I had to work and she didn’t. so I drove back home from a gluttony whirlwind trip to Ipoh. But even though I was the only person in the car as I travelled down the NKVE back to PJ, I was not alone!
You see, I had Sam with me! Yes, Sam Hui was singing to me and as he did, memories of many people came back to me and kept me company all the way.
These memories went back so far that it brought me back more than 30 years ago when I was just a kid and listening to the music that my grandma would listen to. I remember vaguely how she would explain to me what “半斤八兩” meant! I still remember the cassette that she had:-
Years later, when I was working late at Toyota (where I worked temporarily before going to do my Masters), I put on the same song loudly – much to the amusement of my colleague who was a Malay lady. But she did recognize that it was Sam Hui!!!! If you dun know what song i'm referring to, take a listen to it here and i'm sure u'll recognise it immediately!
When I listen to the theme song of Aces Go Places 2 “跟佢做個 Friend”, I will be brought back to upper primary School when the movie was just released.
I have the DVD of this and still enjoy watching the movie again!!! The Chinese New Year song, “财神到” would take me back to Colchester – more specifically, spending Chinese New Year there, the 2nd time when I spent it away from home.
That was the only CNY song I had in my hard disc and it was played on a loop to simulate some CNY festive cheer in an otherwise sad circumstances (being away from home for CNY).
The very CD that I was listening to was actually bought during a road trip with KC, an old fren – and we met up with one of my old Uni mates when we were at Ipoh and she took us to buy the CD! It was pretty memorable – and she insisted that we stayed over at her father’s bungalow that night when we were there. The CD accompanied us for the rest of our trip. =)
The CD also accompanied JT and me when we went travelling – up north and down south. I remember the specific parts of the lyrics from various of Sam’s songs that he pointed out to me which he found to be amusing. We had a lot of laughs too as his fast songs were pretty entertaining and some were downright amusing. And as I listen to those songs again, I recall the fun trips I had with JT – to Penang, to Genting, to Tioman. =)
Listening to Sam’s song will no doubt bring back memories of his concert! I blogged about it previously here. Well, truth be told, the concert wasn’t that great – but the build up towards it was!!! We were all so excited about it and we psyched ourselves up really well. We – four of us – would be out together in a car and listening to his songs and singing along! There was once when we went for a Church meeting together and even though we had already parked at the carpark, we were still sitting inside, still listening to the songs! Some of our other mates were wondering why we din seem to want to get out of the car!!!
As I travelled along that expressway singing, I remember singing along with me mates. Those were the days… =)
As for “十個女仔”, it never fails to bring me back to my practicing days when the office went out together for a Karaoke session – and one of the lawyers sang this.
I remember vividly what happened when the song was sung. One of the partners was explaining to our office boy that the song was actually mocking women (exact words – “Lagu ini memperlikan kaum wanita”). When it came to a part where Sam sings the word “Hallelujah”, the senior partner cracked up in surprise and amusement!!!
There were other small random memories here and there, about how some frens explained some of the songs to me. One fren went to great detail explaining “話知你97” – which was written to encourage the people in Hong Kong at that time who were worried about HK being returned to China in 1997. In his song, he basically says that he is not really bothered about it and there is no need to fear it. Instead, they still just carry on – a happy-go-lucky attitude – and do what they have been doing all along. Here is the song - with subtitles!!!
That’s one thing which really makes him special – his songs were written to the ordinary man on the street, dealing with very down to earth matters. Some are quite frivolous (like his Canto remake of “Pretty Woman” which ends up really really funny), others tell interesting stories, most deal with everyday issues – studying, playing mah jong, friendship, life in general.
His style of writing is very colloquial – honestly, I can never understand Cantonese songs as they do not write songs the same way as they speak the language! But along comes Sam and hey, I can understand most parts of his songs!!! I’m sure he has touched and amused and brightened up millions of people’s lives in all these years.
It’s amazing how it has come all the way and thruout my life has played some part, large or small.
So as I travelled on the road to take me back to PJ, I ended up on memory lane which took me back to my old house in section, to Colchester in the UK, meeting up again with people like my grandma, my Malay colleague from Toyota, the lawyers from my former firm, Jit Tat, my primary school frens, etc.
And today, when I listen to his songs, there is a new memory – of listening to his songs together with my wife when we were travelling back from PD recently.
So Sam – thanks so much for everything!
*This song hit the no. 1 spot on the US Billboard Easy Listening chart way back in 1977.
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