It is always a great challenge for a musician to make his debut with a classic song, which has in the past been covered by many great artists, and turn out a commendable job of it. And if that wasn’t challenging enough, consider a case where the musician himself does the instruments, modified lyrics and in the end launches the song on his own label. This “all-rounder” happens to be Dilpreet Bhatia, a Delhi-based folk-rock singer/songwriter, who recently came out with his debut single, a tribute to the great Nusrat Fateh Ali. Dilpreet is our spotlight artist for the week.

Let us start with a brief about you, your

musical background and so on.

I am based in Delhi, but spent most of my childhood in a small town of Fatehabad in Haryana, Started learning music from my teachers at school there. Performed in school and college fests but never thought that I would take music so seriously. Went to Bangalore for a Software Job and suddenly I started feeling that something is missing out here…I cant live without performing, without music. I came to Delhi and started learning Hindustani Classical from my Guruji Sumitra Guha and kept on trying and trying to do what I love to do, perform where ever I could and write whatever I felt….

Trying to cover a classic, especially by someone like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, is always a

high risk venture, with high chances of the song not going down well with purists, fans et

al. Nevertheless you chose to do just that (and did a beautiful job of it, we should add!).

So why Nusratji? And why this particular song?

I must say that I am honored, and thanks a lot for your kind words. I am a great fan of Nusrat Ji…his compositions are legendary. And the simple reason I chose this song was that ‘I loved it’ and I could relate to this song. I was not thinking of any risk when i was improvising it.  I hope you would have noticed that the antra of this song is not what Nusrat Ji have sung. What he has done, is legendary. And lot of artists like Kailash Kher, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and NFAK have sung this song before.  but extending it, writing new antras and giving them a whole tune…ya it may be scary but this is how I feel one with the song and I am honored that people liked this version and I hope that if he(Nusrat Ji) could listen to this song from up there, he wont scold me after hearing it…

At a time when most Punjabi songs tend towards the cacophonous orchestration, it is

refreshing to hear purely acoustic songs which bring out the real beauty of Punjabi Sufi

music. Was the arrangement entirely handled by you as well? And who is the pianist?

Ya, I did the music arrangement, recording and mixing for this song at my home studio, and all the intruments on this song, including piano, are played by me.

Today the easiest path to fame is quite evidently reality shows, and there have been many

who got their 15 minutes (and more) of fame through this. And considering you have good

talent as well, why did you not opt for that route?

I never thought its a good option for me.

This song has been launched via your own private label, Sur & Soul Records. Do you plan

to go big on the labels front, by trying to launch albums of other artists as well, or are you

going to employ Sur & Soul for your songs alone?

Sur ‘n’ Soul Records will not be limited to my songs alone, we have plan to launch other artists as well, mostly associated with hindustani classical. But it will remain an Indie Label.

Needless to say, launching a single costs a lot of money. Is music your sole bread-winner,

or are you employed otherwise?

I am also working as Lead Software Engineer for creative software giant Adobe Systems Inc.

You have come out with your first single now. When do you plan to launch a full album? And is that going to be all covers or are you working on some own comps as well?

The full album is already ready, Its in Punjabi, and songs have been written, composed and sung by me and directed by Leslie Lewis of Colonial Cousins. I have also collaborated with 6 times Grammy Winning Mixing Engineer Ken Lewis for one of songs in this Album. We are right now showcasing it to labels and hopefully it should be out very very soon.

The staple musician question – who are your influences?

Ghulam Ali, Nusrat Ji, Pt Jasraj, U2, A R Rahman and my Guruji Sumitra Guha, have had the greatest influence on me and my music.

A lot of Indian musicians are currently collaborating with international musicians with

great success. Have you explored that possibility?

Yes, I have recently completed recording a song for UK based producer Shammi Pithia, Did one song with Ken Lewis, which is featured in my upcoming album, and currently working on a multiple song project with Canadian band Nawticks.

Next pitstop would be Bollywood we are guessing. Anything on that front yet?

Nothing on that front right now, this Single and Album have been keeping me busy for now, but ya, I am surely gonna give it a shot.
We wish you all the best, and hope your debut album happens soon indeed.
Another spotlight artist coming up your way soon!

