Wow Yeah Yeah Yeah

July 4, 2009 10:43 AM

When little Akira Tamamoto fronted the Japanese kinderpop combo Finger 5, his miles of fringe and tinted Robert Evans shades drove the little girls mad.Here was one of the most peculiar manifestations of the bubblegum era: a pack of overworked kids from Indiana, filtered through the Motown hit machine, beamed out to the international mass media, reaching Okinawa, where the Tamamoto boys' pop had a bar with a stage. They were huge.

As the world ramps up into a frenzy for MJ's memorial (and those of us in downtown LA go to ground with our disaster kits), let's pretend it's 1972 again, and dig the daffy sights and giddy sounds of LOVE CALL 6700 | AMERICAN FOOTBALL | KOINO DAIYOGEN | GAKUEN TENGOKU.

(Previously.)

posted by Scram (14 comments total)

Wait, memorial?? Michael Jackson died!?!? WTF???? HOLY SHIT, WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN??
posted by Naberius at 10:53 AM on July 4 [1 favorite]

(Your main link is to Wikipedia?)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:18 PM on July 4 [2 favorites]

More Jackson 5 spoof/tribute action: The Credibility Gap, Foreign Novelty Smash
posted by jonp72 at 12:27 PM on July 4

(Your main link is to Wikipedia?)

Sorry, I don't read Japanese, and F5 facts are hard to come by on the Anglophone web. The alternative was a self-link to James Porter's Black Bubblegum chapter from David Smay's and my book Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, or a thread of 40-ish gals mooning over their Nippop pubescent raves.
posted by Scram at 12:45 PM on July 4 [1 favorite]

Not to be confused with the 2006 Islamic terrorist film Five Fingers (2006 film)
posted by Nelson at 1:17 PM on July 4

Speaking of MJ, didn't finger 5 do a cover of Want You Back?

Oh yeah, they did.
posted by cuetip at 3:20 PM on July 4

In my more prolific digging days, I unearthed a 7" of Love Call in Kent, Washington. No picture sleeve, which is why we should all carry portable turntables.
posted by iamck at 3:49 PM on July 4

Naberius - agree
WTF is up with the media??? They don't give enough time to this kind of thing.
Remember Princess Diana? Criminal neglect.
posted by hooptycritter at 4:51 PM on July 4

oh jfk jr. too I don't understand why the MSM does not devot more coverage to our pain.
posted by hooptycritter at 5:08 PM on July 4

To translate one of the many talk show videos on YouTube for you, when Tamamoto was 13, his manager tried to convince him to take hormone shots to prolong his soprano vocals. He mustered up the courage to refuse, and the band was history shortly thereafter. On that same talk show, he said he didn't even tell his parents about what their manager had tried to do and that it took him 30 years to talk about it (he was 47 on that show.)

Three of the F5 members then performed Love Call, and soprano or no, it's still some catchy pop.
posted by squasha at 6:43 PM on July 4 [1 favorite]

Not to be confused with the 2006 Islamic terrorist film Five Fingers

Or the American Boy Band Fingerbang
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:45 AM on July 5

Gakuen Tengoku was used in the finale of Waterboys, which is where I first heard them.
posted by emmling at 9:06 AM on July 5

The alternative was a self-link to James Porter's Black Bubblegum chapter from David Smay's and my book Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth

Kim Cooper! Love your book! Since nobody else is taking the plunge, here are some links to music inspired by the Jackson 5:

The Osmonds, Yo-Yo
The Osmonds, One Bad Apple
The Ponderosa Twins Plus One, Bitter with the Sweet
The Ponderosa Twins Plus One, You Send Me
The Ponderosa Twins Plus One, I'll Remember You
The Ponderosa Twins Plus One, Bound
Spoon Bread, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?
Jimmy Briscoe & the Little Beavers, Sugar Brown
Jimmy Briscoe & the Little Beavers, My Ebony Princess
Chee-Chee & Peppy, I Know I'm In Love
Chee-Chee & Peppy, A Lover's Question
Brighter Side of Darkness, I Owe You Love
Sweet Sensation, Sad Sweet Dreamer
Home Schooled: The ABC's of Kid Soul compilation
Guide to Kid Funk
Kid Funk: Musical Rarities from the 1970s
posted by jonp72 at 1:34 PM on July 5 [1 favorite]

I have a friend who has always been obsessed with Finger 5, and finally got in contact with them, and they invited her over to their house, where apparently the whole group, in their late 20s, was just sitting around playing Famikon. I tried to add this informative anecdote to Wikipedia, to no avail.
posted by odasaku at 6:24 PM on July 5