The Sixty Years of Rock and Japan (5) America or Britain? Japanese or English?

 

f:id:bonosoul:20170703114327j:plain

'Illusion' which didn't last long

Rock had developed musically, rapidly, experimentally for the last three years in 60's, and finally demanded even revolution of a change of the society. It seemed that the ideal completed at Woodstock Festival from August 15 to 17 in 69. However it disappeared in vain. On August 9th right before then, Charles Manson, the founder of a cult group supported enthusiastically by a part of hippies then, had his believers kill Sharon Tate of an actress cruelly. And in December, when The Rolling Stones played 'Sympathy for the Devil' at Altamont Free Concert in California, Hells Angels,who served security guards there, killed a black young man by a knife.

And a very severe earthquake hit. In April,70, The Beatles split. The independent action of members like John Lennon's anti-war movement or George Harrison's commitment to Indian Music and social activities raged for some time, but Paul McCartney, who longed for the continuation of the band the most, withdrew from it and finished it. And in six months from September,70, three charisma who symbolized 'Summer of Love' like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison of The Doors died for alcohol or drug one after another. Their death symbolized 'Freedom' or ' Resistance' accompanied with some prices.

And in Japan, stating with ' 10 yen Concert' at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall, rock or folk festivals became active after Woodstock luckily, but at The third Folk Jamboree in August, 71, both performers and audience complained about the order of appearance, and some audience got angry with that the promoter had some TV stations shoot the concert,said ' It's commercialism !', burst into the stage. As a result of it, the concert was stopped after then. It seems that there were some activists among those who burst into the stage. This case also reminded people of Japanese student movement that declined for infighting before to oppose to the power.

Hurt hippies and American rock which returned to nature

Influenced by this movement of the society, a tendency where rock divided into two types was seen in both the world and Japan.

First, in western music, the tendency that rock divided into American rock and British rock clearly was born. Certainly there were many contradictions about it and it was inexpedient that you distinguish music by their nationalities, but according to images people had really then, American rock was like folk, blues, country, gospel based on American traditional music, and British rock was like big sound, big scale,and long rock that shined at rock concerts held in arenas usually then, like hard rock or progressive rock.

The historical background of American rock then was like hippies failed in 'The movement of love and peace' and secluded in some countries to live pastoral lives. The message of 'I will help you when you're in trouble'  in  both 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' by Simon & Garfunkel and 'You've Got a Friend' written by Carol King and sang by James Taylor gained a glory of award some main awards of Grammy Award, and made big hits in the world including Japan. It reflected this image of hurt hippies. 

As an example of artists which got enormous popularity for this sound, first you can give Crosby, Stills & Nash (CS&N), by David Crosby, the former member of The Byrds, Stephen Stills ,the former member of Buffalo Springfield, Graham Nash, the former member of The Hollies, which debuted at Woodstock gloriously. Sometimes they became Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young added Neil Young, a colleague of Stills's band and already debuted as a solo artist, and it meant that the band added the anger against the society expressed by rough guitar sounds to the beautiful harmony and pastoral sounds, and their band sounds increased its diversity. 

And Joni Mitchell was also the face of this period. She was a genius who had a close relationship with James Taylor and CSNY, and innovated music with her pictorial lyrics and irregular tuning. The activity of her, the above - mentioned Carol King, and Carly Simon got to be a strong motivation for the rise of Japanese female singer songwriters.

And The inquiring mind for the roots of blues rock in UK had many popular musicians in UK go to American south, and they became to be interested in America for it. The Rolling Stones released several masterpieces in their career through this process, and singers like Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Van Morrison made a string of hits with highly rootsy and soulful songs. And Leon Russell, a session pianist in America, drew attention for his solo works in associate with these artists. Moreover the southern rock scene having Duane Allman at the top was found by the British rock party for he played guitar in 'Layla' of Derek and the Dominos made by Eric Clapton when he visited America. 

And in Japan, 'New Music Magazine' was very useful for understanding of this American Rock. This magazine was established by a music critic, Nakamura Toyo in spring, 69, inspired by rock which evolved artistically in both of sounds and lyrics in the later 60's. He was a specialist on jazz or Latin Music, so the magazine had a big range of music originally, and at the same time he had been a worker on folk music since the middle of 60's, so it became to have s strong air of roots music necessarily. 

Taking an example of blues rock, Nakamura thought 'We never have it just a fashion' and stuck to his position of telling blues from its roots fundamentally. He aimed at understanding music fundamentally. This position of him led Japanese music fans to take time understanding musically mellow bands like The Band, which absorbed in country and gospel and had charismatic popularity in America, but hadn't spread to Japan.

Heroes of hard rock who colored the period.

On the other hand, speaking of the hero who represented British rock, Led Zeppelin, which robbed the title of the most popular rock band in the world of The Beatles, was the most popular in Japan too. They had the hardest destructive force, and at the same time, they could quote folk and blues flexibly and do the experiments of rhythm with detailed arrangement. So they had enormous supports beyond the range of hard rock. It's said that the ensemble by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham is the best one ever in rock history until now. However they're highly rated for their music now, but they were known for tremendous sprees off stage proper to rockers then like Bonham cut a hanging scroll by a Japanese sword in the hotel when they came to Japan in 71 and 72. And it lowered their evaluation especially by critical media in the west.

 

f:id:bonosoul:20170703081225j:plain  


Grand Funk Railroad Live in Japan- Heartbreaker

And in the case of Japan, Deep Purple was as popular as Led Zeppelin. Ritchie Blackmore's sorrowful, strong, high speed guitar play highly influenced by baroque music was agreeable to Japanese who like minor key melody originally. Looking back to it, it was a kind of unusual thing, but their songs were broadcast on Japanese radio stations aggressively. 'Live in Japan' , a live album which recorded their concert in Japan in 72, rose up fifth on Billboard album chart and impressed the name of Japan in the form of reimport. And Uriah Heep and UFO were very popular especially in Japan too for the same reason. Ten Years After and Free, which were from blues rock, were very popular in Japan too. And in fact Japanese hard rock fans supported American bands to some extent, for example, Grand Funk Railroad (GFR), Alice Cooper, Mountain were very popular, especially GFR was as popular as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin for a while, their concert at Korakuen stadium in 71 in hard rain was legendized. 

Then hard rock bands tended to use 'evil' as their design. It reminded people of Charles Manson or Altamont tragedy, but it had a sense of antithesis against hippies from British bands. It means that most of hard rock bands then belonged to the working class and they didn't sympathize with naive idealism of American hippies who were from the wealth. However Japanese couldn't understand that background enough, so Black Sabbath wasn't so popular in Japan though they were as popular as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin in the west then.

 

Progressive rock which stimulated Japanese intellectual curiosity

 


Pink Floyd Atomheartmother Live

On the other hand, in progressive rock, Pink Floyd of the representative of psychedelic rock in London became charisma with the innovative spirit and experimentation of their sounds though they suffer damage from losing the leader, Syd Barrett because of his mental and physical disorders. In 1970 'Atom Heart Mother' ranked first in UK, and in Japan they got the second most popularity next to their mother country early. It was because Japanese owned skillful tactics like they launched out a B-side song of a single in 68 'Julia Dream' for radio and succeeded in it, and their concert at Hakone Aphrodite in August,71, an unusually large-scale rock conscert for Japan that drew audience totaling fourty thousand people, was legendized. 

After then Pink Floyd became a world - wide band for 'The Dark Side of the Moon' in 73 in which Roger Waters' literary and dignified concept and David Gilmour's songwriting was shown became a miraculous long seller, and it had lasted until 'The Wall' in 79. However they didn't come to Japan at that peak unfortunately, they were replaced by Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Yes in the popularity of progressive rock in Japan. Then pushed by the momentum of 'New Music Magazine', a western music magazine of long standing, 'Music Life' had to take a serious line, but they run some articles to direct a spotlight on gorgeous star players for it and Keith Emerson of ELP, Steve Howe, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman of Yes, got popularity then. Especially ELP won Led Zeppelin in the popularity poll on the magazine and ranked first once. And Jethro Tull and The Moody Blues gained certain level of recognitions though they weren't so gorgeous as the other bands and incomparably less popular than in the west.

Progressive rock succeeded in obtaining the other genre music fans who had never been interested in rock because it absorbed in jazz and classical music. Especially in Japan, it's said that children who learned pianos or electronic organs welcomed it. And progressive rock had non-English-speaking world, Europe ,where rock hadn't spread then because they didn't have the roots of black music, accept rock naturally at last. Japanese progressive rock fans sympathized with it and it caused their mania spirits to spread in European countries.

Japanese or English?

Rock divided into two streams not only among western music fans, but also among Japanese rock or folk artists. There was a problem whether rock should have been done in Japanese or in English.

 


Okabayashi Nobuyasu & Happy End - What We Hope for 

Those who belonged to 'The Japanese party' were folk artists, especially URC ,which descended from Kansai folk, was, so to speak, the head temple of its sect. And one of the most striking artists was Happy End. They were from Tokyo, but became a big issue for they had served the back band on Okabayashi's stage since they joined in his second album. People compared it with that Bob Dylan with The Band as his back band became rock in 1966. Happy End was characterized by its psychedelic band sounds in California in the late 60's like Moby Grape or Buffalo Springfield ,which was known to those in the know and Matsumoto Takashi's original lyrics ,where the ordinary life in the city was sung in 'desu masu' style. It was completely different from the world 'to fall head over heels in love' of the conventional Kayokyoku and the anti‐establishment folk songs then.

Then most of Japanese rock bands were influenced by British rock and they aimed at catching up the world in playing technique, The Mops or the other talented GS bands led the scene. GS bands declined because of the decline in the quality of bands from the mass production of inferior bands and the change of social conditions that the criticism like 'music by promoters' was accepted easily. So only talented people remained there. And among them several super bands were born like Food Brain, Strawberry Path, Flied Egg, Speed, Glue & Shinki , session style bands made by several members of The Golden Cups or The Power House, Narumo Shigeru, a guitarist who went to see Woodstock, Tsunoda Hiro from jazz, and PYG made by several members of the leading popular GS bands like The Tigers, The Spiders, The Tempters .

