is a Japanese singer and songwriter.音楽 情報ニュース/Top 100 Japanese pops Artists - No.14/HMV He is the father of singer-songwriter Yoko Yazawa. He has been nicknamed as "Ei-chan" (永ちゃん), "Boss" and "The King of Rock".
Biography 1949–1967: Early life in Hiroshima
Eikichi Yazawa was born in Hiroshima, on September 14, 1949. His father was a bicycle shop owner but died of radiation sickness when Eikichi was in the 2nd grade of elementary school. His mother had disappeared, leaving her husband and son behind when Eikichi was 3 years old. He was mainly raised by his paternal grandmother in poverty until he graduated high school. Being bullied in school, such as having a cake thrown at his face, he started to think and practice his philosophy of "being big" which allowed him to survive the poverty and the bullying. When he was in junior high school, he listened to music such as The Ventures and The Beatles, which led him to a career as a rock musician. He started to learn the guitar, and on New Year's Day of 1968, he composed his first song, “I Love You, OK”.
1968–1975: Yokohama and Carol In 1968, three weeks after he graduated from high school, Yazawa left Hiroshima by train to Tokyo. On the way, he experienced pain from sitting too long and decided to get off and start living in Yokohama.
Making ends meet by working a few jobs, he formed several bands: The Base, E-Set and Yamato. All of these bands mainly played in the clubs of Yokohama. But after the breakup of Yamato, Japanese musical trends switched to folk music, which led to several clubs closing one after another.
In early 1972, he started recruiting members for a new band by placing notices in music stores. With new members, Johnny Okura (side guitar and side vocals) and Toshikatsu Uchiumi (lead guitar), he formed the band Carol. Yazawa was the lead vocalist and bassist of the group. The band received wide recognition after their appearance on the October 1 episode of "Live Young!" on Fuji TV. After seeing their performance on the program, Mickey Curtis helped produce their debut single "Louisiana" on December 20 of the same year. Mickey also introduced them to a drummer, You Okazaki, who later become a member of the band.
Carol's style was deeply influenced by The Beatles, especially when they were based in Liverpool. With their motorcycle jackets, pompadour hairstyles, and early rock 'n' roll style numbers, along with their cover versions of "Johnny B. Goode" and "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", the band gained notable popularity and greatly influenced Japanese popular music. Their biggest hit "Funky Monkey Baby" released on June 25, 1973 and became a standard of Japanese rock music.
Carol broke up in 1975 after their infamous final concert in Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall, Tokyo. After the last song "Last Chance" was played, firecrackers accidentally exploded and burned down the stage. In the history of this traditional hall, the event is referred to as the biggest "Hibiya Legend".
1975–1980: Solo debut and Gold Rush In May 1975, Yazawa flew to the U.S. to start his solo career after signing with CBS Sony. His first solo album, I Love You, OK, was recorded at the A&M Studios in Los Angeles and produced by The Godfather soundtrack producer, Tom Mack. Because Yazawa switched his style of music, I Love You, OK got generally unfavorable reviews. His first solo concert tour, ‘Around Japan Part-1, sold poorly. At the concert at Sasebo Civic Hall in Sasebo, Nagasaki, which held over 1,000 people, only 200 tickets were sold. After the poorly attended concert, Yazawa claims to have made an oath to himself to “Remember Sasebo”. He continued to tour around the country to show that Carol's former leader was now a solo artist.
On July 24, 1976, under the name “The Star in Hibiya”, he returned to Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall to a sold-out audience and a new album, A Day. On his “33000 Miles Road” tour of Japan, Yazawa played 66 concerts and steadily gained popularity.
After the remarkable success of his third album, Open Your Heart, Yazawa played his first solo performance at Nippon Budokan on August 26, 1977, to a sold-out crowd of over 13,000 people. His live album, Super Live Nippon Budokan, which contains most of these concert, was then released three months after the show.
1978 is regarded as one of the biggest years of Yazawa's career. Not only did his 4th album, Goldrush, which was later rated No. 5 on list of the “100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time" of Rolling Stone Japan, go to #1 in the Oricon charts. His autobiography Nari-Agari, edited by video game designer and writer Shigesato Itoi, sold over a million copies. On August 28, he performed a concert in Korakuen Stadium in front of a crowd of 50,000 people. He also ranked 1st of top-earning musicians by Japanese government, beating the Enka queen Hibari Misora. The following year, he performed at 96 venues, including Nagoya Stadium.
Despite his success, he described experiencing an “emptiness” in spite of his success. In 1980, Yazawa signed a contract with Warner Pioneer (now Warner Music Japan) and moved to the West Coast of the United States.
1981–1987: Career in the United States, performing with the Doobie Brothers Yazawa moved to Los Angeles and started to find musicians to record his new album. In 1981, he released his first English album, Yazawa. The album was produced by Bobby LaKind of the Doobie Brothers, and Paul Barrere of Little Feat. The musicians included John McFee, Patrick Simmons, Keith Knudsen, Cornelius Bumpus, Willie Weeks, Richard Hayward, Kenny Gradney, and Mark Jordan. He also released the album Rising Sun for the Japanese market.
In 1982, he released the single “Rockin’ My Heart” and his second English album, Yazawa It's Just Rock'n'Roll, produced by Bobby and John McFee. “Rockin’ My Heart” was recommended by Billboard magazine in its February 19, 1983 issue. He also released the album P.M.9 for the Japanese market. In September, he began his ‘P.M.9 1982 E.Yazawa’ Concert Tour with John McFee, Richie Zito, Dennis Belfield, Keith Knudsen, Mark Jordan, and Bobby LaKind. This tour included two Budokan concerts. John and Keith would be long term musicians of Yazawa's concerts until 1996.
