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.
Last week, I noted about the passing of lyricist Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）late last year at the age of 74 through one of his songs for actor/singer Hiroyuki Sanada（真田広之）. Well, I've found an earlier creation by him and folk singer/composer Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）which received some more appreciation and fame.
"Itsuka Machi de Atta nara" (If We Meet In Town Someday) is wistful with a capital "W" as originally recorded by actor/singer Masatoshi Nakamura（中村雅俊）. Released as his 3rd single in May 1975, it tells of a man's encounter, affair and breakup with a woman who still has an effect on him. I believe that the protagonist realizes that the relationship is over and done with but in his mind, he still would like to meet her again if only to go over old times. The arrangement just screams for an observation point overlooking the ocean at sunset.
The song peaked at No. 6 on Oricon and became the 16th-ranked single for 1975. It was also used as an insert tune within Nakamura's own detective series "Ore-tachi no Kunshou"（俺たちの勲章...Our Medals）, a show that I've already noted in a TRANZAM article.
"Itsuka Machi de Atta nara" has gotten its share of covers. I've read that Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）tackled it as well so I tried searching for his cover, but alas, it's not up on YouTube. However, I did find one cover by Judy Ongg（ジュディ・オング）, a few years before she recorded her most famous hit, "Miserarete"（魅せられて）. Her take on the Nakamura original as arranged by Yusuke Hoguchi（穂口雄介）is a little more uptempo and was a track on her 1975 album"Ai wa Seimei"（愛は生命...Love Is Life）.
Composer Yoshida also provided his own cover of "Itsuka Machi de Atta nara" in his April 1977 album"Private"（ぷらいべえと）which focused on covers of various kayo. His version of the song has a bit more of a gallant country feel. The album hit No. 1 and ended up as the 23rd-ranked album of the year.
This is part 2 of a two-part blog post about Akina’s famous song, North Wing, and its sequel, Dramatic Airport. You can read part 1 here.
In part 1, we’ve heard Akina’s story. In this part, we'll continue with Satoshi’s story.
Again, I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Dramatic Airport ドラマティック‧エアポート - Satoshi’s Story
Chapter 1 Anxiousness
Satoshi was hurrying southbound on 19th Avenue towards the airport this evening.
19th Avenue ran north-south through San Francisco’s Sunset District. There were 3 lanes each in both directions. The cross streets, which ran east-west, all had their names’ initial letters follow the English alphabet, starting with “I” and ending in “W”. Irving, Judah, Kirkham, Lawton, Moraga, ..., Ulloa, Vicente and finally Wawona.
The fog had slowly crept in. It’d also been drizzling.
Satoshi stopped at the red light before Noriega Street. He felt uneasy and a bit irritated tonight. The squeaky sound that the windshield wiper made was not helping.
“10, 9, 8, ..., 2, 1, 0,“ Satoshi was looking at the pedestrian signal as it was counting down. As the light turned green, Satoshi sped through.
“Shit!” yelled Satoshi. He just saw the light on Ortega turning from green to yellow. Satoshi quickly made up his mind. He stepped on the pedal and sped right past the yellow light.
The traffic lights along 19th Avenue were intentionally synchronized. This helped during rush hour, but it also meant once you hit a red light you’d hit it in subsequent junctions as well.
Satoshi sped past the yellow lights at Pacheco, then Quintara, Rivera, Santiago. Unfortunately, he couldn’t made it past Taraval as the light turned red long before he had any chance.
“6:08,” Satoshi peeked at his wrist watch irritatingly while waiting at the red light. The windshield started to turn foggy and Satoshi had to roll down the driver side window. He looked up at the sky and saw a few dimly flashing red and green lights. They were from the wings of an airplane. It was flying slightly slanted as it’s making a turn towards the airport. Soon, the airplane disappeared into the fog.
Satoshi turned his head back to the road. The light finally turned green, and he sped off without hesitation.
Chapter 2 Air Mail
(A week earlier)
Satoshi had not been sleeping well lately. In fact, he had not been sleeping well ever since he got back from Tokyo a month ago.
“It’s all over,” those were Akina’s last words when they met at a cafe in Shibuya a day before Satoshi returned to San Francisco. Satoshi had been trying to convince Akina to come with him. Obviously, it didn’t end up well.
“Why don’t you stay with me in Tokyo?” Akina would end up arguing with Satoshi every time this topic came up.
Akina was actually not unreasonable. Satoshi grew up in Japan and only went to the US after middle school. He’s fluent in both English and Japanese. His parents were still living in Japan. Frankly, it would not be hard for Satoshi to find a well paying job in Tokyo. However, Satoshi’s current job focused on the software industry, and Silicon Valley was at the center of a technological revolution. He didn’t want to miss that opportunity.
