Eikichi Yazawa, born September 14, 1949 in Hiroshima, is a veteran rock music figure, with such an incredibly devoted following that it is tempting to call him the Japanese Elvis. He first burst onto the music scene in 1972 as a bassist/ singer of the band Carol, a denim and leather clad four piece who played straight ahead rock ala Chuck Berry, with a brash sneering attitude. While plenty of previous bands and played rock music, none had ever adopted such a swaggering bad boy approach. The other members were Johnny Okura on rhythm guitar, Toshikatsu Uchiumi on lead guitar and Yu Okazaki on drums, The band was wildly popular and scored a string of hits, their most famous being the rocker
Funky Monkey Baby. The band however was short lived, and played their “sayonara show” on April 13, 1975 at Hibiya Yagai Ongakudo, which was filmed and later released as a video. As a solo artist Yazawa maintained a highly stylized macho performing style, one element of which was his bold dress style completed with a scarf or towel flung around his shoulders, a touch which served to give him a working class suave. His legions of fans often adopted similar fashions to attend his shows, and his name as logo, with trademark lightning bolt Z, is often seen on back windows of cars and trucks. His first solo album, released in 1975, titled
I Love You, OK, included a single by the same name, which became one of his signature tunes. Overtime his songs increasingly became more mainstr...
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Eikichi Yazawa, born September 14, 1949 in Hiroshima, is a veteran rock music figure, with such an incredibly devoted following that it is tempting to call him the Japanese Elvis. He first burst onto the music scene in 1972 as a bassist/ singer of the band Carol, a denim and leather clad four piece who played straight ahead rock ala Chuck Berry, with a brash sneering attitude. While plenty of previous bands and played rock music, none had ever adopted such a swaggering bad boy approach. The other members were Johnny Okura on rhythm guitar, Toshikatsu Uchiumi on lead guitar and Yu Okazaki on drums, The band was wildly popular and scored a string of hits, their most famous being the rocker
Funky Monkey Baby. The band however was short lived, and played their “sayonara show” on April 13, 1975 at Hibiya Yagai Ongakudo, which was filmed and later released as a video. As a solo artist Yazawa maintained a highly stylized macho performing style, one element of which was his bold dress style completed with a scarf or towel flung around his shoulders, a touch which served to give him a working class suave. His legions of fans often adopted similar fashions to attend his shows, and his name as logo, with trademark lightning bolt Z, is often seen on back windows of cars and trucks. His first solo album, released in 1975, titled
I Love You, OK, included a single by the same name, which became one of his signature tunes. Overtime his songs increasingly became more mainstream, with a number of his songs basically power ballads, but like the Las Vegas Elvis, he still had some aura of street tough about him. His 1978 concert at Korakuen Stadium reportedly drew 50,000 people, and was considered the biggest rock event ever at the time. Also in 1978 Yazawa wrote his autobiography “Narigari”, which appeared as a comic in 1993. In 2001 he wrote an updated biography “Are You Happy?”. Having gone about as far as possible in Japan, his management attempted to make him famous internationally. Yazawa spent some time in Southern California in preparation, and in 1981 released an English language album,
Yazawa in the States. His live shows in 1982 featured members of the popular California- based rock band the Doobie Brothers in his back band. In total he has made seven albums using American pop singer Andrew Gold as a producer. He has also featured Ringo’s son Zak Starkey as drummer on some of his recordings. While some of his albums were released in the States, and Yazawa has played international charity events, these ultimately served more as PR to embellish his reputation in Japan than actually establishing him abroad. His image has further been enhanced in Japan by TV commercials, for which he is very much in demand. Yazawa remains incredibly popular to this day, and while his sales may have dwindled slightly, his shows are always certain to draw. In 2004’s Rock Odyssey festival Yazawa received top billing, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers serving as his opening act.
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