And Flower Travellin' Band, which was made up of Flowers and produced by Uchida Yuya sang in English because they thought Japanese language didn't get into the rhythm of rock well and aimed at advancing to the international market. Instead of it, they took in the scale and rhythm of Japanese traditional music and aimed at making their originality. They were active based on Canada and gained a certain level of recognition. Uchida said 'Japanese should sing in English in order to do rock in the world' and argued it with 'The Japanese party', and it was unfolded in the round-table talk with Happy End and Otaki Eiichi on the October number in 1970 of 'Shinjuku Play Map' and in the round-table talk with Otaki, Matsumoto etc. on the May number in 1971 of 'New Music Magazine'. The beginning of it was that the Japanese party including Happy End occupied top in the album of the year best 10 of Japanese rock on New Music Magazine in 1970, but the English party's order was lower than them. 

Looking back to this argument from the view point now, it seems that only Uchida went around in circles, members of Happy End were very calm and most of the other participants in those round-table talks were favorable to them. Otherwise considering the situation of young people then who had many things to talk, it seemed to be natural that those who chose to sing in Japanese became majority. Actually the English party remains in a part of hard rock, but it became not to be seen in Japanese bands. 

However in reality it's talented GS bands or 'the English party' that were chosen when western music manias dug up Japanese past music and make any compilation albums now. In fact, 'Jap Rock Sampler' ,which made the cover of Flower Travellin' Band, was published in 2007 in UK, and it devoted three hundred pages to that Japanese rock. On the other hand, as for the Japanese party, Happy End's 'Kaze wo Atumete' was used in Sofia Coppola's 'Lost in Translation' in 2003 and it became known better, but it's never heard that they were dug up overseas.

Looking at it from the view point now, the thought ' Japanese can't get into the rhythm of rock' is a kind of racist and it kills the possibility of rock in so many kinds of languages. But English is necessary for advancing overseas in order to have listeners understand lyrics. It's not the problem of rhythm. And it's undeniable that the passivity against singing in English is one of big reason for there're very a few Japanese artists who succeeded in the world though Japan has a decent long history of rock. And I have to admit its revolutionariness and big influence, and there is a climate like that in a part, but it's impossible to ignore the streams of history until then and attribute all the accomplishment to start rock in Japanese to Happy End. 

At last the representative artists in the argument didn't succeed in commerce, even Happy End split in 1973. Yoshida Takuro rose for his performance at Folk Jamboree was highly acclaimed at a stretch. Yoshida transferred to CBS Sony and Izumita Shigeru and Furuido bacame the face of Elec. On the other hand many artists transfered from URC to major labels. In folk, songs called 'Yojouhan Folk' like young people who failed in the student movement live plainly with lovers in tenements tended to make hits, it might be a kind of Japanese development in later years of hippies in America whose dreams were broken.

 

Gorgeous glam rock appeared

On the other hand a sign of changing was shown in British rock around 1972. It was the rise of glam rock, and its hero was T Rex. Marc Bolan was called 'be disguised as a woman' for his gorgeous makeup and clothes with many spangles, and his rock 'n' roll mainly consisted of highly distorted short guitar riffs became a big moovement in both UK and Japan. It was called 'Trexstacy'.


Zunou Keisatsu - Blood Blood Blood

In Japan, Bolan was regarded as an idol at first and his short rock was defamed as 'skill shortage' by the hard rock party and the progressive rock party, but Zunou Keisatu, which formed guitar & percussion influenced by Tyrannosaurus Rex of the antecedent band, and Murahachibu ,which had gorgeous makeup, sympathized with him and appeared. However they sang on the theme of more dangerous things than T Rex and caused fusses at rock events. It was a Japanese-like thing.

 

f:id:bonosoul:20170703113837j:plain

On the other hand the man who appeared against T Rex was David Bowie. Drawing attentions by the character of Ziggy Stardust on the theme of ' an alien who flied down to the earth with time limit', Bowie led the rock mode after then with the dangerous and artistic presence characterized by 'phantasmagoria'. He influenced Japan too and the character '出火吐暴威 (Chinese character for David Bowie)' on the costume designed by Yamamoto Kansai , which he took when he had a concert in 1973, would have a big meaning for Japanese rock ten and more years after then.

 

www.drillspin.com

The Sixty Years of Rock and Japan (4) The turbulent period for rock and the world at the end of 60's

f:id:bonosoul:20170629054949j:plain

The year of 1967 was a year when everything gad been new in culture from the beginning. In January, Joan Baez, who showed her beautiful voice in 'Dana Dana' in the previous year, had a concert in Japan, and arouse so big movement that her concert was broadcast on TV. Then she talked about the Vietnam War and Hiroshima Atomic Bomb in MC, but the interpreter, Takasaki Ichiro, a familiar DJ of western music hit parade programs, varnished the part, so it became a problem. One theory says then Takasaki was threatened not to interpret the part by CIA.

And in February, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones were arrested for drug possession in London. Then they were called 'bad guys' just for their long hair, so it's easy to imagine how big the impact of 'be arrested for drug' was for Japanese music fans then.

In the May number in 67 of Music Life, the feature story of ' What is psychedelic rock?' was put together relating with the arrest of Mick and Keith. In the feature story, Yukawa Reiko explained LSD and gave detailed information for that stage like it was encouraged by intellects like Allen Ginsberg, a Beat poet or Timothy Leary, a university professor, and the first pop song on the theme of LSD was 'Eight Mile High' by The Byrds. Asatsuma Ichiro wrote an article about 'Flower movement' and said Hippies got high on LSD or marijuana or the skin of Bananas burned and dried, and held events like 'Love in' or 'Be in'. And in the report of ' Inside London', it was written like 'recently psychedelic bands use eerie avant - garde movies on their stage' or ' A band of Pink Floyd use colorful lights and play music that made earnest people go crazy'. It's remarkable that so much information entered into Japan then before June in that year when rock changed very much.

 

'Summer of Love' shock

In summer of 67, which would be called 'Summer of Love' later, that tendency raged. 

First The Beatles released an album of a strange name of ' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’. They of super idols took military look in bright colors and grew mustaches. From the previous year, The Beatles had had their guitar sounds distorted,and taken in strange sounds by tape operation and Indian music, and the album seemed to take a step forward. Starting with this album, rock became the expression by  'one album of 10 or more songs' from  by 'one song of 2 or 3 minutes'.

At this stage, artists who held psychedelic concerts using lights hadn't come to Japan, but a story that had a much greater impact than those rumors came in Japan. It was 'Monterey Pop Festival' , the first important rock festival in rock history. Everyday many kinds of legends and new stars were born in the festival held in the suburb of San Francisco, the sacred place for psychedelic rock, held for 3 days from June 18th to 20th. Two black people of Jimi Hendrix, a genius guitarist, who showed exceptional guitar technique with the newest technology and played explosions, burned his guitar finally, and Otis Redding, a soul singer, who showed proudhearted shouts that demanded white audience to pay respect to black people. And two front women of rock bands from the hometown, San Francisco, drew enormous attention. One of them was Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane and another one was Janis Joplin of Big Brother & The Holding Company, who had enormous influence on the later singers by her dynamic shouts and fine and lonely life style that was opposite to them. They were charisma suitable for San Francisco where young people lived without any distinction of sex. 

 

'After psychedelic rock' in Japan

After Monterey Pop Festival, that influence spread to Japanese western music. Certainly albums of the above-mentioned artists were released then, and Japanese version albums of Grateful Dead, the top of psychedelic rock in San Francisco, and The Mothers of Invention led by Frank Zappa, a genius from Los Angels that was a rival to San Francisco, and Pink Floyd in London were released one after another within 67. It deserves attention that this three bands which sounds experimental enough for our ears now were introduced to Japan without any time difference then. However Dead's debut album was given a Japanese title of 'Psychedelic,this is Cisco sound', and the single of Mothers, 'Hard World (the original title is 'Trouble Everyday'), the single of Floyd, 'Emily is a playgirl (the original title is 'See Emily Play') , so the sense of these titles reminds us of those days. And the debut album of The Velvet Underground called ' The originator of punk' now, 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' released that year in the world wasn't released then in Japan, and you had to wait for the album released in Japan in 1973. It was probably because Japanese were highly aware of 'Psychedelic rock is from the west coast'.

And sown seeds in Monterey had come into flower steadily in Japan until 1968. Hard guitar sounds that was remarkable for the clipping or distortion of sounds like Jimi Hendrix or The Who, which became a big issue on the stage of Montarey (but they were overpowered by Jimi) were broadcast on Japanese radio stations. Following them, Cream, an exceptional technician trio led by Eric Clapton, who was a comparison with Jimi in UK, and Jeff Beck, who belonged to The Yardbirds,an unfortunate band to which Clapton belonged before, as the incoming guitarist, rose with their technical hard rock guitars. At last Japanese enriched their understanding of rock 'n' roll based on blues and played by The Rolling Stones or The Yardbirds early. The Yardbirds gained a glory to appear as bands that aroused audience at a music hall on 'Blowup', a premier movie directed by Michelangelo Antonioni from Italy, and opened to the public in Japan in June, 67. And a band made by a guy who teamed up with Beck and served a double lead guitarist then would be a hero in the following period. 

And The Doors, which didn't appear in Monterey, but was still charisma in LA, and succeeded with No.1 hit in America of 'Light My Fire' , became the face of the period. The frontman, Jim Morrison became the leading charisma in rock overnight with taking black clothes, fanning like a main character in underground dramas, and the magic of his songs. And big hits like 'San Francisco', which was a song of praise in Flower Movement by Scott McKenzie or ' Whiter Shade of Pale' by Procol Harum, which was very impressive for its fantastic organ sounds, were born then.

