Eiichi Ohtaki -

Eiichi Ohtaki — 大瀧詠一 (July 28, 1948 — Dec. 30, 2013) — was a Japanese singer, songwriter, and arranger from Esashi, Iwate, who cut four albums with folk-rockers Happy End during the early 1970s. As a solo artist, he released two albums on Bellwood Records between 1972 and 1975. During the ensuing eleven-year period, he issued ten titles on his Columbia/CBS-subsidiary Niagara Records. Amid these activities, he recorded two albums in the pop trio Niagara Triangle.

Background

Eiichi Ohtaki was born 大瀧榮一 (Eiichi Ōtaki) on July 28, 1948, in Yanagawa village, Esashi District, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, now part of Oshu. His mother, a public-school teacher, raised him in Iwate and moved with school assignments from Esashi to Tono and then Kamaishi. Ohtaki traced his interest in American pop to “Lipstick on Your Collar” by Connie Francis, which he heard at a relative’s home in fifth grade. He joined a radio club in junior high and built a receiver for the Far East Network (FEN) and Nippon Broadcasting.

In 1964, Ohtaki entered Iwate Prefectural Hanamaki Kita High School. He transferred to Kamaishi Minami High School and formed the Splendours, his first band, as drummer. Ohtaki moved to Tokyo in spring 1967 for preparatory school. He worked briefly at a steel company in Koiwa. Ohtaki joined singer Fumio Nunoya in Taboo that summer as drummer, and the group dissolved by year-end.

Ohtaki entered Waseda University’s Second Faculty of Literature in 1968 and left without a degree. Nunoya introduced him to Yoshihiko Nakada, who connected Ohtaki with Haruomi Hosono in Tokyo. The trio formed the private music-study circle Lamp Post, where they compared records and presented original songs.

Hosono invited Ohtaki in September 1969 to form a new band with drummer Takashi Matsumoto. Guitarist Shigeru Suzuki completed the lineup at Matsumoto’s home, where he devised the introductory figure for the Ohtaki composition “12 Gatsu no Ame no Hi.” The quartet called itself Valentine Blue and debuted October 28 at the Zen-Dentsu Hall concert Rock wa Barricade o Mezasu in Ochanomizu. URC director Eiji Ogura approached Hosono and Ohtaki with a recording offer at the close of a November folk concert. The quartet received album approval in January.

In spring 1970, Valentine Blue adopted the name Happy End. They backed Nobuyasu Okabayashi and recorded their self-titled debut in April, followed in 1971 with Kazemachi Roman. Ohtaki began solo recordings under his own name that year and released “Koi no Kisha Poppo” in December, followed by “Sora Tobu Kujira” the next June. Bellwood director Mitsunori Miura took charge of the solo LP, which Ohtaki first conceived as six singles collected as Omnibus. Ohtaki completed the project with engineer Kinji Yoshino and the other Happy End members for a November 1972 release titled Eiichi Ohtaki.

Discography: