Tonight on NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, the show launched with a tribute to the late singer Teresa Teng who would have turned 70 a couple of days ago. Singers including Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）and Rimi Natsukawa（夏川りみ）covered some of her best, and it was great hearing her old hits again especially since they were among the first of the articles for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" to go up.
I've not done an Author's Pick on any of Teng's tunes so I figure that if NHK can hoist a glass in her honour, so can I. These songs really do bring back my memories of Kuri, our old karaoke haunt back in university.
(1974) Kuukou （空港）
(1984) Tsugunai (つぐない）
(1985) Aijin（愛人）
(1986) Toki no Nagare ni Mi wo Makase （時の流れに身をまかせ）
(1987) Wakare no Yokan （別れの予感）
Ahh..not only broke the January record at 95 articles but this is KKP's 9400th!
Tsugunai is also one of my favorites. There’s a Chinese version too. I think I like the Chinese version better.
ReplyDeleteHi, Larry. Good to hear from you again. Hope everything is good in Oakland. Yeah, I figure that pretty much every Teresa Teng song has been translated into multiple languages. She was extremely popular over a lot of Asia.
DeleteSome of her definitive songs:
ReplyDeleteYe Lai Xiang (originally by Yoshiko Yamaguchi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpkf8vyH4a0
He ri jun zai lai (originally by Zhou Xuan)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnDhevwXsec
Yue liang dai biao wo de xin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXPCqkNt6ZI
Dan yuan ren chang zu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvnj_J_dO9s
The first three and Goodbye My Love (Teresa Teng version) were the songs I chose for my dad's funeral.
The last song was part of a 1983 album setting old poems to modern music.
Hi, Jim. That was a very sweet thing that you did for your father. He must have been a huge fan of Teresa.
DeleteAlso "Du shang xi lou", which I've fallen in love with. It turns out so many of her songs that I love are from Dandan youqing.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzHVOZy-y0
Also, have a listen to this singer, Cai Xingjuan (Delphine Tsai). I swear she's lip-synching to Teresa Teng's vocals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJmeBtgFELc
I really do recommend that you listen to Du shang xi lou (Alone in the West tower), as well as have a read about the lyricist Li Yu.
ReplyDeleteThe last ruler of the last remnant of the Tang dynasty, a member of the Li family, Li Yu would rather have been a poet than a ruler. Not a very good ruler, handicapped by the need to appease the much more powerful Song dynasty to the north, the Songs finally extinguished the rump southern Tang kingdom in 975. But while the last of the Tang dynasty is held to have ended in 975, the era of Tang dynasty poetry is held to have ended in 978, with the death of Li Yu. He may have been a middling poet in his earlier years, but he reached greatness in his last two years, as he expanded form and subject. Du shang xi lou was one of his late poems, reflecting on his changed circumstance.
The other poets of Dandan youqing are quite interesting too.
I really liked Teresa Teng's Anata no Sora, Fuyu no Himawari, Mizu no Seiza, Garasu no Matenro, Casiopeia (I always play these song whenever the night come). As a person who grew up in Southeast Asia and knew her as one of 'conservative' singer (I am the gen Z), I did not much paid attention until accidentally found Aijin. It grew my curiosity to her, and she was far more interesting than I anticipated
ReplyDeleteI tried some of her discography from her very first to her very last. However, my most favs would be her Japanese song around last 80's and early 90's. She got da vibe i liked. Ironically, whenever i tried to hear some of her covered version of my country's songs, it immediately gives me some "what the heck i've just heard" vibe. She got the style, but simply made me feels like 'I got very cheesy boomer taste'
Nice to meet you, daijidatte. I've been partial to songs like "Aijin" and "Tsugunai". At the time, when my music vocabulary was still limited, I couldn't quite peg the genre of those songs so I went with European enka for the longest time. Maybe New Adult Music might be the thing now.
Delete