On August 21, 2021, Luo Dayou won the "Special Contribution Award" of the 32nd Golden Melody Awards. Ma Shifang, the introducer of the awards ceremony and a well-known music critic, said: "Every song of Luo Dayou stands at the height of epic poetry and leaves a witness for the big era. He let us know that a singer can not only have the soul of a poet, but also the spirit of a thinker and the temperament of a revolutionary. A record can also be an enlightenment event that shocks the times. After breaking into the music scene for more than forty years, Luo Dayou interpreted what is called "doing one thing well in a lifetime" with a craftsman posture. When standing on the podium, he said, "After 44 years in the industry, I found that this award is the same as the Best Newcomer Award, which can only be received once in a lifetime." At the end, the 67-year-old raised his trophy and shouted at the young musicians below: "The old man has not stopped here, why do you stop?" Come on everyone! "This godfather of the Chinese pop music scene who insists on responding to the times with creation has brought us more than just a good golden song. It was he who made us more courageous adults.
Lukang Town Music: Luo Dayou - Happy Paradise regains old joy
In 1982, a singer with an exploding head, a black suit and black-rimmed sunglasses entered the public eye.
At only 28 years old, his voice was rough and mute, and the lyrics he wrote were exquisite, and fans frantically sang "Taipei is not my home, my hometown has no neon lights" with him.
This seemingly lonely singer is Luo Dayou, and this song is still popular in "Lukang Town".
"Lukang Town" is a representative song of the wandering Taipei family, and it is also a song of struggle for people who are away from home.
Shattered illusions, hometowns that cannot be returned, the tears and impacts brought by the rapid development of modern civilization to the town... Helpless and heavy emotions flowed out of the words.
The phrase "the young man who left home" hit the heart of generations of people and became the theme of Luo Dayou's 2017-2020 tour.
Lukang
Luo Dayou, who wrote "In my dream, I returned to Lukang Town again", has never been to Lukang, nor is he the "young man who left home" in the song.
His father was not the "grocery store owner" described in the song, but a famous doctor.
In the eyes of outsiders, Luo Dayou's family is well-off, and he himself has always been a three-good student with all-round development of morality, intellect, body and beauty. After graduating from medical school, his son inherited his father's business and became a respected doctor.
Before becoming rock' and roll, he had been "saving people" with a scalpel.
The scenes depicted in the song "Lukang Town" are all imagined by Luo Dayou. The starting point of all imagination is a young man who helps him repair his motorcycle.
When he was a trainee doctor in Taipei, one day, Luo Dayou pushed the broken motorcycle to the repair shop, and when he saw the young man repairing the motorcycle with a sad face, he talked to him.
It turned out that the young man had stolen 20,000 yuan from his hometown in Lukang to come to Taipei. He dreamed that he could earn several times the money to go back to Guangzong Yaozu, but the coils he brought were completely clean. There was no money and no face to go back to his hometown, so he had to hide in the car dealership every day.
After Luo Dayou returned home, a song "Lukang Town" was born.
"Creators have to follow their own hearts, that's a certainty. However, I sometimes actively seek a situation that is not my current situation, which is a creative technique. ”
Luo Dayou recalled.
Luo Dayou spent half his life struggling between making music and being a doctor, and this struggle lasted for 30 years.
When his ex-wife Li Lie was not yet married, one day, Luo Dayou and a group of friends were eating at a restaurant, and they talked about a music friend mentioning in the newspaper that "Luo Dayou was born 'aristocratic', and in terms of musician training, he has an advantage". Li Lie immediately echoed: "Yes, when we were young, we always regarded the doctor family as an aristocrat. ”
For this reason, Luo Dayou stared at her for a minute and scared her into tears in public.
In Li Lie's eyes, the doctor family is extremely decent and prominent, and Luo Dayou is also extremely lucky.
Luo Dayou himself thought that the success of his father, who had been relying on his hands to fight the sky all his life, did not achieve it overnight, and he himself had never been a genius who wrote a thousand lines with one stroke.
Words like "noble" and "dominant" are rather unfair to define both his father and Luo Dayou himself.
Wild lilies also have spring music: Luo Dayou - Classical, Classical, Luo Dayou
Luo Dayou and his ex-wife Li Lie
Luo Dayou's grandfather had a total of four boys and four daughters, and Luo's father was the second oldest in the family. I remember when I was a child, Luo's father always remembered that he went to school barefoot, and it took six or seven hours to go back and forth on the road.
The clinic opened by Luo's father in Kaohsiung, assisted by only 1 assistant and 1 nurse, after 30 years of hard work, created a situation.
Since the age of 18, Luo Dayou has followed his father to learn to operate. The family was full of doctors, which was also the reason why he later went to medical school.
7 years of training in medical school, plus 2 years of later work in the hospital. Friends think it is a pity that he wasted so much time studying medicine. However, the rigorous science of medicine and the emphasis on ethics and respect for human rights had a great influence on his later writing songs, making music, and even dealing with people.
"Looking back on my entire musical journey, my father was very supportive of me behind my back. He knew I loved music and did a good job, but he always advised me, 'It's okay to make music, don't give up practicing medicine.' After all, doctors have a good social status, a stable income, and are respected. ’ ”
In an article about his father, Luo Dayou wrote.
Luo Dayou was a child
In fact, his father is the real "daystar" on Luo Dayou's musical path.
At the age of 6, his father bought pianos, electric guitars, electronic keyboards and other musical instruments for Luo Dayou – in Taiwan in the 60s, this was undoubtedly a luxurious consumption.
Most of the money for buying musical instruments was borrowed by my father.
His father insisted that Luo Dayou play the piano, urged him to get a piano level 8 certificate, and encouraged him to go to the choir. Just in the third grade of elementary school, he already knows how to grasp the chords of songs.
When he was a child, Luo Dayou was tired of practicing for up to 30 minutes a day, and he preferred to run freely with his peers.
Once, when Luo Dayou and a neighbor child were halfway through playing and were called home to practice, he cried out in public.
His father's musical enlightenment to Luo Dayou persisted until he was in high school, and then it began to gradually appear. At that time, he had become interested in arranging music and made a lot of interesting attempts.
The piano was of great help to composers, and most of Luo Dayou's early songs were composed on the piano, as were melodious slow songs such as "Lullaby" and "Scarecrow".
Love Song 1980 Music: Lo Tai Yoo - Rolling Stone Golden Song (1)
Luo Dayou (2nd from left) and his family in childhood
After going to college, Luo Dayou spent most of his time listening to music. He began to buy records in large quantities, and over the course of five years he bought more than a thousand copies. "I'd rather eat less than buy a record."
The habit of listening to good music is also inherited from my father.
My father loved to listen to music. Classical, rock, jazz... From childhood to adulthood, Luo Dayou followed his father to listen to countless records, all types.
"Any creator must be a good audience before he succeeds, for example, a good writer must first be a good reader, and a good musician must first be a good listener." The process of music creation is subjective, but the process of music appreciation is objective, I have listened to a lot of music before, and I listen to it with a learning attitude, and in the process I have slowly found my own musical aesthetics. ”
In Luo Dayou's memory, his father's five tones were incomplete.
In high school, my father invited hospital colleagues to come to his home for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and under the push of everyone, he sang a song "The Moon Is Out" on the rooftop. His voice was low, but he still kept moving to attract everyone's ridicule.
One day in 1998, in the small apartment that Luo Dayou bought in New York, he heard his father sing the military song of his early years as a military man in Nanyang, and the aunt who took care of him was very surprised: "Grandpa, how can you sing?" ”
"You don't know, I taught Luo Dayou's songs." The father replied.
Two days later, Father Luo passed away.
In the following 8 years, Luo Dayou did not release a single album.
"For a while I couldn't write a song anymore, I didn't have the strength to sing, I didn't even like my own voice, I didn't think it was right to sing karaoke with my friends, and it was annoying to hear my own voice."
Recalling the process of studying medicine, Luo Dayou found that his first surgery was completed in his own yard and under the guidance of his father. The scalpel handed to him by his father, in addition to opening the stomach and saving the wounded, can also truly heal a person's soul.
"For me, the biggest impact is something I don't feel at all in the moment. It wasn't until one day that you suddenly realized. That's how my father was, and his influence on my whole life was so great that I couldn't write a song for him. ”
How to face the death of your father?
It was a long time before Luo Dayou figured it out. "In my life, can I show that he has fewer shortcomings and more advantages?" Believing in this way, I did not feel sorry for him, and his life was better extended. ”
Fortunately, there is also music, sustenance and those secret feelings.
Years later, when Mr. Rong and Miss Hu from Taiwan were traveling to Cape Town, South Africa, they met Allen, a taxi driver. Allen hummed a melody and asked if they had heard it, and they quickly remembered the song's name, "Love Song 1990."
It turned out that Allen first heard the song in 1993. At that time, his mother often took him to visit Chinese shops, and the owners of Chinese shops would often play this song. He remembered the melody, but not the name.
