Though I’ve written a lot about various British and American artists on this blog and have also posted a few pieces on Taiwanese popular music (though not that much relative to the time I’ve spent researching it), I have barely touched on the music of other countries in Asia. In part, that’s just because I know comparatively little about it; I’ve lived in Taiwan for many years, I speak one of the country’s languages, and I’ve met and even done album liner notes for a few of the artists, whereas I’ve only visited the other countries in the region, and (except in the cases of China and Singapore), I don’t speak their languages with any fluency. However, I have managed to collect a fair amount of music from these countries and, relying largely on things I’ve read by others with more knowledge, have learned a bit about several of the key artists in these countries.
Outside of Taiwan, the Asian country whose popular music I’m most familiar with is Thailand. I’ve spent more time in Thailand than in any Asian country other than Taiwan; aside from a dozen or so trips of various lengths, we even lived there for three months fifteen years ago. Another factor is that CDs of local music are unusually cheap in Thailand, generally less than US$5, so I could buy them a lot more freely than I could anywhere else. Of course there are still a lot of things making it harder for me to become as knowledgeable about Thai popular music as Taiwanese or English-language popular music. The biggest barrier is language. I speak a smattering of Thai, enough to bargain for things in a market or hold an extremely simple conversation with only a few exchanges. My Thai is about as good as my Hoklo/Minnan; though I don’t speak either well at all, they are the only Asian languages other than Mandarin where I know more than a few phrases. But my ability is still extremely limited, so to understand the lyrical content of songs I have to rely on translations or references in English by others. I am often able to figure out some basic information about the songs on CDs I own such as who wrote the music and lyrics; I know a few of the letters, but more importantly I’ve learned to recognize a few key words and name, or I’m able to deduce them by comparison (e.g., it’s easy enough to guess the words for “lyrics”, “music” and “arrangement”, as they appear next to or under the song titles and in front of the names of people), but this is still harder for Thai CDs than for CDs from Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines simply because the latter countries use the Latin alphabet. The language barrier also means that for historical background on the music I have to rely on the limited resources available in English, or use online translation programs to attempt to get the gist of what I can find in Thai.
In any case, I have several dozen Thai CDs, perhaps as many as a hundred. Most of them are rock, folk and urban pop, though I also have some CDs of luk thung, commonly referred to Thai country. I tried to acquire music by a fairly wide variety of artists, particularly those who seem to be regarded as particularly significant or representative, though I’m sure there are many important ones I’ve missed. So, for example, I have CDs by classic luk thung singers Surapol Sombatjalern (สุรพล สมบัติเจริญ) and Pompuang Duangjan (พุ่มพวง ดวงจันทร์), kantrum singer Darkie, and mor lam singer Jintara Poonlarp. I have CDs with songs by early urban pop groups like the Impossibles and Grand Ex and rock groups and pop singers from the 1980s and 1990s such as Micro, Billy Ogan, Bird, Itti and Mai, as well as later artists like Loso, Palmy, Beau, Paradox, Smile Buffalo and Silly Fools. In particular, I tried to acquire music by key artists from the genre known as pleng phua chewit (“songs for life”), a type of folk rock mixing Western folk and rock with some elements of more traditional Thai music, and emphasizing lyrics with more sociopolitical content. The first and most important (except for the band I’ll discuss momentarily) “songs for life” group was Caravan (คาราวาน), and I’ve bought a number of their CDs. I even met and exchanged greetings with their lead singer and key member Surachai Jantimatorn (aka Nga Caravan) when he visited Taiwan for the Migration Music Festival a few years ago. I also have CDs by Hammer, Pongsit Kamphee and Zuzu. But the two artists whose albums I have the most of are the brotherly pop rock duo Asanee Wasan and Thailand’s most famous band, the “songs for life” rock group Carabao.
Carabao was formed in the early 1980s and has been active in various forms pretty much ever since. The group’s mainstay is its chief vocalist and songwriter Yuenyong Ophakul, better known as Ad (or Aed) Carabao. Other key members include guitarists Lek and Thierry, multi-instrumentalist Keo (or Khiao) and bassist Od (or Ot). Carabao is not only very popular among Thais, it is also the one Thai band non-Thais who have a passing familiarity with Thailand are most likely to have heard of. Even today Carabao’s symbol, a long-horned buffalo skull (a carabao is a type of water buffalo native to the Phillipines, where Ad and cofounder Keo were students in the late 1970s), can be seen all over Thailand. Carabao’s sound combines elements of Western folk, country and rock (such as Lek’s Santana-style guitar playing) with rhythms reminiscent of Thai music forms such as luk thung and mor lam. The band’s lyrics frequently deal with social issues, and Ad in particular is outspoken on social justice and the environment.
