朋友 Péngyǒu

This track is one of my favourite karaoke songs to belt out 2/3 of the way through the night - a few beers a gravelly throat...

It's also great for pulling out when you have to give face to someone important... (like a gangster, police, government, or business acquaintance)

Another great Karaoke Classic - a shame this guy died in a car accident at age 31 in 1997.

@Xiaophil We will certainly cover underground music, however I chose karaoke first as it would be more common for the average foreigner to be taken out by the average Chinese to karaoke as a form of entertainment.

China has a hugely vibrant underground music scene, and dealing with that would be pretty cool. In the meantime checkout Neocha for Chinese indie music. Although there's a lot of soft stuff, I have come across some pretty thrashy metal before too.

反正，here are the lyrics to 大海 (if like me, you really cannot be doing with 繁体字). Cheers for the vids Matt!

从那遥远海边,慢慢消失的你,
本来模糊的脸,竟然渐渐清晰.
想要说些什么,又不知从何说起,
只有把它放在心底.
茫然走在海边,看那潮来潮去,
徒劳无功,想把每朵浪花记清,
想要说声爱你,却被吹散在风里.
茫然回头,你在那里.
如果大海能够,唤回曾经的爱.
就让我用一生等待.
如果深情往事,你已不再留恋.
就让它随风飘远.
如果大海能够,带走我的哀愁.
就象带走每条河流.
所有受过的伤,所有流过的泪.
我的爱……
请全部带走.
茫然走在海边,看那潮来潮去,
徒劳无功,想把每朵浪花记清,
想要说声爱你,却被吹散在风里.
茫然回头,你在那里.
如果大海能够,唤回曾经的爱.
就让我用一生等待.
如果深情往事,你已不再留恋.
就让它随风飘远.
如果大海能够,带走我的哀愁.
就象带走每条河流.
所有受过的伤,所有流过的泪.
我的爱……
请全部带走.
如果大海能够,唤回曾经的爱.
就让我用一生等待.
如果深情往事,你已不再留恋.
就让它随风飘远.
如果大海能够,带走我的哀愁.
就象带走每条河流.
所有受过的伤,所有流过的泪.
我的爱……
请全部带走.

That link is sweet.  Thanks.

I just thought I would add that I'm not just advocating my niche, i.e underground music.  It would be nice to explore all music styles and slant the material towards, shall I say, 'the English speaking world' situations.  Due to the considerable amount of attention cpod has placed on karaoke, my feeling is that karoake can be set aside for awhile.

I hope I'm not sounding too pushy.  I just really love music, but I find many aspects of it aren't covered well here yet.  If no other poddies share my enthusiasm, I can very well accept that.

Oh and I take back what I said earlier, there's some really useful vocab in the lesson and the discussion between John and Jenny in the podcast is first rate.

Oh John, you're so unromantic! You don't like love songs and you think shopping for a baby sounds kinda boring! How did your wife fall for you? (开玩笑!!)

Here's a vid for 天天想你, also by 张雨生. (I can't figure out how to embed the vid in this page, so if you wanna see it, just click the link.)

那你是不是一个“高级摇摆乐”迷？我也喜欢King Crimson，再说，也喜欢Yes、ELP。。。哈哈哈！(Don't know if that 高级摇摆乐 was translated right.  I meant progressive rock.)

Despite what I said earlier, I also think some of the language is useful.  I find it interesting that "按摩" is included in the supplementary vocab.

That's what I'm saying! If they planned the series right, it could be a real slam dunk. It wouldn't even have to be all club scene stuff. A blues performance at a coffee shop. a classical music concert at a theater and the likes would all be welcome. But I must admit I would be most enthusiastic about rock and electronic music, and dialogs that are extra slammin (well, as slammin as language lessons go). Anyways, I can't understand why this hole in CPod's catalog exists... okay, I'm beginning to talk in circles. Thanks for looking this up! You have a good memory.

It would be cool if it were memory, but it's really just that I was assigned the karaoke lesson. I'm not really into karaoke, but i've done it enough times (I think 5 times in my entire life). People always seem amazed that i'm willing to give "the first snow of 2002" a try.

I think we'd all have more luck with western music in lessons if John were a guitar player. :)