All the Right Notes: R.D Burman

[anant_s]

Before there was A.R Rehman, there was another uprising – a revolution of sorts unlike anything Bollywood or the Indian music industry had ever seen before, and these revolutionary sounds came from the studio of the legendary R.D Burman.

The original, ‘original’ composer, Rahul Dev Burman was the only son of S.D Burman and was single handedly responsible for upturning the status quo of the Indian Music Industry. He was popular for introducing electronic pop and rock to Hindustani classical and Bengali folk music.

Some of his best work include ‘Chura liya hai tumne’, Kya hua tera vada’, ‘Phoolon ka taaron ka’ among others. Better known as Panchamda in the industry, he was married to the music icon Asha Bhonsle who catapulted to fame on the back of Panchamda’s compositions.

One of his last compositions before his untimely death was the music of the Gulzar directed film, Ijaazat that included the unforgettable ‘Mera kuch saamaan’. Sadly Panchamda died with his lustrous music career in shambles. His score for the movie, ’1947 – A Love Story’ was released after his death and he won his last filmfare award for the film posthumously.

His music however remains timeless, evergreen and unforgettable, delighting generation after generation.

http://daily.indianroots.com/all-the-right-notes-r-d-burman/
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Happy 77th Pancham Da!

It is impossible to select one particular song from the person who had a tune for every occasion, but my favorite remains this one, for it brought Kishore Da, Gulzar Sahab and Pancham together.

@Levina @thesolar65 @GURU DUTT @Oscar @ranjeet @Joe Shearer @Robinhood Pandey @jbgt90 @Armstrong @third eye @Imran Khan @Rain Man

 

[third eye]

Sadly Panchamda died with his lustrous music career in shambles.

This is news to me.

 

[nair]

Before there was A.R Rehman, there was another uprising – a revolution of sorts unlike anything Bollywood or the Indian music industry had ever seen before, and these revolutionary sounds came from the studio of the legendary R.D Burman.
View attachment 314000
The original, ‘original’ composer, Rahul Dev Burman was the only son of S.D Burman and was single handedly responsible for upturning the status quo of the Indian Music Industry. He was popular for introducing electronic pop and rock to Hindustani classical and Bengali folk music.
View attachment 314001
Some of his best work include ‘Chura liya hai tumne’, Kya hua tera vada’, ‘Phoolon ka taaron ka’ among others. Better known as Panchamda in the industry, he was married to the music icon Asha Bhonsle who catapulted to fame on the back of Panchamda’s compositions.
View attachment 314002
One of his last compositions before his untimely death was the music of the Gulzar directed film, Ijaazat that included the unforgettable ‘Mera kuch saamaan’. Sadly Panchamda died with his lustrous music career in shambles. His score for the movie, ’1947 – A Love Story’ was released after his death and he won his last filmfare award for the film posthumously.
View attachment 314003
His music however remains timeless, evergreen and unforgettable, delighting generation after generation.
View attachment 314004

http://daily.indianroots.com/all-the-right-notes-r-d-burman/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy 77th Pancham Da!

It is impossible to select one particular song from the person who had a tune for every occasion, but my favorite remains this one, for it brought Kishore Da, Gulzar Sahab and Pancham together.

@Levina @thesolar65 @GURU DUTT @Oscar @ranjeet @Joe Shearer @Robinhood Pandey @jbgt90 @Armstrong @third eye @Imran Khan @Rain Man

combination of Panchamda and Kishore................... NO words!!!!!!!!

 

[anant_s]

This is news to me.

I remember one interview of Asha Bhosle, where she described Pancham's journey in 80s, when Pancham da's career was on decline. After giving blockbuster hits in 60s and 70s, 80s came with a change and new composers (most notably Bappi Lahiri) were coming on scene and older generation including Kalyanji Anandji and laxmikant Pyarelal were slowly pushed to background. Pancham on other hand had to suffer humiliations at time with new generation directors and filmmakers, who thought his music was outdated. Vidhu Vinod Chopra too recalls how he composed his music for 1942: A Love Story, as if he wanted to prove something. He probably was proving that thing to himself only.
Its kind of sad that today's generation knows Pancham's music only from innumerable remixes of his songs.

 

[thesolar65]

And he also had a voice which was unique....."saare sahar mein hammi hai humsha kaun hai" from the mouth of Sanjay dutt. His beats were like... one will automatically begin to move his feet unintentionally. He was unique.....will also held him more than any other except his father. Not to mention "Mehebooba Mehboba" song.

 

[anant_s]

R.D.Burman lives on...



Had R.D.Burman been alive, he would have turned 69 today (77 as on today). Barely a month ago, i was digging out few songs of R.D.Burman and listening to them carefully. I was astonished to discover some of the phenomenal ideas which he had pioneered back then. Some of the ideas are still in vogue. Either he was too ahead of his times, or some of these current generation composers have not moved beyond such ideas.


There are/were/will be many composers whose music not only impressed me but also inspired and influenced me. If i need to list them, particularily from the Indian Film Music arena, the list would be really huge. Yet, R.D.Burman has a special place. There were better and more legendary composers than R.D.Burman, yet what sets him completely apart, in my perspective atleast, is the kind of eccentricity which drove him to create unusual music. It was an eccentricity which only the people close to whom understood, and that included his team-members. To think of it, he was probably one of the foremost composers to have a regular team of musicians around him. and people from that team were/are famously known as Pt.Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma or even Trilok Gurthu.

