MARCH 29 – I nearly wept. Even if you’re not into (or, inexplicably, were never into) Styx, this heartfelt ode is likely to wring a drop or two from the old lachrymal repositories.
“But you can’t tell someone his or her ears are wrong. You can’t rescind the pleasure they derive from a particular piece of music.”
“But my larger point is that there’s no angle in hating on a particular song or band or genre. Our species is adaptable. That’s our evolutionary trump card. If the human ear is given a chance, not cowed into snobbery, it can find rewards in almost any form of music.”
Truer truisms were never uttered. And in that liberating spirit of deal-with-it confession, here’s my nomination for the Styx song to end all Styx songs. (If you laugh, I swear, I’ll hunt you down and incinerate all your Nirvana CDs.)
Styx – Mr. Roboto
Uploaded by manon42. – See the latest featured music videos.
Another deathless “classic” from The Greatest Decade. (And speaking of Glory of Love, I hear they’re remaking The Karate Kid! With Jackie Chan! May not be such a bad idea!) Worry not. I’ll stop before subjecting you to Baltimora and Tarzan Boy (though Woody Boogie is a heck of a kick as well).
PS: Going by the first few installments, maybe this column should have been called Ah The Eighties. But that won’t acronym, alas, to BR!
PPS: Then again, perhaps it’s not such a great idea to fixate, much, on those initials — else the day isn’t far off when columns will come bearing the titles Bavarian Raspberries, Boiled Rabbits, Brassiere Resizing…
Baradwaj Rangan 
Bala
March 29, 2010
Brassiere Resizing ? Now that’s an article I wouldn’t mind seeing 😀
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Arun
March 29, 2010
“If the human ear is given a chance, not cowed into snobbery, it can find rewards in almost any form of music.”
Ah Thanks!!! I’m gonna steal that line to use whenever the music-snob-alarm is set off.
And hey yer better off decade-wise… Imagine how bad it is for someone who grew up in the 90’s to look back at the songs he enjoyed!
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munimma
March 29, 2010
I can laugh coz I don’t own Nirvana cds 🙂
one more for you – Bum Rap – do you ever?
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Priti
March 29, 2010
“If the human ear is given a chance, not cowed into snobbery, it can find rewards in almost any form of music.” Hip hop? 🙂
I like this Bitty Ruminations business. It is personal and refreshing in that it isn’t a judgement delivered from the critic’s throne.
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Bala
March 29, 2010
Why does the phrase Bum rap immediately bring to mind that glorious tamil phrase – bum beating and calcium coating ? Oh and are we going to have a lot of youtube/dailymotion/metacafe links henceforth ? 😀 Do warn beforehand ,my poor laptop can’t take too much of flash overdose 😀 And the begining of the styx song reminds me of Vangelis and Blade Runner ..for obv reasons 😀 ….phew end of random nonsense comments !
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Rahul
March 29, 2010
Arun, what are your guilty pleasures from the 90’s?
BR, I like the phrase “truer truisms” !
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vijay
March 30, 2010
My 80s rock collection was dominated by Scorpions. I guess no one listens to them today. But I’ll never ever be ashamed of my 80s collection 🙂
Also, I think 80s had some of the best one-hit wonders.
and thanks for reminding me of Tarzan Boy/Modern Talking. Deva had actually flicked the opening humming portions of this song for a Prabhu starrer, some village-based song in the late 90s. Hilarious. So it wasn’t just the two of us listening to MT at some point of time. Cheri Cheri lady had even my mother humming along.
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vijay
March 30, 2010
Is this series exclusively for the blog? Based on the brevity of the pieces, the f-bombs and the vid clips I had this doubt
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vijay
March 30, 2010
And even though HJ is my punching bag, I must admit that some of his songs like June pona july kaatre and such evoke the 80s cheesy pop nostalgia for me. Reminds me of my college roomie who used to listen to New kids on the block, Cool edition and such with a vengeance 🙂
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galadriel
March 30, 2010
ah.. those were the days when i used to have a serious crush on ralph macchio.. sigh.. 🙂
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Hermoine Granger
March 30, 2010
Hi BR,…Other ideas for BR’s might be Book Rants, where you go on an impromptu rant about the different series that influenced you at different stages of life…an ode to their authors and those memories may be….:D Maybe especially some on those authors/magazines that made you want to be a “writer” etc 😀
If you feel that this is “too personal and probing a line of questioning” (to quote you back), its OK !
