A tribute to old Hindi film music. Songs of the 30s through the 60s.

Miscellaneous

Songs of Alankars: Figures of Speech

March 20, 2025

My last post was also on alankars; that was the jewellery women wear on different parts of their body. The language also needs alankars to beautify it. Without figures of speech a language would be quite bland. A British writer Nate White’s article, “Why do some British people not like Trump” went viral sometime back. […]

Read the full article

Where is the mukhada gone, where is antara gone?

January 14, 2025

Where is the mukhada gone, where is antara gone? For most of the history of Hindi film songs they did not go anywhere, they remained rooted where they were supposed to be. The classic structure of our songs was a mukhada with a catchy tune and refrain. This was followed by interlude music and two […]

Read the full article

Kasme vaade pyar wafa sab

June 18, 2024

Our elections are now over after a most toxic campaign. When the two formations were not abusing each other they were competing in promising the electorate moon. Voters seem to have now become smart. They must have realised that most of the promises would not be, cannot be fulfilled. There is no free lunch; if […]

Read the full article

Songs of Yore completes 14 years

June 7, 2024

When I started this blog I never imagined that it would go on for so long. And it is not just clocking year after year. Songs of Yore is perhaps the only place where you will find a comprehensive series on Arrangers and Musicians, the people who embellished the songs with various instrumental preludes, interludes […]

Read the full article

Female bonding and their duets

March 8, 2024

Commemorating the International Women’s Day with female duets Men may not be from Mars nor women from Venus, but there is a fundamental difference in the way the two genders bond with each other. In semi-urban settings at a party, the two genders automatically segregate, each forming their own group. We generally ascribe it to […]

Read the full article

Street Dancers of Bollywood

February 13, 2024

Guest article by DP Rangan (An interesting feature of our films is the dances performed in the streets, often by unknown actors. Sometimes the main protagonists also take to dancing and singing in the streets. Naturally a big crowd assembles around them enjoying the performance. These songs generally come at a critical juncture in the […]

Read the full article

Songs of Yore completes 13 years

June 7, 2023

Today the Songs of Yore completes thirteen years. The last three years have brought great disruption in the world. In the years 2020 and 2021, the pandemic was on a rampage. The year gone by saw a debate whether Covid19 is gone or still around. Finally, the scientific opinion has veered around that this unwanted […]

Read the full article

Songs of Synecdoche and Onomatopoeia

April 28, 2023

The CBSE syllabus for its Board examinations in English includes a topic ‘Poetic Devices’ or ‘Figures of Speech’. The common ones like simile, metaphor, irony, hyperbole and oxymoron have entered our everyday vocabulary. But two sound very profound and scholarly: Synecdoche and Onomatopoeia. I start with a brief introduction before I come to the songs.

Read the full article

Ballads of Love: Agony

April 7, 2023

Guest article by DP Rangan (DP Rangan had written on the ecstasy side of love when the stars shine bright, sky is bluer than ever, flowers are in bloom, and the world smiles tenderly. But joy and sorrow are the two sides of the same coin – खुशी के साथ दुनिया में ह्ज़ारों ग़म भी […]

Read the full article

Ballads of Love: Ecstasy

March 18, 2023

Guest article by DP Rangan (We celebrated Holi sometime back. This is the season of romance and love, when the flowers bloom, there is music in the stream of rivulets and rustling of leaves, and the hearts of even old people are aflutter with desire. There is a folk proverb to describe this: ‘फागुन में […]

Read the full article

← Previous Entries