From: william@natimuk.acci.com.au (William Lo)
Subject: Re: HK Lyrics (Re: Tat Ming Pair)
Keywords: Cantonese
Organization: IBM Australia/ACCI 
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 01:02:00 GMT

In article <23132@optima.cs.arizona.edu> leoso@cs.arizona.edu (Leo WaiChung So) writes:
>william@natimuk.acci.com.au (William Lo) writes:
>>	is that the lyrics to their songs were very effective. Attributable
>>	to Chan, he did very well. Poon can write very beautiful love
>>	song lyrics. He's best at writing love(of different kinds). Another
> 
>  I think, with TMP, Poon's political songs are better. Like <Ten Young
>  Members of Fire Brigade> and <Love of Da Ya Bay> ... and <Comrade> 
>  perhaps.

	Aha. Yep. Poon's been drawing a lot more on real life situations
	(those related to HK - politics and life, etc) than other writers.
	The goal is good because more people will be able to relate to
	the songs. That's important I think. If you want to write SOMETHING,
	you must be rather conscious of those real life instances. You
	don't have to write anything kind of profound, but relating the song's
	contents to the reality(as said by Axl Rose) is admirably an ultimate
	task for every good lyric writer to fulfill.
	But the facts are(y'know), writing this kind of material in the  
	Cantonese context is by no means easy. Writing love songs is easier.
	Well, but I don't mean long songs are bad(although they're often
	thought to be immaterial - don't flame!)
>
>  On the other hand, Chan is definitely the best match with TMP in
>  writing either slow or fast, love or non-love songs.

	Agree. Thanks to Tats Lau. His music(simple and neat) gave Chan  
	the best room for putting words in. 
	Also attributable to the fact that Chan had been Tats' student for 
	quite some time prior to the formation of TMP, so they got to know 
	each other pretty well and Chan should be more familiar with Tats' 
	music than anyone(who was writing lyrics) was. 
>
>>	good lyric writer is Heung Shu Wai who wrote lyrics to many 
>>	of Hacken Lee's songs(like Blue Moon).   
>> 
>  And <One Thousand and One Night>.

	And Leon's classic "Sorry I love you"...and... 
	This guy writes very fast, doesn't he? 
>
>  Back to Sam's and TMP's lyrics, Sam is good at describing things in
>  his songs using either spoken or written Chinese. In spoken Cantonese
>  you will think that it is very "Dai Sei" but if it's in written 
>  Chinese it just looks classical Chinese Poetry.

	His work did anyway say SOMETHING. And that SOMETHING has 
	distinguished him from those vulgar blokes(remember Wun Kwong
	who sang "Snow White and the seven dwarfs?)   
>
>  TMP are more like modern Chinese Poetry. Also their topics are the
>  most diversified ones in HK. Sometimes they are incomplete with 
>  regard to grammar and require you to fill the gaps with your own
>  imagination. But, well, not bad though. 

	Aha.
>>
>>	I believe a good song is itself a worthwhile message, and
>>	the lyrics will tell us what it is. 
>>
>  Sure.

	Does music marry lyric or lyric marry music??? - Which is
	more important?

---Cheers,
	Bill
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From: yuk@hpopd.pwd.hp.com (Yuk Lun Chan)
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 13:18:13 GMT
Subject: Re: pretty women, good wives?
Organization: Hewlett-Packard ISG-SBU-PWD, UK.