And about six months after Monterey, Otis Redding died for a plane accident unbelievably, but that tragedy raised his heroism, his last song 'The Dock of the Bay' ranked first in America. and made a big hit too unusually as a black artist in Japan then. On this occasion, the interest in soul music was increasing in Japan at last, and somebody like Aretha Franklin or James Brown were launched out steadily. And Motown, one of the most successful black music labels in America then, brought Stevie Wonder and Martha and the Vandellas to Japan and held a package concert there and got enormous popularity in February, 68. And in May in the same year, the first go - go -club in Japan, 'Akasaka Mugen' was established in Akasaka, Tokyo. It became a model of discos or night clubs in later years where many people of culture or young people gathered with live music by black bands under psychedelic lights.

The reason these music spread to Japan in comparative smoothness was the influence of media to some extent. At late-night radio programs like 'All Night Nippon' in Nippon Broadcasting System,Inc, 'Packed in Music' in TBS, 'Say Young' in Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc., these music was understood as 'new sense of value for young people in the world' and introduced aggressively. And one of the reason was that Kamebuchi Akinobu, who would be a DJ of 'All Night Nippon', experienced Monterey luckily when he studied abroad in America. It was the period when the percentage of TV owned was increasing quickly, so it was good for radio stations to pay attention to 'young culture' in order to match TV. And in TV, magazines, advertisements, psychedelic designs using vivid bright colors or distorted characters was spread by Tanaami Keiichi, Yokoo Tadanori, Uno Akira.

 


The Golden Cups - For My Love

These new musical stimuli were taken in by Japanese GS of sharp sensibility. Taught by Hori Takeo, the president of Horipro, who was shocked by the scene when he visited San Francisco, The Mops led the scene as the best Japanese psychedelic rock band, The Golden Cups, a talented that had U.S. soldiers in U.S. military bases in Yokohama be impressed with them, was paid respect as The best GS talented for good players like Kabe Masayoshi or Mickey Yoshino and their sensibility to absorb in soul music without delay, The Dynamites led by Yanagushi Fujio. a genius guitarist, drew attention for their solid guitar style with extraordinary feedback noises for then. Besides them, The Power House led by Yanagi George , a younger brother of The Cups, The Flowers led by Aso Remi, who was called 'Japanese Janis Joplin', The Happenings For, which was called 'Japanese Procol Harum' flourished as talented. And Jacks was evaluated as 'Japanese Doors' or 'Japanese Velvet Underground' for their freaky and tense play, the lyrics on the theme of loneliness and despair , and the magical vocal of Hayakawa Yoshio. As for them, you can tell that they were near to the next step for Japanese rock rather than GS. 

The 'Underground Folk' period came in Japan.

 


The Folk Crusaders - I Only Lives Twice


In 68, influenced by an serious atmosphere that was heard across the sea, creative young people started to make their own music. It was The Folk Crusaders, a student band in Kyoto, that led the scene. The band led by Kitayama Osamu and Kato Kazuhiko was active in the Kansai student folk scene, and they would stop being active when they graduated from universities. However Toshiba paid attention to their self-produced album 'Harenchi (Shame)' released in October, 67 as their graduating memorial, and bought its rights, release one of songs in album 'I only Live Twice'. So it became a big issue in a flash and accomplished to ranked first on Oricon chart.

 


Okabayashi Nobuyasu - Sanya Blues

Starting with it, Kansai folk scene became more active. Kansai folk camp started in 67 by Takaishi Tomoya and Nakagawa Goro who translated Bob Dylan's songs to Japanese and sang them in Kyoto, and where The Folk Crusaders appeared, became a big issue. Besides talented in Kyoto and Osaka, folk singers who became folk history in later years like Takada Wataru or Endo Kenji far from Tokyo, gathered there one after another. Among them, Okabayashi Nobuyasu, who dropped out of Doshisha university and debuted with 'Sanya Blues' from Victor in September,68, sang many songs on the theme of the anger against hypocrisy of society or the pain of heart of persecuted people, the pursuit of real mental freedom. And he was called 'Japanese Bob Dylan' overnight and became charisma.

 


全共闘 東大安田講堂事件 - 1969

This year from 68 to 69 was the year when the doubt against the former generation from young people who were born after the war was increasing. The anti-establishment movement centering on students like 'Prague Spring' in Czechoslovakia and ' Events of May 1968' in France were broadcast. And in America The Vietnam War, which had been thought ' It will end soon', became to stuck in the mud, and the news that U.S. army slaughtered nonresistant Vietnamese farmers was broadcast, and  the anti - war movement by hippies and students raged. The U.S.‐Japan Security Treaty in 60 strengthened the alliance between Japan and U.S.A., and people saw U.S. army who got injuries in Vietnam conveyed to U.S. military bases, so there was the anxiety like ' We will involve in the war' was increasing among Japanese young people. In January, 69 Yasuda auditorium of Tokyo university falled, and the student movement raged.

On the other hand, in folk, a single of 'Imjingang River' by The Folk Crusaders was prohibited to be released by Toshiba, and it led the movement like 'We will manage a record company by ourselves' , in February, 69 Underground Record Club (URC) was established based on Takaishi Tomoya's office. First they released albums or singles to only members, but changed to release them to the public with Okabayashi Nobuyasu' album 'Please convict me' in August. By today's standard, Okabayashi took a rare way to release singles from a major label and albums from a indie label, but it was possible on his contract then. Besides him, Takada Wataru, Five Red Balloons led by Nishioka Takashi, Rokumonsen led by Komuro Hitoshi, Hayakawa Yoshio,a former memeber of Jacks released their works from URC. And Elec, another folk indies label, was established that year, and artists in Hiroshima folk scene started to release their works from the label, and there was a name of Yoshida Takuro among them.

 


Shinjuku Folk Guerrila
Folk songs became anthems necessary for Japanese angry young people. In June,69, Folk Guerrilla was held in the western exit square in Shinjuku station where young people sang Okabayashi,Takaishi,Nakagawa's songs and opposed to the Vietnam War, finally the riot police excluded them from there forcibly. However those who made songs sung there almost didn't appear there. The situation as Takada Wataru sang 'Those who boast of being arrested sing old Kansai folk songs white they say 'Takaishi or Okabayashi's songs are the past relics' ' aroused then.

Folk and the audience had changed completely for three years since college folk movement arouse in 66, but it's fact that there was already a situation like the student movement where they contended on ideologies and destroyed themselves in infighting in later years.

 


Carmen Maki - Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

And Carmen Maki , a 17-year-old member of the avant-garde theatrical company 'The Upper Gallery' led by Terayama Shuji, a genious, debuted as a folk singer and made a big hit with 'Sometimes I Feel like A Motherless Child' written by Terayama. This song by a typical beautiful hippie girl that was full of the underground mood Japanese music had never had  was one of the symbols for Japanese young people then. Maki became a big issue when she wore jeans and appeared on Kohaku Uta Gassen in 69 

The turbulent period achieved the peak in Woodstock.

On the other hand, rock that was conveyed to Japan across the sea raged day by day, and evolved. Bands like Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf played hard sounds with solid and distorted guitars and organs, and The Moody Blues or Deep Purple collaborated with orchestras.

And the fusion with jazz became active.Blood, Sweat & Tears, which put the brass section in their main, album production using live sessions by Al Cooper or Mike Bloomfield who served the back band of Bob Dylan, Blind Faith, a so-called 'super band' where several skillful musicians gathered like Eric Clapton who was a former member of Cream, and Steve Winwood who was a good singer of Traffic, a new star of psychedelic band along with Pink Floyd. All of them appeared then.

This new rock was called 'art rock' or 'new rock' first, and called 'progressive rock' or ' jazz rock' according to their musical tendency later. And whenever these new and promising bands appeared, and launched out with some sales copies like King Crimson, ' They exclude The Beatles from the chart'. Then Led Zeppelin, which Jimmy Page dissolved The Yardbirds for the formation of a better organization and made under the slogan of ' the top of art rock', run up to the top overnight.

On the other hand, artists like Bob Dylan played music heavily influenced by blues, country, gospel etc, which was older than music they played then,and rose. The Band, which had been Dylan's party,and bands made by the former members of The Byrds were like that, and British bands that had directed to dig down blues strongly traveled around American south and followed them. The Rolling Stones and The Kinks made their masterpieces under its tendency. As a band of this type, Creedence Clearwater Revival from San Francisco made a string of single hits and became a star.

Not only as for music, but also as for movies, works called 'American New Cinema', which described people who dropped out of ordinary lives, got enormous popularity. Simon & Garfunkel, who took charge of music of 'The Graduate', became a minion in folk. And as for musical, 'Hair' ,which described hippie culture, made a big hit, and Japanese cast version was produced in December, 69. 'Midnight Cowboy' 'Easy Rider''The Strawberry Statement' followed them as counter culture movies that were linked with rock or folk music, and became a issue.

The bottom line of these streams was Woodstock Music and Art Festival held in New York from August 15 to 17 in 1969. This festival that drew total four hundred thousand audience without any big accidents was informed the victory of hippie culture as 'The three days of love and peace', and new stars like Santana,Sly & The Family Stone, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were born there. This festival was opened to the public in the world as a movie in the following year and informed of young people around the world including Japan. However the world noticed that it was just an illusion as the ending of ' 'Easy Rider' or 'The Strawberry Statement' showed and collapsed in facing the reality finally soon after then.

www.drillspin.com

The Sixty Years of Rock and Japan (3) The Beatles awoke people to rock bands

f:id:bonosoul:20170627022857j:plain

The Beatles in 1964 came to Japan without any time differences

1964 was the year when Tokyo Olympic, which should have been called 'the symbol of the high economic growth',  was held and in addition to it the culture and fashions for young people changed very much then. 'Ivy look' like blazer coats, button-down shirts,cotton pants came in Japan and men's fashions became sophisticated. And 'Heibon Punch', a magazine taking an expansive approach to things to which Japan had been close till then like sexual expression and underground culture became a big issue. these sophistication and expansion of generosity might have people accept new stimuli. And The Beatles appeared then.

