Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)
(Van Shipley earned acclaim for his proficiency in violin and guitar, and he brought out many independent albums of tunes of film songs on these instruments. As such, he was among the well known arrangers and musicians. Yet there is no authentic data of the specific songs in which he played these instruments. Raj Kapoor was highly impressed with him after hearing his violin at a concert and brought him into his team. Thus, Van Shipley got associated with many everlasting songs from RK films.
I thank today’s guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vasihnav for throwing some light on one of the legendary musicians of Hindi films in their series on Arrangers and Musicians. – AK)
(Valentine) Van Shipley (B: 30-8-1927 | D: 8-3-2008) commenced his career in Hindi films by playing violin, he is perhaps better known as ‘The Man with Golden Guitar’. His mother was a skilled sitar player. Valentine’s three brothers and two sisters were talented musicians. However only Valentine Van Shipley went to become a professional musician. Van Shipley took his first violin lessons from Allahabad-based violinist, Gagan Chatterjee. While he was learning Hindustani classical music from noted khayal singers Ustad Bande Hasan Khan and his son, Ustad Zande Hasan Khan, he also took lessons in western music. He continued his training in violin from Ustad Allaudin Khan while he was with AIR, Lucknow. While at Lucknow, he got further training in sarod from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who was then director of AIR Lucknow. Ustad Vilayat Khan was his classmate. He was friends with Pandit Ravi Shankar whom he had met in 1961.
Van Shipley’s interest in Hindustani classical music led him to develop eight-string guitar in place of the usual five-stringed ones so as to facilitate playing classical raags on guitar. It would indeed have been a great opportunity if we can get to listen his Columbia shellac record of Raag Jogiya and Raag Yaman Kalyan. Van Shipley also designed an electric violin, which he called Gypsy Violin. It is said that he mostly used this violin subsequently. However, we do not have any authentic data of such recordings.
Whether by destiny or by his own choice, he moved to Pune to join Prabhat Studio. Here his first job was to assist Husnlal-Bhagatram for their maiden film, Chand (1944). While in Pune, among many lasting friendships Van Shipley developed were the ones with the then struggling future stars, Dev Anand and Guru Dutt. When Prabhat Studio split, Van Shipley moved to Bombay. His earliest works here were films like Nargis (1946), Anmol Ghadi (1946) and Mera Suhaag (1947). Soon, he was working with music directors like Khemchand Prakash, C Ramchandra, Anil Biswas, Roshan and Ghulam Haider.
Raj Kapoor liked Van Shipley’s performance, in 1947, which he was performing in response to Nutan’s invitation at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. That chance relationship is said to have prompted Raj Kapoor using Van Shipley for all the solo violin pieces in Barsaat (1949)
[Note: Please refer to a few of the authentic blogs which carry this story: Van Shipley – Cinemaazi.com | The Masters: Van Shipley – Conversations Over Chai | The Vivid – Van Shipley – Dinesh S Ghate – Swaralap.com]. However, another article, Background notes: Menezes, Narvekar, and the untold history of violinists in Hindi film music – Rudradeep Bhattacharjee – Scroll.in, puts across a totally different version.
I have one clip wherein credit is given to Van Shipley for violin recitals in Barsaat:
However, since I do not have access to any more third-party authentic source to validate either versions, I have chosen to leave the matter over here and move on with our subject of focus.
Van Shipley’s next major association with RK Films was by way of playing electric guitar piece for iconic dream sequence for Awara (1951). Yet another song for which we get an authentic reference to the electric guitar play of Van Shipley in an RK movie is:
Ye shaam ki tanhaiya – Aah (1953) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Shailendra – Music: Shankar Jaikishan
The electric guitar can be heard in interlude @ 1.02 to 1.10.
Even though Van Shipley is credited with contributing his magic of either violin or electric or Hawaiian guitar in more than 1500 songs, there are too few authentic references to the specific songs from where we can listen to such pieces. Here are a few ones that I could lay my hands on:
3. Dil jalta hai to jalne de – Pehli Nazar (1945) Mukesh – Lyrics: Dr Sardar ‘Aah’ Sultanpuri – Music: Anil Biswas
It is violin this time, which seems to follow the voice of Mukesh as a shadow in the song.
