GODFATHER OF SOUTH KOREAN ROCK Shin Joong Hyun
Oct 24, 2011
A new anthology from Light In The Attic puts a much-deserves spotlight on the guitarist and pop auteur. Check out some choice videos, below.
BY CARL HANNI
The saga of South Korea's Shin Joong Hyun encapsulates both the ebbs and tides of global pop music culture over several decades and the socio/political fates of his own SE Asian country. From struggling and starving artist to true pop culture phenomenon (he was South Korea's first home-grown rock star, in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s) to political pariah and cultural has-been to elder statesman of Korean music with fans around the globe, Hyun's tale is remarkable from start to present.
Pulling himself out of true poverty and hardship in post war Korea by sheer force of will and an early gift for playing guitar, Hyun was one of hundreds of thousands of youngsters around the globe captivated first by Elvis Presley and other first generation rock & rollers, and then the pop culture tsunami ushered in by The Beatles. Frequently playing on U.S. military bases around Seoul, and with access to the music played and available on the bases, Hyun quickly picked up on Motown and Memphis soul, jazz, the current hits of the day and eventually the world-wide psychedelic explosion. Something of a sponge, he soon developed knack for combining traditional Korean music with American and British sounds. He was, in fact, the first Korean playing much of this, fronting a series of combos and building a reputation as an ace guitar player.
Hyun eventually branched out into composing, arranging and producing other acts, and became much sought after as a master collaborator responsible for crafting hits for any number of S. Korean acts. When stardom came his way, it came quickly and definitively: "Shin Joong Hyun fever" took off in 1968 and rolled into the ‘70s, with Hyun being the biggest thing going. The downward spiral came just as quickly; his lovely number "Beautiful Rivers and Mountains" rubbed the South Korean powers that be the wrong way, and Hyun was suddenly persona non-grata in the music business. He was eventually busted on a pot charge, jailed, tortured, sent to a mental hospital, and suffered other degradations. Jeez, all from a song called "Beautiful Rivers and Mountains." Touchy despots, those Koreans of the time.
Hyun eventually found his way back to some sort of normalcy, but never regained his reputation or fame. But, as things have a tendency to come back around, eventually Koreans started to remember the Ga-yo (pop-rock) period of the ‘60s and early ‘70s that he spearheaded, and not surprisingly his records have become high $$$ items among collectors and fans of psychedelic and period-pop music. Hyun still lives in Korea, still plays music and got to play his first gig in the U.S. in 2008. He's also been honored with a special edition of guitar in his own name by Fender, putting him in company with Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
So, Light In The Attic is doing us all a tremendous service by finally bringing a career-spanning collection into the outside world for all to enjoy. Starting with the mono "Moon Watching" (recorded with a single mic for the whole band) in 1958, and working through some of his mid-‘70s productions, it presents a full picture of Hyun's career as a musician, song-writer, producer and talent scout and collaborator. Hyun the guitar hero is showcased on the blues rock work-out "‘J'Blues 72" and the hard rocking "I've Got Nothing to Say," and psychedelic Hyun weighs in on "Please Don't Bother Me Anymore" (credited to Golden Grapes) and the spooky, classic "The Man Who Must Leave" by Kim Sun, which sounds like the soundtrack to a bad acid trip in a Kenneth Anger film.
Quite a bit of this is straight-up pop that Hyun wrote, recorded, arranged, A&R'd and/or played on for other acts, like Kim Jung Mi, Lee Jung Hwa, Jang Hyun and Park In Soo. It's all good, and I'm happy to have it all, but I could wish for a bit more Shin Joong Hyun the frontman here - he's actually only listed as the artist on 5 of these 15 tracks.
But still, most of what's here is pretty great. The eerily propulsive "Push Through The Fog" by Jang Hyun is remarkable, and the spunky "Why That Person?" by Bunny Girls hits all the right moves. And the pastoral epic "Beautiful Rivers and Mountains" (edited at 10 minutes), the one that got him in so much trouble, is a beautiful, graceful unwinding that transports us to those rivers and mountains.
Beautiful Rivers and Mountains comes with a substantial 32-page booklet detailing Shin Joong Hyun's life and career, with liner noted from archivist, collector and DJ Kevin "Sipreano" Howes, plus individual track notes penned by Hyun himself. Generous amounts of photos and album cover art puts faces and images to his life story. All together, this is a very classy compilation, and an essential piece of the global puzzle of 20th century music.
Below, check out some video and audio clips of Hyun in various incarnations.
Shin Joong Hyun & Yup Juns (circa 1975)
Shin Joong Hyun (live, latter years)
"The Woman In The Rain"
"Spring Rain" (circa 1970)
blog comments powered by Disqus
More Photos
