Just a small gift to the readers on the occasion of Raaja's B'day....
From the conception of this song to the final product on Tape, It would have probably taken Raaja and his team a couple of hours. It has taken me a few weeks...
Intro:
Song (Pattu Inge - Poovizhi Vaasalile):
Now you know why the title of this blog post is 'Araajagam' (அராஜகம் is a Tamil word - that can be translated as "Audacious").
Its not a co-incidence that 'Raaja' is a sub-string of that!
With Love
Vicky
That was awesome...!
ReplyDeleteGreat Efforts...! :)
What a fantastic demonstration.Demos like these give, not just a peek, but a whole damn understanding about his sense of construction.brilliant post as usual (when did this blog ever have an average post?)
ReplyDeleteSmall suggestion: Please give the film name also.
The movie is Poovizhi Vaslilaye!
ReplyDeleteI would like to know if this song mentioned here has any resemblance to the song of MJ...!
ReplyDeleteBy saying this, I ain't doing or drawing parallelism...just a relative theory! :D
That is where my brain cells are taking me to when I listen to it! :)
wow wow !...great work Vicky..ARAAJAGAM......
ReplyDeletekeep posting videos often to support your writing. That makes people like me understand better.
Vicky
ReplyDeleteYour musical skills are scaling dizzy heights!! Really impressed with the analysis and your mastery over music. More so for music pamaran's like us its people like you who can make us understand the nuances and the intricacies. Thanks for the wonderful journey you have taken us thru till date and expect this to continue.
Balaji
Vicky
ReplyDeleteYour musical skills are scaling dizzy heights!! Really impressed with the analysis and your mastery over music. More so for music pamaran's like us its people like you who can make us understand the nuances and the intricacies. Thanks for the wonderful journey you have taken us thru till date and expect this to continue.
Balaji
Nice seeing you on the screen Vicky. As the Americans say, nice putting a face to a name :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent demonstration of what goes into making a song like this. Many of us miss these nuances since our knowledge of chords in non-existent. Shows how deep the thinking of Raja goes. As you showed in one place, it is wonderful to see how the melody and the chords go together. Demonstrations like this will definitely help us appreciate the music of Raja more. It may even propel some of us to go get some more understanding of chords and WCM!!
This demonstration also shows that if there is so much in a song, it won't be possible for us in this life to analyze all that the master has given!!! BTW, your post happened on his birthday and what better tribute can be paid?
Wonderful Vicky! Thoroughly enjoyed your explanation and your playing. I love this song, which was introduced to me by the drummer in our band. Love the chords throughout. Only Raja can do such a song.
ReplyDeleteDear Vicky,
ReplyDeleteIdhu poi small Gift a?
Vazhakam pola - enaku onum theiryadhu.
But try to therinjifying....
SChool - Lesson - Teacher kudukum NOtes....
Teacher kodukum Notes - dhan easya nalla puriyum.. theiryuma....
adhai pola,
IR Lesson ku -
Vicky Teacher - Unga Notes dhan
romba Nalla iruku..
With Love,
Usha Sankar.
Dear Vicky,
ReplyDelete'Araajagam' is the apt word for this post. Well-done . Keep it up.
With love
suka
Vicky! That was an insightful deconstruction of the song, especially the chords section of it. Raaja does his usual deception here as well, using a simple and constant rhythm (read Bappida; also possibly the reason behind the MJ 'feel'?) and then weaves his magical patters around it, mind boggling bass guitar, crisp drum rolls, vocal harmony, melody and melodic variations... ah!!! Meyyalama... arakkan dhaan... araajagam dhaan!
ReplyDeleteThough I understand that this could be an exercise in futility, which ragam's shade or combination of ragams do you see here in the song?
Anna! super'na especially the Araajagam part! and nice to see you performing....
ReplyDeletewhy that cross handed playing? but it looks damn cool!
superb tone selection...Isn't that B Aug a killer of a chord?!!! man, so goose bumpy!
and after the line "Innisai yaavum", there is a "keeeee" sound....I somehow think Raaja tried to reproduce the Theremin...the Theremin is the extinct electric signal musical instrument...
