Japanese Elvis revived aboard Space Battleship Yamato…
Isao Sasaki [Singer]
See through the fiction!! Music is electricity, not just sound!
In the big boom of Space Battleship Yamato, former rockabilly singer Isao Sasaki has been revived as anime singer Isao Sasaki. Cheers shake the hall. Streamers fly wildly. The smell of grease…but it turns out that the rockabilly boom was fiction. He has been through the ins and outs of the music industry, and with a rigorous spirit of pursuit, he heads toward anime to sing.
[Translator’s note: Sasaki’s name is spelled two different ways in the historical record. Originally rendered in kanji (佐々木功), he later converted it to simpler hiragana (ささきいさお) as his audience broadened to include younger listeners.]
Farewell Earth, the departing ship…
The LP of the explosive hit anime film Space Battleship Yamato sold more than 420,000 copies within three months of its release. It has sold phenomenally well, ranked No. 1 in the LP category for six consecutive weeks.
“I think I’ve done more than 20 theme songs for anime. Including LPs, I’ve sung at least 100 songs.”
Casshan, Getta Robo, Danguard A, Danguard A, New Star of the Giants…
The song Farewell Tomoyo (released on November 10) was released as a single from Gatchaman‘s LP, and has been enthusiastically received by anime fans. The melody is a bit weepy:
The fading fire of life, the hazy face of a friend…
There is a gap of more than a year overlapping the rockabilly storm that once drove the youth of Japan into a frenzy.
Isao interview 1
Interviewer: When was your first encounter with anime?
Sasaki: Six years ago, I dubbed the character Condor Joe in Gatchaman. I started singing after that. Speaking of early anime songs, they’re all “go, go, go” in the beginning. (Laughs) I’d like to express a little more melancholy in the midst of grandeur. When I was looking for something like that, I came across Yamato.
Interviewer: Yamato was released in November 1974. Although it took three years to become a hit.
Sasaki: When it came to anime, I only knew Disney. Today’s fans have grown up with TV anime. These young people are trying to understand the depths of anime. I think the timing coincided with the airing of Yamato, like striking a match in a room full of gas. The Yamato fan club has 30,000 members nationwide. There’s even an Isao Sasaki fan club. (Laughs)
Interviewer: Some people think it’s just an anime.
Sasaki: Conversely, unlike with pop songs, we can experiment with it. At one time, there was a folk energy to pop songs. As long as I’m doing anime songs, I’d like to create a new genre world. The drama that cannot be captured in popular songs can be explored in anime. I want to have the mindset that even anime can create songs like this. Anime songs can be considered a kind of challenge to popular songs.
Interviewer: But isn’t it manga?
Sasaki: Not quite. There was a lot of Disney stuff in my time, and I didn’t dismiss it as just manga. Now, though, there is a tendency to overproduce anime, like it’s for making toys. I think the word “anime” itself is wonderful, since it means to breathe life into things.
Today, high schools and universities have become organizations for training corporate personnel, which is different from the essence of broadening oneself. That is why I think young people are entrusting their dreams to anime. However, it’s a big mistake to think that being enthusiastic about anime is just a passing phase. That would be the same as yelling at young singers. It would make the hard work of an animator completely meaningless. I believe anime sends a message to the viewer that raises questions about the future of Earth.
When rockabilly was in fashion
[Isao graffiti]The enthusiasm for Western Carnival on Japanese TV was at its peak in January 1960. The favorite members of the family were Masaaki Hirao, Mickey Curtis, Keijiro Yamashita, Hiroshi Moriya, Mitsuo Sagawa, and Hiroshi Inoue. Then a new singer in a pure white suit with a 7-inch pompadour arrived on stage.
“I sang Buffalo Battalion March, but this was Yamashita’s signature song. It’s not very nice for a newcomer to sing the songs of his seniors. I was hit with a big wad of paper made from streamer tape.”
Isao, known as the “Japanese Elvis,” was 17 years old at the time!
