Five songs that will never die

List of songs that will live on for generations to come. Feel to free add any if you think I’ve missed any.

1. Cry me a river – Julie London [ From 'The Girl Can't Help It']. More recently, Susan Boyle sang a cover of the same which is worth mentioning. This song is so weirdly mesmerizing that it excites me everytime I hear it. Can never get bored of this

2. What a wonderful world – Louis Armstrong [Live version,from the 1968 BBC Live sessions]. Don’t miss the piano fill-ins! The modern punk version by The Ramones is pretty cool too.

3.Fly me to the moon – Nat King Cole[Studio version]. Apologies, this isn’t the original video. And Julie London is here again on my list with her version of the same.

4. Somewhere over the rainbow – Judy Garland[From The Wizard of Oz]. Every version of this song is so different, but this is the happy and original one with no weird intermittent minor chords in between. I can never get over Eric Clapton’s version(watch Clapton belt it out from 2:50).This also features the fifth Beatles member Billy Preston on the hammond organ. Don’t miss Preston’s bird’s fly imitation on the hammond organ at 6.05).

5. Time of the season – The Dave Matthews Band[Live from the Red Rocks Concert]. I’m posting the cover instead of the original here because I like this more. And the funky Butch Taylor solo on the organ. The weird chord progressions in the chorus make it curiously amazing.

This is not a complete list, feel free to add on

Guitar Harmonics

Wooten the amazing grace

Harmonics being played on the guitar have always fascinated me for a long time. I’ve tried really hard to play a few myself! It requires a tremendous feel of the music and you need to know how much pressure to apply in the right places. For the uninititated, what is a guitar harmonic? It’s the ‘metallic’ bell-like sound coming from a guitar. That’s the most basic way I can put it.  For instance in the beautiful rendition of amazing grace by Victor Wooten. Listen to the part from 1.39 to the end. If it’s the first time you’re listening to it,I am sure you’ll be awestruck! What makes it awesome is that he performs the song on harmonics using the bass guitar.

When we play the guitar we always hear the fundamental note. It’s the loudest note that we get to hear,but what we don’t get to hear/aware of is that when a guitar string is struck there are various other notes also generated apart from the fundamental note. These unheard notes are the harmonics. So the key to playing a harmonic is to shut off the loudest fundamental note and make the other notes heard out.  This can be done by very delicately touching the string at particular positions and then plucking the string. When you do that, both the portions of the same string seperated by your finger vibrate at the same time and that’s when the harmonic is produced. 

The 5th,7th and 12th fret

If you notice above the fret wire, the 5th is divided into fourths,7ths in thirds and 12th as havles. Only at these points can the harmonic be produced. Striking a harmonic on other parts of the guitar is impossible(unless you detune your guitar!).

Other popular songs with harmonics:

• Metallica’s Nothing else matters-In the first minute,the 27th second to be precise in this video.
• Pearl Jam’s Jeremy- 26th-27th second(check it here).
• Iron Maiden’s Fear of the dark intro.

The whole physics behind harmonics is explained really well on harmony central,the link to which is here.

The king of pop is 50 and going strong

dangerous

 

There are two kinds of music lovers who have an opinion about Michael Jackson. There are the few who have grown up listening to him and watching his videos and can’t stop but praise him. And then there’s this other kind who detest him without even listening to his music simply because he was accused of being a paedophile and changed his skin colour. Whatever is said and done,one simple fact must be understood that MJ has as much influence on pop music as The Beatles have had since the 60s.

He invented and improvised on a form of music which he completely should take credit for. The art of performing great songs entertaining the crowds. Just like the great Elvis. The moonwalk is a total original and people till date try to imitate him. And the famous anti-gravity lean he does in smooth criminal. He holds a patent for it.

Then he led the way when it came to the art of creating music videos with Thriller. It was directed by John Landis and Guiness calls it the most successful music video ever made.Thriller also happens to be the highest selling album in music history-it has sold 65 million copies till 2007. The album got MJ seven grammy awards which is still a record. Thriller features Billie Jean and the girl is mine(a duet which MJ performs with Paul McCartney of the Beatles). Speaking of the beatles,it is MJ who owns the catalogue rights to all beatles songs.

