AYUMI feat. DOHZI-T and DJ BASS -- NOTHING FROM NOTHING

Well, I was having dinner with my friend Daniel last Friday in Koreatown when he told me about one of his favourite singers, Ayumi Hamasaki（浜崎あゆみ）. One of the bits of information I received was that she actually did a rap album. At first thought, I surmised that that it would be possible considering the type of music she did. I don't have a full range of knowledge of her discography so maybe the album was in there, I thought. But then, he told me that she did the album even before she released her first official single, "poker face". In fact, it was almost 3 years before "poker face".

My attention was got. After receiving the link from Daniel, I checked it out and found "NOTHING FROM NOTHING". Released in September 1995 (with an EP coming out later in December), Ayumi Hamasaki was once AYUMI, and her collaborators were DOHZI-T and DJ BASS. Hearing 16-year-old AYUMI rap with the guys kinda reminded me of EAST END×YURI. It's kinda cute...almost like hip-hop-moe. But then there was the dreamy bit where those familiar tones of her singing voice echoed slowly over the cool bass. The overall effect was rather reminiscent of all those R&B tunes during the 1990s before J-R&B became big near the end of the century, so actually I do like it.

DOHZI-T took care of the lyrics while Kazuo Ishijima（石嶋和雄）came up with the music. Unfortunately, "NOTHING FROM NOTHING" got nothing. It didn't get onto Oricon and Nippon Columbia summarily dropped her. Obviously, though, there was a much better fate for her on the horizon a few more years down the line. Wikipedia has stated that the EP and single are out of print so I'm sure the Holy Grail as far as her fans are concerned is this one.

Amazing the stuff one learns over Korean BBQ!

Ken Shimura -- Shimura Ken no Zen'in Shuugo Higashimurayama Ondo （志村けんの全員集合 東村山音頭）

Yup, today is indeed the day of the total solar eclipse and as I am writing this, it is proceeding to get darker although here in Toronto, we will only be getting just 70% of totality. To be honest, I'm not all that enthused about something that I have seen on TV often enough and if I did see directly, I would go blind. But, I still thought I needed to get that out of the way.

In the past several months, I've written about the deaths of a few kayo songwriters but this time, I will be paying tribute to someone from Old Hollywood. Jerry Lewis passed away yesterday morning at the ripe old age of 91. Back when the United States had plenty of comedy duos on stage and in the movies, I was born early enough to remember folks like Hope & Crosby, Abbott & Costello, Meara & Stiller, etc.

Then, there was Martin & Lewis. I saw Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as the younger version of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Hope and Lewis were the doltish halves of their respective teams but while the former was known for his glib tongue, Jerry Lewis was Jim Carrey before Jim Carrey. He was all about the physical funny: gangly extremities and rubber face. My brother and I always threatened to laugh up our insides like sea cucumbers watching Jerry. In fact, the above video is a scene from "Money From Home" (1957) which is the one scene that defined the comedian for me.

Now, the one fellow in Japan who still reminds me of the crazy antics of Lewis is Ken Shimura（志村けん）of the comedy troupe The Drifters（ザ・ドリフターズ）. He was the one guy that we always looked forward to seeing on their long-running TV show "Hachi-ji da yo! Zen'in Shuugo"（8時だョ!全員集合...It's 8 o'clock! Everyone Assemble） because he would always pull off the funny face or do something outrageous...often to the point where the TBS switchboard would light up like a Christmas tree due to parents calling in to complain.

Shimura has been around forever now and I think he's greatly toned down his stuff due to age but today I found a song that he covered back in the heyday of "Hachi-ji da yo!". With the elongated title of "Shimura Ken no Zen'in Shuugo Higashimurayama Ondo" (Ken Shimura's "Everyone Assemble" Higashimurayama Ondo) , this was his cover of "Higashimurayama Ondo", a traditional march that was first created by Chuuji Tsuchiya（土屋忠司）and Junichi Hosokawa（細川潤一）for the city of Higashimurayama in Metropolitan Tokyo back in 1963.

The comical version by Shimura was divided into three different parts called "-chome" with the 4th chome (done first) being the most similar to the original song in style but then going down into the 3rd chome and 1st chome (no idea why there is no 2nd chome), things get progressively wackier. The 3rd chome was actually whipped up by Drifters leader, the late Chosuke Ikariya（いかりや長介）, and the 1st chome done by Shimura himself. The song was the B-side to the single "Kato Cha no Hajimete no Boku desu"（加藤茶のはじめての僕デス...Cha Kato's First Me） which was released in September 1976.

