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 is one of those hot-chocolate-with-a-marshmallow type of Xmas songs by Yumi Tanimura（谷村有美）. "Santa wo Mukae ni Iku Yoru"(The Night I Went To See Santa) was composed by the singer-songwriter and written by Mitsuko Shiramine（白峰美津子）as the coupling song to Tanimura's 11th single from November 1991,"Eien no Hajimari"（永遠のはじまり...Eternal Beginning）.
No matter which song she has created and sung, I've always noticed that child-like clarity in her voice that sets her apart from other singers. I couldn't have asked for a better song than this one, then, for her. Especially when she hit that supremely high note for "...holy night" near the end of "Santa wo Mukae ni Iku Yoru", that wasn't a peak reached by a soprano in an opera; that was definitely more of an innocent kid in a choir. I actually came across the song when I picked up her December 1991 mini-album "White Songs" which was less a Xmas album and more of a release under the theme of winter. I found it in one of the bargain bins at my old Nakano haunt of Recomints one day.
As a bit of a bonus, here is Tanimura's rendition of "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin with accompaniment by fusion band Casiopea（カシオペア）.
Ahhh...love this one too by Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）. "Masquerade" was the Hokkaido band's 6th single from July 1984 by the usual team of Koji Tamaki and Goro Matsui（玉置浩二・松井五郎）. It has those achingly plaintive vocals by Tamaki while the lead guitar wails away and the other instruments provide that Anzen Chitai sound. I'm not sure whether an official music video was ever released with this one, but if it had, I'm sure there would have been a very ornate setup out of "The Rose of Versailles" with Tamaki in full costumed regalia.
"Masquerade" along with a lot of the other early songs by the band made for some great driving music as well as fine melodic accompaniment in the wee hours. My other Anzen Chitai-loving buddy from our U of T days used to drive me home after Kuri karaoke or downtown disco while this was playing on the car stereo; I don't think a ride bombing up the Don Valley Parkway ever went quite as cool or as exotically when we were listening to Koji and company. As well, it was also a time for university all-nighters studying or essay writing. I never wrapped a hachimaki around my head but I did press Play on my tape recorder to hear this band play urban contemporary stuff like "Masquerade".
Unfortunately, J-Wiki never listed how well this single did on Oricon. However, it is included as a track on "Anzen Chitai II" from May 1984 which peaked at No. 2.
No White Christmas here in Toronto this year. It's just been too warm. A number of people are rather lamenting this meteorological situation but after the long and hard winter last year, there are folks like me who simply don't mind too much if we can see still the lawn on December 25th.
In Tokyo, though, not getting the snow has been pretty much a normal thing for the past few decades at least. Still, as I may have mentioned in past articles, Tokyoites can really do up the commercial Xmas spirit in a way that can even impress Norman Rockwell even if the white stuff no longer comes down all that much in the Japanese capital.
Case in point, I had never heard of a Shibuya-kei Xmas song. So of course, it was Pizzicato Five to the rescue when they released their own brand of Yuletide cheer via "24 Decembre" in November 2000 as an EP. It's indeed a P5 song paying tribute to the Holidays in their own distinctive way, and the music video has a touch of cornball with vocalist Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）and some kids as angels flying over various famous vicinities in Tokyo like Ginza and Shibuya with the insertion of some snow for good effect. Written and composed by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）, the melody has that "party on in the big city" feeling since that is what Christmas Eve is supposed to be all about over there. I guess in a way, then, "24 Decembre" could be a sister tune to Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Kon'ya wa Hearty Party"（今夜はHearty Party).
Have fun out there folks, but remember...no drinking and driving!
Years ago, I had seen some sort of campaign ad for Suntory on TV which starred guitarist-singer Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）and his wife Miki Imai（今井美樹）having a bit of fun. Didn't pay a whole lot of time to it except to internally remark that that was one glam couple.
Then, some time later I was at some vending machine in Tokyo where I plunked in the coins to get a drink. There was a solid KER-PLUNK and out came the orange drink. But then as I was turning away, I heard a softer ker-plunk which had me put my hand into the bottom once more to pull out a tall white can with cool Hotei and beaming Imai on it. Inside it was the red rectangular disc that you see above at the top.
