To be honest, I have no idea what I am going to write here. I just want to post something that would remove that rant post from the top of my blog.
So, here’s the ramble.
I occasionally drop my daughter at college, and when I do that, she plays her kind of music on the CarPlay. Sometimes I engage, sometimes I switch off. Her choice of fusion pieces usually speaks to me. Recently, she played a fusion cover piece of an Ed Sheeran song, Shape of You.
This cover is by a bunch of British-Indian (I think) youth and I loved it. Even more than the original piece. You know, I often hear rants that start with “kids these days..” that go on to list the deficiencies of anyone less than 40 years of age. When I listened to this piece, all I thought was “kids these days are so darn talented”. They have the opportunity, and they use it to the hilt.
And attitude. What attitude.
So, here’s the cover version.
And the original is this:
Limp Cabbage and Soggy Chips (Call me limp!) 
Wow, impressive!
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I loved the Ed Sheeran video, not the least because I was taking boxing lessons at the time (though I was nowhere as good as the female protagonist or as buff as Ed Sheeran). To listen to the raga version of the song was fun and a terrific mix. Are they singing in Tamil, by the way? Not that I actually know HIndi at all, but the language the men were singing in seemed different.
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There was no language there, HG. The “Thakida thakida, dhom dhom dhirana” that you hear at the start is an element of Indian music called Konnakol (in South Indian classical) or Bol (in North Indian). It is the vocal rendition of percussion syllables. Somewhat like the “la la la” in western music, which has no meaning of its own, but denotes the melody. the “ga ma ga ma..” are called swaram (South Indian) or swara (North Indian) and is the equivalent of do-re-me-fa in the Western scale (solfège I believe it is called).
There are some sporadic English “Coming down from my lead” (??), “Im in love with your body” etc. But there are no Indian languages in it at all.
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I just learned something entirely new, thank you, LG. And you know a lot about Indian music, theory and structure, than you let on in your posts! I wonder how much you’ve been hiding from us now. 😀
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You flatter me. I learned Carnatic music, and my guru (teacher- https://wynk.in/music/artist/b-v-raman/b-v-raman) was a knowledgeable (and a well-known) musician. The rest, I attribute to the availability of information at my fingertips.
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I make “Thakida thakida, dhom dhom dhirana” “Tha’ kid da, tha’ kid da, dum dum, dit hi ra na”.
Or in better English “That kid there, that kid there. dum, dum (thinking sound), say hi father’s lady, or even daddy’s girl.
Dit = say from French
Ra = father
Na = lady
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I am so glad I just went to the loo before I read this. I am sure I would’ve pee’d my pants. Still laughing like a maniac..
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The videos did show up in my browser although I have less appreciation of them than you. I did appreciate that it wasn’t a raucous boom boom boom, but the repetition was annoying to me. I suspect that indicates my lack of sophistication more than anything.
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Au contraire, your lack of appreciation for this piece may be just that – a sign of sophistication. Purist musicians in India would be scandalised at this one. My husband, a music connoisseur, would hate it as well.
Your dislike, beyond repetition, may also be cultural. You wouldn’t get the nuances of the quintessentially Indian konakol and swara elements that these kids use in the music.
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I liked it, thx for the share!
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Very interesting!
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Thank you for posting. I thought both videos very good, but then I love to dance. The rhythm is repetitious, but then dance tends to be like that.
Your title “And now for something completely different” reminds me of Monty Python – perhaps this is what you were thinking of. The music in the video might be like a python swaying hypnotically.
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Yay, you got the Monty Python reference. Although, dang, why didn’t I think of the python-swaying-hypnotically allegory?
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