20 years on, he still can't find the name of the song. Until I met the pair of passengers.
Today, Allen's mother has passed away. Whenever he thought of his mother, he thought of this song. He called the song his "Mother Song."
Luo Dayou's musical career began with an unintentional phone call during his college years.
The call came from Liu Weibin, the director of the movie "Shining Days". He was introduced by Wang Zhenghua, a band drummer from Luo Dayou's high school years, and came to Luo Dayou to compose music.
In 1977, "Shining Days" began preparations, starring Zhang Aijia and Liu Wenzheng, telling the story of a Taiwanese band playing music. The film begins with the theme song of the same name written by Luo Dayou and concludes with his translation of "Song" by Xu Zhimo from the poem composed by the 16th-century British poet Christine Rossetti.
That year, Luo Dayou was 23 years old and was studying medicine in Taichung, studying for his fifth year.
"Shining Days"
Director Liu Weibin's request was, "Make a little blues music, it sounds rock, it has more depth than folk songs." At that time, campus folk songs were very popular, but Luo Dayou had a rebellious mentality, thinking that "country music is imitation no matter what it says."
Such an idea is in line with Liu Weibin.
Among them, the ending song "Song" is the first song in Luo Dayou's life, although it only has a melody.
In 1974, Luo Dayou was a second year of college, and had just moved out of the school dormitory to live in a small house. After writing the melody, the lyrics have been in a blank state, and I don't know how to fill it in.
It wasn't until 1976 that he saw the script for Shining Days, which included a poem translated by Xu Zhimo. Since then, he has been thinking about how to match it with the song of "Song". About two months later, the rest of the film's soundtrack had been completed, leaving it unfinished.
One day, he climbed from the 5th floor of his residence to the 6th floor, listening to the empty echo of the stairs, and suddenly, everything came to fruition.
After the release of the film, the response was good, and everyone officially met the newcomer Luo Dayou in the music industry.
It is also because of this movie that Luo Dayou and Zhang Aijia became acquainted and formed a pair of envious couples. He gave "Childhood", which he had written for five years, to Zhang Aijia.
After the song "Childhood" became popular, it was sung by countless people. But Zhang Aijia was the first person in the world to sing "Childhood".
Luo Dayou and Zhang Aijia
Since then, Luo Dayou's musical career has been inextricably linked to movies.
Widely sung songs such as "The Wind Is Blowing Softly", "If the Wine Is Dry and SellIng Nothing", "The Same Moonlight", and "Whether" are all written by him for the movie.
In 1987, Lo moved to Hong Kong and settled down.
In 1988, the police film "City Special Police" produced by Xu Ke Studio and directed by Du Qifeng premiered, and was brought to the big screen along with Luo Dayou's two original music "What You Look" and "Dream".
In 1989, in the literary and artistic romance film "The Story of Ah Lang" directed by Du Qifeng, he continued to cooperate with Luo Dayou. He not only asked Luo Dayou and Dong Shijie to co-play the soundtrack of "The Story of Ah Lang", but also delivered to him the creation of four theme songs and interludes in Cantonese and Chinese versions.
The song "The Way You Look" has once again been favored by Du Qifeng and used in "The Story of Ah Lang".
The year "The Story of Ah Lang" was released, Zhou Runfa was very young, and Wu Mengda was still alive.
Years later, many people have changed their appearance, only "The Way You Look", or "The Way You Look"...
From 1990 to 1993, Songs such as "Boat Song", "Rolling Red Dust", "Comrade Lover", and "Orphans of Asia" independently composed by Luo Dayou have been widely recognized by the audience and film awards as film theme songs or soundtracks.
Of the five works nominated for "Best Film Song" at the 9th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1990 alone, three were written by Law Dayou, and the trophy for "Best Film Score" was won by Law Anderson and Dong Shijie for the film "Eight Two Golds" (aka "Homecoming").
In 1990, Luo Dayou registered the label "Music Factory" in Hong Kong, which officially began a long-term cooperation with Lin Xi.
With the advantage of Cantonese language, Lin Xi almost took care of all the lyrics of the "Music Factory" period, while Lo Tai-yok was responsible for composing the music, making the two of them more and more closely involved in the production of Hong Kong films, and cooperating with directors such as Li Huimin, Huang Yushan and Zhang Aijia.
On the night of The Return of Hong Kong in 1997, two of the top ten songs to be sung at the celebration were written by Lo Tai-yok, one was "Pearl of the Orient" and the other was "Tomorrow Will Be Better".
