Na Hoon-a

Artist: Na Hoon-a

LP: 2nd Collection of Hit Songs Sung Again

Song: "Love In a Dream"

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Song: "Three"

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I just returned from a fun weekend in Centralia with friends who will be moving away to Wisconsin next month. On our way back to Seattle, we stopped at the GoodWill thrift store in Olympia, where I found, amongst the myriad Ray Conniff and Engelbert Humperdinck LPs, this uncommon-in-these-parts 1977 collection of hits by South Korean "trot" singer Na Hoon-a. 

Hoon-a released his first record back in 1966, and, according to this piece in The Korea Times, the handsome and debonaire singer will be retiring after a few final concerts later this year! I'd love to find out how his record ended up in Olympia's GoodWill bins; there's only one copy available on Discogs, and it's in Germany. Some interesting Na Hoon-a trivia can be found on Wikipedia...in 2008 he threatened to expose himself on live television to end rumors once and for all that he had been castrated by Japanese gangsters!

Thanks to the miracle of Google Translate, the English-language lyrics to the songs posted above are included below. It's incredible how it seems I could have written "Love In a Dream" myself in the summer of 1986, when I was smitten by Shawn Bagley. We met at the church dance while he was visiting his cousins in Yakima for the season from Belleville, Illinois!

LOVE IN A DREAM

Because it's a sin to love someone you shouldn't love, 

should my speechless heart cry tonight too?

Because it's a sin not being able to forget someone who should be forgotten,

without you, should my heart cry tonight too?

Ah, love - my sad love - if it's a one-night dream that I will never see again, 

I'd rather close my eyes

Don't do it, because it's a sin to love someone you shouldn't love

Should my speechless heart cry tonight too?

THREE

This feeling of leaving and the feeling of letting go

We can't say everything we want to say to each other,

but the one thing I want to say is I loved only you. 

Nora, I truly loved you.

The joy of love and the sadness of separation - now you and I can't be together again.

I still want to leave behind one thing...

The words I only loved you. I truly loved you.

[ Na Hoon-a ]

Grant Advertising International Band of Bangkok

Artist: Grant Advertising International Band of Bangkok

LP: 7" single

Song: "Medly"
1. The Sound of Thailand
2. "Sawutdee Ka"
3. "We Three Kings"
4. Magic Beams
5. Our Thailand
6. Thai "Jingle Bells"
7. Grant Farewell
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Here's a 1965 Christmas oddity from Thailand I picked up at Beats & Bohos last Thursday night before meeting my friends for a Christmas noir theatrical production at the Greenlake Theater. This record was evidently once presented as a gift to a Dr. S. H. Work. We're having a very white Christmas here in Seattle, which means I'm stranded at home making butterscotch apple crisp that I'm not going to have to share with anyone. Merry Christmas!

 

The Tigers

Artist: The Tigers

LP: 7" single

Song: "Mona Liza's Smile"
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Last weekend I returned to the place of my birth to attend my (ahem!) 30-year high school reunion. While driving around town late at night on my way to the Bali-Hai Motel, I was sad to see that the main record store in town, Off the Record, had finally closed its doors. The next day I went to Doug's Used Records in the heart of downtown Yakima; it's connected to Ron's Coin and Book store, a junky place that sells comics and DVDs...and coins, of course. And probably books. Doug's is a little disorganized, but I usually find something I like. 

While I was there some guy went up to the counter and asked if the other record store was still in town on Summitview Ave. The clerk said that they were still around, but that they'd moved west a few blocks into the plaza at 16th and Summitview. So Off the Record hadn't actually closed its doors, someone just moved its doors up the street a little ways! (If you know Yakima, Off the Record is in the plaza right across from Fiddlesticks, next to a Japanese restaurant.) Their new space even has an area for live in-store performances!

I arrived with about 90 minutes to browse and found several neat things, including four singles by The Tigers, a Japanese group that was popular in the late 1960s. They were basically the Bee Gees of Japan. I was awfully glad that I'd chanced to overhear that Off the Record was still around. It was almost as if fate was guiding me toward those vintage Japanese singles—knowing full well that I simply musn't leave town without them! You can read about The Tigers here. 

Oh, and the reunion. It was fun, and a little weird of course. We all attended a country music concert at the Apple Tree Resort and Golf Course and I ate pulled pork nachos. Yakima was sweltering. It got up to 97º while I was there.

[ The Tigers ]

[ Off the Record — Yakima, WA ]

Shinichi Mori

Artist: Shinichi Mori

LP: Woman of Sighs

Song: "Mother Love Life" 
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Here's the final track from prolific Japanese crooner Shinichi Mori's 1967 debut album. He really puts a lot of emotion into his vocal delivery. And don't you love it when there's talking in the middle of a song...especially when it's Japanese? You can read more about Shinichi Mori on Wikipedia here. Lyrics are included below in Japanese and English (Google translate English, anyhow) so you can sing along.

