The Beatles

My earliest memory of The Beatles is listening to Ob-La-di-Ob-La-da when my father played it at home. It is one of those fuzzy memories which I cannot vividly recall as I may have been a toddler. But the melody stayed with me. Later in life, when lyrics start to take importance you realise the simplicity of songs by the band. This particular song, in under three minutes summarises the entire life of a couple from courtship to a seemingly happy married life. The other song of the band from my childhood years was Back in the USSR. Something about the rhythm and beat attracted me to it. 

Despite growing up in a house that had a ton of Beatles music lying around, I got myself busy with Pop & Bollywood music of the 80s and 90s. Michael Jackson was a big influence of any kid growing up in urban India with a slight bent for International music. MJ was cool even if I didn't understand a word of what he sang. In 1995, MJ's album HIStory released. A double album that was an absolute must have. In the days of no internet, I'd to either be nice to someone in the family and con them into buying it for me or find a friend who bought it and make a copy. I was lucky to have a friend and so I  immediately made a copy for myself. Apart from the popular hits, one song that really stood out for me was 'Come Together'. I played this for my father and asked him if he still thought there was no greater artist than MJ for this century. He smiled (a classic 'hold my beer' moment), walked up to his music cabinet, pulled out the LP of Abbey Road and played the original. I was stumped! 

A few years down the road, trying to get through Engineering college, I started to sift through Dad's music collection as my interest in music had expanded to Rock and a little bit of Jazz. Listening to songs by The Beatles made me realise why they may have been as popular and in a way timeless. The simplicity of the lyrics, the melody and the willingness to experiment with sounds from every genre meant that you couldn't ignore them in any way. The album 'The Beatles 1' which released in 2000 - a collection of all their Number 1 songs got me hooked. 

My favourite songs include the following

1. Let it Be
2. Come together
3. Can't buy me Love
4. Yesterday
5. The long & winding road
6. Hey Jude
7. Hello Goodbye

 

Dave Mwaniki photographed in April 2010

A personal memory of mine from London in a way also is thanks to The Beatles. In April 2010, while walking around Covent Garden in London, I sat to watch a Busker perform The Long & Winding Road on a chilly spring afternoon. The performance moved me and I would've liked to speak with him but since he continued to sing, I dropped off some change and made my way back to meet with the rest of the family. Cut to June 2018 and we're again wandering around Covent Garden and this time inside the building I see the same man performing something. This time I was determined to talk to him and tell him that even though I saw him 8 years ago, I vividly remember him singing that song. During his break we spoke for a bit and he was mighty touched that I remembered him and even played The Long & Winding Road again on request!

Dave Mwaniki photographed in June 2018

The artist's name is Dave Mwaniki and if you ever are in Covent Garden and have the good fortune to listen to him, you will not be disappointed. Given below are pictures I took of him back in 2010 and again in 2018. This time, he was kind enough to give me a CD of his called 'Songs from the Garden' which include lovely cover songs with just an acoustic guitar.

To think that if it weren't for that song, I may not have stayed to listen to him. The song moved me and I was lucky to see him again.





Another song which is a sort of Karaoke special is Hey Jude and this wonderful article published in The Guardian in 2018 captures the essence of why the song is a crowd favourite and how many adaptations there are of it. If you're interested, read the article here.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/21/how-hey-jude-became-our-favourite-beatles-song

Truth be told, I may still have heard only around 30% of the total music they put out before disbanding. I continue to find new songs and be amazed. The beauty of their songs to me is that most of them are under 3 minutes and easy to listen to.

If you're a fan too and have a personal memory associated with the band, I'd love to hear from you. If you haven't heard anything from the Beatles, do give them a try. You won't be disappointed.

Cheers,
Avi

My collection of The Beatles can be accessed with this link: The Beatles

The Maestro of Madras

I was a little under 10 years old when the film Roja released and the Indian film industry was introduced to the musical genius of A. R. Rahman. At that age, the only song that caught my attention of course was Rukumani which as it turns out is full of innuendos and probably not suitable for kids that age at all. Little did we know!

What is it about Rahman that, in my mind stood him out of the ordinary? My earliest memory of why I liked his music was the choice of instruments, the musical arrangement and the spatial sound - the feeling of sound moving from one area to another. Fine examples of this are the songs 'Kehna hi Kya' from the film Bombay, Behne De from Raavan and 'Ghanan Ghanan' from Lagaan. If you have a reasonably good music system (Stereo or headphones), the depth of Rahman's musical arrangements will just shine through. Of course my all time favourite is the title track of Dil Se which I used to carry with me to every shop before buying our stereo system and listen to the song to check for audio quality. For a funnier version of that story (of me buying a stereo), please get in touch with Priya. 