The name Amartya Rahut might not ring a bell in most minds. But I doubt there is a person who wouldn’t have heard at least one of his many works on TV, which range from the jingle for Cadbury’s Perk to Colors Channel Signature Tune to his award-winning Punjabicized version of Jingle Bells created for Nickelodeon. His religious views, as per facebook, is “John Lennon is God”. That gives a general idea of how committed this guitarist-composer is to music.

Amartya’s first shot to fame was his fusion band in early 2000s, OM, which he formed with the now-famous Amit Trivedi and three other guys. He did his Bollywood debut last year with Aagey Se Right, but it unfortunately didn’t attain success in spite of being a good album. The man is currently busy with the works of his new band Nine which debuted at the Kala Ghoda Festival on Feb 12. We decided to catch up with Amartya aka Bobo and get his story for our readers. Read on then!

Let us start with your pre-OM days. Your

musical upbringing et al.

I have been a professional freelance guitar player from my school days in Calcutta… Have played with some of the premium bands of that time… Namely Shiva, Fifth Dimension, Asteroids, Cactus, Paras Pathar….

But personally I have always wanted to compose original songs and ideally wanted to do it on a national platform and not be restricted to any regional space… So shifted base to Mumbai in 2000.

In Mumbai started off with whatever little work I would get initially in advertising… And the struggle which I guess every migrant in Mumbai faces in our industry….

How did OM come about? The five of you are seemingly people from different

backgrounds, both geographically and musically.

During my initial advertising days in Mumbai I started working with Amit Trivedi (Dev D/Aamir)… He used to be my arranger for all my advertising sessions… His friends were Sriram and Ram…and one fine day we got together and created Om… We were pretty lucky I must say to get times music to spend on our album pretty much as soon as we had started the band…

I have read you as being credited as composer for OM in many places. Just want to clarify

whether it was entirely your effort, coz in at least a couple of songs (Baadal and Tum Tana

especially) I have got an improv sort of feel.

My part in Om was being the composer and guitar player for the band… Sriram composed a few tracks on his own… Amit arranged all the songs and Baadal was a traditional piece which we jammed on…

Om was formed in 2002. I believe you came out with the album some time in 2004. And

after such a brilliant debut nothing was heard of Om again. What happened? Is there a

possibility of a reunion in future?

Unfortunately, after the album released, although we did get decent response, our personal goals seemed to be pretty individualistic…as for myself I was already composing on a regular level for premium mainstream advertising commercials, Amit the other key member of Om was working with me… Ram and Sriram had full time corporate jobs… So it fell apart… And now it seems pretty unlikely that there will be a reunion…

Coming back to your individual exploits, after your stint with Om you were lying low, at

least to the public eye, till Aagey Se Right came about in late 2009. What were you doing in

this long hiatus?

After Om, I scored the music for for 2 Marathi films for a friend of mine , director Bipin Nadkarni… The National award winning Uttarayan and Evdhasa Aabhal… I got the State award, Zee Alfa award, and the V Shantaram Puraskar for the above films…

Along with all this my advertising stint continued on a regular level… Personally I love composing for ads… As the time frame is limited, the money being good… And the job, very challenging… One needs to be on his toes everyday to score advertising music…

Along with advertising I do a lot of television work as well… The channel signature tunes of Colors and Real have been composed by me. Last year, ‘KHATRON KE KHILADI”, “CHOTE MIYAN”, “BIG BOSS” AND “NATIONAL BINGO”etc…

In 2009 I did Aagey Se Right… Again for a friend of mine from my advertising background, Indrajit Nattoji… I still wish the music had been promoted a little… There was almost zero publicity as far as the music of the film was concerned…

What other Bollywood projects have you got coming up?

Currently, working on a couple of film projects …but no point in naming them now…as I have realized one simple thing as far as feature films are concerned…till they release one never knows what the outcome is going to be…because it is a big affair and I guess there are lots of variables attached to a film…so, being a little superstitious about it (hehe)..

Congratulations on your debuting your new band Nine at the Kala Ghoda festival. Tell us

more about the band. When is Nine’s official album going to hit the shelves?

Currently I am occupied working on the band Nine with two extremely talented and dear friends, Neelesh Mishra and Shilpa Rao… Nine was completely Neelesh’s idea…I am simply composing the songs and creating the music to his thoughts….. And things are shaping up well… Hopefully this year the album should release…

To be parting on a light note, mind telling us the history behind your famous nickname

Bobo?

As far as Bobo is concerned…a very strange uncle of mine (this is the story passed on to me by my dad), had this brilliant idea of naming me Bobo when I was a baby…and its stuck till date (hahaha)…

Whoever I meet for the first time, I introduce myself as Amartya…by our third meeting he starts calling me Bobo…so that’s a comic tragic affair I have to live with I guess!!!

Well here is wishing Amartya all success with his upcoming Bollywood ventures, and Nine. As an ardent fan of OM I do sincerely hope that a reunion of OM happens in spite of Bobo’s misgivings! We shall be back with another artist soon. Below are some videos of Amartya’s past works.

Piya by OM, reproduced with the artist’s permission

Amartya’s rehash of Jingle Bells for Nickelodeon which won the Promax 2009 award for best music

A Condom awareness ad with music composed by Amartya

“A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose”, said Gertrude Stein. What she meant was how the word rose used by various poets in different context evokes similar emotions in the reader.  The song “Turn the Page” proves how it is so in music. The song was originally written by Bob Seger for his 1973 album Back ’72 and its lyrics make it pretty much clear what the song is about. Bob Seger originally intended to show the ups and downs of an artist while he is on the road. However, the song has been covered by many artists after that and many of them have given the song a different interpretation. Nevertheless, almost all versions evoke similar emotions in the heart of the listener despite the music. So while Metallica’s video shows the song to be about the life of a stripper and Waylon Jennings version covered this song after he came over his drug problem, the song always educes sorrow.

Bob Seger released the song in 1973 but it never made it to the charts. However, the song also featured on his 1976 Live Bullet album and then it started receiving significant airtime on radio stations. I have also heard this song a lot of times in pubs in India that play rock music. The song begins with a Saxophone piece played by Alto Reed followed by shimmering cymbals. The entire song is quite minimal yet expressive on the instruments for a rock song. What make this song popular even today are its powerful lyrics and their structure. The song follows a very odd rhyme scheme and the patterns repeat quite oddly in its chorus paragraph. In totality however, the lyrics and the music make you empathise with the trials of an artist.

In their 1988 cover album Garage Inc., Metallica released a cover of this song which is probably more popular than the original song. As against Seger’s version, Metallica’s rendition is very strong on the instruments. In this version, the saxophone of Alto Reed is replaced by a slide guitar played by Kirk Hammett. The amplitude of the song never reduces except for the verse “Later in the evening..” which creates a brilliant effect because “the echoes of the amplifier are ringing in your head”. This is then followed by a guitar solo by Hammett. The video of the song is about the life of the stripper (played by Ginger Lynn Allen) who also works as a prostitute at the same time raising a child. The video has been brilliantly directed by Jonas Akerlund.

Both versions of the song are great in their own ways. A number of other artists such as Kid Rock and Staind have also covered the song. Notably Waylon Jennings has covered the song in an album by the same name when he was recovered from his drug problem.

With the year getting to an end, we hope that the New Year will bring a new and exciting page in your life. Wishing you a very happy and musical new year we leave you with a few videos of the song. Enjoy!

The word Rai in Arabic has many literal translations like “opinion”, “my way”, “tell it like it is” etc. Rai is also the name of a popular genre of world music which originated in Algeria in the 1920s, having its roots in Arabic love poetry and Bedouin folk music, and drawing influences from Spanish, French, African and Arabic musical forms. As its Arabic meanings implied, Rai music was indeed a way of Arab youngsters of the time to express their views on alienation, poverty, drug abuse and sexual desires, many things considered taboo by Islamic beliefs. Rai music however took a long time to spread to the rest of the world, and the artist who was instrumental in taking Rai music outside the Arab precincts was Khaled. Khaled made it big on the international scene with his 1992 self titled album which contained his legendary song Didi. And in 1996 Khaled followed up his success with an even bigger hit, which was the love song Aicha.

The song was written originally in French by singer-songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman. The original French single however was never released in an album, though Khaled’s 1996 album Sahra featured a bilingual version of the song, sung both in French and Arabic. The Arabic lyrics were penned by Khaled himself. Like other Rai singers, Khaled was also known for his socially progressive themes in his songs and videos, something that didn’t earn him a lot of buddies on the conventional Islam side. In fact threat to his life forced Khaled to move to Paris in late 80s. Even in case of Aicha, the lyrics imply equal rights for woman and man, which represent true love, the words in Aicha’s reply to the man who woos her like “A cage is a cage, even if it’s made of gold” suggestive of the fact.