On the other hand, although Akina's English was fluent, she had never lived in a foreign country. It’s a big unknown whether Akina would be comfortable living in the US.
“Well, “ lamented Satoshi. He had trouble falling asleep again tonight.
Satoshi woke up late the next morning. It’s Saturday so he didn’t need to go to work.
Satoshi went to the kitchen and quickly made some brunch. He wanted to run in the Golden Gate Park this afternoon. As he went out, he saw Mr. Bergman the postman at the door steps. Mr. Bergman had been on this post route for more than 10 years.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Bergman.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Takeda. Looks like you have something from Japan today,” said Mr. Bergman. He handed Satoshi an aerogram.
“Thanks,” Satoshi wondered who wrote him the letter.
“Take it easy. You've been looking pretty tired lately,” said Mr. Bergman, as he walked to the next house on the block.
As soon as Satoshi looked at the address on the front of the aerogram, he almost screamed immediately. It’s Akina’s handwriting!
Satoshi quickly tore it open.
There’s only one line.
“I’ll soon be by your side. - Akina”
Chapter 3 Reunion
San Francisco International Airport appeared to be melting away amid light drizzle.
Satoshi found himself on the ground. He saw an airplane approaching the runway.
“This must be THE flight,” Satoshi thought to himself.
Even though he couldn’t see it quite clearly, Japan Airline’s red crane was so distinct that he could not have mistaken.
The airplane landed safely, and was slowly moving in Satoshi's direction. Several people were transporting a white gangway to prepare for passengers to get off.
The airplane stopped in front of Satoshi. He's intently staring at the plane door. His heart was throbbing.
The door opened. Passengers were slowly pouring out.
Soon, more than half of the passengers had gotten out but still no trace of Akina. "She has got to be on this flight!" Satoshi convinced himself.
At long last, a familiar face appeared at the door. She was looking around as she stepped off the airplane, as if she was trying to find her bearing in an unfamiliar land. She also looked a bit worn out from her long journey.
Satoshi rushed towards the plane immediately, pushing aside the crowd and arrived at the bottom of the gangway. Akina started to notice him as she was walking down the steps.
"Satoshi!!!" Akina exclaimed. She couldn't believe her eyes.
Satoshi ran up the gangway steps, ignoring all the people around who were clearly perplexed by his unusual action. He put his arms around Akina, as if trying to tell her that she was the only thing that mattered in this world.
Chapter 4 Destination
"Beep~~~~~~! Beep~~~~~~!" the car from behind was honking impatiently.
Satoshi woke up from his delusion. The sky was still drizzling. The windshield wiper continued to make that noisy squeaky sound.
The traffic light in front of him had turned green. This was the last traffic stop before getting onto highway 280, where it'd take him all the way to the airport.
Tonight, two hearts that once parted, yet still burned in love, would be reunited.
Satoshi stepped onto the pedal, and began his final rush.
(THE END)
Disclaimer The above short story is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Epilogue
The 2 short stories I wrote were based on the lyrics of North Wing 北ウイング and Dramatic Airport ドラマティック・エアポート. Through these stories, I am trying to recreate the songs' scenes, mood, as well as emotions.
I absolutely enjoy songs that invoke my imagination. North Wing and its sequel, Dramatic Airport, fascinate me because when I looked at their lyrics, I could immediately formed a story in my mind.
To all young readers, since both songs are from the 80s, that is the background of my stories as well. This means email and cell phones were extremely uncommon. Even long distance calls were quite expensive back then. The World Wide Web was yet to be born (Internet existed though). Snail mail ruled the world in communication. And yes, there's something called aerogram - the cheapest international air mail available.
Both songs' lyrics were written by Kan Chinfa 康珍化, whereas all the music was written by Hayashi Tetsuji 林哲司.
By the way, J-Canuck wrote a series of articles on Hayashi Tetsuji’s music recently.
North Wing was released as a single on January 1, 1984, whereas Dramatic Airport was recorded in Akina’s album, Possibility, which was released in October 1984. North Wing only reached number 2 on Oricon’s weekly chart, while the album Possibility reached number 1. There’s been some controversy regarding why North Wing didn’t reach number 1. According to Wikipedia, it was due to the methodology used by Oricon at that time. That methodology has since changed. Had the new methodology been used, North Wing would have been number 1. Some Akina fans were frustrated because that would have made Akina’s consecutive number 1 singles streak longer.
As for the music, I love the melody and the arrangement of North Wing. In case you haven’t noticed, both North Wing and Dramatic Airport have the same unusual arrangement of starting with the chorus.
I couldn’t think of a better singer than Akina for both songs.
A few trivia about North Wing.
