Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Tune Tag

When Reflections tagged me to do this some days ago, I realised with a little jolt, that there's nothing at all on this blog about music. Pretty odd, considering how much it means to me. I learnt a couple of instruments till my teens and had a decent voice back then, but it was always listening to music that was ........ uplifting.

Uplifting. That's putting it mildly, but I had to struggle even to come up with that word. And that's perhaps why I've never written about music (despite requests from my equally music-mad better half to sometimes contribute to his blog too). I've almost always experienced music on the level of pure 'feeling', sometimes on an entirely spiritual plane, and its very difficult for me to translate that into words.

Looking back, the earliest memory I have of feeling the power of music is at age eight. My parents, grandparents, uncles & aunts were all watching a Malayalam film, His Highness Abdullah, starring the family favourite, Mohanlal. I was watching too, in parts, but I was more interested in playing with my sister. There's this one song, its like a contest between Mohanlal's character and a highly accomplished singing guru. I don't know the actual name of it; I refer to it as the 'Anandam' song because that's the word most repeated at the end.

When it first started up, I wasn't really listening. But as it progressed, it caught my attention. I was suddenly as engrossed as everyone else watching the movie. The changes in the melody and the raagas completely fascinated me, and by the time the song reached its climax, I was spellbound. I don't know who the other singer is, but K. J. Yesudas sang for Mohanlal, and the sheer power and passion of his voice and the melody towards the climax left me breathless. My throat felt tight, my heart ached, and I had shivers down my spine ...... but in the most beautiful way possible.

In terms of this tag, which requires you to list your 10 favourite Soulful, Slow & Melodious songs in any 2 languages, hubby told me that this Anandam song isn't exactly 'slow'. But among the very few Malayalam songs I've heard, it is certainly the most soulful & melodious, and holds a very special place in my heart (Nancy, this selection is for you, since you specially asked for it :))

Getting back to the main requirement of the tag, I'm listing 10 favourites in English and Hindi. Again, not all might meet the 'slow' description, since more than tempo, its the soul & melody of a song that grabs me. It took me a while to do this, because I was facing a problem of plenty: how do I restrict myself to just 10??? Anyway, here's my list, in no particular order:

ENGLISH

1. Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers
2. Everything I Do I Do It For You - Bryan Adams
3. Hallelujah - the Leonard Cohen & Rufus Wainwright versions
4. Hey Jude - The Beatles
5. Going Home - Dire Straits
6. Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
7. Harvest Moon - Neil Young
8. May It Be - Enya
9. Father Figure - George Michael
10. Kiss From A Rose - Seal

HINDI

1. O Mere Dil Ke Chain -- Mere Jeevan Saathi
2. Zara Zara -- Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein
3. Ajnabee Shehar -- Jaan-e-mann
4. Tum Se Hi -- Jab We Met
5. Tu Hi Re -- Bombay
6. Aksar -- Shaan (the singer, not the movie ...... its a lesser known track from one of his albums)
7. Dil Kya Kare -- I love both the original version by Kishore Da and Shaan's later take for Instant Karma.
8. Saaiyan -- Kailash Kher
9. Sar Kiye Yeh Pahar -- Strings (the best thing to come out of Pakistan)
10. Tere Khayalon Se -- Shankar Mahadevan

I now tag Amrita, Deeplydip, Mumbai Diva, Smriti and Thought Warp to do this.

13 comments:

  1. sigh! I have so many fav tunes. Also I can never recollect all the song names when I need to.

    will do ma'am!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mumbai Diva - I know, its hard to choose just a few favourites, so take your time :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. i like 19/20 of the songs you've listed. Do not care much for the Bryan Adams song you mentioned.

    I do get you on defining music at the level of pure 'feeling'. I feel music rather than listen to music.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Shalom
    Thanks a lot for this tag...i love music and am going to to do this one very soon :)
    btw we have very similar choice esp in English...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good stuff (the English songs).

    Most of my Indian friends are huge Brian Adams fans :-)))

    ReplyDelete
  6. A - very similar tastes then!!!


    Deeplydip - waiting to see this one!!!


    Agnes - yeah, he's very popular here, one of my long-time favourites :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. Loved ur feelings abt music...tumse hi is beautiful na...I love it too.
    Dil kya kare is my husband's favourite & now mine too;-P.
    Except for May it be from enya & Halleluyah, I recognise & like most of them;-)).

    ReplyDelete
  8. And oh yes how cd I forget to comment on tht HHA song....its absolutely soul touching & I have to blink a couple of times to see clearly;-).
    Seriously I dont know how i cd forget to include tht song in my list:-S
    Thank U for taking the trouble with the malayalam song:-))

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hope u had a good Easter!!!!!!!!!

    p.s: detailed mail on the way;-D

    ReplyDelete
  10. I also like 1,2 and 3 hindi ones:)

    and dil kya kare...which song..Julie or Dil kya kare?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wish u a belated happy Easter !

    ReplyDelete
  12. Nice list. Out of the list going home is one of my favs. too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Reflections - I think Tumse Hi is the one recent song that I truly love....the rest are all just ok. My eyes fill up too when I hear the HHA song :) And yes, Easter was great!!!


    Renu - Dil Kya Kare from Julie :) Thanks for the Easter wishes!!!


    Solilo - Mark Knopfler composed Going Home for a movie called Local Hero. Hubby wanted to watch the film because he loved the song & that's when I first heard it & fell instantly in love :)

    ReplyDelete