Akiko Yano - Kuma (1976)

Akiko Yano is singer, songwriter, pianist, composer, translator, essayist and more all rolled into one. Described in her biography as "one of the most famous people you've never heard of", in her lengthy career as an artist she has recorded over 25 albums, only three of which have been commercially released in the U.S.

"Kuma" is taken from Yano's 1976 debut entitled Japanese Girl. Largely recorded in Los Angeles while she was only 21, Japanese Girl features the session work of Little Feat, whose founding members both played in Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention. Also backing Yano on the album are two members of Japanese folk-rock group Happy End: guitarist Shigeru Suzuki and a pre-Yellow Magic Orchestra Haruomi Hosono. In fact, Yano was married to Y.M.O.'s Ryūichi Sakamoto for over twenty years before the two finally divorced in 2006. Y.M.O. fans might recognize her as the female vocalist on the groups' 1980 single, "Nice Age", not to mention the countless tours on which she supported the band on keyboards.

As for the music on Japanese Girl, the collaboration of such a diverse group of musicians creates a uniquely Japanese blend of Western music that is equal parts jazz, pop, folk, and rock. A shakuhachi can be heard beneath the pentatony of a slide guitar in the song's opening notes, a juxtaposition that may serve as metaphor for the entire concept of the album. And as with much of the music on Japanese Girl, "Kuma" is at once ear-pleasing yet challenging in its rhythmic complexity; this polymetric slow jam shifts from a lulling 3/4 to a brisk 5/8 and back without loosing its cool in the least. The same flexibility can be said of Yano's ability in her songs to switch between Occidental and Oriental musical sensibilities, as the album itself is actually divided into American and Japanese sides.

Download:
Akiko Yano - Kuma
矢野顕子 - クマ

Kyū Sakamoto - Sukiyaki (1961)

With our first MP3 posting, we head straight to the classics...

Better known by its title in America, "Sukiyaki", Kyū Sakamoto's 1961 hit "Ue O Muite Arukō" took two years to hit the West after its debut in Japan. It was covered in the U.K. by Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen under the altered title and was so-named when the original version was released by Captiol Records in the States.

Sakamoto was an influential singer and songwriter in the late 50s and 60s, and served as a young voice for a generation of Japanese pop musicians. He was only 43 when he died in a plane crash in Gunma Prefecture on August 12th, 1985.

"Sukiyaki" remains the first and only Japanese-language song to ever hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100, as it did so June 15th, 1963. Since then, the song has become a standard in and outside of Japan and has been covered by hundreds of artists, most notably in America by A Taste Of Honey (1981) and 4 P.M. (1995), whose versions both made it to the Billboard Top 10.

Though its cheerful marimba work and upbeat whistling solo may deceive the English-speaking listener, "Ue O Muite Arukō", which literally translates to "look up while walking", is a ballad of heartbreak and loss. The lyrics describe a lonely protagonist who looks to the sky so that tears will not fall from his eyes.

Download:
Kyū Sakamoto - Ue O Muite Arukō (a.k.a. "Sukiyaki")
坂本九 - 上を向いて歩こう

And here's an early music video of "Ue O Muite Arukō" found on YouTube:

ようこそ!

Showa OK! is an audioblog devoted to archiving rare and forgotten Japanese pop gems of the Shōwa period (1926-1989). Our goal is to introduce to the English-speaking listener iconoclastic popular music from Japan, focusing primarily on outstanding songs that tend to stray from the prevailing musical aesthetic of their time. We hope you enjoy the sounds we have to share!