Inagaki Junichi 稲垣潤一 Terminal Station 終着駅

I did a casual search and it looks like nobody has written anything about this song on Kayokyoku Plus yet so I'll give it a try.

Recently, I've listening to some old Cantonese pops from the 90s and somehow I have been hooked onto Leon Lai's (黎明) "Please don't leave tonight" (願你今夜別離去), which is a cover version of Inagaki Junichi's 稲垣潤一 Terminal Station 終着駅.  And since I grew up in Hong Kong, I knew about the covered version first and it's only around 10 years ago that I knew it was originally a Japanese song.

I don't know if this is considered a city pop but it certainly sounds like a city pop to me.  The lyrics also carries a heavy city vibe.  It's a story about a couple who bid their last goodbye at the terminal station.  However, there's an urban legend that if a couple separated at the terminal station, they'd definitely meet again one day at the starting station.  That's what the man/woman (depending on your perspective when you listen) was thinking as he/she is walking back towards the starting station, while recalling their fond memories.  Music was written by Matsumoto Toshiaki 松本俊明.  And like many of Inagaki Junichi's songs, its lyrics was written by Akimoto Yasushi 秋元康.  It was released in 1992 in the album called "Sketch of Heart".

To be honest, I actually like the arrangement of Leon Lai's covered version better, although it lost the city pop feel along with it.  Here's the covered version.  It's also the theme song of the Hong Kong TV drama "The Legendary Ranger" (原振俠) back in 1993.

Enjoy！

Keiko Matsui -- Luminescence

 

It's no big secret that I've also been a fan of jazz and fusion, and especially I get interested in some of the Japanese and Japanese-American acts that have graced both our shores. A few decades ago, I was fascinated by the light and fresh nimbleness of pianist Hiroko Kokubu（国府弘子）and in recent years, I was also fortunate enough to have discovered the multi-instrumentalist Yutaka Yokokura（横倉裕）and his dexterity with both Western and Japanese instruments.

Even more recently, I found out about Tokyo-born jazz pianist and composer Keiko Matsui（松居慶子）and I gave a listen to one of the tracks from her latest album "Euphoria", released in 2023. "Luminescence" is quite the glowing traipse through the city with Matsui's piano and her buddy instruments having quite the time together. Piano, bass, organ, percussion and horns all together for one heck of a picnic in the park on a sunny day. 

The name Keiko Matsui rang a bell with me. I did read or hear it once before and as it turns out, she has been mentioned here at "Kayo Kyoku Plus". She was once part of the young keyboard trio known as COSMOS, back when she was known as Keiko Doi（土居慶子）. Another member of the band was current composer Michiru Oshima（大島ミチル）.

TUBE -- Aquarian Girl

 

A few weeks ago, Japan had its Golden Week holidays. Well, here in Canada, we are currently in our Victoria Day long weekend so a lot of local folks here have been hightailing it out of the city over the past couple of days out to cottage country. Surprisingly, the reports have it that the ride on the highway hasn't been all that bad so far which is indeed a rare thing to hear.

It was well over a decade ago when I posted the article for good-time summer band TUBE's "Ah--Natsu Yasumi" (あ～夏休み）, their 11th single from May 1990. That was a really fun song that probably had fans and non-fans alike slavering early for the hot season, beaches and margaritas. 

In commemoration of the first big long weekend for the upcoming summer here in the GTA, I'm going with the coupling song for "Ah--Natsu Yasumi", "Aquarian Girl". A little less frenetic than the main song, "Aquarian Girl", written by vocalist Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）and composed by TUBE member Michiya Haruhata（春畑道哉）, it's still has loads of TUBE goodness and atmosphere to persuade folks to hit the beaches and the surf. From the looks of it on the J-Wiki article for the single, the coupling song has not ever made it to an album of any sort. Still, it's been popular enough to make it to concert performance status.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Kazuhiro Nishimatsu -- A Night of Blue Roses

 

Number: 058

Lyricists: Tokiko Iwatani and Hiromi Ishikawa

Composer: Kazuhiro Nishimatsu

Arrangers: Shoji Nanba and Kazuhiro Nishimatsu

From Nishimatsu's 1985 album: "Bouekifu Monogatari"

"A Night of Blue Roses", a hidden masterpiece overflowing with an international mood that intriguingly takes advantage of the robotic sounds created from its programming, is a tropical medium-tempo song with an attractively unique sense of weightlessness. With that interesting point of taking the Japanese lyrics by the one-and-only Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）and changing them into English by Hiromi Ishikawa（石川ひろみ）. it feels like 1960s Elvis Presley singing a love song, and yet it also succeeds with its additional feeling of urbaneness.

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Just for Fun...The J-C AI Gallery: Mariya, Miki and Junko Y.

 

Isn't that nice? Kayo Grace Kyoku has taken up a new hobby of creating her own art. Perhaps she has a lot of time on her hands. It would seem that I may have just a little too much time on my own hands.

As you know, for the past several months, I've been using the Bing AI art generator sometimes to come up with some pics of Kayo Grace along with the odd other picture...usually reflecting City Pop. Well, in the past few days, I was kinda thinking about what would happen if I threw in a few famous song titles into the Bing-ster. What would pop out? 

For the inaugural AI Gallery, I decided to throw in a few famous City Pop song titles but also added "...in anime style". Unsurprisingly, for two of the three results, I did get a cute anime girl in there. I tried it again last night with those two titles without the anime tag. The third title was fine enough after the first shot. So, below are five pictures and so I'm not seen as chintzy, I've also included the music.

Mariya Takeuchi -- Plastic Love

Miki Matsubara -- Mayonaka no Door ~ Stay with Me

Junko Yagami -- Tasogare no Bay City

Yasuyuki Okamura -- Bible（聖書）

 

I've been so accustomed to seeing Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸） as he is now: Japan's funkiest corporate section chief, thanks to his performance of "Viva Namida", I've had to remind myself that he was once a young buck of the 1980s.

Case in point: his 7th single all the way back in September 1988, "Bible". Written and composed by the singer with help in arrangement by the late Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）, I can readily see and hear that Okamura was all about the funk right from the beginning. And man, would you get a load of the music video with the neon designs and Okamura making like a Michael Jackson wannabe?

She was only responsible for one line in the song, but I am wondering who the lady behind that delivery was. Alas, I have yet to find out. Plus, if there were one criticism about the video, it would be that Okamura's band was turned to stone a little too early. Even for a four-minute song, "Bible" did speed by like a bullet, and you bass addicts should be able to revel in it.

Momoe Shimano -- Nemurenu Tsuki（眠れぬ月）

 

Here I was, getting ready to put up R&B chanteuse Momoe Shimano's（嶋野百恵）party-hearty "Hot Glamour" a few minutes ago, only to realize that I had already done so back in 2019. I notice that I began the article by ranting about some technical issues with Blogger; no such technical issues today with the platform but I did have to replace my computer mouse due to age this afternoon.

In any case, I wasn't going to let go of Shimano without a fight since I don't get all that much of an opportunity to post about her, and as it turns out, there is her "Nemurenu Tsuki" (Sleepless Moon) which is a track from her April 1999 debut album "5.3.1". Unlike "Hot Glamour", "Nemurenu Tsuki" is a relaxing slow jam written by Shimano and composed by Keiichiro Muto（武藤敬一朗）. I always enjoy a nice battery of mellow horns including the fluegelhorn and this is a tune for the after-party as we all cool down before sunrise Saturday.