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Double Bonus Sakamoto Night Studio – Akiko Yano
J-Pop night’s unexpected (even by me) surprise encore does science! and research.
So this post about Vanilla Mood earlier tonight included the song “Harusaki Kobeni,” which is a rather poppy song. At the time, I did a quick youtube search to find the original by Akiko Yano but had no idea what I was reading since all results came back in Japanese, and I’m too lazy an internationally famous nighttime DJ like myself doesn’t have time to mess with that sort of thing.
Enter wdydfae, who commented –
The song apparently goes back to the early 80s and was sung by Akiko Yano, backed by none other than Yellow Magic Orchestra, the milestone techno fusion band. It was quite a thing at the time.
During his research he discovered a post about the song on a site called Kayo Kyoku Plus, which explains that the song is about “enthusiastically admiring the cherry blossoms.” Enthusiastic is an understatement.. the song is so ferociously upbeat it makes last week’s relentlessly cheery songs seem like dirges –
The song was such a hit that it was used in a commercial for Kanebo Cosmetics –
So very 1981.
The writer of the KKP site relates an apocryphal story…
I found out a rather interesting piece of trivia that I’m still not totally convinced about. Yano has had professional relationships with a wide variety of Western artists ranging from Janis Siegel of The Manhattan Transfer to Thomas Dolby.There is the famous line in Dolby’s biggest hit, “She Blinded Me With Science” in which he sings, “Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto! You’re beautiful!”Apparently, Yano had been observing the recording of the song, and Dolby was referring to her, since she had been married to YMO’s Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一） at the time. This is according to J-Wiki, but at another site, Miss Sakamoto is supposed to refer to their daughter, Miyu（美雨）, who is now also a musician but was only around 1 year old when “Science”came out. Not sure if this is true or not…just throwing it out there.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11lvw_thomas-dolby-she-blinded-me-with-sc_music#tab_embed
Saturday Night Studio – Vanilla Mood
I first discovered this band 5 or 6 years ago. Then forgot about them.
“Day By Day” with Yui on violin, Mariko on cello, Waka on flute, and Keiko on piano, although Emilee has apparently sat in for Waka at times.
It’s a catchy enough tune, kinda reminds me of the Corrs a little.
They did some more classical sounding pieces like this and this, and did a cover of Volare because apparently any non-rock band is required to play it, much like how federal law required all West Coast 70s bands to have Michael McDonald sing backup vocals on at least one track per album. Beatles covers work much the same way.
These pretty women* also included Roy Orbison in their cover catalog…
This one sounds like the intro to some late 60s/early 70s comedy-variety show –
And speaking of late 60s/early 70s American television –
* Hey, I don’t write the show, I just use what the program director gives me.
Rocktober Request Line
I’m the DJ, Nightsky
Hello Baton Rouge
Won’t you turn your radio down
Respect the seven second delay we use
Internet station NSR with jazz and conversation, here til the sun comes through the skylight. Call in with Rocktober song requests or to discuss why you’re for tougher legislation.
While we wait for your calls to come in, here’s a classic uplifting song about the Disc Jockey profession –
…. it seems someone let the manager into the DJ booth again. Let’s try that again….
Rocktober – 1st Friday
Friday Night, 12:30 pm EST. Rocktober’s Friday night Videos is back –
… and begins counting down to Halloween with a request from the DJ’s wife, Rob Zombie’s Dragula!
Bonus from that great american band –
Got a request? Drop it here.
Saturday Night Studio – Xylophoning It In
….because when one thinks of rock music, one immediately thinks of \m/ xylophone \m/ !
[If flashing or flickering lights affect you negatively, don’t click some of these videos]
Xylophone has a somewhat obscure history with popular music, but it’s been quite a number of songs, especially in the 80s. Tears for Fears used it to good effect in their song “Change” –
Dig those crazy dance moves during the bridge. So 80s.
The Thompson Twins were known for skilled percussion work by Alannah Currie, including some understated xylophone in “Hold Me Now” –
They had a string of hits in the mid-80s, then just sort of disappeared. Wonder whatever happened to them?*
Rumors on the street claim that Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam snuck some xylophone into their hit song “Lost In Emotion,” but rock scientists have been unable to confirm this conclusively.
Bananarama dabbled with Xylophone in their song “Cruel Summer” –
Cops chasing the band to no avail, only to end up dancing in the streets with said band… a defining characteristic of 80s videos.
[Yes, yes, I know summer is pretty much over, and what month it is. Have some September with amusing xylophone and a gleefully abused puppet.]
