By Nicko
“Who broke my fucking sitar?” asked Anton Newcombe after a barney. A cardinal sin, given the lovely, unusual and kitsch stuff on this most Indian of instruments (along with all the other most Indian of instruments).
India – where the classical performances are long. Some for filmi for Bolly- and other -woods, for example Ravi Shankar did the soundtrack for Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali.
Blame/thank George Harrison for the acidic explosion in pop, although Brian Jones might be miffed he isn’t included. Fun fact, Norwegian Wood wouldn’t have been the canonical first if the sitar version of The Yardbird’s Heart Full Of Soul was released. The Beck guitar one is better.
1967 was the Summer of Love and the International Year of the Sitar. Acid meets mysticism or the charming nonsense. Lots of colours, lots of hazy lyrics. Some with a bit more edge chosen. Then in the early 70s there was a bit of sitar soul. And bits since.
I hope you enjoy the trip.
Jeannie Piersol and Peter Van Gelder – Mystic Twenty (Sweet Home Alabama)
A song from Sesame Street in 1971 teaching kids how many strings are on a sitar. Far out, brussel sprout as I might have said to the mode used.
Shankar Family And Friends – Love-Dance Ecstasy (BanazirGalbasi)
It's packaged as Indian raags are very long, but we get double sitar with Ravi and his son Shubho with his first wife Annapurna Devi, a surbahar player (she sadly recorded little). She was the daughter of Ravi’s teacher Ustad Allauddin Khan, the father of legendary sarod player Ali Akbar Khan. An incredible web of talent, including Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones.
The Moody Blues – Om (TarquinSpodd)
Om my god, some cod mysticism on requisite this list. On a trip. Butterflies, clouds etc. With sitar.
The Seeds – Travel In Your Mind (TarquinSpodd)
In 1967, I guess if you were stuck in the garage, you might as well drop acid and travel with your mind from there. Delightfully amateurish. Poorly done tabla simulation natch.
The Delfonics – Round and Round (magicman)
Magic nommed a good few sitar soul (now there’s a sub-genre) tunes, as did Fred I think and maybe others. I’m going for this one as a Delfanatic. Subtle use is good.
Dewan Motihar Trio, Irene Schweizer Trio, Manfred Schoof and Barney Wilen – Yaad (pejepeine)
Jazz meets India as they put it. On the MPS label. Lovely stuff. Dewan is on sitar. A couple of other tasty noms too in subtle jazz meets India (Codona in the B).
Wizz Jones – One Grain Of Sand (ShivSidecar)
Some nice quiet English folk. With sitar. About one grain of sand, one drop of water in the sea, or how small we are in the cosmos. John Renbourn is better than many on the sitar.
Traffic – Utterly Simple (Chris 7572)
Traffic goes raga. Dave Mason your man. This came after Norwegian Wood and quotes it to boot (lots of tunes have). Lyrics? Some hippy shit.
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – Float Along Fill Your Lungs (MussoliniHeadkick)
Breathe and float along. It’s 2013, the Gizz’s aim was to learn a new instro every year and that year it was sitar. This is the first real psych outing. There was so much 60s psych nommed I thought I’d go with 60s psych recorded 66 years after 1967.
The Beatles – Love You To (ParaMhor)
Surely Norwegian Wood?! Nope. This one is George basically without the others and is incorporating Indian style (composition adheres to the pitches of the Indian equivalent of Dorian mode and emulates the khyal vocal tradition of Hindustani classical music – Wiki). NW has the historical status, although the unreleased Yardbirds sitar version of Heart Of Soul is earlier.
The Freak Scene – Rose Of Smiling Faces (Fred Erickson)
Sometime folk and bluegrass bloke cum pioneer in US psych music with a studio project. Sitar enough sound for me. They call it Psychedelic Psoul.
The Vampire's Sound Incorporated – Psycho Contact No 1 (TarquinSpodd)
Vampyros Lesbos and sitar. Instrument credited as Sitar Hash-fiddle (Duty paid). Made up band for the movie. Psycho in a good way.
Anoushka Shankar featuring Norah Jones – Traces Of You (BanaziGalbasi)
Ravi's daughters together. Anoushka does her thing with her rigorous training and Norah's voice is sweet. Nitin Sawhney on guitar and (minimal) programming. He collabs with Anoushka and another nice one was nommed. No compromise fusion that works.
Morcheeba - Baby Sitar (Drummer of Your Dreams Mix) (Loud Atlas)
A few sitar meets beats on offer and more out there. The twisty and twisted bit from about 2:00 is effective with tanpura like backing, then sitar again. Morcheeba into the old gear I believe and the name’s a clue - could this be a 1960’s Danelectro Baby Sitar at work?.
Asha Bhosle – Jadugar Qatil (TarquinSpodd)
Come, come
The magician-killer is here, my heart
Fill my heart with love
May your love be blessed
I swear by your youth.
Classic Bollywood. A diamond from Kohinoor (1960). Always gonna list some filmi music if nommed (and only one was). She died just over a month ago. TS notes she recorded a gazillion songs but only one nommed, so no brimful of Asha. Most Bollywood songs don’t have sitar, let alone this much.
Ravi Shankar – Reflection (Uncleben)
A reflective piece from the soundtrack to the movie Viola. He was celebrated in India for his classical work too. No other Indian virtuoso of his ilk was nommed. Guru’s pick has some of his concerto work.
