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.
I guess today's been the Urban Contemporary Friday with the songs of mixed genres coming in fast and strong. All the better and no complaints here.
This one is no exception either. Straight from Etsuko Sai's（彩恵津子）2nd original album from March 1985, "All I Need", I give you "Keredo Only You" (But Only You). Short and sweet at just a shade over three minutes, it still manages to contribute some upbeat music with some of that Motown magic mixed in with the regular City Pop. Bobbysoxers can slip and slide in their socks to this one. Shun Taguchi（田口俊）was responsible for the lyrics while Masakazu Togo（東郷昌和）from the 70s duo Buzztook care of the music.
Just for the curious, the above is a shot of Mito Station at night. I stayed at the hotel right by the station after heading out of Oarai, the anime pilgrimage town for all things "Girls und Panzer".
One of the strange things about my two postings regarding actress-singer Mayumi Asaka（朝加真由美）is assuming that I first wrote them years and years ago. But crazily enough, the two of them that I've written about her so far only date back as far as 2023. In fact, my more recent article up to now was her "Sasowarete..."（誘われて...）from this May. Well, the mind does go a bit hinky after a certain age, but the excuse I'll use in my defense is that the music of Asaka is simply so nostalgic that my memories played a trick on me.
In any case, we have the country-blues of "Sasowarete..." and the City Pop of "My Endless Scene", both from Asaka's one-and-only album"Yasashii Kankei ~ Mayumi I"（優しい関係...A Gentle Relationship）, from October 1981. "Hold On Me" is also from that album but it was also the B-side of the singer's seventh and final single from January 1981, "Yasashii Kankei". "Hold On Me", not to be confused with one of Kahoru Kohiruimaki's（小比類巻かほる）classics, is an intrepid nocturnal City Pop entry with a boffo bass bopping away to Kazushi Inamura's（稲村一志）melody (and I'm assuming that it is him who is providing the background vocals) along with some spicy electric guitar. Asaka herself wrote the lyrics.
I don't have a lot of information on this group unvivid except for these facts: 1) they have been around since at least 2022, 2) their vocalist is Shino Honma（ほんましの）and 3) they were once known as Mini Mikke before the name change.
Their single from just a couple of months ago, "Break Free", sounds mighty nice. In addition to that soulful groove, I can pick up on some blues and jazz. If unvivid had been a band back in the 1950s or 1960s playing this, they would have gotten their fair share of appreciative finger snaps in the beatnik clubs. The music video has a slightly tongue-in-cheek cooler-than-thou atmosphere which plays up the song. Mind you, Honma and company look like they could be advertising for a mixture of MUJI and Eddie Bauer for most of the video until they go all United Colors of Benetton at the end.
I've seen a Mobius strip before on paper and now in solid 3D form as depicted in the above photo. It's a rather endless story so I shall let it be before I lose my fragile little mind.
Luckily, singer-songwriter Atsuko Hiyajo's（比屋定篤子）"Mobius" is a lot more soothing and acceptable to the senses. Coming out as her November 1998 5th single, this was written by Hiyajo and composed by Jiro Kobayashi（小林治郎）, this is another fascinating song that can't be easily categorized since I get bits of a number of genres here and there. There is soul, funk, City Pop and maybe some Shibuya-kei, and the craziest thing is that right from Note One, I think "Mobius" could have been inspired by the 70s works of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. At the very least, the Ohnuki of that decade could have covered this song and it would have fit her perfectly. It goes on for over seven minutes, but the last couple of them are devoted to a generous jam by the instruments backing Hiyajo up.
"Mobius" made itself known once more through the 2009 album "Natural Woman", a result of a collaboration between Hiyajo and Ryusenkei（流線形）. The leader of the latter band, Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）, took care of the arrangement which gives this somewhat shorter "Mobius" that quintessentially effervescent Ryusenkei urban contemporary touch.
A few days ago, I posted a 1989 Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）Xmas song titled "Futari dake no Christmas"(A Christmas Just For Two) that came across as this rather holy cherished Xmas experience for the loving couple. Maybe the only thing that was missing was a priest.
