Salt of the Earth
地球之盐
"Salt of the Earth" is composed by Hua Chenyu, the lyrics by Xiao Junfeng and Dai Yuedong. As the first song of Hua Chenyu's for public welfare, he admitted that this is not only "the tragedy song for human being", but also "the love letter to the earth".
In the process of filling in the lyrics, Hua Chenyu's original abstractive idea made many words difficult to fit. The lyricist Xiao Junfeng, came up with the form of Hua Chenyu's dialogue with God in the main song. "Abandoned trauma, did he see?" neglected sorrow, did he hear it? Silent prayer, does he know? A child without a home, will he take care of him? "The word "he" chosen here is the "God" that the singer wants to talk to ("He" means a third-person pronoun for "God"), this kind of continuous platoon questioning and complaining sent questions and complaints straight into the depths of the life.
Hua Chenyu was shocked when he saw those lyrics, those were what he wanted to say but couldn’t express by himself, fully in line with his original intention. The lyrics of the anthem was written by Dai Yuedong, to express the singer's desire to change the reality. Dai Yuedong thought of the documentary [the salt of the earth] by Wim. Wenders and Julia no. Salgado.
“The Salt of the Earth" is originally comes from "Salt and Light" in Chapter 5.2 of the Gospel of New Testament, and Jesus praises his disciples as the light of the salt of the earth, the place of positive will, symbolizing compassion and hope. This final part showed a clean soul, after reading the human greed which gave birth to the death of grief, chose to return to the nature. After the new elements were added to the instrument during the production process, the song was sent to the United States for late-stage mixing and completed the revision of the multi-version mix.
这是华晨宇为他的新专辑写的第三首歌，作为华晨宇第一首公益原创，他坦言这既是"唱给人类的悲歌"，也是"写给地球的情书"。
在填词比稿的过程中，华晨宇的抽象创作初衷让很多词稿难以熨贴。填词人萧骏峰根据华晨宇的创作初衷，在主歌中想出了华晨宇与上帝对话的形式。"被遗弃的创伤，他看到吗？被忽略的悲恸，他听到吗？无声的祈求，他知道吗？无家的孩子，他眷顾吗？"这里选用的"他"字，正是歌者想要与之对话的"上帝"（"他"指对"上帝"的第三人称代词），连续的排比发问和控诉，直达生命深处。华晨宇看到写好的主歌歌词后感到震惊，这就是他写歌时想说却说不出的感受，完全符合他的创作初衷。
副歌的歌词则是特约代岳东来填写，表达歌者积极的要去改变现实的态度。代岳东联想到Wim·Wenders和Juliano·Salgado的纪录片《地球之盐》。地球之盐"The Salt of the Earth"语出《新约·马太福音》第5章第二节《盐和光》，耶稣称赞自己的门徒是大地之盐世间之光，是积极的旨意所在，象征悲悯以及希望。最终代岳东一气呵成，展现了一个清洗灵魂，阅尽世间人类贪性催生的罹难悲苦后，选择回归自然的积极故事。
歌曲录音在北京的录音棚进行，制作过程中乐器上也加入了新的元素。前期录音完成后，制作人郑楠将歌曲送去美国进行后期缩混，期间经历了多版混音的修改终于完工。