The next few years included Yazawa releasing an album in Japanese, 1984’s E’, which was the first of his albums produced by Andrew Gold. In 1985, he sang at Live Aid, where his performance of “Take It Time” was broadcast worldwide. During this period, Yazawa's music style could almost be described as AOR, under the influence of his American friends. Unfortunately, Yazawa’s marketing in the U.S. was near non-existent. Distributed through Elektra Records, the label had no obligation to advertise Yazawa’s music. Following this period, he decided to sign with EMI Music Japan and return to Japan. In 1987 he released his last album in English, Flash in Japan (later released in Japan in 1999). During that year’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Knight 2’ tour, bassist George Hawkins joined Yazawa's band and would play with them until 2016.
1988–1999: Media appearances In 1988, Yazawa’s first album on EMI, Kyohansha (Accomplice in English), was released. The album was recorded in London, with British musicians such as Jaz Lochrie, Alan Murphy, Micky Moody, and Jimmy Copley. He played 76 concerts this year, with the last one being his first at the Tokyo Dome. On the 1990 tour Rock ‘n’ Roll Army, Keyboardist Guy Allison joined the band.
Yazawa’s 1991 album, Don’t Wanna Stop, was a new challenge for him. Half of the album was recorded in London by producer George McFarlane, and the other half was produced in L.A. by Andrew Gold.
In 1992, he started to appear in advertising for Suntory's brand-new canned coffee product, Boss. It was a very surprising commercial because he played an unfortunate worker, breaking the impression of rock music charisma. During this period, Yazawa continued to appear in the media. In 1994, he starred in the Japanese drama Ari Yo Saraba (lit. Goodbye, Ants) as a high school biology teacher. In this drama, he sings both the opening theme and the ending theme.
In 1995, Yazawa held a concert tour called ‘Just Tonight’, which included several stadium or dome concerts (Yokohama Stadium, Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium, Fukuoka Dome). This concert's back-up band (John McFee, Bruce Gowdy, George Hawkins, Keith Knudsen, Guy Allison) is referred to as the best interation of Yazawa’s live band.
In 1996, by recording his new album live in front of his fans. This event, Open Recording Gig, was released on VHS and DVD along with the recorded album, Maria. In 1997, he was invited to ‘Songs and Visions’, a rock festival held in Wembley Stadium, as the special guest and representative of Asia, alongside Rod Stewart, Jon Bon Jovi, Chaka Khan, and Robert Palmer. He sang “Don't Be Cruel” solo, and “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hey Jude” with other musicians.
In 1998, Yazawa was swindled out of about 3.5 billion yen (approx. $35 million U.S.) for a huge building construction project in Australia. It took him several years to pay off the debt.
He also starred in the film, Ojuken (lit. Entrance Exam) as a corporate-owned marathon runner. On September 15 1999, the day after his 50th birthday, he held an anniversary concert called ‘Tonight the Night!’ in Yokohama International Stadium, keeping the promise he made in his book Nari-Agari. Many people believe that this concert was one of the best performances of his career as well as the best concert in the history of Japanese rock music.
2000–2012: Period of musical challenges In 1999 and 2000, Yazawa performed three concerts each year in the U.S. These were the only concerts held outside of Japan.
In 2002, the 30th anniversary of his debut, Yazawa tried a few new challenges. First, he held his first acoustic tour ‘Voice’ in 22 cities, a change from his normal rock-style concert tour. Second, he performed at Tokyo Stadium for the first time, at his special concert ‘The Day’.
In 2003, he gave an unannounced performance, singing “When You Wish Upon a Star” as part of a Tokyo Disney Sea parade. He also appeared at the domestic rock festival for the first time. In this year's tour, he invited the Czech National Symphony Orchestra to hold Rock Opera, under the concept of a “fusion of rock and classical music”.
In December 2005, Yazawa ran a sold-out Japan tour of “live houses” (Japanese-English for a live-music club) as a part of his “back to roots” approach to his 30th anniversary as a solo artist. ‘Ei-chan’ delighted fans with a rendition of “Whiskey Coke”, a hit from that year (and a Karaoke library mainstay), as well as numbers from his 2005 album, Only One.
The tour of 2006 was a continuance of Rock Opera, called ‘New Standard: Rock Opera 2’. In this tour, with Czech National Symphony Orchestra, he played some orchestrated version of songs, including epic version of his popular ballad, “Tokyo”. He also played jazz version of the songs in the Blue Note Tokyo, a traditional jazz club.
On December 16, 2007, Yazawa performed his 100th concert at Nippon Budokan. In it, he appeared in the same clothes as the first Budokan concert. In addition, he chose “Come on Baby” as the opening number, just like he did at the first Budokan live. John McFee, George Hawkins, and Guy Allison joined as special guests
On September 19, 2009, 5 days after the day of his 60th birthday, he held a concert in Tokyo Dome for the first time in 20 years. Kyosuke Himuro, Hiroto Kōmoto, and Masatoshi Mashima joined as special guests to sing “Kuroku Nuritsubuse” (lit.Fill It With Darkness) with Yazawa.
On September 1, 2012, he held the concert called Blue Sky, in Yokohama International Stadium (now Nissan Stadium) to commemorate his 40th anniversary of his debut. Former Carol guitarist Toshikatsu Uchiumi appeared as a guest to play a few Carol hits, including “Funky Monkey Baby”, and their debut single “Louisiana”.