As for the enthusiasm in Japan about The Beatles, the non-music media now seems to tell that it started on 1966 when they came to Japan for the first time. However actually The Beatles' sensation started at the stage of February, 1964. Then The Beatles ranked first on the billboard single chart for the first time with 'I Want to Hold Your Heart', and at the same time they debuted in Japan with this song. And in the late March, they made the cover of the April number of 'Music Life'. The magazine had been a Japanese pop music journal until the previous year, but it changed itself to the first western music journal in Japan with The Beatles movement.

And The Beatles established an unheard - of record to occupy top five on the billboard single chart of April 4th, but the same thing occurred in Japan. On May 11th, about one month after then, The Beatles occupied first,fifth, sixth,seventh on '95 million popular request' in Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc., the most influential and popular among Japanese western music ranking programs then. It means there was almost no time difference about The Beatles' movement between Japan and America at least among western music listeners. Finally The Beatles released thirteen singles in that year, and the situation where a few songs of them raked in the chart every week continued.

One theory says the first moment when one of The Beatles' songs was broadcast was 'My Bonnie Lies Over' in 1961 that they recorded with Tony Sheridan as his back band. However as for the matter after they debuted as a professional musician officially, it's said it was when a DJ, Itoi Goro introduced ' Love Me Do' when Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc. broadcast 'The Best of Britain' produced by BBC in February,1963. But at this stage, The Beatles hadn't become a movement even in UK yet, so it was difficult for Japanese to respond to it well.

Starting with 'Please Please Me' in March,1963, The Beatles made a plenty of hits and arouse the big movement in UK. It seems that Japanese got the information from FEN of U.S.army bases from the late 1963, but in general radio stations, the best theory tells there was increasing interest in The Beatles when 'Please Please Me' was broadcast on the above-mentioned '95 million popular request' on January 10th, 1964 under the introduction of 'This is the popular band that aroused a concert held by the UK court'. Yoshida Takuro, who lived in Iwakuni city, Yamaguchi prefecture then and Ayukawa Makoto of Sheena & The Rokkets, who lived in Itazuke,Fuokuoka city, prefecture talked they listened to The Beatles for the first time on FEN, and Inoue Yosui talked he listened to The Beatles for the first time on '95 million popular request' .

And from a few years before then, there had been increasing interest in vocal groups like The Four Seasons or The Ronettes and instrumental bands of electric guitars like The Shadows or The Ventures even on Japanese western music charts. And The Beach Boys, which sang their original songs combined with those two things,appeared. So the appearance of The Beatles was necessary in that process. And in the case of The Beatles, its influence became to spread easily because of sophistication like their cute looks,suits without collars, mushroom cut, and 'A Hard Days Night', a movie of them opened to the public in July,1964 (October in Japan), spurred their popularity.

And there was increasing interest in the presence of 'rock band' after The Beatles appeared, and bands in UK, which was a treasury of rock bands, went to America one after another and got enormous popularity. It became to be called 'British Invasion' or 'British Beat' and the wave came to Japan, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, Peter & Gordon, Manfred Mann, and The Rolling Stones, which would be the best rival to The Beatles,debuted in Japan and appeared on the western music charts one after another. There were several difference about their birth place or the tendency of their sounds, but all of them were launched out as if they had been from Liverpool in Japan, including even The Rolling Stones. It was the period where images to remember easily were put importance on the most.

The electric guitar movement has come in.

However there was one problem about The Beatles. It was very difficult for Japanese at the stage of 1964 to cover their songs in technique. In the same year, 3 Funkies ,an idol vocal group (It was because they covered the above-mentioned 'My Bonnie Lies Over') and The Tokyo Beatles, which jumped on the bandwagon of The Beatles movement and made the band right then, released The Beatles' covers. But in their songs, the guitar part was replaced with sax because it was very difficult to reproduce it then.

However the electric guitar movement came in in January,1965. It was brought by the big success of a concert at The Astronauts in Japan by The Ventures, a guitar instrumental band from America. The number of young people who hadn't listened to western music itself, but took electric guitars influenced by the concert was increasing suddenly. And ' Electric Guitar Tournament' started to be broadcast by Fuji Television Network, Inc. ,which had its eye on the phenomenon expand the popularity, and ' Electric Guitar Wakadaisho' a movie led by Kayama Yuzo was opened to the public in December, the movement became decisive. Added a TV program and a movie, the movement became to spread easily.

Young people who made big sounds that had never heard disposed the board of education in Ashikaga city, Tochigi prefecture to impose the law banning electric guitars. Since then, the movement to oppress electric guitars had brisk up at schools nationally. Parental generation thought 'Electric guitars made young people become delinquent' seriously. The interesting thing here is difference between Japan and America.. In America, people oppressed rock 'n' roll for a prejudiced, but logical reason like 'It's terrible that you imitate discriminated black people ! ' based on racial discrimination against black people. However, that cultural background didn't spread to Japan, so people tried to oppress it for just a sensuous reason like 'Noisy!' though it didn't become a problem that Elvis Presley's songs were shown at Kohaku Uta Gassen. Here, an image against rock like 'Adults don't understand it' spread in Japan.

And, in this electric guitar movement, the theme The Ventures made was surfing, but The Beach Boys ,which made the same thing its theme, was popular in Japan too, moreover, it was much more popular than the other surfing bands in America. However at the stage of 1965, they and Jan and Dean sang 'Hot Rod' on the theme of custom cars or motorbikes. Above all, 'Little Honda' released by The Beach Boys in 1964 was the first song in the world on the theme of the performance of Japanese motorcycles and there was an atmosphere to tell the beginning of Japan as a motorcycle super power.

By the way, according to western rock texts, 1965 was the year when folk rock like Bob Dylan or The Byrds arose as 'the answer from America for The Beatles'. They were introduced to Japan on that year, but didn't make hits generally probably because of electric guitar movement. Rather, in 1966, one year after then, Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon & Garfunkel, Sonny & Cher, The Lovin' Spoonful, Donovan started to sell. It was from the influence that college Japanese folk movement occurred right then and Mike Maki, Araki Ichiro, The Broadside Four, Moriyama Ryoko made hits. As introduced in the former chapter, musicians that were characterized by their accompaniment of folk guitars and beautiful harmony like The Brothers Four, The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul & Marry were popular in Japan then, so protest musicians were very minority still then. The first time a Dylan's album was release in Japan was in autumn in 1965, which was four years later to in America.

 

Finally The Beatles held a concert in Japan

 


The Beatles - Live in Japan (Full Performance)

In June,1966, The Beatles held a concert in Japan finally. One year before then, in the August number of 'Music Life', the editor in chief, Hoshika Rumiko went to London and succeeded in the meeting interview with The Beatles. And Peter & Gordon, The Honey comes, The Animals, Herman's Hermits held theirconcerts in Japan then. So you can tell that they became familiar presence, and the moment people longed for came in finally. It was Kyodo Kikaku that invited The Beatles. They planed The Ventures' concert and pioneered in electric guitar movement in the previous year.

However the place they chose for the concert became a big problem. It was Nippon Budokan, the sacred place for Judo, a national sport. For the promoter, as a result of looking for 'the biggest indoor hall in Japan', he had only choice of it, but for those who insisted on Japanese patriotism, it was unallowable that foreigners who had unusual long hair as men then used the place for the national sport. The criticism spread to people of culture, and even the prime minister, Sato Eisaku joined in it. And the feeling of oppression against electric guitars taht started in the previous year was added to it, anti people's hate doubled.

However the popularity of The Beatles wasn't so weak that it didn't shrink from such conservative people's oppression. Their concerts in the five part series, which had been held from Jun 30th to July 2nd, were a great success every day, and the concert in daytime of July 1st was broadcast to the whole country by Nippon Television Network Corporation. Finally the oppressive disturbance before they came to Japan led young people's curiosity against The Beatles to arouse and the presence of rock bands became bigger than before in Japan.

The Beatles stopped their concert activity at San Francisco live on August 29th,1966 as their last concert two months after then, and they had never held any concerts officially until they split. The countries they visit for their concerts during their active period were only 9 countries like UK, Sweden, Ireland, France, America, Canada, Germany, Japan, Philippine. Considering the fact, Japan was one of precious countries about it.

 

The period of 'Band=Idol'

June,1966 when The Beatles came to Japan was one of the turning points for rock. The Beach Boys released 'Pet Sounds' one month before then, and The Beatles relreased 'Revolver' in the early August, both of which are always in the top of stream of votes like 'Rock All Time Album' all around the world. However, strangely the former bothered their fans all around the world including Japan and the latter made their fans who love the style of early Beatles have doubts about the band. They weren't highly evaluated then like in later years. As symbolized by such things, An image like 'band = idol' had lasted for a while after then and they made the gravure of western music journals like 'Music Life' or 'Teen Beat' gaily. Of course, the most popular one was The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones was the second most popular after them. And it was because of their skill to make an image of 'bad guys' and idol of Mick Jagger more than its music.

 


Scott Walker Sez: "Eat A Chocolate"

And there The Walker Brothers, and The Monkeys, which should have been called 'the answer from American TV to the movies led by The Beatles', appeared. The Monkeys was popular all around the world from the influence of TV dramas led them that was broadcast all around the world. The unique one was The Walker Brothers. They were somewhat popular in UK or America., but their popularity in Japan was remarkable. It was because three of them including Scott Walker who sang in beautiful baritone voice were all beautiful, and their music style was like chanson, so those who were unfamiliar with rock understood it easily. And it's said that it was plotted by Music Life that was afraid that fans left The Beatles that matured from an idol together with the record company they belonged to. The Walker Brothers came to Japan many times, and appeared on a TV commercial of 'Fujiya Look Chocolate' unusually as a foreign performer. This popularity of The Walker Brothers had been regarded as a kind of Japanese origin, but in later years, the musical evaluation of Scott Walker as a vocalist or a song writer was increasing in UK rock so much that a documentary movie '30 Century Man' ,which followed his music life, was produced in 2007.