And then came Bad.Surpassed all previous records.It featured 5 #1 billboard singles which is a hit. Interestingly the video for the title song was shot and directed by Martin Scorcese. Follow the success of Bad with Dangerous which remains my personal favourite album. I could listen to the CD over and over again without getting bored. It featured Jam,black and white,who is it, and a host of others.

Agreed that rightafter this album the quality of compositions dipped. His next two albums weren’t up to the mark but I think this has all got to do with the blooody false accusations against him about being involved in paedophilism.

I’d like to list my top five MJ videos:

5. Speed Demon – animation of the 80s and an interesting storyline.

4. Stranger in Moscow- quite simply my favourite song which has MJ in deep thought mode.

3. Who is it - This video was shot by David Fincher(of Fight Club and 7even fame).The video is set in a neo-chrome blade-runner-like landscape, where surfaces reflect light and denote luxury in all its splendor. We get to see Michael Jackson as a suffering recluse who has come to the conclusion that his girlfriend is cheating.

2. Dangerous - Watch it for yourself and decide.

1. Jam – It features Michael Jordan in the video and has some really cool and funky grooves.

Special mention should also go for the following videos:

Black or white

They don’t care about us

Remember the time  The concept of this video has been copied and replicated in several hindi movies.

And I just read somewhere that Scream is the most expensive video made in music history.  Made in 1995,it cost a whooping $7,000,000.

Pink Floyd-the pre break up era

P.U.L.S.E

Since high school I’ve been a huge fan of Pink Floyd. I remember very well the day I got the original pulse 2 CD with the LED which ran on a single AA cell. The booklet inside the CD reads “The LED is set at the average human pulse speed so it can be used as an anti stress device – just check your own pulse against it” and the line I like the most-” Most particularly the LED pulses… it is a live phenomenon… like the music”. Indeed their music flows. From the lyrics straight down to the music. PULSE is undoubtedly one of the best live recordings putting it in par with the Simon and Garfunkel show at Central Park in NYC during the 70’s. Among the more recent concerts,not many are worthy of being compared to PULSE. They enthralled their audience with a musical and visual treat. Heavy use of lasers was employed. Watch the video for ‘take it back‘ on youtube. You’ll get a feel of what I’m saying and then you can decide for yourself. Also another must watch is ‘On the Run‘ from the dark side of the moon album. If you’ve seen something better in a live concert please let me know. Which brings to mind a very interesting fact that most people don’t know about Pink Floyd.They’ve won just one grammy in their entire career as musicians and that too in 1995 for the song Marooned. They got the best rock instrumental award. Pretty strange isn’t it?

People talk about comfortably numb to be the greatest floyd song ever,and I’d agree with them thats its among the best of their best. The guitar lead at the end(particularly in the pulse version) is out of this world. Anyone with a half decent brain would appreciate that,and someone high on any stimulant would be cursing David Gilmour for not going beyond the 13th minute The funny(beauty maybe?) part about this song is that most of it is not sung in the conventional manner. It has the lead singer just pronouncing the words in a psychic manner.

"There is no dark side of the moon really.Matter of fact its all dark"

The dark side of the moon album has to arguably be their highest selling album till date. It stayed on the billboard charts for a record 741 consecutive weeks(that boils down to 14 years). It also holds the record for the longest stay on the billboard charts- just 1500 weeks(29 years). Will there be a band that can break that record? Or impress two generations and leave a lasting impression on them at the same time? Time only will tell. My favourite tracks from the dark side of the moon would be breathe and time. Breathe has this heavy heavy sound to it. Sometimes when I listen to it,I wonder if there is some sync between the way I breathe and the manner in which the chords shift from E minor(A base) to A7.

This is how the lyrics go.

Breathe, breathe in the air
Don’t be afraid to care
Leave but don’t leave me
Look around and chose your own ground
For long you live and high you fly
And smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be
Run, run rabbit run
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don’t sit down, it’s time to dig another one
For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race toward an early grave.

Talking about the rabit reminds of fairytales(Alice in Wonderland one of my favs). Roger Waters claims that if you switch on the classic 1939 verision of Wizard of Oz and switch on the dark side of the moon tape it would feel like the two of them are synchronised to perfection. Here’s a brief 5 minute clip.

Another classic from the dark side of the moon is Time which gives me the jitters every time I pay attention to the lyrics. Its just poetry in motion.

