This is an NHK documentary from 1974. The bits of Gedou are roughly from 2:20-3:15, 4:25-5:08, 5:45-6:10, and 8:40-10:19, interspersed with interviews of the festival organizers and locals.The concert was held just before the release of their first album.
The first 2 minutes are of リリィ Lily, who I always thought was a straight soft rock/folk singer.
Video: Hei No Ue De by Hatchimitsu Pie
Hachimitsu Pie is better known these days as the precursor to The Moonriders but their sole studio album pops up on a lot of top album lists in Japan. They started out as a backing band for Morio Agata, named Morio Agata Seishin Byouin (Morio Agata Mental Hospital) and then Morio Agata and Hachimitsu Pie (Japanese for Honey Pie and taken from The Beatles song). In late 1970, they shortened their name to Hachimitsu Pie as Agata got more popular as a solo act. They played often at Tokyo’s BYG club and played at the Japan Folk Jamboree in August 1971 and at the Haru Ichiban Concert in 1972. The band membership changed frequently over their career and the addition of steel guitar, violin and saxophone players made their sound quite unique for a Japanese band.
センチメンタル通り
Sentimental Street was engineered by Eiichi Ohtaki of Happy End and includes Minako Yoshida and Taeko Onuki on background vocals. Morio Agata appears as the drunken cop on the album cover. The album was greatly influenced by The Band, Little Feat and Happy End.
セカンド・アルバム – イン・コンサート (Second Album – In Concert) was released in 1988 and includes unreleased live recordings from 1972 and 1974. Agata and Haruomi Hosono appear as guest vocalists. I haven’t heard it yet so I can’t comment on it.
Ishima did some outside work during the time he was in Flower Travellin’ Band.
In the summer of 1970 (July 25 to August 31), Flower Travellin’ Band and Tenjo Saiji collaborated for the rock musical ブラブラ男爵 “BuraBura Danshaku” and performed “Peace”, which Ishima wrote the music for. The song became the opening track for the soundtrack of “Sho wo Suteyo, Machi e Deyou”, which was released in June 1971. The music for Track 5, “Oyaji Nanka Dai Kirai Da No Rock”, was also written by Ishima and I assume comes from the same earlier musical. It’s often hinted that Ishima himself played guitar on the soundtrack but the liner notes say that it was 左右栄一 Eiichi Sayuu (often romanized Sayu) of Far Out and previously of Zuno Keisatsu. The soundtrack is available over at Japanese Old Prog/Psych Rock, if you’re so inclined. Here’s a clip of “Peace” from the movie.
Speaking of Zunou Keisatsu, Ishima played on “Zunou Keisatsu 3″, released in October, 1972. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the vocals but I like tracks 1 and 2. Samples are available at Itunes Japan. (Link lauches Itunes, if you have it installed.)
Ishima also played on Hiroshi Segawa’s “Pierrot” album, which was also released in October, 1972. It’s fairly well regarded in Japan but I found it a bit bland. Track 4 is the only one where Ishima cranks it out. Samples are available at HMV Japan. It’s also available over at Japanese Old Prog/Psych Rock.
Sources
At the end of 1969, Ishima joined Yuya Uchida and The Flowers and got to put his sitar practice to quick work, as the first thing he recorded with The Flowers, Rock ‘N’ Roll Jam ’70, included him on sitar on the cover of Janis Joplin’s “All is Loneliness”. After another Joplin cover, Joe Yamanaka (though Uchida introduces him by his old name “Jou Akira”) comes out as a vocalist for a cover of “You Shook Me”. It’s obvious that Ishima was no longer a garage band guitarist and was heading for rock star status when he and Yamanaka do a nice Page and Plant call and response bit near the end of the track. After yet another Joplin cover, vocalist Dave Hirao from The Golden Cups and keyboard player Kuni Kawauchi join the band for the finale, another Zeppelin cover.
Ishima also joined Eddie Ban, Katsuhiko Kobayashi and The Happenings Four Plus One for a cover of “Boom, Boom”.
The Flowers’ performance was pretty unusual for its time. While all the songs were covers, they were smart selections and they were all quite well done, unlike most of the sappy string-filled ballads that the Group Sounds bands covered.
Samples of this album are available at Allmusic.com.
Everybody saw the new direction they were headed in. In February, 1970, The Flowers disbanded and Flower Travellin’ Band was formed.
Incidentally, it’s been mentioned else where that Ishima played with The Flowers on “Opera From the Works of Tadanori Yokoo” by Toshi Ichiyanagi but I doubt that’s the case. The album was released in 1970 but was recorded in the summer of 1968 when Ishima was still with The Beavers.
