Although it is confusing, it does not prevent Cui Jian from pursuing self-confidence, nature and freedom. In Flying Dogs, his counterattack is "walking against the sky". In "The B Side of Time", he yells out "Hey, Lao Tzu hasn't changed at all". He inspired the fans of this era with his unique courage.
| Author: Liu Xiao
| Editor: Ah Ye
| Editor: Laulinger
Recently, "The Godfather of Rock" Cui Jian released a new album "Flying Dogs". Many "post-90s" and "post-00s" do not feel deeply about this album, but when it comes to Cui Jian, at least no one dares to say that they don't know.
With the passage of time, many heavyweight singers have gradually faded from people's vision. And Cui Jian, an old rocker, just like he stood on the stage of the workers' stadium more than 30 years ago, is still angry, still shouting, the road is not normal, and he is still "mouthless".
In the self-titled song "Flying Dog" from the new album, Cui Jian sang "Walking Against the Sky". At the end of the song's MV, the slogan "True Singing Campaign 2002-2021" was played on the screen.
This is very "Cui Jian".
As early as 1987, Cui Jian, who had just been on fire, was once caught in the rumor of being "banned". In 2002, he launched the "True Singing Movement", which offended some of his entertainment industry peers. In recent years, he has been accused of "playing a big name" and "discriminating against Cantonese songs" for criticizing a Hong Kong singer in a variety show. However, he never succumbed to the voice of the outside world, and the strength of the real and self was enough to rock and roll.
Cui Jian once summed up the feeling of rock and roll music into three "self": self-confidence - don't lose yourself; nature - don't force yourself; freedom - liberate yourself.
Sixty years old, Cui Jianquan is living himself into a classic rock music.
I don't want to be a "god", I just want to be a "man"
Cui Jian's new album has a total of 8 songs. Among them, the lyrics of "Flying Dogs" have a strong sense of picture: a person hanging in an upside-down space, like a flying dog in a black hole, stumbling and flying, seeing "crowds of people" and "dry grasslands", seeing "behemoths" standing obliquely...
Like many others, Cui Jian today is often confused about social and contemporary issues. In "Flying Dogs," he sings: "The digital world savannah, information to feed." In "The B Side of Time", he sang: "Standing in front of the deformed mirror and seeing the A side of time, I am like people, I only see my own face, can there be you inside, is being changed by the times." ”
Although he was confused, it did not prevent him from pursuing self-confidence, nature and freedom. In Flying Dogs, his counterattack is "walking against the sky". In "The B Side of Time", he yells out "Hey, Lao Tzu hasn't changed at all". He inspires fans with his unique courage.
Old fans are thrilled by this, but critics say "nothing new" and new listeners say "appreciation doesn't come".
However, Cui Jian didn't care. His songs have never been framed by the standard of "public appreciation", but he just wants to express his heart.
"I don't spend too much time studying young people, but I also don't give up the opportunity to observe them. Going to see their performances, I feel like it's part of life, enjoying the artwork created by others, it's a complement to your own life. "In the era of traffic, Cui Jian is very sober. He is confident but not proud, never wanting to be pushed to the altar by the world, but wanting to be a "person".
It is precisely because of this attitude that Cui Jian never deliberately mythologizes himself.
In 2010, Cui Jian and his "old club" Beijing Symphony Orchestra performed the "2010 Rock Symphony New Year's Eve Concert". But it wasn't until 2017 that live concerts released the album under the title Rock Symphony Concert. When asked why, Cui Jian did not boast of "ten years of grinding a sword", and said truthfully:
"In fact, this album has long been ready, but two years ago I had a new album to release, and the company said that this one will wait first, and send a new one first."
Such a flat and straightforward answer, so that the on-site host did not know how to answer the call.
Cui Jian also never deliberately flattered the audience.
By the end of the 1980s, his rock 'n' roll was unstoppable. After its song was released in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it set off a whirlwind of Beijing rock. In 1988, the Band Beyond came to Beijing to perform, and Huang Jiaju also covered his "Nothing". He even went abroad, leading the band to Japan in April 1993 to participate in the Asian Voices cultural exchange event.
But at the same time, Cui Jian is facing an embarrassing situation. According to the Beijing News, in 1992, his Tianjin concert was hastily ended due to a live brawl, and the next day's performance was cancelled. Beginning at the end of the year, Cui Jian was unable to hold a major performance in Beijing for 13 years.
