Notes on My MOMOE PREMIUM Box Set!!!

Man, I thought I knew Momoe from that Golden Best collection, but seriously, NOTHING can compare to listening the actual albums as they originally came out, where you can enjoy and appreciate her growth as an artist in a more "real time", if you will.  From her first album "Toshigoro" to "Hana Zakari",  to her epic "Cosmos" and down to her swan song album "This Is My Trial", the MOMOE PREMIUM BOX SET has them ALL, and you hear each and every step she took from her shy Star Tanjo beginnings to the legendary "Eternal Idol" that she is!

Naturally, the MOMOE Box Set is beautifully made, as are all Japanese packaged sets of ANYTHING whether they be CDs, Movies or even (especially) tokusatsu!), I was immediately blown away by the sheer WEIGHT of it! A white Slipcover that looks to be the "coversheet" of the set, very formal and white, with the backside listing all the contents:

Opening the Box, and we are greeted with a very nice black vinyl covered slipcase holding three bound hardcover books...

The first two hardcover books were elaborate gatefold CD holders, each holding 12 discs...

Additionally, each CD was decorated with the original album label the LP was issued with. This was thrilling for Momoe's later releases where the labels were stylized, but not so big a deal for her early releases which simply featured the company logo.

In all, the Momoe Premium Set consisted of all 22 of her original album releases:

Yamaguchi Momoe's First Album "Toshigoro"

Yamaguchi Momoe's Second Album "Aoi Kajitsu"

15sai no Theme Momoe no Kisetsu

15sai no Theme Hito Natsu no Keiken

15sai

16sai no Theme

Sasayaka na Yokubō

17sai no Theme

Yokosuka Story

Pearl-Color ni Yurete

Momoe Hakusho

GOLDEN FLIGHT

Hana Zakari

COSMOS

Dramatic

Hatachi no Kinenbei Manjushaka

A FACE IN THE VISION

L. A. Blue

Haru Tsuge Dori

Mobius's Game

Phoenix Densetsu

This is My Trial

 Plus a Karaoke Disc and a single of her unreleased song

"Tokyo no Sora no Shita Anata wa".

The  thing that just topped off this awesome set was the inclusion of a very nice hardcover bound book  that featured all the artwork and paperwork usually included with each of her album releases. You got front covers, back covers, inside gatefolds, album sleeve pictures and even the lyrics sheets! They even included scans of the vinyl albums themselves! And since the book was 12'' x 12'', it was almost like having the REAL thing in your hands!

Of course, no matter how elaborate or fancy a Box Set is, it will only be as good as the actual MUSIC CONTENT itself, and OH MAN, was I IN HEAVEN! Experiencing the entire MOMOE canon for the first time was SIMPLY MIND BLOWING! From joyful discoveries like Momoe's early recordings where she amazingly did songs like Asaoka' Megumi's "Watashi No Kare wa Hidarikiki" and Finger 5's "Kojin Jugyou" to immersing myself in her later CONCEPT albums like MOEBIUS' GAME, PHOENIX DENSETSU, and COSMOS, she was constantly surprising me with each disc, and my admiration for her just kept growing and GROWING! This was a purchase WELL WORTH THE PRICE!!!

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  

PS: I was to later find that though the Momoe Premum Box Set claimed to be the “Complete” Momoe collection, somehow, somebody overlooked her 45’s output, and  the box set DIDN’T contain any of her singles or B sides! To rectify the situation, they later simply released a Single Momoe Premium ADDENDUM to take care of that gap. That is, ONE MORE SET I need to get! It seems that even after all this time, I’m STILL going treasure hunting, in search of the magic chalice! Back to those Yahoo Japan Auctions and Otokichi Premium…!


6/13/11/Edit: Yatta! Finally Got It!

The Original Ayu: Ishida Ayumi

いしだ あゆみ

I first fell in love with beautiful actress Ishida Ayumi when I watched her in the 1998 jdorama "Kita No Kuni Kara” . Then, by chance, watching an old Kouhaku from around 1994 or so, I saw Ayumi performing a song called “Blue Light Yokohama”, and was taken aback by her stage presence as well as the catchy tune she was singing! At the time I assumed she was an actress who decided to release an album (as many actors and actresses do!) as a one-shot venture, rather than the other way around! Little did I know just how famous Ayumi and Blue Light Yokohama was!

 Actress turned Singer, Singer turned Actress, or simply a well rounded celebrity capable of both? In any case, it was watching the country drama with that hummable Masashi Sada song where I totally flipped for Ayumi.  Her character Reiko was supposed to be the “townie” wife of “country” husband played by Kunie Tanaka, and she would always be seen in the prettiest dresses and always looked so damn classy. Too bad she was the deserter of the kids! Bad Ayu!