And now listen to its instrumental version, played on violin by Van Shipley.
4. Mera sundar sapna beet gaya – Do Bhai (1947) – Geeta Dutt – Lyrics: Raja Mehdi Ali Khan – Music: S D Burman
The song opens with prelude dominated by electric guitar.
We would certainly have heard these two songs from Mahal (1949) many times. However, let us listen to them again focusing on Van Shipley’s play of guitar in these songs.
5. Ayega aanewala – Mahal (1949) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Nakhshab Jarchavi – Music: Khemchand Prakash
The prelude of the song is all piano. But as the song runs into its normal flow, electric guitar helps in deepening the mood at every interlude. The guitar is so seamlessly interwoven with the interlude music that one may need to listen these pieces such that focus is to filter out the guitar.
6. Mushkil hai bahut mushkil – Mahal (1949) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Nakhshab Jarchavi – Music: Khemchand Prakash
Electric guitar comes in brief strokes (0.18-0.20 / 1.51-1.53) but makes distinct impact even if we listen to song in our normal way.
7. Van Shipley – slide guitar in background pieces of Saza (1951)
8. Jiya o jiya o jiya kuchh to bol do – Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai (1961) – Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics: Hasrat Jaipuri – Music: Shankar-Jaikishan
The electric guitar can be heard in interlude @ 1.12 to 1.20, on a different note @ 1.28 to 1.30, and similarly in the second interlude as well. That small piece is again very smartly used as countermelody piece @ 2.44 to 2.46.
Even more fascinating electric guitar play is in the credit titles of the song, wherein all that was heard in vocals is replicated by electric guitar:
His first independent album – incidentally titled The Man With Golden Guitar, which was to become eponymous identity of Van Shipley – was released in 1962. From then onwards, he went on releasing one album every year, till 1982.
We will try to make up the paucity of more songs which have authentic information about Van Shipley’s role as instrumentalist by picking up a few representative instrumental versions that Van Shipley played for his independent albums.
First a few songs on violin:
9. Dam bhar jo idhar munh phere
10. Gumnam hai koi badnam hai koi
11. Jago sonewalo
And some of his guitar songs:
12. Tum bhi bhula do (Jugnu, 1947 – Noorjehan)
13. Shola jo bhadake
14. Patli kamar hai
15. Teri talash mein
16. Dhire dhire machal ae dil-e-beqarar
17. Kya jaanu sajan hoti hai kya gam ki shaam
This list can go on. However, in order to remain within decent limit of size of the blog post, we will conclude with one clip from a radio program.
18. A Tribute to Van Shipley – Radio Ceylon
The clip has Aaiye meharban and Tum jo mil gaye ho as Van Shipley’s guitar versions, and Rahe na rahe ham, Tu pyar ka sagar hai and Ankhon se jo utari hai tasveer dil mein as violin versions.
As handsome as Van Shipley was, it was obvious that he would get roles to play on the screen for films like Fareb (1953), Dharampatni (1955) and Carnival Queen (1955). According to his own notes, he has acted as hero too in a couple of films. In this dance competition clip form Cha Cha Cha (1964), Van Shipley can be seen – wearing striped T-shirt – in the crowd of fans (@ 6.08 – 6.13 and 6.18 – 6.25):
In another clip, he can be seen playing guitar with as much grace as perhaps the main dancers Bela Bose and Helen.
He was honoured with many awards in India and abroad. In 1967, he was felicitated with an international award for Best Instrumentalist of the Year. He had a rare honour of performing for several heads of state and other such dignitaries when they visited Delhi. Van Shipley was always willing to play for charitable causes like fundraisers for relief measures following various natural disasters such as flood, famine, drought, and for causes such as the Red Cross, Police Welfare, Poor Students and the Blind, Retired Army, Navy and Air force Personnel, Kashmir Floods, Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, etc.
Van Shipley could speak impeccable Urdu. In fact, he had his own calligraphy set so that he can write the language. If this was not enough, he was a fine painter and a keen photographer too.
He died of heart attack in 2008. But the legacy of his music lives on in his family as well as in the hearts of fans of violin and guitar music.
