JOY OF MUSICS: THE COCTEAU TWINS pt 3 – SUPERSTAR FAYE WONG & CULT TRIO THE COCTEAU TWINS COMBINE

A missed opportunity for Robin & Simon to become Faye Wongs backing band.

Only person of immense self surreality, or supernatural composure could wear such device on head without uncontrollable laughter. This is a power Wong Faye has. Is it really a hat, or antenna ?

“I think singers can treat their voice as instruments… For me, music is an image. Lyrics are not important. If music itself conveys messages, lyrics are unnecessary. Though I don’t try to get rid of lyrics.” : Faye Wong

In an interview with Little White Lies, Cocteau Twin’s bass guitarist and keyboard player Simon Raymonde reflects on that time and how their later collaborations with Faye Wong came about:

“I was a massive film buff – we all were. Wong Kar-Wai was somebody who was being talked about a lot, and we’d all seen Chungking Express and thought it was brilliant. When the possibility [of collaborating with Faye Won was mentioned, there was a recognition there because of the film and how good it was. It was the film that sparked our interest in doing it.”

What were the Cocteau Twins about to get involved with? Who is Faye Wong many western peoples will be puzzled over, also at the time of collaboration many Asian & 'Western' peoples will wonder who is these three Cocteau Twins?

---

1- HISTORY OF FAYE WONG-

王菲 Faye Wong was born in Beijing (mainland China) on 8 August 1969.

Her more accurate translated name would be WANG, as her father is Wang Youlin (王佑林) & elder brother is named Wang Yi (王弋), Wong is interchangeable though. Her mother is fascinating lady Xia Guiying (夏桂影) , famous for involvement with Guoyue (國樂) music, that is made on traditional Chineses instruments & styles. Despite Fayes career to come, her mother disproved of degrading profession of her being a singer. It is claimed that before the age of 15 she was called Xia Lin, adopting her mother's surname since her paternal family was persecuted in the Cultural Revolution.

Faye began her career as Wong Jing Man (王靖雯) , made English as Shirley Wong after she move to Hong Kong in 1987. Since she was so ignorant of using Cantonese, the language spoken in Hong Kong, (proving the typical locals view that mainlanders are backwards) 'she experienced great loneliness'. So, she do some modelling & began taking singing lessons with Tai See-Chung (戴思聰), famous tutor for Asian superstars Anita Mui (Asia Madonna !), Andy Lau, Leon Lai and Aaron Kwok, who everyone who watch 1990's Martial Arts films will know very well, but they are all also performing singers of renown.

In 1988 Faye almost won TV competition singing (Asian TV completion standards are much higher than in the West, & many big stars actually have 'skill', something that just gets in the way of western stars careers these days) , coming 3^rd place, but still she get signed to label, & despite being hindered as 'backwards mainlander' she become hit with self named alternative/pop/ballad LP in 1989, released 2nd November .

Her next two records were similar skill, & on second lp the title song is a Cantonese version of Jody Watley's (of Shalamar) 1989 hit of the same name. While "Wailing Wall" is a cover of Marilyn Martin's 1988 B-side "Quiet Desperation". All 3 LPs were made & released in just one year & one month in rush of standard mercenary exploitation tactics. They are very cinematic sounding.

The debut album Shirley Wong sold 25,000 copies and won her bronze at the "Chik Chak New Artist Award .The next ones sold well with about 10,000 units each, but in HK that would be about at most 5-10% of real sales as bootlegs are epidemic. Still, mainland grumplings where not impressed with Fayes industrious works & continue to consider her a 'backward bumkin', & unhappy she left mean spirited exploitation zone of mercenary minds. She say 'in Hong Kong I lost myself. I was shaped by others and became like a machine, a dress hanger. I had no personality and no sense of direction.[12] '

The next stage of her career is well know to almost all Asian peoples.

