REVIEW: MORNING MUSUME “Pepper Keibu” single
MORNING MUSUME
Pepper Keibu (single)
(Zetima)
Available on CD, CD/DVD and iTunes US & Japan
Rating: 
This is the way I like to review a single – not from a torrented download, a PV soundtrack, or a radio rip, but from the actual CD.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the idea of Morning Musume doing a Pink Lady cover appealed to me greatly. I liked MoMusu’s version as heard on the PV, but waited until hearing the actual CD before formulating a final opinion on it for the purposes of this review. I am definitely not disappointed.
Morning Musume’s cover of “Pepper Keibu” starts off rather deceptively with a slow keyboard ending before going into an almost-note-for-note, beat-for-beat copy of the Pink Lady original. When the first verse starts, however, the rhythm changes and we get a suitably rigid-yet-swinging 21st Century dance/pop rhythm. The band could have done the song note for note and it would have been an enjoyable listen, but it wouldn’t have been a true Morning Musume single. In other words, the song as performed here sounds like it should be a strong A-side; a 100% copy of the original arrangement wouldn’t have rated more than a B-side or album track (and probably come off as filler amongst an album of Morning Musume/Tsunku originals).
The B-side, “ROMANCE”, is a song I’m not familiar with – I don’t know who did the original song (someone else in the IW blogosphere mentioned it, but I forget who). It sounds like the arrangers may have stuck a little closer to the original recording’s Showa Era-arrangement, albeit with a few more modern production touches like a sequencer pattern, audio strobing (i.e. in this case, the backing track cutting on and off rapidly and rhythmically), and the like.
The vocal performances are top notch – the A-side in particular has some of the best harmonizing the present lineup has ever done. Nothing wrong with Reina’s solo lines either. There’s a reason why she’s up front on this single and on “Resonant Blue” – the woman can sing!
This’ll be a nice tide-over until COVER YUU drops.
Four and a half out of five.
GROOVE MUSIC LIFE VIDEO: Here’s Where The Seeds Of My J-Fandom Were First Planted…
…and where I probably show my age yet again, but so what?
With Morning Musume’s cover version of Pink Lady’s first single about to drop, I figured it was a good as an excuse as any to look for and post a clip of my very first sight of Mei and Kei. It was May of 1979, I would be turning 12 in two months, and my listening habits at that time included Kiss, Cheap Trick, the Who, and a bit of what I knew back then as “new wave” (The Clash wouldn’t put out London Calling until the end of the year – I think I only had the US version of their first album at this point). I was home on a Friday night, about to sit down and watch The Incredible Hulk when the usual CBS Special Presentation animation comes up, indicating that something other than Bill Bixby morphing into a green-painted Lou Ferrigno was going to fill up the next 60 minutes of airtime on the “Tiffany Network”.
That something was Leif Garrett’s only network television special. I had a tape of his first album somewhere in my home, as well as a 45 of his then-current single “I Was Made For Dancing” (still a pretty decent song despite its disco’ed origins), so I sat and watched it. Outside of seeing him lipsync some of the songs from his first album (which was all covers of 50′s and 60′s songs – whoever was handling Leif at the time must have been taking a cue from Shawn Cassidy’s first album) and a skit where him and one of his guests couldn’t get away from different musical takes (punk, tango, polka) on “I Was Made For Dancing” no matter where they went, the most memorable moment of the special didn’t even belong to the then-former Odd Couple cast member and then-future celebrity convict, but to two beautiful, leggy Asian girls:
My mother happened to come into the room at that point, see Mei and Kei on the screen, and thought their dancing was “nothing special”. “Maybe,” I said, “but what about their singing?” She didn’t have an answer for me, but I had it for myself – they were pretty damn good.
The next time I was at the record store at the mall, I looked for, and located, the 45 of “Kiss In The Dark” (b-side: a cover of The Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee”), complete with picture sleeve. I still have it somewhere but haven’t located it yet. Why I never bought the album is a mystery to me, although I could easily rectify that either by going on CDJapan for the Japanese CD reissue on their longtime label Victor, or hitting eBay for a copy of the original Elektra pressing of their only American album. I didn’t remember their outfits since the only time I saw that broadcast until I located this YouTube clip, but I still remembered that silly sketch they did with Leif at the end of the segment since then.
