Bollywood Freak Out | Bodega Pop vol. 7

Just reupped this two-dozen track revelation here.

I gave myself a task: Using only CDs I'd purchased in Jackson Heights, Queens, over the last decade or so, create the Single Most Kick Ass 1970s-80s Bollywood Freak Out Mix of All Time without resorting to any track included on any previous Western Consumer-targeted Bollywood Funk/Disco/Dance or other compilation. (Feel free to let me know where fucked up on that one, as I can't imagine, given how many comps there are out there, that I didn't.)

As you listen to this sweat-stained comp, comparing it to your copies of Bollywood Funk, Bollywood Funk Experience, and Funk from Bollywood Action Films, let me ask you a question: How much does your ass hurt, being kicked as it is by this far superior compilation?

This Superior Tip Top 100% Super Dance Action comp goes out with Xtreme Love to the Bodega's all-time BFFs: Carol, Doug, Holly, and, above all, fellow Bollywood traveler Rodney. You know who you are. 

As an aside: I've heard complaints from yon and hither that "Oh it's a RAR file I can't open a RAR file I don't know what to do with a RAR file my hands are tied."

So, until further notice, and unless someone taps me on the shoulder and whispers the RAR secrets into my ear, I'll be merely zipping files for the foreseeable future.

At WFMU Super DJ Doug Schulkind's request, here's a full track list with film titles and dates:

1. Aa Dekhen Zara, Rocky, 1981
2. Zindagi Meri Dance, Dance Dance, 1987
3. Bachna Ae Haseeno, Hum Kisise Kum Naheen, 1977
4. Naheen Naheen! Abhee Naheen! Abhee Karo Intazaar!, Jawani Deewani, 1972
5. Super Dancer, Dance Dance, 1987
6. Jawani Jan-E-Man, Namak Halaal, 1982
7. Tridev, Tridev, 1989
8. Duniya Mein, Apna Desh, 1972
9. Jeena Bhi Kya Koi Jeena Hai, Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki, 1984
10. Bolo Bolo Kuch To Bolo, Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai, 1981
11. Dance Dance, Dance Dance, 1987
12. Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki, Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki, 1984
13. Laila O Laila, Qurbani, 1980
14. Mil Gaya Ham Ko Saathi, Hum Kisise Kum Naheen, 1977
15. Tum Kya Jano, Hum Kisise Kum Naheen, 1977
16. Yeh Naina Yaad Hai Piya, Manzil Manzil, 1984
17. Ooie Ooie, Star, 1982
18. Mujhe Maar Daalo, Geeta Mera Naam, 1974
19. Aap Jaisa Koi (Instrumental), Qurbani, 1980
20. One Two Cha Cha Cha, Shalimar, 1978
21. Pyar Zindagi Hai, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, 1978
22. He Baba, Manzil Manzil, 1984
23. Disco Deewane, Disco Deewane (album, not a film), 1981
24. Yeh Mera Dil Yaar Ka Diwana, Don, 1978

O.P. Nayyar | Mr & Mrs 55 + Aar Paar

Reupped by reader request, here.

No idea where I got this. I have hundreds of Bollywood soundtracks, mostly from Jackson Heights, Queens, although I picked up a few on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn and in Edison, New Jersey.

This, without question, is one of my favorites. O.P. Nayyar was the only successful Bollywood composer who never, ever worked with Lata Mangeshkar; it's said he was largely responsible for giving Geeta Dutt, Mohamad Rafi and, especially, Lata's sister, Asha Bhosle, their careers. Whatever the case, he wrote some of the hottest pop music, from any culture, throughout the 50s, 60s and early 70s.

"Mr. & Mrs. 55" is not my favorite Guru Dutt movie, but it's pretty great, and features, in addition to the fabulous Madhubala as a feminist, Dutt himself as a cartoonist. (In one of the most famous exchanges from the film, a new acquaintance asks: "Tum communist?" (("Are you a communist?")) "Ji nahin. Cartoonist." (("No. Cartoonist.")))

"Aar Paar," a far less interesting film, does however feature what I believe is the single most remixed song of all time, and this from the most remix happy culture on earth: Shamshad Begum singing "Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar":

Laxmikant-Pyarelal | Khuda Gawah

Reupped in case you missed it, here.

[Originally posted in April 2010.] At some point in 1994 when I was living in St. Paul, Minn., a friend across the river in Minneapolis took me to see an Indian film, the title of which had been translated as “God Is My Witness.” This three-hour 1992 Bollywood epic following a couple of generations of Afghan tribes-people was the first Indian movie of any kind that I had ever seen.

To say that I was not really prepared for it is both an understatement and the wrong approach. More than any other film I’ve seen, “Khuda Gawah” completely changed my life forever. I loved every second of it: the supercharged game of buzkashi that opens and sets the pace and tone; the incredible songs (composed by superstar team Laxmikant Pyrarelal); and the fabulous performances by Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi:

It is no exaggeration when I say that I spent the next 10 years of my life desperately searching for a tape or CD of this soundtrack. Unfortunately, I was missing a key piece of information: Hindi Bollywood film titles are never, ever, ever translated into English, even though DVDs of almost every Hindi Bollywood film have English subtitles. As I discovered on subsequent trips to Devon Avenue in Chicago, "God Is My Witness" was not a film that anyone working in an Indian video/CD store was familiar with.

It wasn't until 2004, three years after I moved to the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, that I discovered first a DVD of the film (I instantly recognized the image on the cover) and then, shortly thereafter, a CD of the soundtrack (shown above), at a Pakistani video store on Coney Island Avenue (Pak Video, 1058 Coney Island Avenue, just below Foster).

Six years later, I'm still listening to this remarkable CD; it remains one of my all time favorite Bollywood soundtracks.

Pyaasa + Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam

Get it here.

When WFMU's Doug Schulkind played the upsettingly gorgeous "Jaane Kya Tune Kahi" this morning on his Give the Drummer radio show, I realized that I somehow never managed to shelve this soundtrack in the bodega, despite the fact that it and its companion score Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam are two of my personal faves. As I commented this morning, Pyaasa is one of the greatest films of all-time -- the same is equally true of Sahib, though it's much less well known. The music (SD Burman, Pyaasa; Hemant Kumar, Sahib) is nothing short of stunning.

"Jaane Kya Tune Kahi" from Pyaasa:


"Bhanwara Bada Nadan" from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam:

Bappi Lahiri | Paapi and Humsa Hai Zamana

Listen to "Pyar Hai Gunah" from Paapi 

 
Listen to "Come on Come on" from Paapi

 
Listen to "Tanu Manu" from Humse Hai Zamana

 
Listen to "Aakhon Ka Salam" from Hunse Hai Zamana

Slap Pappi down.

BODEGAPOP: I was so thrilled to find Paapi in Jackson Heights last week, especially after Holly's glowing recommendation of it earlier this month. It's such a classic!

BAPPI LAHIRI: Contemporary Hindi cinema has failed Bappi Lahiri. Is there like a skeleton I can chew or pulverize into a tea that makes life livable again? The Bappi of the 80s was what we all wanted. We wanted me to sing. Bollywood has always been way fucking out there in genius scenes of pain with very little possibility of return. So, I am grateful to god for giving me the direction to create another memorable hit in Pappi. 

BODEGAPOP: How would you characterize that direction?

BAPPI LAHIRI: Well, I wanted to achieve a more “meta” state, so I went through EVERY reel of Zeenat Aman, sifting for days through footages of her getting gas or visiting the bathroom for two-second dialogues. If you remember, my international collaborations started way back when I bought Samantha Fox. At that point, I was doing 37 films a year, it was such an explosive bed of landmines from which to fabricate my intricate soundscapes, to make my virtual puppets sing anything I might fancy, to become Bappi's mouthpiece to the world.

BODEGAPOP: Were you satisfied with Zeenat's performance?

BAPPI LAHIRI: Bappi Lahiri will always be a trendsetter within the Music Industry. Well, there’s Brian Wilson but he’s sort of retarded. And there’s Phil Spector, I guess, but he killed that Hard Rock Cafe hostess. Bappi is a very humble, nice boy. He has a black belt.