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Hermoine Granger
March 30, 2010
Also since these are mostly your “growing-up”
stage stuff, “Brangan Reminesces” would be more apt, dont you think ? 🙂
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brangan
March 30, 2010
Arun/Rahul: Guilt from the 90s? Hmmm… how about Macarena, you philistines 🙂
munimma: Bum Rap? What’s that? Thanks to Bala, it’s settled in my mind as the Tamil equivalent and I just can’t stop grinning at my sophomoric sense of humour 🙂
vijay: I think everyone listened to Scorpions those days. Those days when people looked into each other’s eyes and said, let me take you far away, you’d like a haw-lee-daiy… BTW, is it only me or does Scorpions actually sound like a PG-rated Metallica? I mean, the sound, the accents…
Hermoine Granger: Yeah, books too. Though I don’t think there was any one book/mag that made me want to write. You know, like how filmmakers say they saw Star Wars or some Kubrick movie and they walked out of the theatre saying “I want to be a filmmaker.” It’s not like that for me.
PS: No more f-bombs. Apparently, I’m influencing young minds. See comment at Bitty Ruminations #1. Sigh!
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Hermoine Granger
March 30, 2010
Hi BR, well not any one inspirational book as such, but some well-loved, cherished, maybe not great, series that was popular in those days maybe. I just like your nostalgic tone ! And actually the new BR series is nice, spontaneous and feels light and fresh.
PS: I honestly thought that particular comment was a prank by someone here. I, for one, dont understand some words put in here at times. Nine-year olds, hmmm…I honestly dont know what they will get from it 🙂
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vidyut
March 30, 2010
“No more f-bombs. Apparently, I’m influencing young minds”
BR, you’ve caused a blogical version of a “wordrobe malfunction”. Thank god that there is no FCC to fine you for cussing. Or as Bono would have subtly put it,”Love the mainstream!” 🙂
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Bala
March 30, 2010
Young ? 😀
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anamika
March 30, 2010
music is music when it takes you back to those days…like when you smell the green grass of home on a flyod number and other such interesting associations!-They touched because they spoke of things brewing in most of our adolescent hearts…cant seem to be going “gaga” over todays music…!(at leats the associations no longer exist!!)
keep “bumming” and do throw in an F-missile once in a while.It just makes teh 9 year old in us smile..
thanks!
a
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munimma
March 30, 2010
bum rap as in dissing review. Was not my intention to inspire dirty minds 😉
That effing comment looks like a prank. Shouldn’t effing stop you.
So these are your reminiscences. Wonder if you are putting them down so you don’t forget? 😉
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tejas
March 30, 2010
BR, apparently you are influencing the 9 and 12 year old young’uns who come out of watching Love, Sex aur Dhokha. Is there a word like oxymoron for real life events?
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brangan
March 30, 2010
Well, that *is* a prank! Didn’t the LSD reference give it away? It’s from Mambazha Manidhan I guess 🙂
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Niranjan
March 30, 2010
Where was the Bitty Ruminations BR all these days?!! Keep the flow, man!!
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VJ
March 30, 2010
SO waht do you guys think of this ?
http://sudhishkamath.com/2010/03/28/public-apology-to-c-s-amudhan-shiva-venkat-prabhu-premgi-amaren/
go to the comments section to get a complete recap pf what happened 🙂 . It is amazing how the director of a spoof movie has no sense of humour 🙂
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the mad momma
March 30, 2010
funny.. i posted something equally embarrassing today!
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Deepak
March 31, 2010
“Public apology”, my ass! Obviously not enough people are watching his show…publicity stunt
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brangan
April 1, 2010
Deepak: No, I’m sure there was some ego tiff that ricocheted into a problem. I know how difficult it is to make light of Kollywood filmmakers. You’ve got to be very careful treading on their eggshell egos.
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sn
April 1, 2010
ha ha ha.. Thamasu thamasu..
http://sudhishkamath.com/2010/04/01/april-fool/
Seriously not a fan of this prank.
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