The other thing I've always enjoyed about some of his biggest hits is that he used singers from the Indipop scene in the 90s who weren't actually great singers but seem to be made for that particular song. Think Baba Sehgal & Shweta Shetty for Rukumani in Roja, Remo Fernandes for Humma in Bombay, Sukhwinder Singh for Chaiyya Chaiyya and Mohit Chauhan for Masakali in Delhi 6 (which actually started with Khoon Chala from Rang De Basanti and eventually became a long association). 

When Rahman won the Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, I thought it as unjust to all the stellar music he had composed before that. In my opinion, if I were to pick the top 5 Hindi soundtracks composed by Rahman, they would have to be the following and in my order of preference. 

1. Dil Se (6 songs and not one that I think is just average)

2. Lagaan

3. Rockstar

4. Yuva

5. Rangeela

The above selection is based on the fact that either all or majority of the songs from the albums are extremely good (again, my view). I admit that my opinion is based only on the Hindi songs of Rahman (or hindi adaptations of his originals) so maybe his greatness when viewed from the Tamil lens is much more than what I have experienced. If anyone has any tamil songs of Rahman that were not adapted by Bollywood and are an absolute listen, please recommend them to me. Will be happy to expand my Rahman experience.  

In my collection, I have 13 full albums of soundtracks composed by A. R. Rahman one of which is more an experimental album called Connections. This does not mean that I do not like the others. Just that I got / bought copies of the MP3 files of individual songs that I enjoyed. 

My entire collection of A. R. Rahman's work is available here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiYwJm3Pb8i9gpRCa9n6yLGyxWL0TA?e=zRBdt4 

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Avi

Complete music collection available at https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiYwJm3Pb8i9gpERwAPLpYGKDZor2w?e=vanVoj 

4th Update / My music collection

Hi there,

This is a blog created by some of us friends from Mumbai as a platform to share the music we own and introduce each other to new / old music.

Today's uploads include

1. Coleman Hawkins encounters Ben Webster

This is a studio album recorded in 1957 but released sometime in the end of 1959. Both are considered legendary players of the Tenor Saxophone and this album is a great listen for a relaxed evening. Listening to this album reminds me of a classic old dimly lit Jazz bar with a glass of Single Malt / Bourbon in hand and cigar smoke hanging in the air. 

Apple Music has a whole collection of both artists as do Prime Music and Spotify I am sure. Another fine album of Ben Webster is called Ben Webster's Finest Hour. As Priya would say, some of the songs on this album will remind you of Tom & Jerry. :-) This is available on Apple Music (Here) as well as Prime Music (Here). Unfortunately, I don't own a copy of this album. 

2. Royal Darbari

I'm not a trained musician and certainly have no understanding of Ragas but listen to what appeals to my ear. This album contains four songs in Rag Darbari sung by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Amir Khan & Jagjit Singh. The one by Jagjit Singh is my favourite of the lot. 

3. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

The King of Qawwali and one of my favourite singers / musicians, Nusrat's body of work is well known. Having heard remixes and bollywood remakes of some of his classic songs, I picked up an audio tape of the album 'Live in India' when it released in 1997. I'm not sure if this is one concert or a collection of his various concerts across India from the previous years but this is certainly an album to keep. When I bought this, Dad had recently purchased a new stereo system and one of the joys was to play this album loudly and when I closed my eyes, it almost felt as though the concert was happening in front of me. I'm not sure if this elicits the same sentiment when you listen to it but I'm curious to know what you think of it. 

There are three other songs in this folder.

a) Mere Rashke Qamar - I admit I first heard a version of this song when it was used in the film Badshaho and sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan a few years ago. However, when I searched for it online, I found this original single from 1988 when NFAK performed it for the first time and Rahat was also part of this performance. The original ghazal/qawwali was written by Urdu poet Fana Buland Shehri but performed as a song by NFAK. While it is close to 17 min long, the performance is mesmerising. 

b) Piya Re Piya Re - This was very popular as an 'Indi-Pop' song in the early 2000s. I have no idea about the album in which it was a part of. 

c) Afreen Afreen (Remix) - The last song of an album by Javed Akhtar and NFAK known as Sangam. It released in 1997 (not sure if after NFAK died) and this version was made most popular by its music video featuring the model Lisa Ray. I doubt anyone in India who was around in the 90s doesn't know about this song. 

That's it from me for today folks. Enjoy the music and until the next update.

Cheers,

Avi

Entire Library available at https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiYwJm3Pb8i9gpERwAPLpYGKDZor2w?e=vanVoj