Li Jian said in the introduction to the Hong Kong Music Season:
"Hong Kong music was the first to engage in songwriting, like Huang Xia, Gu Jiahui these people are real literati, I think even they and Jin Yong are a level of people." Many of the lyrics are actually a transitional stage between ancient poetry and modern poetry, and such songs are very difficult to write. How many people today are able to write to such a level. ”
Li Jian is an excellent songwriter, and it is more important for him to evaluate the literary nature of Hong Kong music lyrics. The language of the news is also particularly exaggerated.
"Li Jian's admiration is overflowing with words, which is also in line with the literary nature of good lyrics that Li Jian has always advocated."
However, when it comes to Li Jian's musical creation concept, it is in line with his requirements for writing lyrics. The literary nature of Li Jian's songs is also very strong, and in terms of the literary nature of the songs, he should have pondered for a long time and has achieved certain results.
When it comes to the literary nature of songs, of course, it is inseparable from reading. Li Jian reads a lot of books, likes to introduce books to people, and calls on his listeners to read more books and make progress together.
Therefore, the books recommended by Li Jian can sell a wave on Dangdang.com. But looking closely at the books he recommends, and many of the literary topics he inadvertently mentions, he reads books with how to improve his songwriting ability.
Simply to say that people should get something after reading, Li Jian cleverly chose the books that were suitable for him to read, and pondered the words and phrases of the writer, because he was also a writer of words, which was his profession.
So not everyone who reads his recommended books can get their professional advancement. People should read books, but what books to read and how to read them are a kind of learning, which has to do with everyone's professional choices.
The world publishes books in all disciplines and disciplines every year, and the library is full of books. It is important to choose books for your own profession.
Of course, it is not excluded that bored and aimless reading is interested in passing the time. Some cattle people finally turned reading into their own industry, such as having a reading program, and it is good to get such a professional position through reading. But most people can't do that.
Li Jian is a singer, is a songwriter, he likes to read books, read a lot of books, but still has a choice, so li Jian's literary choice in what direction?
There's a show that spies on some of his thoughts. Li Jian mentioned his reading experience in the cultural program of the People's Network and Sheng Ke talking about "Big Coffee Has Something to Say".
When Li Jian talks about his reading, he chooses books with better words and pays more attention to the changes and choices of language, so poetry is the key. Because poetry uses the fewest words, saying things that contain a huge amount of information is the same as the lyrics. Why can the older generation of Hong Kong lyric writers write good songs? Their generation had a relatively good foundation in ancient Chinese.
Ancient literature is obscure, but it cannot be denied that the region can express the most meanings with the least words.
In the early days, Li Jian paid attention to beautiful and gorgeous words and paid attention to the changes in language, so in his songs with strong words and a large number of landscape descriptions, the beauty he created may be more beautiful than the scenery itself, and it is a bit contrived to continue to write songs when he is older, lacking the freshness of natural carving.
Li Jian pays attention to how to refine words, and many excellent writers reach a certain height, such as Sheng Ke, who talks with Li Jian, and Yu Hua, a friend of Li Jian.
Li Jian highly praised Yu Hua's new works because he admired the refinement of Yu Hua's works, although the new works were not as famous as their earlier works.
Sheng can talk about the process of his own writing, but also gradually cut off some redundant words, could have written more than 100,000 words, and finally cut the article to about 50,000 words, to retain the essence of the text, excellent people have the same idea.
Li Jian wrote lyrics focusing on inheritance, and his lyrics are unlikely to appear in the more obvious characteristics of the times. For example, television, telephone, computer, video games. These things are likely to be eliminated by the times. Songs can't be too strong to pass on the imprint of a particular era.
Because times have changed. These things may disappear with the changes of the times. Maybe ten years later, twenty years later, people will no longer use televisions, and computers will look backward.
For example, in the early years, there was a BB machine, which was the most important electronic product for couples to connect, but now in the songs that praise love, if the BBC is still used, it seems too old, and these objects are used for nostalgia.
But some things will never become obsolete, such as dawn, moon, sun, plants, nature, so Li Jian's songwriting pays great attention to the choice of objects, and there will be nothing too fashionable to appear in the song. He would write about things that might have existed in the world for thousands of years.
In this way, from the perspective of the degree of song transmission, it can lack some of the current fashion in the short term, but it is possible to pass it on in the long run. This is the choice whether the singer needs to get a long-term benefit or a short-term benefit.
In addition, Li Jian's early writing was very beautiful and colorful like a gorgeous peony flower in full bloom, but as he grew older, he did not like to use words that were too flowery. So he said that his reading taste is now starting to change, and he likes to read ancient Zen poems.
Zen poetry is used as a simple vernacular phrase that is easy to understand. In words that everyone can understand, he has said a very reasonable quote that makes people think deeply. He thinks it's hardest to express a deep meaning in the simplest and most straightforward words.
So in the early years, when he read poetry, he may not be as good as you in the spring breeze, and he doesn't like Walden very much, but now that he is older, he can read the taste of "Walden".
After time refining Li Jian's repeated contemplation of the artistic conception of the lyrics, Li Jian pursues the refinement of ancient poetry and the simplicity of modern language.
Turn around and take a look at the level of lyric creators in Hong Kong at that time, it is indeed with ancient poetry, and the language is concise and simple, so that people can understand it.
It is fully in line with Li Jian's comment, "The Transitional Stage between Ancient Poetry and Modern Poetry". The language of the transitional period is so timeless. Li Jian will certainly feel the creative ability of Hong Kong lyricists in that period.