Elvis Facts:
At that time, there was a hi-fi audio boom. Young Isao built a radio with a 5 ball super and 6.5 inch double-cone speakers, bought a 5,000 yen record player, and listened to a record for the first time.
“It was Elvis’ I Need Your Love Tonight. I had no money, so I listened to it all the time. It drastically changed my life.
Isao interview 2
Interviewer: Did you wear a pompadour hair style at school?
Sasaki: Yes, since I was in my second year of high school (Musashi High School).
Interviewer: Did you act like a thug?
Sasaki: No, just a dropout. (Laughs) High school was an exam-taking school even back then, and when I was in middle school, I was number one in my class. Definitely bound for University of Tokyo. (Laughs) Then there was a big drop. At first, I tried performing at a jazz cafe for about a year. I started singing in a carefree mood, thinking I could be the real thing if I gave it a try, but I immediately dropped out of school. (Laughs)
Interviewer: Were you cornered?
Sasaki: Not at all, I just let myself go and did what I wanted. Rockabilly was in fashion, after all. My singing was so bad that there was no way I could do it. It’s a wonder I got to make a record.
Interviewer: Maybe it sold because of the pompadour?
Sasaki: That’s it. The fans were few, but aggressive. Back then, it was a profound experience.
Interviewer: There were even some girls who even threw their panties at the singer…
Sasaki: That was all a hoax by Nabe Pro (Watanabe Productions). It was just a bunch of girls who were hired and paid for everything from admission tickets to meals and made a lot of noise.
Interviewer: And apparently it was an “anything goes” situation.
Sasaki: Well, I never had my heart broken. But there wasn’t all that much going on. I had about 20 people in my coterie, but I would never touch a fan. I met a woman when I was 18, and she seemed like a professional. However, she would sing deliriously on pharmaceuticals. Some of my friends would get crazy, but when I saw them, it felt dirty. I hated the idea that it was okay to be drunk because we were in a different world from the general public. That’s why I find the current marijuana scandal extremely disgusting.
Boom gone, life at rock bottom
One hit during a stage hiaitus, and then back to the stage…in the rockabilly era, these “legends” were endless.
“I don’t think I lost sight of that myself. The girls who made noise in front of the stage at the jazz cafe were hired soldiers, so it wasn’t a big deal. The guys in the back were involved in the water business and aspiring talent. These guys were amazing.”
[Isao stardom]The Japanese-made Elvis, fringe and all, was a big seller. Initially, his salary was just 15,000 yen per month. Six months later, it surpassed 1 million (roughly 5-6 million today). [US $10,000 rising to $50-60,000.]
He shares the same sentiment as Kayoko Enoka in Graveyard of the Sun (Shochiku pictures, directed by Nagisa Otori) who famously said, “I’m at my best when I’m having sex!” She became a “good friend.” The world was in an uproar!
“Like the rockabilly singers, she also created her own image. She was a year older than me, a wonderful woman.”
See the trailer for Graveyard of the Sun here.
The GS [Girl Singers] boom started around the time of the Tokyo Olympics (1964). The rockabillians, who were starting to get a little older, were pushed aside on the stage.
“The work was disappearing with a bang. When I was an idiot and selling well, I drove a Porsche. Only about 20 units of the 1600 super were imported to Japan. I bought it for about 1.8 million at the time, but sold it for 1.5 million because I couldn’t make ends meet.”
Isao interview 3
Interviewer: In the end, rockabilly was…
Sasaki: It was a boom created by Nabe Pro. The media got on board with that, and so did we. Even though they were fans of the jazz cafe, they were a special kind of people. Girls from rural areas went to dance halls. Jazz cafes were a bit expensive.
Interviewer: After that you went from one woman to another.
Sasaki: No, it wasn’t like that at all. I’m not saying I didn’t do anything, because it was certainly a wild time, but I got together with a woman when I was 23 years old. After rockabilly went into the sunset, I started practicing my vocal skills for the first time. I joined Marui Theater Company (led by Nobuo Kaneko). After that, I couldn’t eat at all and lived on a single 1,000 yen bill for quite a while.
