Respawn Entertainment: Days of Glory

Chapter 870 Dylan said

Back to Dylan, even though the proportion of domestic audiences exceeded that of foreigners during his trip to China, and some singers from the Super Girl and Fast Boy galas would flock to him to get their hands on famous brands, Dylan does not seem to have much influence on either his fans or the music industry in mainland China.

This is very different from the other side of the strait. Taiwan has always been "in line with the international standards and keeping pace with the times". "A Brighter Summer Day" was filmed in Taiwan in the early 1960s. A high school band was singing Elvis, while the mainland was still singing revolutionary songs at that time.

In the 1970s, Taiwanese culture was more open. For Luo Dayou, Li Zongsheng, Li Shuangze, Hu Defu, Yang Zujun, and even Chen Sheng's generation, the influence of Dylan's folk form of guitar and harmonica and poetic lyrics was decisive.

Yes, lyrics are of course a key to understanding Dylan. Taiwanese singers have relatively fewer language barriers. Luo Dayou appropriated some of Dylan's lyrics or poetry, and Hu Defu almost made a living by covering Dylan's songs for a while in the 1970s.

As for the generation of mainland model operas, there were very few who had listened to Western rock music, at most a few like LB's son Lin Liguo. But even if they did, they would probably have listened to Elvis and the Bugs rather than Dylan.

In China, Dylan first appeared in the form of text rather than music, which were the two famous enlightenment masterpieces published after WG - William Manchester's four-volume "The Glory and the Dream: A True American Record from 1932 to 1972" and Morris Dickstein's "The Gates of Eden".

The respectable old translators had just woken up from the WG nightmare and had no idea what rock music was. They thought it was a kind of dance. "Glory and Dream" translated rock & roll into "rock dance". Until the early 1980s, a booklet printed by the Public Security Bureau for the purpose of rectifying morals still explained disco as "a bourgeois dance", also known as "buttocks shaking dance".

Dylan was mentioned in "Glory and Dream", which means that Dylan was first introduced to China in 1978. The translated and published "Gate of Eden" in 1980 has a whole chapter dedicated to Dylan, which made the hungry Chinese youth anxious, because they could not hear his songs and could only imagine him as a revolutionary beauty in the s.

It was not until the mid-to-late 1980s that a generation of promising young people finally heard Dylan's song, "Blowin' in the Wind," which was translated as "The answer is blowing in the air," through English audio books.

Dylan's first and even greatest contribution to China was actually to popularize English through this famous song, which he almost stopped singing after he was 25 years old, and to popularize this Chinese translation sentence pattern which later became a household name - until later, Leather Pants named the album "Faith Flying in the Air".

Dylan's truly comprehensive dissemination had to wait until the pirated era arrived. In the early 1990s, the entire history of rock and roll suddenly burst out in front of us, but most of the Dylan albums on the market were his albums from the 1980s.

The first Dylan records that people in China came into contact with were not the classic albums from the 1960s, but those from the 1980s and 1990s, such as "Under the Red Sky". The last one or two songs on each album were cut and unlistenable. They were almost all mediocre albums of his and did not leave a deep impression on people.

How could a nagging old blues and country singer be as beautiful as the Beatles, as passionate as Pink Floyd, as sensational as Guns N' Roses, or as fierce as Nirvana?

Dylan was suddenly overwhelmed by the surging torrent of beatings.

It wasn't until his comeback album "Time Out of Mind" in 1997 that I realized how great Dylan was.

But 1997 was a year of the pirated culture tsunami, and Cui Jian's "The Power of Incompetence" was undoubtedly more relatable than Dylan's. However, the world still did not have time to delve into the world of the old man who stood expressionlessly on the balcony with Clinton in "America Today".

Cui Jian can speak English and has covered English songs, but there is no indication that he was specifically influenced by Dylan in his music and lyrics, except for the famous line "like a rolling egg".

As a former pirated tape dealer, Zuo Xiaozuo could sell Da Men's pirated tapes for a hundred yuan, but if Dylan could sell them for twenty or thirty yuan, it would be considered a sky-high price. He felt far less for Dylan than for Da Men and the Velvet Underground.

He hardly ever listened to Dylan seriously, and although he later liked to talk about things in his songs like Dylan, as a countryman who couldn't even say hello, he instinctively kept his distance from Dylan.

