Songs I Grew Up With
by David Kam 甘家伟
Songs I grew up listening to. Not realising how much they have shaped me. Most of these songs I still listen to these days, more frequently as I remain away from my family back home. What are some of your songs?
This song found me on a loop. It was the first track of a pirated CD my brother left in my mother’s car stereo. She never knew how to switch it back to radio. And I never bothered offering to help. We listen to this CD in every car ride we share. Usually the daily back and forth from school, sometimes the occasional grocery runs. We cover different extents of the CD depending on the trip, but it always begins with this one song. Being a very shy boy, I’d sing along in my head the chorus that would subconsciously be my very first anthem and one I carry to this day :
I wish to follow my intuition, never knowing when destiny calls.
I believe in simplicity. I believe in serendipity. I believe the answer is always there.
My loose translation of the original lyrics :
我想跟随自己的第六感, 说不定下次运气会好转,
我相信简单, 我相信偶然, 相信直觉会有答案.
This was a special one. One of the first times I heard someone who shares my skin, releasing an English hit. I never knew it was possible. This song is the soundtrack accompanying a highly popular Japanese video game my older brother used to play called Final Fantasy VIII. I cherish these moments a lot because it was when I got to quietly be my brother’s side, watching in awe as my brother unfolds the story of this game.
9 October 2004. We crowned our very first Malaysian Idol Jaclyn Victor as she sang her winning single which literally translates to glorious. This song was my first experience of patriotism and national pride. Witnessing someone in my own country pursuing her dreams and going through a journey similar to what we thought was only possible across the pond. This is also the first Malay song I listen to and I did wonder why I hadn’t listened to any other ones before this.
Endless sorrow - Ayumi Hamasaki
My brother idolises this Japanese artist, widely known as the best-selling Japanese artist of all time. So much so that his 13 year old self refrained me from listening to her because he wanted her all to himself. But when the music video of this song was released, he was so blown away by it that he shared with me. He was telling me how great it is but I was just standing there thinking how cool that I get to share what my brother likes! The song is clearly emotional even though I couldn’t understand much Japanese. The video is beautifully made indeed, one of a boy living in a society in which speaking was illegal. By the end of the video, the boy met a one-winged angel who looks exactly like him. This is what I found when searching for a translation of this song :
What if you’re alone and suddenly become blind?
What if despite that, you kept walking forward?
Bukan Cinta Biasa - Dato' Sri Siti Nurhaliza
I was in class and my teacher shared this song, tasking us to write out the lyrics as a listening test. I was convinced that my teacher simply wanted to listen to the song, but I didn’t mind her sharing this with us. I realised how much I rest within the melody of a song in the way I experience music, and this task has taught me to listen more closely to the lyrics behind the melody. The first set of lyrics I managed to make out :
The love I’d love to author is not an ordinary love.
My loose translation of the lyrics :
Cinta yang inginku tulis, bukanlah cinta biasa.
by David Kam 甘家伟