And The Bee Gees from Australia had the same beautiful harmony and idol alike The Walker Brothers, and they received attention early and were so popular that their single 'Massachusetts' in 1968 ranked first on Oricon chart , which was an official one established right then, for the first time as a foreign artist.

What is the real of London scene ?

However it's undeniable that the partiality of idol line made Japanese tend to have one - sided understanding of it though they could have experienced many kinds of UK bands then. Japanese liked so-called fresh and light beats symbolized as 'Liverpool sound', but in London, maniac young artists represented by The Rolling Stones gathered in some jazz clubs and covered blues artists like Maddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker whom white people had never listened to in America.. And then The Rolling Stones or The Yardbirds changed them to their original rock 'n' roll and moved the precept of rock.

London then was the center of not only music, but also fashions, so which was called 'swinging London' then. It showed in that Twiggy, a super model then, came to Japan in 1967 and arouse mini skirt movement. However ' Mods' like The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, which were fashion leaders in UK music then, failed to spread in Japan. Only The Who made a small hit with 'Happy Jack'. It was 10 years later that Japanese understood Mods, a original punk, where working class young people dressed up only the weekend, talked about 'my generation' in their own words, and played powerful guitar chords that was called 'power chord', on the other hand young people who played blues sessions at jazz clubs were from the wealth.

 

Unprecedented Idol movement occurred in GS

And from around the late 1966's, the scene of bands influenced by The Beatles became remarkable in Japan. It became decisive when The Blue Comets received the grand prix of Japan Record Awards in 1967, and people called the movement 'Group Sounds (GS)'.

In this movement, the scene was led by The Blue Comets from western music at the beginning, Kamayatsu Hiroshi, Inoue Takayuki, Ono Katsuo who had been musicians since western & rockabilly period, The Spiders ,which put Sakai Masaaki and Inoue Jun of idols its front men, The Blue Jeans of Terauchi Takeshi who had flourished since electric guitar movement, Wild Ones of Kase Kunihiko who was a talented making songs by themselves.

 


The Tigers - Sea Side Bound

However the reason GS got explosive popularity was the appearance of some super idols. Backed up by producers of 'The Hit Parade' like Sugiyama Koichi etc. and added explosive popularity of Sawada Kenji, a front man, The Tigers became the most popular GS band around the late 1960's. Since then, they had sent many songs into hit charts one after another, and They produced movies led by them alike The Beatles, and they realized the concert at Nippon Bodokan for the first time as a Japanese artist.

 


The Tempters - Legend of Emerald

Following The Tigers of this, The Tempters ,which put Hagiwara Kenichi its frontman, or OX ,which drew attention from their faint performance on the stage, became popular idols. They were welcomed passionately by girls' cartoons, 'Margaret' 'Nakayoshi' 'Syojo Friend' held popularity polls about them and had supplements of them, and drew them as cartoon characters. This kind of 'aestheticism' became a model of Queen or the enthusiasm of Visual kei in later Japan.

GS bands were criticized easily because they sang Kayokyoku - like minor ballads in their singles and they were managed by show biz production companies. However it wasn't rare in UK too that the percentage of bands that made songs by themselves wasn't high. And it was only Australia and Hollands besides UK and America in the world which could supply so many domestic bands that they occupied the top stream on the chart, and Japan was one of such countries. In fact, Rolling Stone, a American rock magazine, got to be interested in the movement of GS so much that they had them make The Tigers the cover of the April number of it in 1969.

 

f:id:bonosoul:20170627044649j:plain

 

www.drillspin.com

The Sixty Years of Rock and Japan (2) Covers of pop songs

f:id:bonosoul:20170626174719j:plain

Rock 'n Roll ended, but...

In 1960, Ikeda Hayato assumed the premiership and devoted himself to the economy and the longest prosperity ever came in, automobiles and black-and-white televisions prevailed to average families. And then Japanese culture became sophisticated. Around 1960, rating programs that specialized in western music appeared in radio stations in Tokyo. With 'Your Hit Parade' in Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc., 'Morinaga Candy Best His Parade' in Nippon Broadcasting Inc., 'Grelan The Best 10 This Week' in TBS, 'Golden Hit Parade' in Radio Kanto started then. And most of songs that ranked in the chrats were songs by orchestras that specialized in movie music. It was a tendency that had lasted for few decades until then, and it was a story when people have an image that pop music was just supplements with movies. 30~40% musicians of all on the carts were young musicians, but it couldn't be found rock 'n' roll singers except Elvis Presley.

It was because misfortune attacked rock 'n' roll stars one after another from 1957 to 1960. Elvis of a patriot served two years in the army, and kept his popularity after he came back, but overissued theme songs on his movies weren't like rock 'n' roll yet. And Chuck Belly was arrested for rape, Jerry Lee Lewis was criticized socially for marriage to 13-year-old cousin who was just a girl, Little Richard retired for a while, Eddie Cochan died from a traffic accident. And the fact Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valence died from a plane accident was sung in 'American Pie' , a hit song in 1972 by Don Mclean and quoted in 'American Graffiti' , a hit movie in 1973, like 'Rock 'n' roll ended on the day Buddy Holly died'.

 

 Paul Anka led the movement in Japan


So who got popularity instead of rock 'n' roll stars ?.....the answer was 'idols'. Certainly rock 'n' roll stars represented by Elvis were good looking stars who were very popular among teenagers and they were idol-like presence. However here, idols were young stars who were less exciting than rock 'n' rollers, reassured, and had an image of moral guys. In America, they had enormous popularity from 1959 to1963.

Its first representative example was Paul Anka. 'Diana' ,a No.1 hit song in America, released by in 1957, made a big hit in Japan too and it became be widely known with a cover by Yamashita Keijiro, one of 'rockabilly trio' in the following year. In1958, Anka held a concert in Japan very preciously as a foreign performer, and became an strong influential presence in Japan. It's seen in the fact 'Kuroi Hanabira' of Mizuhara Hiroshi  that imitated 'You're My Destiny' , another representative song of Anka, awarded the first Japan Record Award , which had started in 1959.

 


Mizuhara Hiroshi - Kuroi Hanabira

In addition to this Anka, Pat Boone, Neil Sedaka, Johnny Tillotson, Bobby Vee, Ricky Nelson, Del Shannon, and Dion got enormous popularity in Japan. And as for girls, Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Peggy March, Lesley Gore became stars then. Very popular singers like Connie Francis released Japanese covers of their own.

 

Japanese pop period which started with 'The Hit Parade'


The Hit Parade

In 1959, one music TV program was born in Fuji Televison Network ,which started right then. Its name is ' The Hit Parade'. Watanabe Entertainment (Nabepro), which made big hits with rockabilly in Nichigeki Western Carnival set out the TV program. Nebepro made many idols of their own sing covers of idol pop songs that were popular in America and popularized the charm of those songs for people's understanding.

A plenty of stars were born in this TV program. As for men, having Sakamoto Kyu, the biggest star then, at the top on the list, there were Moriya Hiroshi, Iida Hisahiko, Inoue Hiroshi. And as for women, The Peanuts, Hirota Mieko, Moriyama Kayoko, Tashiro Midori, and Nakao Mie, Ito Yukari, Sono Mari called 'Three Girls' appeared and got enormous popularity. As for songwriters, Sazanami Kenji as a translater, Ei Rokusuke as a lyricist, Miyagawa Hiroshi and Nakamura Hachidai as composers, Sugiyama Koichi as the producer of 'The Hit Parade' flourished well and made the basis of Japanese pop music. And Sazanami Kenji was another name of Kusano Shoichi who was one of proposers of 'Nichigeki Western Carnival'. A jazz magazine 'Music Life' set out by him changed itself to a cover pop magazine from 1958, and it aroused the movement.

'The Hit Parade' was so popular TV program that it lasted for more than 10 years, and became the basis of Japanese music TV programs in later years. After the program succeeded, Nabepro produced 'Shabondama Holiday', the original of variety TV shows, and 'Hoi Hoi Music School', the first audition TV program, in Nippon TV. In these programs, Nebepro exerted itself not only to music, but also to comedy. Crazy Cats as the former and The Drifters as the latter, which would be important people in Japanese comedy, appeared in the program as main casts. As musicians, Crazy Cats had been a jazz band and Drifters had been a western band originally , and both of them improved their playing and gags in tours aroud U.S. army's camps.

And now let's see how popular people called 'Japanese pop music' were in Japanese music. 'Weekly Myojo' and 'Weekly Heibon' ,which contended for the first place in Japanese entertainment magazines then, showed the following thing in its items of 'male singers' and 'female singers' of the popularity poll done every year from 1961 to 1965. It was Enka singers who occupied most of top ten in both male singers and female singers. Starting with Hashi Yukio and Misora Hibari at the top on the ranking, Mihashi Mishiya, Minami Haruo, Hunaki Kazuo, Saigou Teruhiko, Shimakura Chiyoko, Komadori Sisters ranked top. And as for male singers, Sakamoto Kyu almost ranked third , Moriya Hiroshi ranked a little below him, and another one got into the ranking occasionally. And as for female singers, Hirota Mieko or Moriyama Kayoko ranked second or third sometimes, The Peanuts ranked about  fifth ~ seventh, and Nakao Mie got into the ranking occasionally. So both of them occupied about 30 ~ 40 % of the ranking. So to speak, they were like the first political party of a little strong that was out.


The Monumental achievement 'Sukiyaki' accomplished


Kyu Sakamoto - Sukiyaki (Stereo Music Video)

However this Japanese pop music accomplished an unprecedented achievement then. In June,1963, 'Ue wo Muitearukou' released by Sakamoto Kyu two years ago in Japan changed its title to 'Sukiyaki' and ranked first on the Billboard total single chart and kept it for 3 weeks.