Xylophone has made it into some more recent songs, such as the Pomplamoose song I cleverly snuck in above, as well as a relatively recent hit by Gotye [Warning: skinny dude who doesn’t like pants. but hey, it’s got Kimbra]. Specialists are still trying to figure out how to pronounce “Gotye” but many agree it has nothing to do with an exuberant affinity for goats.
At the end of the day, however, it appears that the all-time king hell middle-finger-to-the-world winner of rock xylophone is this classic –
Such nice, undisturbed fellows.
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According to this 2004 piece by Ace Of Spades HQ, Thompson Twinner Joe Leeway later developed an interest in politics and/or economics…
Saturday Night Studio – While My [Insert Instrument Here] Gently Weeps
One of the best-known songs by the Beatles is “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” written by George Harrison. It’s a rarity among Beatles songs in that an outsider, Eric Clapton, played lead guitar.
It’s incredibly famous, widely revered, held in high regard by the most respected and accomplished musicians and songwriters. Which is very nice, but I don’t really care. I’m pretty lukewarm about the song.
However, it’s also been covered a number of times, and this is where it gets interesting. Most Beatles covers are adequate at best and pathetic at worst. Consider the song “Tomorrow Never Knows” – how does one make an insane acid trip like that boring? Yet many have tried, with Beatle-envying wannabes Oasis taking their best shot at murdering it.
WMGGW has its share of lame covers, I’m sure, but once you start switching out the guitar for other instruments, say, the ukulele, things start to happen…
Who woulda thought a uke could rip like that?
Then we come to that ultimate 80s musical instrument, the keytar (mixed with visuals from MS Paint Adventures, for no reason discernible to me, but kinda fun anyway) –
Everybody else go home. Especially those Oasis twits. Victorious Moment indeed.
Saturday Night Studio – Walk On By
The song “Walk On By” was released in 1964, sung by Dionne Warwick. It was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, both part of the famous Brill Building group.
Her voice from 1:40 to 1:53 is a thing of wonder.
It spawned a large, nay, ridiculous number of cover versions, ranging from a 12 minute odyssey by Isaac Hayes…
…then from funk to punk with the Stranglers…
… and a version by Richard X with vocals by Deborah Evans that sounds like it was recorded next to a beachside video arcade…
{yeah, I dig that one]
… and back to radio-friendly yet very cool format by Seal in 2005 –
A very long list of covers can be found here.
Saturday Night Studio – Peter Gunns
Henry Mancini performs the legendary “Peter Gunn Theme” on the Steve Allen show circa 1983 or thereabouts, with friends Pete Candoli, Conte Candoli, Carl Fontana, Jerome Richardson, and Plas Johnson –
The iconic theme has inspired, been used, or been covered by… just about everybody, from The B-52s, to a Monty Python sketch, to a just-fooling-around Monkees version to a rather flat cover by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. I expect much hate mail from prog-rock fans, but it’s really not that great a cover. Deal with it.
There was also a beyond lame rap duo called Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, who had one hit with the atrocious “Deja Vu (Uptown Baby).” The less said, the better, except to note that they broke up after releasing exactly one single from one album. Reportedly they surrendered large amounts of money to Steely Dan for sampling their song “Black Cow” without permission. One wonders if the events are related.
Art Of Noise did their version of the song in their own very 80s performance-art style, complete with video –
I remember it being on the radio quite a lot back then, during the Golden Age of Popular Music.
250!
Post Number 250 at Night Sky Radio. With this milestone accomplishment, let the celebration commence!
All of us here at Night Sky Radio promises to continue broadcasting only the very best content online!*
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*Staff lawyers state that promises without written contracts are not binding.
Saturday Night Studio – Saint Etienne
Back again with music you likely won’t hear on other radio stations…
In the early 90s, Saint Etienne released their debut album Foxbase Alpha, which featured a cover of a Neil Young song, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” Unlike the spare, acoustic original, they went with a house music style –
Sarah Cracknell sings in the video, but on the original track the vocals were by Moira Lambert, as Cracknell had not yet joined the band on a permanent basis. Sarah did appear in one of the two videos filmed for the song, miming the lyrics. A black and white video was also recorded, with “vocals” by Lucy Golden of the short-lived band Golden.
That snippet you heard at the end of the concert vid is the next song in the set, “Method Of Modern Love.” No relation to the Hall & Oates hit from the 80s.
More songs from that show can be found on Youtube here. I rather like “Nothing Can Stop Us” –
Song – Only Love Can Break Your Heart on Amazon
Song – Nothing Can Stop Us on Amazon
Album – Foxbase Alpha on Amazon
nightskyradio 