---

2-FROM MAINLAND TO HK, TO LA , BACK TO HK INTO INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

She went from hectic HK to more relaxed & less sophisticated exploitation (!) in the mythological crucible of of Lost Angels of USA, did more learning with singing, & spent days eating cakes in the local park, while musing on cultural differences. Then after short spell she returned to HK renamed Wang Fei" (王菲), made different R&B flavour songs; & became massive pop star presence with unique personality, & a stubborn integrity that upset entertainment industry now standard 'whoredom processes'.

(I say this in kindness & empathy & observation, not just from media mythology. Like all pop star entities it can be seen in scrutiny that they are often acting roles, often BECOMING the role assigned, & channeled by set-designer & marketing directors,etc. But I also think much is genuine with her & she is candid as possible to be in her situation)

She is feisty lady who takes no crap from bullshitters & gossips, telling interviewers to mind their own business if they get too initiate in private life matters.

The big song for her, that was catalyst to such world wide success (except in backwards 'western' lands) was "Fragile Woman" (容易受傷的女人), a cover of a Japanese song "Rouge" (originally composed by Miyuki Nakajima and sung by Naomi Chiaki )featured in the popular TVB (famous Kung Fu film makers the Shaw Brothers TV enterprise) drama The Greed of Man (1992). In different language versions this song would become a huge regional hit in Thailand, Vietnam, the rest of Southeast Asia & even Turkey; the most popular English version was titled "Broken-Hearted Woman''.

She then concentrate on music seriously & do lovely ballads, & also mixture of more experimental songs like "Silent All These Years" by Tori Amos. The song "I'm Willing" (我願意) on LP Mystery would become her trademark Mandopop song till this day, and has been covered by many other singers such as Gigi Leung, Sammi Cheng and Jay Chou.

---

3-THE COCTEAUS CONNECTION-

In summer of 1994 she release her 7^th LP , a massive number One hit LP that goes triple platinum (150,000 certified sales) called Random Thoughts (Chinese: 胡思亂想),(Wu Si Lyun Seong), alternatively called ‘Thinking Here and There’ or ‘Wondering’. Sometime it is poor translation as Cranky thoughts, or 'crazy thoughts' even.

The title track is cover version of Cocteau Twins BLUEBEARD song,

while " 知己知彼 (Zi Gei Zi Bei) "Know Oneself and Each Other",

is the Cocteau Twins song "Know Who You Are at Every Age''

both from their LP Four-Calendar Café.

She also had a big hit with another song from that LPcalled, 夢中人 "Dream Lover" (sometimes translated "Person in a Dream") it is a cover of The Cranberries' "Dreams". She remade it again for the lp SKY , as 掙脫 in 1990.

Now she is ''One of the biggest pop stars in the Chinese-speaking world, Wong has also gained followings in Japan and Southeast Asia. In the West she is perhaps best known for starring in Wong Kar-wai's films Chungking Express (1994) that she won awards for including best actress, and film ' 2046' (2004) '' She also appear in many quality TV series. In 1994/95 her visual designer for her concert tours was also top director Wong Kar-wai.

She is maybe well known among video games players as she sang "Eyes on Me", the theme song of the video game Final Fantasy VIII (1999).

In the useful book : Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, (she is) "singer, actress, mother, celebrity, royalty, sex symbol and diva all at the same time".[8] In 2000, she was recognised by Guinness World Records as the best selling Cantopop female artist, having sold an estimated 9.7 million copies of her albums by March 2000.[9]

In April 2010, the China Social Sciences Press recognised Wong as one of the 13 "richest souls" in China.[107][108]

Wong used to be a vegetarian. In 2008 and 2011, she was named Asia's sexiest vegetarian woman by animal rights group PETA.[84][85]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4- THE COCTEAUS COLLABORATIONS

Note : There are no pictures of Faye with the Cocteau Twins as they never meet, or spoke directly!

There are three LPS with much Cocteau Twins influence or contribution very worth listening to. Random Thoughts the first of them, Exasperation, & self-titled LP 王菲.

