Cool & Strange Music - Japan Vol. 6 - Ryukyu (Okinawa) Beatles & More! (Part 1)

This week I went to 76.1 InterFM to be on the show entitled "6 O'Clock Yatsura" and had a great time. While I was there I heard some very cool and strange sounds that I know you are going to dig!

First was a CD of instrumentals by a band named Soul Gakkudan (奏流楽団) which is also known as the Ryukyu Beatles. This is fab!

Also, recently on the show, Taro Furukawa has been playing a lot of old cool songs from Japanese sixties bands. There's a great compilation CD out featuring a bunch of them and it's called, "GS I Love You: Japanese Garage Bands of the Sixties." 

I've mentioned before how much western music has influenced the Japanese pop scene but these groups were totally crazy about the Beatles and the British Invasion of the sixties (Just like America!)... But some of them had enough good sense to know that, as long as the music is cool, Japanese lyrics were fine too!

Here's a few of my favorites: 

The Out Casts - Everything's Alright

I tried to find some info about the Out Casts, but nothing on Wikipedia so.... On to the next band. It's one of Japan's most popular sixties "GS" (Group Sounds) bands! The Spiders!

The Spiders - Dynamite

Wikipedia says about the Spiders:

The Spiders were a Japanese band in the Group Sounds era, who were one of the top three bands of that genre, a cultural pop music scene unique to Japan.

Band members were Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu (rhythm guitar and backing singer), Jun Inouye (singer), Masaaki Sakai (tambourine and backing singer), Shochi Tanabe (drums), Takayuki Inouye (lead guitar and backing singer), Mitsuru Kato (bass guitar) and Katsuo Ono (steel guitar and electronic organ). They had many hit singles, made feature films and were popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Japan. They toured Europe in 1966, and the United States, including Hawaii, in 1967. All of the band members are still active in the music industry.

Next up? 

The Terry's - Stop Dance

Playboy - Shevidevi De Yuko

The Swing West - Ajoen Ajoen

The Napoleon - Koe no Kesunda

Those are just a few of the cool track on this great CD. I'll be back next time with a few more tracks (as well as back to the Cool & Strange music for the world) next time.

Until then, stay Cool & Strange!

Cool & Strange Music Vol. 5 - The Peanuts and More!

It's time for another episode of Cool & Strange Music. Last night I had the pleasure of playing on my FM radio show a very cool band from the USA named "The Wooly Bandits" and their version entitled "Cambodia Girl" and, while playing it, it dawned on all of us that we've heard the song before! We had! It was a cover of the 1968 smash hit by Pinky & the Killers called "Koi no Kisetsu" (The Season of Love).... Well, at least I think it is!

Wikipedia says about Pinky & the Killers:

Pinky and the Killers (Latin transcription: Pinky & Killers) is a Bossa Nova band fronted by singer  Yoko Kon and was active in Japan from 1968 to 1972. Later Yoko Kon became a solo artist. Pinky means "little finger" so, with the back band's name, "Killers" the nickname of the band was "Pinkira."

Pinky & the Killers also won the Best New Band of 1968 award that year.

Pinky & the Killers were a Japanese Bossa Nova band?! What? Yeah. Of course western music had a great influence on Japanese pop music. This next artist was a huge Japanese girls pop duo in the early 1960s. Their name was The Peanuts.

Get this, probably one the Peanuts' biggest hits was influence by Beethoven's Fur Elise. Check the Beethoven song out for a few seconds first, then listen to the Peanuts song:

Now, here's The Peanuts with "Jyonetsu no Hana" (Flower of Passion):

Here's another smash hit by The Peanuts. It's called "Koi no Fugue" (The Fugue of Love).

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the Peanuts:

The Peanuts (ザ・ピーナッツ Za Pīnattsu) is a Japanese vocal group consisting of twin sisters Emi Itō (伊藤エミ, Itō Emi) and Yumi Itō (伊藤ユミ, Itō Yumi). They were born in Tokoname Aichi, (Japan) on April 1, 1941, soon after their birth, the family moved to Nagoya.

In the first years they sang Japanese covers of standards, foreign hits, and Japanese folk songs, then they began singing originals, written by their producer, Hiroshi Miyagawa, and such songwriters as Koichi Sugiyama and Rei Nakanishi. Later they embarked on a brief acting career, notably in the 1961 film Mothra. The pair retired from performance in 1975.

They are remembered most for their versions of European songs and for a handful of Japanese pop songs, such as "Furimukanaide" ("Don't Turn Around"). Their performing style played heavily on their being nearly identical twins with voices only slightly apart in pitch (making a duet sound like a solo artist using reverb.

Emi Itō died on June 15, 2012, at the age of 71.

What? The Peanuts were those two scary girls in Mothra? I think that was the very first Japanese monster movie I ever watched in m life. I watched it with my mom and when those girls came out to sing to bring out Mothra, that scared the pants off of me (heck,  think I was only 5 or 6!)

The Peanuts "Song of Mothra"

Of course, many western artists really influenced the Japanese and, sometimes, it was quite mind blowing. America had "The World's Greatest Entertainer," Al Jolson, who, the the seminal film played "The Jazz singer" with his face made up like he was black, but that was in 1927. In Japan, they still had guys doing that sort of thing as late as 1984... When I first came to Japan and saw these Japanese guys with black makeup on their faces, I thought, "That's so racist!" But, I don't think these guys meant it that way at all. They meant it as a tribute to the great Doo Wop groups of the 50s (OK, if their sensibilities are a bit off kilter for a western audience).

