Oh great creator of being,
grant us one more hour,
to perform our art,
and perfect our lives.
We need great golden copulations.
Thus wrote the immortal Jim Morrison, in what can be inferred as an elevated soul in an escalated state of mind, in the song that I consider to be one his most imaginative and brilliant poetries,
The Ghost Song.
Well, it isn’t this one that I’m to write about here. Rather, it’s a song that starts off with lines that could well be a nod to Morrison’s prayer, or maybe its just me! Ok, I’m talking about the song ‘Deham pon deham, ondrodu ondraagum vizha’ from a seemingly nondescript Thamizh movie from the 80s called ‘Anbulla Malare’.
When I had picked this CD last year (by the beleaguered Inreco label, featuring Anbulla malare, Yennai paar yen azhagai paar and Iravu pookkal) I noticed this song listed on its cover, which had Janaki credited as its singer. Almost immediately, I guessed, and hoped, it would be an erotica-musical-delight, the likes of which include Vazhimel Vizhiyaal, Pon meni urugudhey, Nalla neram neram, Unakkum enakkum anandham, and other ‘item numbers’ of this composer-vocalist combination.
Here’s where you can listen to this album (some sublime melodies in there too)
http://www.raaga.com/channels/tamil/...p?mid=t0002642
A solo flute to kick start proceedings? Ok, not unexpected.
Picking up from the flute, a pulsating bass line? We’re discussing Raja, aren’t we?
A constant Mrudangam beat and keyboard chords to keep company? Again, not unexpected, right?
This forms the 30 secs prelude. Now, isn’t there something strange about how the prelude sounds considering this is an erotic number? I’m referring to the images of sunrise, tender light of dawn, serenity of morning hours, etc., for this is the picture I could form in my mind.
(If we bother to dwell a bit into this technically, the short keyboard piece towards the end of the prelude roughly starts off this way:
Sa Ri1 Ga3 Pa, Pa Da1 Pa Ga3 Pa. A very Bhupalam like start which I later figured is actually Revagupti (Ga3 instead of 2). Now, this ragam, like Bhupalam is generally regarded as a morning ragam).
Janaki now picks up from the prelude, ‘Deham pon deham’. A faint quiver in the singing evokes a sense of inhibition blossoming into excitement. A husky tone of shyness entwines an energetic tone of passionate longing.
The first para plays within the Revagupti scale again. The bass guitar here is something I doubt anyone other than IR can conjure. It cuts across the vocals in a sort of hop-skip-jump manner and treads a unique path altogether, while still firmly supporting the structure of the song. The background rhythm packs together a mrudrangam, bongo and drums, with the mrudangam driving it with a fast and continuous pattern.
A syncopation piece on the keyboard punctuates the beginning of the first interlude that has a little flute solo, a Bharathiraja-style over-nourished-aunties-in-white-fairy-gowns-performing-aerobics-amidst-romancing-couple chorus section, and ending in an electric guitar lead.
The charanam section is where the gears are shifted from foreplay to primary centerpiece action (pun unintended). The song structuring here, too, is done in a way, where momentum builds-up, reaches a crescendo, lingers momentarily in a state of high-tension (vocals and instruments briefly pause, a solo bass line pounds heavily and the mrudangam drill beat joins in), reaches the summit (singing resumes, other instruments join back), before gradually descending back to normalcy.
(He uses an anya swaram in the form of Ni in the charanam, but otherwise the base ragam remains the same)
Now why would one want to set such a song to a morning raga? Is not this theme generally associated with night? However, it can be seen that advisory texts speak of a certain charm/magic of the hour of dawn and its significance in the ritual. Is this essence of choosing a ragam commonly associated with dawn? Is this what Morrison implied when he asked ‘grant us one more hour, to perform our art, and perfect our lives’?
Raja, Janaki :bow: