Nostalgia Echo

It's true I am becoming a fob. I can't stop myself, it's an obsession. My sister confirmed this, "You only listen to Indian music now."

The only music I seem to download right now is Hindi filmi music. It's a particular kind, all old songs. Ranging from the early forties to the eighties.

It's like I'll hear an echo of a song from a childhood memory. I remember just a ghost of a line from the song. I'll ask my mother if she recognizes the song, or if she remembers what movie its from. More often than not, she will not know what I am talking about. I act disappointed in her, and inform her that she should know this.

I'll google the line of the song, and some how magically I find all the relevant info for the song in question. And some how this obscure song is located on limewire and I am listening to a song I remember from twenty years ago. Sometimes the search is harder. The ultimate source for an answer is the India Country Chat Room on gay.com. Some of those boys are brilliant, they are an instant database of 80 years of bollywood films.

As nerdy and particular my selection is I have to say I found some great music.

A lot of it is stuff that my dad listened to. I love my find today especially. Aziz Mian. He is a qawali singer from Pakistan. Qawali music is folk based Pakistani Sufi devotional music. It is truly appreciated live, where the performance is intended to work the performer and the listener into spiritual ecstasy. The scenes are reminiscent of southern Baptist churches.

Here are some quotes from wikipedia (the free encylopedia) explaining Qawwali music,

"The songs which constitute the qawwali repertoire are mostly in Urdu and Punjabi (almost equally divided between the two), though there are also songs in Persian, Brajbhasha, Siraiki and Sindhi. The poetry is implicitly understood to be spiritual in its meaning, even though the lyrics can sometimes sound wildly secular, or outright hedonistic. The central themes of qawwali are love, devotion and longing (of man for the Divine)."

"The singing style of qawwali is different from Western singing styles in many ways. For example, in words beginning with an "m", Western singers are apt to stress the vowel following the "m" rather than the "m" itself, whereas in qawwali, the "m" will usually be held, producing a muted tone. Also in qawwali, there is no distinction between what is known as the chest voice and the neck voice (the different areas that sound will resonate in depending on the frequency sung). Rather, qawwals sing very loudly and forcefully, which allows them to extend their chest voice to much higher frequencies those those used in Western singing, even though this usually causes a more noisy or strained sound than would be acceptable in the West. "

Nusrat Ali Fateh Khan is a more popular Qawali singer that people know of, Aziz Mian is a little more obscure. He was this 5'4" nothing man, who looked sort of like a munchkin. But he was able to wax poetic about being religious and profane at the same time. He almost sounds like he is rapping. Of course to fully appreciate him you have to understand Urdu. His poetry is deep, and he makes clever play on words.

My favorite is "Mein Sharabi", "Im a drunk". As you may know in Islam drinking is strictly forbidden. The Quran mentions over 300 times that one should not drink. In the song he imagines meeting the prophet, and he describes his love for him, his utter attraction to him. He talks about how beautiful the prophets face is, and how much he is adores this face. There is definite implicit homosexual subtext here. And then he says, "I had no intention of drinking, but if they give me a drink with their eyes what can I do?." The line may sound cheezy but his delivery is amazing. He then breaks into a chant, saying over and over again, "I'm a drunk, I'm a drunk". Remember this is a religious Islamic song.

Anyways, instead of just babbling on about something that really should be experienced, here is a link I found for some songs by Aziz Mian.

http://www.muziq.net/songs/Aziz_Mian/