[Thrilling & mellow]
No.232 "Ride on seaside" by Piper
Hi. The song we would like to introduce to you today is, "Ride on seaside" by "Piper".
Cool & thrilling urban Pop-rock "Ride on seaside" is a song released in 1983 by a 3-piece rock band "Piper".
"Piper" had been treated almost as a phantom rock band for a long time. But since there albums has been reissued in 2018, they suddenly began to receive attention.
Interestingly, the fans "re-discovered" them first were not the Japanese fans, but they were music fans in overseas.
In fact they know the value of Japanese pops a lot more than we do quite often. And the band like "Piper" might be one of the typical cases.
If you like, please listen to.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
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Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Ride on seaside |
|---|---|
| Artist | Piper |
| Album Title | Gentle Breeze |
| Catalog Number | RATCD-4409 |
| Track No. | 2 |
| Duration | 4:23 |
| Released | 1983 |
| Publisher | Yupiteru Records |
| Lyricist | Keisuke Yamamoto |
| Composer | Keisuke Yamamoto |
| Arranger | Piper |
About the creators
Keisuke Yamamoto Lyricist & Composer
The Lyricist & composer, "Keisuke Yamamoto" is also a member of the performing band of this song.
So, We would like to come back to him in "About the artist" section later.
References
For more details on "Keisuke Yamamoto", please have a look at the references linked below.
Piper Arranger
The arranger, "Piper" is also the performing group of this song.
So, We would like to come back to them in "About the artist" section later.
References
For more details on "Piper", please have a look at the references linked below.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Some notes on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Thrilling & stylish
This is a thrilling, and mellow synth pop in a fast 16 beat rhythm.
Refreshing & mellow
Accurate, dry, and cool drum sound, the bass, the percussions, brass synth, and the electric guitar begin a light & thrilling introduction.
In the main part, a cool and mellow sound of the electronic piano also join, and accompanies the main vocal. And the bass plays vibrant & dynamic phrases skilfully.
And a vibrant & dynamic sound of the bass, and sunny, rhythmic, and tropical percussions also drive the music forward.
"Yamamoto"'s guitar solo appearing in the bridge is also nice.
About the artist
Piper Pioneering urban lightest Pop-rock group
"Piper" is a 3-piece Pop-rock band formed in 1981, by taking over the position of its precursor band "Skunk" which the 2 of 3 members of Piper used to belonged to, and debuted as professionals.
"Piper" was most active from 1981 to 1985, and they had three members in large part of this period. So. we are calling them "3-piece" band, though it had 5 members in the beginning.
The group had been dormant since 1986 until 2018, but we have never heard their break up, or getting back together.
So, they were just inactive? Perhaps.
Except for ardent fans, the rock group "Piper" had long been forgotten, since the record company, which released the most of their albums, was bankrupted in 1984.
Because of this, no albums of them had been relaunched until 2018, (except for the 5th album "Lovers Logic" relaunched in 2006, since it was released, and managed by a different record company & publisher.)
That may be why.
"Piper" debuted in 1981 with their first album, "I’m not in love". Since then, 5 singles, and 5 original, and 1 best album have been released until now.
Early times
"Piper" is more or less a group primarily led by a guitarist "Keisuke Yamamoto", and the history of the band is closely linked with the career of him.
Then, we would like to place him at the center of this section, and begin the article by writing about "Yamamoto".
But having said that, the information about him is not a lot on the internet.
So, we would like to make a simple summary by seeing various small articles available on the internet space.
There is almost no information about the early period of "Keisuke Yamamoto", but he started his professional career in 1980 at the latest, as a member of a Pop-duo "Skunk", with their debut song. "Lovely night" in urban disco touch.
The fellow member at "Skunk" was "Jōji Hikita", who became an original member of "Piper" in 1981.
Interestingly, the Pop-rock "Skunk" released only one single record.
And already in 1981, "Skunk" changed the band name to "Piper", by adding three more members, namely "Takashi Shima" (Kb), "Hiroshi Ōshima" (Dr), and "Yoshiyuki Kumaki" (B).