Probably the only heavily jazz influenced floyd song is money,which is also part of the same album. It has some really cool saxophone solos and the chords are way too jazzy to classify the song as rock. I’ve seen most bands make a mockery when they try to cover that song.

The great gig in the sky instrumental still makes the hair on my arm stand with the slick drumming and keyboard solos. Special mention should be made to the lady who features in that song.

Lets shift our focus to The Wall and Wish you were here.

The Wall(1971).

The Wall:Wikipedia calls it a rock opera. I’d like to call it a message in a bottle. Every song in that album has heavy reference to the cold war. And also to the world war which is where Roger(the bassist and lyricist) lost his father. When the tigers broke free is a song high on emotion and its Roger Waters speaking about how his father went missing from home one day during the war.

The song features floyd’s most popular song-Brick in the wall. I love the pulse version thanks to the super cool solo at the end of the song. A MUST hear for all.

The wall also features ‘mother’. A slow ballad track which is so rare to find with floyd(before the break up).

Another classic from the album is run like hell.Terrifying lyrics and great guitaring.

So you think you can tell-heaven from hell,blue skies from grey?

My favourite album(before the break up) is Wish you were Here. It has the signature wish you were here song,and also features shine on you crazy diamond(all parts). Shine on you crazy diamond was written in praise of Syd Barret-the genius and former lead singer who lost his mind and rests in a mental asylum now.

I’ll stop right here. Will get into details about floyd’s break up and post break up music trend. Interesting read it should be. For now,if you’re already a floyd fan-listen to goodbye blue sky. If you feel you’re turning into one,listen to Have a cigar and if you still loathe them try Young Lust.

Happy happy floyd listening

Weirdest Band name

David Fiuczynski at it

Screaming Headless Torsos:They play great jazz funk and have a crazy-ass band name. I tried putting myself in the shoes of the guy who named this band. Can you imagine a headless person’s torso? And add to that a screaming headless guy! What were these guys smoking when they named themselves SHT.

Time for some trivia now.The Screaming Headless Torsos were formed by David “Fuze” Fiuczynski who is an alumni member of the famed Berklee College of Music(other grads from Berklee include Keith Jarrett, Diana Krall, John Petrucci, John Mayer, etc). He’s also had the honor of playing with Police’s drummer.

The most popular album of the screaming headless torsos is 1995 which had the funky and hippy sounding ‘Vinnie‘. This is my personal favourite(probably because I’m a huge fan of tight and slick drumming and major 7ths!).

Check them out and if you’ve not lost your head,try some more of them!

Rock music in India

Rock bands in India are growing by the number.Daily,atleast 50 new bands are formed.These include kids from school,college students and grown ups.But where do we stand on the global map? Is the average Indian music buff going to go to the store and pick up local rock albums? I’ll try my best in answering these questions.

Between the 70s and early 90s,the Indian rock scene was dominated by Mohiner Ghoraguli and Indus Creed. Mohiner are considered to be the pioneers of Bengali Rock music-which has a significant fan following not only in West Bengal but other parts of the country and also Bangladesh,Nepal,Etc. Indus creed broke the tradition of Indian bands covering international artistes.A very brave step forward,but did it all work out? Take into consideration the time of release of their album ‘Indus Creed’.It released in 1993,precisely the time when cable television came to India.And we got to see MTV,Star plus(one hell of a channel then!).Most of us were kids then,and we were hooked onto the television.MTV took up the cause of promoting IC’s album and thanks to all the air time they got through music videos on MTV,their album was a huge success.This moment is what I’d like to call the ‘Citi moment of success(:P)’ period for Indian rock music.

The huge success of IC’s album not only in India but abroad,encouraged other musicians to shed the covers only tag off them.And this revolution gave us the likes of Moksha,Alms for shanti and Skinny Alley who are now considered to be the grand daddys of Indian rock music.

Into the late 90s,the rock scene here had a definite mould to it.Acts like Orange street,parikrama and pentagram coming in and establishing themselves.

If we break down to analyse how much such talent is encouraged in India,we see the following cities(in no particular order) to be running in contention for the power house of rock music in India.

1.KOLKATA-The home of skinny alley,someplace else-the mecca of rock music in India.It is every rock musician’s ambition to play there atleast once in his lifetime,and I am not exaggerating here! Apart from alley,Kolkata virtually dominates the bangla rock scene.Cactus,fossils,bhoomi are house hold names for avid bangla rock fans(For those who don’t know too much of Bangla rock-its a fusion of psychedelic,rock and Bengali lyrics in one).Watch out for the supersonics!