North Wing refers to Narita International Airport Terminal 1’s northern section. According to Wikipedia, “North Wing” was only one of the candidates for the song title. Other titles considered were “Midnight Flight” in Katakana ミッドナイトフライト, and “Midnight Flight” in Kanji 夜間飛行. The final title was decided by Akina herself. The article says she’s influenced by Yumi’s (松任谷由実) song, Central Freeway 中央フリーウェイ.
Also according to Wikipedia, the Japanese audience suspected that the flight mentioned in the song was Japan Airlines 401 (someone actually went into such detail), which flew from Narita to London’s Heathrow via Anchorage Alaska.
I forgot exactly when I first listened to North Wing. I was probably 14 or 15. Even though I didn’t know Japanese at that time, somebody must have told me the story in the song. San Francisco, not London, was the first city that popped up in my mind. I don’t know why. I’m currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area but that only started in mid-90s. I was thinking of San Francisco even before I moved there. Of course, London is famous for its fog but so does San Francisco.
Another reason why I have San Francisco in mind was this line in its lyrics.
日付が塗りかえてゆく 苦しいだけのきのうを A brand new day puts new paint over my pain-filled yesterday
Technically speaking, if you fly from Japan to London or San Francisco, either way you’ll arrive on the same day (i.e. leaving Tuesday in Tokyo, arriving Tuesday in London or San Francisco). But when I read this line, I immediately think of the international day line, which passes through the Pacific Ocean. So, the plane must be flying over the Pacific to the US, and hence San Francisco because of its famous fog moving through the Golden Gate.
I also went through a little fact check myself. Or should I say exploring the theoretical possibility? If you fly midnight in Tokyo, that’ll be 3pm London time (I’m using GMT, not sure about daylight saving in UK) and 8am San Francisco time in summer. Direct flight to London takes around 13 hours so it’ll arrive 4am in London. This matches Dramatic Airport’s lyrics that the flight arrives at night. Similarly, flight time from Tokyo to San Francisco is around 9 hours and it’ll arrive at around 5pm. With drizzle and fog (霧雨), which was mentioned in Dramatic Airport’s lyrics, San Francisco can look pretty dark even at 5pm. I would accept that “the flight arrives at night” in that case.
My conclusion is that London is likely what Kan Chinfa had in mind. But my version of North Wing and Dramatic Airport will always happen between Tokyo and San Francisco.
In case the above YouTube video is taken down, this is a 2nd video.
Once again, congratulations on KKP’s upcoming 10th anniversary. Updating a blog every day for 10 years is no small feat. I’m sure Japanese music fans greatly appreciate both your effort and insights. Thank you, J-Canuck, for sharing your love towards Japanese music with all of us in the past 10 years.
I've already given my accolades about the singer/actress Mari Natsuki（夏木マリ）when I wrote up my first article on her in October 2018 for her song "Ichiban Suki na Mono"（いちばん好きなもの）. My word for the lady was "vivacious" and if I can continue with an analogy, I can see her as the coolest and most street-smart senior citizen owner of her own small and stylish bar or café dishing out the drinks and advice on just about anything. Whenever she's appeared in recent dramas, she seems to have cornered the market on that sort of role.
But of course, Natsuki has been acting and singing since she was a young woman in the 1970s. In fact, she even had a brief run for several months on the long-running detective drama "G-Men '75"（Gメン'75）in 1979 and 1980 as Detective Keiko Tsugawa who had transferred in from the International Division of the Metropolitan Police Department for Tokyo and would later join Interpol.
Natsuki would even contribute a couple of songs to the long line of ending themes for "G-Men '75". The second of her two was "Wing", her 16th single from October 1979 which was written by Ayumi Date（伊達歩）, composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. I don't have an extensive knowledge of those ending themes but "Wing" has that melodic feel that I've often associated with ending themes for Japanese cop shows: fairly soaring, reassuring and inspiring as if to let viewers know that the cops got justice and that everyone can relax and go about their business securely. I really enjoy "Wing" since I'm a sucker for the electric guitar and its chord progression from those times. Also, you can give an ear to the very first ending theme for the show, Yuri Shimazaki's（しまざき由理）"Omokage"（面影）.
Well, I gotta say that when Spectrum（スペクトラム）goes out in uniform, they really go out of their way. I'm not sure whether they were inspired directly by George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic or Earth Wind & Fire, but perhaps this might be one of the first instances of cosplay.
In any case, their second single"In The Space" came out in November 1979, just three months after their debut single"Tomato Ippatsu"（トマト・イッパツ）had been released. Speaking about Earth Wind & Fire, according to their J-Wiki file, with the arrival of "In The Space", Spectrum actually was criticized by some of the more unimpressed listeners for being a poor imitation of EW&F, probably because of the performance style and the high-flying falsetto of trumpeter/vocalist Ichiro Nitta（新田一郎）.
