One Morning (하루 아침) is from Han Dae-soo's third album, Infinity (무한대), which came out following a long hiatus after his second which failed in the market. It was quite a departure from his mostly acoustic guitar-backed and folk-styled first album, featuring loud electric guitars bordering on hard rock in style. It is recognized as his second best album, well received by the critics and making the all-time top hundred album list after his first album.
The song is a popular entry in Han's repertoire of iconoclastic works. It depicts a morning of someone who appears to be a bum in most ways, with nothing to do or say other than killing time. Downing shots of soju (소주), a traditional inexpensive hard liquor, is its refrain. It might well be describing one of the singer's own mornings, for all I know, as he is known to have been a hippy of sorts at one point. All in all, it is a pleasant and endearing song, at least to me. Toward the end, it changes gears and switches to a scene of drinking buddies on the eave of a new year. It turnes out the protagonist wasn't just a useless bum after all, as he is acting like a good-natured toastmaster for his friends.
Jokingly called the first hippy of Korea, Han Dae-soo is a free-spirited singer-songwriter who spearheaded the fledgling Korean modern-folk movement since the 1970s
Tony's Web
