The LP of the mind!

The whole day the mind has been playing LPs of various rotational speeds (ref LP at Wikipedia). Listening to the trash that radio dishes out in the name of music. And then occasionally you hear a familiar hummable, melody and there's this silly smile on the face. After all music is the bell that rings in the 'memory recess' isn't it? Time to let the mostly good times roll and of course if it's some mushy number then time to let the 'boo hoo hoo...haa haaahaa...swine...why....if only..." roll.

I remember my ma who is now well over 60 with shining, soft, white hair with tinges of dark hair hidden behind the gossamer curtain of white, telling me of the 'house of bamboo' and 'summer holiday' LPs that her uncle (my grand uncle) used to play in his 4 LP changer. This was in the early 1950s mind you. More than half a century ago. And my grand mom (bless her soul, was a wonderfully bright and enthusiastic woman with scuh amazing sense, God, how I wish you were here 'bada mummy' - 'bada' meaning big - miss you real bad and am sure you'd be proud of your grandkids if you were to see them lead 'successful' lives, except yours truly, LOL) would tell me about 'Irma La Douce' and 'can can' and I'm sure my eyes glazed over as the imagination of that world took over. I wanted to live in that era then. It seemed so romantic and innocent and earnest and gracious.

Then I grew up with the Beatles when Robin and Roland (I think that was his name), 2 Catlick (as Catholic or Chrisitian or Protestant or East Indians, anyone remotely visiting a Church would be called) boys living opposite my aunt's house in a suburb called Andheri (where she continues to live) would come and teach me the jive. It was a classic Arnold and the dog in the 'True Lies' kind of picture. They were both well over 6 feet and I was of course a pigmy at 4 ft nothing many moons ago before I hit the acne-scarred, budding years of my angst-ridden teenage phase. It was fun and heady. I learnt all the Beatles songs and ever since I'm a die-hard Beatles fan. I love their songs and have many CDs of their wonderful songs.

Then of course came the phase of the Golden Swedes called ABBA and Boney M and 'Daddy Cool' and the John Travolta's suggestive swagger of 'Saturday Night Fever'. I would rewind the VHS tape in the VCP (yes, we had only a playera and not a recorder) over and over and over again and 'pause' at the steps and try and match him step for step. I can still do it to some extent...LOL. Yes, that was fun. That music was catchy and memorable. Though one can argue that at an impressionable age, anything that you hear by default becomes memorable. Umm...well, I'd like to ask the teenage kids today 15 years later if they can remember Beyonce's Irreplaceable.

Of course if this blog and post were well known outside the ring of anonyomity and the 2 people who read it regularly - Pruv and Psyche - I'd be replaced pretty soon am sure for the following comment. But that song which is ruling at the A T 40 (American Top 40 if you please hosted by the good looking, cocky Ryan Seacrest who was incidentally listed as one of the 100 odd most powerful celebrities by Forbes last year in their Power List - who makes these lists anyway for crying out loud - an American 'top of the charts' radio programme which is now heard here in India too) is bad. Of course it's not half as bad as Fergie's of the Black Eyed Peas fame singing Delicious and she's come out with another called Glamorous. God help the kids of today. In fact there's no hope for the rest of humanity.

Beyonce - nice as she looks, sounds, nice as she dresses and I believe now she can act too, what with her nomination for Dreamgirls I think at the Golden Globe, not sure if she's nominated for Uncle Oscar, and however 'bootlylicious' she may be - if she can decide to pronounce the lyrics of her song and let the world understand what she's yodeling about, it might give her a few brownie points. After being an unwilling listener - it's aired on every radio channel any time of the day or night God help me - one has figured that it's about some boy friend who she's basically telling to go take a hike or is it? Who is she calling 'irreplaceable'? Don't know. But if the last line of the chorus para can be deciphered, it'd be akin to cracking a Sudoku puzzle. I haven't bothered looking up any lyrics' web site, because every time I hear it, I go, 'ummm....don't be ffeckeeee....' or is it 'don't be awickeeee....' or is it...balls! Ugh! Who ffffuckeee cares! I won't ever hum it.

And madame Fergie who looks like a trash bag and is apparently the latest model to pose for some Candies or some such which is 'oh such an honour' sings about being delicious. It's nothing but sick porn in the form of lyrics. 'Boys sitting on ther rocks and seeing what she got' and then it gets progressively worse. Sic!

Of course there are songsters like this guy called Snow Patrol, (hey,I think it's a band), who sing 'Chasing Cars'. Now that's a sweet song. Or John Mayer singing 'waiting for the world to change'. It's playing on World Space now. 'So we keep on waiting on the world to change'. Oh yes, baby, if only!

Anyway, when you cast your mind back to the songs that move you, you basically go back to the lyrics which mean something to you. For instance I heard 3 songs back-to-back on a request show on radio (where else, after all it's on every time I'm driving and I'm driving a lot), which is why it was so good - Sinead O'Connor's 'Nothing Compares to You', Shania Twain's 'You're the One' and I think Coldplay's 'The Scientist'. Bliss! Different singing styles, personalities and perhaps genres. But good stuff. See, ultimately people like stuff that makes sense.

So it's the beginning of the Single's Awareness Week as Ryan Seacrest put it, which is an interesting take on that 'hearty' day also otherwise known as 'V...ine's Day' and it's time for all the beautiful songs to be dedicated to loved ones.

I'd like to dedicate the following songs to myself, and so what if it's so not done and all that, I like myself and here's to me:
a) Lady - Kenny Rogers
b) She's always a woman - Billy Joel
c) Annie's Song - John Denver
d) Something - Beatles
e) Probably Me - Sting
f) Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
g) Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
And tons of others including some great Hindi songs. 'Tum se milkar' from Parinda and 'ranjish hee sahee' a ghazal sung by Ghulam Ali and so on.

Long LP eh? Well, it was a stack of 4 now. :)