If we carefully study the works of all yester-year composers, we notice that every composer had a distinct style. I like R.D.Burman not only for his distinct style, but also his out-of-the-box-thought-process. His roots were his legendary father for sure, but he imbibed several other elements and forms thus creating a different brand of music. I usually give different key-words to different composers. if it is Hindustani Music to Naushad, then it has to be Western Classical + folk + Indian classical to Salil Chaudhary. If it is pure sensitive melody to Madan Mohan, then it is folk + indian classical + bengali music to S.D.Burman. Shankar JaiKishan for classical + commercial music and C.Ramchandra would get vintage melody. In the case of R.D.Burman, i do not have any keywords. RD itself is a keyword.

R.D's one of the biggest contributions to Indian Film Music is giving importance to sound. sound of a song or even an instrument. If today, RD's team-members assemble and play his music, it purely out of their love for the man who let them gain their stature, by emphasizing on the crispness of sound. And if we trace the sound of R.D's music, it has many phases during which it evolved. His early and mid 60s had vintage sound with lot of traditional instruments. the sound changed in early 70s. His innovative self broke open and he went on to create energetic numbers, one after another, amply punctuating them with wonderful classical numbers too. As 80s came, he began freaking with electronic instruments and a far crisper bass guitar (bass notes rock). The traditional instruments did not lose their place in his ensemble. it was only that he just went on adding things to his scheme of work.

Lot of people have a wrong notion about RD, that RD means only cabaret numbers or fast songs. One rarely talks about his classical songs or even the many other genres he experimented in. If his debut composition was in Raag Malkunji, his last composition was in ChaayaNatt and all that he created in between spanned variety of raagas interspersed with some brilliant ideas borrowed from either western music or baul music or even nature. There are some songs which run as long as 8 mins, with only a single lead melody phrase and yet the music keeps me engrossed.

During my recent tryst with his collection, i chanced upon many wonderful songs, Hindi and Bengali, which went unnoticed before...all carrying some brilliant ideas. Some composers today might be still groping for such kind of ideas. Incidentally, every decent composer of today, right from Shankar-Ehsan-Loy to A.R.Rahman to Shantanu Moitra to Vishal Bharadwaj swear by RD's music. Why not, when people still try to use his ideas. I recently read an interview of Vishal Bharadwaj in which he spoke about his Omkara's "Beedi" song. The song starts off with a "Di-Ding daang ding di-ding daang ding..." and Vishal remarked, "See, RD pops up somewhere or the other". How true? He was referring to the similar pattern RD used on guitar, with a flanger effect, in the song "Dhannon Ki Aankhon Mein" from the film "Kitaab". One might say that RD's era has ended. One might even say that RD was not that great compared to other composers. Yet, one cannot rule out the existence of RD in the pysche of any composer willing to experiment. R.D.Burman lives on...as long as composers want to try something different. Because he dared to be different and he was and what kept him so was only his acute passionate attitude towards music. I am still discovering it all, opening album after album. I hope to write more about specific songs sometime soon.
I am eagerly waiting for a documentary, which was made by a film-maker who studied R.D.Burman's music. It is yet to the released.

http://musicmavericks.blogspot.in/2008/06/rdburman-lives-on.html

 

[thesolar65]

This is news to me.

He was not the only one. Many from entertainment industry die this way. Perhaps they were not financially educated nor they had good advisors to advise them of good investments. Many were eccentrics and thought money would come just like that till death.

 

[SQ8]

R.D burman was good, his music had the tone of melencholy and rebellion; yet I prefer his father.
The biggest issue with music is that we are running out of permutation and combinations that could work. After all, within the limits of human frequency we are running out of compositions that work well for the ears.

In a way SD burman can be credited with as one of the few who broke away from the emulation and copying of European songs and composers that had begun in the early 40's and 50's.

 

[T90TankGuy]

Till today if I am going for one of my frequent long drives i make sure i have R D Burman in my playlist. one can go on listening for hours to him.

 

[Levina]

Vidhu Vinod Chopra too recalls how he composed his music for 1942: A Love Story, as if he wanted to prove something. He probably was proving that thing to himself only.

1942:A love story reminds me of this song..

Did you know this one was also composed by RD Burman?

 

[anant_s]

SD burman

Sachin Dev Burman had his compositions heavily influenced by folk music of Bengal and Tripura (most notably the Baul music). his association with legendary film maker Bimal Roy gave us some of most timeless melodies. He was one the last composers to use minimalistic orchestra setup and as a result, one never gets tired of listening to his work.

If you get time, do watch a movie Bandini (probably Nutan's best work ever in her illustrous career). It features one of greatest Lata Mangeshkar song "Mora gora ang Laile" along with "mere Sajan hai us paar"by SD himself.

 

[SQ8]

Sachin Dev Burman had his compositions heavily influenced by folk music of Bengal and Tripura (most notably the Baul music). his association with legendary film maker Bimal Roy gave us some of most timeless melodies. He was one the last composers to use minimalistic orchestra setup and as a result, one never gets tired of listening to his work.

If you get time, do watch a movie Bandini (probably Nutan's best work ever in her illustrous career). It features one of greatest Laa Mangeshkar song "Mora gora ang Laile" along with "mere Sajan hai us paar"by SD himself.
View attachment 314132

Bandini was pretty depressing and it ranks with and Mother India in terms of movies I cant stomach without a lump in my throat.

 

[[Bregs]]

RD burmans range of music is vast, it cant be measured on any scale of orthodox music. Life without his music seems impossible to me.

Rest in peace dada, you are missed

 

[Stephen Cohen]

@[Bregs]

 

[[Bregs]]

@[Bregs]

All time classic song, Pancham always kept his best for legendary Gulzaar saab