[Joyful & lively]
No.191 "Show" by Sugar Babe
Hi. Today's song is "Show" by "SUGAR BABE".
This is a joyful and lively pop tune performed by a legendary pop-rock group, "SUGAR BABE".
A mirage like band "SUGAR BABE", which left only 1 album in the '70s, is very well known as a path-breaking rock band indicated the direction of modern Japanese popular music.
Or more importantly, it is known as a group, that some acknowledged music artists like, "Tatsurō Yamashita", or "Taeko Ōnuki" used to belong to.
If you like, please listen.
By the way, we would like to post the next song on the 24th Dec 2020, instead of regular Saturday, since the 26th is after Christmas.
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Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Show |
|---|---|
| Artist | SUGAR BABE |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | SRCL 5003 |
| Track No. | 1 |
| Duration | 3:28 |
| Released | 1975 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Tatsurō Yamashita Song writer & arranger
This song is written, composed, and arranged by a musician, "Tatsurō Yamashita", and he was also a leading member of "Sugar Babe".
"Yamashita" & "Sugar Babe" are closely linked, and almost inseparable. So, We would like to come back to him in "About the artist" section later.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Joyful & lively
This is a joyful, high-spirited, and sparkling pop song, which remind us of the opening of festival.
Rhythmic
An ensemble of the drums, bass, acoustic piano, and 2 electric guitars begin a happy & celebrative introduction.
In the main part, a fire fast play of the bongo also joins, and add a high-speed feeling.
Young Tatsurō Yamashita's charming hi-pitched vocal is worth to listen.
A cappella & Guitar solo
One distinctive feature of "Sugar Babe" sound is a beautifully harmonized a cappella chorus.
In the bridge, you can hear a excellent harmony of the chorus, sounds like sung by many singers. But it must be a over dubbing, since the backing vocalists of "Sugar Babe" were only three, namely "Taeko Ōnuki","Kunio Muramatsu", and "Tatsurō Yamashita".
The chorus arrangement was done by "Tatsurō Yamashita", so we can see the emergence of "Tatsurō" sound, which "A cappella" has been one of the key elements of it.
Just after the chorus, an interesting guitar solo, played by "Kunio Muramatsu", appears.
You might soon notice, its funny, almost stumbling, tricky passage, but it is caused by a rare sixteenth rest in each bar.
According to "Muramatsu", the idea of this catchy, but odd & grinding phrase, came from a powerful producer "Ei-ichi Ōtaki".
Players
The performing musicians on this track are as follows.
- Drums
- Akihiko Noguchi
- Bass
- Kikuo Wanikawa
- E.Guitar & Chorus
- Kunio Muramatsu
- Acoustic Piano & Chorus
- Taeko Ōnuki
- E.Guitar, Vocal
- Tatsurō Yamashita
- Bongo
- Makoto Kimura
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
SUGAR BABE Home of Tatsurō
"SUGAR BABE" is a legendary 5-piece rock group formed in the '70s.
Now, the band is famed as a vanguard of modern J-pop, and also known as a group, which produced music artists like "Tatsurō Yamashita", or "Taeko Ōnuki", who both became leaders of Japanese popular music later, and respected as the pioneers.
However, "SUGAR BABE" remained as a minor Indies group while they were actually active in the '70s.
We are not sure why, but they say because the band sound was too modern & stylish, compared with the average sound of rock at that time, which was usually more masculine.
So, the band only lasted for 3 years from 1973. They released just 1 single, and 1 album, and broke up in 1976.
But in the present day, "SUGAR BABE" is recognized as an epoch-making, and important group on Japanese popular music history. And their only album "Songs" (1975) is still popular, even among the younger generations.
So, we would like to introduce little about their history today.
As mentioned, SUGAR BABE released only 1 single, "Down Town" (1975) and 1 album "Songs" (1975) while they were active.
Due to low sales, their album was quickly discontinued, and had kept unavailable until it was first reissued in 1994 in CD format.
