OLD IS GOLD...

Why do we love songs from our teenage and youthful days? Even if the world has better songs and bands, and whole lot of known and unknown options today???

I know now….

Its not just the lyrics, the melody or the movie nor the concert that you had been to, that makes them special. Its not even the number of times you listened to those songs, at a time when we had the liberty of being pretty jobless..Its not that we are too busy juggling with life's responsibilities, that makes the songs of today probably less appealing than the songs of ten to fifteen years back.

It’s the whole lot of memories attached to each of those songs that make it special for us, even today. I know it sounds stupid. But it is..am sure it’s the same for most of us…

Yesterday, on my way back from work, the radio was ablast with songs like mein pareshaan…..pareshaannn and rowdy rathore and many more, which at any day would boost my tired spirits. And then out of nowhere, the title track of Kal ho na ho played..and there….Time just stopped still….i was reliving some olden days. In fact to think about the song, all I did while watching the movie was cry bucketful of tears, but yes, those were the days of college, getting into crowded buses, waiting for long queues without complaints.., blast the music on weekends, dance in our hostel corridors…

Listening to those songs during a sleepless night on a bus from Bangalore to Calicut, meeting friends at coffee day, while our favorite music played in the background….the music that played in our friends car, the songs that were dedicated to our first crush……the 'numb' song that was perfect when i was at my feistiest....for me the list just goes on and on.

And when I listen to the infamous 'Hotel California'…it takes me back to a pink background with the picture of a satan and the title ‘Hell freezes over’, much to the utter dislike of my mother…That was my first rock album…gifted on my birthday by a friend who was dismayed at me drooling over the boybands of those times…

Although the satan did have an effect on me, as I moved from pop genre to Aerosmiths and Metallica’ and the Floyds….the boyzone, savage garden and the backstreet boys still don’t fail to bring back a smile even today…and I’m surprised I still remember the words as I sing along with the track…. And I still carry all those cds and gifts with me, wherever I go, from kerala to Bangalore, to Chennai and to dubai…

I don’t listen to them, except for the occasional reminder of them from radio stations that I plug in to. But I’m happy I have them with me….I took pains to get hold of every single album in those times…and to even think of the number of times I would arranged and rearranged folders and wrote them into CD’s, to walk all the way to my grandparents place to watch MTV most wanted and Channel V’s Billboard toppers….

Now all you need is a click, and every song from any part of the world falls right into your palm, into your ipad or iphone in milli seconds. Am sure The Jonas brothers and the GAGAs and Minaj's, Kanye's and Labrinths are good, but I don’t think I would have any memory that would get attached with the song….they would just remain as good songs and videos.....

The Boys from Boston

June 2nd broke a lot of records.
- The longest wait outside the entrance area – 2 hours
- The highest price ever paid by me for a concert ticket!!! My parents would require medical attention if they ever heard abt the price I paid for the ticket. The earlier generation can never understand the reason behind it (wink!)
- Screams of acknowledgment and joy that irritated the fellow creatures around me,
- The new challenge that I posed to the previously acclaimed bawlers. The decibel rate, if checked would have definitely broken all my previous records

The Aerosmith show was a rocker show!!! 1.5 months after the show, and the lasting effect created……. Phew!!!! Mind blowing!!!

No wonder they are called rock gods!! The energy, the passion, and the style was remarkable!!! 59 year old Tyler wasn’t an exception; he was just like any of us, in fact better than us, screaming into the mike, yet the screams produced music to our ears. He proved to the entire world that ‘chemical romances’ and the ‘crows’ and ‘monkeys’ come and go, but he was here to stay. The legend, who inspired the likes of ‘Bon jovi’ and ‘Guns and roses’, just picked up the crowd with an ease that only a professional could do!!!

8:00 p.m- Adorned in semi-Indian garments (a ganji and a lot of batik and animal print stoles around the neck), Tyler created a hypnotic spell by starting out with the ‘Taste of India’, the song that announced their love for India (not jus because of ‘land of elephants’ or mehndis, but for various other things). I was still in the queue outside, and swearing at the men and women for creating the commotion then, and wondering why couldn’t we have a proper queue system. But the moment the music started, it was a stampede, lead by none other than me (he he), plunging into the smelly, sweaty crowd to ensure a proper view of the favorite stars. Roshin, who had come along with me, had a tough time to match up.

It was a dream come true. They were so close….. hardly 15 feet away from me, and singing away the tunes that I loved the most.

‘Dream on’ was sung with the same feeling and passion as it was in the seventies. The other numbers followed- Livin on the edge, pink, falling in love, cryin, sweet emotion, dude looks like a lady, don’t wanna miss a thing, love in an elevator, Jaded, eat the rich (when he flashed a “lick me’ painted on his tummy) and some songs from their tribute to the blues. Joe Perry, the sexiest of the band, and my favorite, created frenzy when he started out with his solos ‘messin around’, and the synthesizer which had an electrifying effect on the audience!!!

More than three decades in the music world, its the combination spell of the toxic twins (Perry and Tyler), the scintillating gigs and the energy factor that makes them outstanding from the others.

The crowd just rocked and swayed, topped with the music of a lifetime, and obviously, because of an awful load of ‘smoke’ and ‘water’!!! But all were oblivious of the smells, the sweaty backs or the amazingly hot women around. Yes, the band captured all the attention!!!

It was with great disappointment that I left the Palace Grounds 15 minutes before the show ended, as I was not allowed to wait until the last of the show when the crowd goes bezerk, and missed the rather romantic number of the band ‘Don’t wanna miss a thing’. But as I left the palatial grounds in an auto rickshaw that burnt the holes in my pocket, it was only a deep sense of contentment that filled my mind!!