Anyway tonite I chanced upon Yang Peian covering DT's I'm OK on Sunday Night Fever, a program that inspired to be all abt good music & live singing. It was a damn good cover too & Yang managed to own it too making it his version not DT version. Later when the hosts interviewed him, he said David was a huge influence on him & he had once interviewed him on radio. A pity he nvr said more abt the interview, only that David gave him a lot of confidence to pursue his own music ideals. He praised DT's versatility & ability to sing both rock & soulful ballads. He then said his nxt song is also DT's which is a bit 'unrefined' in chinese ^__^ yeah it was Bastard hehehe but he didn't quite do justice to the song which is not really his fault. I have yet to hear anyone cover Bastard well.
Actually I think these 2 songs show the artistry of our Dave. He is such a remarkable songwriter that he is able to write songs that is generically unique if that made any sense. I'm OK has recognisable rock elements but David's arrangement was fairly safe. Perhaps even at that time he knew the chinese market too well that a heavy rock song was nvr gonna be accepted. Still I'm OK was not popular & known mostly only to his fans. He went further in Black Tangerine but by that time he was probably more confident in composing a rock song that would still be accepted. I have yet to hear a good cover of Black Tangerine too cos its probably imbedded in my mind too much as a DT song ^__^ Still I'm OK kept resurfacing as it was probably one of the few good chinese rock songs around but nobody managed to cover it well. Actually all it took was a good voice & the right rock attitude. All of which Yang Peian has in spades so he did the song full justice.
Bastard was an entirely different case. Bastard sounds like a simple song to sing but it does has a rather complex melody. It will not grab you on the first listen & in fact most ppl would not list it as their fav DT song. I am actually convinced only David can sing this song because he wrote it for himself. He said he wrote it after someone scratched his new car but I think he is releasing all his frustration in this song. All the injustices he felt he has suffered in this world. In fact most ppl who like & play this song feel the same, that they are releasing their frustration. There u go - 2 completely different songs from David, one you can cover well only if you have a good voice & the right attitude & the other uncoverable hehehe
If u dun know Yang Peian, well he has released one album I think but he is more famous for being able to go very high. Fortunately he has stopped appearing on entertainment shows where all he did was to show off his high range. Strangely it was hard to find a good normal pix of him only promo ones where he was dressed frivolously in ridiculous poses. Also unfortunately that episode of Sunday Night Fever was the last repeat.
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