Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex, and the Hare Krishnas

I can’t believe it, all these bands are coming back…  Many times it’s not completely welcome, but sometimes it is.  And I love seeing this clip of Poly Styrene and (some of) her band X-Ray Spex, apparently shot very recently (like just a few days ago):

Back in February, I posted a video of what X-Ray Spex were like doing this same exact song 30+ years ago (though not naming them, I merely referred to ”Another Proper British Girl from a Long Time Ago).”  But here’s another, even better clip from just about exactly 30 years ago:

Actually, what’s surprising is how little she’s changed.  If some of the old-style feminist followers of this band will forgive me for saying this, I think she was a cutie, and still is.  But it’s amazing that we’re seeing her again at all, because for a while she seemed to have completely disappeared.  And the rumors spread quickly - confirmed, to our disbelief - that she had left X-Ray Spex to join the Hare Krishnas!

Though it may have not been completely like that…  Many people assumed back then that you couldn’t join the Hare Krishnas and remain a punk rocker; you had to become a total hippie.  But as it turns out, there was a whole Hare Krishna hardcore punk movement that built up, with Poly as a sort of godmother.

Looking into that strange phenomenon a little more, I found an article in Techgnosis, originally published more than a dozen years ago in Spin, detailing the growth of a Hare Krishna hardcore punk movement that seemed to have reached quite a peak by the 1990s.  Personally, though I myself was once a punk rocker (back in the original days of X-Ray Spex), I don’t understand the idea of joining the Hare Krishnas and staying loyal to punk rock.  If I joined the Hare Krishnas, that would provide me with a good excuse to delve even more into all the wonderful Indian devotional music that’s out there - not continue bashing away in some latter-day hardcore punk scene.  But some of this Hare Krishna punk music isn’t that bad.  There’s one band (or was - I think they’ve broken up in recent years) led by a Hare Krishna devotee singer named Sri, which even might be worth posting here…  They’re called Baby Gopal, and this is their song “Shiva”:

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P.S.  Oh, yeah, I should mention, the Bollywood clip that I included is “Dum Maro Dum,” from the movie  Hare Rama Hare Krishna, which came out in 1971, starring Dev Anand and Zeenat Aman.  The singer is Asha Bhosle.

Nouvelle Vague - Eisbar

Back up north…

This has to be one of my favorite song covers ever: Nouvelle Vague (who else?) doing the German-Swiss postpunk classic, Eisbar:

Oh, and for those who don’t know it, here’s the original, by Grauzone:

The Social Relevance of Shree 420 to the Present-Day U.S.A.

Forgive me for being obsessed, but I can’t help but ponder the stunning social relevance that this film which was made in India in 1954 has to some of the problems faced by the current-day U.S.A.  Consider, for instance:

1.  The main character Raj has a Bachelor’s degree, yet he has the hardest time finding an honest job in Bombay.  He is repeatedly told that the only way to make money in Bombay is to work in the service of trickery and thievery, be a “420″ (the number in the Indian penal code for a swindler or thief).  He is also told that the higher-level 420s are never accused of “420″ and called thieves; they are honored and admired, because they have risen to a higher social status thanks to their “business” success.

2. More than once, Raj sings a song about how all of his clothes are made in other countries.  He must reassure himself that he is still a true Indian becuase his heart is Indian. 

I guess I should add here that I’m a little uncomfortable with any kind of nationalism.  (This is notwithstanding my awareness that things become a little more complicated in a country where nationalism also means breaking away from a recent history of colonial rule.)  But I am also all too aware of the problems it causes for the citizens of a country when they must get all their clothes and other goods from other countries, because of the connections this has to the economy in which they must survive.   (And no, we have not completely moved beyond the connections between nation and economy - far from it…)  The U.S. in 2008 is a country that hardly produces anything anymore.  Everyone who is not affluent in the U.S. must own a wardrobe of clothes made in other countries.  And since nothing is produced in the U.S. anymore, guess what…there are no jobs!  (Ironically, many of our jobs have gone to India.)

3.   The only way that Raj can work his way out of poverty is to work at a position where he sells shares  that are not really backed up by anything.  He ultimately sells things that do not really exist; he is engaged in schemes of fictitious capital.  However, it is always clear that one day this house of cards is going to come tumbling down.  (Does this sound familiar?)

4. That trickery is even evident in the names of the characters.  As Filmi Geek reminded me, the woman who initially seduces Raj into this life of trickery is named Maya, which can mean not only “illusion,” but “trick” or “deceit” (and all Maya wants to do is take your money).

5.  There is a hinted threat of social upheaval when the people come to the mansion expecting Raj and the corrupt businessman to give them homes.  You see, they have paid all their savings into a plan through which they are supposed to get incredibly cheap/affordable homes.  But now they are going to find out that this plan doesn’t really work, and they are not going to have homes after all.

Of course, these elements and messages do not have relevance only to the U.S. and India; they pinpoint the problems of the entire world (and system) in which we all must live.  This movie is said by some to be a nationalistic film, but many of its messages have international signficance.