Bian Lang remembers that Zhang Peiren once said in a magazine that Wang Lei was "China's Bob Dylan", but the problem was that Wang Lei had never heard even a single song by Dylan at that time.

Another time I saw a magazine saying that Ai Jing is "China's Bob Dylan-style folk singer". This is even funnier. Even if we want to praise Ai Jing, we should compare her to Joan Baez instead of Dylan, right?

But at that time, people in China were crazy about Chyi Yu, but not much known about Joan Baez.

When Dylan came to China, Brother Yunpeng asked someone to book tickets for him, and joked that it would be better to let them warm up for him so that he wouldn't have to buy tickets.

He was referring to Zuo Xiaozuo, Zhang Weiwei, Xiao He and others, but in fact they didn't know much about Dylan, it was just that Dylan's visit aroused their curiosity.

For a long time in mainland China, it existed only as an empty and vague mythological symbol, and was only regarded as an old-school folk label for playing guitar and harmonica.

In those days, blues was considered unpleasant to the ears of most Chinese music fans and musicians. Coupled with the difficult singing style and incomprehensible lyrics, Dylan was almost like a sealed door, with hidden treasures but also many ghosts inside.

It was not until bands like Baojia Street 43 and Shazi that the passion of blues was truly brought into Chinese rock. In the 1990s, several singers or bands covered "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", some with Dylan's version and some with Guns N' Roses' version.

In the Chinese music scene, the person who has covered Dylan the most is probably Yang Yi, who used to sing in front of the China Art Museum for a long time. He basically can't speak English.

However, he sang some of Dylan's most famous songs, "The Times They Are A-Changin'", "Blowing in the Wind", "Like a Rolling Stone", and "Like a Rolling Stone" very authentically.

This northern Guangdong native's songs include not only northern Shaanxi folk songs but also several blues ballads influenced by Dylan.

In the late 14s, another cover singer of BJ and Dylan was Yang Haisong, the lead singer of the PK14 band. PK14 was "running wildly on the narrow path of post-punk in the heavy rain of Bob Dylan". Some fans of PK cursed that "it has nothing to do with Bob Dylan". Of course, there is no connection in music, but it is obvious in the lyrics.

Another person who likes to cover Dylan is Lu Chen from the Circus Band on the Penthouse, but that is just a karaoke-style hobby and has nothing to do with Dingma's creations.

Lu Chen sings Dylan just like he sings Leslie Cheung, a lifelike imitation. His specialty is the more difficult "Desolation Row".

The era of all-inclusive online downloads has hurt musicians' wallets, but has helped hardcore fans upgrade. Forums with Chinese translations of Dylan's lyrics have emerged, so that people can easily buy Dylan's cutouts, discs, even vinyl records, and Dylan's DVDs.

Concerts, feature films he starred in, documentaries shot by Martin Scorsese. Jiangsu People's Publishing House and Jinling University Press translated and published Dylan's autobiography and Greil Marcus's "Strange Tales from Old America".

If Dylan's autobiography tears off the labels that the world has put on him, then Greil Marcus's book allows people to understand the various masks that Dylan has put on through his songs, as well as the American ghosts behind the masks.

For those who are not familiar with Dylan or even do not know him, even if you have seen Dylan's concert, it may be the same as not seeing it. Dylan is always a stranger who is difficult to approach. For those who are only familiar with Dylan when he was young, even if Dylan sings some old songs again, you may be at a loss because they are completely different. Dylan is good at making himself a new stranger.

He is always the lost host at the grand nostalgia party.

Although his musical career has spanned half a century, and although in the eyes of Gray Marcus, Dylan was already an old man at the age of 25, to Hua Xia, Dylan was a strange young man of 70 years old.

This argument also applies to Bian Lang of the Blue Water Planet.

Later, when "The Voice" and "Sing My Song" each produced a singer known as "China's Bob Dylan", Zhou San and Parhat, they caused a lot of discussion. At that time, Dylan's story in China may have just begun.

Just like the waves on the blue water planet at this moment, this legendary story has just begun on this planet!
Putting down the harmonica, Bian Lang picked up the electric guitar again, walked back to the microphone stand and said, "Okay, I'll let you guys transition for a while, and then the Rolling Stones will let you rock!"