The two pieces write about the vicissitudes and hesitations of the abandoned ethnic groups, and soothe the homesickness of Chinese immigrants.
Among them, "Tomorrow Will Be Better" was created in 1985. This song sung by the stars for the public welfare expresses people's good wishes for peace and hope that tomorrow will be better.
Music travels through time. In 2020, in order to convey the confidence of fighting the new crown pneumonia epidemic, "Tomorrow Will Be Better" was reinterpreted by the stars as a public welfare song.
At the time of writing this song, Luo Dayou was only 31 years old.
Before 1982, Luo Dayou did not rock.
Influenced by Taiwan's "New Folk Song Movement", Luo Dayou's early works with high popularity such as "Childhood" and "The Story of Time" are typical school folk songs.
The former was written in 1976 and the latter in 1980. In his early twenties, it is a good age to remember the youth of water.
What prompted Luo Toh to abandon his profession as a doctor, play rock 'n' roll, and write such angry words?
"It should be affected by the social atmosphere at that time." At that time, imported records were sold everywhere (in Taiwan), and I listened to a lot of American rock and jazz, and I played rock and roll because of these records.
In terms of lyrics, at that time (Taiwan) there were a number of very good poets, and I really liked to read new poems written by Yu Guangzhong, Love, Yang Mu and others, and I was influenced by them in terms of thinking style and opening up thinking space. ”
After graduating from medical school, Luo Dayou and Zhang Aijia formed a record company, and they were excited to release his first album of his life, "Zhi Hu Ye".
However, the process did not go smoothly.
Luo Dayou & Zhang Aijia
The record label believes that the best part related to Luo Dayou is his star girlfriend Zhang Aijia. And he himself, instead of being handsome, has a thick and mute voice, and can also walk in tone, singing like a brine egg and biting words that are not clear.
Luo Dayou hit a wall everywhere with a music master tape, and no one wanted to help him make a record. Until I met Duan Zhongyi, the founder of Rolling Stone Records.
In 1982, Luo Dayou was still a newcomer to the music scene who was not famous. This signing can be achieved purely because Duan Zhongyi is similar to Luo Dayou in terms of musical concept. At that time, Duan Zhongyi, like Luo Dayou, also had a shawl long hair and liked to listen to rock music from the United States in the 60s.
However, for an independent label that is just starting out, the partnership is still full of adventure and gambler mentality.
Some insiders once bet with Duan Zhongyi that "Zhi Hu Ye" could sell up to 2,000 copies. As a result, it sold 200,000 copies in Taiwan alone, and the pirated copies were countless.
The adventure was a success.
This is the first solo album published by Luo Dayou and the 9th album by Rolling Stone Records. This record not only opened the chapter of Luo Dayou's brilliant musical history, but also established the supremacy of Rolling Stone Records in the Chinese rock music scene.
Li Zongsheng, Zhao Chuan, Pan Yueyun, Qi Yu, Qi Qin, Zhang Hongliang, Ren Xianqi, Karen Mok and others who are widely sung by fans have all signed with Rolling Stones at some stage of their careers, and the records produced by Rolling Stones are often the best records in their singing careers.
Later, a sub-brand of the Rolling Stones, Magic Rock Culture, entered the mainland and helped mainland musicians completely release their creativity, which led to the Tang Dynasty Band and the Magic Rock Sanjie. All of this began with the publication of this "The One Who Cares" in 1982.
The record was so ahead of its time that it dropped a deep-water bomb on the Chinese pop music scene and quickly swept the entire cultural world.
Luo Dayou's song was like a sword, cutting a hole in the ground, and the sun poured out of the slit.
His songs are like clear mountain springs, flowing on the stones, soothing people's hearts and healing the world.
Luo Dayou and his songs record that era and are also the products of that era.
Luo Dayou
Xu Zhiyuan once asked Luo Dayou, "Like Cohen, he makes a record to death and sings to death, does this life attract you?" ”
At that time, Luo Dayou gave the answer, "I think this is very good, doing a line is like a line." If a person who is engaged in creation can just publish a record before he dies, as if predicting something, I think that's good. Aren't soldiers supposed to die on the front lines? ”
As for his musical pursuit and status in the Chinese pop music scene, it is best to interpret it with a sentence he himself once said.
"What I care about is that I'm dead and my songs are still sung. My music represents the style of a nation, which is a style that this nation can take out and will not be ashamed. Luo Dayou in this life, enough! I don't need so much applause. ”