Mother Love Life

Fall distant night sky mother Hoshiko star

Fall is so tears if you look

I cried with that daughter of the same set

Although came is accustomed to heartless town of

Oh mother, mother, mother miss nostalgic

It will become the support of mind for us two people Sai

Get along with everyone, please pray the class date

Mom!

Friendly dream of his hometown

Without Tokyo is really painful

While Unazuki that it is so good going

Red flower bloom two of life

Oh mother, mother, mother miss nostalgic

Change of heart is not even dead

Would such a woman and a man

Live without erasing also light of breast

Such as is referred to as a fast come

Oh mother, mother, mother miss nostalgic

[ Shinichi Mori ]

Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars

Artist: Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars

LP: Enchanted Chorus - 3rd Collection [10" EP]

Song: "Kojonotsuki" 
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Everything's different now! After more than 43 minutes of diligently searching the web for English-language details or information regarding artist, song titles, etc for this 1958 Japanese 10-inch EP and some other one from Korea, I finally threw up my hands in frustration—and by that I mean I actually vomited and my hands came flying out of my mouth. Then I remembered someone at work mentioning some science-fiction mumbo-jumbo about how you could point your cell phone at a foreign language and your phone would automatically translate the text and tell you what the words meant in plain, bold-faced English. So I downloaded some app, pointed my phone at my Japanese record, and voilá—song titles! 

By simply highlighting the photographed text with my finger, I was able to translate all the lyrics to the song "Kojonotsuki," track three on side two. 

Of course the lyrics don't entirely make sense, but we all know how super poetic and metaphorical Japanese people get when they start to sing. I'm sure my magical translation device is 100% accurate. Here are the entire "Kojonotsuki" song lyrics in English: 

—Kojonotsuki—

Feast of spring lofty building of flower

Pointing over cup shade

It was Chiyo of Matsugae Wakei

Once upon a time of light now where

The color of the frost of fall camp

Show me the number of squeal go wild goose

The Resona stone shine in sword sell planting

Once upon a time of light now where

 
This formerly mysterious Japanese record with the gorgeous cover—I'd even call it stunning—is one that was formerly part of the David Lloyd Whited collection.

 

[ Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars ]

Bae Ho (배호)

Artist: Bae Ho (배호)

LP: Ten Hit Songs (힛트가요 10)

Song: "Who's Crying (누가 울어)" 
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It took some crafty online sleuthing to figure out who this handsome Korean singer is, and what his album and songs are called. Google Translate actually says the track posted here is called "Who Cry," so I took some minor liberties with that one. Other titles on this 1972 posthumous release of ten Bae Ho hit songs include "돌아가는 삼각지" (Triangle Back), "안개속에 가버린 사람" (People Went Away In the Fog), and "능금빛 순정" (Genuine Gold Performance). You'll find a complete track list in Korean here. According to the limited English-language information I found online here, Bae Ho's pop star began to rise in the 1960s as a singer who blended the sounds of Korean folk songs, Japanese Enka, and the large pop ensembles of the West to create a lush, lovely sound for his deep baritone voice. Sadly, Bae Ho died of nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys; I had to look it up) in 1971, when he was only 29 years old. The website linked to above says that only the elderly in Korea remember the singer nowadays, but this sketchily-translated Wikipedia page seems to indicate that Bae Ho was voted one of the top favorite Korean singers of all time. I can now say with confidence that he is definitely one of mine.

[ Bae Ho: April 24, 1942 — November 7, 1971 ]

Hibari Misora

Artist: Hibari Misora

LP: 7" single

Song: "The Soba Song" 
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This 1954 various-artists 7" EP containing Japanese hits of the time is another one of the things I found at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store in Bremerton a few weeks ago. "The Soba Song" by Hibari Misora provides a glimpse into what American country music might have sounded like in the 1950s if the Mayflower had been filled with Japanese pilgrims instead of British ones. (Anyone know how to say "Manifest Destiny" in Japanese?) Born in Yokohama, Japan in 1937, Hibari Misora (meaning "lark in the beautiful sky") became a national sensation in Japan after WWII with the help of her hit single "Kappa Boogie-Woogie" (河童ブギウギ) in 1949. She went on to a brilliant musical recording career, and also starred in over 160 motion pictures! Like other celebrities before her and after, Hibari had to endure the ritual of being attacked by an over-zealous fan who threw hydrochloric acid on her—a sort of rite-of-passage, I suppose. Sadly, Hibari died from pneumonia in 1989 at the age of 52. Each year on her birthday as a show of respect, Japanese TV and radio stations play 川の流れのように, one of her most popular songs. You can read more about Hibari Misora on Wikipedia here and "The Soba Song" lyrics are included below.

[ Hibari Misora: May 29, 1937 — June 24, 1989 ]

David Lloyd Whited & Cho Yong-Pil

Artist: Cho Yong-Pil

LP: The Woman Outside the Window

Song: "Short Hair" 
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I'd like to thank local author, storyteller and poet David Lloyd Whited for introducing me to Cho Yong-Pil, one of South Korea's most popular and influential singers. Some even call Yong-Pil the Michael Jackson of South Korea! I've never actually met David Lloyd Whited, but my nephew Maxwell turned four last week, and our family was getting together for his birthday dinner out on Vashon Island this past Sunday evening. As I was preparing to leave my apartment in Ballard on Sunday afternoon, my brother-in-law called to let me know about an estate sale on Vashon that he'd happened upon the day before. He said they had two entire rooms full of records! He thought I might be interested in stopping by to check it out on my way to the family dinner. 

