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.
Major League Baseball is in its final days of Grapefruit League action before the official season begins next week. Locally, of course, we're looking forward to seeing the Blue Jays back at Rogers Centre and see if they can pull off what they almost did last year.
Not to say that technopop band Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）has done so for every song they've ever concocted, but I remember a few songs of theirs that have had certain themes in mind. There is the train theme for "Popo"（ポポ）and "Mononoke Dance"（モノノケダンス）with its atmosphere of the scary spirits in mind. Well, their 22nd single from August 2022 is "HOMEBASE" which is all about the baseball. Along with the usual fun plinky-plunky technopop, there is some of the rah-rah cheering prevalent at any Japanese baseball game incorporated.
Of course, Denki Groove also loves to have its tongue-in-cheekiness and the majority of the lyrics for "HOMEBASE" is the reading of a team's lineup with some of the zaniest names. The music video has band member Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）pull off humanity's longest headfirst slide (with a juice break) in front of Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）as the tough-as-nails manager.
Welcome to another KKP weekend! As I was telling a friend of mine this morning, it doesn't really feel like spring here in Toronto quite yet, but at least, the snow is largely gone and I can actually walk the sidewalks like a normal human being again. I'll be happy to take the little steps toward the green season.
Anyways, out of the Mikako Hashimoto（橋本美加子）songs I've covered thus far on KKP, this single has struck me as being the grooviest thus far. This is her 5th single from June 1986, "Heart Byoyomi", which seems to translate directly as "Heart Countdown", although I'm wondering if it's more accurate to say "Reading Your Heartbeat" in terms of the usual trials and tribulations of love encountered in these aidoru tunes. In any case, Mai Arai（あらい舞）was responsible for both words and music and as for the latter, I love the wailing electric guitar and the horns. Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）took care of the snazzy arrangement.
I feel like I'm playing a word association game but with themes with the past couple of articles I wrote. First, it was "Isao Hayashi" (林伊佐緒) with Sogen wo Yuku Otoko (草原をゆく男) and Kurashiki no Hito (倉敷の女). From the latter, I am carrying over the theme of a singer's voice to this article.
Quite a while back, I was reading something on the line of how a singer's voice can be highly attractive to its listeners, even without the presence of their physical being - think radio, records, CDs, etc. - as we can fill in the blanks ourselves. The mind is a powerful tool. Seeing as how Tadaharu Nakano (中野忠晴) never showed up on TV postwar, and prewar footage of him even just moving is exceedingly rare, I let my imagination take the reins with what it has: his photos and his voice (via his songs).
So hot｡ﾟ(ﾟ´艸`ﾟ)ﾟ｡
Mr. Nakano is essentially my antithesis to Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎). During his tenure as a recording artist, he often appeared to be either chipper with his cheeky grin or suave with a smolder. His jazz covers and western music-inspired songs often match either version of him, and his expressive deliveries would sound a little different depending. If its something like a silly or sentimental jazz song, he would ordinarily come equipped with a bright tenor. But if its a more dramatic number, he would lean into the lower register of his vocal range and showcase its richness. The latter, in particular, gets the heart racing.
Seishun Rumba belongs to this latter category. Released in June 1939, it's actually a cover of Tabú, originally created musician Margarita Lecuona. The Cuban number has a heady air of sensuality about it with its languid rhythm. However, to fit Nakano's dynamic energy, Showa's other jazz song arrangement whiz Takio Niki (仁木多喜雄) sped up the tempo a little and made it sound theatrical with more dramatic percussions and blaring horns, yet still retained the sex appeal of the original. It makes the perfect space for Nakano's chesty delivery in this instance to shine; and despite its boldness, the singer manages to add a tenderness to his voice that makes it even more alluring.
Taking care of the Japanese lyrics was Ko Fujiura (藤浦洸), who was already making a name for himself making several hit western-inspired numbers. His words seem parallel the rumba and its vitality to youth, which explains the title that literally translates to "Youth Rumba." To be completely honest, I'm not super fond of the title they gave the Japanese version. Somehow, the thought that this could be considered one of those "odes to youth" (seishun sanka) that were popular during the 30s does kind of diminish the more mature vibe the Niki's arrangement and Nakano's delivery give to me. Nevertheless, Seishun Rumba was the song where, upon first listen, had me texting one of my good friends that I thought the man "[sounded] so hot." The blend of the music, his voice, and those suave images sends my imagination into overdrive and has me forgetting to breathe. I would be transfixed seeing Hachi sing Kurashiki no Hito live, but I think I'd pass out seeing Nakano do Seishun Rumba live.
