One of the great things about Japan is the sheer number of boxing related anime's and manga's. Whilst it's not something we're massively glued up on, preferring to follow the real sport than the fiction related to it, the depth of boxing fiction in Japan is rich and deep. One of the many great series is the "Ashita No Joe" series, also known as "Tomorrow's Joe". For the 1980 "Tomorrow's Joe" movie we saw Takeshi Obo's track "Beautiful Wolves" used as the theme tune. For those familiar with the animated series this will be a very familiar track. For those who don't follow it, like ourselves, this is a nice little music treat and a chance to enjoy some 1970's Japanese pop music.
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This weeks boxing related song is a bit of an oddity as we couldn't find an official music video of the song, which we suspect would have contained some boxing related footage, but we have come across as a live performance. The track is recorded by Masahiko Kondo, aka "Matchy", who is a man with his fingers in numerous pies, from singing to being a former racing car driver, an actor and a racing car manager. In 2005 he released his first new single in 7 years, "Challenger", and it's a song that has more than a passing reference to boxing in it. From a translation of the lyrics it appears to tell the tale of a young aspiring boxer picking up the sport to reaching higher heights. A bit of an oddity, but certainly a more enjoyable track than "Uppercut" was last week. Sadly this week's boxing related music video doesn't feature a fighter, or a very good song, but it does feature a song related to boxing, named after a a type of punch and with a video taking place in the boxing ring. Good enough for us. The band here are the Up Up Girls, who given the sound of this song we didn't even both learning anything else about. The song is "Uppercut" and if we're being totally honest it's not our thing at all. We're not sure what they are talking about but it looks like they are having fun...more than the listeners that's for sure. We're sure someone reading this will enjoy this more than some of the songs recorded by some of the boxers, but we're being honest when we suggest this is one of those songs you might listen to once and then need a palette cleanser...just be wary it's definitely got the feeling that it could become an "ear worm" song A new month is here and we get to share another music video featuring a boxer, or rather a video video featuring two boxers. Albeit in two very small, blink and you miss them, moments. The artist here is the brilliant Yuna Shishido, better known as Kavka Shishido, who's song "Kiken na Futari", which translates as "Two People", features two boxers. A the beginning of the video both Tadashi Yuba and Kohei Kono are featured having an under-ground fight well before the music kicks in properly. It's not the best example of using boxers in a music video, but it is a damn good track and broke into the top 65 in the Oricon Singles Chart. Popular Thai musician Santi Duangsawang was a genuine success with a career that spanned from the mid 1980's to 2016, when he died at the age of 48. Whilst his music wasn't our type of music he was certainly a talented Luk Thung singer and his success and longevity were impressive. Interestingly his music video for "Young Boy Cafe" featured former WBC Minmumweight champion Napa Kiatwanchai. Sadly we were unable to find a full recording with music video, but we were able to stumble on the music video for what appears to have been a Karaoke set up, with the video in the back ground along with the on screen lyrics. Sadly Santi's vocal's aren't present, and we did search for one with him singing, but we felt due to how obscure and weird this was it needed an inclusion in this series. We return to Japanese music this week for a track by Fujiko entitled "Boxer". We're not really sure what to make of this track, though it sounds like Fujiko may want to give the cigarettes a break given the sound of their voice. This isn't an awful song, from a musical point of view, but we've no idea what the lyrics are or what the story behind the song is. Although we're not sure about the song we did manage to stumble over things that suggested the track was a karaoke favourite for some, and maybe if you end up in a Karaoke bar in Japan it may be worth having this one in mind...maybe. We remain with Indonesia for another week as we talk about Lia Bishara's song "Boxing", or rather "Tinju" which translates as boxing from Indonesian. We've absolutely no idea who Lia Bishara are but this is a fairly inoffensive song with a very, very basic video. This is probably the most recently released video in this series, with the song apparently being released in 2020, but the video certainly looks a lot older than that due to it's simplicity. Nothing particularly exciting or special here, but it's certainly different to most of the video's we've included in this series of boxing related music videos over the last year or so. MukaRakat aren't someone we're at all familiar with but one thing we do know is that they have released a boxing related song after Indonesian boxing icon Ellyas Pical. We won't pretend to know anything about the band but we do know about Pical, the only 3-time world champion in Indonesian boxing history, with the "Exocet" being a 3-time IBF Super Flyweight champion. He is a genuine Indonesian boxing hero even if he's now not too well known by international fight fans. The song isn't something we're fans of, but credit to MukaRakat for trying to bring extra attention to Pical years after he retired from the sport. For a second week running we get to look at a song that connects to Indonesian great Chris John, and once again the song really doesn't flatter John, in what sounds like a bit of a music mess. From what we understand the track was recorded by Misno Syukur and was entitled "Pahlawan Arena", but could easily be renamed "Chris John, Chris John", there's a good chance we may have butchered the translation of that. The track isn't the best of the Chris John related music out there but it's clear it's been made in good faith. Sadly it's a bad song, but does have a rather catchy chorus. A real weird one and not one we're going to be listening to again any day soon. We've covered a lot of songs from Japan, a handful from Thailand and the Philippines and even a few from South Korea but this is the first we've got to from Indonesia and is dubbed "The New Dragon Song", with Jemz Celosse working alongside Indonesian boxing great Chris John. We're not sure who Jemz Celosse is but with title of the song and Chris John being involved it's clear what our focus here is. John, the former WBA Featherweight champion, is the most successful Indonesian fighter of all time but his success really doesn't transfer over to the field of music, as we found out here. Musically it's not the worst we've heard, but being totally honest it's not among our favourites either. Still it's nice to have something from Indonesia in this series and fingers crossed we get more from the region in the future. |
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