Sources
by Susumu KurosawaFlower Travellin Band broke up in April 1973 and Ishima couldn’t seem to wait to move on, as his solo album was announced the next month. He even changed the writing of Hideki from 秀樹 to ヒデキ. He gathered up a bunch of old friends for the album, including drummer George Wada and late-period keyboard player Nobuhiko Shinohara from FTB. A few friends from Ishima’s time with The Beavers were involved as well, including drummer Chito Kawauchi from The Happenings Four and ex-Spider guitarist and writer of the first Beavers single Katsuo Ono on guitar, organ and Moog. Ex-Beaver Ken Narita plays harmonica on ‘Unbalance’ and vocalist Masumi Ono from folk band Garo provides backing vocals for one song. Ishima plays guitar and bass all tracks, which include the two instrumentals ‘Unbalance’ and ‘Artificial Flowers’. He sings in English on four tracks and Japanese on the last one, ‘Trash Blues’.
Wada and Shinohara play on “We’re Just Trying My Way” and “Artificial Flowers” and they have a bit of a spacy Pink Floyd feel to them, as does “Depending by the Time”. “Lady Bird”, “Night mare” and “Trash Blues” are a bit early 70s Eric Clapton/ George Harrison. “Unbalance” reminds me a bit of Johnny Jenkins’ “Ton-Ton Macoute”.
Samples of this album are available at Tower Records’ site.
Hideki Ishima was born and raised in Hokkaido. After graduating from high school, he joined a band called Jarows. Jarows played in clubs around Hokkaido and their act featured covers by the Zombies and Them. The group’s line up in its final stage included Ishima, future Beavers vocalist Ken Narita, bassist Masaaki Ito (soon to join Sharp Five), as well as guitarist Kouji Shibata and drummer Fumihiro Kongou(?), who both went on to found The Voltage.
In 1966, Ishima and Narita left for Tokyo to join The Outlaws. Vocalist Masao Hayase had formed the band after leaving the boy band, Three Funkys and brought band leader and drummer Yukio Awamura with him. (According to Narita’s blog, he was asked to come to Tokyo by Awamura when Three Funkys visited Hokkaido. Narita answered he’d come, if Ishima could come too.) In the beginning, the band had four vocalists backed by a four-piece band but this was eventually trimmed down to Ishima, Narita, Hayase, Awamura, Masayuki Hirai on rhythm guitar and Hiroshi Arakawa on bass.
For the next year, the band played around Tokyo including the Western Carnival in January 1967. In 1966, they had a minor role and played an instrumental in a movie called Aitakute, Aitakute. When their first production company went out of business, they joined Spiderduction, which was run by The Spiders. A director at King Records was impressed by Ishima’s guitar sound, often referred to as “the seven-tone guitar sound”, and gave them a chance to record their debut album.
Right before their debut album was released in June 1967, they were told by King executives to change their name to something cuter and chose The Beavers. In total, The Beavers released 5 singles and one album before they broke up on April 1,1969.
Even at this early point in his career, Ishima had a unique guitar sound and tracks like such as “Kimi Suki Da Yo” (the solo from 1:05), “Why Baby Why” (the solo from 1:25), and “Kiminaki Sekai” (the opening and the solo from about 1:25) hint at what was to come. (Hear these tracks at Garagehangover. Or at Japanese Old Prog/Psych Rock.) The Beavers were known as “Japan’s Yardbirds” so it’s not suprising that they covered “I’m a Man” and “Over, Under, Sideways, Down” on this album. The “raga” stylings on “Kiminaki Sekai” show a debt to “Heart Full of Soul”, which was a regular in the Beavers’ live show. On another cover, Ishima replaces the piano riff and mellotron on the Stones’ “She’s A Rainbow” with his guitar.
Ishima was a bit troubled by the “raga” references, as he knew little about Indian music at the time. Immediately after the Beavers broke up, he acquired a sitar and started studying on his own using a Ravi Shankar instruction manual. In Rocks Off Vol. 5, Ishima mentions that Gabor Szabo use of sitar in jazz was a big influence on him. There are some samples of his album Jazz Raga at Last FM.
Trivia
(Trivia sections are encouraged under Golden Best Japan guidelines)
Sources
by Susumu KurosawaAfter a long search, I was finally able to track their debut album down. It is really amazing that an album that is consistently listed in Top Japanese Rock Album lists has been out of print for so long. (2002 was the last time the CD was released, I believe.)
I already had Best Gedo. (Hear samples here.) That album has a fair bit of overlap with this one. Best Gedo has “Kaori” (Track 1) and “Nigeruna” (Track 5) from this album, as well as superior versions (in my opinion) of “Byun Byun” (Track 15, though the sample just has the song introduction) and “Gedou” (Track 3). The best track on the debut album for me was “Kanryo”, which I had heard on another album (Track 22) but is much better here.
The other great thing about this album is the crowd noise. One guy can be heard shouting “Gedou, the best in the world, they’re the best in the world!” at the end of both “Kaori” and “Nigeruna”. No doubt the band agreed.
This album is great. Still, considering how difficult it is to find this album and the ridiculous prices people are asking for it, I would recommend that you get Best Gedo now and wait for Gedo to be reissued.
Incidentally, “Byun Byun” and “Nigeruna” were released as singles from this album. I heard “Nigeruna” on 70′s J-ROCK LEGENDS VOL.1 (Track 10) and it’s got horns overdubbed on it!
Here’s a video for “Kaori”. The audio is from the debut album.
