Wah! Wah! Girls

Don't hold your breath, grandpa, this post ain't about girls, girls, girls :)

It is about a musical that is playing in London, which the Guardian doesn't care for much:

You could translate "wah! wah!" – how some Indian audiences express their pleasure at a performance – as "bravo!". Sadly, there's far more woe than wah in this feeble attempt to create a British Bollywood musical, which seems to owe more to a dull episode of EastEnders than it does to rich traditions elsewhere. The costumes often have a bright, jewelled swagger, but the rest of Keith Khan's designs, including what appears to be a papier-mache red London bus, look cheap and tacky, as if the budget had unexpectedly run out.

Ouch!

And the review ends with this line:

there is not a single song you'd come out singing.

Must have sucked big time, eh!



The music that the above video begins with is one of my favorite fun-songs-videos--the colors, the tune, the beat, ... I haven't watched this movie.  Early on during my graduate schooling days, one of the visits back to India, this song was the rage then and seemed like I could never go five minutes before somebody somewhere cranked it all over again... here is that movie original:



Anyway, hey, grandpa, that Elvis movie that you had in mind, featured this awesome piece:



It is crazy to think that "Return to Sender" was in 1962, and the Beatles appeared in the Ed Sullivan Show only slightly more than a year later.  Yet, the two come across as from two different generations!

With the girls theme, here is one of my favorite Beatles number:



Well, I might as well wrap up this post by looping back to India, with the Beatles; happy listening!

Elvis and Indians. No, not what you think!

The creative abilities of people, eh :)

First, Elvis and his jailhouse gang singing and dancing to Mohammed Rafi


The one who put this together notes:

In India, Shammi Kapoor, introduced the rock culture as a youth icon and in one of his films - 'China Town' a 1962 Hindi film and had mesmerising songs from the Great music composer Ravi and WONDERFULLY sung by Indian Jewel Legendary classic Mohd Rafi.

One such song of shammi is picturized with Jailhouse rock and another elvis video to stretch to the full Hindi songs. Also due to attempt to stretch to full song, repeated clippages may appear.

And here is Kishore Kumar with his 'playback' for Elvis



Well, why leave it here? Here is yet another "Indian" channeling Elvis' Jail House Rock

Elvis, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones: same generation!

Because Elvis was already an established star by the time the British invaded the US with their music, we tend to assume that somehow Elvis was much older than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.  Well, compare their birthday info:

Elvis Presley: January 8, 1935
John Lennon:October 9, 1940
Paul McCartney: June 18, 1942
Ringo Starr: July 7, 1940
George Harrison:  Feb 25, 1943
Mick Jagger: July 26, 1943

Elvis and Lennon separated by a mere five years and months.  It is not as if they were a generation apart.  But, it is their music that makes us think that these are of two different generations.  And, add to this list Bob Dylan, who was born in 1941.

I suppose it is a challenge that performance artists have--how to keep up with the changing times, and the younger audiences ....  Hmmm ... to some extent we faculty also face similar issues in our working lives.  We have to keep up with the times and the rapidly changing technology and student expectations.  I am glad then that a couple of terms ago a student told me that I am "with it" in the way I conduct myself and my classes.  It will be awful if I am no longer able to connect with the students; I hope that day does not arrive too soon .. at least not before I turn 64 :)

The strange meeting at the White House: Elvis and Nixon

You ought to read this LA Times story on how the famous meeting happened.  Reads like a movie story, than a real life one.  I suppose truth can be stranger than fiction.
The image on the left is the first of the five-page letter than Elvis hand wrote to Nixon while on the plane to DC.
ht