The band hit its peak in the mid 1980s with what is generally considered its classic lineup. The series of albums Carabao released in the 1980s are pretty much all classics, particularly those from their third (Waniphok) to their ninth (Thap Lang),but the most famous was their fifth album, Made in Thailand, released in 1984. It sold four to five million copies and remains one of the most successful Thai albums ever. The title track is the band’s best known song, but several of the other tracks are also among their most popular recordings, and really everything on the album is good. This is definitely the one must-have Carabao album, though the other albums from this period are also highly recommended.
Ad Carabao wrote the majority of the band’s songs, at least in its early days, though Lek and Thierry in particular also wrote some songs, typically writing and singing one song each on most albums they participated in, and occasionally co-writing the music for other songs with Ad. Most of the band’s chief members have released solo albums, with Ad in particular having a number of solo successes – in fact, one of his best known songs, the ballad Thaleejai, was released on an album that he recorded with his brother Id, though it has since appeared on Carabao compilations as well. Speaking of which, Carabao has released a rather bewildering number of compilation albums, live albums, “special” albums (such as acoustic and remix albums) and collaborations with other artists, which can be a bit confusing for those who don’t read Thai (and possibly even for Thais as well). Anyone looking for a good compilation is advised to have a list of key songs to look for on the track listing (e.g., “Wanipok”, “Made in Thailand”, “Refugee”, etc.) in order to make sure it has the most important Carabao songs.
Since Carabao has released so many albums, I don’t have anything like a complete collection of their recordings, even though I easily have more than a dozen Carabao CDs. The Thai artist who I am closest to have a complete collection of is the duo Asanee Wasan. Asanee and Wasan Chotikul are two guitar playing brothers who got their start as members of the folk group Isn’t in the late 1970s. Asanee worked with several other artists in the early 1980s before the brothers released their first album as a duo in 1986. They became more popular with each subsequent release, and remain one of the country’s top selling artists and concert draws, though their output slowed considerably after the early 1990s. Perhaps their most notable album was their fourth, 1989’s Fak Thong. This contained “Yindii Mai Mii Panhaa”, a song which has been widely covered around Asia, including versions in Hoklo (by Taiwan’s Blacklist Workshop), Mandarin, English, and Cantonese, as well as one of the group’s most popular ballads, “Dai Yang Sia Yang”. It also contained “Krung Thep Mahanakhon”, which is a melodic chanting of the full name of Bangkok (which has the world’s longest official name) over rhythmic music composed by Asanee.
Musically, Asanee Wasan is more pop than Carabao, and the lyrical content of their songs only rarely strays into more serious subjects, though Yuenyong Ophakul (Ad Carabao) helped write a couple of their songs and together Ad and Asanee wrote “Chiwit Samphan”, an environmentally themed “Do They Know It’s Christmas” style song performed by the top “songs for life” artists of the late 1980s. Also unlike Carabao, Asanee Wasan frequently sings songs written for them by others. Asanee has generally written the music for several songs on each album (for instance, he wrote the music for all three songs mentioned above), and he often arranges songs written by others. Wasan only occasionally takes a hand in the writing. The brothers do produce all their albums, and even songs written by others have their distinctive sound. Asanee, who is the elder of the two brothers, usually seems to be the dominant of the pair. He is extroverted and flashy in his performance style, and he sings lead on the majority of the duo’s songs. As noted, he also frequently takes a hand in the songwriting or arranging. Wasan, who is on the chubby side, wears glass, and seems more introverted than his brother, generally sings around two songs on each album, and these are usually ballads (though several of them have been among the duo’s biggest hits). However, it is worth noting that on the first of the two solo albums that Wasan has released has a song called “Loey Dam Loey” which is reminiscent of the rock style more associated with Asanee but was written by Wasan. The duo does this song on a concert DVD I have, and Wasan plays the really fast guitar solo from the song himself, proving that he is capable of matching his brother for flashy guitar playing.
