The chorus of public welfare songs by the stars seems to be an important tradition for us to encounter some major events, including the Wenchuan earthquake, the Beijing Olympics and the COVID-19 pandemic. This tradition also dates back to the 1980s, to the first Chinese public welfare song born in 1985.
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This song was once the bloodthirsty work of Luo Dayou, the godfather of the Chinese music scene, but it also broke his heart, directly causing Luo Dayou to leave Taiwan and go away.
The godfather of the Chinese music scene, Luo Dayou
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the end of the wave of international philanthropy</h1>
The 1984 Famine in Ethiopia, which killed millions of people, shocked the world and was reported as "the closest place to hell on earth."
British singers Bob Geldorf and Mitch Your wrote a song called Do They Know It's Christmas, and before Christmas in 1984, they gathered dozens of popular British singers to record the single under the name "Band Aid", raising £8 million a year to help african victims.
Do They Know It's Christmas 歌曲封面
The wave of British public welfare songs spread to the United States, which deeply shocked american music festivals. On January 28, 1985, after the American Music Awards, Michael Jackson called on 45 American singers to form USA For Africa, and recorded the single We Are The World in one night at the A&M Studios in Los Angeles, which was released through Columbia Records on March 7, 1985.
45 American singers make up USA For Africa
On July 13, 1985, the British and American music community jointly organized a large-scale concert Live Aid in London and Philadelphia on the same day, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, The Madonna, Queen, and even the long-disbanded Zeppelin and the Beatles, also appeared on Live Aid in whole or zero, and more than 1.5 billion viewers around the world watched live tv, and the performance raised $80 million in charitable funds.
"Tomorrow Will Be Better" is the response of the Chinese music scene to this global music public welfare activity. Not long after the Live Aid concert ended, Taiwan's music industry began to prepare for the production of its own public welfare song, with the theme of "Echoing World Peace and Commemorating the Restoration of Taiwan".
Public welfare song "Tomorrow Will Be Better"
Zhang Aijia, who has strong ability, good popularity and wide road, was elected as the convener of the song, responsible for coordinating the creation, production, and convening of singers to sing and other one-stop matters. She invited her friend Luo Dayou to compose the lyrics, and entrusted Li Shouquan, a famous music producer at the time, to be responsible for the song production.
Luo Dayou is responsible for the songwriting of "Tomorrow Will Be Better"
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > lyrics should be critical or sensational</h1>
Zhang Aijia can be said to have the grace of knowing Luo Dayou, and when he received her invitation, Luo Dayou was naturally obligated. However, the lyrics of "Tomorrow Will Be Better", which he painstakingly wrote, were unanimously rejected by the production team, believing that the usual critical tone of his songs was too dark.
Zhang Aijia and Luo Dayou have been close friends for many years
The production team's concerns are justified. At that time, Taiwan was still in a state of "martial law", and the Information Bureau stipulated that all songs must be sent for trial before they were released or broadcast publicly, and the lyrics were very strictly censored. Luo Dayou's works have always emphasized the song's sense of social responsibility, deep insight and ultimate humanistic care, and it is inevitable that the words will be flawed between the lines, so it is common for him to be forced to censor and revise the lyrics.
Luo Dayou was young
Under the leadership of producer Li Shouquan, Zhang Dachun, Xu Naisheng, Li Shouquan, Qiu Fusheng, Zhan Hongzhi and other famous songwriters worked together to change the lyrics to the bright and brisk version we hear now, full of hope for the future, and then arranged by Chen Zhiyuan. For the lyrics to be changed, Luo Dayou only said that the song after the revision was too sensational, and without the "sense of responsibility" he emphasized, he did not pursue it.
Li Shouquan and Luo Dayou re-sang "Tomorrow Will Be Better" many years later
Subsequently, Luo Dayou and Zhang Aijia came forward to gather a total of 60 Chinese singers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and other places to sing together, these singers span different regions, from different record companies, and also broke the signing restrictions, just to create a public welfare song that belongs to the Chinese and affects the world.
60 Chinese singers sang together
On October 25, 1985, the MV "Tomorrow Will Be Better" was officially released, and all 6 million yuan of public welfare funds raised were donated to the Consumer Cultural and Educational Foundation, and the hong Kong distribution proceeds were donated to the children's choir.
In the following 35 years, this most classic public welfare song in the history of the Chinese music scene has endured for a long time and has become a must-have song for major Chinese charity evenings.
The song was released by Blue & White Records
As for the original lyrics of Luo Dayou, they have not been seen for many years. Discussing which sentence is written by Luo Dayou word by word has also become a great pleasure for Luo Dayou's fans, and we can only glimpse how "gray" the original lyrics are from the only words revealed by producer Li Shouquan in an interview.
For example, the well-known phrase "Who can bear to look at the sorrow of yesterday and take away our smiles", the original phrase is "who can bear to look at the last clown". That summer, "Taiwan Chaplin" could not be tragically passed away, and Luo Dayou wrote this sentence for him. The unsurpassable death involves too many scandals, and this lyric is naturally replaced.
"Tomorrow Will Be Better" Luo Dayou original manuscript
It wasn't until the other day, when the original manuscript of "Tomorrow Will Be Better" flowed out, that we found out that the above sentence was the least changed of all sentences. The original manuscript is 346 words, 181 changes, almost all the lyrics can be said to be rewritten.
Comparison of lyrics between the two versions (the original version above)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Luo Dayou away</h1>
At the end of 1985, Taiwan's general election, "Tomorrow Will Be Better" was forced to have a relationship with politics. On the one hand, Luo Dayou was angry that he was "politically exploited", and on the other hand, he was criticized by the unknown people, so he angrily cut off ties with the Taiwanese music scene and flew to the United States, and even refused to include the song in his self-selected album.
Luo Dayou later went to Hong Kong to develop
Many years later, Luo Dayou still has a grudge against the events of that time in his speech: "Art should be a very simple idea, and it should not have anything to do with politics." I never thought the songs I wrote were political songs. Writing songs should be natural and humane! ”
Not only that, but this song has even become the most hated one of luo dayou's writings, and he doesn't want to talk about it anywhere he goes. In his words, "I just wanted to express a yearning for tomorrow, but it turned out to be a tool used by politics, would you still like it?"
Luo Dayou recently took a photo
In 2018, Luo Dayou participated in the variety show "Readers" and talked with Dong Qing about his young daughter. Dong Qing said: "You can compose another song for her and write a little lyrics." He said in passing, "Tomorrow will be better." As soon as the words fell, Dong Qing and the audience laughed together. Luo Dayou himself laughed and said, "I really didn't expect that this song is still established now, oh my God." At this time, Luo Dayou's face had long since disappeared from the anger and edges that had once been written on his face.
Luo Dayou appeared in "Readers"
On October 25, 2019, Rolling Stone Records released the revised HD version of "Tomorrow Will Be Better" for the first time on the official channel of the extranet. Luo Dayou, Su Rui, Doll, Cai Qin, Qi Yu, Qi Qin, Huang Yingying, Chen Shuhua, Li Zongsheng, Fei Yuqing and other 60 music superstars are familiar and green figures are among them, triggering a wave of nostalgia.
"Tomorrow Will Be Better" HD version of the MV
After more than thirty years of entanglement, this classic finally leaves us with a warm theme of universal value and the artistic achievement of the song itself.