Here's the Chanels with their smash hit "Runaway":

You Andrew Warhol fans might enjoy what Wikipedia says about the Chanels:

In 1975, Masayuki Suzuki, who likes doo-wop, Masashi Tashiro and Nobuyoshi Kuwano, joined together to form a band called Chanels. The band debuted in 1980 with their first single "Runaway" selling over a million copies and becoming a huge hit. In 1983, the band changed its name to Rats & Star due to complaints from the French fashion giant Chanel. Andy Warhol created the album cover for "Soul Vacation" and the name change seemed to make no difference in sales, as their first single as Rats & Star, "Me-Gumi no Hito," sold over 800,000 copies. Five of the members were married at Tokyo's Hie Shrine at the same time during 1985, generating a lot of publicity for the group. Rats & Star released a duet with Masayuki's older sister Kiyomi Suzuki called "Lonely Chaplain" in 1986, which also became a huge hit. Although leader Masayuki Suzuki launched a solo career and Rats & Star's activity thus essentially stopped. Afterward, Tashiro and Kuwano played an active part and were so popular not as musical artists, as TV performers. they formed Rats & Star again in the limitation of half a year and released the single "Yume de Aetara" in 1996, which was popular enough to encourage the group to go on a final nationwide tour. The same year, they made their first appearance on Kōhaku Uta Gassen to perform that song.

The group's name is a palindrome, reading the same both backwards and forwards. The name's true meaning, however, is that "rats" raised in the less affluent parts of town could, by singing doo-wop music, reverse their fortunes and collectively become a "star".

In 2006, Suzuki, Kuwano and Sato formed "Gosperats" with Japanese a cappella singing group Gospellers' member Tetsuya Murakami and Yuji Sakai.

Unique Andy Warhol screen prints of the album cover "Soul Vacation" have sold for upwards of $25,000 each.

Well, that's all for today. But before I go, let me leave you with a song that, while not Cool and Strange is definitely cool! I think this is one of the best pop songs I've heard this year.

And speaking of art! The next group's name is the Frankfurt Schoolgirls and the song is called "What Women Want."

Actually, my very favorite Frankfurt Schoolgirls song of all time is "Song Without Love" but for some reason, I can't embed this video. Do yourself a favor and click here to hear this GREAT song!

Frankfurt Schoolgirls - What Women Want (If that link doesn't work, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4g6r_xm1y0&feature=plcp)

Well, that's it for today! You have a Cool and Strange day! See you next time!

Cool & Strange Music Vol. 1: Japanese Sixties & Seventies TV Shows & Theme Music

(Secret surprise at very bottom of this post!)


Wow! Way cool! Japanese sixties and seventies TV and cool music! Retro world, here I come!

I stumbled on this a minute ago and my wife went crazy. She said that, "Oh! I love these shows! They would come on at night and those were shows for adults and not kids, so it was our bedtime. But we'd watch by peaking through the sliding doors as our parents watched in the living room!"


Funny, eh? Some things are the same all over the world.


Here's some that I found that look and sound really cool (or at least really sixties kitsch or campy). 

This looks like a classic... I can tell just by looking at this that it has superb script writing and acting....Anyone know what show this is?

Here's some that I found that look and sound really cool. I'll ask my wife for comments:

The first one makes me laugh. It's called "G-Men '75":

"G-Men '75" was a drama about, well, G-men. It ran from 1975 ~ 1982. The announcer says these folks were "Hard-boiled" (whatever that means!) My wife says that this drama made her heart "Doki-doki" (heart pound) because these guys were "so cool!"

Next up is the theme from Key Hunter (performed by the Tokyo Panorama Boys). This is definitely very cool and strange music:

What did I tell you? Is that a cool tune, or what? I love that! "Key Hunter" was a drama about international police and it ran from 1968 ~ 1973. 

Then, my wife tells me that the next really famous one was "Taiyo ni Hoero" (Howling at the Sun):

Wow! Taiyo ni Hoero ran for 14 years from 1972 to 1986. It was your typical police show... Well, I guess it can't be that typical, running for 14 years is amazing. 

OK, so let's really go down the rabbit hole. Remember The Guardman? No? Neither do I. But this looks pretty cool. Listen to the end because there are two tunes here:

God! I guess Tokyo traffic was bad even in the sixties! I like how all these police shows always have shot of all these cops walking along in a line. The Guardman ran from 1965 ~ 1971. It was a show about guys working for a private security company.

Sure seemed like the Japanese liked police shows!

Here's one with a really cool theme song. It's called "Hijyono License" (Rough translation: "License to Show No Mercy" or maybe "Cut-throat License"):

Hijyono License ran for seven years from 1973 ~ 1980 and was a spin-off from Key Hunter.

Finally, this last one is hilarious. It is called "Shonen Jet" (Young Jet). The music isn't all that cool but you can see what a creative director with little money but lots of ideas - mostly, er, "borrowed" - from American TV can do.

Cool (50cc) motorcycle, eh? Like the Zorro looking guy who is hanging out in the young girl-in-her-pajamas house!? Shonen Jet ran for 1.5 years from 1959 to 1960.

Hey! This stuff cracks me up! I like it a lot! This is going to become a regular series on this blog. I'm going to run this regularly until I find all the coolest sixties guitar themed songs I can.

Finally, may I brag? I think I am good to write this sort of thing as I used to be in some cheesy kid's dramas too in the eighties. No! Really! I was. This is me as Napoleon and Dracula in the popular eighties kid's program "Bishojokamen Poatorin." This particular episode was from 1989.

I also used to be in a bunch of other VERY embarrassing programs (much more embarrassing than even this one!) that, hopefully, will never ever see the light of day again!  

Have a great weekend!