Norumitsu Onshi has written a nice article (once again) about Shin Joong Hyun, who is considered by many to be the Korean “godfather” of rock in Korea. I am glad more people are rediscovering his music as well and maybe this is a good sign that younger Koreans are rediscovering much of the music of the recent past which has been neglected over time and there is much Korean music that has been neglected! I guess “new” gets old after awhile and people become more interested in how things really were. Here is Shin’s wonderful website as well. Enjoy.
Rock on Shin Joong-hyun!
Previous post: Grace Park; hot and cool
Next post: How to Screw Over Internet Users in Korea and Commit Suicide at the Same Time
{ 1 trackback }
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
‘…much of the music from the recent past which has been neglected..’
you can say that again! try finding any original album from the 60s, 70s, or 80s. you’re not going to find much. i threw away almost all my records and tapes thinking they’d be put on cd. nope.
man, i wish i could get music from the late 60s and early 70s. you listening jigu and oasis?
I’m very glad to see an important figure in Korean entertainment scene get a much-deserved spotlight, but I must confess that Lee Sun-Hee’s rendition of ‘Areumdaun Gangsan’ (Beautiful Rivers and Mountain) is probably the closest I’ve ever gotten to Mr. Shin’s music.
When I ask some artists why they don’t do new covers of old tunes (gayo), they tell me that many times it is because the original artist is still alive and they do not feel right touching their music.
I’ve got a new Jazz arrangement of “고영 역” that I will try to link to sometime soon. It’s pretty interesting to hear what a new arrangement can do to an old but good song.
Nice article (even if the ending is a bit awkward) – I didn’t know anything about his childhood, or that his songs had been banned in the 70s. Oddly, I saw this article in the Donga Ilbo last night – wierd timing. There’s a lot more information in English about his albums here – kudos to the person who made that site, as it allowed me to track down a lot of his music, by using emule (a p2p program). There are a lot of Koreans using that program, and someone was kind enough to take almost all of his long out of print lps and convert them to mp3s. Do searches (in Korean gets better results, but there’s some stuff in English)) for the Golden Grapes (골든 그레입스), the Donkey’s first album with Lee Jeong-hwa (이정화), and the Pearl Sisters (펄 시스터즈) first album or two. The first Kim Chu-ja album is pretty good (I loved how Jang Sun-woo used the song “꽃잎 (A petal)” in his film of the same name). On all of these albums Shin plays guitar and writes the songs, both of which tasks he’s damn good at. I’ve heard some other psychedelic rock from that time period, like the He6 and Key Brothers, but it just doesn’t compare to Shin’s stuff. One thing that lifts Shin to the top is his songwriting, and the fact that he often recorded his songs several different times with different singers and arrangements.
Most of the Shin Joong-hyun stuff that has been reissued on CD has been put out by Pony Canyon Korea — a Japanese record label. The owner of Pony Canyon is apparently a huge Shin Joong-hyun fan, so basically put out the materials as a favor. They have released 12 classic albums (although Kim Jeong-mi’s BARAM is out of stock, last I checked). (Kim Jeong-mi is by far my favorite, although Lee Jung-hwa is amazing). Anyhow, Hyang’s Music in Shinchon and (especially) Purple Records in Hongdae both have pretty decent selections.
The other funny thing is how many of the bands from that period covered In a Gadda Da Vida, by Iron Butterfly. Shin did it, He6 did it, and more.
Mr. Moon at the Woodstock bar in Shinchon has an amazing collection of original editions of that old music. Many of those albums are worth hundreds of dollars, at least.
I’ll have to check at Purple records next time I’m there – I’ve looked in other places with no luck (other than finding Yupjuns). I guess one problem is looking for him specifically and not the singers. I do know that the Golden Grapes album has never been released on cd, and it’s easily my favourite – tight, focused, psychedelic rock songs. It appears the early Pearl Sisters albums have never been released on cd either.
I’ll have to give Kim Jung-mi another listen – I wasn’t too keen on her voice the first time I listened to her. And I just took a look to see if the Lee Jung-hwa ‘봄비’ album is on cd and (bang head against keyboard) no it’s not, only the ‘싫어’ album is (which is basically the same songs, but I think 봄비 is much, much, better. Oh well, It’ll be nice to have a physical copy of it anyways…
The first Pearl Sisters album is one of the Pony Canyon reissues.
http://www.eclickkorea.com/sho.....p;uid=3718
Yeah, I noticed that here, but hadn’t had a chance to post a correction til now. Too bad it wasn’t a little more filled out (with the covers or the instrumentals found on the first 2 albums), but the songs that are on it make it well worth the purchase.
“Mi In” or Beauty was the first Korean rock song that blew me away with it’s driving rythm, catchy technical riff, high energy and Shin’s unique voice. I heard it first in Woodstock in Shinchon and still request it any time I go to a rock bar. It was at Woodstock years later that I met Lee Won, the amazing guitarist who I heard took his own life recently. I was later invited by a Korean blues guitarist with whom I played drums for a while to a bar in Ilsan for a birthday party. Turns out the bar was owned by professional musicians and had an amazing soundsystem and equipment on a small stage set up for small jams among friends. Lee Won happened to be there and at one point all these talented musicians, some well known, started jamming, at my request and with me on drums to Mi In. I’ll never forget the intensity and joy we all had playing that song or the crazy drunken partiers dancing their arses off to it (or the owner’s hot wife who was all over me after we played). That song and that night will always be one of my favorite memories of Korea.
Does anyone recall the blues artist that used to pay at “Just blues” in Iteawon? The guy is fantastic, he is a big Clapton fan. Where does he perform now?
You must log in to post a comment.