Opinion is divided on the success of this song, but according to Japanese Wikipedia, the president of Pie Record in UK came to Japan in 1961, liked this song presented as a souvenir, and had Kenny Ball band, which belonged to his label cover it as an instrumental version. And then he thought it would be difficult for British listeners to understand this song if he translated the title to English directly, after he consulted with the people concerned about it, he changed its title to 'Sukiyaki' ,a well-known Japanese word, and released it. So this version ranked tenth on UK Singles Chart in February, 1963.

It was a great achievement only with it, but the drama went on after then. This Kenny Ball version was released in America too, but it didn't rank even within one hundred . However a radio DJ in northwest Washington state got Sakamoto's original version from a listener accidentally and broadcast it. So many requests deluged to the song, and its wave spread throughout America soon, ranked first on the chart. It seems that the listener got the song from a Japanese pen friend as a souvenir, but who could have imagine this thing would happen?

This success of 'Sukiyaki' seems just an accident, but If it made a hit accidentally, could its covers by A Taste of Honey, a disco group, in 1981 and by 4 P.M., a R&B group, in 1994 ranked top ten on the chart again and again? You can tell simply that it was because of the power of the song. This song was composed by Nakamura Hachidai, so you can tell it was the result of his songwriting ability being appreciated and It was a moment that Japanese pop music could be world-wide with some chances at the stage. Then Kurosawa Akira, Ozu Yasujiro, Mizoguchi Kenji were already introduced to the world movies and the small Japanese movement had broken out since the early 50's. So you can tell 'Sukiyaki' was a great achievement of Japanese entertainment after them.

In addition to it, Sakamoto's own singing style where he extracted breath had a big impact though its melody was like light standard jazz style like 'Mack the Knife' by Bobby Darlin. His singing style looks Japanese style at a glance, but as Sakamoto himself admitted that it was born naturally when he imitated the singing style of Elvis and Buddy Holly, you can tell that it was born when Japanese masterd rock 'n' roll, and it was very meaningful for Japanese rock history. And Sakamoto was so talented at singing that he sang a number of Little Richard very well in The third Nichigeki Western Carnival in August in 1958 where he joined for the first time in 16 years old.

 

Japanese were familiar with Europa, but unfamiliar with black people

As for this Japanese pop music movement, it's notable that they covered not only American idol pop songs, but also pop songs in Europe countries like Italy or France. Then Italy and France were as influential as America in movies and fashions, and they launched out music to the world ,and Japanese music publishers joined in purchase aggressively. Especially Sanremo Music festival held in Italy (it lasts until now was very influential in the world.

Under the influence of these covers, Sylvie Vartan and France Gall from France, Gigliola Cinquetti, Mina, Bobby Solo from Italy were very popular in Japan. Especially these female singers became more popular after the middle of 60's when American girl singers lost their popularity because of its sophisticated fashion sense. This popularity of Italian or French pop songs had lasted until the movement of Michel Polnareff in the early 70's.

On the other hand it's undeniable that Japanese were unfamiliar with black artists playing an important part in idol pop then. Japanese could correspond to doo-wop by white people like The Four Seasons and twist dance that had strong rhythm for then,but there were very a few hit songs of black female vocal groups like The Shirells whose song was covered by The Beatles in later years, The Crystals produced by Phil Spector ,the founder of producer, The Marvelettes and Martha and the Vandellas ,which belonged to Motown, a black music label  jumping on the bandwagon on this idol movement then. Especially Motown wasn't as popular in Japan as in other countries in 1960's though it would lead The Spremes led by Diana Ross to be as a big hit maker as The Beatles in later years. It' s said that the reason for it was that the structure of the songs became so complicated that translations of the lyrics didn't get the songs well.

 


Ito Yukari - Atashi no Baby

Only 'Be My Baby' by The Ronnets led by Ronnie Spector who would be Phil Spector's wife made a big hit because Ito Yukari coverd it in the title of 'Atashi no Baby' in 1963. You can tell that there was a little achievement cosidering this song is one of the best representative songs ever by Phil Spector, the best hit maker in the idol pop period. His ' Wall of Sound' is revaluated after 70's.

And it's undeniable that Japanese were unfamiliar with not only black female vocal, but also the whole of black pop vocal. Rock 'n' roll originates from balck people, so it wasn't unusual that young black doo-wop groops joined in rock 'n' roll live shows in America in the late 50's. And that culuture was revaluated by Rats & Star or Yamashita Tatsuro in later years, but there wasn't such atmosphere then. In Japan, doo-wop got popularity only when songs of The Platters, which was for adult in America, were covered by chorus groups like Dark Dacks or Bonny Jacks. Even 'Stand by Me' by Ben.E.King , one of Oldies' standard songs in Japan now too, didn't make a hit in Japan then, and 'Save the Last Dance for Me' by The Drifters, a doo-wop group King belonged before was covered by Koshiji Hubuki who was a former Takarazuka Revue star and served on the last performer in Kohaku Uta Gassen then made a big hit. But It was mistaken for a cover of French chanson because of an image of her conventional songs.

 

The end of idol period and the sigh of change of American society

As for black people, the early 60's was the time when the civil rights movement brisked up in America. There were few pop songs by black artists that referred to this movement directly then, but music was changing as rhythm & blues centering on 'The Big Four' of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Jackie Wilson took in singing style and chorus of gospel. These things became to be called 'soul music' in later years as it was black people's soul's music.

Then in Japan, These artists' works were released,but they didn't get enormous popularity. Only Ray Charles got special popularity. It was because Ray made big hits of several covers of country music in the world that was popular in Japan too. And after these hits, his numbers before then like 'What’d I Say' were accepted so widely in Japan that call & response of which Ray and girls' chorus called out between songs was taken in by Japanese musicians in their concerts then. Ray held a concert in Japan in 1964, and it became a big issue and he appeared on the cover of 'Music Life' ,which changed itself to a western rock magazine then.

Those who aroused the civil rights movement were not black people, but white folk singers who had strong social consciousness. As for folk, The Kingston Trio or The Brothers Four were as popular as movie music and idol pop. Their pure sound of acoustic guitars and beautiful harmony were very popular, and The Kingston Trio held a concert in Japan in 1962 and critically acclaimed. And in 1963, Peter, Paul & Marry (PPM) was introduced to Japan, and got enoumous popularity for their mixed beautiful harmony, but in their hit songs, social songs like 'Blown in the Wind' on the theme of the civil rights movement were remarkable. Bob Dylan who made this song hadn't been introduced to Japan yet at this stage. PPM was as popular as the above-mentioned two bands and succeeded in their first concert in Japan in 1964. Inspired by them, Komuro Hitoshi made PPM Followers and Japanese folk started right then.

Gradually American society became tense with Cuban Missile Crisis ,which occurred in 1962 in the tension between U.S.A. and Soviet Union of The Cold War, the assassination of J.F.K. in November,1963, the start of attack to Vietnam by U.S. forces in 1964 besides the civil rights movement. Healthy and optimistic idols then disappeared gradually and music had to change itself.

 

After the idol movement

Japanese idol movement was swallowed by the wave of new music after 1964 and passed into history in a moment. Japanese show biz production companies set out group sounds bands or folk singers, but withdrew from it as rock or folk became too serious, and returned to the management of idols again in the beginning of 70's. Then idol style wasn't popular in the west any more, so revived idol culture was very Japanese original. However  Minami Saori, Amachi Mari, 'The Three Girls' of Yamagushi Momoe, Sakurada Junko, Mori Masako, 'The Big Three' of Noghchi Goro, Saijo Hideki, Go Hiromi, and Finger 5, The Candies flourished well, and it was more popular than the idol movement in 60's and made a culture where they occupied the cover of 'Myojo' or 'Heibon', idol magazines. At this time idols sang not covers, but original songs. However until the early 70's, Three of 'The Big Three' ,all of which were big fans of the western rock, and Minami Saori or Finger 5 ,which were from Okinawa before and after being returned to Japan, covered western songs in their concerts so often. And it's said that Johnny & Associates aimed for success in America in their early days, and made English versions of Johnny's in the middle of 60's and Four Leaves in beginning of 70's ,which belonged to the production, together with MGM, an American label. This story shows that they had the trace of the idols of Japanese pop music in 60's.

 

www.drillspin.com

The Sixty Years of Rock and Japan (1) Rock meant 'western music'

f:id:bonosoul:20170620163846j:plain

The U.S. forces brought 'country & western' to the burnt - out ruins

After August,1945 when World War the second ended, western music that was regarded as 'hostile music' during the war returned to Japan. It was a good news for Japanese musicians because they were very active in sucking in foreign music in a fashion fromTaisho period (1912 - 26) to the early Showa period (1926 - 1940). And at the same time, foreign music was very exciting for young would-be musicians who lived in poor and unexciting world then. That music was brought by U.S. occupation forces that became to dot in Japan right after General headquarters (GHQ) started to occupy Japan and FEN, a radio broadcasting station for U.S. occupation forces. The country that lost the war sucked in music from soldiers of the country that won the war.....it sounds very ironic, but the fact remains that culture of America ,which enjoyed the best wealth in the world then, was dazzling for poor and dark Japanese then.

Japanese musicians who sucked in foreign music started to play music at some U.S. military bases for their living. And music played there was jazz, Latin music, Hawaiian music, but there was 'country & western' among them. This music was born in 1920's in America., and it hadn't spread in Japan yet before the war and during the war. However, soldiers of U.S. occupation forces were pleased with it because many of them were from the Midwest, so that music spread to Japanese musicians. And from 1950 to 53 when the Korean War went on, U.S. military bases in Japan were used as the base for U.S. forces to attack Democratic People's Republic of Korea, so the supply for musicians who played for them was increasing. 

Rock 'n' roll movement broke out in U.S.A.

