Cepat Pulang, Cepat Kembali Jangan Pergi Lagi

I often found myself being bothered by songs about coming home/homesickness/missing a travelling person. [500 Miles]. Firasat. [Rumah Kita]. This is most probably related to [my desire to travel]. And as such a person I revere songs on travelling. [Freebird] being the [most prominent example].

The post title translates roughly to “quickly go home, quickly return and don’t leave again” from Marcell’s Firasat (Hunch?), which I heard being performed by one of the guest band in today’s Indonesian Diaspora Gathering in Bristol. BTW I and some other Indonesians in Cardiff also performed there.

Home is where your heart is. So bring your home as you travel.

Mando- and Cantopop

My ears have seemingly taken an uncanny route. After “settling down” last year, now I listen to…Mando- and Cantopop. Something that I would never think of some ten years ago.

I regularly listen to these nowadays.

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Leslie Cheung – 當年情 (In the Sentimental Past)

Although I watched A Better Tomorrow [in 2014], I wasn’t interested at its soundtracks back then. Now I listen to this again after watching its sequel, which features this song overlaid with the next song.

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Leslie Cheung – 奔向未來日子 (Will Rush Toward Future Day)

Now this is the best Cantopop song ever. Listening to this makes me feel like listening to a summary of Leslie Cheung’s entire life (although I need to put a disclaimer that I don’t really know his story very much, and I don’t know what this song is about). Plus that scene in the movie.

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Hu Xia – 那些年 (Those Years)

I watched You Are the Apple of My Eye a couple of weeks ago and hint hint: it is a top 5 candidate for this year.

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Eason Chan – K歌之王 (The King of Karaoke)

I have no idea what this song is about—oh let me google it. OK now I know what it is about. I find [two] [links] that tell slightly different translations. Are the Mandarin and Cantonese different? But nonetheless, how funny it is, as I’ve been known to sing melancholic songs…melancholically.

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Wang Jie – 別讓明天的太陽離開我 (Don’t Let Tomorrow’s Sun Leave Me)

Wang Jie and this song embody the late 1980s/early 1990s atmosphere: a clean-shaven man with leather jacket singing a heartbreaking ballad.

The Current State of Ears

Back in 2009, I posted [this].

Nowadays I enjoy almost completely different sets of songs. Just want to share some that I enjoy lately.

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Posted this late last year.

Discovered Malay rock and immediately liked it.

Have always liked Gregorian, but not to this level. Duty calls.

Went to Mew’s concert a few months ago. Their best song.

I don’t know who she is and I don’t know what she says, until I read an English translation.

Just sang this song in the church yesterday.

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I don’t enjoy much what I call “angry people’s songs” anymore. Not that I turn my back on them now. I do still listen to the likes of Metallica, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, etc occasionally. But I don’t know, the spark is mostly gone…

’04-’05

Saya lupa gimana caranya beberapa minggu lalu saya menemukan lagu ini. Kayanya cuman related video di salah satu video yang saya tonton. Sebelumnya saya ga pernah dengar tentang lagu ini ataupun bandnya. Lagunya sendiri nomor dua. Yang menarik perhatian saya terutama adalah videonya. Teman-teman mereka (para personil band) semasa SMA, 20 tahun sebelum membuat video itu, ditunjukkan beserta foto mereka di buku tahunan. Yang dulu wagu jadi gagah. Yang ganteng tetep ganteng. Yang cantik tetep cantik. Beberapa dengan anggota keluarga/anak-anaknya. Menyentuh sekali buat saya. Saya sejak SD selalu berpindah. SD saya di Ponorogo. Tahun 1997 saya balik ke Jogja, dan sejak itu belum pernah ke Ponorogo lagi. SMP, SMA, universitas saya semua di Jogja. Setelah itu teman-teman pada merantau. Saya juga. Makanya itu saya jarang kontak dengan teman-teman saya. Terlebih saya sekarang di luar negeri, walaupun ada bagian lain Indonesia yang lebih jauh dari kampung halaman. Menonton klip ini mengingatkan saya akan masa lalu yang saya tinggalkan. Ya teman-teman saya. Ya cewek-cewek yang saya taksir dulu. Sekolah-sekolah saya. Kampung halaman saya. Terpenting, masa remaja saya. Ndak terasa, lulus SMA itu sudah 10 tahun lalu. Saya masih ingat sekali dulu waktu masih kecil, kira-kira 10 tahun, rasanya lama sekali proses untuk menjadi 18 itu. Tiba-tiba sekarang saya 26. Ndak tua, tentu; orang tua saya selalu tertawa kalau saya bilang saya tua (anyway saya agak disorientasi soal umur: teman-teman saya selalu lebih tua, tapi tampang saya sendiri tampang tua; tapi itu soal lain). Nah, di seperti saya tulis di [postingan lalu], tempat tinggal sekarang yang dulu saya rasa membosankan ternyata juga bisa ditinggali dengan nyaman. Tapi yah, saya pingin pergi juga, dan teman-teman saya sekarang juga suatu saat akan menjadi foto-foto di buku tahunan di video klip ini: hitam putih, kabur, samar, dan dimakan waktu. Besok-besok, ketika saya bertemu mereka kembali, yang muda akan jadi tua, yang tua mungkin juga mungkin akan sudah ga ada. Yang dulu sendirian sudah berkeluarga, dan yang dulu sudah berkeluarga sudah ditinggal anak cucunya merantau lagi. Saya sendiri ndak ada bayangan 20-30 tahun lagi akan jadi seperti apa. Mudah-mudahan masih hidup dan sehat. Dan mudah-mudahan ada yang bisa dan mau saya gondol™.

Familiarity Re-explained

Have you ever had moments which you feel you have been familiar with and often experience, but once you give a bit of further thought, you realise that you actually have not been, and the explanation seems to surprise you? I had it a few times in the last few years. Here I want to share how I re-understand two songs, oldies songs, which as a child I heard quite often from the radio, but didn’t really comprehend.

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“My Way”

I used to think that this is the song you want to sing when you are making resolutions, that this is my way, who cares about your way. But that might be more appropriate for [this My Way], while this My Way is about getting old and having peace with your imminent death, that while you had regrets in the past, all in all you feel satisfied with your life. It has that feeling to be a song for the final victory, a calm victory, that you have overcome all the obstacles in the life when you were younger. This is the kind of song which I want to sing  meaningfully when I am old. Now that I mention it, I have been listening to this song a couple of times in one day, and I feel like I am 75.

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“Green Green Grass of Home”

At a glance, this seems to be about how beautiful your hometown is, the nostalgia you experience when you reminisce your village and the green grass in your yard. Well this song does say about those things, but with a twist: that it is impossible for the singer to visit his home again, as he is about to be executed, and he could only wish that after he dies, his remain is to be buried there. Come to think of it, while my hometown is just right here, I have never been to the city I grew up in for over 15 years now, and I am looking forward to seeing it again.