Beyond

I had always thought that this particular colleague of mine was a classical music person, but turns out that he likes noisy Beyond songs! I heard him play Beyond songs recently and it was quite a surprising discovery. Anyway, the album he was playing was "Beyond the Ultimate Story" 3CD+1DVD box-set that was advertised on TV recently.

I already had most of the songs in the collection, apart from some very early songs and the ones from the mid-nineties onwards, and the inclusion of the live DVD didn’t entice me to buy it. Although I was quite a huge Beyond fan when I was still in school, I had long gotten over them by now. To me, 1994’s "二樓後座" (Second Floor, Rear Room) was the last Beyond album worth buying. I bought a few of the subsequent CDs but they were mostly disappointing and unable to capture my attention anymore.

My first Beyond album was “Beyond IV” on cassette. True and hardcore Beyond fans probably think of that album as a betrayal to the band’s hard rock roots, for the members had cut their hair short and started singing more commercialised material. Well, I didn’t know then and I didn’t care. All I wanted was good music and I liked that album, especially "真的愛你" (Really Love You), a dedication to all mothers in the world, and the songs for the TV drama "淘氣雙子星" (Naughty Twins - direct translation).

I grew to like Beyond very much and bought all their main albums from "秘密警察" (Secret Police) to "樂與怒" (Rock n Roll). “Secret Police” had hits like "喜歡你" (Liking You) and "大地" (Great Earth). I realised that I cannot listen to the former now without thinking of Rose and Ho Nam (Sammi & hocc in the musical)!!

Anyway, my favourite Beyond albums are probably "真的見證" (The Real Evidence) and "命運派對" (Fate Party). After a couple of slightly commercialised albums “秘密警察” and “Beyond IV”, these two albums marked a return to form and their rock nature. That is possibly one of my earlier encounters with rock that paved the way for my subsequent liking for Japanese rock bands and taste for electric guitar-based music.

The next few albums “Deliberate”, "長城" (The Wall) and “樂與怒” were not as good, in my opinion, but still they yielded memorable hits like “Amani”, “長城” and "海闊天空" (No Borders). After the unfortunate passing of Wong Ka Kui in 1993, Beyond managed to come together to record a commendable effort “二樓後座” but things started going downhill from there. The kind of melodies that I like were just not there anymore giving me no choice but to move on. But the Beyond of 1988-1994 lives on in my heart.