 I remember thinking that this japanese actress reminded me a lot of Audrey Hepburn somehow, and when I described Ayumi as the Nihon equivalent of Holly Golightly to a friend, she immediately could see what I was talking about!

In fact, whenever she saw Ayumi Ishida on a show or clip in later years, she would always say, “Hey, that Audrey Hepburn actress you like was on the other night!”

Gorgeous Ayu!

That “Audrey Hepburn” actress was more than “liked” by me, and for a while there, it became sort of an obsession to get any footage of Ayumi I could find! I mean, I would rent movies with Ayumi Ishida in them, even though they didn’t have subtitles!  What  I would do is isolate all the scenes with Ayumi in them, and dub them onto my own VHS copy. That way, I could re-watch all her scenes and revel in her beauty over and over again, and heck with the storyline! I ended up filling tapes and tapes of these Ayumi-biased edited movies, invaluable to me, and completely worthless to anyone else!

Still, it must be said that throughout this entire time, I still didn’t really know that Ayumi had been any more famous than what I knew of her then, with occasional movies and an appearance or two on music shows. Not that I really thought about it, but I kind of had this vague idea she came out onto the scene around 1980 or so. The oldest movie I rented was from I think 1981, and even then I thought it was a pretty old film. The original series of Kita No Kuni Kara (another series I rented without subs) also came out around this time, so I really thought this was her "breakout" period. Silly Me!

 My first inkling that there was more history to Ayumi than I thought was when someone listed all the performances of singers on the NHK Kouhaku. She’s been on the show way more times than I thought, and was surprised to see she had appeared in as many as 10(!) Kouhakus over the years, and had to ask myself, “How LONG has Ayumi Ishida been around?!”

  Although I now knew she'd been around since at least the mid seventies, the definitive answer came when some Japanese Special (can’t remember if it was the Kouhaku or the Recordo Taisho, though) put together classic performance montages throughout the show featuring artists like Hibari Misora and Amachi Mari, and there amidst the barrage of songs, I saw a clip of Ayumi Ishida performing “Blue Light Yokohama” in...1969! SUGOI!

   MAN, I’d always thought Ayumi was as pretty as a gal could get, and was totally unprepared for how gorgeous a 20 year old version of her could be…She was just flat out incredible! My friend called me up, and exclaimed, “Did you see that Audrey Hepburn lady you like on the show? She just looked amazing!”, To which I gushingly replied, “HELL YEAH!” I went on to gush about how she looked like Jessica Claus from that Rankin/Bass special “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” come to life! And from me, that’s a compliment!

Jessica and Ayumi?

 With the advent of YOUTUBE, I’m now able to watch all of Ayumi’s classic performances at my fingertips, and I have to say, with each new television appearance or music clip I see, she is still reminding me that she's one of the most attractive women ever! IMHO, She belongs right up there with Audrey Hepburn and Jaclyn Smith...she just exudes total class! Poring over the mass of Ayumi clips, I can feel that old obsession coming back again!

Hmmm, time to break out those old edited tapes!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Koizumi Kyoko / My Sweet Home

After falling in love with Tomoko Yamaguchi in the incredible drama Long Vacation, I was eager to check out some of her earlier dramas, and my friend met my request with a quirky drama called “Sweet Home”.

This drama was a fun show to watch- it’s about Tomoko trying to get her child into a upscale elementary school, but to do that, she will have to overcome the obstacles of a domineering teacher (played by Tomoko’s co-star in Double Kitchen,Yoko Nogiwa) and an apathetic husband!

The theme song was the wonderfully lush “My Sweet Home” by Koizumi Kyoko, and here’s where the rub comes in! It seems the reason my friend had the series on VHS tape was that he’d taped it for his parents who had gone on some extended trip and didn’t want to miss the drama! Unfortunately, in the interest of saving space on the tapes (not to mention the fact that his mother would have just fast-forwarded over the credits, anyway), he cut out each and every opening theme! :)

The way each episode began was with a 5 minute-or-so teaser which would have its punchline, then- poing! the title would ”stamp” on the screen,and then it would segue into the theme song… it was heartbreaking to see about 2 seconds of the song before it would unceremoniously cut and go directly to the show!