王菲 Faye Wong LP 浮躁 (1996) called westernised as 'Restless' or 'impetuous', or ‘Exasperation’

Faye is doing three stances of wise monkey on cover. She write many songs on this & some tracks have no singing just her voice used to make noises of texture.

Cocteau Twins Robin & Simon write two songs especial for her & this LP,

{How did the Faye Wong link-up happen}
We heard from Mercury that a big Asian rock star had covered some songs of ours, so we just asked them to try and get us copies. Then when we heard them we were actually quite impressed. Usually the Cocteau's covers bands don't quite get it, so it was a nice surprise, and instrumentally they even sounded like they had worked hard to get it right.

On a whim we thought it might be cool to try and actually try to do something together, so we made a few polite enquiries. In the end we were not able to persuade the powers that be to invest in anything too exciting so we decided we would send her a couple of the forthcoming album tracks from "Milk & Kisses" and see if she fancied doing some more vocals for the Mercury Asian release. She did a grand job and what she did we used! ”

{What did you think of Faye's 'Impatience' album as a whole?}
Quite like the Cocteau Twins wasn't it? I wasn't mad about it, but then I am not mad about anything that sounds like the Cocteau Twins, 'cause it seems that those bands are always the ones that sell the most!

{Was there ever any plan to work on more material together?}
I think when Liz left shortly afterwards, Robin and I wondered if we should go and live in Shanghai for a bit and be her backing band, eat lots of seafood, and sit around in expensive recording studios all day... But I think Faye had lost interest by then. Can't blame her really.

Simon Raymonde Interview January 2003 By Bruce Stringer (link to entire interview below)

''Faye was a big fan of the band and had asked her label – a Universal label I think it must have been – to try and contact us. We liked her in that Wong Kar-Wai film Chunking Express and thought it might be a fun thing to do, as her voice seemed to be in a similar range and style to Elizabeth’s. We never worked with her directly in the studio; it was all done through interpreters and she recorded her parts in Hong Kong and Beijing.”

“We continued to work with her on her own next album which wasn’t her most successful as she moved from singing more conventionally to a more wordless style which didn’t go down as well in China, but Robin and I carried on writing music for her. She might have helped our name get a bit better known there, but I don’t think we helped her much. I think it was an interesting collaboration and while it probably didn’t work out as we might have imagined, I think musically and sonically it all worked out fine” – Simon Raymonde to The Quietus

There is a quote from Robin, in typical fine form, about the experience working with Faye I can not find on the net, in it he say they did the musics for Fay after hearing her bands versions: which he thought was terrible, & so bad he had to do it himself to avoid the shame when listening.

LP (王菲) - 浮躁 (Fúzào) Exasperation

分裂 "Fēnliè", "Fracture" or "Divide" by Faye later becomes Cousteau Twins song “Tranquil Eye”, a b-side on 1996’s brilliant Violaine single.

While 墮落 (!) "Sǎoxìng" (扫兴), "Spoilsport" or "Disappointment" later become “Touch Upon Touch”, a rare track only on a compilation & later TREASURE HIDING collection.

It is as if crafty musicians in Faye's group scrutinise equipment setting in studio, & take notes when Robin work with them & maybe when he leave room for P.P, or snuff break, Afterward they have his sound, do some arpeggios & keyboard swoosh, & make like instant soup 'Cocteaus stew'.

has her & her bands version of Cocteau Twins sound, It is fun connecting what they acquire in melodies & sounds from other songs by Cocteaus, I do not list such here in case it spoils discovery!

04 分裂 is Cocteaus Tranquil Eye

08 掃興 is Cocteaus Touch Upon Touch

03 想像 - 'imagination'

06 哪兒 - 'where ?'

07 墮落 -'degeneration' or 'fall' is particularity lovely

09 末日- 'Day of Doom' or 'end of the world' is marred by pissy , feeble Armageddon drum sound but is good attempt.