Aicha bears about it all the charm and romance of a pop ballad, hooking you onto it from the word go. The refrain played on guitar, and the ambient effect created by the synth make a mesmerizing combo. Add to that Khaled’s inimitable rendition and some eastern percussion and the song becomes absolutely irresistible. If I have heard anyone do an equally commendable job on covering the song, it would be the Danish hip hop band Outlandish. The band recorded an English version of the song for their album Bread & Barrels of Water. Outlandish did a complete revamp of the instrumentation keeping just the tune intact, and did a fantastic job of it, maintaining the haunting effect, though in an Outlandish way. The cover versions of Aicha have come from varied genres which widened the ambit of music lovers who were smitted by Aicha. Apart from Outlandish, other notable covers include a salsa variant by Senegalese band Africando, and a very entertaining a cappella version by Pennsylvania-based Hindi a cappella group called Penn Masala. The Penn Masala version though is more a cover of Outlandish’s Aicha than of the original, with some Hindi lyrics thrown in nevertheless.

Today is a time when World Music has grown to become a part of mainstream music itself, rather than being restricted to certain elite sections of the musical audience. The trend has also had its impact on Rai music, increasing its acceptance factor on the international front, some artists even using rai to send positive messages post 9/11. Khaled still continues to bring out albums, the latest one being Liberte. But none have so far managed to enrapture the audience worldwide on a scale like Aicha or Didi did. Being a fan of Rai music and specifically of Khaled, I hope that the “King of Rai” spins out another such magical composition, soon enough.




Live version by Khaled, Rachid Taha and Faudel (Courtesy: Adriana)

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…..

This Dickensian quote did go well with the times of the French Revolution. Another period that would fit the description perfectly would be the 60s, also called the swinging sixties. The sixties were turbulent times. It was the times when people started questioning the conservative approach in politics and the social repression measures used by the authorities. The sixties were the time of the counterculture movement which emphasized on the freedom of expression and diversion from rigid social rules. It was also the time when there were lots of political movements like Anti War movement, Civil Rights movement and much more evolved. Musicians and music also prospered in the sixties with 4 young musicians from Liverpool paving the way.

The Sunset Strip in California was also witnessing the new wave of music in a big way. Musicians and performers used to hang around in night clubs like The Troubadour, Whisky a Go Go, Roxy, Pandora’s Box and the London Fog which were like a haven for musicians and hippies alike. The Sunset Strip was also the main centre for counterculture movements. It was November 12, 1966 when numerous youthful demonstrators erupted in protest against the perceived repressive enforcement of a few curfew laws at the Sunset Strip. It was because of the forceful closing down of the club at the corner of Sunset Strip named Pandora’s Box. This was known as the Sunset Strip Riots, also known as hippie riots. It is also the main inspiration behind the political song For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield, a band comprising of Stephen Stills, Dewey Martin, Jim Messina,  Bruce Palmer, Richie Furay and Neil Young.

The instrumentation which comprises of the electric guitar plays two notes repeatedly with tremolo, the acoustic guitar strumming and the quiet pulse like beat on the drums along with the laid-back vocals gives a mildly creepy feel to the song which bears about it an overall mood of regret. It’s the lyrics of the song penned by Stephen Stills that stand out nevertheless. “There’s somethin’ happenin’ here what it is ain’t exactly clear” was the popular line in 60’s counterculture. The repressive measures are highlighted by the clever use of verses like “There’s a man with a gun, over there Tellin’ me I got to beware”, “Young people speakin’ their minds Gettin’ so much resistance from behind” and “Step out of line, the man come and take you away”. The repeated use of the lines “Stop, hey, what’s that sound? Everybody look – what’s goin’ down?” is like a wakeup call to the generation of the 60s. (It is still good enough to serve as a wakeup call to our generation and those to come.) The standout line for me in the whole song has to be “Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong”. (Still makes me think or must I say Stills makes me think!)

The beauty of this song is that it manages to warn of increasing polarization and violence in American society of the sixties, without taking any political stand other than that of acceptance of diversity and free speech. This song has been hailed as an antiwar song since it was written during the time Cold war was raging, and at times is mentioned as written based on the Kent state shootings which happened much later during the start of 70s. It does give us a feel that Stills possessed powers of prophecy just like Nostradamus did.