Not that I’m really complaining, mind you…if it wasn’t for this chance of my friend taping the show in the first place would I have ever seen the show, period! So thanks for “Sweet Home”, braddah, and thanks for all the fish…

Favorite J-pop Singles: Hirose Kohmi / Shiawase Wo Tsukamitai

I was introduced to the world of j-pop through Pony Canyon artists CoCo and the spin-off solo artist ventures such as Miura Rieko and Senou Azusa.
One of the very first non-Pony Canyon/CoCo related j-pop artist I ever heard was Hirose Kohmi, and what an introduction it was! Performing her earth shattering single “Shiawase Wo Tsukamaetai”, Kohmi immediately floored me by her ferocious take on the song, and I quickly knew that I was going to be buying more of her stuff soon!
As I got more involved with Hirose Kohmi’s songs and performances, I realized that among other things, She was way outta left field, a real eccentric performer, or, as J-pop buyer Dave once said, “She’s Weird”.
Another artist that will appear many times on my Favorite j-pop singles list!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Sakai Noriko / Aoi Usagi

The first song I ever knew from Sakai Noriko, from the wildly popular Hoshi No Kinka series, starring Sakai as a deaf-mute nurse trying to win back the love of her amnesiac fiancee. (Wow, this just spells out Soap Opera drama, doesn’t it?!)

Best performance of this song for me just has to be the 1995 Kohaku Uta Gassen(yes, THAT Red and White, again!) where she hand-signed along with the song , man, it was like an art-form, so beautiful!. Noriko herself looked pretty fine, too!

One of the first major songs I've ever loved from j-pop, and the opening piano notes will always take me right back to those days...a sad, melancholy song befitting the sad, melancholy drama it was from!

Hoshi No Kinka would go on to spawning a sequel (which also starred Sakai and featured her song Kagami No Dress as its theme) AND a reboot series, as well!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Fukuyama Masaharu / It’s Only Love

The first song I ever knew from Fukuyama Masaharu was the single “Hello”, but it wasn’t until I got a chance to see him performing two older classics on Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ that I got to hear what would be my favorite song from him!

Along with the cool “Melody”, Fukuyama also performed fan favorite single “It’s Only Love”, a song that first caught my attention as a Beatles’ Tune title, then really caught my ear with the powerful beat and melody, with his sincere singing! I was hooked!

There are about three songs from Masaharu Fukuyama that I really love trying to sing at Karaoke, including “It’s Only Love”, “Heart”, and the rocking (but wacky) “Peach!!”, making him one of the BIGGER J-pop Single successes here!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Matsuda Seiko / Kagayaita Kitsetsu e Tabidatou

What can I say here that I haven’t already blathered on and on before? This is just my hands down favorite single from the once and future j-pop queen, Matsuda Seiko!
The first time I laid eyes on the legendary Seiko Matsuda was performing one of her popular medleys for the 1995 Red and White Song Festival, and I have to say that my first impressions of her were totally NOT what I expected! Somehow, I thought I'd see someone with more of a stand-offish personality like Barbra Streisand, and though she CAN have that effect some of the time, for THIS night anyway, she was channeling the spirit of an elementary school girl! I was charmed!
But the hits didn't stop there! On that same tape was yet another performance from Seiko,(from the 1994 Red and White)  but THIS time, though still as playful as a kid, somehow, THIS ensemble was SEXY as HELL!!! Dressed as an angel of sorts, Seiko's mischievous attitude seemed more like the sweet devil, and I was BLOWN AWAY!
The song was called Kagayaita Kisetsu  E Tabi Datou, and MAN! Talk about someone enjoying their performance- Seiko was  beaming from ear to ear here, and her energetic dancing made the totally catchy pop tune all the more infectious! I watched that song over and over again, and to this day, it's STILL my favorite performance of this song!
Once you've seen her performing this onstage dressed in a heavenly gown complete with strap-on angel wings and scampering around like a 15 year-old girl, you know you can never go back! Never.

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Zard / Nemurenai Yoru O Daite

By the time ZARD released their seventh album TODAY IS ANOTHER DAY, I was a MAJOR fan of their work, and made it a point to track down just about every abum  and Cd single that I could! All their albums were top-notch, but (for me, anyway) the three albums that really stood out were the aforementioned TODAY IS ANOTHER DAY,  their frist album proper MOU SAGASANAI, and what must be their finest album  of all, HOLD ME!

HOLD ME works on so many levels, it has so many of my favorite ZARD tracks here, and what holds the whole thing together and makes it a tight, concise piece is the way the songs are strung together and of course , the most important thing: a KICK-ASS beginning song , and that’s EXACTLY what  “Nemurenai Yoru O Daite” is!!! From its awesome majestic keyboard opening to the droning chugging of the guitars and powerful drum beats, this was a ZARD single par excellence!

