In 1968, the Scottish musician Donovan released a hit single called The Hurdy Gurdy Man. The name of the song was inspired by his friend Mac Macleod’s band Hurdy Gurdy. Neither the song nor the band had anybody who played a hurdy gurdy. However, the repeated reference to hurdy gurdy in the song did help revive an almost forgotten musical instrument and it was used by a lot of contemporary musicians in the days to follow.

The hurdy gurdy is quite unique in its structure. Since it is considered to be a folk instrument, it does not have a standard structure and hence a lot of variants are available. However, the three key parts of the instrument are the strings, the wheel and the keys which are constant across all designs. The rosined wheel is rotated by a crank that moves against the strings similar to a violin bow. There are two types of strings in this instrument – the melody strings and the drone strings. The drone strings give a constant pitch to accompany the melody that is produced by the strings passing through the key-box. Because of the constant pitch created by the drone strings, many people often confuse it with a bagpipe. The keys are connected to the melody strings through tangents that create the notes of the melody. The unique structure of this instrument makes it a rare keyboard instrument on which one can bend notes.

The Hurdy Gurdy is nowadays considered to be a Celtic instrument. However, its origins maybe traced back to the middle-east. The earlier version of this instrument was called the Organistrum and it was played by two people with one turning the wheel and the other pulling the keys. Later the instrument was modified so that a single person could play the instrument by turning the wheel with his right hand and playing the keys with his right. The Hurdy Gurdy was quite popular in Europe during the medieval and Renaissance period. However, the instrument lost its noble patronage as it provided only a limited range of notes and new age music demanded polyphonic instruments. During the 18th century, however, French Rococo tastes for rustic diversions brought the hurdy gurdy back to the attention of the upper classes, where it acquired tremendous popularity among the nobility, with famous composers writing works for the hurdy gurdy. By the twentieth century, the instrument had again almost become extinct.

As mentioned before, the instrument came back into public consciousness due to Donovan’s song The Hurdy Gurdy Man. In contemporary times, a lot of musicians have used the Hurdy Gurdy, however, only rarely. Ritchie Blackmore, former guitarist of the band Deep Purple sometimes plays Hurdy Gurdy while playing for his band Blackmore’s Night. Metallica used a hurdy gurdy in their song Low Man’s Lyric from the album ReLoad which was played by David Miles. Sting played a hurdy gurdy accompanying Alison Krauss in the song You Will Be My Ain True Love from the Cold Mountain soundtrack.

Although this instrument has been used off and on in contemporary music, there are few well known dedicated players of hurdy gurdy. The most well known amongst them is probably Nigel Eaton who has released 10 albums as a hurdy gurdy player and also accompanied well known artists such as Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. To revive interest in the instrument, a group of enthusiasts has started the annual Hurdy Gurdy festival which takes place in UK during the months of April every year since 2007. We can only hope that their efforts would prevent it from getting extinct once again.

Melissa The Loud talks about Hurdy Gurdy and music.

A beautiful solo on the Hurdy Gurdy

Ritchie Blackmore Playing the hurdy gurdy

Donovan – The Hurdy Gurdy Man

The question as to which the first ever rock ‘n’ roll song was, has long been and still is a subject of much debate, but when it comes to which was the song that took rock ‘n’ roll into the mainstream, there is only one answer and that is our song of the day.
Written in 1952 by Max C. Freedman and Jimmy Myers, Rock Around the Clock was initially recorded by Philadelphia-based Sonny Dae and His Knights in 1953. It was then in 1954 that the formerly Western swing band Bill Haley and His Comets recorded a totally different (and now famous) version of the song for Decca Records, and released it as a B-side to their album Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town). The song did make it to the American Billboard charts the same year, but its time hadn’t just yet arrived. That was to happen in the following year, when the film Blackboard Jungle featured the song, catapulting it to No.1 in the US and UK when it got re-released in June 1955 to coincide with the movie release.
A song lasting just about two minutes, Rock Around the Clock had Bill Haley singing about the joys of rocking all round the night. The phrase “rock and roll” had long been used in blues songs to refer to sexual activity all night, but Bill Haley’s sprightly delivery recast the song as an ode to dancing all night, aiding its crossover success. For the band, this meant an end to their swing music days, and they then went on to release many more rock ‘n’ roll albums, none however matching the success of this song of theirs. Explaining the new form of music, Bill Haley said: “If I could take, say, a Dixieland tune and drop the first and third beats, and accentuate the second and fourth, and add a beat the listeners could clap to as well as dance, this could be what they were after.” And so it turned out to be, rock ‘n’ roll dominating the world for years to come with the advent of legends such as Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly.
Below are videos of the initial Rock Around The Clock version by Sonny Dae and His Knights,  one of the original Bill Haley renditions, and a cover version by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. The song sounds just brilliant on the uke!!