Led Zeppelin covered the song during Communication Breakdown medley, at their famous Live on Blueberry Hill concert. Another notable cover of the song would be the one by CSNY which had Stills accompanying himself on piano, and with vocals that are positively histrionic. The February 13, 1978 episode of The Muppet Show re-writes the song with animals singing slightly altered anti-hunting lyrics. The musical interlude was filled with hunters wildly shooting their guns while animals hide. In 1998 the group Public Enemy released He Got Game, a rap song that sampled lyrics and music directly from For What It’s Worth. This song deserves special mention because Stephen Stills appears and performs in the music video for this song.

Buffalo Springfield was a short-lived folk rock group that served as an excellent launchpad for the likes of Neil Young, Stephen Stills and others who went on to have awesome music careers. For what it’s worth is one song which made sure that the Buffalo Springfield legacy stays on. The song is a classic retort to those who argue that rock is just being loud, aggressive and violent. Rock may be all that, but it is much more than loudness and aggression and violence. It is also about standing up for a cause. And this song is an example, a great one at that.

Article written by Easwar.

A few days back, Anirudh wrote about the Dire Straits hit Money For Nothing in this column. The ending phrase by Anirudh “Although good music still continued to be produced, how good MTV truly was for music will always remain a question” did make me think. What also made me think was the fact that “Knopfler was not very enthusiastic about making a video for the song as he believed it destroys the purity of the writers and performers”. And all those thoughts did hook me up with the song called Video Killed The Radio Star by the New Wave Band called The Buggles, the first video to be aired on MTV.

The Buggles was a band formed by the trio of Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. The origin of the name Buggles has two stories. It is believed that it was intended to be a pun on The Beatles. Another thread is that Horn wanted the most disgusting name he could ever think of at that time and he narrowed down on The Buggles. The Buggles is a one-hit wonder, the hit being Video Killed The Radio Star.

The Buggles mainly consisted of the tandem of Geoffrey Downes on percussion/keyboards and Trevor Horn doing bass/guitar/percussion/vocals. Woolley left the band shortly, although he is credited for the song Video Killed the Radio Star. Woolley’s contribution was mostly musical, although he did come up with the words “put the blame on VTR”. As per Trever Horn the inspiration for the lyrics was mainly the short story The Sound-Sweep by J. G. Ballard, in which the title character, a mute boy vacuuming up stray music in a world without it, comes upon an opera singer hiding in a sewer.

Video Killed the Radio Star is an electronic pop marvel. The lyrics are quite intelligent. They tell the story of a singer whose career is cut short by the T.V. The synthesizers and computers used for the song never overpower Trevor Horn’s amazing vocals, and Geoffrey Downes’s musicianship. Debi Doss and Linda Jardim are the female backing vocalists.

The first version of the song was recorded by Woolley & the Camera Club. The Buggles released this song as a single. They also released it along with their first Album, The Age of Plastic where it has an additional piano coda. There have been about a dozen covers of the song, but most of them have been a low key affair. One prominent cover is the one by alternative rock band The Presidents of the United States of America for The Wedding Singer soundtrack. Less than a month ago Horn performed the song with Robbie Williams at the BBC Electric Proms.

There is another reason why Indian music lovers will instantly connect to this song. Just about a year after Video Killed.. made its famous appearance on MTV came the movie that established the cult status of Mithun Chakraborty, Disco Dancer. The movie was especially famous for its songs, composed by Mr. “Mobile Gold Souk” Bappi Lahiri, widely acclaimed as pioneer of disco music in India, but also one of the pioneers of large scale note-for-note plagiarism from the West. And in Disco Dancer he happened to compose a song called Koi Yahaan Naache sung by Usha Uthup and himself, which had its Auwa Auwa hook and most of the mukhda ripped straight off Video Killed.. Nevertheless he showed good taste in his lift, the song turning out a classic, one of the most remembered songs of Usha Uthup.

Video Killed.. was aired on MTV on Aug. 1, 1981. MTV once again honoured the song by making it the millionth song to be aired on MTV on February 27, 2000. Sadly, today MTV has evolved (!) from a music channel to a melee of reality shows and fictional programs. Let’s just assume (hope) that MTV will play this song again as their two millionth video. If the two millionth song happens that is. Looking at the way things are going, it looks to be a distant possibility.

