Listen People
- Peter Kam Fai Cheung SBS
- Aug 4, 2018
- 1 min read
Yesterday, somebody asked me to bring my guitar and perform in a function next week, and I agreed. Last night, I dreamt that instead of trying to sing my own tri-lingual songs, I sang the cover version of Herman's Hermits' "Listen People". I recall the number was one of my favourites in my own "Billboard Hot 100 Charts" in my teens.
During the 1960s, I was feverish about hit songs and dreamt to become a rock star, and failing that, a guitar man. Whenever I felt the urge, I would jot down in a descending order the top 100 songs that I liked to sing. And then I would enjoy comparing the rise and fall of their rankings with previous Charts to understand how fickle was my heart.
Several of Herman's Hermits songs featured in my Charts. I can name some of them now: "I'm Into Something Good", "Mrs Brown You Have Got A Lovely Daughter","There's A Kind of Hush" and "Just a Little Bit Better". I sang "Listen People" with hope that "...everybody's got to love somebody sometime; everybody's got to win a heart!"
Only when I began to love somebody did I realize I did not listen the other lyrics : "...everybody's got to lose somebody sometime; everybody can part!" After my 1970 Christmas band performance, I was awakened from my dreams and refocused on my studies. For over four decades, that has been the point of no return, until I dreamt of "Listen People"!