Yuzo Kayama & the Launchers – Violet Sky
Yuzo Kayama & the Launchers – Kimi Ga Suki Dakara
I originally posted this on facebook as a tribute to the influence of Bob Bogle from the Ventures, who passed away June 14th. I found this record over at Bagatelle Records in Long Beach. I’m always on the look out for 60s music from overseas and I rarely come across records from Japan. The front cover piqued my interest, the fact it was pressed on dusky red vinyl, got my left eyebrow raised, but when I flipped to see the back cover with Yuzo and that Mosrite guitar, 
that’s when both my eyebrows raised and I was sold. The owner didn’t have a clue what it was (which is something else, cause that guy knows his 60s music), so I got this record for what I now consider a relative steal at $8.
I was stunned to discover after buying the record that Yuzo Kayama fronted this surf rock group in the mid-sixties, during a rather notable film career (he’s also in a couple of my favorite samurai movies, including Sanjuro, Red Beard and Chushingura i.e. the 47 Ronin). Like a number of Japanese in the 1960s, (what I believe is dubbed the “Eleki” sound) Kayama was enthralled with the music of the Ventures and sought to emulate their sound, but his take is unexpectedly grittier and rawer at times. This especially comes out on my favorite instrumental on the record “Violet Sky” with it’s opening strong mid tempo backbeat, dueling bass and guitar groovy rhythm and then all-out rockin’ assault courtesy of Kayama. This song in particular just floors me every time I hear it and is something that will likely be in my regular rotation if Melting Pot becomes a weekly event. Other standouts are “Kimi Ga Suki Dakara,” (jut seems tailor-made for a Quentin Tarantino film, surprised it wasn’t in Kill Bill) “Los Angeles No Niseimatsuri” and Kayama’s first hit, the rollicking “Black Sand Beach,” where you can clearly hear the Ventures influence and a track that the Ventures themselves eventually re-cut as a tribute to Kayama.
Here’s a live version of “Black Sand Beach”, that appears to be taken from a Japanese film, just so you can see Yuzo and his group the Launchers in action: