music unlimited

i think i fell in love with music in my childhood only.. partially it was heriditary, my dad being such a big fan of old hindi songs that he used to recognize the song & the movie from the starting tune of the song playing on the radio and to add to that he even used to remember the lyrics.. i had grown up pretty much in his footsteps as far as hindi music is concerned and am myself a big fan of old hindi classics and simply can't stop admiring the great voices and musicians of the golden era.. so this is how the initial 17 years of my life went by with i adding the new breed of talent like sonu nigam (every single song of his album "deewana" was a gem with "dil se dil tak baat pahonchi" being my fav) and a.r. rahman (one of the most talented musician and singer that modern india has seen) to the kitty.. i don't remember listening to english pop songs, forget the rock, and when somebody answered "byran adams" to a music round question in a school quiz competition, i wondered who the hell is that and when unnat said in that "yeh PSPO nahi jaanta" tone, i first time felt that may be i am seriously missing something..

my first taste of english rock came in my first year at iit in form of roxette and it was like what they say "love at first sight"... we used to have these cacophony kind of sessions in namit's room where we used to switch off the lights of rooms and wings, play roxette songs on his music system on full volume and create a disco kind of atmo using the torches that we had.. it was great fun and songs like "the look", "sleeping in my car" became an instant hit with me.. but that was pretty much of it in my first year.. things changed drastically in my second year and it started after the ragging session :) i heard the closing lines of an english song playing in one of the hostel wings and thought "yaa.. this is really something".. very soon i was about to discover that the song that i heard that night was "sweet child of mine".. axl rose simply rocked in the vocals and slush was at his best on guitars.. even if someone doesn't like "guns & roses" for the nasty band that they were, do read the lyrics of this song.. it is awazing, i wonder how axl rose came up with such beautiful lyrics.. it was supposed to be written for his girlfriend though he claimed that he wrote this song in the memory of his mother (not sure about this)..

anyways leaving G&R here and moving ahead with the story, my first teacher was my second year roomie prithviraj sen.. he used to play the song hotel california on his guitar and inducted me to his knowledge of english songs.. he told me that "hotel california" is regarded by many as one of the best songs of the 20th century (he also confessed that when he had proudly told this in front of thakur, thakur had laughed at him saying this is a common knowledge stuff.. on this i thought thakur would have prolly strangled my neck for not even knowing this song) and lots of other things on the history of english songs.. i spent the remaining days of my college listening to english rock and becoming a big fan of bands like pink floyd, nirvana, guns & roses, metallica, dire straits, def leppard, queen, aerosmith, roxette..

but there was more to come in form of the second lesson on english songs, thakur being the teacher this time.. after a long wait in bangalore, he finally got his music system and then one day we went on a shopping spree (some 20 casettes at a go).. one of the casette was "pub classics" and after i liked the songs by car, reo speedwagon and enquired him on these, he introduced me to the retro music.. not sure about the definition but these are like the soft rock songs from 70's, 80's and mid 90's.. these were quite different from the kind of rock songs that i have been hearing till then.. the lyrics looked more meaningful to me in these soft songs as compared to the rock songs that i have been listening to in the college where sometimes the lyrics used to get lost in the loud guitar & drum.. then i bought that "college classics 1" casette which i think is one of the best compilation of retro songs.. still got the blues, jealous guy, karma chameleon, crazy little thing called love, don't worry be happy, all i need is a miracle, wild world.. and many more gems like these in a single album..(prithvi used to have this casette and i kind of liked these songs at that time also but he lost it and my second teaching got delayed)..

over the next 2 years, i had shifted more towards this retro classic music while still being loyal to many of the rock bands that i liked earlier.. i am still not into that hard rock/metal songs and i am sure will never be.. anyways if you are now wondering as to why i am writing all this (and its 5 am IST) then i will answer your queries.. after shifting to my job in mumbai i missed these songs for a long time.. finally i got some of my CDs when i went home this diwali and now i am back listening to the retro tracks and rock songs whenever i get time.. what's more, i have been to a place called "not just jazz by the way" here where they have bands playing live music every day and on weekends it is always retro classics and rock.. these bands are really very stud and some of the songs they play so well that you fell you are listening to the original song, notably being sultans of swing (on my first trip there) and another brick in the wall (on my second trip there).. today was my third trip there in 15 days (and i know many more will be coming in the future) and got a chance to listen to gary lawyer.. his band played some awesome numbers from queen incl. crazy little thing called love.. also after getting lots of recommendations from my friends, went to the first indian installment of hard rock cafe that opened in mumbai just 2 months back.. they have done quite a good work with the place and am sure in time they will also start showing the song videos.. but somehow the feel that you get in listeing to live music (given that they are playing it good) can never be matched by listening to the original song on a speaker.. so given a choice, i will vote for "not just jazz by the way" over "hard rock cafe".. digressing from the main topic, i think overall these are the things that make mumbai such a great place.. let me end this post here abruptly and go to sleep.. goodnight.. ohh before that, a big round of thanks to my dear friends prithviraj sen and anshuman thakur for their gyaan on english music and making me a big fan of it..