Apparently, Hotei had released a limited single via stylized DVD in 2001 only distributed through the Suntory vending machines titled "Party Time!" featuring him and his wife in a short, sweet and slightly repetitive video directed by Hiroyuki Nakano（中野裕之）. It wasn't quite a duet between husband and wife but Imai was on the "la, la, la" chorus and had a few lines in there. And I gotta say that seeing her in the video made me realize why she started out as a model.
It was an interesting gimmick and I was surprised that I could still play it on my computer DVD player although the picture was far smaller on my screen than it is on YouTube. "Party Time!" was written and composed by Hotei.
The DVD on my screen
I'm just throwing the above in here but Hotei can do a pretty blistering version of "Mission: Impossible". It could deserve some air time on the next entry of the franchise but I would still prefer the original jazzy arrangement during the opening credits.
I was surprised that Pink Lady had never performed the iconic "UFO" during their heyday on the Kohaku but wouldn't it be amazing to see Mie and Kei lead off the Red Team with this one? I was planning to get even cuter with the baseball analogy and suggest "Southpaw" but, nah, had to go with "UFO".
As I've mentioned once before, Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）used to be a name that fluttered in the wisps of the Japanese pop winds for years before I finally discovered her and her wonderfully quirky/ethereal music. My impression of her is that when she gives concerts, they are of the very intimate variety in an Aoyama nightclub, let's say, or some theatre in a museum since she's not really into the choreography stuff. Instead, she's very still behind the mike as she eloquently sings her ballads. "Kuro no Clair" is one of my very favourites by the singer-songwriter, and I could imagine this being performed during one of the moodier sections of the Kohaku with Ohnuki being on the dark and bare Shibuya stage with one gauzy spotlight over her.
It would be a truly fantasy Kohaku Utagassen to ever see Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）on the stage again. Can you imagine if she ever decided to surprise everyone by actually showing up and performing on New Year's Eve? The bedlam in audiences in and outside of NHK Hall would be on par with watching "The Force Awakens" for "Star Wars" fans. It will never happen but in my fantasy, she'll be up there again performing the happy-go-lucky "Yume Saki Annainin".
Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）has never appeared on the NHK New Year's Eve special as far as I know but this would be the one song that I would love to see her perform on the darkened stage. "Dare Yori Suki Nanoni" would make for a fine soulful addition to the Red team performances, especially since I couldn't fit Misia in.
Yes, I know...those moans by the late Mina Aoe（青江三奈）will probably have the performance shunted to the post-10 pm time slot by the national broadcaster but heck I like "Isezakicho Blues" for some of that shitamachi-at-night atmosphere. Have a shot of that Kubota while watching Aoe slink across the stage.
Gotta have some Mood Kayo duets as well. And "Moshikashite Part 2" is one of the sparkliest with Sachiko Kobayashi and Katsuhiko Miki（小林幸子・美樹克彦）. It's guaranteed to get even grumbly Granddad moving his shoulders at the kotatsu. And even better for the set designers, Sachiko doesn't need to wear anything enormous on the stage.
Speaking of sparkly, I just had to fit in Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）and "Harusaki Kobeni" somehow while holding to that 16-members/team rule. I couldn't so I exercised that "special guest" clause that NHK has pulled for this year's actual Kohaku with the aforementioned Sachiko Kobayashi. Would love to see the lighting effects to go along with the effervescent Yano.
As much as I wanted Pink Lady to start things off on the Red Team, I needed Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）to become the final showstopper on her side. The Queen of Kayo Kyoku just has to finish things off with her epic swan song, "Kawa no Nagare no Youni" to get all viewers' and performers' throats lumping up. The lady may have terrified her contemporaries backstage just with her mere presence but she definitely enthralled them on stage.
Well, those are my 16+1 for the Red Team. I cannot be sure whether this would be a lineup that would win the Kohaku itself but it is a group that I would be happy watching on stage. Hopefully the next few days will have the White Team up depending on how busy I get with the Xmas stuff.
