I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Yosui Inoue/Akina Nakamori -- Riverside Hotel
CroonerYosui Inoue（井上陽水） came up with this slow-and-sultry number in June 1982. "Riverside Hotel" doesn't bring to my mind any of those 5-star places. The melody just seems to suggest a bit of dirty dancing in a seedy cafe of a rundown hotel in a steamy locale....where the men are men, and the women are--OK, I'll knock it off here. Well, in any case, the lyrics are suggestive of a tryst at this hotel. The tune was apparently just right for Fuji-TV since 6 years after its release, the network had the song used as the main theme for the famous romance-drama, "New York Koi Monogatari"（ニューヨーク恋物語....New York Love Story) starring actor Masakazu Tamura（田村正和） (who would later become the detective Ninzaburo Furuhata).
Unfortunately, neither Wikipedia nor J-Wiki has much on this tune. I found out that "Riverside Hotel", Inoue's 18th single, had also been a track on his 10th album, "Lion and Pelican" released in December 1982. Probably the single made some inroads up Oricon but neither it nor the album cracked the Top 100 in their categories for that year.
But I did find a wee bit of trivia on Japan's Yahoo via the Q&A section for this song. Apparently, Inoue may have found some inspiration via either or both of two hotels. First, there is the Bentley Hotel in Manhattan on East 62nd St, although I think that's a pretty classy and trustworthy place according to its website. The other is a hotel from Inoue's native Fukuoka, the Hakata Riverside Hotel which seems to be a much more modest form of accommodation, and perhaps more trystworthy (I thank you).
PS January 5 2013....JTM was kind enough to let me know about a cover of this song by chanteuse Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. I thought it came from one of her 3 "Utahime"（歌姫） cover albums, but according to J-Wiki, it doesn't seem to be listed (any ideas, folks?). This is a bossa nova version, and the song benefits from that rich-as-maple-syrup voice of hers (sorry for the Canadian analogy....but I am called J-Canuck, after all :))
Thanks J-Canuck for this post on 井上陽水 and リバーサイドホテル! Awesome song (one of my favorites)and also very interesting trivia. Did you know that 中森明菜 also covered the song as well - her version has a somewhat Bossa Nova feel to it but is an interesting variation -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXAD6SIcXmQ
No problems here. I hadn't been aware that Akina covered the song. I guess it probably showed up on one of her Utahime discs? From what I've heard on YouTube, Akina has been doing some interesting covers of old kayo kyoku tunes done by Garo, Inoue and other veterans. I'll take a listen to her version of "Riverside Hotel". Thanks.
Thanks J-Canuck for this post on 井上陽水 and リバーサイドホテル! Awesome song (one of my favorites)and also very interesting trivia. Did you know that 中森明菜 also covered the song as well - her version has a somewhat Bossa Nova feel to it but is an interesting variation -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXAD6SIcXmQ
ReplyDeleteNo problems here. I hadn't been aware that Akina covered the song. I guess it probably showed up on one of her Utahime discs? From what I've heard on YouTube, Akina has been doing some interesting covers of old kayo kyoku tunes done by Garo, Inoue and other veterans. I'll take a listen to her version of "Riverside Hotel". Thanks.
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