Autopsy of the heart

 

Michael Jackson, who became a legend in his lifetime and who perhaps was a pioneer of the modern music age, is in the danger of becoming a circus object in the coming days and years; much like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, people would be fascinated by this life of a star which burnt so brightly that it consumed itself all too soon…

People don’t seem to know how they should react exactly to his death. He had become a subject of much ridicule due to his erratic and quite unpredictable lifestyle and he had kept the rumour mills going for more than a decade, the heavy bulk of which had nothing to do with his music.

Suddenly with him gone, after the initial short homage paid to his talent, the media world is slowly turning to what it knows best…dissecting a dead man’s world mercilessly. Dead men don’t lie and nor can they defend themselves. The change of complexion and his transformation into a harrowing physical form is being shown much more than the music he created. The world is watching on vicariously as a one of the world’s most revolutionary and passionate performer is being turned into a circus item.

I can just hope that one day Michael will be remembered as a hugely talented mortal whose talent got ahead of him in life, a talent that got him to the top very quickly but one that did not equip him to deal with that life.

It was a talent that gave him the means to live in a personal Neverland but denied him the reality he always craved. It was a talent that gave the world the license to invade his most inner privacy and slice and dice his every word. It was also this talent that probably killed him at the end, when he starved himself to get into shape for his ‘final’ comeback tour.

Michael, there are a lot of things that will be said of you but there is one thing that I would like to say to you. We may autopsy your body but we can never autopsy your heart. It is this heart of yours that will always stay with those of us who have loved your music and what you had to say. Your heart is what we would always carry with us…

RIP Michael Jackson

“In My Anguish And My Pain
Through My Joy And My Sorrow
In The Promise Of Another Tomorrow
I'll Never Let You Part
For You're Always In My Heart.”

                                                     – from “Will you be there”

Technorati Tags: Michael Jackson,Music,tribute

Sumon – the tragedy of a poet turncoat

There was once a rebel poet-singer who modelled himself on the traditions of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and early Dylan. He sang songs that cut through the baggage of Bengali music that had stagnated for over two decades. He sang songs of protests, of frank love, of yearning, of rage and of revolution. He sang songs of the man on the street and his life. His voice and lyrics reminded us of the best traditions of Bengali music – anti-conventional, poetic and stirring.

For this he was hailed and feted as the saviour of Bengali culture by a generation tired of its own pretensions and saw him as a fresh wind blowing away the cobwebs of oppressive tradition. I remember whole families – three generations together, under his spell.

And for a while he lived upto his promise. He touched off a revolution in Bengali music with Anjan Dutta becoming the first convert. Today’s popular bands like Chandrabindoo, Bhoomi, Cactus owe their existence directly or indirectly to Sumon’s revolution.

Today, however, Sumon has become the face of the tragedy of people who betray themselves and show themselves to be hollow, both politically and personally.

The worst kind of extremist is someone who is a new convert to a faith that he once opposed. He is the most enthusiastic and as a result is the most vulgar. Sumon has come to typify this example best.

Sumon joined Trinamool. If that was not enough to make his former fans puke instantly, he goes on become a servile sycophant of one of the worse politicians to ever come up in India – Mamta Banerjee. He talks about uprooting and killing and wiping off CPM off West Bengal in the worst form of demagoguery possible.

Anyone with half a political brain can see the tragedy that would befall Bengal if Mamta Banerjee and her goons ever come to power – they who have never done anything constructive in their political career and instead have focussed on disruption as their main agenda.

And Sumon, who once extolled the virtues of the 60’s political stance cravenly follows this party. Why you may ask? Maybe he needs a career and he feels he is morally outraged by what happened in Nandigram (which needs a big discussion in itself) and that Trinamool gave him some importance that others don't give him.

Whatever the case may be, Sumon has become the face of people who were once hailed the voice of the people and who instead of remaining outside the sphere of political parties so that he is not morally compromised, has become a tool in the hands of politicians who just want to use him for giving some hollow ‘fiery’ speeches.

Does he understand that he is being exploited? He, once sang of society’s oppression and how humans are used as tools, does he understand the depths to which he has fallen?