Folklore and ancient ballads have very often found their way into modern music. Today we bring you one such ancient European ballad namely The Maid Freed from the Gallows. Many of you might have heard the Zeppelin song Gallows Pole or Bob Dylan’s Seven Curses which were inspired by this ballad. The song is about a condemned person trying to earn his freedom from his executioner by bribing him. The protagonist hopes that his dear ones will bring him gold and silver to pay off the hangman. However, only his true love finally helps him free himself. Although this version of the tale is most common in the Europe, in most of the modern versions, the protagonist is male and nobody is able to save him from the noose.

The origin of this ballad is unkown. However, the song most likely originated in a language other than English.Some fifty versions have been reported in Finland, where it is well known as Lunastettava neito. It is titled Den BortsÃ¥lda in Sweden, and Die Losgekaufte in German. The theme of delaying one’s execution while awaiting rescue by relatives appears with a similar structure in the classic fairy tale “Bluebeard” by Charles Perrault in 1697. Here we look at the three versions of the song that are available in the recorded form.

Gallis Pole – Leadbelly

The oldest recorded version of the song, called Gallis Pole, is by blues/folk singer Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter recorded in the 1930s. The song is a typical blues song with a rusty voice of Leadbelly accompanied by fast strumming of blues chords on the guitar.

The lyrics like any blues song are repetitive and in some parts are spoken instead of sung. The story is about the prisoner asking his loved ones to rescue him by getting gold, silver, etc. However, it mentions nothing about what happens to the prisoner at the end.

Seven Curses – Bob Dylan

Seven curses, recorded by Bob Dylan in 1963 for his Freewheelin’ album but released later in Bootleg Series (Vol. II) is also based on a similar idea although the lyrics of the song are quite different from any of the other versions. The song tells the story of a young girl trying to save her father from the noose and in the process has to sleep with the Judge. The Judge however never retracts his orders and the old man has to die despite his daughters sacrifice. The daughter then lays seven curses upon the judge. The lyrics of the song are extremely powerful and heart wrenching and Bob Dylan’s coarse voice only adds to the melancholy they create. Like many of Dylan’s songs, this song has also been covered by other artists; most notably it served as inspiration for Judy Collins’ song Anathea.

Gallows Pole – Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin recorded the song Gallows Pole for their album Led Zeppelin III in 1970. The album marks a shift of Zeppelin’s music towards experimenting with acoustic instruments. The song is composed on guitar chords and later a mandolin is used which brings a folksy tone to the music. Later, Zeppelin became a regular feature in Zeppelin songs (Going to California, Battle of Evermore to name a few). The song, just like Stairway, gets progressively faster with more instruments coming in as the song progresses.

A number of other variants of the song are available across different genres and languages. Here, we have videos of the versions of the song mentioned above and a broadway version of the song called “Slack Your Rope”. Enjoy!