In 1993, Cui Jian participated in the film "Beijing Bastards". The title is eye-catching and the content is obscure, and the film depicts a group of marginalized people. Cui Jian plays a rock singer in it, and he and his band can never find their own rehearsal ground, confused. And this is precisely the true portrayal and inner monologue of Cui Jian at that time.
After experiencing all this, Cui Jian still wants to be a real "person" and express his heart. In 1994, he released the album Eggs Under the Red Flag. The style of this album is extremely personal, and it is considered to be Cui Jian's most radical and rebellious representative work.
"Sincere to the real desperate jump"
Cui Jian's unique insistence on rock and roll runs through his entire musical life.
He was born in Beijing in 1961 to literary and art workers. Influenced by his family, he learned trumpet from an early age and became a professional trumpet player in the Beijing Song and Dance Troupe at the age of 20. At that time, the "army compound" in Beijing was a gathering place for new and trendy things, and it was at that time that the young Cui Jian came into contact with rock and roll.
Cui Jian in his youth.
At that time, what he did not know was that the huge social influence of rock and roll had long been concerned by American scholars. Many scholars who studied American social issues at that time believed that rock and roll could "artificially induce ecstasy" and make people feel that through rock and roll, they could close the "Gate of Eden" (the Gate of Heaven).
Regardless of whether all walks of life are positive or negative, the social energy driven by rock and roll cannot be underestimated.
In 1986, less than 10 years after China's reform and opening up, Chinese people opened their eyes to see the world, and their inner desire to express themselves was ignited. On May 9 of that year, Cui Jian appeared at the first 100 singers concert of the "Year of World Peace" held at the Beijing Workers' Gymnasium. On stage, one trouser leg long and one short pant leg, he roared at his own rock song "Nothing". The song was finished, and the cheers thundered.
That was the first time that the audience found that the inner cry could also become a song, like "sincere to the real desperate leap". Cui Jian's rock became the sail of the 80s.
But in the same year, Cui Jian and his band participated in the Peacock Cup National Folk Song and Popular Song Grand Prix sponsored by the Chinese Musicians Association, and because the singing method was still difficult to be accepted by the mainstream at that time, they were eliminated in the first round of competition.
In 1990, Cui Jian and the band members at chunxiao restaurant.
On the one hand, the popularity of the folk, on the other hand, the mainstream music circle does not accept, Cui Jian's music has been branded with unusual traces since he was born.
On July 16, 1988, the people's daily literary and art headlines explored the Phenomenon of Cui Jian from a social perspective with an article titled "From 'Nothing' to Rock 'n' Roll – Why Cui Jian's Works Are Popular". This is the first time that a rock singer has been reported in the mainstream media in the mainland, and Cui Jian's "fire" has reached a point that cannot be ignored.
In March 1989, "Nothing" won the Golden Melody Award for the New Era Decade awarded by People's Daily and the China International Cultural Exchange Center.
On July 16, 1988, the lyrics of "Nothing" were published in the lower left corner of the seventh page of the People's Daily.
In the 1980s, Cui Jian's "one roar" awakened people's inner passion. In the 1990s, Cui Jian's works were full of a sense of the times.
In the song "Nineties", he sings: "It is now the nineties, the language is not accurate enough, it is impossible to tell the world, there are all kinds of different feelings in the world." The song is densely drummed and expresses the excitement and passion generated by the uncertainty of the times.
Cui Jian faced the truth with a sincere heart, and his rock and roll became the drum of the times at that time. But he was also dazzled by the sudden, dazzling new world.
In "Solution", released in February 1991, he sang: "Yesterday I still looked at the world with cold eyes, but today I can't see you clearly when I stare at you." In the same album, more popular than "Solved" is "A Red Cloth", and people with different experiences taste different flavors from the songs.
In 2000, Cui Jian saw some ills that appeared at the same time as economic development and social freedom, and was dissatisfied with the hollowness of the soul caused by "looking at money", and sang the song "Eggs Under the Red Flag". He also paid attention to the contradiction between urban and rural areas, so he had the song "The Countryside Surrounds the City". Those songs resonated greatly with fans.
On March 4, 2006, Cui Jian became the cover figure for the inaugural issue of the Chinese edition of the American rock magazine Rolling Stone in China. But for nearly a decade since then, Cui Jian has been silent. Times were changing drastically, and it ran past him.
