Remember Fabio Carli (花比傲)——The 'Marco Polo' in Chinese pop music history

Fabio Carli

“Queen’s Road East”(皇后大道东): 1991,
the most famous Cantonese song about the handover of Hong Kong, describes the
worries, excitement, hesitation, and expectation of local people in humorous lyrics.
‘My dear friends, bidding goodbye, left this metropolis and went afar, and now
we gonna depend on the great comrades to cook up some new ideas.’

“Pear of the Orient”(东方之珠):
1991, the Iconic song celebrating the handover of Hong Kong, is a chant for the
city’s unrest past and prosperous future. ‘For five thousand years, the sea
wind blows. Please remember my face, forever yellow.’

“Old Friend Seems To Be
Coming”(似是故人来): 1992, one of the best song of the ‘pop queen’ Anita Mui(梅艳芳).

……

All these unforgettable songs, which marked the peak of Hong Kong pop music and witnessed the legendary 1990s of China, are arranged by an Italian musician: Fabio Carli.

Fabio Carli was born in
Ronchi dei Legionari, Italy, in 1951. He founded a band called ‘I Cobra’ and
went on tour in Europe by covering some successful works of Lucio Battisti
and New Trolls. Then he started travelling around the world. He went to
Dubai, Taipei, Tokyo, Sydney, and finally interestingly, spent his most
important 11 years in Hong Kong (1986-1997).

Fabio and 罗大佑, via sina.com

One year after Fabio’s
arrival, Lo Da-Yu(罗大佑) ended his 2-year stay in U.S. and decided to continue his music
career in Hong Kong. The two “foreigners” hit it off in the metropolis. Their
first song is “Rebirth”(轮回) in 1989. Lo composed, and
Fabio arranged. Lo said: “We were both ‘outsiders’, so we dared to challenge the
local traditions and taboos. We played music together in HK, the city where
East meets West, Left meets Right.”

In 1990, Lo founded Music
Factory, which is a milestone in Chinese music history. In the Factory, Lo, who
composed, Fabio, who arranged, and Albert Leung(林夕), who
wrote lyrics, created countless Cantonese and Mandarin songs that are praised
as the best of all times.

“花比傲”, Fabio’s
Chinese name was given by Leung at the same time. The name’s Cantonese pronunciation
(Faa-bei-ngou) is very close to the original, and it comes from Chinese poems which
means “flower and pride”, so romantic.

Leung describe Fabio as a
man who not only “loves Chinese culture, and can create music with Chinese
style”, but also “can treat Chinese elements from a critical and innovative
point of view”, which makes their works seem “less traditional and more
energetic”.

Fabio and 林夕, via sina.com

Lo left HK in 1995, and
afterwards Fabio bid his goodbye to HK in 1997. He became a photographer and director
in New York and even won some awards. He went back to Italy and died of cancer
on April 15th, 2013, 6 years ago. His last song is called “Stranger
in my town”, included his whole colorful music life.

Some days ago, I just
figured out his full name on Internet, and was surprised to find that he is an
Italian and shares the same last name as LUISS. Here, I’m writing this brief
article on his Memorial Day, just to express my love for the music of that time
and my respect to all the musicians, singers, and writers who created so many
wonderful melodies to us.

Leung, Lo, Carli
Songwriter, composer, arranger

Although many Chinese people may not remember him and even mistake him as a Chinese guy, Fabio Carli, the modern ‘Marco Polo’ in music, undoubtedly has made a great contribution to HK music society, and the work of him, Lo, and Leung will be played forever.

元芳 2019年4月16日凌晨于罗马

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Thanks to Diego, who helped
me find some information in Italian about Fabio Carli.

For those who don’t know Lo Da-Yu
and Albert Leung, please remember them as the most important men in Chinese pop
music history.

To me, the best work of
Fabio is 来自你,来自我,来自他(“From you,
from me, from everyone”). It is both composed and arranged by Fabio so it’s
rare and precious.

For those who are
interested, here are some links for articles and Youtube, which are also my
reference for this blog:

皇后大道东 Queen’s Road East：

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYzQEObtujA

Lyrics translation in English: https://sites.google.com/site/cmhubertchen/html/queens\_road\_east

东方之珠 Pear of the Orient：

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRG919KG4vc

Lyrics translation in English: http://www.chinesetolearn.com/pearl-orient-dong-fang-zhi-zh/

来自你来自我来自他：

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9_kdUzTaVs

Stranger in my Town:

https://vimeo.com/36982087

L’articolo su di lui in Italiano: