Chapter 311 Listening to Music
He Zhili was equally embarrassed. He took a piece of flannel, took off his glasses, lowered his head and wiped them vigorously, trying to hide his expression in this way. After a while, Luo Yang broke the awkward atmosphere .
"Well... Manager He, the person who was going to release the album didn't come because she couldn't leave due to work reasons. But I brought her tape. Would you like to listen to it first?"
As he spoke, Luo Yang took out a tape from his bag. This tape was specially recorded by Luo Lin before he left Beijing. Of course, Luo Lin had no idea of Luo Yang's real intention and thought that Luo Yang just asked him to record a song.
After taking the tape, He Zhili breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, walked to the desk, picked up a Sanyo tape recorder and plugged it in.
As a person in charge of part of the Pacific Company, since he is doing this kind of work, a tape recorder is naturally an essential equipment. Although his tape recorder is not as good as a professional one, it is enough to listen to songs.
I pressed the button and the tape deck popped out. I looked at the mark on the tape and put the tape in. Then I closed the deck and pressed the play button.
Soon, the tape began to turn and a rustling sound came from the speaker.
He Zhili frowned slightly. The quality of this recording was too poor. It was probably recorded with an ordinary recorder. Not only was it not a professional device, but even the surrounding noise was not isolated during recording, which resulted in such a poor result.
He smoked a cigarette and listened quietly. After a while, singing finally started. When the singing started, the careless He Zhili was slightly stunned, and the hand holding the cigarette stopped involuntarily.
This is a female voice. Although the recording quality of the tape is not good, as a professional, He Zhili can still hear that the singing female voice has a certain level of professional skills. Her voice is pure with a hint of magnetism, and at the same time, it is pleasant and gentle.
She was singing a song He Zhili had never heard before. The background music was very simple, just an accordion, but the lyrics were very beautiful. The song was like a story, and the soft voice seemed to tell a story in his ears, and it was like an old movie showing a faded picture in front of him...
I don’t know how much time passed, the singing gradually became lower and lower, and finally disappeared, leaving only the rustling background sound in the recorder.
"Just one song?" He Zhili realized at this moment that the cigarette in his hand was about to burn his fingers, and quickly threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray and asked.
"Yes, just record this song." Luo Yang nodded.
He Zhili did not say anything. He pressed the stop button, then rewound the tape and listened to it again. After listening to it for the second time, He Zhili turned off the machine and took the tape out of the tape compartment. He held it in his hand and thought for a while and said, "It's a good song. If I'm not mistaken, the female comrade who sang it used to be from a cultural troupe, right?"
"How do you know?" He Zhili's question stunned Luo Yang.
He Zhili laughed, "It's not hard to guess. If a singer comes from a professional academy, his breath and singing style will be different after training. Similarly, the singing styles of singers who have not received formal training are also different. Amateur singers often use real voice singing, and their breath control depends on talent and habit. But although this female comrade is not as good as those who come from professional academies, she has certain professional skills and some amateur singing habits. And judging from her singing style, she should be used to singing high notes more often. Although this song does not require any high notes, she will unnaturally use high falsetto singing in some lyrics. From these, we can judge that this female comrade is very likely from an art troupe, because only semi-professional singers in art troupes will have similar habits."
He Zhili's words left Luo Yang dumbfounded. Although he didn't quite understand what He Zhili said, the fact that He Zhili could judge some of Luo Lin's situations from just one song was enough to prove He Zhili's professionalism.
"You are right. She is indeed from the cultural troupe and now works in the Yanjing Song and Dance Troupe."
He Zhili laughed after hearing this, it seemed that his guess was correct.
"Manager He, do you think she can produce a tape or record with her conditions?" Luo Yang was full of confidence when he came here, but what He Zhili said just now made Luo Yang a little uneasy.
Luo Yang is not a professional, he only knows that Luo Lin sings well, at least in his opinion. But he did not expect that He Zhili could see through Luo Lin's background just by one song, and pointed out that Luo Lin did not receive any professional training, to put it bluntly, her level was semi-professional.
"Of course, this female comrade's condition is not very good, but it is not bad either, and her voice is very good. In addition..." At this point, He Zhili paused and asked curiously: "I want to ask the name of this song? Who wrote it?"
"This song is called "When You Are Old", which is adapted from a poem by the Irish poet Yeats. A friend of mine wrote the lyrics and music specifically for this female comrade." Luo Yang said. He Zhili thought about it in his mind. He didn't know the Irish poet Yeats, but the beautiful lyrics and artistic conception of this song deeply attracted him, making him interested in this poet he had never heard of for the first time.
He Zhili originally planned to ask if the song could be sold and whether it could be sold to their company. But He Zhili dismissed the idea as soon as it came up.
Luo Yang made it very clear that this song was written by his friend for this female comrade, and the purpose of Luo Yang bringing this tape was also very obvious. If the other party was just an ordinary person, He Zhili would probably pester her to get the song, but don't forget that the other party is not an ordinary person. This was specially requested by the leaders of the bureau and the general manager, so He Zhili certainly couldn't do that.