However, it was also said in the article that it felt like that there was actually a bigger influence instead from the band Chicago and the Brecker Brothers rather than EW&F, with Nitta himself declaring that listening to the first track "Introduction" on Chicago's first album"Chicago Transit Authority"(1969) had changed his life. Watching the video above of Spectrum performing "In The Space" and hearing the recorded version a few times now, I don't really have any particular issues against the band or the song although I can naturally hear the influences, whether it be EW&F, Chicago or the Brecker Brothers. And certainly, the folks in the audience didn't mind and neither have the commenters. As with "Tomato Ippatsu", "In The Space" was written by Yasuhito Miyashita（宮下康仁）and composed/arranged by Spectrum.
The other benefit of coming across "In The Space", however indirectly, was also being able to listen to the earliest version of Chicago through "Introduction" since my own introduction to the famous band was through their 1980s pop balladry with Peter Cetera. Quite a different time and sound.
The last time that I wrote about the supergroup AB'S, it was back on Christmas Day 2020 for the smoothly sung "By the End of the Century", the first track from their third album"AB'S-3" released in February 1985. Reviewing some of their discography as recorded by Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）, Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and Naoki Watanabe（渡辺直樹）and the others, I'm starting to get that hankering for more of their work since I just have their first album"AB'S".
Well, a little over a year later, I have another track from "AB'S-3". "Borderline" has nothing to do with the early Madonna hit (which has been covered in a ROY article), but indeed it's another ear-catching track by the guys.
Lyrics were provided by Gregory Starr and the melody may have been provided by bassist Watanabe, but man, it's the guy who was behind the keyboards (including one honky tonk piano) that nearly stole the show right from the beginning. Vocalist Yoshino does his usual smooth-as-butter delivery with some lovely harmonic help and then I also hear that great electric guitar. At the very end, that same keyboardist (not sure whether it's Yoshihiko Ando（安藤芳彦）or Hidetoshi Yamada（山田秀俊）), goes absolutely nuts on the keys. Would love to have seen a concert version of this.
Well, it's Friday and four days after the Blizzard of 2022. It's sunny but cold outside and the plow-created mountain ranges now have huge crevasses within them so that pedestrians no longer have to scale them to cross the street. However, with the thaw-and-freeze cycle that has happened mid-week, the sidewalks that haven't been cleared are currently mini-ice rinks. Basically, unless one has spikes on the soles of their shoes or boots, it's gonna be slippery moving about. For my fellow Torontonians, please don't break a leg.
Still had to do some shopping but managed to survive so I'm back in for another foursome of urban contemporary tunes today on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and we start with Junko Ohashi & Minowa Central Station（大橋純子&美乃家セントラル・ステイション）. Good to see her again, and today we have "Lovin' Spoonful", the B-side to her September 1977 single"Mister Smile"（ミスター・スマイル）.
Created by the same duo of Takashi Matsumoto and Ken Sato（松本隆・佐藤健）that took care of the bittersweet and sympathetic "Mister Smile", the title of "Lovin' Spoonful" may have been inspired by the famous late 60s rock band but it's actually a pretty cheerful and bouncy City Pop song. Within Matsumoto's lyrics, I keep hearing about a picnic so I'm assuming that it involves a happy couple in a metropolitan park with the lady romantically feeding her boyfriend spoonfuls of something. The feeding thing seems to have even more significance in Japanese pop culture than over here for some reason. Back to the melody, my compliments goes to the person behind the electric piano who just goes full bore in the solo. This is a song that probably can have all of us wishing for an early spring and similar activities in the park.
This would definitely come under one of my own crazier anime tangents, but when I think of the vocalist for the Love Tambourines（ラヴ・タンバリンズ）, Ellie (now known as Eli), I have to say that she reminds me of the free-spirited character of Azusa on the hilarious "Grand Blue"（ぐらんぶる）. Azusa is almost always in a cheerful mood and she seems to have a happy allergy against a lot of clothing, and that is my image of Ellie according to the band's album covers and magazine photos of her.
However, it's not about the physical attributes of Ellie (really) but the vocals and arrangement that Love Tambourines have given us. Case in point: "Love Is Here ～Just Between You And I ～" which is a track on their debut single"Cherish Our Love" from April 1993. Right from Note One, it's all swimmingly sublime Shibuya-kei with those Bacharach/Alpert horns and harmonies that get me remembering the works of 60s girl groups. It's all sunny Sunday sensibilities and maybe a tonic to get listeners to forget the winter out there.
If I'm not mistaken, Love Tambourines came up with a different reggae-based arrangement for "Love Is Here" for their final single in November 1995, "Deeper Love". It's still a very calming influence. Ellie came up with the lyrics while band guitarist Keiichi Saito（斎藤圭市）provided the music. You can also check out the band's "Spend The Day Without You" which I wrote about back in 2018.
