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Author: Albert Leung

Publisher: Enlighten & Fish

Other People's Songs, My Own Words is a collection of essays and creative works by lyricist Albert Leung. The title is taken from one of the songs he wrote early in his career, Other People's Songs, which serves as a fitting summary of the book’s central theme.

The book brings together essays Albert Leung wrote in his younger years, covering popular music, stories from the music industry, reflections on lyric writing, and various personal observations. Together, they offer an intimate look into his journey as a lyricist and his perspectives on music and popular culture.

The revised edition features a new section, “My Own Words,” which revisits his Mandarin-language lyrics through additional notes, associations, and reflections, almost as if reinterpreting the lyrics themselves.

The book also includes handwritten original lyric manuscripts from Albert Leung’s many years of creative work, allowing readers to take a direct look at his creative process.

More than simply a book about lyrics and music, Other People's Songs, My Own Words is a literary journey across time and memory, dedicated to everyone who loves lyrics and the written word.

Other People's Songs, My Own Words

Name: Other People's Songs, My Own Words
Brand: 亮光出版社
SKU: CL128
Price: 40 CAD
Availability: InStock

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Albert Leung

Graduated from the Faculty of Arts at The University of Hong Kong, majoring in Translation. He has served as a teaching assistant in the Department of Chinese at HKU, editor at The Express, Creative Director and Deputy Manager of the Programme Department at Asia Television, Creative Director and General Manager of Music Factory, Head of Advertising Creative and Production and Creative Consultant at Commercial Radio Hong Kong, as well as a consultant to Commercial Radio. He is currently a full-time writer.
"Other People's Songs, My Own Words" is the original "Other People's Songs" with a new chapter. The new chapter is about "my lyrics," and the text comes from Albert Leung's 2014 column "Not About Music," which reviews a batch of Mandarin lyrics. Albert Leungi said that this chapter "goes beyond the melody and adds to the parts of the lyrics that are not fully expressed: extension, supplement, association, annotation, and marginal notes. I personally annotated my own lyrics. This action may not be the last, but it is definitely unprecedented."

As for the original "Others' Songs", it is not just a popular song that Lin Xi wrote when he debuted; rather, the title of the song summarizes the theme of the article, those miscellaneous things about lyrics written in his youth. Because of the long time that has passed, what was said and written seems to be other people's songs.

"When I meet my past self today, I feel like a completely different person. It's because other people's songs are so expressive."

A lyricist who has been writing lyrics for over thirty years is still working hard. Over the years, he has been busy writing lyrics and has written little about lyrics themselves. As he wrote in the preface to this book: "As Eileen Chang said, if you're too busy falling in love, you won't have time to fall in love; if you're too busy writing lyrics, you won't have time or the mood to talk about lyrics. For example, novelists rarely talk about the art of novel writing. A too rational mind cannot give birth to naturally born life; thinking too much and writing too many plot points will make the work mechanical and lack inspiration. At least, to maintain a proud, aloof, and stylish image, it's best to say less."

So, rereading those lyrics, songs, and music scene written so many years ago today, time makes everything so magical.

"This batch of artifacts is quite special. They all talk about the rights and wrongs of pop songs and gossip about songwriting. After being in the industry for a few years, they have hardly written any songs. It's rare, so it has value."

Remarkably, this book also includes Lin Xi's handwritten lyrics manuscripts from those years, written on original manuscript paper.

I wouldn't dare say this is the only song with lyrics written by Lin Xi, but it's still valuable that it's included in the book.

Other People's Songs, My Own Words

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