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.
It was about a year ago that I introduced a since-disbanded jazz trio with the name Kurofune Lady to Ginsei Gakudan（黒船レディと銀星楽団...The Black Ship Lady and The Silver Star Orchestra） consisting of singer Fumi Mizubayashi（水林史）as the Black Ship Lady herself with pianist Yuri Hirota（廣田ゆり）and guitarist Toshihiko Shiokawa（塩川俊彦）. Their song was the peppy "Ichiban Hoshii Mono"（いちばんほしいもの）.
Well, that song belonged to the trio's 2006 album "Furubon'ya no Waltz"（古本屋のワルツ...The Old Bookstore Waltz）, and now that they're back on the blog again, I'm providing the title track. As advertised, it is a lovely and intimate jazz waltz with Mizubayashi's gently lilting voice doing that light waltz all over the floor and on the song sheet. Seeing that the album had been produced to help support the bookstore area in Jimbocho, Tokyo, there is that atmosphere of the ancient pages of books and woodsy bookshelves within that old-style bookstore. Here's hoping that the E-book trend hasn't totally eliminated the need to visit some of those establishments in Jimbocho. Writing this on a Saturday, I remember that I often used to visit the area on Saturdays.
It's quite the lovely day outside if a wee cold out there. Hopefully, all of you are enjoying your weekend.
NUTS is a 1990s pop duo that I had last posted about back in 2019 so it's time to give them their due once more. Plus, it is brilliantly sunny in my neck of the woods so something just as light and happy is appropriate. Just to remind folks, the duo consisted of vocalist Tomomi Saito（斎藤友美）and keyboardist Akihiko Hirama（平間あきひこ）. What I hadn't realized was that Hirama was once part of the funk group JADOES.
So far, this is the earliest that I've gone in NUTS' discography. Their 4th single from February 1995 is "Heart Beat Express" which is quite the bouncy number. It almost achieves 1990s City Pop status but in the end, I went with regular pop in Labels. There's no mention of whether it was it was tied up with any particular commercial but I think it should have since it does sound so welcoming for a product or service such as Japan Railways. Being a 90s song, it does have that clear and crisp brassy synth work; sounds like I described a brand of beer. The single was also included in NUTS' debut album"Ticket to Happiness" which was released about a month following the single.
I think the one time that I had bad chicken was when I was back in Ichikawa. For dinner, I decided to make my own chicken katsu so I did the usual thing with the chicken breasts and dredged them in flour, egg and panko. They went into the microwave oven for some minutes (yup, I didn't use a fryer...followed my friend's style) and I chowed them down with rice. Well, I was glad that this all happened on a Friday since my weekend was pretty much a goner. I had the worst stomachache; whether it was due to not cooking the chicken enough or there was something in the egg wash, I'll never know. The horror of that gastrointestinal disaster was enough for me never to make chicken katsu ever again.
Hopefully, master musician Masayoshi Takanaka's（高中正義）only approach to bad chicken was actually through his creation "Bad Chicken" from his June 1987 14th original album"RENDEZ-VOUS". Takanaka was responsible for the funk and rock but Daryl Canada took care of the lyrics. Yes, this is a better way to shake that body around instead of wincing and twisting in agony. "Bad Chicken" wasn't necessarily used for the dance floor, though. It was actually used as a campaign song for a Toshiba product and none other than Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）was in the commercial. I guess she liked hugging electric poles; I'm not judging.🤷
Once again, I have encountered a singer whose profile is virtually a tabula rasa. I couldn't find any information on this singer Ritsuko Amano（天野立子）aside from the fact that she released a single in 1985 titled "Lemon no Namida" (Lemon Tears).
And that's too bad since she's got a very nice voice...not even sure whether she was promoted as a regular pop singer or an aidoru. I figure that she spans the gap between Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）and Mari Iijima（飯島真理）. And "Lemon no Namida" indeed has that breezy aidoru-esque arrangement but with some City Pop and disco which makes this feel like something that could have been composed a half-decade earlier; love the bass by the way. I had to track down a photo of the actual 45" single at Mercari to find out that Mariko Kubota（窪田まり子）was the lyricist while the composer was Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）. If anyone out there can provide some further insight into this mystery singer, that would be greatly appreciated.
As soon as I heard the first few notes and first few strains of this song, I figured that this had to have been created by lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and her brother, singer-composer Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）. The tenderness in the opening piano was too much of a giveaway.