Credits and Disclaimers:
1.The song links have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of music lovers. This blog claims no copyright over these songs, which vests with the respective copyright holders.
2.The photograph is taken from the internet, duly recognising the full copyrights for the same to the either original creator or the site where they were originally displayed.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Van Shipley with his guitar was a well known thing in the past for especially those who heard Radio Ceylon those days. (like me !) However, his profile and contributions in detail are known in this article and it is very nice for SOY to bring out the same. Please keep it up !
KB,
Thanks a lot KB. Radio – I don’t remember whether Ceylon or AIR carried programme of his instrumental tunes of songs for 15 minutes.
Ashokji
From the post I conclude (I may be wrong) that he was not a music arranger in the strict sense and played more of a role as a violin player in an orchestra of music directors. I have heard lot of his instrumentals in 60/90 minute tapes. He was closely associated with Enoch Daniels in churning out many old time classic film songs in instrument form.
O P Nayyar was a great user of guitar in his compositions and whether he played them I have no idea. There is a song from Munimji with profuse use of guitar sung by Hemant Kumar and Geeta Dutt (S D Burman) and one other singer to sing in bad tone for villain Pran.
“Dil ki hu mangu hai jawan”. Van Shipley could have handled it.
https://youtu.be/Q5rRt2jt5Aw?t=3
In the second para of the post, it is stated he developed an electric violin called “Gypsy” violin. In the very next sentence you are mentioning it as “guitar”. What is the correct position?
KB #1
Hindi film music has many such instrument players who may seem to have played a very small part of the overall song, but that contribution can be considered as the key element of that song. However, their such contributions have not been duly documented.
D P Rangan#3
It is indeed so unfortunate that so defining plays of a given instrument in several such songs like Dil Ki Umange Hai Jawan remain not properly credited and documented.
Use of ‘guitar’ immediately in the line after mention of Gypsy Violin is a grossly unacceptable typo from me. It is, indeed, should have been violin only.
Ashokji, Mr Rangan,
I have since corrected the typo.
Ashok ji, Piyush ji & AK ji,
Thanks for remembering yet another talented personality and a different instrument! Bhupinder Singh, the playback singer and ghazal maestro also was a guitarist who was used extensively by R.D.Burman and Madan Mohan. I had written about Bhupinder when he passed away in 2022. If I am not wrong, it was Bhupinder who played the guitar in Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho from the movie Hanste Zakhm.
Anita # 7
Thank you Anitaji for the appreciation of the present episode.
It is a matter of pleasure that Bhupinder did get a fairly respectable recognition as a guitarist and as a singer
Since I have not followed Bhupinder as a guitarist, as probably not being done for any other instrumentalist too, I am not in position to comment on whether it is Bhupinder who has played guitar in Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho. But, the way guitar has been played in that song, it would be no wonder it it was Bhupinder.
Ashokji,
Thanks to Piyushji and you for another informative post in this series, thus bringing to the fore one more musician of the yore. Enjoyed reading Van Shipley’s interesting biography and listening to links presented here, especially the instrumental versions that Van Shipley played for his independent albums. Thanks too for providing the links to the articles posted in Cinemazi.com, Conversation Over Chai, Swaralap.com and Scroll.in.
Any Warrier’s post in Conversation Over Chai must be the first writeup on Van Shipley (8thMarch 2013) at least in the internet arena. Cinemazi.com acknowledges that its article is based on the information available in Van Shipley’s website, which incidentally is maintained by Anu Warrier since 2013. Dinesh S Ghate’s post was published on 8th January 2022 and it does not offer any additional information. The post by Rudradeep Bhattacharya in Scroll.in is an informative article, but the focus is on another instrumentalist, Joaquim (Joe) Menezes. I will come to that later.
I think due oversight you (or Piyushji) have stated that Van Shipley’s mother was a Guitarist. Actually she was a Sitar player as mentioned in the blogs cited in this post. She was the disciple of Ustad Yusuf Ali Khan, a Sitar and Surbahar maestro of the (now extinct) Dhrupad Gharana of Kalpi. We can very well understand where from Van Shipley’s inspiration originated to master Hindustani Sangeet.
