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First Skydive

Solitude

I have always been fascinated by some fabulous songs that get eclipsed by other, more "popular" songs featured in the same album. It is especially true in the Indian music scene where the concept of singles has not really evolved. There are many examples of this trend in Indian movie music but that's probably a topic for another post.

In this post, I want to talk about a song by Karunesh. The song is from the album "Global Spirit" and is aptly titled "Solitude". It got completely overshadowed by the more popular "Punjab" , which is one of my favorite songs but I like Solitude as well. I appreciated the beauty of the piece when I heard it without thinking about "Punjab" or any other Karunesh song. The fact that the time of my life when I was listening to this song was similar to the tone of the music in this song may have contributed to me liking it the way I do. Solitude has a lot of soul to it. The notes are painful and lyrics are dark. I think the Urdu lyrics have been reused from an older song , I don't know if that is the case and if it is, then which song are they from. Please let me know if you happen to know more about the history of the lyrics, I'd really appreciate.


The lyrics are a little extreme as far as the literal meaning is concerned but I hear them from a more symbolic standpoint and I request the reader to try to do the same.


Here goes:

"maut mujhko gawara hai lekin,
kya karoon dum nikalta nahin hai....
dil mein dard bankar aane waale ko,
zamaane bhar ki raahat de mujhe tadpaane waale ko...
meri mayyat pe gar aane waale ko...
daal do apne aanchal ka tukda...
de mujhe tadpaane waale ko...
mujhe ikraar bhi tha...apne aanchal ka tukda..."

Vera

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn,
Remember how she said that
We would meet again, some sunny day
Vera! Vera! What has become of you?
Does anybody else in here
Feel the way I do ?

The song is from The Wall by Pink Floyd(obviously). Its draped in melancholy of everlasting war which symbolises misery of suffering. Waters has played magic here. The song is only a minute long and majority of the people who have heard The Wall wont remember it....no let me re-word the last sentence , most of the people who have heard The Wall and not listened to it wont remember it. I guess this has become one of my all time favorite Floyd songs for its simple yet strong melody that makes you feel something in the gut...

Well...Dont get me wrong here, I am not a sad person, far from it as many would say, but have been intrigued by this subtle yet sad melody which touched me... Vera has such a fine fabric to it...i am not a music critic but I guess its something to do with the song's tone/melody or whatever you wanna call it that makes you feel what someone in agony being given hope (false?) might have felt....a soldier standing in the dirt of Normandy listening to Vera Lynn sing with the sun setting on the French side and troops retreating..still hoping that it will be over...

Vera Lynn makes me numb...I guess we all are given hope all the time and sometimes we do feel its never gonna be over but still we dont wanna believe that...thats what makes Vera realistic and easy to relate to, at least for me...

but there are days when I feel Vera means....

"oh, whatever happened to that glamour girl who came in when the war began and told us it is gonna be over soon...where's she now? its been so long that I have been suffering...but it never ends....does anyone else remember her? why did she lie to me? when is it gonna be over for me.......... "