|
A week ago we included the original theme tune for "Fist of the North Star", a brilliant boxing anime. This week we include another theme from the show, "Tough Boy" by "Tom Cat". The song's link to the sport isn't just as the theme tune for the show, but was also used by Noriyuki Komatsu as his introduction music, giving a second link to the sport. We genuinely love this song and think it's fantastic for a walk on song. One of our favourite this weekly series of songs related to boxing.
0 Comments
This week we return to the world of fictional boxing for another theme tune used in a boxing animation as we share the original theme tune for the hugely popular "Fist of the North Star" series, the same series that gave us the original Ken Shiro. The track "Regain Love" by "Crystal King" is an exciting rock track with some great changes in tempo and rather rare for a music video that we get to share this one does come with lyrics that have been translated into English. We know this isn't necessarily the theme tune many think of when they think of the show, but we like the track and it certainly has it's connection to the sport, in a huge way. A couple of weeks ago we featured "Challenger" in this series which was a Japanese song with lyrics regarding boxer, and today we featured another Japanese song that is again lyrically referencing boxing, rather than being about a the sport. The Kai Band, lead by Yoshihiro Kai, are a Japanese rank band that have, on an off, been around since the 1970's and released "The Beast" in 1979. The lyrics, although in Japanese, do reference boxing a number of times and has been seen used in Japanese anime related videos. Although clearly not as accessible to a non-Japanese audience as some other songs we've featured here we do enjoy the track musically, and would advise people give it a shot even if they don't understand the lyrics. Unfortunately, though not for the first time, we've been unable to find what seems like an official music video, but this live performance is certainly not a bad rendition of the track 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. 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-great 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. |
StuffSome things don't fit in elsewhere on the site so have been put here as a result. Archives
April 2021
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