The name Johann Pachelbel might not necessarily ring a bell with everyone among us, but I doubt there is a music lover who wouldn’t have heard this most famous creation of his, either as is or in some other derivative form. The Canon, formally Canon and Gigue in D Major for three Violins and Basso Continuo, was written circa 1680 by Pachelbel. Although it was accompanied by a gigue, it was the canon which went on to hog the limelight. The reason for this would obviously be the beauty of the composition, the heart-warming sensation that it imparts. For that matter the gigue too is a well-arranged piece, but it lacks the endearing feel that canon possesses. Incidentally this is the only canon that the German composer wrote in his lifetime.
The Canon rose in popularity in the 1970s supposedly with a recording by French conductor Jean-François Paillard‘s chamber orchestra in 1970. At almost the same time The Beatles came out with their final studio album Let It Be which had its title song taking mild inspirations from the piece. In 1980 Robert Redford used the Canon as the main theme for his Oscar-winning Ordinary People. The song has subsequently found its way into popular culture in a number of ways. One of the most famous and most complete adaptation would be Vitamin C‘s Graduation Song which used the Canon as its base for the entire composition. Throughout the song you can hear the piece playing in the background. And the choice couldn’t have been more appropriate, the song wonderfully evoking that sense of nostalgia. A number of other bands have at least partly drawn inspiration from Pachelbel’s Canon in their compositions, including Bob Marley, Aerosmith, U2, Green Day, Avril Lavigne and so on. As you can see the composition has transcended genres in inspiring songs, which just shows the popularity of the song. In 2005 a rock version of the piece, titled Canon Rock became a sensation when Taiwanese musician Jerry Chang‘s neo-classical metal arrangement got covered by South Korean guitarist Lim Jeong-Hyun known more famously by his online alias funtwo. The video got uploaded on youtube and became an instant hit, driving the repute of the Canon a notch higher, more importantly amongst the rock-minded youth.
Perhaps the best and most entertaining way to see a list of songs that have drawn inspiration from the Canon is American stand up comedian Rob Paravonian‘s Pachelbel Rant, in which he brings out the ubiquitousness of the song or at least parts of its chord progression in the music world, in a rather hilarious manner. We have provided below some of the videos mentioned above including this famous RobP video. Until next time!

Barso Yaaron gets into hard on rock right from the word go, Vishal Dadlani’s spunky vocals and Ehsaan Noorani’s guitar bound to get you head banging the moment you hear it. This goes on for some two minutes until Roop Kumar Rathod makes a classicalised entry, and then the song’s rock feel is sort of diluted, taking on a more Indianised form. There is no dip in the energy level however, Roop Kumar matching up with Vishal Dadlani on that front. The song does a revisit to the rock mode in the last one minute which ironically is an ode to Hanuman! I am waiting to see how this is picturised, so as to get the exact purport of the lyrics. Roop Kumar has been superb on the vocals, the crescendo towards the end particularly amazing.  Next up is a humorous song Man Ko Ati Bhavey. Though the arrangement is for most part the regular SEL fare, they do some clever tweakings in places to convey the humour effectively. That combined with Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics and Shankar Mahadevan’s flippant rendition are enough to make this song may be not as humorous as some of the tracks in QGM but engagingly funny nevertheless. DJ Amyth’s remix is also done well, thankfully managing without processing the vocals.

Tapkey Masti is again reminiscent of the trio’s general arrangement when it comes to Punjabi songs, the dark overtones and Punjabi singer Feroz Khan’s seasoned singing mitigate the repetitive feel to an extent. However even that doesn’t help in sustaining interest for a long time. Ditto with DJ Amyth’s remix. But SEL more than make up for that song with a totally refreshing title song, Khanabadosh. A google search told me that Khanabadosh translates to nomad, and figuratively speaking a travel is the general idea conveyed by Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics as well, the orchestration perfectly matching up. My favourite from the album, and perhaps my favourite SEL tune from 2009. Wonder who this new singer Mohan is. The breezy effect of the song however is totally lost in the remix version by DJ Amyth.  In between all the heavily orchestrated tracks comes this relatively milder track called Khwab Jo which has Shankar Mahadevan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan competing with each other in terms of bringing out the classical complexities. Though the rendition is classical the instrumentation is the rock way.

