Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi - Come on, Stand up! 16 May 2007
Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi is one of those Japanese musicians who seems to be unfamiliar to most fans of Japanese music that I talk with, despite the fact he’s had a career spanning four decades and has released forty-two albums. Forty-two. I think the reason is because a lot of us, myself included, find our introduction into Japanese music via anime or video games, and you’re not going to easily find Nagabuchi’s work through those channels.Nagabuchi began as folk-rock musician in the mid-1970’s, leaning heavily towards the enka genre. However, he soon began to break away from it, especially starting in 1980. Nagabuchi was honest to the public about his dislike for traditional folk music at the time, to the extent that he expressed shame over the musical style of his own debut single, Ama no Arashiyama 1977. Nagabuchi wanted to take his music in a direction away from traditional Japanese elements and borrow more from popular Western rock artists of the time whom he enjoyed. As part of this transition he also wanted to change his voice, preferring to have a deeper sound; to accomplish this he went so far as to gargle alcohol on a regular basis until he got the deeper, harsher sound he wanted. I can’t say that was a good idea, but I have to appreciate the guy’s level of commitment. And commercially it served him well, as his new vocals and harder rock sound made him one of the most successful and well-known Japanese musicians of the 1980’s.Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi continues to write and create new music. But he has become a relic, in my opinion. Nagabuchi has never seriously moved away from the rock sound he established in the 80’s. So even though I am uploading an album from 2007 it is fairly representative of all of his music over the past two decades at a minimum. There are small musical exceptions here and there, but by and large this is the kind of music you should expect if you go looking for more of the man’s work.Enjoy the music everybody, and if you have any requests please let me know!