Sim Soo-bong picks up a guitar for the first time in 47 years and speaks of her 'low-quality' scars

Shim Su-bong will appear on the 30th episode of MBN’s ‘Kim Ju-ha’s Day & Night,’ airing at 9:40 PM on June 20, to reveal the old wounds surrounding her signature song, ‘A Man is a Boat, a Woman is a Port.’ The opening scene of this episode is anchored by the phrase ‘Picking up the guitar again after 47 years.’ As a singer who has crossed eras picks up her guitar once more to explain her music, this session is likely to be more than just a simple trip down memory lane; it will be a time to see how the misunderstandings surrounding the song when it first emerged compare to its current evaluation.

The wounds left by the word ‘vulgar’

The core issue is the perception the song faced before it became beloved. Regarding ‘A Man is a Boat, a Woman is a Port,’ Shim Su-bong once said, “I received a lot of criticism. Until recently, I didn't understand why people were criticizing it. I thought I was being innocent, but they called me vulgar.” She added, “It hurt me deeply.” Although it is now a beloved song sung across generations, at the time of its release, the lyrics—which used a port and a departure as a metaphor—were met with misplaced misunderstandings, and those words lingered long with the creator.

The reason this confession is not light is that Shim Su-bong's music has always sat between personal stories and public memory. It is easy to consume it merely as ‘that song from back then,’ but when you look at what kind of heart the creator used to write it and what words they had to endure, the texture of the song changes. Popular music tends to leave behind only familiar choruses as time passes. This broadcast is a space to see the face of the person behind that chorus once again.

A song that began from a farewell at the port

The starting point of the song was not a sensational story, but a farewell she actually witnessed. Shim Su-bong explained that the husband of a close flower arrangement teacher worked on an ocean-going vessel, and after seeing him off at Incheon Port, the wife cried for a long time in the back seat of her car. From that scene, the thought occurred to her that the man leaves by boat and the woman waits like a port, leading to the title and the song. While a single line of metaphor gave rise to misunderstandings, its roots were in waiting and parting.

What is important here is not the way Shim Su-bong tries to defend herself, but the time the song has endured. Although the words of that time were sharp, the song did not disappear. Rather, it became a familiar landscape of Korean popular music as multiple generations sang along. A song that is sung for a long time does not survive solely on the singer's intention. It remains only when listeners can overlay their own partings and waiting onto it.

What to watch for in the broadcast on the 20th

There are two points to look for in the 30th episode of ‘Kim Ju-ha’s Day & Night.’ One is whether the scene of Shim Su-bong picking up the guitar again after 47 years is a mere production or if it leads to a confession connecting her early debut mindset with her current attitude. The other is how far she will unravel the misunderstandings surrounding ‘A Man is a Boat, a Woman is a Port’ using the language of today. For viewers who loved the song, it will be the backstory of a familiar masterpiece, and for the generation discovering Shim Su-bong late, it will be a broadcast that confirms the process of a singer leaving behind songs after passing through wounds.