Roop Kumar Rathod makes his second appearance alongside Milind (from the music director-duo?) to deliver Yaari Bina which is a track eulogizing friendship. If you take out the electronic elements, this doleful tune could very well pass off for a song from the 90s. The middle-east flavoured Jashn Hai Jeet Ka is another delectable track. I liked the voice of the singer Abhijit Ghoshal (wonder if it is the K for Kishore contestant) who has done a good job of the song. But the highlight of the song is undoubtedly the electronic-rock-arabic arrangement by the MDs. The soundtrack ends with the trancy Shola Shola which has Zubeen Garg behind the mike. Long since I heard a song from him I suppose. In any case, a good track to be making a return. I especially liked the way SEL have laced mild classical elements (Raga Abheri/Dhanasri I suppose) in the interludes. But I wonder why they had to synthesize the flute sound when it might have sounded wonderful with an actual flute.

When a soundtrack has as many as 11 songs, it is hard to have everything up to the mark. But SEL have almost managed that feat in London Dreams, in the process producing arguably their best soundtrack of the year to date. And whats even more gratifying is the fact that this one has minimal resemblances to their past works barring a couple of songs. Sincerely hope that Vipul Shah has got his stuff right in the visualisation of the songs. First Blue, then Tum Mile, Passage and now this. I am overwhelmed by the sheer number of good albums this month!!

We have been receiving feedback from readers asking to include ratings of the albums we review. And honouring that demand, our rating of London Dreams is 8/10.

Recommended tracks – Khanabadosh, Jashn Hai Jeet Ka, Shola Shola, Khwab Jo.

We thank our dear friend Anirudh Patil ([email protected]) for contributing this one. Anirudh is a second year MBA student at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
Stairway to Heaven has to be one of the most popular and controversial songs in rock history. It has been voted at #3 on the 100 Greatest Rock Songs of the Century by VH1 and for a long time was the most requested song on FM radio. The song released on their album Led Zeppelin IV and is as mystical as the album itself (The album did not have a name but only the four symbols of the band members on its cover). Although arguably the most popular song ever, the song never charted on any billboards as it was not released as a single until 2007. The cover versions of the song have been charted thrice on the UK singles charts with the Far Corporation’s cover reaching #8 on the charts.
The lyrics of the song were composed by Robert Plant who was quoted saying that the lyrics came to him almost impromptu. The lyrics again are probably the most analysed lyrics of any song and everybody has a different interpretation to it. The most popular view is that the song is about a rich woman trying to buy everything she wants without any thought or consideration. Other views include interpretations about Bible, drugs, materialism and Satan (surprise!) and even suggested references to Tolkien. In my personal opinion, I like the view that the song was actually written in a short time to fit the melody that Page was simultaneously composing. Hence, the song is actually pointless but the lyrics are still beautiful.
The music is structurally divided into four parts that progressively become faster and harder. The song begins with a quiet introduction played on a six-string acoustic guitar. There is no bass guitar used in the song, instead, John Paul Jones used keyboards and flutes to give the song a folksy sound. It is believed that the notes of the first part were picked up from the song Taurus by the band Spirit with whom Zeppelin toured in 1968. The second part begins at the 2:16 when electric guitar is used although the chords remain similar to the first section. The third part beginning at 4:18 turns the folksy sounding song into a classic rock song as Bonham’s drums enter. At 5:31 the song gets a lot harder and contains Jimmy Page’s solo, considered to be one of the greatest guitar solos of the century. The final stanza of the song begins at 6:27 characterized by heavy drumming by Bonham.
One of the biggest controversies surrounding the song is the back-masking or recording satanic messages in the fifth stanza of the song. Although Robert Plant has denied any such claims, such allegations only add to the mystique surrounding the song. To me the lyrics don’t mean anything, forward or backwards.
Over the years, the song has been covered by a lot of bands most notable U2, Frank Zappa, Dave Matthews Band and Dolly Parton. The Foo Fighters did a mock cover of this song, and their version was to say that nobody should try to cover the song because they would screw it up. In the movie Wayne’s World, when Mike Myers tries to test a guitar by playing there is a sign in the shop that says “No Stairway to Heaven”. In an episode of South Park, when Towelie tries to play Stairway to Heaven he totally screws it up. And so we recommend you listen only to the original song. However do check out a Flamenco cover done by Rodrigo y Gabriela. Enjoy!

