Joe Yamanaka

Akira Yamanaka (山中 明, Yamanaka Akira, September 2, 1946 – August 7, 2011), better known as Joe Yamanaka (ジョー山中), was a Japanese singer and actor. He is known for both his work with Flower Travellin' Band and as a solo musician; singing at a vocal range of three octaves. As an actor, he appeared in many television shows and movies, such as Takashi Miike's Deadly Outlaw: Rekka and the 1989 version of Zatoichi.

Akira Yamanaka was born in Yokohama, Japan, on September 2, 1946. He grew up in a family of seven children, though the only one of mixed descent as his father was a US Army soldier of Caribbean descent. In his autobiography, he mentions that he never met his biological father and that he came from a poor family in ruined Yokohama; being born in a brothel as his mother was a prostitute for the Recreation and Amusement Association. The only knowledge of his father was that he was a US soldier from either Cuba or Jamaica. Joe grew up in an orphanage after his mother and stepfather died. During an interview with Mainichi Shimbun, Akira stated that he was born with tuberculosis and that he never really thought about his biological father, believing that those who raised him were his real parents.

Yamanaka⁠'s stature outside Japan is evidenced by his time spent as a replacement for Bob Marley in The Wailers after Marley’s death. Yamanaka had been a member of Flower Travellin’ Band in the 1970s, a Japanese psychedelic rock band that proved that it could hold its own with contemporary Western rock bands, as evidenced by an opportunity to open for The Rolling Stones’ 1973 tour of Japan. Unfortunately, Mick Jagger’s drug conviction derailed the Stones’ tour plans and Flower Travellin’ Band soon broke up.