In my opinion, a number of new enka releases this year (2015) are better and more melodious than those from last year, namely Takashi Hosokawa's powerful "Kita Dake" (北岳), Hiroshi Itsuki's (五木ひろし) "Yuhi San San" (夕陽燦燦) that includes an adorable pair of felines in the MV (what's better than Itsuki with cats?) and George Yamamoto's (山本譲二) "Yozakura Aika".
I recall looking forward to hearing the enka crooner's newest single when I saw it being featured about a month or so from its release date (19th August) on his official webpage, with the single's cover having a dapper Yamamoto in The Thinker's pose. When the snippet of the MV came out, I was greeted by Keisuke Hama's very cool and manly score - dramatic strings and the electric guitar wailing which sets a melancholic tone for the song - that I fell in love with immediately. I'm not entirely able to fully interpret lyricist Kimi Takubo's (田久保真見) lyrics, but what I picture is a haggard, overworked figure hunched over his sake at the bar with a bitter and bothered expression on his face as thoughts buzz through his mind - typical enka topic. I'd say "Yozakura Aika" sounds as shibui as Yamamoto himself.
FINALLY, Yamamoto is wearing a nice suit of a solid colour and not some blazer with gaudy patterns and colours! Alright, "Yozakura Aika" is Yamamoto's 75th single and it did alright on the Oricon charts, peaking at 63rd place. I think the highest it got on the enka-yo charts was 4th, which was during the week it was released, which is very respectable; topping the list at that time was Hosokawa's "Kita Dake", just so you know.
amazon.co.jp
Ack, I really like this song too, but again, I want to wait till my next trip to Japan to get it. However, unlike Hosokawa's single, I'm not sure if I'm able to follow through on that....
I had seen the name BORO before on the listing for one of the episodes of "Sounds of Japan" in the Nikka Times (the local Japanese-Canadian newspaper), but for the life of me, I cannot remember the song he sang on the radio program.
Still, BORO (aka Naoyuki Morimoto/森本尚幸) has become one of the grand balladeers for the Kansai area due to his 2nd single from August 1979, "Osaka de Umareta Onna" (A Woman of Osaka). In the past, I had heard about a singer who created a ballad that was over half an hour long in its full form! I guess this is the song. The above video is the single version clocking in at a little less than 5 minutes and which uses the 4th, 6th and 16th verses.
For those who want to hear the full 34-minute version, the top video will provide it. "Osaka de Umareta Onna" was created by BORO with Junzo (or Shunzo) Okayama（岡山準三）helping out on lyrics and music. I actually heard it on the recently televised annual "Melodies of Osaka" special broadcast on NHK, and from what I could interpret, it is the bluesy tale of a single young woman who's had her life of fun in her beloved hometown of Osaka but has somewhat sadly but resolutely decided to follow her future husband to Tokyo to start their new life together.
Now, despite my ancestry leading back to the Kansai area, I can't really say that I am an expert on comparisons between Osaka and Tokyo. But from what I have gleaned is that Osaka is the capital's more free-spirited and fun-loving brother. I guess in a way it's kinda like the relationship between supposedly stuffy Toronto and more laid-back Montreal. From that, I can gather that Osakans have had quite the emotional reaction to "Osaka de Umareta Onna" in terms of leaving the beloved home for the foreseeable future.
The song became BORO's most famous single selling close to 180,000 records. However, according to Oricon, it only went as high as No. 85 on the charts and for some reason, it didn't show up at all on the 1979 year-end Top 100 chart for singles. Perhaps that 180,000 figure was attained over a very long period. Still it has garnered fame alongside Masaki Ueda's（上田正樹）"Osaka Bay Blues"as a non-enka song symbolizing the area.
BORO himself was born in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture in 1954. After graduating from high school in 1972, he attended university to study jazz vocal and went up to Tokyo to study under jazz musician and singer Tib Kamayatsu（ティーブ・釜萢）. However, his efforts didn't bear fruit so he returned to Osaka and played guitar for a while before finally making his debut in June 1979.
