Kyu Sakamoto and Misora Hibari

I don't know very much about Kyu's and Misora's relationship, if it was more then just colleges or if they were friends. In the Kyu Sakamoto Monogatari-drama it is stated that he got shivers all over his body hearing the music of Misora Hibari and Chiemi Eri, which had a trio together with Izumi Yukimura.[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn2rwfsvRuA]
As far as I know Kyu and Misora never work together, their music differed alot from each other. Kyu singing j-pop and Misora traditional enka.




If this is true or that there was any rivalry between the two, i don't know. Hibari san actually made a cover on Sukiyaki in the late 70's. And here they are together, not looking too joyful sometime in the middle/late 60's celebrating Hibari san's birthday...

I have always liked the way Kyu chan dressed. He has inspired me in some extenct in my way of dressing and my taste for clothes. I thought it would be fun making a short list on how and when he dressed as he did!

1960-
When he was in his twenties in the early 60's he often wore waist-length jackets, colorful shirts and high-waist jeans on more causal occasions such as in interviews and feature movies. On stage he wore very formal clothing, often a slim fit suit with narrow tie, but mostly a very sharp bow-tie. In the late 60s he began wearing more colourful suits and sometimes even a smoking while performing.




1970-1980
As the clothing style changed in the 70's and 80's he started to wear solid pants with a different coloured double breasted jacket/blazer with big flaps, wide ties, turtle-neck sweaters (love those!) and he had a more "dressed-up-father" kind of style.





He always dressed smart and elegant but yet very simple. I would say that he is one of my favourites among well-dressed men. You can see him wearing clothes from Original Penguin and Fila shirts. Take a look at this previous post for more photos: http://tribute-to-kyu-sakamoto.blogspot.com/2008/05/sakamotos-family-photos.html

sayounara "mr. cloudy sky"

Time flies. Today is the 25th anniversary of the flight JAL123 catastrophe. As always on this day I play some records with Kyu-chan and read the online newspapers. All over the world papers write about the tragic event. It's fascinating how it is still with us. I am so happy that his music is still alive, that the story of the people that died that day is alive, and I think youtube and wikipedia has played a key role in keeping it that way.

News links:
Yukiko, Hanako and Maiko says it's very hard visiting Mount Otsutaka. http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0810/TKY201008100094.html

Kin mark 25th anniversary of JAL jumbo crash
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100812a4.html

August 12 on thisdayinmusic.com
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/day-in-music-0812/

I am also very happy to see that the 1961 movie "Kigeki ekimae denchi" or "An urban affair", as it was called at the American release in 1962, will be released on DVD October 22th. This was Kyu's first appearance in the Kigeki series which he starred in a total of four films. (translated as "The station series", containing 24 films, filmed during 1958-1969 by director Shigeru Morihisaya)
Go check it out! Both amazon.co.jp and hmv.co.jp will have it for sale on the day of release.

wikipedia

Hello everybody!
I have been updatig the swedish wikipedia-article about Kyu Sakamoto for the last two years now and I have been thinking of doing the same with the english article. If you speak or understand swedish or perhaps know how to use Google translate you are more then welcome helping me out. The information in the swedish article is taken from the japanese article, the monogatari drama, books written by Kyu's relatives and his offical website.

I have been absent from the blog for over a year but I'll start updating soon!

Kyu-Sakamoto.com launched!

Finally the new official Kyu Sakamoto homepage is up, in japanese though but still a great site! You should go and check it out;

http://www.kyu-sakamoto.com/

The voice of Kyu

Studio 505 today

Right now I am trying to find the last ever recorded material with Kyu chan, the NHK FM 1 o'clock radio broadcast in studio 505 that was recorded just five hours before he died. This broadcast was also documented on video. The program consits of interviews and him singing several songs, Good Timin, Miagete goran yoru no hoshi wo and Sukiyaki. If anyone knows how to get this transmission please contact me.

If you're looking for trouble...