SitAr A-List:
Jeannie Piersol and Peter Van Gelder – Mystic Twenty (Sweet Home Alabama)
Shankar Family And Friends – Love-Dance Ecstasy (BanazirGalbasi)
The Moody Blues – Om (TarquinSpodd)
The Seeds – Travel In Your Mind (TarquinSpodd)
The Delfonics – Round and Round (magicman)
Dewan Motihar Trio, Irene Schweizer Trio, Manfred Schoof and Barney Wilen – Yaad (pejepeine)
Wizz Jones – One Grain Of Sand (ShivSidecar)
Traffic – Utterly Simple (Chris 7572)
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – Float Along Fill Your Lungs (MussoliniHeadkick)
The Beatles – Love You To (ParaMhor)
The Freak Scene – Rose Of Smiling Faces (Fred Erickson)
The Vampire's Sound Incorporated – Psycho Contact No 1 (TarquinSpodd)
Anoushka Shankar featuring Norah Jones – Traces Of You (BanaziGalbasi)
Morcheeba - Baby Sitar (Drummer of Your Dreams Mix) (Loud Atlas)
Asha Bhosle – Jadugar Qatil (TarquinSpodd)
Ravi Shankar – Reflection (Uncleben)
Sympathetic Strings B-List:
No apparent order.
Lord Sitar – I Am The Walrus (TarquinSpodd) – out there.
Spirit – Girl In Your Eye (ShivSidecar) – just missed
Lee Dorsey – Give It Up (magicman) – love it
Beyoncé – Ameriican Requiem (Severin) – nearly
Saffron – All Your Ambition (ShivSidecar) – unknown intriguing
The Beatles – Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Uncleben) – the obvious one
Donovan – Ferris Wheel (AltraEgo) – hippy drippy
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Super-sonic (Traktor Albarost) – subtle sitar in a not so subtle song
Rory Gallagher – Philby (magicman) – I spy a great electric sitar solo
Nitin Sawhney - Charu Keshi Rain (Severin) Anoushka again with Nitin
Codona – Que Faser (Nilpferd) – superb, just pipped by Yaad
B.J Thomas – Hooked On A Feeling (Sweet Home Alabama) – the big hit
Incredible String Band – Puppies (Chris 7572)
Equipe 84 – Ladro (Fred Erickson) – Italian extravagance and nearly
Anne Murray – Snowbird (Sweet Home Alabama) – sweet but cold hit
Sheila Chandra – Quiet 2 (ajostu) – post Monsoon, better voice
Ghazal – Snowy Mountains (ajostu) – Persia meets India
Beck – Loser (Uncleben) – crap rapper, but has sitar
The Free Design – I’m A Yogi (Fred Erickson) – light as a feather
Hot Top Volcano – Diddy Kong Racing (pejepeine) – like no other
Guru’s Wildcard Sitar Pluckings:
The Bombay Royale - The Island of Dr. Electrico
Bollywood meets Blaxploitation in a filmi tune for a fictional movie of this title. Melbourne’s melting pot and penchant for big, interesting groupings has spawned TBR with Hindi (female, here) and Punjabi (male) vocals. Sitar by multi-instrumentalist Josh Bennett, who does the sit in classical settings too (plus guitar, mandolin and violin in other settings).
Orchester Klaus Doldinger - Sitar Beat
Klaus’ 1968 album (worth a mint) has all sorts of stuff with heavy underpinnings, man. Sitar beat is the one with sitar.
Sons of Zöku – Sun Son
Should be better known. Perhaps because Aussie neo-psych is a crowded room now, but how many use sitar? The Gizz rate them publicly.
A.R. Rahman – Mausam and Escape
Legend A.R. Rahman has written music for many films, including Slumdog Millionaire. Not afraid of electronics, this one has sitar. There are quite a few electro with sitar tunes. Thievery Corporation’s Lebanese Blonde gets an honourable mention.
Jeannie Piersol - Joined In Space
SHA trippy kid’s counting vid in the A-list led me to this by the same pair and Darby Slick. This led me to this 1968 trip. She was friends and sang with Grace Slick etc but it didn’t really happen for her.
Lata Mangeshkar - Tumhen Yaad Karte Karte
I feel like I've settled in an unknown city
A madman searches for something on a lost pat
In such a grand palace, I, poor thing, am terrified
You've taken my sleep with you.
Asha Bhosle is on the A. It’s only fair we add her sitar sister Lata. This is Amrapali. Rivalling her sis as a playback singer over 8 decades. It stars the stunning Vyjayanthimala (looks and dance). There’s a longer faster sitar tune, but this is the plaintive one. Vyj is feeling trapped in a gilded cage.
Ravi Shankar, London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn - Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra No. 1: III. Raga Adana
Ravi did the hard yards years with his guru and had the Indian classical rep. But there’s more. He was mates and played with Yehudi Menuhin and also wrote for orchestra, including a collab with Philip Glass – a disc I have. It’s not startling. Thiis is short section for flavour from the first of his two concerti.
Ustad Imrat Khan - Raag Yaman Kalyan
The surbahar is the big one and here Ustad Imrat Khan is doing a condensed for-TV raag. It’s a slow evening one. He’s a master and doesn’t feel the need to shred for this audience.
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Bending east to west: songs featuring sounds of the sitar. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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