And the Slap Bass!!! Nothing turns me on more than Raaja's Bass stuff.. here, Sadanandam, who is actually the Lead guitarist in the song, slaps so beautifully without getting too loud...I think he used some high end Bass like Fender Jazz...And as usual, the slap Bass is clearly passed out of a distortion+phaser+delay pedal/unit...
Way to go!
pro-Raaja...
Dear Vicky,
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic analysis, Demonstration and 99.99999% close to original performance. Thanks a lot and wish you unravel the technical intricacies / nuances in volved in IR's songs one by one as and when your schedules permits you to do so.
And thanks for showing your real face(hehe, no offence meant. I have never seen you in close up pictures so far).
All your videos will only cover your fingering and the keyboard.
Thanks for showing up now for your avid followers like myself.
Thanks a ton again,
Naggy, The General Public.
One small typo.
ReplyDelete*involved
truly audacious..awesome..
ReplyDelete@ Kavitha:
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot. Also for chipping in with the Movie name. About the MJ feel, I think you felt that way because the 'funky' feel thats felt in most of his song (for instance in Thriller) can be felt in this one as well.
@ Aakarsh:
Thanks a lot man.. also for the suggestion. Now I made the name of the song also explicit in the post itself.
@ Janaks:
Thanks for dropping by. Sure I will try do such video blogs in the future as well.
@Rangabalaji:
Thanks a lot.. Its nice to know through such comments, how my novel attempts are perceived..
@ Suresh:
It was not intentional to hide the face.. Just that there was no opportunity for it so far.. This time around, Actually I wanted to write about this song. But then I was running short of time. So I decided to do a video blog instead. Nice to know that you really liked it. This was my post for the month of May. I specifically waited to post it in June to mark his B'day anniversary ;-)
@ Ramesh:
Thanks a lot.. Fully agree.. in India only Raaja can do such a song..
@ Usha:
Thanks a lot for the comment.. Glad that you liked it..
@ Sukaa:
Thanks a lot for your encouraging comments. Indeed this song is true Araajagam.. especially the guitar section..
@ Bheemboy:
Thank you so much.. Yeah Raaja's simple and constant rhythm pattern songs are still usually very tough on the arrangement side. In this song, even though the basic rhythm is the same, the rolls and the hi-hats and the crash are all out of the world.. The song is predominantly Em and for the most part remains a classical diatonic minor.. so if you are particular its loosely based on Natabhairavi base..
@ RVK:
Thanks dude... The cross hand playing is mainly because, the chords in pallavi are atleast 10x complex than the lead melody.. and I am not (yet) so dexterous to play such intricate chords in quick succession with my left. So I used the right hand for the most complex part.. thats all... About the Kee sound - I used an electric lead variant from the tone bank and tweaked its decay to give the desired reverb..
@ Naggy:
Thanks a lot man.. I would say its some where close to 90%.. 99.99% that's a great compliment.. Sure I will continue to do similar ones in future too ... !!!
@ Praveen:
Thanks for dropping by and leaving the comment.
With Love
Vicky
wow! thats all i can say vicky. Then u seem to counting with the fingers when u play. Why u do that?
ReplyDeleteThat was fabulous, sir! Thanks for the days spent to bring out this wonderful treat!
ReplyDeleteThe introduction video was also very nice.
Thanks a lot Vignesh. Simply a great work by you.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of some more non conventional songs from Raaja.
Munram Pirai - Vaanengum vanna
Soorasamharam - Paadum neram
Vaazhkai - Mella mellaUnnai thottu
Garjanai - Enna sugamana
should we look into these songs too? just a layman's thought.
Awesome! Such a cool song. Love your title :)
ReplyDeletePLEASE WRITE ABOUT COUNTERPOINT. IR SIR ALSO DID THIS. FOR MORE DETAILS.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpoint
The following popular songs all feature contrapuntal themes with different lyrics to the different melodies.
"One Day More" from Les Misérables
"The Confrontation" from Les Misérables
"Play a Simple Melody" by Irving Berlin
"You're Just in Love" by Irving Berlin
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" by Irving Berlin
"Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You" from "The Music Man"
"Mine" by George & Ira Gershwin
"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" by Simon & Garfunkel
"I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack & Sons of the Desert
"Little Good-Byes" by SHeDAISY
"Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles
"Paperback Writer" by The Beatles
"You've Got Your Troubles" by The Fortunes
"Warmth Of Whispers" by This Allure
"My Maria" by B. W. Stevenson (later covered by Brooks & Dunn)
"Sister" by Indigo Girls
"Silly Love Songs" by Paul McCartney & Wings
"Sweet Talkin' Guy" by The Chiffons
"Orion" by Metallica
"21st Century Digital Boy" and "American Jesus" by Bad Religion (outro)
"The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!" by Sufjan Stevens
"Silver Bells" by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
"Obstacle 2" by Interpol
"Carta carbone" by Alusa Fallax [1]
"On Reflection" and "Talybont" by Gentle Giant
"Poo Maalaye" by Ilayaraaja[2]
"Electric Counterpoint" by Steve Reich
Deadmau5, according to Steve Duda
"Author of Confusion" by Neal Morse
"It's the End of the World as We Know It" by R.E.M. (chorus)
The following popular songs all feature contrapuntal themes with different lyrics to the different melodies.
ReplyDelete"One Day More" from Les Misérables
"The Confrontation" from Les Misérables
"Play a Simple Melody" by Irving Berlin
"You're Just in Love" by Irving Berlin
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" by Irving Berlin
"Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You" from "The Music Man"
"Mine" by George & Ira Gershwin
"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" by Simon & Garfunkel
"I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack & Sons of the Desert
"Little Good-Byes" by SHeDAISY
"Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles
"Paperback Writer" by The Beatles
"You've Got Your Troubles" by The Fortunes
"Warmth Of Whispers" by This Allure
"My Maria" by B. W. Stevenson (later covered by Brooks & Dunn)
"Sister" by Indigo Girls
"Silly Love Songs" by Paul McCartney & Wings
"Sweet Talkin' Guy" by The Chiffons
"Orion" by Metallica
"21st Century Digital Boy" and "American Jesus" by Bad Religion (outro)
"The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!" by Sufjan Stevens
"Silver Bells" by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
"Obstacle 2" by Interpol
"Carta carbone" by Alusa Fallax [1]
"On Reflection" and "Talybont" by Gentle Giant
"Poo Maalaye" by Ilayaraaja[2]
"Electric Counterpoint" by Steve Reich
Deadmau5, according to Steve Duda
"Author of Confusion" by Neal Morse
"It's the End of the World as We Know It" by R.E.M. (chorus)
My god..Vicky..I have been boasting that I am a Raaja Crazy fan. I am nowwhere compared to what you have done. Great Stuff. I have done some sequences on Raja's composition which I would be glad to share. THis is heady stuff. Keep rocking. Good luck
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Kamesh and welcome here.. I would be glad to hear your sequencing too..
ReplyDeleteWith Love
Vicky
Are you referring to Rajkumar, of Loyola Evening troupe, with Gerard Joseph. They use to play this song in intercollege culturals in 1988-90's.
ReplyDeleteRegarding counter point in the below URL it has been discussed and how Raja had used in his songs. Pls.refer.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tfmpage.com/forum/archives/16443.14.00.33.html
Hi DominicPaul:
ReplyDeleteWelcome here.
No.. I am referring to P.Rajkumar, CIT 97 - 00..
Yes.. Also saw the counterpoint links you mentioned. Except for the post by a few, the rest all views are thoroughly misinterpreted and (one's) own subjective views on the subject (eg: Statements like: "Canon is a form of music which is similar to counterpoint but subtly different.").
With Love
Vicky
excellent work... thanks
ReplyDeleteHi Vicky,
ReplyDeleteAmazingly I have had this off beat dance song as my one of the all time greats of Ilayaraja. I will come back about this song in detail but I wanted to remind you of one more song that is just as strange and addictive as this one.
"Yendrendrum Aananthamae..". A Malaysia Vasudevan number from the movie Kadal Meengal. The bass is stupendous and the violin in the charanam out of this world.
The reason I point out this song is both are sung by Malay Vasu and seem to have the same feel and ambience. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Thanks
Ravi R