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.
The question that I had initially was "Has Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）ever released a Christmas song?" I'm a big fan of his and wouldn't it be nice to add a bit of soul to the J-Xmas song list?
The wonderful thing about answering this sort of question via "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has been the search and what other wonderful songs can be discovered along the way. And this time is no different. Now I did find an adorable classic done by Martin himself but I will leave that until tomorrow on Xmas Eve perhaps. Instead, I bring you this marvelous soulful ballad by singer-songwriter Yoshiyuki Osawa（大澤誉志幸）, someone who has often worked with Suzuki.
Titled "Tenshi ga Kieta Yoru" (The Night The Angels Left), this was a coupling song on Osawa's 29th single"Setsunai Toki wa Boku ga Iru~Subarashii Sekai...I'll Be Here During the Tough Times~A Wonderful World~"（せつない時は僕がいる〜素晴らしい世界〜）from December 1995. Man, is this soulful! Osawa composed the melody and Takeshi Yokoyama（横山武）wrote the words about a man promising to provide solace to a woman going through a rough time. From that sexy sax to Osawa's caressing vocals to Yokoyama's lyrics, perhaps it's good that the angels left considering what this might lead to.😁
Although there is no direct reference to Christmas, the release date and the mention of angels and snow are good enough for me to make this into an urban J-Xmas tune. Plus, isn't it to nice have such a song that doesn't deal with heartbreak every Christmas Eve in Japan? In any case, I would love to have Suzuki cover it if he hasn't done so already.
Well, happy news for everyone here is that unless a sudden and massive heat wave invades southern Ontario in the next couple of days, we will actually have a White Christmas this year. For those non-Canadians, you might think that snow on the ground on the 25th is a natural thing but for the last few decades, that hasn't necessarily been the case. A Green Christmas has often taken a bit of the wonder of the Holidays out of our sails, but 2017 looks more promising.
My latest contribution as a J-Xmas tune is Mari Hamada's（浜田麻里）"Last Christmas Song". A track on her album collection of ballads, "Sincerely", from December 1989, Hamada took care of the lyrics while Takanobu Masuda（増田隆宣）came up with the melody. I still don't know too much of Hamada's discography but from what I have heard thanks to the blog, "Last Christmas Song" sounds just right for Hamada with that 80s/90s pop/rock mix. Furthermore, the story of a woman remembering a past love during the Holidays is in keeping with that oft-used theme in Japan for a lonely Xmas.
Probably tonight, there are tons of people already in downtown having their Xmas parties at various places. I've already had my two in the last couple of Fridays so tonight is a quiet evening at home. All of my shopping is done so all I have really is just sit back and relax...perhaps watch some videos and contribute a few more articles for the blog before the 25th.
Singer-songwriter Akira Inoue（井上鑑）has already made his presence known on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with nikala providing a write-up on his 1983 album"Splash" but up until now, I've only mentioned him as a songwriter for other artists.
However, I've recently come across this number by him for his first album"Phophetic Dream"from March 1982. "Bartok no Kage" (Bartok's Shadow) is a pretty esoteric-sounding title for what is a nicely gliding tribute to Steely Dan. In fact, I'm hoping that Donald Fagen and (the late) Walter Becker have at least heard of the tune and given a tip of their hats.
Apparently, the Wikipedia article for Steely Dan noted the duo's predilection for "...cryptic and ironic lyrics...". Well, "Bartok no Kage" also has some rather interesting lyrics mentioning about that fugitive sitting on the sofa, placing a hand on a window with eyes shut and an orbit of a song. And all this for a very important composer from Hungary.
Then again, I was always more of the melody part than that of the lyrics. Man, just how it starts things off had me thinking about how much influence Steely Dan may have had on City Pop in general during the late 70s and early 80s. I also remembered Makoto Matsushita's（松下誠）"Lazy Night" from his own debut album"First Light" in the previous year.
If I could drive, I would throw this into the car stereo and bomb down the Don Valley Parkway in the overnight hours.
Well, I'm having some crow pie right now. It looks like my prediction was wrong about Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）not appearing on this year's Kohaku Utagassen. NHK reported a few days ago that the Okinawan singer will be showing up as a special guest on the New Year's Eve special after all. Her fans are probably ecstatic.
Beyond the late 1990s with her mega-hit ballad, "Can You Celebrate?", I stopped becoming an avid listener to Amuro for some reason or another, although her many commercials touting those singles emerged periodically on TV for the next several years. So I've decided that I would look into those unheard and unseen songs to see if I could find one to celebrate the fact that Amuro is going to make one more appearance before leaving the stage for good next year.
Well, I came across her "NEW LOOK", notable for its music video with a slinky Amuro against an orgy of 1960s fashion. Plus, there is the shoutout to The Supremes'"Baby Love" which brought a nice infusion of Motown.
In fact, "NEW LOOK" has even included the original songwriters for "Baby Love", Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland and Eddie Holland as contributors alongside Japanese singer and music producer, Michico and her husband, fellow producer T. Kura, for both words and music.
The song was one of the tracks in Amuro's 34th single "60s 70s 80s" which came out in March 2008. The single went all the way to No. 1 on Oricon and became the 18th-ranked song of the year. It also went Platinum.
It would be interesting to see her perform "NEW LOOK" as part of a medley of her hits but I'm pretty sure that she will be singing "Can You Celebrate?" to get the viewers all lumpy in the throat.
Big thanks to J-Canuck for being inclusive - this is at the "+" end of KK+ but
I found the video as a result of his "Frederic-oddloop" post. On the YT sidebar was a song called "Telecaster Stripe", and as I
actually know what that is* I was intrigued. The video is from a group called Polkadot
Stingray(ポルカドットスティングレイ) - named after the freshwater stingray Potamotrygon leopoldi - and since posting in March 2016 has
over 8 million views. Polka is an indie group; originally with no
major label backing. This video was all
them - they only recently signed to Universal Sigma (with the support, resources,
marketing, etc. that implies).
I'd put them on the punk-lite / power pop / melodic rock
spectrum. They're often compared to Yabi
T-shirt (harder, rougher rock and
also recently signed to Universal Sigma) and Yabi has contributed vocals on one
song of the most recent Polka CD. I hear
a lot of similarities with Emu sicks
(they all appear on the 2016 freebie CD "16 Beat Seal Comp 2", designed to showcase various indie
bands). Indie in this case means less "stick it to the man" and more
the old-school punk ethos of "Do It Yourself". They've made deft use of social media - LINE,
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YT, Spotify, etc. - to break out.
So far Polka has released: 2 mini albums, one single, one
EP, and their first album CD+DVD that came out last month. I was in Tokyo but missed
picking it up by a day; the free T-shirt wouldn’t have fit me anyway.
With only an early slight change the same 4 members have
been together since 2015. The front is Shizuku (雫) :
vocals, guitar, song-writing, design, artwork, video director ( an application
game director in her day job). Lead
Guitar: Ezima Harushi (エジマハルシ). Bass:
Uemura Yuki (ウエムラユウキ). Drums:
Mitsuyasukazuma (ミツヤスカズマ).
What sets them apart are the vocals of Shizuku. From grade school she was heavily influenced
by Ringo Shiina ("Camouflage" especially) and also plays a surf green Duesenberg Starplayer TV. At some time she went to school in the UK
and is comfortable singing in English. Shizuku
can sound quirky like Kahimi Karie or Etsuko Yakushimaru but has a
stronger voice, does more with it, and sounds distinctive without the
vocals becoming an affectation.
However, she sings "straight" often enough so it doesn't go
off the rails completely - she will always come back to a baseline normal.
This sums up Polka for me. Each member departs from the group far enough to be interesting but always returns to the fundamental purpose of
their instrument, respecting the song and keeping the performance from being a
pastiche of piece-parts. Doing so
requires a lot of discipline - Ezima's guitar is utterly distinctive but he's
not a guitar hero. Chunks of Telecaster
Stripeare bass/drum
minimalism to calm everything down. A
well-done arrangement and production balance between 4 instruments and voice: let's
hope they don't become "Shizuku! … with
Polkadot Stingray" anytime soon.