In the same year, a newly formed Pop-rock group "Piper" released a stylish and mellow their first album, "I'm Not In Love" by having powerful supports from various expert musicians.
But before too long, the three of five members, namely " Hikita", "Ōshima", and "Kumaki" decided, and announced to leave the band.
And from this point, "Piper" moved to the next phase.
New "Piper"
To replace the left three members, a bassist "Wataru Itoh" was newly joined, and the 2nd generation "Piper" was newly started as a Pop-rock band with three members, namely, "Keisuke Yamamoto", "Takashi Shima", and Wataru Itoh.
Because, the members of New "Piper" were guitarist, keyboardist, and bassist, so they became a rare "Drumless" band.
To cover this week point, the group positively, and aggressively utilized drum machine, or rhythm box, by inviting programming expert like "Yuji Triyama" sometime.
As a result, it created a characteristic, very much "Piper" like light and stylish Pop-rock sound.
Fulfilling
New "Piper" suddenly increased its activity level, and began to boost the release of albums.
From 1983 to 1985, they released 4 albums in two years. And we think it was the best period of the band.
In May 1983, the group released a half instrumental Pop album, "Summer Breeze" as their 2nd LP.
It was a light, refreshing, and tropical nice album, and had some reminiscent of the early period of "Masayoshi Takanaka" who is a very popular Rock-Fusion guitarist since the '70s.
Luckily, the album was well accepted, and the group picked up momentum further.
Only 5 months later, the band released their 3rd album "Gentle Breeze", which we are introducing one of its song today.
Airy, stylish, and thrilling album with resort atmosphere is the one which we feel the most typical of "Piper".
One more topic on this album is its impressive album art featuring a fire engine in winter forest.
Surprisingly, this fine photo was taken by "Tamori" (Kazuyoshi Morita) who is a multi-talented, and national popular MC, Comedian, or TV character.
At the point of 1983, "Tamori" was still a rapidly rising, but already one of the most popular MC & TV charactor.
But as long as we know, he had never been a commercial photographer, and therefore, this seems to be the only music album "Tamori" contributed with his photo.
So, we really have no idea why such miraculous encounter happened.
(According to a reference, "Tamori" seemed to have taken this photo in 1982 when he was working with a famed photographer "Shinpei Asai" for filming a movie.)
The 3rd phase, and go to dormancy
In 1984, the 4th album of "Piper", "Sunshine Kiz", which was also nice, was launched.
After a while, the group decided to move the record company to new one, since the one they belonged to went bankrupted.
And in this occasion, the bassist "Wataru Itoh" decided to leave the band, and his position was replaced by "Kosuke Yamamoto" who was also a bassist, and a younger brother of "Keisuke Yamamoto".
Then in 1985, the band released the 5th album "Lovers Logic" from a new label "Moon".
Lively & energetic sound more than ever, was achieved by hiring human drummers instead of machines.
And some people praised this album as the best of them.
However, unexpectedly, this album has been the last album of "Piper" at least until now, since the group stopped their activity as a band, after released the 5th album.
And their dormant period lasted until 2018, when the most of their old albums were reissued from "Vivid sound" label.
And the members returned back to solo activities until that day.
Kazuhito Murata
While at the same time, we cannot forget to refer to the name of the great musician who cooperated, or worked together closely with "Piper" throughout its history.
The musician participated in the most of the recordings of the albums of "Piper" as a backing chorus since 1983.
And greatly contributed to make their albums far more stylish and refreshing.
The man was "Kazuhito Murata".
"Kazuhito Murata" was a well-known, and very popular singer-songwriter who were good at writing, or performing Pop-rock songs with resort, coast, and summer atmosphere.
And since the debut in the early '80s, he had actively collaborated with various musicians like "Tatsurō Yamashita", "Mariya Taleuchi", "Atsuko Nina", "Miyuki Kōsaka" and etc as a backing vocalist, or songwriter.
When "Murata" debuted in 1982, a rock group "Piper" was becoming 1 year old, since they debuted in 1981.
