Category Archives: music

R.I.P., King of Sarod

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Ali_Akbar_Khan 

How could I have missed this one?! Must have been the myriad goings-on in my life… Thanks to Prasun for bringing this to my notice.

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who the renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin once called “the greatest musician in the world”, passed away on June 18, at the age of 87. But even that might be too early for an artist, according to him:

"If you practice for 10 years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist– then you may please even God."

Who knows where he might have reached, if he had lived longer?

The New York Times reporting…

I’m on Craigslist, baby, come on yeah!

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Bringing musical parodies and resultant laughter and joy to one and all for nearly 30 years, ladies and gentlemen, from Downey, California, Alfred Matthew “Weird Al” Yankovic!

And in case you want to sing along, here’re the lyrics.

Craigslist

Whoa, yeah!

You’ve got a 65 Chevy Malibu
With automatic drive, a custom paint job too
I’ll trade you for my old wheelbarrow
And a slightly-used sombrero
And I’ll even throw in a stapler, if you insist

Craigslist
I’m on Craigslist, baby, come on
Yeah

Well, we shared a quick glance Saturday at the mall
I never took a chance, never approached you at all
You were a blonde half-Asian with a bad case of gas
I was wearin’ red Speedos and a hockey mask
Come on, let’s find that love connection that we missed

On Craigslist
Yeah, Craigslist, come on
I’m on Craigslist, baby
Maybe you are too
Bee bomp a chonk a donk bim bang boo

An open letter to the snotty barista
At the Coffee Bean on San Vicente Boulevard:
I know there were 20 people behind me in line
But I was on a cell phone call with my mother
Didn’t you see me hold up my index finger?
That means I’ll order my soy decaf hazelnut latte in just a couple minutes
So what’s with the attitude, lady?
No tip for you

Got a trash can of Styrofoam peanuts, you can have em for free
You can drop by on the weekend and pick em up from me
But the trash can ain’t part of the deal
Only givin’ you the peanuts, get real
Don’t have no Hefty bags, so bring your own
Don’t bug me with questions on the phone
Don’t ask for help, don’t waste my time
And don’t complain, cause they won’t cost you a dime
Just ask yourself 
Do you want my Styrofoam peanuts?
You can have my Styrofoam peanuts
Do you want my Styrofoam peanuts?
You can have ‘em all

They’re on Craigslist, yeah
Craigslist, oh baby, come on
I’m on Craigslist, Craigslist, Craigslist
I’m on Craigslist, Craigslist, Craigslist now
Craigslist

Yankovic has parodied numerous songs and artists over the years, often to the amusement of and encouragement from the original artist/s. But this, to my knowledge, is the first time he has attempted one on The Doors. As Yankovic tells Spinner, “I thought it would be anachronistically weird to have me as Jim Morrison screaming about Craigslist. That just seemed so completely wrong that I thought I had to do it.”
From an ardent devotee of Jim, yours truly, he gets a two-thumbs-up! I am sure Jim would have approved and would have had a sarcastic smirk on his face while watching it! So will Ray, Robby and John I’m quite confident. In fact, the organ on the parody is played by none other than Ray Manzarek of The Doors.

Whenever, Wherever, Whatever!

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This must be amongst the most inane lyrics of a song ever. This is worse than the usual love-baby-heart types, especially because it takes itself too seriously!


“Lucky that my breasts are small and humble
So you don’t confuse them with mountains”

Shakira’s Whenever, Wherever


Omigosh, I feel like puking with disgust!

Smoke Fish

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A few posts back I told you guys about Jamendo. Here’s the first post on a band I discovered over there.
Smoke Fish.jpg
Smoke Fish is a French band comprising of Shay on guitar and keyboards as well as handling the vocals, Jonathan on guitar and keyboards, PY on drums and Jean Se on bass. They cite David Bowie, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jeff Buckley, John Lennon among others as their influences. There music is pop-rock. They have an album called Mary up on Jamendo and I have decided to feature my favourite track from that album on this post. Most of their compositions, though quite varied in approaches and styles have one thing in common – a healthy stress on melody, which is a good thing and ignored by many bands more often than not!
My favourite track after a few listens has to be a long drawn out (it is almost nine minutes long), beautiful song called My Eyes. The song is characterized by the haunting piano refrain and the distorted vocals. It even has a short spoken-not-sung section in the middle. The guitar solo towards the end, though not technically grand, blends in perfectly with the song which should be seen as an example of tight song-writing above anything else. That is the best quality of this song – it is greater than the sum of its parts. No virtuosity here, but a mature song nonetheless.
Listen to the song by clicking the play button or right click on the link and download the mp3. Its released under this Creative Commons license.)
Also found a video of them performing live. The first part of the video is My Eyes and the second part is my next favourite from this album called Cigarettes & Family.