In July,1955 when ten years had passed after the war ended, a musical movement broke out in America.. 'Rock Around the Clock' sung by Bill Haley and used as the theme song of 'Blackboard Jungle' made No.1 hit on the chart and had kept it for two months. This movie was prohibited to open to the public one after another because it described teenagers' delinquency and school violence. So This theme song took on dangerous image for it, but this song ,which had strong beats never seen in American pop music, became to be widely known as 'rock 'n' roll'.

And in January,1956, the big movement of only 21-year-old Elvis Presley attacked America and it was much bigger than Bill Haley's. Elvis made his major debut song, 'Heartbreak Hotel', No.1 hit on the chart and became the king of rock 'n' roll in a moment. And following Elvis's success, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, and Eddie Cochran appeared one after another, and America became to be in the wave of enthusiasm of rock 'n' roll.

Japanese western musicians translated rock 'n' roll

How Japan accepted this enthusiasm? Rock 'n' roll was new born music even in America , so nobody did the same music in Japan then. In December, 'Blackboard Jungle' made a hit in Japan too and a cover version of 'Rock Around the Clock' sung by Eri Chiemi was released. She sang 'Tennessee Waltz', a standard jazz song, when she was just fourteen yeas old and a rival to Misora Hibari. But its arrangement wasn't out of conventional swing jazz.


Eri Chiemi - Rock Around The Clock

Finally those who welcomed this 'rock 'n' roll' were country & western musicians because 'rock 'n' roll' was interpreted as 'new western music'. In fact Bill Haley was a western music singer originally and Elvis was introduced to Japan as a new star of western music at first and he appeared on a western music omnibus record 'Western caravan vol.4' in December,1955 at first in Japan one year before he broke through. In addition to it, the coinage of 'rockabilly', a combination of 'rock' and 'hillbilly' of another name of rock 'n' roll that meant countryman in the Midwest was used in Japan then. And Japanese used the word of 'rockabilly' more often.

And In 1956 and 1957, the opportunity where western bands played cover versions of rock 'n' roll was increasing within Tokyo. Jazz cafes like ACB in Shinjuku, Mimatsu and Tennessee in Ginza, Drum in Ikebukuro offered some spaces for them. And among these scenes, Kosaka Kazuya , the frontman of Wagon Masters, a popular band in Japan, debuted and released 'Heartbreak Hotel' in 1956, and got so enormous popularity that he appeared in NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen that year.

 


Kosaka Kazuya - Heartbreak Hotel

 

Western Carnival 


Nichgeki Western Carnival

In February,1958, a rockabilly festival 'Nichgeki Western Carnival' was held at Nihon Gekijo (Nichigeki) in Yuraku-cho, the biggest entertainment hall in Tokyo then. This was the beginning of Japanese rock 'n' roll and an big opportunity for Japanese entertainment agencies to establish themselves.

Western Carnival, a live event of western music, had been held at Video Hall in Yuraku-cho since the early 50's, and it was so successful in the middle of 50's that some fans couldn't enter there. And then Watanebe Misa who established Watanabe Entertainment right then together with her husband, a jazz musician, went to western music events held at Video Hall or some jazz cafes so often from the influence of her sister, Manase Nobuko , a big fan of rockabilly, and felt a big movement coming next to jazz. Misa and Nobuko's mother, Manase Hanako were quarter British and worked as interpreters at U.S. occupation forces after the war. So their daughters moved there as interpreters too, and they knew American entertainment and got to think that they attempted to raise the standard of Japanese entertainment.

And then Hori Takeo, the leader of Swing West of a western music band, had confidence about the success of Western Carnival where rock songs like Elvis were played , and thought of 'We want to do it at a bigger hall ' and thought of doing it at a Nichigeki, the biggest indoor entertainment hall in Japan then, together with Kusano ShoIchi in Shinko Music Entertainment. However they didn't have any direct connection with Nichigeki, so they asked Watanabe Shin to introduce them Yamamoto Shiro, the stage director of Nichigeki. Then Watanabe answered 'I don't want to come out in public because I am a jazz musician', but it was successful.

Three of Watanabe Misa, Hori, Kusano ,both of who share mutual speculation, started to elaborate a plan of having Western carnival advance to Nichigeki. At first Yamamoto Shiro was unwilling to do it, but he knew that jazz events held at Nichigeki then weren't successful in commerce. Watanabe Shin thought so too and had a sense of danger about that jazz became so serious from the influence of bebop that young people couldn't dance with it. 

So they decided to hold an event in February when any big events weren't held. And Kosaka Kazuya already debuted, confessing 'rock 'n' roll', so they decided to use 'rockabilly', an another name of rock 'n' roll, for improving a new image for it and launch out this show as a rockabilly event.

Thus Nichigeki Western Carnival had been held for one week from February 8 to 14 and it draw 9500 audience only on the first day and 45000 audience for one week successfully. Thanks to this success, Watanabe Misa became to be called 'Rockabilly Madam' and caught a great deal of attention, and Watanabe Shin stopped working as a musician and got down to management of his office, managing 'Rockabily Trio' of Hirao Masaaki, Mickey Curtis, Yamashita Keijiro. This was the real beginning of Watanabe Entertainment. On the other hand, Hori entered Watanabe Entertainment, but quited it soon and established Hori productions and launched out Moriya Hiroshi , a hit of Western Carnival. Manase production started by Manase Hanako, Watanabe Misa's mother, together with her husband, Masao right after the war led Sakamoto Kyu and Moriyama Kayoko to achieve a great success.

Western Carnival established as a rockabilly event held four times a year for a while, and it had been held as a music event of big entertainment agencies until 1977 after the movement passed away. And in the process, Kamayatsu Hiroshi or Uchida Yuya, who would contribute to the beginning of Japanese, rock joined in it.

Considering that Japan had such a big rock 'n' roll scene within three years after the movement broke out in America, you can tell that Japan is one of the countries where rock 'n' roll took route early comparatively. Even in UK, Cliff Richard, the best follower of Elvis, debuted in that year and the other European countries followed later. It's because that Japan lost U.S.A. in the war and put under U.A. forces occupation. 

 

Japanese rockabilly boom wasn't as dangerous as American's

Japan had a rock 'n ' roll scene very early, but the fact remained that there was a limit to Japanese understanding of rock 'n ' roll then.

One of those is that Japanese hardly understood how rock 'n ' roll was treated as heresy and oppressed in America. Kosaka Kazuya sang 'Heartbreak Hotel' at NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen in 1956, and Hamamura Michiko, a Latin music singer, sang 'Jail House Rock', and Yukimura Izumi, a girl's jazz singer, sang 'Be-Bop-a-Lula' there in 1957. It means that it wouldn't interfere with anyone if they sang rock songs at NHK in Showa 30's.

And now there is an image of 'Rockabilly fashion is bad' ,but it has spread since Carol led by Yazawa Eikichi appeared in 70's with leather jackets and regent hairstyle under the concept of 'The Beatles were like that before they debuted', and it was a big hit with juvenile delinquents centered on motorcycle gangs then and many followers like Yokohama Ginbae and Kishidan appeared in later years. Kaminarizoku, the motorcycle gang in 50's in Japan, never followed rockabilly movement.

However things were quite different in America. Certainly rock 'n' roll was sung by white country & western musicians, but it began when they sang rhythm & blues of black music. It's 1964 when Civil Rights Act was established officially in America.,so the civil rights movement already started then, but black people were a target of racism still then in America. And conservative white people found faults with it like 'How could white children be absorbed in black culture?'. Their anger spread more and more when Elvis showed a dance with violent movement of his waist ,which reminded people of sex openly, and finally  Elvis and rock 'n' roll became to be called 'Evil in Christian society'.

By the way, Elvis was a pious Christian and the political party he supported was the Republican Party, which was the conservative. He had never joined in the civil rights movement and then rock 'n' roll itself didn't have any political senses then. It was just like that its up-beat originated from black people was comfortable for children and young people. Its exhilarant feeling spread to other countries soon, but it's undeniable that there was so little information about rock 'n' roll that people couldn't understand it from the view point of American culture.

And in the case of Japan, it's undeniable that people didn't understand relish and wildness of rhythm of black music well because they understood it from the view point of country, lacking understanding of black rock 'n' roll musicians like Little Richard or Chuck Belly. To tell the truth, Japan hadn't been able to get over this feeling for a while. And it would appear later as difference between Japanese and British young people then, who found rock 'n' roll guitarists like Chuck Belly or Bo Diddley and black blues artists even white American people hadn't ever listened to one after another and sucked in them into their own music.

 

Is Kobayashi Akira the original rock 'n' roll star ? 

In addition to them, there were another week spot about rockabilly movement in Japan then. It was like ' It didn't spread nationally' and 'it lacked any big stars with charisma'. At the stage of 1958, the popularization of television wasn't so high and the number of television owned in Japan then was only one million. The total population of Japan then was about ninety one million, so it means that only one person out of ninety people had a television then. In the following year, the number of television owned achieved two million because of the crown prince's marriage and it was increasing quickly with Tokyo Olympic, color televisions after then, but rock 'n roll was a movement before then, so it didn't spread nationally.

And certainly Japanese rockabilly stars were sophisticated presence in Japanese society, but it's doubtful that they had aura like Elvis who shook the world. Elvis wasn't the presence only music gave birth to. In America, the problem of juvenile delinquency became obvious a little bit before he had appeared , and people looked for any rebels then. It was conspicuous among Hollywood movies and rebels like Marlon Brando who took a leather jacket and played a biker in 'The Wild One' and James Dean in 'Rebel Without a Cause' were very popular then. The reason why not Bill Haley, but Elvis became the king of rock 'n' roll was that he was as handsome as those Hollywood stars of rebels.


Ishihara Yujiro - Brandy Glass

On the other hand, in Japan, Ishihara Yujiro, a Nikkatsu star, who appeared on 'Taiyo no Kisetsu' written by his elder brother, Ishihara Shintaro had a image of such rebels. He was a music star too, but his musical style was 'Moody Kayo' ,Japanese style standard jazz, like Frank Sinatra.

