Here are three records from Poon Sow Keng and thanks to Zopa Zay for letting m,e know that this is her :) These are cool records, you've got the lighter pop songs that are very close to Chinese traditional music, you've got a nice cover from the 60's hit song Oh Carol sung in Chinese and you've got the sultry songs that were sung in dark and smokey Hong Kong nightclubs in the 50's and 60's.... Like I said, I can't find any info about Phan Siu Cin but I imagine that she, like so many of her peers, came from main-land China where Mao's insane and very bloody Cultural Revolution was in full "swing"... The times when having a book, a record or even a simple painting on the wall could get you beaten to death while Mao himself surrounded himself with as many books, records and paintings as he could get his hands on, hidden away in one of those horrid bunkers he would have build, often destroying beautiful historical building to make place for these monstrosities....
Ah well....
Here's some lovely music from Poon Sow Keng....
GET THE FIRST RECORD HERE
GET THE SECOND RECORD HERE
GET THE THIRD RECORD HERE
enjoy!
I only see 2 links. Is there a third one?
ReplyDelete潘秀瓊 ( Poon Sow Keng/Pan Xiu Qiong ) 1935 ~
ReplyDeletePoon Sow Keng/Pan Xiu Qiong Chinese Pop 60s
Pan Xiu Qiong's - Poon Sow Keng song, "Lover's Tears," is another Chinese melody known among the English educated. The first is also a tear jerker called, "Love Without End." Both are theme songs and "Lover's Tears" (there is love in every teardrop) is no different, coming from the Shaw Brothers' film, "The Lark" (1965).
She was born in Macau and moved to Malaysia with her mother when she was sixteen but had been singing since twelve.
When she was 17 she recorded for the first time and within weeks the Asian populace fell in love with her. Pan took up Singapore citizenship in the 1980s and with her signature (guess what) she became very popular in the 1960s and 70s. She was known affectionately as Queen of Alto because of her fantastic voice.
But for all her popularity, Xiu Qiong never had singing lessons and what "talent she has is God given (Dave Dexter Jr, US record producer)." She was particularly successful in Singapore and Malaysia and up till today her songs are still sold in CD shops all over S.E. Asia.
Her songs have English titles, "The Foggy Night," (a dense, thick, unmoving fog in the harbour provides natual cover for two lovers), "Little Darling," (the girl pleads with her lover not to give her the cold shoulders but to tell her he loves her) and "Book Of Life," (a philosophical statement about family life).
"A Caged Bird," "A White Handkerchief," and "On The Elephant's Back," are but a few translated titles from her Capitol Hi Fi Recording on T10326 with explanation in English for the uninitiated.
Quote “I have always led a simple life, and I feel that anyone can be happy if they keep things simple. Even so, I hope to be remembered. Please forget me not. I wish that the songs of Poon Sow Keng would be a part of everyone forever.”
This is Poon Sow Keng????
ReplyDeleteHeh :)
There's already quiet a bit from her on this blog! I will change the post, thanks Zopa Zay!!!
you're welocome!
ReplyDelete