"Murata" already had known "Piper" at the point of his debut, and was valuing the skill and music sense of "Keisuke Yamamoto" highly.
We do not know how "Murata" approached to "Yamamoto", but he requested "Yamamoto" to be a guitarist of his band if possible, in a straight forward way.
"Yamamoto" accepted his request, and became an ace guitarist of the "Murata band".
And simultaneously, "Murata" became a backing vocalist of "Piper".
From this point, their music partner-ship started.
"Piper" & "Murata band" became as if they were parallel groups, having "Yamamoto", "Murata" and "Hirotsugu Koitabashi" as the core.
And for more than 30 years, they developed their trusts as the peers.
"Yamamoto" as a solo
While his band "Piper" was inactive, "Yamamoto" also returned to a solo musician like other members of the group.
He energetically played his guitar as a studio musician, or a member of backing backing band in various opportunity.
But because he was a member of "Murata Band", Yamamoto shared fair amount of time to work together with "Kazuhito Murata".
Since "Murata" was a very popular Pop singer, and "Yamamoto" naturally took part in many recordings and concert tours of him.
And it did not take that much time for "Yamamoto" to become an indispensable music partner for "Murata".
In 1986, "Yamamoto" & "Murata" went to "Kansai" to hold an audition hosted by Moon records, to discover new talents who possibly form a group with them.
Two amateur singers with potential, namely, "Eri Hiramatsu", and "Tsukasa Nishi" were selected.
And four of them formed a new Pop vocal group, "Honey and B-Boys".
In 1987, "Honey and B-Boys" released their first, and only album "Back to Frisco" which was recently remastered & reissued in 2019.
And by taking this opportunity, "Hiramatsu" & "Nishi" started a professional career.
And particularly fortunately for "Hiramatsu", she became a well-known pop singer with a few of her remarkable hit songs in the early '90s.
In addition to his current job as a player, "Yamamoto" took up the post of an instructor at Shobi music college in 2000s, like "Murata" was doing before him.
And he is training up the musicians of new generation in the school at the moment, as an expert guitarist with solid experience.
Revival & Recent
"Yupiteru record", the issuer of the albums of "Piper", went bankrupted in the mid '80s.
And this fact was making the reissue of their albums very difficult, since the copyright issues were so complicated.
But there was one music writer, and an ardent fan of "Piper". He was wishing to make the reissue of their albums come true, particularly the ones released in "Yupiteru" period.
He not only fostered momentum of reissuing in the fandom, but actually dedicated himself to solve those complication, by coordinating the issues between concerned parties.
And in 2018, the four albums of "Piper" released in "Yupiteru" period were finally reissued from "Vivid sound corp".
And surprisingly in 2020, for the first time in "Piper"'s history, their albums were launched in the United States.
Thanks to a re-discovering movement of Japanese urban & mellow pops, it is said the albums are enjoying good results.
Synchronizing with those, the members of "Piper" reunited, and holding compact scale live concerts in the venues around Tokyo.
And in 2022, the first best album of "Piper" titled "Piper cool selection" has launched by "Steps records" in CD, and digital music format.
References
For more details about "Piper", please have a look at the references linked below.
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(Ref: ameblo.jp/slow-room-hiramatsu/,
Back-to-Frisco)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a music clip of today's song "Ride on Seaside" by Piper.
Luckily, it's been uploaded on Youtube as a "Topic" recently.
Please enjoy a cool, mellow, and incredibly light Pop-rock of the '80s.
In addition to that, we also would like to recommend a music clip of a classical summer Pop song, "Ippon no Ongaku" (a piece of music) by "Kazuhito Murata" (1983).
Cool, and striking electric guitar phrases, appearing in this song, was performed by "Keisuke Yamamoto" of "Piper".
"Yamamoto" was becoming an important life long music peer to "Kazuhito Murata" already at this point.
Both are nice songs. If you like, please listen to.
Music Samples
2
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Amazon JP(en)
officialpiper.bandcamp.com
music.apple.com (Track No.2)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Ride on seaside |
|---|---|
| Artist | パイパー(Piper) |
| Album Title | GENTLE BREEZE |
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