Actually, for the most of the listeners (including our writer), this CD of 1994 was the first appearance of the band, since the record of the first release was only sold 7,000 at that time.
After the resale in 1994, it has been constantly remastered, and reissued until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, SUGAR BABE)
Early times
A unique rock band, "Suagr Babe" had its roots in the amateur band which a middle school student "Tatsurō Yamashita" teamed up with his 3 music friends in late '60s in Tokyo.
Their band, which had no particular name, preferred to play niche American, or British rock, and also performing some original songs. And such activity lasted until the members graduated from high schools.
On the occasion of finishing the amateur band, the members decided to put out their own record on vinyl to keep a record of their days.
In the modern world, making own music CD is nothing special for any amateur bands, but in the early '70s, pressing own LP was very rare, precious, and costly attempt.
They, however, completed the recording, and received freshly pressed one hundred disks of their original LPs, titled "Add some music to your day", in 1972.
"Yamashita", and members began to visit their friends, or music shops to introduce, and possibly sell these records.
One day in November 1972, "Yamashita" visited a rock music cafè, named "Disk Chart" in Yotsuya, Tokyo, to ask them to display his record.
Fortunately, the shop manager and "Yamashita" agreed with each other, and enjoyed talking about music.
The shop manager invited "Yamashita" to a private music session occasionally held at the cafè in the night time.
"Yamashita" accepted his offer. And this episode finally led to a teaming up of "Sugar Babe".
Forming "Sugar Babe"
From December 1972, "Yamashita" began to come, and see the sessions at the cafè. And soon, he started to join, and play music with other participants, including "Taeko Ōnuki" & "Akihiko Noguchi".
While "Yamashita" was enjoying playing music with them, he developed a strong desire to start band activity again.
At the end of the day, "Yamashita" got "Ōnuki" & "Noguchi" from the session team on board.
"Yamashita" also persuaded former band members, "Wanikawa" & "Muramatsu" to join. And finally in April 1973, new 5-piece rock band, no name at this point, was teamed up.
At the same time, "Yamashita" requested the shop manager of the cafè to become a manager of the band.
The shop manager, whose name was "Yoshirō Nagato", accepted "Yamashita"'s proposal, and thanks to his participation, the band actually took shape.
Meeting with "Ei-ichi Ōtaki"
In August 1973, band manager "Yoshirō Nagato" received a phone call from "Ei-ichi Ōtaki" of that "Happy end", saying that he happened to listen "Tatsurō Yamashita & team"'s album, "Add some music to your day", and he liked it.
"Ōtaki" also said, he want to meet "Yamashita" & "Nagato", so please visit his studio in western Tokyo soon.
"Yamashita" & "Nagato" quickly came to see "Ōtaki" at his studio.
Luckily, they got along very well. Mr. Ōtaki suggested working together with "Yamashita & team"s band, which was already named "Sugar Babe", and since then, "Sugar Babe" began to take part in various activities of Ōtaki.
This was actually the beginning of the career for "Sugar Babe" as a professional band.
Debut album
After the discussion with Ōtaki, all the members of "Sugar Babe" became very busy, not only due to the works from Ōtaki, but more importantly, they were sharing a lot of time for practicing.
Because, their chorus arrangement was much technically advanced, and the required skill was so high. Then they had to practice hard for performing better harmony.
In the meantime, their plan to produce the debut album of "Sugar Babe" were finally approved & confirmed in September 1974.
"Ei-ichi Ōtaki" was named as a music producer, and from the October 1974, the recording was started under direction of him.
"Ōtaki" was known as an excellent recording engineer as well as an idea man on music creation.
So, members of "Sugar Babe" struggled to meet tough demands from him throughout the period of recording.
But thanks to "Ōtaki"'s professional works, "Sugar Babe"'s first album "Songs" achieved high quality in terms of both music & sound, and became on sale on the April 1975.