In those years, Cui Jian, who had calmed down, began to express his thoughts through other artistic means. He wrote and directed the film Blue Bones, his first literary film, about an underground rock singer who stumbled upon a poignant love story of his father in the process of falling in love.
"Blue Bones" is also the name of a song he released in 2005. He sang in that song: "As the saying goes, the living can't be choked to death by urine, as long as I have a pen, no one can stop me", "Look up at it, it turned out to be a rare blue sky".
This year, Cui Jian is 60 years old. He doesn't like traffic and data, he still likes pure rock. The song "Doomsday Beach" from the new album "Flying Dogs" is like apocalypse, for him, the road is still very long, still insisting on "rock and roll on the new Long March Road".
Still alone and insisting on myself
Cui Jian once said in an interview with Art Review: "Chinese there are many people who are 'sexually incompetent', and many people are 'love incompetent', and there is also a kind of 'personality impotence' and 'personality impotence'. I may sometimes pay more attention to third parties. "Chinese are reluctant to establish a principled personality, Chinese prefer to establish principles of righteousness and emotion."
In addition to music, Cui Jian has never been willing to go with the flow, but insists on being his true self.
He is not accustomed to the increasingly serious phenomenon of false singing in the music world. He believes that false singing has destroyed China's musical environment and buried talented people. "There are a lot of talented young people who don't have a chance, and some untalented people can be red in the singing world by singing and their faces."
In 2002, the 41-year-old Cui Jian began to repeatedly call for a boycott of fake singing on various occasions. He also kicked off the "True Singing Campaign", inviting people in the entertainment industry to sign the oath and saying that those who signed their names at the ceremony should be responsible for their future actions.
At that time, Cui Jian said bluntly: "The word 'concert' in China is dying, it only exists in classical music, and the concert of popular music no longer exists, it is just a concert, or even just a fan meeting." He also criticized his long-time friend Na Ying for singing falsely, "Really talented artists, just don't fake singing..."
Screenshot from The Yangcheng Evening News reported in August 2003.
Even though very few artists signed the "True Singing Movement" ceremony in those years, Cui Jian has been on the real road he believes. To this day, Cui Jian is still adhering to the "True Singing Movement", and at the end of the "Flying Dog" MV, he did not forget to mark the "True Singing Movement 2002-2021".
After the end of the "Flying Dog" MV, the "True Singing Movement" logo appeared.
Some people once ridiculed Cui Jian as a "troublemaker". At the end of 2015, Cui Jian went to the variety show "China Star" as a superstar recommender, without the slightest regard for commercial interests in the entertainment industry, and bluntly criticized "small fresh meat", which caused controversy.
Wave after wave of unevenness rises again. When he commented on Xu Zhi'an's singing in the program, he said that the Cantonese songs he sang in the last century were incomprehensible to the current audience, causing some netizens to be dissatisfied, accusing him of "discriminating against Cantonese songs". Afterwards, the program team had to clarify Cui Jian's true meaning to the outside world. Cui Jian ended up jokingly: "I didn't invite the editor to dinner, and I felt that I hated that episode when I watched it." ”
Cui Jian (first from left) and Xu Zhi'an (third from left) take a group photo backstage of the show.
Xu Zhian said that Cui Jian's blunt words gave him a lot of positive energy, because "liking and paying attention to a person will give him more comments."
Although Cui Jian spoke sharply on stage, he did not have the slightest shelf in private, and shared the tea in his thermos pot with fans at the recording site of "China Star".
In 2016, Cui Jian came to the Beijing Workers' Stadium to sing. The concert, titled "Rolling Thirty," was a summary of his rock 'n' roll path over the past 30 years. The scene is as popular as his first appearance on the stage of the workers' stadium.
Now Cui Jian is not young, but he still enjoys his work, often stays up late to create, installs a very soundproof device at home, in addition to the drum can not be played, "blowing bullets" will not disturb the people. For the song, his request is that "you can't take it out if you don't get excited when you listen to it." Maybe the new generation doesn't understand Cui Jian much, but he thinks that as long as he sticks to his music, when the new generation is old, they will always understand him.
Just like the lyrics in "Flying Dogs", Cui Jian is still flying, flying to the small blue sky overhead.