Quite appropriate, too, as this was Tazumi Toyoshima's（豊島たづみ）final single to date, released in 1982. "Moetsukite, Desire"(Burn, Desire) actually appears as a slowly fading ember in a campfire or maybe the night lights of the city gradually turning off after midnight once all of the usual hijinks take place. It seems like the perfect bedtime City Pop ballad to tuck folks into sleep. Perhaps it could have been the ideal campaign song for Japan Railways as tired commuters are heading back home after a long day of work and a long night of play.
I was listening to pianist and composer/arranger Soichi Noriki's（野力奏一）1984 album"Dream Cruise" as I was in bed...which was a big mistake. The songs were so relaxing that I went out like a light by the third track. I woke back up just when the final song of the album was doing its fadeout. It was like getting that anesthetic needle before my colonoscopy earlier in the fall.
Now that you may be spending the rest of the article trying to get that image out of your mind, I'll try to help by providing some of that smooth music that I almost got to hear in its entirety from "Dream Cruise". It's been several years since I last posted on Noriki with my last article on him being a follow-up on his 1983 debut album"Noriki".
As for the album itself, I had assumed that "Dream Cruise" was all about that wonderful trip on a cruise ship, seeing all that water on the cover. But I don't see any ship there although there is a highway going off into the horizon with what looks like half a red stretch limo, so instead of placing a thumbnail photo of the Harmony of the Seas up at the top, I went with a photo of Yokohama's Chinatown at night and then followed up with one of J Utah's driving videos through Tokyo.
In any case, "Dream Cruise" begins with the cheerful "You Can Make It". It does sound like something that would be great on either a cruise liner's speakers or a car radio, and it's the aural equivalent of that good buddy having the listener's back as the title states. Some wonderfully woozy sax as well, with the late great Jake H. Concepcion being one of the guys on the instrument. Noriki and guitarist Hirotsugu Nakai（中井浩二）were behind the composition here.
What starts off Side B of the original LP is "Easy Way" which sounds anything but in terms of how all those musical professionals brought it all together for this very tropics-friendly sound. Nakai took care of this one by his lonesome. Looks like all of the musicians had their individual chance to shine including Nakai himself. Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）is also in there but I didn't really hear his trumpet for some reason.
"Mild Life" is another track from Side B, and the title and melody are in synch with each other. It really sounds like someone having a wonderfully mild life out in tropical areas somewhere...preferably with a lanai. Bassist Ryuji Hirasue（久末隆二）was responsible for this one, but Noriki also has a lot to say through his keyboards.
My final track today for "Dream Cruise" is the truly City Pop-worthy "Night Lights" which has a few lyrics provided by Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）and Mamie Lee while Noriki and drummer Masayoshi Imaizumi（今泉正義）are behind the cool night drive arrangement. Among all that funk is some elegance in the piano playing by Noriki. Quite a night out.
I was just having an email exchange with an old friend and former student earlier this morning, and we both agreed that the Christmas feeling has descended upon our respective cities of Toronto and Tokyo. The above photo is a night shot of all that illumination in front of the Microsoft Building in southern Shinjuku.
Then I came across DJ Hasebe who has just put up a Christmas City Pop mix in the last few days, so have a good listen of that. There are quite a few J-Xmas City Pop tunes that I have yet to cover although I've posted on some of the greats such as Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）"Christmas Carol no Koro ni wa"（クリスマスキャロルの頃には）and Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）"December 24".
One example of a song that I had yet to cover that was on DJ Hasebe's list is Stardust Revue's（スターダストレビュー） "Sweet Snow Magic" which appeared on the band's 9th album"Brightest!" from November 1991, a decade following their debut single"Sugar wa O-Toshigoro"（シュガーはお年頃）.
Written and composed by vocalist Kaname Nemoto（根本要）, "Sweet Snow Magic" reflects how Christmas in Japan has been a second Valentine's Day with all of the hearts fluttering around in the cooler air even if snow might be hard to come by in Japan's capital city...no problems, those LED lights are still there. I see and hear that the upbeat jazziness that has been part of Stardust Revue's music is also imbued within "Sweet Snow Magic" even if the instruments are almost all of the synth variety. "Brightest!" managed to reach No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies.
From Virtual Japan, here is the 2025 edition of all that Xmas illumination in Tokyo. I know that LEDs are energy-efficient but TEPCO must be making a killing each year.