A real discovery for me is Uemura Yuki. His Bass slaps, pops, plucks, growls, and plays
melody but never loses the essential "bottom". A similar concept to how Shizuku uses her voice. Plus:
any video with nyan nyans in it is good by me (@2:09 has become a meme).
Polka is also familiar on the CM front, having done commercials for Playstation, Google Photos, and Mizuho's 2020 Olympic
"Jump! PROJECT" (aided by 400 dancing employees).
Finding most KK music 30+ years too late it's fun
to follow some in real time ;)
I haven't seen or heard seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）this year aside from her co-starring role in the Winter 2017anime "Gabriel Dropout"（ガヴリールドロップアウト）since my anime buddy hasn't shown anything with her although considering that she's an A-lister, she probably has had another busy year.
However, I've been having some fun watching an old series of videos in which Hanazawa and one of her co-stars from another show, the irrepressible Tomokazu Sugita（杉田智和）, showed up for a cast live-action event. Basically, Sugita mercilessly teases the heck out of her including in a game of "Guess What's In The Box?"
Although I never saw that particular anime that Hanazawa and Sugita appeared on, my memories still return to my beloved "Shirokuma Café"（しろくまカフェ）in which she played the younger sister of the main character Panda-kun, Mei-Mei. Her schtick was that she was crazily in love with Mr. Handa, the chief zookeeper where Panda-kun worked. To say that she fangirled whenever she was in his presence is a gross understatement.
Hanazawa, being one of the cast members, also had her time in the sun as the singer of one of the multiple ending themes for "Shirokuma Café". So she sang a song for her beloved Handa in the form of "Bamboo Rendezvous" with her secret code of "H-A-N-D-A". This particular song came out in January 2013 going into the homestretch of the year-long anime.
To say it's cute is like saying Mt. Fuji is a nice hill. She even fangirls near the end of the song. As was the case with all of the ending themes for "Shirokuma Cafe", "Bamboo Rendezvous" was written and composed by Saki（紗希）. It's a 1980s candy pop tune that would probably be more at home for one of those Sunday morning anime. It's definitely a great fit for Mei-Mei.
Of course, everyone is going panda wild for Shang-Shang, the baby panda born at Ueno Zoo a few months ago.
Kinda hard to imagine in this environment of cold and snow that several months ago, my family and I were in the sunny Caribbean for a vacation. That would be Jamaica in that photo taken from Deck 16 of the Harmony of the Seas.
Back in my university days, when I visited my Asian record shop in Chinatown, Wah Yueh, with the faithfulness of a monk going to prayer, I kept seeing an album on the racks which featured a guy and a woman riding a motorcycle. The lass in the back just happened to be aidoru Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, and the LP was the soundtrack to a movie she did back in 1985 titled "Carib - Ai no Symphony"（カリブ・愛のシンフォニー...CARIBE, Sinfonia de Amor）, some sort of overseas romantic flick also starring Masaki Kanda（神田正輝）. Supposedly, it was their collaboration in the movie that led to the Super Aidoru of the early 1980s and one of the members of the Ishihara Gundan to matrimony (some 6 weeks later). I wasn't too happy about it since I was hoping that it would be Seiko-chan and Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）.
The theme song for "Carib" ended up as the B-side to Matsuda's 21st single, "Boy no Kisetsu"（ボーイの季節）. "Caribbean Wind" is another Seiko-chan ballad whose title and melody I had forgotten over the mists of time but as soon as I heard it once more this morning, the memories started coming back. Masaaki Omura's（大村雅朗）melody tones down the Caribbean aspect of it and brings up the soaring romance through the strings. More Lido Deck dancing than Jamaican beach stroll. I guess in a way the song signified the aidoru teen turning into the adult singer although she was already 23 by the time the movie was released. Veteran Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）provided the lyrics.
"Caribbean Wind" didn't show up on any original album but it has been included in a couple of Seiko's BEST compilations, "Complete Bible" and "Touch Me, Seiko II".