Co-written by Easwar and Vipin.

In the year 2000, Volkswagen aired an advertisement on TV having a song called Pink Moon as its background score. Within a month after this ad was aired, the artist of the album sold more records than he had in the previous thirty years. The artist was Nick Drake and sadly he did not live long enough to enjoy this success.

Nick Drake was one of those obscure artists who hardly enjoyed any success during his lifetime but became quite a respectable figure posthumously. In his short career of around five years he released three albums none of which sold more than 5000 copies. Pink Moon was his third and last album and the entire album was recorded in 2 sessions of 2 hours each. All songs in the album Pink Moon are unembellished unlike his previous album. The entire album runs for only 28 minutes with 11 songs on it. Throughout his life Drake had suffered with depression and insomnia and the music and the effects of these can be very clearly seen in his last album. By 1972, he had retreated so much into his own world that it is difficult to interpret what the lyrics mean and sadly now there is no way to find out. Most of the songs had lyrics more than a verse or two. However, his depression and aloofness strikes though every word of the songs.

The title song of the album just like all others was recorded with just an acoustic guitar and Drake dubbed some piano on it later on. The lyrics of the song composed of just two verses of speak about a Pink Moon that is coming to get us all indicating a sense of pessimism and helplessness of Drake. However, this album which is probably his best work sold fewer copies than any of other works.

It is quite strange that for an artist who despised commercialism, success came in the form of a Volkswagen ad. Nevertheless, we can only hope that such artists whose music was probably far ahead of his time will be appreciated at least now.

“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.”

Well, the quote above belongs to none other than John Lennon. Chuck Berry is one of those legends we should never miss out when we talk about Rock ‘n’ Roll music. A stalwart in the rock and roll music, he has been highly influential in the nurturing of the rock and roll guitar techniques. Chuck Berry was one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One song of Chuck Berry which testifies his legendary status would be Johnny B. Goode.

The song is basically about a young boy from Louisiana who becomes famous owing to his guitar-playing skills. The song can be called autobiographical considering the fact that Chuck Berry himself had a middle class upbringing  and he also like Johnny B. Good could play the guitar just like a ringin’ a bell. Also the fact that Berry was born on Goode Avenue in St. Louis adds credence to this argument. But its also believed that the inspiration of the song is Johnnie Johnson, the pianist who played alongside of Chuck Berry. It is said that Johnnie Johnson’s drinking issues made Chuck Berry write the lines “Johnny Be Good“. Much later, in a November of 2000, Johnnie Johnson sued Chuck Berry claiming that he co-authored about a dozen songs of Berry, and demanding credits and royalty for the same.

Johnny B Goode opens with a guitar riff which is the most famous guitar riff in rock and roll history. It is essentially a note-for-note copy of the opening single-note solo on Louis Jordan’s Ain’t That Just Like a Woman, played by guitarist Carl Hogan.  

Johnny B Goode is a gem of a song which leads us to appreciate the guitar play/ art of the genius Chuck Berry. Typical of the rock n roll songs of the time, it is a very fast rhythmic song with the vocals handled by Berry himself, accompanied on the piano by Lafayette Leake, a blues and jazz musician. The song was a defining musical turnaround in the life of Chuck Berry and he went on to use and reuse Johnny in two more of his subsequent compositions, Bye Bye Johnny and Go Go Go. The song is the rock and roll embodiment of the American Dream.

I think we can classify musicians into three categories, those who have covered Johnny B. Goode ,  those who haven’t covered Johnny B. Goode and the third being Chuck Berry. Numerous musicians have covered Johnny B. Goode that picking a few artists from among those talented musicians would be a hard endeavour. So sit back, relax, listen to the few versions of the song we have given below and B Good!

This article comes from our regular guest columnist Easwar. If you wish to contribute to this section or to any other section of Music Aloud please do drop a mail to response [at] musicaloud [dot] com.





Cover by Judas Priest (Courtesy Arun A S)

An omnipresent feature of the ’60s and early ’70s pop radio was the sophisticated, often elegant, pop of the legendary American songwriting team of composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David. Their music was seen as a throwback to a prerock era of popular song, flourishing during a musical landscape of British invasion, psychedelia and folk rock. Having been introduced to each other at the Brill Building in NY city in 1957, the duo went on to have a prolific 15 years, the unconventionality of Bacharach’s melodies forming a perfect fit for the eloquent romanticism of Hal David’s poetic lyrics. And in 1969, as part of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, was born the song that got the duo their only Oscar (as a duo this was their only Oscar. However Bacharach also won a second Oscar for his movie score for the same movie, and in 1981 won a third for the movie Arthur) – Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.