A simple story, but that was where the seeds of my J-Fandom were first planted, although I obviously wouldn’t realize this until 2002 or so. Not counting Mai and Kei’s later foray on American television, my next taste of J-Music would come five or six years later, but that’s another story for another post.
Anyone For Hot Peppers? Part II
Picking up where the previous entry left off…
No sooner did I mention how long it was since Morning Musume last released a studio album, than word comes out (in the wake of “Pepper Keibu”‘s PV hitting Dohhh! UP – suffice it to say that I am knocked out by the song and its current PV and that, for obvious reasons, I certainly won’t complain about the amount of face and mic time Reina Tanaka gets; I’ll save further description for the week the single is actually in my hands) that Morning Musume are releasing an album of covers centered around the work of songwriter Aku Yuu (who died last year at the age of 70, leaving behind 5,000 songs from his prolific pen). This made my ears perk up considerably given my deepening interest in Japanese popular music of all kinds (something that sparked my grabbing that stack of enka 45s on eBay, which sparked The Vinyl Pagoda Project, of course).
Like the tracks that filled out the first W album (including two songs penned by Yuu, the Pink Lady covers “Southpaw” and “Nagisa No Sinbad”), the album will offer to 21st century music lovers a look into Japanese pop music history. The bad news is that since the album’s concept is centered around songs from the Aku Yuu back catalog, there’s no opportunity for Morning Musume to try their hand at some other Showa Era songs – like, for example, a chance for Reina Tanaka or Ai Takahashi to plow through a rocking take on Akina Nakamori’s “Shojo A”.
Unfortunately, as a couple of other bloggers in the IW blogosphere have pointed out, the cover concept also orphans all of the post-Sexy 8 Beat singles that would have otherwise ended up on a MoMusu long-player. Granted, “Kanashimi Twilight” and “Onna Ni Sachi Are” may have a home on the ALL SINGLES COMPLETE anthology, but what about “Mikan” and “Resonant Blue”? I don’t know, but I’m not completely worried about that right now. This is the first Morning Musume studio album to not have a number in its title, so it’s a relatively safe guess to suggest that Morning Musume’s proper ninth album, after another original single release in, say December 2008 or January 2009, will give “Mikan” and “Resonant Blue” a long playing home.
COVER YUU, when released this November (a year after “Mikan”), will also serve one other positive purpose, I think: Not only reinforcing, but cementing Morning Musume’s place in Japanese music history. They’ve already broken Pink Lady’s records for most Top 10 singles and most Number One singles on the Oricon charts, and it already looks like MoMusu’s 21st century take on “Pepper Keibu” will extend those reigns. What other record of Pink Lady’s could Morning Musume surpass? Going higher on the Billboard singles chart than “Kiss In The Dark” did would be nice – but that, as one wise man often says, is another show.
Anyone For Hot Peppers?
As odd as it might seem for Morning Musume to be following up one of their best ever singles with a cover version, I certainly don’t object to their forthcoming cover of Pink Lady’s “Pepper Keibu”. Pink Lady were the first Japanese act I had ever heard back when “Kiss In The Dark” was being heavily pushed by Elektra Records here in the States, long before that disastrous variety show. And it isn’t the first time Morning Musume ever encountered Pink Lady (their 2004 Music Fair collaborations on “The*Peace”, “S.O.S.” and “Love Machine”, anyone?) or anyone in Hello! Project recorded a cover version from Mei & Kay’s back catalog – Aibon and Nono, of course, covered “Southpaw” and “Nagisa No Sinbad” on their first album as W, Duo U&U, back in 2004. Of course, there was Takitty and Gaki’s recent turn portraying Pink Lady on Japanese TV earlier this summer (doing this very song).
What makes this even cooler is that Morning Musume broke Pink Lady’s record for most Top 10 singles in the Japanese Top 10 awhile back, which adds a nice bit of irony (however unintended) to the proceedings.
Hopefully, once this single hits the racks, we won’t have to wait several months for the follow-up. It’s already been almost two years since the last studio album, for Chrissakes…