Hatter was not the guest performer today, so the Stones played "Enter Sandman" directly without any possibility of a hit song. Although it was not very friendly to some older fans.

But young music fans, this is the best aphrodisiac tonight!

"The Rolling Stones! This is the rock and roll of the Rolling Stones!"

Listening to the fans' cheers, Ivo was a little envious: "Have we ever performed in Wales?"

The guitarist shook his head and said, "No, we usually don't come to Wales after playing in London. To be honest, I also think Hatter's schedule is quite strange. Maybe it was because of the presence of our friend the Magnet Band that they chose this stop."

But no matter what, after seeing the live performance of the Rolling Stones, they will definitely be included in the tour as a guest band in the future. This promotion is equivalent to building a mass base of fans for them. If they don’t continue with it, it will be too unreasonable.

"Come on, perform the song Wave gave us well. Don't be as embarrassing as Feimosi! He even played it wrong in front of Bian Lang!"

"That can't happen!"

Filmos, who was said to be a bad guy, is now standing in the audience with Bob and the others. They have never heard the Rolling Stones officially perform this song, so they are also looking forward to seeing what the Rolling Stones' version will be like.

What's the difference compared to their version?
After all, what they had heard before was just the Rolling Stones' rehearsal to demonstrate to them, and they had no idea what it would feel like when the Rolling Stones actually performed the song live.

All that could be heard was the sound of an electric guitar with the reverb turned up to the maximum and Dayong's cymbals. Bian Lang was walking in front of the stage with a guitar on his back, full of aggression, until Strauss's overloaded tone began to bombard the entire venue like a locomotive engine.

Bian Lang also followed the rhythm and shook his hair with the whole audience...

This movement formed an absolute contrast with the quiet singing of Bian Lang. Dylan instantly turned into James. If this transition appeared in the original Earth, fans of these two people would probably feel a headache!
Dengbianlang sang in a metallic voice: "Say your prayers little one, don't forget, my son..."

A wall of head-bobbing people was built up in the audience, supporting Bian Lang on the stage with overwhelming momentum. Being in the crowd, Feimos felt that Bian Lang was the king of rock and roll who dominated the performance.

Even he, one of the best rock singers in Europe, couldn't avoid having this feeling in his heart.

Until the end of the song, the Rolling Stones' performance gave Filmos the feeling that he was singing the song by himself. It was as familiar and indulgent as if he had sung it hundreds of times, but he still managed to maintain a sense of excitement.

If he performed a song hundreds of times, I would feel sick! It is difficult to sing it like Bian Lang, who always makes it fresh!

He couldn't describe this feeling with a specific point or a quantitative standard, but the lead singer's intuition told him that it was like that...

After Bob finished shaking his head, he also sighed: "It's really unscientific. It's obvious that Di Li and Strauss can't practice as well as we do, but why is it that..."

"Keep practicing. We must polish this album to perfection. Otherwise, if Wave sings it casually and the contrast is too obvious, we'll become a joke..."

In the first half of the show, English songs and Chinese songs each accounted for half. After the Rolling Stones ended with "Fireworks", it was Panama's turn.

After listening to this half of the show which covered most of the rock genres, Cigar felt that he must have been out of date for too long: "Do all rock bands nowadays play so many genres?"

Baggins also shook his head: "We are all old!"

While waiting backstage, Yiwo was like an athlete warming up, constantly moving every part of his body, striving to get his body into the best condition.

This is a rare event in the years since they became famous. And the key is that this is not their official performance, but just a guest performance of someone else, which shows how much importance Yiwo attaches to this event.

As soon as Bianlang called out Panama's name, Yiwo went on stage with his bandmates.

Facing the cheers from the audience, Ivo was unusually nervous: "Thank you, everyone. We are Hatter... Oh! No... We are the Panama band. Thank you to the Rolling Stones and Wave for giving us the opportunity to feel the enthusiasm of Welsh fans!"

Phimos in the audience almost laughed to death, and shouted directly from the audience: "Yiwo, I don't mind you coming down and letting us go up!"

Ivo ignored Feimos's ridicule and continued after adjusting his state: "We should also thank Bian Lang for composing a song of the same name for our band, so are you ready?"

As the audience started cheering, the iconic distorted prelude of "Panama" began to make all the fans twist their bodies!
(End of this chapter)