It's been a long while since the last Tomoko Koyano（古谷野とも子）article which was back in March 2020, just before COVID shut the world down for a couple of years. That was for "Yorisoi Nareta Ude no Naka de"（寄りそい慣れた腕の中で）and though the Koyano file on KKP is still not all that deep, I've gotten the impression that she's along the lines of fellow singer-songwriters Keiko Maruyama（丸山圭子）and Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）with their mellow New Music stylings.
I found this track which shares space with "Yorisoi Nareta Ude no Naka de" on her 3rd album"Neutral Tints" from 1978. And "Shiawase Modoki" (Fake Happiness) may not titularly hint at good times within Etsuko Kisugi's（来生えつこ）lyrics, but man, right from the first several notes of the song, I do feel that Koyano's creation strikes me as something ahead of its time. The arrangement comes across as a lot more contemporary especially with the keyboard work (although that Fender Rhodes is a symbol of City Pop music, particularly in the 1970s). I could imagine "Shiawase Modoki" as having been created in the 1980s or 1990s even. Nice to have such a cool and good tune to finish off tonight's slate of postings, especially with that sax solo...gave me some Gerry Rafferty vibes.
Probably would have preferred Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico to have stood a little farther away from the number, but in all of the excitement about writing the 2700th City Pop article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a few minutes ago, I completely overlooked the fact that the blog itself surpassed the 20 million view mark some time in the last 24 hours.
Thank you, Mr. DiCaprio! And congratulations yourself on "One Battle After Another" winning Best Picture although I'm sorry that you didn't get that Best Actor Oscar.
It's rather amazing that the views are already more than 70,000 deep beyond 20,000,000 so let's get at it with another song. First off, although I have separate articles for Makoto Iwabuchi（岩渕まこと）and the late great Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）, I had no idea that they also worked together as a duo for several years in the 1980s and 1990s, putting out a lot of albums together.
One album, released in 1982, is "Best Friend", and the cover has Iwabuchi and Kosaka looking very chummy. I managed to find one track "Rainbow" which brings in friendly folk and a hint of that Margaritaville AOR into the proceedings. It's just the melodic tonic for a cool and relaxing Sunday drive out in the countryside or the beachside. Not quite ready for that activity here in Toronto yet, but perhaps this time next month, things will have meteorologically improved.
I only noticed this some minutes ago, but this article will become the 2700th such article under the City Pop banner since beginning "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in 2012.
Thank you, thank you!
And who better to share this honour than with one of the greatest representatives of City Pop, singer-songwriter Junko Yagami（八神純子）? She was looking rather glammed up and Blondie-ish in that bold striped dress against the red-and-black background. I'd probably say that it is one of the more famous images of the Aichi Prefecture-born singer as a cover for her 16th single"Koi no Smash Hit"(I WANNA MAKE A HIT WIT-CHOO) from July 1983.
To be honest, "Koi no Smash Hit" wasn't a smash hit, only getting as high as No. 61 on Oricon, but for the fans, it's another jewel in the crown and kinda shows Yagami's transition from her City Pop phase into a more West Coast R&B sound going into the middle of the 1980s. She wasn't even behind words and music this time around...they were provided by lyricist Frank Musker and composer Louis St. Louis. I think the song is also notable for the cameo appearance of what sounds like the turbolift doors on the USS Enterprise and the somewhat tongue-in-cheek lyrics with Junko having a grand ol' time singing about simultaneously getting her guy and getting that Grammy with this creation. Her 6th album from the same month is also titled "I WANNA MAKE A HIT WIT-CHOO" and it did better in comparison than the single by peaking at No. 16.
I figure that if I can get a Eurobeat song onto the blog last month, thanks to Yoshimi Yokosuka（横須賀昌美）, I can do so here in March as well.
And this time, it's by the group EVE that seemed to be omnipresent in the music world back in the 1980s since they popped up backing up a lot of other artists in the recording studio. This time, though, the Sisters Shinzato from Okinawa are front and centre with their second single as a group, "Sugar Sugar" which came out in August 1987. Written by two of the sisters, Clare & Leona, with Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）handling the arrangement under his nom de plumeMark Davis (man, he's been a busy man today after providing his services for the song of the previous article), I'm sure that he made Stock, Aitken & Waterman very proud with his Eurobeat tendencies. "Sugar Sugar" peaked at No. 77 on Oricon.
.jpg)