David Lloyd Whited, who claimed Native American, Finnish, and Norwegian ancestry, was born in Canyonville, Oregon in 1951. He studied English, Mathematics, and Fine Arts in college and was a well-known author and poet here in the Pacific Northwest. He worked with Native American groups in Southwestern Oregon, where his efforts resulted in official recognition of five different tribes; his more recent work was with the Puyallup Tribe here in Washington state, just outside of Tacoma. David had been living with his wife, Marian, on Vashon Island. Sadly, David passed away at the end of November; they were his records and other items that were being sold at the estate sale. You can find more information about David Lloyd Whited's life and work in his online obituaries here and here; more detail about his work with Native American tribes can be found here; go here and here to read about Whited's writing, and watch a video of David reciting one of his poems here. 

All of that is interesting, worthwhile, and commendable, but I'd like to talk about David Lloyd Whited's vast collection of records. When Jon, my brother-in-law, told me about the sale, I knew I couldn't resist stopping by, but I suspected I'd probably find two rooms filled with mainstream, widely-available records—Boston, Led Zeppelin, Journey, James Taylor, Chicago, Neil Diamond...and maybe some Kim Carnes, Gloria Gaynor, and Swing Out Sister for variety and spice. While it's true that some of those and other popular singers and groups were included in the collection (lots of records had reportedly already been carted away by others before I arrived on the scene), I found that when it came to collecting music on vinyl, David Lloyd Whited definitely had a thing for variety and spice. I'm surprised none of the online biographies mentioned David's appreciation for music, his wonderfully eclectic tastes, and his passion for collecting such a wide range of music on vinyl. It's worth reporting too that he was evidently one of the biggest Ramsey Lewis fanatics in Washington state! Multiple copies of numerous Ramsey Lewis albums were stashed at various intervals throughout his collection; I picked up a Ramsey Lewis LP that I'd never seen before and upgraded two others that I'd previously only found in shabby condition. 

David Lloyd Whited's amazing collection of LPs, 10" EPs and singles included everything from Brazilian bossa-nova to lively Dixieland jazz; from multiple albums by the likes of Sarah Vaughn, June Chritsy, and Dakota Staton to bunches of records by The Pointer Sisters, Xavier Cugat, Henry Mancini....and more! Soundtracks! Organs! Doris Day! It was thrilling to stumble across a fellow collector who obviously shared my enthusiasm for all different kinds of music on vinyl. I only wish we'd connected earlier so we might have been able to thumb through our record collections together. I bet we would have had lots to talk about. 

At some point David acquired this 1980 disco-synth album by Korean pop star Cho Yong-Pil, who you can read all about on Wikipedia here. (Did I mention that he's been called the Michael Jackson of South Korea?) So thanks again to David Lloyd Whited for introducing me to this guy...and to other artists too whose records I'll be posting in the days and weeks to come.

 [ Cho Yong-Pil, recently ]

[ David Lloyd Whited: January 28, 1951 — November 30, 2014 ] 

Dengue Fever

Artist: Dengue Fever

LP: Venus on Earth

Song: "Oceans of Venus"

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Song: "Integratron"

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Every now and then I come across a used LP released in the past few years that's just as good as any of the best stuff I've found from the '50s, '60s or '70s. This 2008 Dengue Fever record I picked up at Easy Street in Seattle's Lower Queen Anne neighborhood a few months ago is one of them. I didn't know much about Dengue Fever (the disease) until yesterday, but while doing an image search for Dengue Fever (the band), I found lots of pictures like this, so I figure this particular illness is the sort you can catch if you go camping and forget to bring your repellent. It's not a fun disease, as you can tell from pictures like this and this. On Wikipedia here, you can read more about Dengue Fever (the disease) and find out what you should do if you catch it, then go here to read all about Dengue Fever (the band) and find out what you should do if you end up catching them too. Before moving the the USA, after which she was discovered in some nightclub in Long Beach, California and recruited to sing for Dengue Fever (the band), Chhom Nimol was a famous karaoke singer in Cambodia!

Tadashi Ashino

Artist: Tadashi Ashino

LP: The Streets of Tokyo: 
Top Pops Sung in Japanese by Nippon's Favorite Record Stars

Song: "Bambino"

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I've decided to remain in Japan with this terrific various artists LP I picked up at a store just down the street from my apartment. I'm not sure exactly when this record was released, but I'm guessing late '50s or early '60s. Along with two songs by Tadashi Ashino, the LP features tracks from Hiroshi Mizuhara, Hikari Saotome, Kiyoshi Sakazume, Jun Nakajima and Keiko Matsuyama. If you want a copy for your own collection, you have 3 days and 4 hours to bid on one here.