Mai Kuraki -- Stay By My Side

Squeezing among all of the rebirth of the female aidoru via Hello Project, the glory days of SMAP and the other young turks at Johnny's Entertainment, and the big burst of J-R&B at the beginning of the 21st century was Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）. Well, I don't think it's fair to use the verb "squeeze" since it would hint that the lass was somehow struggling to keep her head above water at the time, and that certainly wasn't the case here. She carved a nice little niche for herself in terms of the charts and public attention as someone who was not an aidoru and not an R&B chanteuse but an up-and-coming singer with her own brand of gentle pop. Perhaps the reason that I had mistakenly assumed that she was a native or near-native speaker of English was that her delivery of her first few singles struck me as being so American...not along the lines of a Britney Spears but more along the lines of earlier teen popsters such as Debbie Gibson and Tiffany.

(short version)

Like her breakthrough single, "Love, Day After Tomorrow", her 2nd single, "Stay By My Side" was one of those songs whose video excerpt popped up all over the TV for months and yet, it was awfully hard to see her perform it on the telly through shows like "Music Station". But at the time, I found that a number of singers also refrained from TV appearances such as Misia and bird. Not that I complained too much since I could understand the desire to keep the mystery and freshness of a talented singer from getting overexposed.

In any case, "Stay By My Side" is a pleasant and gentle ballad written by Kuraki and composed by Aika Ohno（大野愛果）which came out in March 2000. Not only did it hit the top spot for 2 weeks on Oricon, it went Triple Platinum and became the 17th-ranked song of the year. And although it took a few years, Kuraki was finally invited onto the 2003 Kohaku Utagassen to perform it live from a temple in Kyoto. As for the setting in the music video, it was filmed at Oimachi Church in Tokyo.

Up to now, I never purchased a Mai Kuraki album or single but remembering some of the excerpts of songs that she has released over the past 16 or so years, I would be tempted in getting a BEST compilation. The only strike I might have against her is that I've perceived a certain sameness in her singles output at least. However, I hope that I can be proved wrong. Perhaps a Mai fan could give his or her opinion on this.

Garo -- Romance (ロマンス)

Happy Monday to you all! With the Rio Olympics having gone into memory and things perhaps settling down to the usual end of summer (it was actually pleasantly cool this morning), I thought it would be nice to start the work week on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with something happy and light.

So here is "Romance" by the 70s folk group, Garo (ガロ). That word seems to have cropped up in a lot of pop kayo titles from that era, speaking to the sentimentalism of the Japanese. Of course, the most familiar example is Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）"Romance" which was one of her early big hits in 1975.

Garo's "Romance" came out in August 1973 as the band's 6th single. It is a song that has pricked at something familiar in my memory so I most likely have seen it performed on video somewhere sometime. It has that comfortably bouncy beat which would accompany a couple fondly remembering the early days of their love...that mandolin helps out a lot.

Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）wrote the appropriately romantic lyrics while the late Mamoru Horiuchi（堀内護）, one of the three members of Garo, composed the music along with coming up with the idea of using the mandolin (according to the J-Wiki article on the song). "Romance" was another hit for the band, peaking at No. 3 and finishing 1973 as the 42nd-most popular song on Oricon. It also won a prize at the Japan Record Awards.

When I wrote about their most well-known song, "Gakusei Gai no Kissaten"（学生街の喫茶店）, I failed to write a little bit about the members of Garo. As I mentioned, there were three members: Mamoru "MARK" Horiuchi, Tomiaki "TOMMY" Hidaka（日高富明）and Masumi "VOCAL" Ono（大野真澄）who took care of the singing and chorus work and were all adept on guitar and mandolin with Hidaka even showing his prowess on koto. Sadly, Horiuchi passed away in 2014 due to stomach cancer at the age of 65.

The video directly above has music unit Nagomizu（なごみーず）performing "Romance" on stage with Konosuke Sakazaki（坂崎幸之助）of ALFEE. The band first formed in 2004 and consists of former Garo member Ono along with Shozo Ise（伊勢正三）, formerly of the bands Kaguyahime and Kaze（かぐや姫・風）, and singer Hiromi Ohta（太田裕美）who also gained fame in the 1970s for her "Momen no Handkerchief"（木綿のハンカチーフ）.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7862756

I have to finish off with Miku Hatsune's（初音ミク）adorable take on the song.

Masao Sen -- Miso Shiru no Uta （味噌の詩）

Tonight, another group of folks and I rode the bus all through the suburbs outside of the city limits of my fair city to head to an elite sushi restaurant that is in the middle of a bunch of industrial parks. The place is called Zen and it used to be just a general Japanese restaurant in the east end of town in what is frankly a pretty seedy area (it was located next to a lot whose building had burned down). However in the past several months, the management moved the place to a much safer, albeit less accessible, neighbourhood, and streamlined and upscaled its operations so that it basically specializes in sushi now. We went for the most expensive kaiseki and were not disappointed. Of course, having a good soup with that meal was important, too.