05 不安 – 'unease', 'restless' or 'anxiety' is enjoyable instrumental like Cocteaus Meet Kraftworks over 1980's euro rock disco beat.

---

Wong also made a 1997 self-titled LP 王菲.

On that record “懷念” (“Nostalgia”) is a cover of the acoustic version of Milk & Kisses‘ track “Rilkean Heart” that appeared acoustically on the band’s 1995 Twinlights EP.

Interestingly, Fayes live performances of that song sometimes uses the original full band arrangement, and also in English (I could not find link in good quality sadly). In addition, the LP contained one more brilliant Cocteaus original composition, never recorded for Liz to sing upon “娛樂場”(“The Amusement Park”) one of my most favourite songs by her.

Faye would also record vocals for a rare duet with Liz on the track ‘Serpentskirt’, for the Cocteaus’ ‘Milk & Kisses’ album Asian release, but not featured on the western version. This is the only track to feature both complete band and singers on the same recording.

To conclude here is a Great quote from Simon R. Paul Translated by Zhou Jingsi.

''So why document this, beyond the curiosity value of such an unexpected team-up? Well, it reminds us that music is more than just a cultural product. We live in an age where the qualities we ascribe to music are determined by a cycle of production and consumption. That is, when we hear a piece of music, we think of it in terms of having been produced in a specific location: for example, East or West. We think of it in terms of being produced within the boundaries of specific, pre-existing genres: for example ‘pop’ or ‘indie’...

The Faye Wong and Cocteau Twins collaborations takes all of these dichotomies —East/West, Pop/Indie, Mainstream/Alternative and implode them .Genre distinctions are exhausted; is it a pop song if Faye Wong sings it, but an indie rock track if recorded by Cocteau Twins? Such a question becomes irrelevant here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-NOTES & SONG LINKAGES-

Thanks to articles linked below for additional information & quick links made while preparing this.

Kindred Spirits: Faye Wong and Cocteau Twins | by Simon R. Paul | Medium

Nostalgia: Faye Wong x Cocteau Twins - Space Echo

Lajabor! = full Simon Raymonde Interview of January 2003 By Bruce Stringer

SONG LINKAGES : I try & find best quality as playlists are not good sound at the moment. Just click on song name & a link should appear to YouTube.

王菲 Faye Wong -《夢中人》(Official Music Video) [HD] Cranberries cover

very good audio but no video = 王菲 - 夢中人

王菲 － 《扫兴》 -Touch Upon Touch by Faye

Touch Upon Touch (Volume Magazine Version) Cocteaus version

王菲 - 分裂 Tranquil Eyes by Faye

Tranquil Eye Cocteaus version

Cocteau Twins Know Who You Are At Every Age [Faye Wong Chinese Cover

Faye Wong — 知己知彼 (Cocteau Twins Cover) -LIVE miming

Cocteau Twins - Know Who You Are At Every Age

王菲 - 胡思亂想 Fayes version of Bluebeard -also entire Random Thoughts LP in HQ

Cocteau Twins - Bluebeard (Official Video)

王菲 Faye Wong《懷念 Nostalgia》(高音質 High Quality) Rikean Heart LP acoustic.

王菲 怀念 高清 - YouTube live version of above, acoustic.

Cocteau Twins - Rilkean Heart – LP version

Cocteau Twins x Faye Wong --- Serpentskirt DUET version

Serpentskirt Cocteaus Liz version

The Cocteau Twins/Faye Wong - rare collaboration - "The Amusement Park"

-good songs in similar style-

王菲 Faye Wong -《墜落》(Official Music Video) - 'Fall' or 'Degeneration'

王菲 Faye Wong -《討好自己》Live 1995 - 'pleasing myself'

王菲 - 想像 – 'Imagination'

哪兒 – 'Where?'

末日 – 'Doomsday' or 'end of the world'

王菲 - 不安 - 'unease', 'restless' or 'anxiety