You mentioned,
“It would indeed have been a great opportunity if we can get to listen his Columbia shellac record of Raag Jogiya and Raag Yaman Kalyan.,”
Here is the link to the record GE 39151964 recorded and released in 1964.
https://archive.org/details/c_20220101_202201
We can conclude with conviction that Van Shipley as an Violinist and Guitarist (both Hawaiian and Electric) was an significant contributor to Hindi film music and songs. At the same time I appreciate the fact that it is difficult to identify with certainty the songs for which he or other musicians played their instruments. To cite an example, V Balsara in his biography, Jege Thake Saptasure (in Bengali) says Peter Sequiera, one of the members of ARP party(trio), played the violin for the song “Dil jalta hai to jalne de”. Thus we have two opinions as to who played the violin for this song.
That brings me to the post in scroll.in. In the case of Barsaat(1949) too we have counter opinions as to who played Violin pieces in this film. From the article by Rudradeep Bhattacharya in Scroll.in, it is apparent that Joe Menezes played at least one of the violin numbers in this film where he makes an appearance playing the violin. There is no doubt the violinist is Joe Menezes and the guitarist in the visual introduces Joe Menezes. Please watch from 1:49:24 to 1:52:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWkbyR_EY_4
In Gregory Booth’s book “Behind the Curtains”, the author quotes
Earnest Menezes: “My uncle (Joe Menezez) played many famous (violin) solos. He played first for Barsaat (1949); he is actually picturized there. He recorded the solo and played it in the film as well. (Actor) Nargis falls at his feet because she thinks Uncle is Raj Kapoor.”
In another quote by Sumit Mitra, the accordionist who joined SJ’s team after Goody Seervai , mentions the name of three violinists in SJ’s team- Joe Menezes, Martin Dourado and Jerry Fernandes- among other instrumentalists. But there is no mention of Van Shipley. But again this information may be incomplete. From the available information from other sources, it is certain that Van Shipley was part of SJ’s team of musicians.
Let me take a break here. Will be back if I have anything more to add.
Venkataramanji,
I must thank you for your insightful comments giving some new perspectives.
It is surprising that two opinions should exist whether Joe Menezes or Van Shipley played the violin in Barsaat. Both were very well-known names but among those who remained behind the curtain. I have read the portion in Gregory Booth’s book quoting Joe Menezes’ nephew. Not meaning to discredit or taking any side, my general view is even the family members’ often were not very well-up about their legacy’s achievements. It would be difficult to make out from the violin pieces. Since the player was also there in a famous scene, one who should be thoroughly familiar with him, even in profile, should be believed more. Shall we say our vote is more in favour of Joe Menezes?
N Venkataraman #9
Thank you so much for insightful feedback.
The matter of Van Shipley’s mother seems to be a oversight at my end. I will correct it and request AKJi too tosuitably address it ASAP.
There are many matters where there are totally divergent views on many issues of the film history. Nalin Shah, another very meticulous historian, has several times pointed the hazard of recording the film history from the talks with one or two parties related to a given incident. In fact, he used to say that there are many interesting stories he has not been able to put in the public domain because of such ambiguities, even after several cross checks he had carried out on these issues.
So, to that extent, these articles are certainly prone to such errors.
Ashokji,
Necessary correction made. Please look at the post again for any other glitches.
Akji,
Thank you for the response.
The instrumental piece under discussion was actually based on “Waves of the Danube” originally composed in 1880 by the Romanian Iosif Ivanovici. Way back, Bhatiaji shared this information along with a clipping of the Dutch violinist Andre Rieu, playing this number. When
such discussion come to the fore I miss Bhatiaji very much.
The post in Scroll. in gives detail
information on the use of this piece in several western and eastern films and by Raj Kapoor in his productions from Barsaat to Biwi o Biwi. This particular number can be repeatedly heard in the film Barsaat, twice played on the Piano and rest on the violin. As you have said, the visual presented in said blog certainly tilts the balance in favour of Joe Menezes. But the same cannot be said about the other versions. Van Shipley could have been used in other versions or for that matter in some other song/songs or even in the background score.