(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)

Seguing somewhat clumsily then to an NHK program that I saw last week via TV Japan, "Utau! SHOW Gakko"（歌う!SHOW学校...Sing! SHOW School） stars enka legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）as the comically amiable teacher of a singing variety program shaped as an old-fashioned elementary school in which comedians and other singers appear as students to demonstrate their prowess (or not) in singing the old kayo.

Enka darling Kohei Fukuda（福田こうへい）earned his gold star in that "class" for performing an old 1980 enka tune originally sung by Masao Sen（千昌夫）. Starting off with the necessary "Brrrrr" to illustrate the winter setting, Fukuda launched into "Miso Shiru no Uta" (The Song of Miso Soup) which had his classmates and audience swooning and perhaps reminiscing.

Masao Sen had sung what is probably his most famous ballad, "Kita Kuni no Haru"（北国の春）from 1977 on the Kohaku Utagassen three straight years. The enka song about the longing for home in the old countryside away from the big city had that much of an impact on a listening public who love their nostalgia spread thickly on their toast like peanut butter. But then in May 1980 came his 33rd single, "Miso Shiru no Uta" which was another musical reminiscing of home, represented by Mom's miso soup. As Sen sings in his song, the son might act all big and tough for striking out on his own as a cog in his company but once the winter rolls in and visions of that hot soup materialize, he just turns into jelly and can't wait to head back on the Bullet Train for his hometown.

Mom's home cooking, indeed. Written and composed by Daisaburo Nakayama（中山大三郎）, J-Wiki apparently pointed out that "Miso Shiru no Uta" was a cover of a song written in a slightly different manner（みそ汁の詩）which originated in 1976. However, that is the only information of its origins; no mention of who the artist was or even if it had been officially released. Still, it really doesn't matter since the song has basically become another beloved Sen tune. In fact, it sold around 600,000 records. Plus, Sen was once again able to appear on the 1980 Kohaku Utagassen but instead of singing his homesick-inducing "Kita Kuni no Haru", he sang his homesick-inducing "Miso Shiru no Uta" for the only time. I wonder whether fathers and sons watching the program at the time suddenly demanded Mommy to whip up some miso shiru after seeing Sen's performance, especially regarding those families in the cold north country of Japan.

Tetsuya Takeda & Yoshimi Ashikawa -- Otoko to Onna no Hashigozake （男と女のはしご酒）

Y'know...I should've figured that actor/singer Takeda Tetsuya（武田鉄矢）probably did his fair share of Mood Kayo way back when. I mean, if you look at the fellow, he is perfect as the mid-level kacho of a company who would croon all sorts of enka or Mood Kayo favourites during those nighttime sessions at karaoke. However, I have always seen him as the guy behind one of the most famous graduation songs in Japanese kayo history which may have blinded me.

I came across this duet that he did with singer Yoshimi Ashikawa（芦川よしみ）back in the late 1980s called "Otoko to Onna no Hashigozake" (A Man and a Woman's Barhopping). This was actually a song that was made to promote stomach medicine, and there is no bigger product in demand during the Holidays when the enkai season of eating and drinking is in full force.

Tsutomu Uozumi and Koji Makaino（魚住勉・馬飼野康二）came up with the breezy Mood Kayo number about the couples who abound in the bar districts of Tokyo as they enjoy each other's company while getting tipsy in those pricey watering holes and then perhaps ending up in some hotel nearby. One observation I got from listening to "Otoko to Onna no Hashigozake" is how lighter and breezier these drinking songs became in the 1980s when compared to the older, Latin-infused and bluesier Mood Kayo from the 1960s. It's almost as if this particular genre was slightly cross-pollinated with City Pop.

(karaoke version)

The duet single came out in November 1987 and did very well on the charts, getting as high as No. 4 on Oricon. And as you can see from the commercial featuring Takeda and Ashikawa at the top, probably a lot of folks sang it in the same atmosphere at the karaoke bars well into the next few years at least.

You may have noticed at the bottom that I put down "Follow-Up". Well, I also discovered that Ashikawa had also recorded another duet with actor Shigeru Yazaki（矢崎滋）some months earlier in 1987, the more famous "Otoko to Onna no Love Game"（男と女のラブ・ゲーム）, although I think the version with Mika Hino and Shiro Aoi（日野美歌・葵司朗）is the one that karaoke fans refer to. Incidentally, that song was also used to promote stomach medicine.

