JG! Thanks for ‘Aadal paadalil’! This song has ‘kickassness’ written all over it! The energy, the groove, the exuberance, boy-oh-boy, this one’s a dasher every moment!
I started my day with this song and it has been playing ever since; I just cant get enough of this one! I’m not a very big fan of TMS+IR combo (save some whacky ones like the carnatic-remix Kabhi Kabhi and a few similar stuff), but TMS smacks the ball out of the park here!
Thiraipaadal says this one’s from 79 and the enthusiasm of the new-kid-on-the-block Raja shows up quite clearly (not exactly ‘new’ though; he must have been some 50 odd films old by then going by his strike rate!).
But his 70s stuff is, to me, still the formative years, ‘genius in the making’ phase. Influences are heavily apparent in the work while still displaying his inherent wizardry over instrumentation. Take this song for eg.; the impact of RDB (and a bit of MSV) on IR can easily be felt here in the pounding rhythm (loud claps and drums) and an easy sing-along tune. This one seems like the thagappan of his subsequent songs in this genre like Baby shake it baby (movie ?), Swing swing (moodupani), Thullum ilamai idhu (anbe odi vaa), etc. The progression and evolution of the 80s IR is very interesting. While songs like Aadal paadalil have the groovy electric guitars and a kind of rawness/edginess, its only from the 80s that the complex,intricate bass lines and precision in tune, get added to the armory, thus forming the inimitable Raaja signature (Ilami idho idho, poo pota dhavani, poo malai oru paavai, and the likes).
Suresh, if allowed, I’ll take a bit of both, the butter and the ghee..78-84! Idha adikka aal illa!
But coming to think of it, what boggles the mind is this 0.5kg of cerebral matter producing an EVK/Moondrampirai in the 80s, Guru in 90s, Thiruvasagam/Virumandi/MX post 2000, an Uliyin Osai/Naan kadavul/Paa towards 2010! And we’re just talking about the creamiest of the cream of each decade. Idhula vera Thamizh, Malayalam, Kannadam, Telungu, Indhi, ippidi total area attack! Shbaaa.. mudiyala!