Today Songs of Yore completes two years. While the first year was somewhat tentative and kind of groping its way around, it has become surer of its steps in the second year. I have generally maintained a frequency of a post every two weeks. SoY has also become more interactive. The readers’ comments, views and observations have added a great deal to the blog. They have introduced us to several unknown or little known marvelous songs. Some novel ideas for themes have come from readers’ comments. One example is a string of posts on year wise survey of the best songs of pre-Filmfare Awards. The first post in the series for the year 1955 attracted a lively discussion. This itself gave another idea to write wrap up posts on different categories. I have done the first wrap up on the best male playback singer; three more are still to come.
Another new idea which has come from the readers is the relationship between songs and instruments, how some composers are specially identified with a particular instrument such as, Roshan and flute, OP Nayyar and sarangi. There are several ways of looking at songs and instruments on which I may write some day.
My series on Forgotten Composers Unforgettable Melodies has no definite time line. There are so many of them which were in my mind when I thought about the series, and so many I am discovering now quite regularly that this would go on at its own pace as and when I am able to gather enough material on a particular composer.
Subodh Agrawal’s guest series on songs based on classical ragas is elegantly written. He has done only two articles so far, many more are to come from his pen, and hopefully now more frequently.
The vast ocean of Songs of Yore is limitless. I find I have not covered 30’s and 40’s as much as I would love to do. That is an altogether different fascinating world. One very obvious difference between the Vintage (30’s and 40’s) and the Golden (50’s and 60’s) era is the variability in female playback singing. While the Golden Era was very predominantly Lata Mangeshkar phenomenon, Vintage Era had several distinct and well known singers, Khurshid, Shamshad Begum, Noorjehan, Suraiya, Zohra Ambalewali, Amirbai Karnataki, Kanan Devi etc. This calls for a series on Female Singers of the Vintage Era. I would try to consciously pull myself away from 50-60’s to go back to 30-40’s from time to time.
The journey has been delightful so far, it appears even more exciting ahead.
I started the SoY more स्वान्तः सुखाय (my own pleasure), but many readers have very fondly joined, complimented and shared their own feelings and their knowledge, which is far superior to mine. It is time to say a big Thank You to all the readers who have enhanced this blog in a big way.
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Happy anniversary AK. Songs of Yore has been a voyage of discovery for me. It was a revelation to know so many hidden gems were waiting to be discovered. Look forward to the continuation of the voyage. I’ll do my bit.
all the best.it has been a remarkable 2 yr. journey.
It was indeed a very pleasant reference from one of my friends, Samir Dholakia to SoY almost a year back. The film songs of this period is one of my favorite hobbies. Hence, blog on the topic of my inherent interest was certainly going to retain my interest.
Initially , I was passively enjoying the content – innovative selection of the subject(s), engaging description, easy & flowing language, painstaking research of related audios and videos.
Gradually, I dared to air my views on some of the aspects.
Now,I eagerly lookforward to the new post and comments of its readers. [I sincerely thank Shri AKji and the readers of this blog for bearing with me.]
The SoY certainly is great platform to share the fond memories with the yore generation like me, for the current young generation to help them to enjoy the melody of that era and a great source of reference for the next generations .
So, on this very happy occasion of the 2nd Anniversary of SoY, we wish that SoY जिये हझारों साल, साल के [पोस्ट] हो पचास हजार….. and continue to be source of revitalising the memories of the Golden Period .
@Subodh Agrawal, arvind, Ashok Vaishnav
Thanks a lot for your compliments and good wishes. It has been indeed a voyage of discovery for all of us. Looking forward to your continued support.
AK ji,
Congratulations.
Your blog attracted my attention last year and I found a comfort zone for me here.I could learn many things and also shared some of my knowledge and info here.
It is a pleasure to visit here and share,discuss,learn and enjoy all this,without malice to anyone.
I wish you and your Blog a bright,active(I wish the gap in your post could be 1 week instead of 2 weeks) and a long life with lots of interaction amongst the visitors.
I am always available for any info or other help befitting my capability.
-Arunkumar Deshmukh
Arunkumarji,
Your inputs have been a valuable source of information for many of my articles. Thanks a lot for your support and good wishes. About the frequency, let me see if I can make it more frequent without affecting its quality.
AK, a happy blogthday to you!
Khao piyo aur phoolo phalo!
Thanks for your blog. It is indeed a pleasure to come here and discuss songs with everybody.
Do keep the good work going!
On the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the blog, I wish you and all of the readers very hearty congratulations.
I recall an Urdu poetry befitting for Shri AK (I feel sorry for the full name is not known to me) “mai.n akelaa hi chalaa tha jaanb-e-ma.nzil magar, log milate gaye aur karvaa.n bantaa gayaa.”
I feel great to have found this out luckily. I wish to share one song with the persons who love this blog, ” Film-Anmol Ghadi (1946), Singer-Surendra Nath, kyuu. yaad aa rahe hain, Guzare huye zamaane, Lyricist-Tanvir Naqvi, Composer-Naushad Saheb”. I leave you to realise how it feels to listen to it. Just click the link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg8DjaVbayQ.
I feel grateful for the initiative by you, and for the valuable contributions by all others.
As I am a naive person, knowing nothing about music and the historical background of Indian Film Music, I seek unconditional apology for any indignant comments of mine.
Please accept my profound regards.
AK, Many happy returns of the day. May the blog celebrate many, many such anniversaries. Thank you for provoking some very interesting discussions here.
@harvey, Anu Warrier
Thanks a lot for your good wishes and support to this blog. I am myself a great fan of your blogs, and I dare say I do learn a lot from your blogs as well as form your comments here.
@Suresh Maloo
It is never too late for coming here. No matter how much we thought we knew about music, all of us are still discovering several new gems almost everyday. I started as AK, and I guess it would be like that because I have started enjoying my anonymity.
Dear Sir,
I appreciate your remaining anonymous. Hardly do we find people who do something good and remain complacent.
Thanks for responding to my comments.
Regards.
Dear AKji,
Hearty congractulations on completing two years memorable journey of SOY.
Though I was late in discovering this great site before couple of months I bumped in while searching golden era gems on net.
Thanks for considering my suggetion to write on favourite musical instrument used by composers while recording populer songs during golden era one can judge by listening song who might have composed the song.
Some times I am thinking if the present technology, degitalization,sound technology, data storage, track recording were made available during golden era just imagine these genious playback singers and composers would have dominated the world to get them realized what indian music is all about.
Regards,
Rohit Mehta
Thanks a lot. Your suggestion has indeed given me an idea. But I might present it in a totally different manner. Looking forward to your continued engagement with this blog.
Congratulations on reaching the two-year milestone, it is well-deserved. I may not comment often enough, but I do read (& have read) several pieces, and they all are outstanding.
Just another personal observation, in addition to great knowledge of old hindi music, you posses a fabulous sense of humor. I hope I get to see flashes of it more often 🙂
Thanks a lot for your very generous praise. I do request you should comment here more often. As for humour, you and Harvey are Masters, shall I call you guys Humour Machine. With me, ideas do sometimes start fitting in place but I cannot claim I can produce humour at the snap of a finger.
PS. I should not forget to mention Dustedoff, memsaab, Anu Warrier and whole lot of others who seem to breathe humour. You had an algorithm to solve Harvey’s quiz. Do you have a secret algorithm for humour for humour-challenged persons like me? 🙂
Happy (belated) second anniversary for the blog. Those whom I regard as extremely knowledgeable in the field of old Hindi movie songs regard your blog highly and that shows how much this blog has come to mean to music lovers. I hope and wish that the blog will grow from strength to strength in the years to come.
I see that I have quite some catching up to do here.
Thanks a lot Atul for your generous compliments. Talking of catching up I am never able to keep pace with you. Missing your blog for a day or two means one has to really spend the whole day on going thorough all the posts one has missed. I have been travelling for sometime, which means I need to spend the whole weekend to catch up!
Thank you for creating such a valuable web site.No words in my vocabulary to appreciate your greatness.As I am a great admirer(but I don’t have a vast knowledge about those composers and singers like you) of old hindi movie songs ,I usually visits this and gather information about them.This is a very meritorious deed.
And also my best wishes on the 2nd anniversary of this blog and for a bright future.
Sri Lanka.
Thanks a lot for your good wishes. Keep visiting.
Please accept my belated congratulations on the second anniversary of your blog. I discovered this blog by accident when I was searching for those soulful numbers(songs) sung by Talat Mahmood. I was fascinated by the site in discovering that there lay a world much bigger and that Talat was only a part of it. Thanks to the wonderful effort put by you, AKji.
The readers comments are also revealing and the comment of Shri Suresh Maloo ” Main n akela….. Karva banta gaya. I also appreciate your comment that it never late to join.
I marvel at the power of the net. It enriches our lives in so many ways!
Best wishes once again.
Thanks a lot, Kiran.
Like a science fiction writer I am travelling back and arrived at June 2012. Have perused all the postings till now. The sheer diversity of the topic covered in depth and profound analysis is mind boggling. What you started as a normal blog has grown leaps and bounds. Hope you remember the Puranic event – Devas and asuras churning the “Paarkadal” i.e. ocean of milk and bringing out treasures. Mahalakshmi is supposed to be one and last came Amirtham, elixir of immortality. You have brought out lot of participants who had released their store of knowledge. Precious material for posterity. Would request you to try for a doctorate in old film music.
DP Rangan,
I am extremely grateful for your very generous words. As you would have seen there are a number of readers who know infinitely more than me. For me, it is a great satisfaction that I have been able to bring them on this platform.
AK ji
SoY as a film musicblog has a very distinctive flavour.
All readers have their personal choice/preferences, which is normal and actually useful for the blog. Just a matter of chance that yours and mine are convergent.
I follow with amusement how readers have occasionally managed to bring your preferences closer to their own.
Best wishes to yourself and readers on the occasion of Deepavali.
Tyagiji,
This blog has many like-minded people. Yet the differences are also expressed very sharply. That has given strength to the blog. I reciprocate your greetings.