Passage is Shekhar Kapur’s first short film produced by Swarowski Entertainment, having four out of its five tracks composed by A R Rahman. With minimal dialogues, music holds paramount importance in this 20 odd minute film. Just the kind of film a music fan, more importantly a Rahman fan, would look for. The review.

In the first track, Opening, Rahman dishes out an incredibly haunting tune employing just a piano and a sarangi for most parts. I think the raga is Charukesi but I am not quite sure about that. The melancholy is very well captured in a quiet way, something Rahman has previously done in movies like Water to good effect. Next piece, a tango by the name Ostinato, is the only track not done by Rahman. This instead has been composed by young Spanish pianist/composer Carla Pugliese. The piece, while wonderfully employing the accordion and the fiddle, also departs from the traditional with slight electronic elements in the background. Rahman returns with Atmosphere, whose initial half is again a sequence from Opening. Then it sees a shift to what is signified by the name, a very grand orchestral arrangement. Such ambient compositions from Rahman have always been quite a privilege to listen to, and he carries off this too in style. Fourth track is a French Aria, the only piece involving vocals. For the first few seconds it seems to be a pretty ordinary score, and then the orchestra kicks in. And then it turns into another majestic piece, more imposing than the previous one partly due to the more grandiose usage of instruments. The singer is apparently a student of Rahman’s KMMC named Kavita Baliga and she has done a brilliant job in this song. The soundtrack ends with a Waltz, again characterized by its orchestral extravagance.
There are soundtracks like Blue, and then there are soundtracks such as Passage. It is in the latter category that the class of Rahman truly comes out. Of course there are also many cases where Rahman blends class into the commercial but Passage doesn’t fall there. This is obviously not going to go well with the masses, and in all probability the only people hearing this wonderful album would be the most hardcore of Rahman fans and people at various film festivals where this film gets played, which is rather unfortunate. For me, nevertheless, this is Rahman’s best album post his Oscar win, at least for the time-being. You can listen to the album here.

PS: For best results, listen to the soundtrack as part of the film itself. Shekhar Kapur has done an excellent work of the film, doing absolute justice to Rahman’s compositions. You can watch the film here.

The album starts off with the title song which has been made in three different versions. Rendering the first version, a sprightly pop-styled one, must indeed have been a trip back to his Bombay Vikings days for Neeraj Sridhar. The Tum Mile refrain reminded me slightly of the Feelin’ Blue refrain in Jaane Kya from Pyaar Ke Side Effects. The best variant is the slightly toned down Love Reprise, the highlights being the Kenny G-ish sax motif and Javed Ali’s singing. The general feel and the soaring vocals however were reminiscent of Ye Dooriyan from Love Aaj Kal. I was surprised seeing a Rock Version for this romantic song. And as expected there wasn’t much rock to this track except for a bit of guitar distortion and slightly pepped up drum beats. Shafqat Amanat Ali doesn’t sound quite in his elements delivering this one either. I have always loved him doing classical-oriented songs. KK could have handled this one better methinks, if at all it needed to be done. In fact Pritam could have done away with this song, already having done two very good variants. Nevertheless the song is pleasant enough for you to be listening to once a while.

Moving on, next up is Dil Ibadat which is regular Pritam fare, the soulful melancholy conveyed brilliantly in the arrangement and rendition. The singer is Pritam’s usual favourite for such tracks, KK and he is spot on in executing his part. There is a rock version of this song too, and in this case it actually sounds better, as compared to the previous rock version. Javed Ali returns next with arguably the best song of the album, Tu Hi Haqeeqat. Javed has already proven his way with Sufi numbers, with songs like Arziyaan from Delhi 6, which is probably why Pritam chose him for this sufi track. And the result is a totally addictive track, one which I would rate among Pritam’s best works. Following next is Mohit chauhan’s Is Jahaan Mein which takes you back to pop mode. Though this one is again decently made, bread and butter stuff for Mohit on the singing front too, the song simply pales in comparison to Tu Hi Haqeeqat. As if realising that, Pritam whips out another soul-stirring melody next, O Meri Jaan, sung by KK. The O Meri Jaan refrain with the accompanying piano loop is incredible. The soundtrack ends with an instrumental piece called The Soul of Tum Mile. The sinister arrangement is pretty impactful and carries out its job of conveying the theme of the movie well enough. However this piece wouldn’t feature in my list of picks from the album, simply due to the presence of other wonderful tracks.

