singers Unlimited. It had originally been recorded by Yukio Sasaki, and Narumi, who had been his support band member, was the first to notice the song. Kentaro Haneda（羽田健太郎）played the piano for the Tohoku Shinkansen version.
As well, bassists Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and Kenji Takamizu（高水健司）, drummer Hideo Yamaki（山木秀夫）, percussionist Motoya Hamaguchi（浜口茂外也）, saxophonist Jake H. Concepcion along with several other famous musicians participated, but it was Yamakawa and Narumi who discussed and set the lineup, and it was through the former’s personal connections that the number of session musicians grew. Junko Yagami herself also joined in the backing vocals. A singer by the name of Chrissy Faith who was on backing vocals had been a backing singer for Rupert Holmes, an AOR artist who also provided Yagami with a song, “Koi no Magic Trick” (恋のマジックトリック...Magic Trick of Love) on which Yamakawa and Narumi also joined in on. The duet track “Tsuki ni Yorisotte” (月に寄りそって...Getting Close to the Moon) with its faintly wistful feeling sounds just like a Yagami song.
Yamakawa:Back then, we were together 100 to 200 days out of the year and we all got along so it’s no surprise that we naturally sounded like each other. Obviously, when we were in the backing chorus, we made an effort to follow each other and so we got accustomed to that.
Narumi:For “Last Message” (the final track), the lyrics came out first and as we read through them, our image for the song expanded, and we nailed down the melody within 3 minutes. Etsu sang this for us since they were a woman’s lyrics.
Toshikazu Kanazawa
September 2007
Next week will have the fourth and final part of the liner notes.
In reading up for this posting, I noticed that Hitomi Penny Tohyama's（当山ひとみ）album"Munasawagi"（胸さわぎ...Premonitions） has two different years that it was released depending on the website: either 1988 or 1992 which is quite the discrepancy. The person taking care of the Japanese-language site "90's City Pop Record Book" has given the theory that the 1988 was the original year for the LP while 1992 was the time when the CD version was put out onto shelves. Heck, I'm good with that.
One reason that I'm going with 1992 as the source year for "Munasawagi" is the second track "Itsu kara kashira"(Since When, I Wonder?) because the song doesn't sound like either the City Pop or the funky R&B that Tohyama was famous for during the 1980s. I've listened to it a few times already and I think that the song is a groovy light pop tune overall with an arrangement that sounds quite familiar for a lot of Japanese female singers back in the early 1990s. Megumi Ayukawa（鮎川めぐみ）was the lyricist here while Yukio Sugi（杉征夫）was the composer. In a way, it's kinda like Penny leaving the nightclub with the sun coming over the horizon and a morning on the way.
Well, the usual occupational hazard has happened again on KKP where I mention that I will follow up on something soon enough and actually years go by. Mind you, it's not quite Rip van Winkle time but I wrote up on Side A of the original classic LP "The Stranger" by Billy Joel from September 1977 back in March 2022. Cue ahead almost 26 months later...
"The Stranger" is one of those albums in music history where virtually every track is a winner, loudly or quietly, and I'm happy to finally show off Side B.
Maybe those 26 months were due to the fact that I'd been waiting for the official music video (only released two weeks ago) for "Vienna" which starts off Side B. It's one of the more unusual songs by Joel because I hadn't heard it as much as I did the title track "The Stranger" and "Just The Way You Are" on the radio, and for the fact that it does have that accordion-like instrument in there to hint at that trip to Vienna which young William had taken years back. In the Wikipedia article for "The Stranger", I noticed that both "Vienna" and "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" were mentioned in the same sentence and that fit for me since the former has that similarly wistful tone as the latter although "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" is on a much larger scale. What I hadn't realized was that "Vienna" was an analogy for Joel's wish as to how the elderly should be allowed to spend their last stage in life, so it's no surprise that the song has gained greater recognition as the years have gone by.
I was surprised to hear that "Only the Good Die Young" had been released as a single in May 1978 since the first time I heard it was as a B-side on one of Joel's other singles, interestingly enough. And the crazier thing is that I swear that I'd actually heard it for the first time as a jingle for some commercial although what the product was I can't remember at all...it probably wasn't one for the Catholic church, though. The concert video above has Joel introducing the song with a bit of snark that the lyrics have something to offend everybody and yep, Catholic groups weren't impressed (which has something in common with last week's ROY tune) by Joel's message that Catholic girls were the party poopers of adolescent oat-sowing. But dang, it's a fun song to listen to.😎
"She's Always a Woman" was yet another single from "The Stranger" and unlike "Vienna", it did get onto the radio quite often. I've paired "Vienna" and "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" together and so I can do the same with "She's Always a Woman" and "Just The Way You Are" in terms of the ardor that Joel's protagonists express for the women in their lives. However, "She's Always a Woman" has a bit more of a folksier bent as Joel sings about loving a woman not only in spite of but also because of her flaws.