Not to say that these are the only points of the movie (or the only reasons to watch it), but…  They are definitely points that have stuck with me.

And on that note, I wish you all a happy May Day.

Another Word About Shankar Jaikishan - And The Place To Find Their Soundtracks

When it comes to Hindi/Bollywood soundtracks, the duo Shankar Jaikishan were among the best musical directors ever.  Certainly, they’re among my favorites.  Fortunately, however, I’ve never had to buy a Shankar Jaikishan CD, yet I have more than half a dozen of their soundtracks on CDs, and I like the sound of my collection much more than the usual sound of new CDs.  That’s because I found all of these albums at Parties, Sarees and Melodies, where blogger Stella_1 has uploaded much of her old LP collection to mp3s (and then posted them in Zip files at a share site).

Srangely, though, as I realized tonight, I seem to have skipped downloading the Shree 420 album.  (I did download a sort of predecessor to this, the soundtrack to Awaara, which is also very good.)  But I did finally get to that Shree 420 album a little while ago, and now I’m going to go and unzip the file…

A Great Movie for Unemployed People With Bachelor’s Degrees (and anyone trying to live in this world with a conscience)

To procrastinate in my job search yesterday afternoon, I walked over to 74h Street in Jackson Heights and bought a movie at the Golden Hits Bollywood store.  The movie is Shree 420…  And what a perfect movie it was for me to see!

The movie opens with the main character, Raj (played by Raj Kapoor), heading to Bombay to look for a job, dressed in ragged clothes with his possessions in a sack that he’s carrying over his shoulder on a stick.  During his futile search for work, he sometimes takes his Bachelor’s degree out of his jacket pocket, to show people that he’s educated.  But it doesn’t do him much good.

Unable to afford a place to stay, he joins a homeless community sleeping on the pavement in front of the mansion of a crooked rich businessman.  Eventually, Raj gets a job in a laundromat and also meets a schoolteacher with whom he falls in love.  But he is still plagued by poverty, as is his beloved schoolteacher.  (She is not as poor as he is, but she is struggling quite a bit, as is the school.)  And when Raj thinks of his condition, he ponders how much he simply cannot afford to get married and raise a family.

But then his luck changes.  Through some trick that he’s good at (which I won’t reveal here), he happens to fall in with the crowd of the crooked rich businessman - a fate that seems to provide his long-sought exit out of poverty…

Here’s a great scene that occurs when he visits the homeless community later and feels a tugging at his heart for the love and friendship of the honest people whom he’s abandoned:       

 

P.S.  I guess I should mention that Smarnika in my Prodigies post was playing a song from this movie too.  Actually, I wanted to let a lot of people recognize that.  I was very familiar with the soundtrack and song and dance clips too; the music comes from the fine team of Shankar Jaikishan.  But this was the first time I had a chance to sit and watch the whole movie through, with subtitles. 

P.P.S.  There was a very nice review of this movie written last year by the Filmi Geek.

Whatever Lola Wants

Should I actually go to a movie that isn’t from India?  I’m thinking of it.  The movie (which I think originated in France?) is called Whatever Lola Wants, and it’s playing at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend…  It’s about a struggling dancer in New York who gets interested in belly dancing and some legendary belly dancer and at the same time gets involved with an Egyptian business student and ends up in Cairo…  Well, that all might be interesting, or not.  But what interests me is that the music is by Natacha Atlas!

P.S. I don’t know who that kid is doing the belly dancing, but to be honest, it would be more incentive for me if I knew that we’d get to see Natacha doing a little of her own famous belly dancing in this flick. 

Loop Guru - Paradigm Shuffle

Jai Maa Kaali

I stayed up well into the morning watching a 1995 movie called Karan and Arjun (available with subtitles at Daily Motion).  The scene below is fantastic, and the music to me sounds like pretty good Indian-folk-techno-rock fusion - hard-driving, especially near the end.  (I love the guy’s vocals at the end of this clip - so goth.)  The music and dance scenes were the best parts of the movie, and the story was kind of touching (as those Indian reincarnation-for-justice/revenge movies often are).  It gets a bit too silly near the end with the drawn out martial arts cowboy action scenes, but I foresaw that potential problem right from the beginning, and it’s not a big deal.  But meanwhile, those scenes in the temple…wow!  Hail mother Kali!     

Nouvelle Vague - Human Fly

Robyn - Cobrastyle

I guess I should warn that this might be quite a leap for some people from the last posts, although it continues on the theme (sort of).  But I like Robyn (who hails from Sweden, one of my other favorite nations for music), and this is one of her best songs.  Actually, it’s a cover of a song by a group called the Teddybears, but I prefer Robyn’s version.  Her ”official” recorded version of the song is probably better, IMO - it’s less punk(ish) and more strictly electronic-pop, which I think suits Robyn better, in addtion to being a bit more refreshing to me (exactly because many, many years ago, I myself was a punk rocker).  But this is a good performance, with striking references to the snake theme - notice the shirt, and notice her dance - not snake-like per se, but you could easily picture a snake who is very agitated.