Popular genres enjoyed by the public here:CLASSIC ROCK,blues and jazz.A big NO to heavy metal-all Kolkatans will agree with me on that I am sure

2.CHENNAI-Vineyard center,Moksha,Molotov Cocktail,the list can go on forever.My personal favourites are Panatella-for the unique sound they’ve established-mostly a fusion of rock and funk.The BEATLES rule here!

Popular genres in Chennai:rock,METAL,funk.

3.COCHIN-The hometown of motherjane! And 13AD.Loads of popular musicians come from here,and man can they play!

Popular genres in Cochin:Progressive metal.

4.Mumbai-My favourite of all cities.Because there’s variety.And good quality music too.We have zero(alternative),something relevant(jam band,yeah!),menwhopause(metal),etc.There’s good music everywhere you go here

All genres rule in Bbay!

5.Delhi-Home to the themclones,bhayanak mauth and like Bbay has a crowd for almost all genres.Special mention must be made for Advaita(watch:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNq5PRYPjS0&feature=related). Love the fusion.

6.Shillong-Presktorika! Thats the first thing that comes to my head when I think of Shillong.More to it of course.

Mostly metal rules here,but there’s a strong following for blues,rock n roll here.

I hope I’ve covered most of the indian rock music scene.All views expressed are purely mine and please feel free to disagree to what I have to say

Under the table and dreaming :)

Removing the rapidshare links from my blog.Reasons,later.

If you are a DMB fan,you’d by now guess where I flicked the title of this page from.For all those who still don’t know what I am talking about,let me introduce you to the Dave Matthews Band-arguably the greatest jam band in the history of music.

DMB was founded by(you guessed it right) Dave Matthews in the summer of 1991.Dave Matthews was this solo guitarist who wandered the streets of Charlottesville doing his thing at pubs and bars.Its in one of the bars that he met Carter Beauford,and then went on to form the DMB with bassist Fonzie,and saxophonist LeRoi Moore joining in.Boyd Tinsley the violinist followed in soon.These guys went on to become America’s favourite live show band,winning applauses and cheers everywhere.

I’d like to list out my all time favourite top 3 performances by the DMB.

1.“Don’t drink the water”,live from Central Park,New York(www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL_czyUro7o)

They start of this hugely popular concert with this classic.And set the pace for the entire night.What an electric start! Totally hypnotising

2.“All along the watchtower”,live from Woodstock Music Festival 1999(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yam6mrCCvD4)

For a long time,no one had heard All along the watchtower being done so well(after Hendrix’s rendition,this is the best cover.The U2 cover SUCKED!).

3.“Jimmy Thing”,live from the Wembleystadium,London(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTxfJWGDkKQ)

Great improvisations on this already brilliant song! Awesome solos from Tinsey and LeRoi!

For all fellow DMB lovers,or for those who want to try them out,I’m going to post here the download links to all their studio albums.Download links to their live albums will follow in future posts!

1.Remember Two Things(1993).

Favourite song:Ants marching is the most popular,but my favourite would be One Sweet World.Love the lovely usage of added 9ths in the otherwise simple chords.

2.Under the table and dreaming(1994).

Favourite song:Warehouse! What an intro !! And a great solo in the middle by LeRoi. Don’t forget the slick drumming throughout the song.

3.Crash(1996).

Favourite Song:Arguably their best album.Very difficult to pick just one single,I think my vote would go for So much to say.Great vocals,and even tougher chords and it flows smoothly.Love the way it ends abruptly.

4.Before these crowded streets(1998).

Favourite Song:Sorry,don’t have the entire listing for this album but it has my all time favourite DMB song.Don’t drink the water-has this haunting feeling to it.

5.Everyday(2001)

Favourite Song:Their most commercial sounding album,but when the world ends comes up front.Love the lyrics,love the crisp tight sound.

6.Busted Stuff(2002).

Favourite song: Where are you going by DMB-the live version has some nice piano runs.Definitely one of their most pop-like sound album.

As I promised,I’ll continue with DMB live albums in my next post! More on the albums to follow as well. Thats all for now,

Ciao!