Beauty at heart.
一切美麗，盡在心頭。
ECHOING STEPS OF PASS YEARS
Entering his last vertex. Danny Chan became increasingly preoccupied and was afflicted with acute insomnia. We can always trace the so-called “reasons” about drug abuse. But that was only one of the last straws in a long chain of “reasons”. Years later, Eunice Lam would remember in an article:
“He didn’t come to our meeting in Mandarin Oriental. I called at four, Chan’s mother dragged him to the phone. Would you come over? He sounded like a log of wood, ‘no.’ I heard his mother urging him to go, go! But I heard his voice, and felt he was under the control of something else, he wouldn’t have heard what I said.”
The year was 1992. Four hours later, Danny Chan’s world became silent. After 17 months of struggle, the singer of a generation left the world.
From Tears for You to What to Crave, Danny Chan’s voice is nothing less than the echoing steps of yester years. Years later, the first beauty is still there, warm at heart. We only to revisit Danny Chan’s purplish songs to understand: the sound of silence is at once growing and dying.
得得跫音喜
步入演藝事業高峰晚期的陳百強，失眠漸成慣常之事，家人穿拖鞋走過也被吵醒，情緒因此變得不穩定。我們或許可以追究所謂原因，甚麼濫藥吸毒的傳聞，頂多不過是相扣連的所謂「原因」的其中一環——「沒料到我所失的，竟已，是我的所有」，沒料到，陳百強一首歌，竟然一語成讖，多年以後，林燕妮在一篇談及陳百強的文章中憶述：
「他沒能應我文華之約，四時掛電話到他家，陳媽媽把他抓來聽電話，問他來不來,他的聲像木頭人一樣,「不來。」我聽見陳媽媽叫他去啊，去啊。但聽見他那种聲音，我感到他在不知甚麼東西控制之下,他不會聽到我說甚麼的。」
時為1992年，四小時後，陳百強的世界得沉默。經過十七個月的奮鬥，抢救無效，陳百強與世長辭。
從《眼淚為你流》走到《一生何求》，陳百強的歌聲，其實便是一個年代漸行漸遠的跫音(范或大詩說:得得跫音喜，悤悤笑口開)。多年以後，最初的美麗，猶如跫音，猶如笑語，猶如詩和歌，猶在心頭。一再重溫陳百強紫褐色的歌曲,你便會明白甚麼是沉默的歌聲，正在滋長、在幻滅。