Maybe it is too late for realizations. Sumon has become an example of those who are fiery in their youths out of compulsion of their hot blood which masks their cowardice and lack of political depth, which comes out later…and when it does, it is ugly.

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Technorati Tags: Bengal,Music,Elections,India,Sumon,Sumon Chatterjee,Mamta Banerjee,Trinamool,Culture,Bengali Music,Bengali culture,West Bengal

Music Ostriches – when will they learn?

The recent conviction of the four co-founders of Pirate Bay has once again thrown open the question of whether mere conviction of individual companies will stop the idea of file-sharing and raises the more serious question of whether the music companies and the musicians supporting them are like ostriches burying their heads in the burning sand that would probably end up burning them…

If past is something that we should ideally be learning by, then the music companies have remembered nothing, learnt nothing. Napster was a celebrated case, Kaazaa had somewhat lesser publicity but is an often quoted one. Sure, they led to a handful of companies opening up legal music downloads websites most notably iTunes. But its a telling statistic that today more than 90% of all downloaded music is through P2P networks like that of Pirate Bay.

Its time that the the music bosses at EMI, Warner, Sony, Universal etc understand that the idea of music sharing is the proverbial idea whose time has come and all the legal and legislative armies of the world will not be able to stop it. People will always find a way to get hold of those songs ‘illegally’ no matter how many sites they close. Its ridiculously cheap to set up a website which will provide links to user’s files. You bring down one and another one will spring up in no time. Its only a matter of time before another Pirate Bay comes up.

It is also time for these music companies and for some jaded musicians like Metallica and Rolling Stones to stop insisting that piracy will bring about death of the music industry and instead concentrate on changing with the times and embracing the opportunities that would come with the new technologies. In any case its only the past-their-prime musicians who are bent upon fighting file sharing, claiming life long high royalties as their birthright – think they need to read up more on pension funds.

And there are opportunities galore. Radiohead demonstrated this amply with their album ‘In Rainbows’ which they made freely available to the general public relying on their goodwill to make a donation. Against conventional wisdom, they collected a huge sum and showed how the power of volume can be harnessed on the internet.

The internet is a powerful medium for independent musicians to provide a platform for their music thus bypassing the bureaucracy of music companies. Communities of musicians have sprung up which provide their music freely and interact with their fans on a one-to-one basis.

And this is a change that has been embraced by the whole net community and will only strengthen as time goes on. Things, in fact, will become even more innovative because most people like to move on with the times and embrace positive changes unlike the music companies who still dream of going back to the good old days when they made super profits by over-pricing their music.

Well, the consumers have had enough of this exploitation and a Pirate Bay will spawn a thousand.

Pirates Forever!!!

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Technorati Tags: Pirate Bay,Music download,P2P,file sharing,music sharing,Pirate Bay verdict

History’s satirical echo

Marx once famously said that “history repeats itself…first as a tragedy and then as a farce”

Here then is a song that uncannily sings about the economic fall that we see around us today and all the black comedy associated with it.

The song is “I am changing my name to Chrysler”, a biting satire on the farce that is “free-market”, a term beloved to those who unquestioningly embrace capitalism in all its forms. The song is sung by Arlo Guthrie, son of Woody Guthrie along with Pete Seeger (lyrics by Tom Paxton) – the best people undoubtedly to sing a song which with its simple lyrics tears apart capitalist gospel.

 

The song is about half a century old yet what it talks about is uncannily familiar to us – right from corporate behemoths running around with a begging bowl to AIG giving bonuses from the people’s money and the ones losing out in it all – you and me.

It’s a must hear not only for its timelessness or for its humorous, black satire but most importantly, because its an example of a song that is visual in its lyrics and was not made for the purpose of selling maximum copies. Its a throwback to times when songs were much closer to people and the lives they led rather than being beholden to marketing objectives.

But if for nothing else, hear it for the humour…it is sure to bring a smile, especially the last paragraph

You can download the song from here or from here

and here are the lyrics to the song…

Enjoy song activism at its best…

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