Biography of Richard Lam

Biography of Richard Lam

Richard Lam (1948 – 2003) was a renowned lyricist in Hong Kong, from his first published lyrical work No longer frown any more (sung by Teresa Carpio) in the early 1980s till his last lyrical work Mr Lonely, Miss Lonely (sung by Samantha Lam), Richard Lam had written lyrics for over a thousand songs. He was also a columnist, cartoonist, and copywriter.

Early Life and Becoming Lyricist

During his secondary school years, Richard Lam became the lead guitarist of The Thunderbirds, a band he formed with his friends. In 1967, his band was the second runner-up at the Talent Quest “Amateur Music Talent Competition” organised by The Star with a cover of Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow. Richard Lam then went to the United States for study in 1968 and returned to Hong Kong for job in 1973 having graduated with distinction. He entered the advertising industry in the late 1970s and worked with the veteran musician Anders Nelsson to produce jingles for advertisements, he made a number of jingles for several brands such as Coca Cola, Sprite, Kodak, etc.; however he recounted: “Writing jingles for advertisements was not fun” because of the “many restrictions.”

Later, Samuel Ho, who held an important position at a record company, recognised Richard Lam’s ability and offered him an opportunity to write lyrics for pop songs. As for the reason to start writing lyrics for pop songs, Richard Lam spoke in one interview in 1985: “Few years ago, most lyrics of pop songs were the works of James Wong, Cheng Kwok Kong, Jimmy Lo, Peter Lai, and Sam Hui, I felt that there should be another way to do it.”

Creation and Visual

Every time Richard Lam started writing lyrics for a new song, he would first listen to the tune for many times, until he “can feel what I should write for this melody, or the direction to write it” before start penning. When he came across a piece of music that could not bring feeling to him, he would put it down for a day or two first, or let his wife listen and see how she feels. Richard Lam needed to visualise the music before he could start writing the lyrics. His wife has written that, music to Richard Lam was “a feeling, with an atmosphere and a visual.” Richard Lam told about the creation of Empty Chair: “When I visualised it I came up with a chair, so I wrote this story.”

Inspiration and Habit

Richard Lam once said about where he got his inspirations when writing: “Sometimes I found them from the streets, sometimes in the bedroom, or even from beautiful women, but mostly I found them from my heart.” His wife also wrote: “No matter which kind of creation, writing prose or lyrics, his inspirations mostly came from interesting things encountered or life stories of his.” Moreover, Richard Lam would “intentionally link up unrelated things, mix them up to come up with something.”

Every time he finished writing the lyrics, he would sing it a few times, to ensure that the tones of the words matches the tune, so no word will come out as sounding like another word in his lyrics; whenever possible he would leave his finished script aside for a night, and re-read again the next day and look for anything worth changing before sending it out.  Regarding swear words and foul languages, Richard Lam said he would not put them in his lyrics, as those are hideous.

Themes and Styles

Richard Lam was called “Devil’s genius”, his works often fascinate people for the wild imagination and boldly creative ways of writing, from “Whenever young me opened the window, I’d see an elephant flying” (from The trio), to the later “Shouldering the bright moon of the night and wink at you”, “Chasing the sun like a bullet” (both from Fun comes first), one can catch a glimpse of his vast and vivid imagination. In the selection of themes, Richard Lam mentioned: “I always like to write about things that give me intense feeling, and let my heart to lead the pen in my hand, that would make it easier to write, and also easier to write better, because one must feel the impression first before impressing others.” Works of Richard Lam covers a wide range of themes, in numerous styles: there is love by the minute, and also love like persistent trickles; there are Lady with flute, Empty chair that remember loved ones; and there is A thousand suns on friendship; Earth sings in unison, The bare hands that fought the katanas set the eyes on the wider world and treasuring lives; while Fun comes first, Stand up are affectionate and energetic; the humourous Mosquito, Can’t stop thinking about, and the different personae in Silly girl, Wicked girl and Playboy, etc. Moreover, Richard Lam also wrote lyrics for theme and incidental songs for films and TV dramas, and also songs for animations, children’s songs, and songs for radio shows, as well as promotional songs for educational campaigns, such as Catching the stars, Insight from a clam and Be happy and healthy.

James Wong once said: “The good thing about Richard Lam’s lyrics? Their life like emotions.” James Wong think that the Richard Lam that people usually see is only “the tip of an iceberg on top of a volcano, what’s beneath the surface is not only deep and vast, but also fiery.” It is from this “fiery” passion that makes Richard Lam kept on writing the classics with “lifelike emotions”, from the 1980s up till 2000s, letting love to be eternal.

Richard Lam’s Selective Chronology