To give credit where credit is due, though, here is the original version. A number of singers have covered it over the years. J-Wiki has mentioned veteran singer Michiya Mihashi（三橋美智也）and minyo singer Fumiko Shitaya（下谷二三子）, and here they are performing "Higashimurayama Ondo" together.

And to wrap it all up, at Higashimurayama Station, a brief snippet of the song is used to signal the train's impending departure.

fourfolium -- SAKURA Skip （SAKURAスキップ）

"NEW GAME!" has joined my short list of anime along with "Aho Girl"（アホガール）and "Love Lab"（恋愛ラボ） that didn't quite past muster with my anime buddy but had some earworm-y theme songs. But unlike the last two items, he did show me the first two episodes of "NEW GAME!" last year before deciding to reject it. It's kinda too bad since it seems like the humour really started coming in from Episode 3, especially with that famous scene of misunderstanding involving sleeping in the office without pants that was on the level of a typical "Three's Company" episode.

In any event, the opening theme by some of the seiyuu from "NEW GAME!" under the umbrella name of fourfolium is very chirpy and catchy. "SAKURA Skip" has got all of the cute voices backed by a synthesizer melody that kinda takes some from the Swinging 60s of Burt Bacharach (as far-fetched as that may sound). It doesn't matter...it has lodged into my brain like a Ceti Eel.

fourfolium consists of Yuuki Takada（高田憂希）, Megumi Yamaguchi（山口愛）, Megumi Toda（戸田めぐみ）and Ayumi Takeo（竹尾歩美）with "SAKURA Skip" written by KOCHO and composed by Kosuke Okui（奥井康介）. The show has now gone onto a second season which started last month with an extra exclamation point in the title "NEW GAME!!".

Well, if worst comes to worst, I'll just get my own copy of the first series around Xmas.

Shoji Koganezawa -- Arigato...Kansha （ありがとう…感謝）

I guess I was picking up quite a few songs on NHK's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）today. Not only did I find a nice kid's song on the program but there was also a so-sentimental-it-hurts number that I discovered from one of the other participants.

This would be Shoji Koganezawa's（小金沢昇司）"Arigato...Kansha" (Thank You...With Gratitude). Released in September 2003, it may have been released in the 21st century but there is something quite old-fashioned and sepia-toned with the melody by Meiyu Otani（大谷明裕）. Even though, I still categorized it as an enka number, there is something American 1960s with that music since it reminded me of old pop songs such as "Where The Boys Are" and "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing".

In any event, the lyrics by Yuriko Shima（志磨ゆり子）are pretty much what it says in the title....about someone who wants to give thanks to everyone in his life who put up with him and helped him out through the tough times. I wouldn't be surprised by its karaoke use at a wedding reception in Japan or perhaps at a retirement party. Considering how hard Koganezawa worked to get where he is today, I'm sure that it wasn't too difficult for him to put his own feelings into the song.

Otani and Shima also collaborated for one of Koganezawa's other songs, "Negai, Ichijomodori Bashi"（願・一条戻り橋）.

Ayumi Shigemori & Kentaro Hayami -- Niji no Mukou ni （にじのむこうに）

I was watching "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）this afternoon. The performance area this time was Hachioji, one of the core cities in the megalopolis of Tokyo.

One of the songs performed today was quite cheerful and made a pleasant impression on the ears. It had the appropriate title of "Niji no Mukou ni" (Over The Rainbow) and was surprised to find out that it was actually one of the many numbers created for the NHK children's show "Okaasan to Issho"（おかあさんといっしょ...With Mother） on the network's educational channel. In fact, it was used as their Song of the Month for April 1996.

Hearing the original was quite nice (along with the happy video) since I did hear a familiar Group Sounds twang with the guitar in there. The singers were Ayumi Shigemori & Kentaro Hayami（茂森あゆみ・速水けんたろう）who sang 60 of the show's songs including "Niji no Mukou ni" between 1993 and 1998. Shigemori is a name I have heard before...primarily for those children's songs. "Okaasan to Issho" is part of the noon lineup on TV Japan almost every day.

The lyricist and composer for the song was Osamu Sakata（坂田修）who had also been the main singer for the program's songs between the show's start of 1986 to 1992. The above video has him and his daughter, actress/singer Megumi Sakata（坂田めぐみ）, performing "Niji no Mukou ni" at a 2015 family concert.

Tatsuro Yamashita -- Monday Blue

Met up with a few of the guys yesterday for brunch and a movie. The movie du jour was "Atomic Blonde" starring Charlize Theron as super agent/force of nature Lorraine Broughton, aka Jane Bourne Bond-Wick. That alias is a joke, of course, but it does describe who this lady is and what she brings to the table (soon to be pulverized). It was quite an entertaining hoot and I would certainly recommend the folks in Japan to catch it (not due out there until October 20th), and especially for folks like me who still love listening to the 80s European New Wave stuff, you'll want to get the soundtrack. The first song right from Scene 1 is New Order's "Blue Monday", for example. One of my favourites from the era.

Well, I managed to find a song by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）which is titled "Monday Blue". Being from his 3rd studio album "GO AHEAD!" from December 1978, it's definitely not New Wave at all but it is surely a wonderfully soulful urban ballad. I can just imagine those listeners accustomed to the Oricon-friendly aidoru hits and enka ballads from the 1970s coming across this one and perhaps some of them instantly fell in love (or at least, in intrigue) with New Music.

Written and composed by the master himself, the song isn't just about the usual harangue about Mondays but perhaps the end of a romance during the weekend although near the end, there seems to be some hope for revival. A couple of things got me in the heart while I was listening to "Monday Blue". One was the lyric where Tats sings "...whenever a love ends, it's always in the morning light". When you put that together with the lyric that gives the setting of October, there is something quite wistful about waking up on a morning that doesn't have the sun all that high in the sky anymore. The other point is the romantic arrangement itself.

According to the J-Wiki article on "GO AHEAD!", Yamashita got a group together in the form of drummer Hidekazu 'Ponta' Murakami（村上 “ポンタ” 秀一）, keyboardist Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, guitarist Tsunehide Matsuki（松木恒秀）and bassist Akira Okazawa（岡沢章）for getting this song together. In retrospect, it sounds rather incredible but the four fellows were rather nervous about how "Monday Blue" would gel but Tats seemed quite confident and comfortable about the results. Plus the control room staff during the recording had their breath taken away near the end of the song.

I've noticed that I've been putting up a lot of his material up on the blog over the past several months but being a biased Tatsuro Yamashita fan, it's awfully hard to simply ignore when music like the one here is so good to listen to. As it is though, "GO AHEAD!" only got as high as No. 75 on Oricon in its original LP release. A re-release of it in 2002 on CD had it getting more rankings love by hitting No. 25.

Takako Mamiya -- Tasogare wa Ginpaku no...（たそがれは銀箔の...）

There's probably no better way to garner attention to a singer by having her release only one album that is being seen as one of the more pre-eminent of her genre and then have her totally disappear from view forever.

Yes, of course, I am talking about the mysterious Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）whose sole 1982 album "Love Trip" is equating itself to Mamiya's entire presence on the blog. In the last few years, it seems as if there have been more and more videos about her music online, and I've gotten a couple of inquiries in as many days on the Contact Form.

So here I am with another track from "Love Trip", "Tasogare wa Ginpaku no..." (Sunset is a Silver Leaf...), an alternately dreamy/skippy mid-tempo number with some slightly tipsy flute and a warm honey trombone helping out. There's even some light Doobie Brothers beat popping up here and there like a bumblebee. The song might be flitting about between the 70s and 80s forms of City Pop.

"Tasogare wa Ginpaku no..." was written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）.

One other reason that I've written this article past midnight is that in answering one of the queries, I found out that "Love Trip" may not have been her only project. I dug up some information from music journalist Toshi Kanazawa's（金澤寿和）blog "Light Mellow on the web" via a tip from Tower Records Japan that she stepped in briefly for a departed member of the chorus group PAO around 1980. Like Mamiya, PAO is not particularly well known and I think the group only released one single in 1978 and then an album in 1980 titled "YOU".

In any case, my curiosity has now been set alight once more. And if anyone out there reading this knows Ms. Mamiya, have her contact us? I realize that she probably would love her privacy but I am really interested how she's been doing all these decades.