"Kehidupan" ("Life") is a 1988 single by

God Bless God Bless is an Indonesian rock band founded in Jakarta in 1973 by Ahmad Albar, Jockie Soerjoprajogo, Fuad Hassan, Donny Fattah, and Ludwig Lemans. It continues to be active and has received several awards from the Indonesian music industry. H ...

from their third album, ''Semut Hitam'' (''Black Ants'').

Production

"Kehidupan" was written by Jockie Soerjoprajogo.

Ahmad Albar Ahmad Syech Albar ( ar, أحمد شيخ البار ') or better known as Ahmad Albar (born 16 July 1946) is an Indonesian rock musician and vocalist of mixed ethnic Arabic and Javanese descent . He is the founding member of God Bless. Biograph ...

performed the vocals, while Ian Antono was on the guitar, Donny Fattah was on bass, Jockie was on keyboard, and Teddy Sujaya was on drums.

Sound

Denny MR, writing in ''Rolling Stone Indonesia'', notes that there is a spirit of collaboration between the band members, who had spent the previous seven years pursuing individual projects. Antono's guitar riffs are inspired by heavy metal and rougher than on previous albums, while Jockie's keyboarding is smoother than his last album with the band, ''Huma di Atas Bukit'' (''House on the Hill''; 1976). The bass complements the other instruments, instead of simply setting the beat. The song's arrangement is not as complicated as "Anak Adam" ("Child of Adam"), from God Bless' second album ''Cermin'' (''Mirror''; 1981), which had been written while Jockie was on hiatus from the band. The lyrics are multi-interpretable.

Release and reception

"Kehidupan" was released on God Bless' third album, ''Semut Hitam'' (''Black Ants''), in 1988 through Loggis Records. According to Jockie, it is one of their most successful and recognisable singles; Jodhi Yudono of '' Kompas'' writes that it was a smash hit. The song was selected as the 8th-best Indonesian song of all time by ''Rolling Stone Indonesia'' in December 2009. In his review, Denny MR noted that while he was a judge in a traveling song festival in February 2009, in

Makassar Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Med ...

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Selatan) is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sula ...

, high-school students who had not been born when the song was released had memorized it and performed it at the festival; when he asked them why they had chosen the song, they said that their parents had played it and they had enjoyed it. He suggested that the simple melody and hard rock chords had influenced its staying power.

Controversy

After having a falling out with God Bless in 2003, Jockie refused to allow the band to play his compositions, including "Kehidupan"; this extended to including performances on video recordings of the band, such as at the 2010

Djakarta Artmosphere Djakarta Artmosphere, or Djaksphere in short, is an annual concert organized by G Production to promote the collaborations between artists that are not limited to a specific generation, genre and/or other artistic creations. The organizers of this ...

festival. In October 2011, along with information about why he left the band, he posted on his Facebook wall that the band owed him royalties for continuing to use his work.

References

;Footnotes ;Bibliography * * * {{authority control 1988 singles Jockie Soerjoprajogo songs Indonesian songs 1988 songs id:Semut Hitam#Side A