The story goes that the title of the song came to Bacharach’s mind the instant he saw the bicycle scene in the movie and kept recurring whenever he saw it. Hal David tried changing the lyric to something else but it never seemed to work, and hence they fixed on Raindrops.. The pair wrote the song with Ray Stevens in mind, but he didn’t like the song and declined to sing it. Bob Dylan was also reportedly approached to sing the song but he too turned down the offer. It was around the same time that American singer B J Thomas was creating waves with his single Hooked on A Feeling (famous for its featuring of an electric sitar). Dionne Warwick, a singer who had had many successful partnerships with Bacharach-David, recommended Thomas to the duo and they chose Thomas to render Raindrops.. Apparently Thomas was getting over laryngitis when he recorded the song, giving the song a raspy quality which was instantly liked by the producers of the movie. Later on Thomas came out with a single version of the song, and by 1970 it was on top of the charts, the first #1 single of the 1970s.

One of the most prominent bands to cover Raindrops.. was the Rat Pack. Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers perform the song at each of their live concerts. The band even recorded a version inclusive of a trumpet solo by their drummer Sean Moore. Dionne Warwick collaborated with Kelis for her 2006 duets album version of the song. There have been numerous other covers of the song which we restrain ourselves from talking about. The song has also made appearances in various films, the most famous one being in Forrest Gump. Leslie Nielsen does a parody of the whole scene, complete with the song in the background, in his 1996 movie Spy Hard. The song also made its appearance in Spiderman 2.

David once described his lyrical technique as, “I search for believability, simplicity and emotional impact.” And Raindrops.. is an embodiment of this statement. And his combo with Bucharach, a classic case of lyricist and composer coming together in perfect synergy, shall ever be remembered for this work of theirs. So whenever you feel a bit down, we recommend you listen to this song. We guarantee that it will have you back in your elements in no time! Au revoir..

There once was a boy from Bronx.  When he was 14 (that was in 1964), he got inspired by The Beatles and decided to pursue a musical career. So he started playing the piano and very soon was playing in recording sessions for some unknown bands in and around New York. In 1971, he got his first solo album called “Cold Spring Harbor” released. But due to an error by the recording company, the boys voice sounded a semitone too high than it was supposed to and the album tanked on the charts. The guy’s heart was crushed and unable to get a commercial success with his album, he started playing under the pseudonym “Bill Martin” in The Executive Room, a bar in Los Angeles.

A couple of years later, he got an opportunity to record another studio album and he made a song about his experiences in the bar in Los Angeles. The song spoke about an old man who was a regular at the bar and John who worked at the bar whom he had had befriended. The song gave the man the man so much success that since the release of this single he has become the sixth best-selling recording artist in the United States and the single itself is the most downloaded single off the iTunes store. The man of course was Billy Joel and the single released in 1973 is his signature song “Piano Man”.

What makes the Piano Man such a great song is the brilliant arrangement of instruments. A delightful arrangement of instruments like piano, harmonica, drums, bass and mandolin accompanying the melodic voice of Billy Joel add to the beauty of the song but what makes the song such a legend is the contrast between its music and lyrics. While the music of the song is cheerfully played on a jazzy piano line in the C major key (from the bits of music I know of the major chords is usually played for happy songs while minor chords accompany sad ones. People who know more about music theory may disagree), there is a melancholy in the lyrics of the song that would disturb you creating waves of emotions in your heart.

The song has not been covered by any major brands because it is hard to categorize it as a rock song. The essence of the song lies in all the instruments it uses and hardly any rock band goes around carrying so many instruments. Wierd Al’s parody of Spiderman based on the music of “Piano Man” is hilarious. Also worth watching is the Flight of the Conchord’s song Bret’s day. Although these are not exactly “cover” versions of Piano Man, it gives you an idea of the popularity of the song.

As usual we leave you at this point with a few videos to enjoy. We will be back soon with another exquisite song. Enjoy!

Weird Al Yankovic – Ode To A Superhero

Flight of the Conchords :: Bret’s Day