 Besides being one of my all-time favorite songs from ZARD (along with the similar sounding  “Fushigi Ne” and “My Friend”), Nemurenai Yoru O Daite also has the distinct status of being one of only a few songs ZARD ever performed, and so when we saw the clips of them performing it on the MUSIC STATION 10 Year Anniversary Special, we went nuts!

In later years ZARD would actually go out and tour, but at the time seeing her singing on any TV shows was almost unheard of! It was thrilling enough just to see the band moving around  and playing onstage, but additionally, Izuki Sakai looked so damn pretty, we could hardly stand it! And so we watched those clips Over. And. Over. Again!

PS: Hahaha, Just noticed that during the interview part of the show, you can see Reiko and the rest of the CoCo girls behind the hosts! Ah, these really were the Golden Days!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Nishida Hikaru / C'mon, C'mon, C'mon

The theme song for the wacky drama Natsu! Depart Monogatari starring Tatsuya Yamaguchi of TOKIO fame as the bumbling but hard working department store clerk whose dream is to become a first rate employee and date the daughter of the company, played by Hikaru Nishida!

Though this show was fun and entertaining, I must warn anyone wanting to check this drama out for the sole purpose of seeing Nishida Hikaru: She 's hardly in it at ALL! Far from what you might think by the promotional picture. (above) Hikaru only appears at random points in the show to smile at or encourage Yamaguchi as he bumbles earnestly through the latest problem! Sigh...but she does look nice when she's onscreen!

C'mon, C'mon, C'mon (or rather, C'mon3, as it's REALLY titled) played during the ending credits as the cast members all gathered together at the beach to play volleyball, followed by the TOKIO song “Soko Na Shi Love” as the previews for the next week’s episode ran...

Maybe it was the visual of the kids playing volleyball and having fun or the sheer poppiness of the song, but this tune always seemed like a really “genki” song, sure to put a smile on your face!

A nice bonus to picking up the C’Mon3 single was the c/w song called “Go Beep”, which is a great, catchy little song she performed live on the “Live 2-4” tour that isn’t available on any album!

Below: Behind The Scenes via BOMB Magazine:

BOMB really was CHOCK full of good stuff for the budding J-pop/Idol enthusiast!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Field Of View / Totsuzen

Theme song from the 1995 Pocari Sweat campaign! Another terrific song  written by the late Izumi Sakai of ZARD, and you can find her version on the terrific TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY album.
ZARD's version is an airy and sweet song, quite a different feel from this incredible gothic, chorus-laden version...Field Of View sure knew how to arrange and produce their singles for maximum effect, ne!
Field of View had already sung the absolutely pop-perfect KIMI GA ITAKARA, another great song by ZARD and subsequently another great single from Field Of View! Both songs were performed by the boys when they appeared as Music Champs on Hey! Hey! Hey!

PS: No, You're not imagining things...this post is an almost exact replica of Field Of View's previous post! AHAHAHAHA

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Mizuki Arisa / Promise To Promise

Theme song from the drama/comedy NURSE NO OSHIGOTO, starring Mizuki herself as the klutzy nurse-in-training Asakura, this was a show that started off as wacky and zany as could be, but somehow always seemed to end each episode on a somber/poignant note. And that's a good thing, too, because Promise to Promise just has to be one of Arisa's most beautiful songs, a dreamy tune that makes one feel thoughtful and lonely (at least, that the effect if always had on ME) and it just wouldn't have matched with those early scenes of Asakura dropping needles all over the floor for comedic effect! (and in these days of malpractice and lawsuits, I wonder who the heck would think this was funny anyways! AHAHAHAHA)

The wacky scenes were VERY wacky, and yet, the serious episodes were REALLY  touching, and after it was over, I remember making a copy of the series for my friend Golden, who watched Asakura zanily banging around the Hospital and dropping medications for about 10 minutes before turning off the tape and giving it back to me!


I told him, 'But it gets better! Trust me, only the openings of the episodes are crazy- This is a REALLY GOOD drama! But he just couldn't make it through the silliness and shrugged his shoulders! AHAHAHAHA!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: L<->R / Knocking On Your Door

Theme song for the extremely funny and heartfelt drama BOKURA NI AI O! (Give Us Love!!) starring Eguchi Yosuke, Takeda Shinji and Suzuki Anju (looking particularly yummy here!)

Eguchi runs a dilapidated rooming house filled with equally dilapidated boarders (among them the always quirky Kokubun Taichi of TOKIO!), but he find a goal to strive for when cutie stewardess Anju Suzuki and friends move into next door’s fancy hotel.

Whenever I hear this song, I can’t help picturing the opening credits for the show… so wacky, they've even got Eguchi and the gang lip-synching to the song, happily playing away on instruments and dancing as the credits rolled!