BODEGAPOP: I have to say, this CD sounds like an LP rip, but of an LP that has been on serious rotation since it was first printed in 1977. Can you talk about pop culture preservation standards in the subcontinent?

BAPPI LAHIRI: What today people call as disco was very different from what I gave 30 years back. When I first came to the United States two years after Paapi in 1979 on a world tour, I visited a couple of night clubs and they were playing John Travolta’s music and I asked the DJ about the details of it. He plainly put it as a disc played in the night. That was Disco. 

BODEGAPOP: But this record predates that.

BAPPI LAHIRI: I have survived this industry 40 years because of divine support. Like Philip K. Dick, I got struck in the forehead with a pink laser, but instead of 6,000 pages of religious revelations, I have composed songs for 466 films so far, in Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali and Tamil. It is all because of the god up there.

Bappi Lahiri | Disco Dancer +

Listen to "I Am a Disco Dancer" from Disco Dancer


Listen to "Auva Auva Koi Yahan Nache" from Disco Dancer


Listen to the title song from Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki


Listen to "Jeena Bhi Kya Koi Jeena Hai" from Kasam Paida Wale Ki

D is for down.

BODEGAPOP: You were born Alokesh Lahiri. Why "Bappi"?

BAPPI LAHIRI: You have asked me a very difficult question. When I met Michael Jackson in 1996, he appreciated Bappi's east-west blend of disco. He used to say: "You are coming from 'Jimmi Jimmi' country," after the "Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja" number from Disco Dancer. As I explained to him, early on Lataji called me by my childhood nickname, Bhappi, and because of this the entire music industry thought I was Bhappi. So from Bhappi to Bappi da to Bling Bling Bappi da.

BODEGAPOP: Speaking of Michael Jackson, "Jeena Bhi Kya Koi Jeena Hai" seems to open with the bass riff from Jackson's "Billie Jean" ... and "Auva Auva Koi Yahan Nache" lifts the bouncy keyboard riff and "Oh-Wah-Ohs" from the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star." 

BAPPI LAHIRI: In Bappi's era we adapted songs and tunes. But that was one or two songs out of 10. Today, the condition is so poor. A recent album had six songs, all of which were lifts. I don't know where that leaves originality.

BODEGAPOP: When I picked this CD up in Jackson Heights today, I wasn't prepared to like Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki so much -- even more so than Disco Dancer, which of course is one of my all-time faves.

BAPPI LAHIRI: I have a special attachment with Disco Dancer, which was not much popular in India. In Russia and China it was a super hit. 

BODEGAPOP: Why do you think that was?

BAPPI LAHIRI: Others like watching others looking at others. It's an endless series of fun house mirrors.

BODEGAPOP: "Bling Bling Bappi da"?

BAPPI LAHIRI: Jewelry is a part of Bappi Lahiri's identity. I have a craze for buying gold whenever possible; gold is lucky for me--gold and precious watches (time). This locket, in fact, when Michael Jackson visited me in Mumbai, he praised this locket very much. 

BODEGAPOP: To what do you attribute your success?

BAPPI LAHIRI: If Bappi has been able to create music that makes small children to middle age people to old adults dancing, it is because of the pulse which I think is given by god.

Bappi Lahiri | Zakhmee and Aap Ki Khatir

 
"Nothing Is Impossible!" 

Not even this.

BODEGAPOP: You were born in Calcutta in 1952, an only child of two famous musicians: Your father, Aparesh, was a singer, and your mother--

BAPPI LAHIRI: What would you do if you inherited a pizzeria from your uncle? Bappi was trained in every aspect of music, and even at the tender age of three, beating out great rhythms on the tabla, I knew that I would become nationally famous, internationally famous, superinternationally famous.

BODEGAPOP: So, Zakhmee ... it's your breakout soundtrack, yeah?

