A while ago I had written about my love for words here.I had ended the post saying that words and music are two things in this world that I couldn't live without (of course, people are outside the purview of that list). So it is really difficult for me to pick one favourite song. There are way too many.
Having done my schooling in Kendriya Vidyalayas, I've never learnt my mother tongue officially. I do not have a school certificate that lists out my score in that subject. I know how to speak and read it. But writing it has never been my strong suit. I will probably manage but as I learnt in 6th standard, my sincere letter to my grandmother while she was away for a month turned out to be unintentionally funny, providing laughter to her and the extended family of relatives she was staying with. So now I write in that language only for comic effect. This also meant that I wasn't exposed to the high brow literature of the language. Well, honestly, the only "literature" I was exposed to in that language was newspapers. This meant that my vocabulary was limited to regularly spoken words.Therefore, one of the things that attracted me so much to English songs was the fact that I could understand what they were singing about, after I got over the accent barrier that is. Till I crossed that barrier, I had internet sites telling me what was being sung.
I was exposed to English music very early on. When I was very young, maybe around 4 or 5 years old, my Uncle used to listen to a few English artists. I distinctly remember two cassettes - Michael Jackson's Dangerous and Boney M's Best of Collection. However, the only two songs I remember hearing then was the famous "aaaooooo" from Michael Jackson and Boney M singing Bob Marley's "No woman no cry". Yes, I did listen to all those songs later. But these two are the only things I remember from them. Oh, also that I was pretty amazed at the openness with which Boney M sang "no woman no cry". In my head, with my limited knowledge in English and before my introduction to Rastafarian speak, it meant there would be no crying if there weren't women in the world!
After that, it was mostly Chitrahaar and Rangoli. There were just two channels - DD1 and DD2. And of course, A R Rahman (ARR) came along. There were a few regional songs too. These faded away as ARR strengthened his presence in the household. We had almost all the cassettes to his songs thanks to my brother's undying love for his music. When I started my 7th grade, we had moved to a new place. This was a livelier housing colony. Also, by then the cable tv had made its way into our house. This meant that there were more channels, more exposure. From the (then) predominantly English music channel, MTV to the French MCM. Also, a few of our neighbours and later friends were aspiring musicians. A guitarist/bassist and a drummer. These two made sure that they passed on a healthy dose of English music to my brother. We did go through the Backstreet Boys, etc zone for a short period. I remember that I never liked the extremely pop ones like NSync.
(Aside: I never in my dreams thought that I'd ever mention these bands on my blog. There's only Bieber left now I suppose. Ah. There you go.)
With that effort to somehow minimise the damage with the comment about NSync, let's move on, shall we?
The first song that really stuck was The Verve's 'Bittersweet Symphony'. I remember my brother being super excited about the song. He heard it at our friend's place and he came running to the house to tell me about it. He then showed me the lyrics. He was right. It was amazing how someone could have worked with those lyrics to produce such an amazing song. It's not that the lyrics are rubbish. They are amazing. It's just that it wasn't the usual rhyming patterns we were used to.
From "You are my fire / my one desire" to " 'Cause it is a bittersweet symphony, this life / trying to make ends meet you're a slave to the money then you die"
It was a giant massive leap and we couldn't hold our excitements in. We loved The Verve. This was just the beginning. Soon I was listening to Radiohead's 'High and Dry' while playing Speed. Slowly, more and more artists joined. Cassettes gave way to CDs. Albums after albums of music that didn't just sound good, but also had beautiful lyrics. That is when I realised that I shall always be biased towards songs that reflected some sense of melancholy. After the pop numbers I had listened to, these sounded refreshing as well as honest. Life's not a bed of roses. Yeah. Say it as it is Ashcroft! Richard Ashcroft, frontman of The Verve, inspired me to write poems. And reminded me again and again with his lyrics to keep it simple and to forget about the rhymes. More importantly, I realised that I didn't want to write about happy things. Yes, most of my poems end with having found a ray of hope to cling on to. But somehow I believed that instead of telling people that everything is alright it is better to burst their bubbles and open their eyes so that they can find a way out. Out of where? I don't know. But somehow, a teeny pop idea of the world just did not seem to be true. It was not an innocent idea, it was a deceptive idea. And dishonesty is just not right, and especially singing along to it!
During these years, I have listened to many more songs. There is an indescribable thrill that accompanies the discovery of a song. It amazes me how people can poignantly describe emotions, make sure that they make music that does not drown out the words, and immerse the senses not just in the passive but the active activity of relating to words, to trigger memories, to enable us to feel the ways we have felt before or even the ways we haven't felt as yet. I cannot imagine living without music. And surprisingly it teaches us too, silently - the rhythms, the harmony, the immense patience with which it finishes each note, and the sense of belonging that it affords everyone who is willing to listen. I guess this is what Ashcroft meant when he sang " 'Cause music is power / let it flow through your mind.../ rocking like a cradle / it won't let you go"!
PS: Unedited version
Good to see this post, I thought you gave up!
Because you love lyrics so much just like me, I wish you could try urdu ghazals as well - the most poetic and amazing expression of melancholy.