"Get It Right the First Time" is one of the two final songs that never got a single release and never really seemed to get onto the radio. I first heard it years ago when an enterprising radio station finally opted to show off some of Joel's more unknown numbers, and "Get It Right the First Time" is a high-energy pop-rock tune about making sure one's ready for a first-time confrontation which could span between an intra-neighbourhood spat and a presidential debate.
"Everybody Has a Dream" is the final piece in "The Stranger" and it's a gospel pop song that I hadn't heard Joel tackle before. If the entirety of "The Stranger" was used for a concert performance and each track was performed in order, then this is the song to finish things off properly and satisfyingly see off the audience back home. Mind you, encores would be inevitable, though.
Now, for something as legendary as this album, I can only do the comparison with Japanese music by having the Top 3 albums of 1977 via Oricon underneath.
1. Hi-Fi Set Love Collection
2. The Eagles Hotel California
3. Kei Ogura Tosagaru Fuukei（遠ざかる風景）
And how about that? I've made this post just a week shy of The Piano Man's 75th birthday!
This isn't a Reminiscings of Youth article though that will be coming up soon enough. However, when I heard that Duane Eddy had passed away a few days ago, I felt like I needed to do some sort of tribute to the guitarist with his gift of twang.
Now, I know that the musician originally from New York State has had his own string of hits over the decades, but when I hear the name Duane Eddy, I'm always going to think of one song: "Peter Gunn". The original Henry Mancini version with John Williams pounding on the keys was one of the first songs that I remember hearing and internalizing forever but it was when Art of Noise did their hit cover of the song in 1986 that I got to hear Eddy for the first time and that got me to his own solo cover of "Peter Gunn" in 1959. In a way, it was Eddy's take with its more slithery rock n' roll vibe (including that sexy sax) compared to the Mancini swing jazziness that sounded even more dangerous and therefore more fitting in the world of detective Gunn.
Alongside Boz Scaggs' "Lowdown", I think "Peter Gunn" is the song to accompany you and your buddies if you're cruising down the nighttime streets of the city. My condolences to Eddy's family, friends and fans.
Although Torontonians learn never to say never when it comes to seasonal events such as snow, and yes, snow has fallen here in May, I think that we can all finally breathe some relief and perhaps do things such as change our snow tires back to summer ones. If you are Torontonian and you read this article, knock on wood firmly...just to be on the safe side.😉
Now, this is a song that I heard a few months ago on the "Weather Music" segment of "Weathernews Live" when snow was still all too real a thing in my neck of the woods. "Nagori Yuki" (Winter's-End Snow) has been a favourite of mine when I first heard it by 70s aidoru Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）on the 1982 edition of the Kohaku Utagassen and then heard the most famous 1975 cover version by folk singer Iruka（イルカ）. The original version was by folk band Kaguyahime（かぐや姫）and placed on their 1974 4th album, "Sankai Tate no Uta"（三階建ての詩...Three-Floor Poem).
The "Weather Music" segment had singer-songwriter Motohiro Hata（秦基博）perform his own take on "Nagori Yuki" and it still retains that wistful and woodsy flavour of the 1970s versions. There is nothing over-the-top here...it's Hata and his guitar for the most part, and that is all that is needed to send the emotion out to people. Hata's version was a track on an extra CD that was only available in the first pressings of his October 2010 3rd album"Documentary" which hit No. 3 on Oricon.
Welcome to Hump Day! Indeed, Wednesdays can be rather blah but over here at least, considering that we had a very waterlogged April, I'm happy that May has come in blazingly sunny and not too cold either.
A few years ago, I was once jokingly accused by a relative on whether I had become a hikikomori (a shut-in). I didn't counter too forcefully since, yes I admitted, I never really did go all that much and the pandemic was putting a major curb on person-to-person socialization. Plus, my room often appeared as if a mini-tornado had ripped through the place. But as it is in 2024, outside of the odd invitation to lunch, a movie or dinner, I'm usually as snug as a bug on a rug staying within the neighbourhood and writing out my two articles a day at least on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Recently, I came across this short and sweet video by singer-songwriter MAO,（眞魚）aka Tomoe Kurohata, a self-described outlaw and nerd. Titled "Hikikomori no Mainichi" (The Daily Life of a Shut-In), her song came out in the last couple of months, and I had been expecting something akin to technopop. Instead, it's a mix of rap and old soul delivered in a smooth velvety voice while MAO is sticking around in her room. Basically the attitude is "Heck, I'm done with the speeches...I'll be in my futon".
Looking at the video, I confess that MAO has one up on me in her circumstances. She at least seems to have a more modern and comfortable swivel chair than I do.🪑
