It was way past midnight in Chapel Hill and we, the usual
gang of friends, were returning from the Irish pub. It was raining heavily as
it always rained heavily in Chapel Hill during late summer. Suddenly, WCHL
started playing a very old Beatles song, “Two of us”, and SDG, AB and I all
shouted out loud hearing that song after a long time. That song used to be
played on a loop in our hostel computer room almost everyday but even today I
have no clue why that song was so popular in the hostel.
Listening to music has always been one of my favorite pastime. It not only brings back some of the best memories from the younger days,
but also it rejuvenates me in many ways. “Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel has
always been one of my all-time favorites. The composition of this song is mindboggling
and it has always given me a bump in my lows. It does have a Bengali version
called “Mounomukhorota” by Chandrabindoo.
I grew up in a place where we used to listen to
Rabindrasangeet, Najrul Giti, Manna Dey or Hemanta Mukhopadhyay’s songs or folk
songs all day long. Definitely those songs are one of my favorites. But the
excessiveness of such slow music became monotonous in the long run and I was
trying to escape from it. Late in school, I started listening to Bengali bands.
Anjan Dutta’s song at that time seemed to be the most interesting. I remember
listening “Khader dharer railing ta” and then ended up listening to each song
in that album. “Priyo Bondhu” was
another favorite of mine from my school days. Also, around that time, I started listening to
Kabir Suman and Nachiketa. The song “Ambition” by Nachiketa was very popular
among the school friends and we ended up remaking it with silly words and the
actual meaning of that song eventually got lost.
There was no Youtube during our childhood days. So,
whatever that we listened at that time were from cassettes brought from a
friend’s place or rented from the local “morer dokan”. Somehow it was more fun
those days to listen to the music on a walkman or on a recorder compared to
listening to music on Youtube these days. Even when the reel of a cassette used
to get twisted we used to roll it straight so that it does not get destroyed.
My exposure to Hindi music was also during my middle school
days when A.R. Rahman came up with some of his best compositions. “Dil se re”
was by far one of the most favorite Hindi song from that time. I also started
listening to Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeskar around that time.
While Kishore Kumar’s songs were melodious while Mohammed Rafi’s songs were
more dramatic in melody as well as in lyrics. Like every Indian, even today I
listen to Kishore Kumar-Lata Mangeskar combination because they composed some
of the best duets during the golden era of Indian cinema.
College was a perfect place for me to try out different
genres of music and to read how music evolved over time in the West. My hostel
room was right next to the computer room where music never stopped. I won’t deny,
way late at night it used to be a bit annoying when someone would play “Sweet
child of mine” and it would be difficult for me to sleep. But that was nothing
compared to the perks that I used to enjoy having a room right beside the music
room.
During the initial days in college we used to listen to a lot of Beatles songs. This band as it started with only four friends transformed the entire spectrum of music starting from 1960s. They wrote the songs of love and peace and they were the pioneers of rock music ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic music. “Here comes the Sun”, “Yesterday”, “Norwegian Wood”, “Imagine”, “Let it be”, “Hey Jude”, “Come
Together” are a few examples of Bealte’s all time best songs. Frankly speaking every single song that Beatles composed were extremely good and nice and it will be hard for me to choose one over the other. I have always liked Psychedelic rock music and around that time I first listened to Syd Barret and Grace Slick. That and many more will be kept for part II of this write up.