Arg, another song I tried once upon a time (very unsucessfully) to sing at karaoke...

Favorite J-pop Singles: Nakayama Miho and WANDS / Sekaijuu no Dare Yori Kitto

Watching this live video the other night, I was surprised to realize that I hadn't written up something in honor of this awesome single earlier, and in fact, I had to go through my pages one by one to make sure I didn't, 'cause I sure THOUGHT I did!


Taking the solid rock beats and vocalising of group WANDS (whom I've written about before here) and adding the sweet, sweet vocals of petite Miss Nakayama, and you had SUCH an INSPIRED winning combination! Already known to me just by word of mouth, I finally got to see a MUSIC STATION performance of this song, and MAN, was I hooked! The band sounded great, but of course what really sold it was cute li'l Miho, and she had this certain stance that she took during this song, one foot in front of the other, arms crossed and gently bumping along with the rhythm of the tune...!

I've gotten quite a few performances of Miho doing this song since, and it's neat that she takes that killer pose in each and every one of them! Not to mention lookin' pretty as heck!

Kohaku Uta Gassen 2007

Nakai and Shofukutei, note Sayumin looking adorable as heck in the background!

 Well, I have to say that this yer's Kohaku Uta Gassen (or, rather, the Red and White Song Festival) was a pretty straight forward event, and resonated (at least with me) as about as average on the whole scale of Kohakus, anyway. I should have known things would be  meh when I saw that for the first time, they were gonna use two GUYS as the Red and White Captains, respectively Nakai Masahiro for the Red (Female) Team and Tsurube Shōfukutei for the White (Male) Team. How off is THAT?

Apart from that diversion from the traditional, the show went off without hitch and there were a few acts I thought stood out for me...

The Princesses and the Queen:

Morning Musume started the show with an explosion of girlish playfulness...and then Kenichi Mikawa followed with this year’s example of excessive gaudiness! 

 

 

Once again, the Kohaku proved that Enka is still alive and well, and like last year, Yoko Nagayama did her always fierce performance of "Jonkara Onna Bushi", rockin' that Shamisen while growling out those lyrics and delivering the steeliest gaze ever...

And they had cute young girl groups backing up the seasoned pros, this time with Shoko Nakagawa and AKB48 backing up Natsuko Godai...

Kohaku Regulars TOKIO were back again, this time performing their rocker "Seisyun", that cool little theme song from the terrific Nagase Tomoya/Aibu Saki drama "Utahime"...

Nakamura Mitsuko was the one to ring in the “matsuri” stage…

The Shakalabbits- flavoured Mihimaru GT roused the crowd

WaT did their best Simon and Garfunkel….

We had the reunion of Kiyoshi Maekawa and Cool Five…

Enka goodness with Kaori Kozai

We got a TREAT with the reunion of the awesome KOME KOME CLUB, back in rare form performing their old classic hits like Kimi Ga Iru Dake and Roman Hikou!

Ai Otsuka came on to deliver the funniest, zaniest and most eccentric performance of the night, with the bouncy fun "Chu-Lip"!

K-pop Diva BoA wows! 

And speaking of WOWing, even Kimutaku can’t hide his awe at the epic pyrotechnics of Satomi Kobayashi!

 

A softer side of Kumi Koda...

A strangely ghoulish performance by Mika Nakashima…

Ayumi Hamasaki knocks it out of the park as usual

While Gackt does his Taiga Drama performance (in full get-up!!!)

Next we had 80's veteran Noriyuki Makihara come on, but wasn't his performance of his song "Green Days" that did it for me as much as the admiring gaze of adorable Yui Aragaki watching over him as he sang the theme to the drama "Love and Farm"...

Gakky watching Makihara perform

...she approves!

Speaking of which, there was not one but TWO cuties on the judges table this year, with not only Yui Aragaki, but Aoi "Atsuhime" Miyazaki in attendance!

 

 

For me, the absolute highlight of the evening was the incredible performance of "Winding Road" by the smooth sounds of Kobukuro duetting with the stellar vocals of singer AYAKA, man, such a  great song, such a COOL delivery, I loved it! Ah, and wasn't Ayaka just sooooooo PRETTY?! YES!

What Kohaku can be complete without seeing Saburo Kitajima with confetti in his hair (and,occasionally, in his mouth)?

But they seem to be shuffling around the younger acts in recent years, and instead of Saburo Kitajima, we had acts like the mighty Dreams Come True as the penultimate act...

...And having SMAP close the Red and White is definitely something I’ll have to get used to…. 

All in all a fun time!
Well, that was about it for me, We'll see what they come up with NEXT year!