Ranmadou’s story starts with guitarist Eiryu Kou 洪栄龍. (He’s the guy on the far left on the album cover above.) Kou joined a band called The Vickies as a guitarist in 1966. (A few sources claim it was 1967 or 1968 but Kou remembers The Beatles visited Japan when he was with The Vickies so it must have been before July 1966.) The Vickies were an early version of Blues Creation. In fact, when Kou left the band in August 1968 to take over his family’s business, he was replaced by future Blues Creation leader, Kazuo Takeda. Kou later briefly returned in September but then left to form a band called Blind Lemon Jefferson in April 1969. They played played at go-go clubs in Touhoku during the summer and then from September were based out of a club called ‘Apple’ in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The band broke up in late 1969. In January 1970, Kou formed Dew with singer Fumio Nunoya, who had left Blues Creation the previous December. (As far as I know, the only thing released from Kou’s time with Dew are ‘Lost Blues Days Vol.1′ (2001) on the Captain Trip label, track 6, “Tobacco Road” and 7, “Hard Luck Story”.)
In early 1971, Kou left Dew and formed Ranmadou with Yukio Saruyama 猿山幸夫 (bass), Hisao Matsuyoshi 松吉久雄 (vocals) and Toshirou Yashima 矢島敏郎 (drums). (I’m not sure about the romanization of those names.) Both Saruyama and Matsuyoshi had been in Blind Lemon Jefferson and Yashima was recommended by Kazuo Takeda. In March, they played in Gifu Prefecture and then in Kyoto in May and June, where they played at a club called ‘Cat’s Eye’ and worked up most of their original material. While in Kyoto, they opened for an early version of Flied Egg. In June, the band became a 5-piece, with the addition of rhythm guitar player Takashi Yamazaki 山崎隆史, who was a bass player for Blues Creation in 1970 and played guitar on Zunou Keisatsu’s second album, 頭脳警察セカンド. Also around this time, Ritsuo Kamimura 上村律夫 became their manager. Kamimura had connections with Hachimitsu Pie’s and Happy End’s management agency Kazetoshi. The agency managed the club ‘BYG’ in Shibuya, Tokyo and set the band up with a gig there starting in July. Kamimura also backed up the band on keyboards, along with 告井延隆 Nobutaka Tsugei on guitar. In August, they played at the sub-stage of the 3rd Annual Japan Folk Jamboree and Kou claims they were the loudest band there. (Dew also performed.)
They started recording their debut album Ranmadou
The band played at the Haru Ichiban Concert in May and four tracks were released in 2006 on the CDs from the concert
When the URC label catalog was released on CD in 1989, Ranmadou’s performance from the 3rd Annual Folk Jamboree was released as Summer 1971
Sources
The blog 無頼横町 has lots of great info about Blues Creation related bands, including Ranmadou. (Japanese)
This Blues Creation family tree is quite helpful. (English)
This Amazon Japan review for the studio album has some good info, too. (Japanese)
ロック・クロニクル・ジャパン Vol.1 1968 – 1980
日本ロック＆フォーク アルバム大全 1968 – 1979
THE DIG JAPAN Edition ROCKS OFF Vol.5
The other day, I picked up レコードマップ+CD
I knew that things had been tough for music shops in other countries but I thought that Japan would somehow be resistant to the pressure since the Japanese don’t (supposedly) download music that much. But I guess online businesses like Amazon and Yahoo Auctions, CD rental shops, casual copying and I’m sure several other factors are finally putting the smaller guys out of business.
I guess I had seen the signs. Last month I went back to where I used to live and found that one of my favorite shops had closed forever and the stock at another was looking quite anemic.
I have to admit that I have been part of the problem. Since moving to Tokyo, I’ve been getting most of my music by renting at Tsutaya and when they don’t have what I’m looking for I usually go to Amazon or an auction site.
Fortunately, the book has inspired me to head out to the shops again and I’ll post some of what I found here.
The May edition of Playboy Japan
Tucked away at the back of the article, there is a Top 10 Japanese Rock list by Manabu Yuasa (湯浅学), editor of 日本ロック・フォークアルバム大全 1968-1979, which includes a Top 100 list.
Here’s the list.
軋轢/Friction – Atsureki/Friction
Funky Monkey Baby – Carol
Satori – Flower Travellin Band
風街ろまん/はっぴいえんど – Kazemachi Roman/Happy End
ジャックスの世界/ ジャックス – Vacant World/ Jacks
外道/外道 – Gedou/ Gedou
ライブ/村八分 – Live/Murahachibu
ミサイルミー/ギターウルフ – Missile Me/Guitar Wolf
東京ワッショイ/遠藤賢司 – Tokyo Wasshoi/Endo Kenji
南蛮渡来/暗黒大陸じゃがたら – Nanban Torai/ Ankoku Tairiku Jagatara
With the title 洋楽好きもこれだけは聴いておきたい, this list is targeted to Japanese who prefer Western Rock so it might make a good starter list for Non-Japanese.
By the way, I found this magazine at Tower Records in Shibuya. I only read this article and didn’t look at any pictures. Honest!