Interviewer: What about the glory of the Porsche?
Sasaki: I didn’t have money, but I was full of spirit. I lost my singing job, and I thought, “How am I supposed to make money?” I had no choice but to go for something more than average. So it was only after I was no longer good (as a singer) that I began to devote myself to vocalization and acting.
Interviewer: Did you have any unfinished business with singing?
Sasaki: I had some work, and I felt relieved when I got paid for it. Back to the “created world” again. I didn’t like that. I was still able to earn 40,000-50,000 yen for one stage show, and now it’s around 200,000 yen, but I was really tired of it.
Interviewer: It sounds like a lot of people were seeking the brass ring.
Sasaki: Money, women, etc. You shouldn’t chase luxury. Especially women. Once a woman has experienced luxury, she’s bored with it. She’s just going to be unhappy. After that, I devoted myself to acting, and in the end, I couldn’t get along with my wife and we broke up. I was thinking about acting all the time, and it continued for many years…
Elvis was an anti-establishment singer
He walks around in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. In the past, pony tails and hoop skirts ran through these streets. It was a city that sang and shouted until late at night.
“In Ginza, there were ACB, Mimatsu, and Tennessee [music clubs]. There was Drum in Ikebukuro, and Shibuya had Marimba and New Prince. Even though rockabilly was in its heyday, there were no more than 20 jazz cafes in Tokyo. The current live/house environment is much more open.”
Neither La Seine nor Swan, which he was aiming for, are there in Kabukicho any longer.
“It was strange. This coffee shop was open late at night, and I used to stay up late there…”
Isao interview 4
Interviewer: The 50’s boom was all the rage this summer [1977].
Sasaki: I didn’t feel any nostalgia at all. Even when I listen to rock and roll from that time, I don’t get a thrill from it. (Laughs) I know firsthand that the boom was invented.
Interviewer: I wonder where Elvis went…
Sasaki: Elvis was essentially an anti-establishment musician. However, in Japan, the 1960s were the era of the National Security Treaty. In other words, Elvis was used to separate the youth from politics. I’ve recently begun to think about that. It was Elvis who shouted, “To hell with this!” at things like the class system, wasn’t it? However, unfortunately, there is no such rebellious spirit in Japan now. I don’t think anyone has inherited a single fragment.
Interviewer: You were called the Japanese Elvis.
Sasaki: Even I thought so. (Laughs)
Interviewer: Lately, rock and roll artists from that time have been gaining attention.
Sasaki: Except for Hirao San, no one else listened to the songs. New singers today are so good that it doesn’t matter from a musical sense point of view. The old ones couldn’t sing a 16-beat song. The girl bands sang while playing guitar and drums, which was amazing. These young people made us a little nervous, so we all studied. Nowadays, Keijiro Yamashita is the only person who still retains the atmosphere of that era.
Interviewer: Why did you start singing again?
Sasaki: I was passionate about rockabilly, but nothing from those days remains today. It’s empty. It’s like a feeling of remorse, and I have to leave something behind.
Interviewer: Didn’t you have any hit songs of your own?
Sasaki: Not a single one. (Laughs) They were all songs from the other side of the world. From now on, I’m sure singers will emerge who have more and more advanced techniques and use electricity in all directions. On the contrary, what we do is a challenge to this kind of modern music, a challenge with heart. Music is not just electric sound. I’m going to challenge that notion with anime songs.
Isao Sasaki now sings at amusement parks and department stores, which is quite a change from jazz cafes.
“A young mother with a small child said to me, ‘I used to go to ACB.’ A sign of the times.”
His pay is the same as that of new singers.
“While my friends were demonstrating at the Diet, I was singing at a jazz cafe. Probably the exact opposite of what Elvis wanted to do.”
Isao Sasaki, 35 years old. While twisting and turning, he is now putting all his energy into anime songs.
Composition: Yuji Namae
Photography: Hisao Hazama