The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

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#43 ஆடுங்கள் பாடுங்கள் பிள்ளைப்பொன்வண்டுகள்
(குரு, 1980)

What a sweet prelude of guitar / strings! Another bass-guitar special with arresting rhythm arrangements and happy singing by SPB!

Traditional benevolent hero song (running / taking care of / showering love on orphanage / destitute children). Popular genre of prior biggies' era (chellakkiLikaLAm paLLiyilE, siriththu vAzha vENdum) and continued by the next biggies (pEsum maNi muththu rOjAkkaL, AdungaL pAdungaL, muththu maNichchudarE vA / kadavuL uLLamE), always enjoyable songs with great emotional connect! Looking from the Disney angle, a seriously untapped area in TF/IF where the movies / music could have made it really big. Still, whatever we received as part of the "mix-everything-in-one-bag-masAlA-packaging" had decent emotional connect and provided some musical richness / entertainment quotient!

Melody/tune formats of MDs prior to IR era were mostly ICM-style IMO. That is, a "flowing, running" melody forming the backbone of the song with orchestration / instruments as 'pakka vAththiyams'. Even at the time of arrival, IR started to have this - what I call - 'broken-up-tune' structure with 'machchAnappAththeengaLA'. He created a problem for bathroom singers with the instrumental part between 'pAththeengaLA' and 'mala vAzhai"...the chords, many people tried to do that with mouth
It was one of the conditions during our holidays at grand parents' home that 'NO singing of instrumentals!'. So, some IR songs obviously posed problems for such family sessions.

During 70's, IR's proportion of such songs were relatively less IMO as he probably tried to please the industry jAmbavAns who had to be satisfied with MSV-ish / KVM-ish traditional melody styles. (Is this what probably Plum meant in his post for preference of 70's IR?)

With 80's, IR becoming more powerful in the industry, the proportion of such "problem songs with broken-up-tune" drastically increased, IMO. 'AdungaL' pallavi is one such example where the IR instrumental magic between 'AdungaL' and 'pAdungaL' could make singers with no instrumental support to feel miserable.

It's also possible that with this style change in place, IR was more inclined towards 'meterukku matter' working style. (All these are my guesses and musically untrained opinions, Sureshji and others please correct / comment if the understanding is not too much off the facts)...

[app_engine]

On that note, where is your song APP anna ?

போட்டாச்சு!

genesis sir, இன்னிக்கு வெள்ளிக்கிழமை

[PARAMASHIVAN]

போட்டாச்சு!

மிக்க நன்றி

[baroque]

beautiful app_eng
exquisite வயோலின் அருவி from prelude & interludes along with bells , chorus ஹிம்மிங் counterpoint , delightful ப்ளுட் , expressive பாலா .
good old 80s இளையராஜா ...GREAT, moving on from album GURU to the next MAN MADE WONDER from ilayaraaja.

நம்பல்லாம் சேர்ந்து வளராட்டாலும், நம்ப லவ் for இளையராஜா's and others பாடல்கள் இப்போ share பண்ணி, என்ஜாய் பண்ண உதவுகிற tfmpage .com , let us say our thanks

THANKS TFMPAGE GUYS...LOVE YOU.... this happy composition and its spirit is dedicated to you from Ilayaraja fans.

vinatha.

[Divine22]

Mooku Operation ku Munnadi.

Hahaha... ok ok , Thanks !

[V_S]

நம்பல்லாம் சேர்ந்து வளராட்டாலும், நம்ப லவ் for இளையராஜா's and others பாடல்கள் இப்போ share பண்ணி, என்ஜாய் பண்ண உதவுகிற tfmpage .com , let us say our thanks

THANKS TFMPAGE GUYS...LOVE YOU.... this happy composition and its spirit is dedicated to you from Ilayaraja fans.
vinatha.

Very well said and very true I second you.

[app_engine]

2 songs are due today as I couldn't find time on a hectic Sat...trying to catch up...

[groucho070]

Waiting and following, app. Wonderful as always.

[app_engine]

#44 சென்யோ ரீட்டா ஐ லவ் யு
(ஜானி, 1980 )

Well, IIRC, Guru & Johny were peers from the two biggies that appeared in the same time period. Interestingly, a similar thing got repeated again another time with SKV / EKK (these two got released on the same day, I think). The person who is known today as the versatile / emotional actor did masala role in Guru / SKV while the person well-known today for masAlA did relatively non-masAlA roles in Johny / EKK.

Johny's case is even more interesting - it had 4 female solo's in a Rajinikanth movie where he had only one male song, the unforgettable senO ritA, with the terrific techno prelude...the song being a sheer guitar / drums / strings / flute delight! The way the song ends is another techno treat, delicious! SPB - the all-time-best, coolest singer for such numbers effortlessly delivers it, stealing the hearts of all youngsters of 80!

I keep posting about the occasion when I heard Johny songs from a shop on the narrow / steep / hilly road in the small town on Kodai hills called 'Pannaikkadu', from big box speakers with all the bass in full flow to tremendous effect on the whole area! Unforgettable trip, that one! (The same trip in which the Guru song was enjoyed en-route on a bus, those were crazy days when my feet stopped on the road for any fav IR song)!

Most visitors to TFMpage / The Hub are familiar with the prathApams of Johny and its memorable songs and I don't want to blA-blA anything in addition. Sufficient to say that all songs caught up with me like fire and are still very dearly loved! (Ofcourse, SPB song was on top when it arrived and fought with Asaya kAththula for the top stop - not any more, the other three have caught up with these two -as one grows older- and now it's impossible to pick any one as fav). Easily among the top 10 of Raja albums or top 10 of all-time-TFM IMO

Those who lived as teens in 1980 and listened to senO ritA finds it difficult to digest the false claims that new sounds were heard in TN only in 1992

[app_engine]

#45 வாழுமட்டும் நன்மைக்காக வாழ்ந்து பார்ப்போம் வாடா நைனா
வாழ்வு யார் பக்கம் அது நல்லவர் பக்கம்
(காளி, 1980 )

Another 2 letter named film in the same year for the biggies (Rajini starrer). Another IV Sasi film, I think. So, strong bass score was by default. SPB singing in an exuberent manner, resulting in a song that will make one instantly feel like running a race. (Was this song similar to the 'nenjE un Asai enna' of nAn pOtta savAl which was a horse ride song, I think).

I was so upset with the 'nainA' word when this song arrived Otherwise an MGR-ish motivation song which should have been easily lapped up by all classes of people. This word was perceived to be a Madras bAshai slang and typically looked down those days (it doesn't irritate me that much now). Ofcourse, I had school friends who spoke Telugu in their home and called their appA as 'nAyanA / nainA' (our village celebrity - the tea staller & his sisters used to call their dad nAyanA) but that didn't remove the Madras bAshai tag to that word and so the song got poor rating among us those days.

My most fav part of the song was the way in which the saraNam ends - drummer's delight! I used to enjoy thoroughly light music troup performances those days where the drummer plays this kind of sounds exactly the same way! Even if the whole orchestra sodhappified (with cheap keyboards replacing important guitar / violin sounds, which was the norm those days), if they had a decent drummer, I used to give them great marks. Me and my cousin were regular visitors to the light music shows on the 'porutkAtchees' in Virudhunagar and surrounding towns those days. (R S Manohar dramas were the top favourites in such exhibitions for us, however). Obviously none of those poor troops could anywhere come closer to Raja songs but we always had the thrill of sitting on thuNdu on maN and enjoying such late night shows so enthusiastically and walk back feverishly discussing the performances...