BAPPI LAHIRI: Bappi wrote the music and sang playback for Zakhmee (1975), which brought me to the heights of fame and brought forth a new era in the Hindi film industry. Bappi rose from strength to strength, and the music for my subsequent films were tremendously popular, placing Bappi on the pedestal of stardom, making me the youngest music director of my time to have attained such intense success in such a short duration.

BODEGAPOP: You're considered one of the pioneers of disco in India--

BAPPI LAHIRI: Bappi Lahiri is widely recognized throughout India as the sole originator of the disco beat in India. Why do you think only a small percentage of the population makes over $150K? My refreshing, vibrant, and rhythmic music had the entire nation dancing for decades.

BODEGAPOP: They're still dancing. We're still dancing.

BAPPI LAHIRI: Even in the 2010s, Bappi Lahiri’s reign and popularity with the masses remains as strong as ever. How many piano tuners can there be in the world?

Bappi Lahiri | Namak Halaal and Sharaabi

Listen to "Jawani Jan-E-Man" from Namak Halaal 

 
Listen to "Thodisi Jo Pee Lee Hai" from Namak Halaal

 
Listen to "De De Pyar De" from Sharaabi 

Get both soundtracks here.

Another winner from Bollywood's sexiest sexagenarian, Bappi Lahiri. In truth, I picked this up years ago, mainly for Sharaabi's "De De Pyar De," which I loved. I still haven''t seen Namak Halaal, though it has the far superior soundtrack. Both films star Amitabh Bachchan, aka "The Big B"--virtually the single most popular human being on the planet. (When I saw him live at Lincoln Center many years ago the ovation when he came out on stage was like what you'd have expected for the Beatles ca. 1964.) 

I'm up in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for work tonight and a bit of tomorrow; we'll see what I'm able to post while here (I have several things in the queue). Meanwhile, I'm guessing you're going to enjoy this evening's double soundtrack if you pull it down and give it a listen ...

Bappi Lahiri | Dance Dance

Listen to the title song 

 
Listen to "Zindagi Meri Dance" 

 
Listen to "Dil Mera Todo Na" 

Dance is life; life is dance. Live it. [Alas, Divshare removed access to this file.]


I'm sorry. Can someone please explain how it is that I've been running this more-or-less respectable online free music bodega for the last three years without having once whipped out the ol' Bappi? 

Look: I know how much you hate it when the creepy proprietor hovers around you like this. You just want to anonymously peruse the shelves, your pretty head free of care. This is your "me" time. The last thing in the world you want to see is me coming around the register and pulling down "must listen"s with my half-clenched, talon-like hands. But this time I just can't help myself. Seriously. Take a seat, I implore you. 

I realize the samples above are long. Very, very long. And they don't hit their grooves, most of them, for a full minute, minute-and-a-half, two minutes. But MY GOD do they groove. 

I'm sorry, I'm making you cringe. I can see that. I'll back off a bit. 

Is this far enough away? 

(Cough.) 

I just ... it's ... FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY WILL YOU PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DOWNLOAD THIS ALBUM ALREADY?!? Really, I swear to you, this is easily one of the most devastatingly fabulous pieces of pop trash you have ever heard. I don't care how much Algerian Rai, how much Bollywood, how many Cambodian Rocks, how much Dabke, how many Ethiopian Grooves you've spent your time on earth stuffing into your ears.

This album is a revelation. 

"Excuse Me, Please!"

Things people have said to me over the years upon my walking into South Asian video stores.

10 Bollywood Memories I'll Take with Me to My Grave

A piece I wrote (with lots of embedded video) just went live on Indiewire's Press Play here.

Shankar Jaikishan | Suraj & Gumnaam

With the exception of NRIs, most Americans' first experience of Bollywood was probably seeing a good portion of the scene below--"Jaan Pehechaan Ho," from Gumnaam--in Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World:



As crazy as that scene is, it's nothing compared to this scene later in the film:



I've long suspected that scene to have been a conscious parody of the famous dream sequence in Raj Kapoor's Awaara:



... which, if so, would be especially ironic, given that Bollywood's most famous duo, Shankar Jaikishan, composed the music for both.

Get it all here.