Another movie from the Bhatts, another brilliant soundtrack. Absolutely no surprises there!!

We bring you another legendary folk song, the English ballad called Scarborough Fair. Quite unsurprisingly, the origins of this folk ballad are also unknown. What is known however is that the songs was spread around by bards of Medieval England who took them from town to town and with each passing hand the lyrics and arrangement kept changing, which explains the numerous versions of the song today. The name Scarborough Fair, refers to a 45-day trading fair which used to happen in the seaside town of England called Scarborough. The song speaks of a man assigning his lover a set of impossible tasks, completing which would apparently qualify her to be a true love of his.
In 1963 Bob Dylan borrowed part of the famed English folk singer-guitarist Martin Carthy‘s arrangement of Scarborough Fair for his song Girl from the North Country which made appearance in his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and subsequently in other Dylan albums too. But this version is typical Dylan and doesn’t sound a lot like how many of know the song. The most famous and the most memorable version of Scarborough Fair to date remains the one by the American duo Simon and Garfunkel for their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. The pair again adapted their version from Carthy’s arrangement, but didn’t credit Carthy in the album which led to a long-standing standoff between Carthy and the duo. In my opinion the beauty of the song lay in the contrapuntal arrangement of the vocals. A lot of artists have hence covered the song, including Al Di Meola, Justin Hayward, Sarah Brightman etc, but nothing has quite matched up to the charm of the Simon and Garfunkel version.
Another reason for including this song in our series was this adaptation of the song that I had once found in a Malayalam song of the 1980s. The song in contention is Deva Dhundhubhi from the 1986 movie called Ennennum Kannettante, composed by this once exceptional composer Jerry Amaldev who has given a lot of memorable songs to Malayalam filmdom. What makes this adaptation noteworthy is the way it has been made to fit into a totally Carnatic-oriented song. To clear any air of plagiarism, the tune of the song is totally original and it is just in the second interlude (to be precise 2:32 – 2:56) that Jerry Amaldev includes this Veena adaptation of the first stanza of Scarborough Fair. Below are the links to a few versions of Scarborough Fair, plus the Malayalam song. Shall be back with another song soon!

After a long break we return with the next song of this series. And this time it is a musical piece that you will invariably encounter if you are an aspiring classical guitarist. The piece is called Asturias (subtitled Leyenda) and was composed by the prodigious Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz some time in the early 1890s. The piece is today the fifth movement of Albeniz’s Suite española, op. 47, though when composed it was the prelude piece of his then work titled Chants d’ Espagne, op. 232. It was German publisher Hofmeister who gave it the name Asturias. If you were to listen to the guitar version of the song (which incidentally you can by scrolling down) you would find it hard to believe that Asturias was actually written for piano. For that matter many of Albeniz’s compositions were transcribed from piano to guitar, most notable composer of such works being Francisco Tarrega, whose guitar transcriptions once Albeniz himself declared to be preferrable to him over his own piano originals. But the first successful guitar arrangement of Asturias was not done by Tarrega, instead by Andres Segovia, whose edition was subsequently taken as the primary source by most guitarists for their performances.

Asturias has made numerous appearances in popular culture. The most notable one is of course Spanish Caravan by The Doors which features the main theme of the piece. The main theme has also been adapted by Iron Maiden in a quintessential Maiden-esque way in the song To Tame a Land (the part after 4:09). In fact, the charm of Asturias lies in that Spanish main theme portion which will have you hooked to the song once you start listening to it. And the effect is best captured on the guitar, as you would perceive in the videos below. Enjoy!

Asturias played by John Williams

Asturias performed by Ana Vidovic

Piano version by Pablo Galdo

Spanish Caravans by The Doors

To Tame a Land by Iron Maiden

Isabelle Morretti doing Asturias on the harp

The band Barrage doing a violin cover of Asturias