"It's a good song, but the melody is a bit thin. If possible, I would like to re-arrange it to make it better ." He Zhili thought for a while and said.
"That's no problem. My friend also said something like this. It would be best if Manager He could help us re-arrange the music." Luo Yang nodded repeatedly, and then asked if it was feasible to produce a tape or record at this level.
He Zhili finally realized what was going on and said with a smile, "Although this female comrade's professional level is still a little lacking, her voice is good and her songs are full of emotion. I think it won't be a problem for her to release a tape. But if she wants to release an album, we'll have to see how the tape sells."
Luo Yang's face suddenly showed joy. This was enough! Originally, he had not considered releasing an album or anything like that. This road must be taken step by step, and the meal must be eaten bite by bite. Being able to release a tape for Luo Lin first has already achieved his goal. Of course, it would be even better if he could release an album directly in the future.
"But..." Just when Luo Yang was happy, He Zhili hesitated and said, "It's a bit difficult to release a tape with only one song. Usually, there are 10 songs on a tape, and sometimes 12. Now there is only one song, and there must be at least nine songs left, which is a bit troublesome."
"This Manager He actually already has two songs!"
"Two? What about the other one?"
"There's another song that I haven't had time to record, but I promise it's a good song." Luo Yang hurriedly explained. He had good intentions for his sister and shamelessly asked Song Yuanchao to come up with another song.
Speaking of this, Song Yuanchao was also in a difficult situation at the time. He was not a singer, and although he knew some music, he was at best an amateur.
In his later life, he went to KTV several times with his colleagues. On weekdays, he would just play some musical instruments and sing a few songs at home. Although he liked to listen to songs, the songs he listened to were a mix of old and new songs. In addition, Song Yuanchao's age and experience at that time meant that many of the songs he liked to listen to were old songs. Although he still had the tunes and lyrics of a few songs in his mind, Song Yuanchao was not sure whether the songs he knew were still available in this era.
In addition, Song Yuanchao gave the song "When You're Old" to Luo Lin. He couldn't give her a completely different type of song, right? For example, "The Most Dazzling National Style" or "Little Apple", the styles of the songs would be too incompatible.
In his memory, Tsai Chin's songs were quite suitable, but Tsai Chin became famous very early, and some of her songs might already exist now. Song Yuanchao naturally couldn't bring them out for fear of a conflict.
After thinking for a long time, Song Yuanchao finally came up with a song that not only matches the genre of "When You Are Old" but also ensures that there will be no collision. This song is "The Rest of My Life".
This song was written by singer Ma Liang in 2018. Song Yuanchao liked it very much after hearing it by chance. He specially looked up the music and lyrics and practiced it several times at home.
Although the original singer of this song is a male singer, it is also suitable for female singers to sing, which makes it very suitable for Rowling to sing.
However, when Song Yuanchao gave this song to Luo Yang, it was only a few days before he left for Shanghai, so although Luo Yang got the song, he did not have time to let Luo Lin record it.
Now, He Zhili started asking, and Luo Yang hummed a few lines of the song. Although he could not sing as well as Luo Lin, he had no problem singing a few tunes.
After listening to it, He Zhili was shocked. Although he didn't hear the whole song, judging from the simple lyrics and melody, it was also a good song. Moreover, the style and content of this song matched the song "When You're Old" he had just heard. It wouldn't be awkward for two songs of similar style to be on the same tape.
"Hey... Mr. Luo, can you introduce your friend who writes songs to me?" He Zhili was itching to get to know Luo Yang's unknown friend. He immediately wanted to make friends with him. If he could get him to write a few more good songs, it would be extremely beneficial to the development of Pacific Company.
Since its opening, Pacific Company has been thinking about how to develop. Over the past year or so, it has come into contact with many famous singers, and through the release of tapes and records by these famous singers, it has opened up a wave in the domestic audio-visual industry.
The first cassette (tape) produced by Pacific Company was a collection of Zhu Fengbo's solo songs in 1979. The cover was a half-length portrait of Zhu Fengbo wearing a blue flowered dress, with the words "Roses Bloom Everywhere" and "A Collection of Zhu Fengbo's Solo Songs" written on it.
This cassette can be said to be the first cassette (magnetic tape) officially sold in the Chinese mainland market after the reform and opening up. It caused a huge sensation in the market as soon as it was launched.
Soon after, Li Guyi's solo song selection also came out, with the main song being "Why Are the Flowers So Red". Later, solo songs by famous singers such as Hu Songhua, Luo Tianchan, Jiang Dawei, and tapes of the Galaxy Quartet were released one after another. By 1980, the above singers had released collections and solo tapes one after another, among which "Voice of the Pacific" was the most famous.
These tapes were not only popular in the domestic market, but were also exported to Hong Kong, Macau and other regions, where they were also very popular.