Introducing ... BOLLYVAULT

Okay, I've gone and done it. Given that I've got somewhere between 500-1,000 Bollywood soundtracks from the 1940s-1960s, it seems a shame not to share them all with you. So, in addition to this blog, I've started another: Bollyvault.

Enjoy!

Kohinoor & Aan soundtracks | Naushad

Listen to Lata Mangeshkar sing "Aaj Mere Man Mein Sakhi" from "Aan"

Get it all here.

A friend recently told me he'd just seen Abigail Child's "Mirror World," a short experimental film that I collaborated on with Abby several years ago. You can watch it here. My contribution was limited to (a) choosing the source film (or several Bollywood films, from which, Abby chose Mehboob Kahn's epic early color film "Aan") and (b) supplying the language, which was all "found"--literally just subtitles from various other Bollywood films.

That reminded me that I hadn't posted many Bollywood soundtracks recently, so I decided to post the soundtrack to the film that serves as the basis for "Mirror World." Like most Bollywood soundtracks on CD, it comes with two soundtracks; in this case, that of a much later film, "Kohinoor." The great Naushad Ali composed the music for both. Singers include Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar and the insanely underrated Shamshad Begum.

I was interviewed about a month or two ago by a brilliant Anthropology grad student, Portia Sedon, who is writing her Master's thesis on music blogs. She interviewed a number of music bloggers, wanting to get at our motivation for blogging and our general philosophy, if any, behind what we do. I confessed at the time that, while I love doing the hodge-podge that is Bodega Pop--it's really, to me, a blog as much about New York City and the immigrants who make their home here, as it is about fabulous music--part of me would like, someday, to do a more focused blog on Bollywood soundtracks.

I have hundreds of them, mostly from the 50s-60s, the "golden age" of Hindi film. Poking around online this evening, I couldn't really find anything out there now that focuses on this incredible treasure trove. So ... I'm thinking.

I won't abandon Bodega Pop. But I'm thinking I might launch a second blog, dedicated to this music. It seems like it would serve a genuine function, providing listeners and scholars (*cough*) alike with a vault of some of the most incredible pop music ever made. [Wipes tear-of-inspiration from eye.] In order to justify it, though, I feel like I'd have to include full track listings, composer(s) names, lyricist names, singers, etc., etc.--in other words, make it data heavy, and well-organized, so people could actually use it as a reference.

What do you think? Should I do it? Would it be too much like having a second job? I'm on the fence; it might be a lot of work but I can also see how it'd be enormously gratifying. Also, I kind of already came up with a sort of cool name for it. Ergh. Ack! Gawhd. Can't ... decide ...

RD Burman, Momentous

Download songs here.

I found this compilation the last time Nada and I were in Chicago, in an Indian book/video/CD store on Devon Street.

Rahul Dev Burman, better known as RD Burman, was the son of the famous and successful Bollywood composer, SD Burman, and the husband of one of Bollywood's most famous singers, Asha Bhosle, who sang more than 800 of RD's songs. Considered the last great innovator of Bollywood music, Burman took inspiration from anywhere and everywhere, and often used unconventional instruments, such as the bottles you'll hear being blown into in "Mehbooba Mehbooba," or--in a song not included in Momentous--water, being gargled by Asha as she sang.

Formally trained in his childhood, RD's music was all over the map, ranging from Bollywoodized Indian classical to rock to disco to funk to jazz to Bengali song to--you name it. He plagiarized shamelessly, always making what he stole distinctly his own. See, for instance, this Web page, which offers numerous samples of RD's music along with what inspired it. (Listen, for instance to "Mehbooba Mehbooba" next to Demis Roussoss’s "Say You Love Me." A clear case of lifting, but there's no contest as to which is the stronger version.)

He died fairly young--at 44, in 1994--at a time when his career was on the outs. But, in the 15 years that have followed he's gone on to become the single most remixed Bollywood composer of all time. Even younger people who don't know they know his songs, know his songs--or at least re-versions of them.

Given the breadth of his work, this CD is hardly representative, but perhaps a nice entry. Note: You may have to scroll up on the playlist, which for some reason seems to want to start you out with the 8th track rather than the 1st.