Jamendo

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Well I have done the disappearing act haven’t I?! Blame it on my procrastination (Made myself a t-shirt on that!).

I have been discovering great music on Jamendo lately. Its a place for ‘free and legal music downloads’. Some posts with great music that I discover will follow. Bear in mind that my musical tastes are weird and varied! So either you’ll like them or hate them… but you’ll bear with them, won’t you?!
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DO NOT READ! (I have warned you!)

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I am not writing as often as I should. And its eating me up from the inside! So here is another meaningless post, best skipped.

I am done with my move. Unpacked and settled in. Till the next one… And having accomplished that I have become too lazy for anything else! I am in my own male version of PMS without the physical aspects, wherein I am moody, terribly bored with life and taking each day as a task best avoided. So I have no desire to write and I am doing so now purely out of a sense of duty or something vaguely similar!
I am a bit tired, of life in general. Dealing with life is a demanding task. Reminds me of a Freddie Mercury lyric,

“I feel like no-one ever told the truth to me
About growing up and what a struggle it would be”

(Too Much Love Will Kill You, Queen)

I feel so emptied out and devoid of life right now that it is astounding how I manage to get up every morning and drag this lifeless self through another exacting day. Sometimes I get the feeling that life would be so much easier if I only believed that there was a supernatural being whom I could in some way hold responsible for my actions and my circumstances in life. But no, I have no such misconceptions. Unfortunately, I think. For if all that there is to life is Absurdity then it is insane to struggle so hard to stay sane.

Imagine

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Watched the excellent documentary The U.S. vs, John Lennon. It is a must watch for anyone who has ever had any sort of fondness for this man with his round glasses and his motto of ‘Give Peace a Chance‘.

This song will never go away from my conscience. I have joined you John. Long live John…
Imagine there’s no Heaven 
It’s easy if you try 
No hell below us 
Above us only sky 
Imagine all the people 
Living for today 
Imagine there’s no countries 
It isn’t hard to do 
Nothing to kill or die for 
And no religion too 
Imagine all the people 
Living life in peace 
You may say that I’m a dreamer 
But I’m not the only one 
I hope someday you’ll join us 
And the world will be as one 
Imagine no possessions 
I wonder if you can 
No need for greed or hunger 
A brotherhood of man 
Imagine all the people 
Sharing all the world 
You may say that I’m a dreamer 
But I’m not the only one 
I hope someday you’ll join us 
And the world will live as one
I am off to Vietnam, the war against whom, he and many others were so passionately against. But I am off to see the modern Vietnam of socialist capitalism – an oxymoron if there ever was one! I will resume my writing after my trip. Till then, enjoy your weekend and the week ahead.

Society, I hope you’re not lonely without me…

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A hauntingly beautiful song, gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

The song was written by Jerry Hannan and is performed by Eddie Vedder for the soundtrack of the film Into The Wild. The Sean Penn directed movie itself was wildly beautiful and what made it touching was that it was based on the real life story of a certain Christopher McCandless.
“Christopher Johnson McCandless (February 12, 1968 – August 18, 1992) was an American wanderer who hiked into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live a period of solitude. Almost four months later he died of starvation near Denali National Park and Preserve.”
Oh its a mystery to me.
We have a greed, with which we have agreed…
And you think you have to want more than you need…
Until you have it all, you won’t be free.
Society, you’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
When you want more than you have, you think you need…
And when you think more, then you want, your thoughts begin to bleed.
I think I need to find a bigger place…
Cause when you have more than you think, you need more space.
Society, you’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed…
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
There’s those thinkin’ more or less, less is more,
But if less is more, how you keepin’ score?
It means for every point you make, your level drops.
Kinda like you’re startin’ from the top…
And you can’t do that.
Society, you’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed…
I hope you’re not lonely, without me
Society, have mercy on me.
I hope you’re not angry, if I disagree.
Society, crazy indeed.
I hope you’re not lonely…
Without me.
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