Well, when I found Seiko-chan's song, I also found another one with the same title (basically). But this "Futari dake no X'mas" was actually released as a B-side to singer-songwriter Hiroaki Igarashi's（五十嵐浩晃）11th single "Summer Twilight"（サマー・トワイライト）in October 1988, and in terms of tone, it's quite the lighthearted and jolly City Pop duet featuring Igarashi and Rajie, neither of them newbies to City Pop.
Written by both Igarashi and Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）with Igarashi's melody being arranged by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, the song seems to surround a couple at a Xmas party at a mutual friend's residence (don't be shy...plenty of KFC to munch on) and the lovebirds, who may have yet to announce their relationship, are trying to find some alone time in a niche to at least clink a couple of glasses of champagne. That's gotta be one big house the friend has, but then again, this was released during the Bubble (or bubbly) Era. Anyways, I can also hear this "Futari dake no X'mas" accompanying a breezy montage of the couple having a great day together window shopping, sipping hot chocolate at a trendy cafe in Tokyo and even shooting snowballs at each other to much laughter.
According to the thumbnail for the video and what I found on J-Wiki, "Futari dake no X'mas" is included on Igarashi's 7th original album"Distance" which was also released in October 1988.
Welcome to the regular weekly Reminiscings of Youth session where I post about songs that I used to hear in my youth (toddlerhood, young adulthood). This time around, I'm also including this one since it's been reported that the late great Donna Summer (who had passed away in 2012) was just inducted into The Songwriters' Hall of Fame.
It's kinda too bad that the only trailers I could find of the movie "Thank God It's Friday" from 1978 are pretty darn murky, but I guess that they reflect how dark the interior of the discos were back in the day, aside from the blinding lights. As a kid, I barely remember that there was a movie with that title during the Age of Disco. I had no idea that it had starred Jeff Goldblum, Debra Winger (her first appearance in a motion picture) and Terri Nunn who would become the lead singer of the 80s New Wave band Berlin. Last but not least, it also had Summer with a pretty meaty role.
Ah, someone turned on the lights a bit more. Thank you! And on a great song, too, as Summer let loose a disco classic in the movie "Last Dance". I heard "Last Dance" here and there over the years through the radio and TV and more recently via YouTube. Nope, never danced to it which for sighted people was just as well. I think the Torch Lady (the Columbia Pictures logo) in the movie cut up the rug a whole lot better than I ever could.
Created by Paul Jabara, "Last Dance" was released in July 1978, some weeks following the release of the movie. It starts off with a ballad-like opening before the gates open and the joy of disco floods the floor. For those of a certain age, the song has probably evoked some good-time memories. It hit No. 10 on Canada's RPM and then No. 3 on America's Billboard. It won the Oscar for Best Original Song and a Grammy for Best R&B Song for Jabara and then a Grammy for Summer for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female.
Just a day after the release of "Last Dance", Oricon put up its weekly single rankings. Here are Nos. 1-3.
Early last month, I introduced 1980s rock-n-rollin' singer Sayaka Ito（伊藤さやか）to the blog with her "GO! GO! POP-TOWN" from 1982. Wasn't sure whether the song was just that one foray into the 1950s and 1960s that a lot of those Harajuku dancers were into at around the same time.
Well, it looks like the old-fashioned rock-n-roll music life was just the thing for her. In June 1983, Ito released her 5th single, "Broken Generation", and this time, compared to "GO! GO! POP-TOWN", she's eschewed the New Wave aspect and went for the basic old school. In fact, I'd say that the melody by Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次）and arrangement by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）was more reminiscent of the stuff that Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）would make up. I get images of a 1950s motorcycle gang living the free and untamed life and roaming the byways and highways of the city and life in general. Heck, even the singer herself in the thumbnail above looks like she could have been the gang leader's girlfriend (get a load of that hair!). Hitoshi Shinohara (篠原仁志...aka Heart Box) was the lyricist here.
