Kim Chang-ik, the drummer for Korea's stellar rock band, Sanullim, called the Fathers of Korean Rock, was killed yesterday in a traffic accident in Vancouver. He was 50.

Responding to a question about the future of the band, leader Kim Chang-wan said, "Sanullim itself has died with my younger brother. We cannot continue without him. Sanullim is finished."

If anyone digs, I highly recommend looking into Sanullim.

A couple grainy, poor quality videos -

I'll check out the videos later when I have more time.


R.I.P.

I can't seem to find any decent videos of Sanullim's acoustic songs. There are some, but none of the really good songs, like 어� 비내리� 날 ("On a Day When the Rain Was Falling").

I'd like to add this video as well. It's from the band's 30th anniversary concert in 2007. It's the closing song, and as far as I know their final major concert. The song is called 안녕 ("an-young"), the Korean word for 'hello' and 'goodbye.' In the song, Chang-wan - and the children - sings 안녕 as if he's saying hello, but he means goodbye. It's a poetic play on the word that is lost in translation unless you know the culture and language well. It's a pretty song, not one of my absolute favourites from Sanullim (it's one of my wife's favourite songs, period), though lyrically it's beautiful, and quite fitting given Chang-ik's death. Chang-ik appears at front-stage half way through, wearing a hat. Here's my translation of the lyrics:

Goodbye, my pretty friend...
When you hear the ship from far away
And everyone is sleeping in the night,
Cry secretly for me, alone.

Goodbye, my little lover...
When the stars, so far away, are twinkling
Tell them secretly that I've gone far, far away,
Crying.