End of the history
Turning to the rock music scene in the mid '70s, it was pretty primitive, and the preference of the vast majority was more wild, masculine, and rough type sound, or wistful bluesy style.
Therefore, stylish, light, and harmonic pop rock like "Sugar Babe" was, in a sense, a total opposite of the main stream.
As a consequence, "Sugar Babe" became popular among core fans, but could not gain wider popularity. So, they were far from commercial success while they were active as a rock band.
Regardless of such situation, "Sugar Babe" continued band activities in their own pace. And they were successfully increasing their presence in the live scene.
But in January 1976, the band drummer, "Yutaka Uehara" indicated his will that he was leaving from "Sugar Babe".
By taking this opportunity, the band leader "Yamashita" suggested a break-up of "Sugar Babe" to the members, since "Uehara" was a drummer like no other for "Sugar Babe", and the band cannot perform like before without him.
The members were all aware of "Yamashita"'s complicated feeling, and therefore accepted his opinion.
"Sugar Babe"'s 3 years history finally came to an end, by the final concert held in Tokyo on the 31st March & 1st April, 1976.
After "Sugar Babe"
Among the members of "Sugar Babe", the bassist "Wanikawa" returned to a University to study, and became a business person after left from the band in 1975.
Otherwise, all the rest of the members remained in the music business.
As the first runner, "Taeko Ōnuki" released her first album "Grey sky" in September 1976, and debuted as a solo artist.
Since then, "Ōnuki" continuously released hit albums, and now, she is regarded as one of the most acclaimed music artists.
One month later, "Tatsurō Yamashita" released his first album "Circus town" from RVC.
"Yamashita" also has been keeping releasing always revolutionary, stylish albums until now. And he has been perhaps one of the most influential music artists in Japanese popular music world.
Drummer "Akihiko Noguchi" became a member of a known pop group "Sentimental City Romance" in 1975.
After left from "SCR" in 1980, he became a session drummer, and has collaborated with dozens of musicians.
"Kunio Muramatsu" started as a session guitarist after break-up, but he also released few singles and album as a singer songwriter.
He is active as an arranger, or composer as well, and has been participating in various recordings.
"Yutaka Uehara" joined few of super groups until 1984. After a short break, he become active again, and playing as a session drummer.
The unique was the bassist "Jirō Terao".
He left from the music industry after 1976, and returned to an academic society.
Since the late '80s, he began to translate caption of the movies,
In the beginning, he was mainly translating French movie, but later, he worked on English film as well.
He translated more than 200 films, and recognized as one of the leading film translators.
Finally, "Ginji Itoh".
"Itoh" had been a member only for 3 months, but a nice pop ballad "Konuka-ame", a song he left for the band, has been one of the most famous track of "Sugar Babe".
And more importantly, he was the person introduced "Tatsurō"'s private album "Add some music to your day" to Ei-ichi Ōtaki.
So, in a sense, he was a key person for the history of "Sugar Babe".
"Itoh" also became a prominent singer-songwriter, composer, and music producer after left "Sugar Babe", and having busy days even now.
Recent
So far, we have not heard any particular events, or activities associated with "Sugar Babe".
Perhaps, it's already been a history for the members of the band.
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a music video, titled "Hikari-to kimi-he-no requiem" (A requiem for light & you.), written & performed by "Tatsurō Yamashita".
Since there aren't many official video clips related to "Sugar Babe", or its members. So, this is a rare one.
"Hikari-to..." is a theme music for a 2013 film, "Hidamari-no kanojo" (Girl in the Sunny Place), and the song was exclusively created for the movie.
The film itself is a fairly orthodox love story, possibly got an inspiration from a well known Japanese folktale, "Tsuru no Ongaeshi" (Crane's Return of a Favor).
But its scenario is well modernized, and therefore, the story is much understandable, and somewhat moving.
If you have a chance, please enjoy the movie together with "Tatsurō"'s nice theme music.
Music Samples
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Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Show |
|---|---|
| Artist | SUGAR BABE |
| Album Title | SONGS |
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