Sapporo Beer Station in Ebisu, Tokyo

Riho Makise -- Sasagetai, Anata ni... （ささげたい、あなたに…）

I guess with a number of the aidoru in the 80s and very early 90s, it wasn't so much the ladies' vocal abilities but the work of the songwriters that helped in getting their young clients some of that fame and success. Riho Makise（牧瀬里穂）doesn't particularly overawe me with her voice but I still like that tune of hers, "Sasagetai, Anata ni..." (I Want to Offer This to You...) which came out in May 1992 as her 2nd single.

From the J-Wiki article on this particular song, it was written and composed by singer-songwriter Chika Ueda（上田知華）. I had to look at that credit twice since I couldn't quite believe it was one of her works. I mean, I've heard Ueda write some fairly uptempo or mid-tempo tunes for other artists such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）, but the composition for "Sasagetai, Anata ni..." sounds more as if it had been whipped up by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）for Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）. There is that somewhat exhorting anthemic feeling to it that Watanabe was famous for although she would never have felt threatened by Makise.

And certainly my nostalgia reflexes kicked in when I heard those synths kick in from the beginning. As for "Sasagetai, Anata ni...", it was able to peak at No. 4 on Oricon, just like her debut single "Miracle Love", and was also included in Makise's only original album "P.S. Riho" from 1993, the second being a BEST compilation which was released in 2002.

I'm trying to figure out if the caricature is of
Riho Makise or Pauley Perrette (Abby Scuitto) from
"NCIS".

Mayumi Itsuwa -- Wasuretakunai Koi （忘れたくない恋）

It was an all Japanese cuisine day for me. I discovered this Japanese fusion place literally across my university called Teara Lab where I had a marinated pork belly sandwich with kimchi and a Hokkaido milk tea. Pretty nice there and I'm hoping that they do grab the students once they return from summer vacation. Then some hours later, I met up with friends at the nearby yakitori place called Zakkushi where we went hog wild on the various parts of the chicken on skewers (heart, cartilage, intestines, name your favourite internal organ). That was good eating!

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/mingmonaki-dao/id663132394

(excerpt only)

So I'm back home and ready to calm down. Tonight I've decided to go with a Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）number which is relatively recent to some of the other ballads from the 70s and 80s part of her career that I had been putting up. Called "Wasuretakunai Koi" (A Love That I Don't Want to Forget), it was a coupling song for her 35th single from October 1990, "Omae" (おまえ...You), and a track on her 19th album "Namonaki Michi"（名もなき道...The Road with No Name）from the same month.

The arrangements may have changed with the times but the lovely Ms. Itsuwa has kept that calm and wistful approach to her music and lyrics. She can even make a romantic breakup sound beautifully desirable. Still, I appreciate this song all the more for the fact that the strings aren't too heavy here so that there is a sense that the final separation was quite amicable.

When I listened to the entirety of "Namonaki Michi" a few days ago, I was quite happy at how the some of the songs were given that urban contemporary touch. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any other YouTube entries of those songs yet but if I do find them, I will write an article on the whole album.

Chickenshack -- At Temps

It's a Friday night and I'm trying to chill out in my room right now although it has traditionally been the warmest chamber in our home. But at least, the weather seems to be coming down from its heat wave so things are hopefully prepping for fall. The fact that the Canadian National Exhibition has opened up again is a sure sign that the summer is starting to wind down.

The topic song here might also be instrumental (no pun intended) in bringing things down from a boil. I can't quite remember how I arrived at Chickenshack's (チキンシャック) "At Temps" but I was doing my usual browsing of YouTube when I just happened to stumble upon it. I had never heard of this group and there is no information about this Japanese jazz/fusion band on Wikipedia or J-Wiki, but there is a bit of data at JPop.com in terms of who the members are: Hidefumi Toki（土岐英史）on saxophone, Junshi Yamagishi（山岸潤史）on guitar, Toru Tsuzuki（続木徹）on keyboards, Darek Lane Jackson on bass & vocal, Marvin Baker on drums & vocal, and Koji Miura & Takashi Numazawa（沼沢尚）on drums.

"At Temps" is a track from the band's first album "Chickenshack I" from 1986, and it's the perfect song for night listening. Toki's sax and Yamagishi on guitar provide the best musical environment to get up on the roof and watch the stars pass by, preferably with a loved one in one arm with something mellow and alcoholic in the other. I've got no idea, though, how the members came up with the name; perhaps, they came upon it while visiting a KFC. Still that doesn't take away from the lovely music on display here.

As I said, there doesn't seem to be any homepage for the band or any presence of Chickenshack on Wikipedia but there is a page for Yamagishi.