 


Kobayashi Akira - Dynamaite 150 tons

And Otaki Eiichi, who would contribute to Japanese rock and pop music much with Happy End and his solo works, looked back the late 50's when he was a pupil in Iwate prefecture and said 'I longed for Elvis and him then' ,mentioning the name of Kobayashi Akira, a Nikkatsu star. He said 'Those who took leather jackets and white scarfs longed for not Elvis, but Akira then'.

Probably some people feel antipathy to give Otaki's saying feedback to the whole and you can't tell definitely that songs sung by Kobayashi Akira in his movies were like rock 'n' roll. However considering that 'Dynamite 100 tons' released by him in 1959 is covered in rock versions by Kai Band or Mashima Masatoshi (The Blue HeartsThe High LowsThe Cro-Magnons), the theory of 'Akira is the original rock 'n' roller' isn't necessarily wrong. And considering that songs sung by Japanese rockabilly stars then are hardly covered in late years in spite of their big contribution, much more you can think so.

 

www.drillspin.com

Chage and Aska Choice Video (1) : 1979~1985

Hitorizaki (1979)


Their debut single. 'Hitorizaki' means 'To bloom alone'. Aska sings about the sorrow of a woman who has a lover to leave from a woman's point of view. In early days,there were so many songs which Aska sang from a woman's point of view. As for its sound, It was called 'Folk Enka'. It was established C&A to differentiate themselves from other musicians, but they had suffered from its image until they made a smash hit of 'Say Yes'.

 

■Banri no Kawa (1980) 


'Banri no Kawa' means 'A-thousand-mile-river'. This song was written with the aim of making hit songs, successfully it caught on and sold 500,000 copies.

 

■Otoko to Onna (1982)


'Otoko to Onna' means 'A man and a woman'. A song of brokenheart. This song was covered by several Chinese singers and caught on. When they visted China for their first Asia tour in 1994, they were told that 80% Chinese peope knew this song and thought it as a Chinese song.

 

■Atuiomoi (1982)


'Athuiomoi' means 'passionate love'. It's a representative ballad in their early days.

 

■Hutari no Ailand (1984)


Chage's duet song with Ishikawa Yuko. The song caught out and sold 450,000 copies. The video was in 1990.

 

■Moon Light Blues (1984)


A superb ballad. But this song hid behind the hit of 'Hutari no Ailand' and didn't sell well. The video was in 1989.

 

■Only Lonely (1985)


Different from their previous songs, this song is so soft and kind.

Godiego

 f:id:bonosoul:20160822145447j:plain

Godiego is a Japanese rock band which flourished from the late in 1970s to the middle in 1980s with its excellent meodies, techniques, and pop sense which are far from Japanese.

Takekawa Yukihide (vocal, music composer) aimed to be a singer songwriter during that he was a university and sent demo tapes to records companies. Several companies offered him on the condition that he sang in Japanese, but he, having a great deal of influence from The Beatles,dwelled on singing in English and continued to reject them.

Finally Takekawa Yukihide signed a contract with MCA Japan and released the first solo album 'Passing Pictures' in 1975. All lyrics of songs recorded in the album were written in English, which was epoch-making in Japanese music scene then. And the album didn't succeed in commerce, but ite fresh sound far from Japanese became a big issue and crirically acclaimed.

After the debut album, Takekawa Yukihide launched into making the second album and met the other members including Micky Yoshino during the recording, and the they decided to make the band of Godiego.

Tanking about the origin of the band name, it originates from a Japanese emperor's name, but it has other meanings like godiego turns into 'go-die-go (live-die-live)', which means the never-ending cycle of life and death in Buddhism or godiego turns into 'god-i-ego' ,which means human beings who live between faith and egoism.

 


They released the first album 'Genesis/Godiego' in 1976. It recorded 88th in Oricon chart and sold 4,000 copies then. This song of 'Salad Girl' was used as the campaign song of Kanebo ( a big cosmetic company) and sold 8,000 copies, which was so unusual as a unknown rookie band. And The album included a suite in which six songs made one song like progressive rock songs. It was also so fantastic then.  

 


In 1977 They released the second album 'Dead End'. It recorded 64th in the chart and sold 27,000 copies then. It's a concept album and it's said it made  the dark social situations then the theme, showing solid rock――but, actually the time from the late 1970s to the late 1980s was the richest in Japan, so it might be true that Japanese society got be rich enough to accept the dark side of it. Anyway, the album is so popular among fans and sometimes listed as their best album of all.

After that they launched into making so many kinds of works such as TV music, soundtracks, CM music, offering songs to other artists and so on. They had a intention to spread their music to the world.

 


One of these achivements is the soundtrack of 'The Water Margin'. This TV drama was broadcasted in BBC too and the theme song recorded 37th in British chart.

 


On January 1978 They released 'CM Songs Fraffiti Godiego Super Hits' as the corpus of these works. It recorded 4th in the chart and sold 240,000 copies then. It was the work before the band got be famous and most of songs recorded in the album were used for these charms themselves, so the album is so nice and also has a reputation of one of their best works. 

 

On March 1978 They released the third album 'Magic Monkey'. It's the soudtrack of TV drama 'Monkey'  and recorded 1st in the chart, sold 540,000 copies. After the debut they didn't succeed in commece and  faced a crisis of split, but they took their place among popular bands finally. Incidentally 'Monkey Magic' of this song was released as a single in UK and Australia.

 


'Gnadhara', the ending song of the drama, was also released as the coupling song of 'Monkey Magic' and recorded 56th in British chart.

 


'Beautiful Name(1979)'. This is the campaign song for international year of the child. That there are so many younger people among their fans is one of their characteristics. Therefore they tends to be underrated and sometimes called 'music for children'. However I suppose It's because of their excellent pop sense, especially Takekawa Yukihide, who is called 'Japanese Paul McCartney'. So it should be said that they have a talent to write superb songs understandable even for children. 

 


On Jun 1979 They released the fourth album 'Our Decade'. It recorded 3rd in the chart and sold 100,000 copies then. It's a concept album which looks back flourish and confused 1970s and records songs on the theme of so many kinds of social problems such as Osaka expo, 'Easy Rider', oil crisis, the group suicide of the cult religion group, the landing on the moon and so on.

The English lyricst of the band, Narahashi Yoko, said about the album like that.

The sunrise of 1970s was full of bright expectations. However when we know nothing will fly, those expectations turned into disappointment soon. And we lost our ways, increasing sense of frustration of ours began to come out in the form of fear and violence. One of characteristics in 1970s was that the focus transfered from the West to the East, I mean, the West declined and new power came out from the East.  And what existed as the gateway to the East was Japan. But at the same time we felt that Japan should have ended as the gateway to the biggest country in the East 'China'. Now standing at the boundary between two decades of 1970s and 1980s, we face 1980s together with a question and a memory of a vow we made at first. And the album ends hoping that 1970s will be the beginning of fuller tomorrow.

 


'The Galaxy Expree 999 (1979)'. This is the theme song for the animation movie of the same title. This song recorded 1st in the chart for the first time.

In this year Godiego made several hit songs, CM songs, often appeared on TV shows, and you could tell that you heared their songs almost everyday. But lights are usually followed by shadows, the basist Steve Fox left the band for family matters ( Yoshizawa Ryoji joined later).

 


In 1980 they went on traveling around the world on the theme of  'The journey of new experience and redescovery' . Nepal, Tanzania, Athens, and they followed the Silk Road and crossed from India to Istanbul. The highlight was the concert which was held at Nepal royal stadium in Kathmandu and gathered about 60,000 people. Looking back on those days, Takekawa Yukihide said like that.

 Ah, the concert in Nepal 1980. I am sure at that time Godiego was one of the greatest band in the world. Though the concert that we held was the first ever concert in Nepal, sixty thousand people came to see us. All the people who gathered there had never heard rock/pop music before, but they were excited about the show and the music all through the concert. 

 


On October 1980 They released the fifrth album 'Kathmandu' on the basis of the experience of the Silk Road. It recorded 9th in the chart and sold 32,000 copies then, so you can tell that their popularity took a downswing. It's probably because the concept of utopia they had worked on was gotten tired of by fans and their adoptation of ethnic music was unfinished like the adoptation of sitars in rosk music in 1970s was like that.

 


On October 22/23 they appeared on The first music festival for friendly relationship between China and Japan held at Tianjin in China. This was commemorable the first rock concert in China. The performance of this concert was recorded into 'Live in China'. 

 


On September 1981 they released the sixth album 'M.O.R.' It recorded 19th in the chart and sold 25,000 copies then. M.O.R. means 'middle of road' and as it seemed that they gave up making concept albums, it's a non-consept album.

 

On January 1984  they released the seventh album 'Flower' It recorded 36th in the chart and sold 10,000 copies then. It was also non-concept album and critically acclaimed, but didn't sell well again. The title means 'sending music in honest feelings like sending flowers', but symbolically flowers on the album jacket are dying.

And on November 1984 they released the eighth album 'One Dimension Man'. It recorded 36th in the chart and sold 10,000 copies then. It made social problems the theme again, and the lyrics on the basis of books philosophy were so difficult to understand, the melodies were't comfortable,so it had so bad reputation from fans, but interestingly it got good reputation among those who were't interested in Godiego usually.

At last they split in 1985. About that,Takekawa Yukihide said like that.

In 1984 we didn't have the reason to get together and create music anymore because we felt we had already made most of the music we could create and economically, we couldn't keep ourselves as a band. In 1999 we could afford to get together shortly and were sure that we could create new things.

 


After that they reunited the band in 1999 and the released the nineth album 'What A Beautiful Name'. And then they declared the state of restart permanently in 2006 and have actived energetically till now.

Godiego sound is forever.

  

Reference

Godiego wiki

Godiego official website (Japanese)

Godiego unofficial website (Japanese)

Takekawa Yukihide interview