Al***s That Influenced You
Posted by: Nick Lees on 03 May 2010
This is about albums that have been personally influential to you. In other words they inspired you to investigate a new genre, a new artist, take up an instrument or even lap-dancing. Whatever.
George Harrison - Wonderwall Music
I’ve loved this album since the day it came out – it conjured up its own magical world even though I’d never seen the movie. What’s more it was crammed full of East-meets-West sounds that were so exotic and downright interesting.
However, it’s only recently that I’ve realised just how influential it had been on me as I finally got round to getting into all of the Indian classical instruments that featured on the album – I’d been familiar with and loved the sitar, sarod (sort of like a cross between a sitar and a banjo), surbahar (bass sitar), flute and santoor (like a hammered dulcimer) repertoire, as well as intruments not featured there - sarangi, veena and violin.
The missing element had been the shehnai – a double-reeded instrument that sounds like an even more mournful oboe. A friend at work pushed me towards the work of Bismillah Khan, who until his death in 2006, had dragged the instrument from a folk one (played at most weddings) into one deserving of the classical repertoire. I started with The Shehnai’s Humble Master – a double retrospective
(Here's a Spotify link to duet with Vilayat Khan)
...and then a live jugalbandi (duet) with L. Subreamaniam. Wonderful stuff. I’ve also come across Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan’s work too. Almost as good.
But despite leading me into the depths and intricacies of Indian Classical I still love Wonderwall for all its mish-mash of often fragmentary ideas and glimpses of another (musical) world. I owe that album a lot. I know that both Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee have been highly critical of the hippie love (and trivialisation as they see it) of the Indian Classical tradition but without it I doubt I’ve have been able to embrace it to the degree I have(though still superficial from Shankar and Banerjee's points of view).
George Harrison - Wonderwall Music
I’ve loved this album since the day it came out – it conjured up its own magical world even though I’d never seen the movie. What’s more it was crammed full of East-meets-West sounds that were so exotic and downright interesting.
However, it’s only recently that I’ve realised just how influential it had been on me as I finally got round to getting into all of the Indian classical instruments that featured on the album – I’d been familiar with and loved the sitar, sarod (sort of like a cross between a sitar and a banjo), surbahar (bass sitar), flute and santoor (like a hammered dulcimer) repertoire, as well as intruments not featured there - sarangi, veena and violin.
The missing element had been the shehnai – a double-reeded instrument that sounds like an even more mournful oboe. A friend at work pushed me towards the work of Bismillah Khan, who until his death in 2006, had dragged the instrument from a folk one (played at most weddings) into one deserving of the classical repertoire. I started with The Shehnai’s Humble Master – a double retrospective
(Here's a Spotify link to duet with Vilayat Khan)
...and then a live jugalbandi (duet) with L. Subreamaniam. Wonderful stuff. I’ve also come across Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan’s work too. Almost as good.
But despite leading me into the depths and intricacies of Indian Classical I still love Wonderwall for all its mish-mash of often fragmentary ideas and glimpses of another (musical) world. I owe that album a lot. I know that both Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee have been highly critical of the hippie love (and trivialisation as they see it) of the Indian Classical tradition but without it I doubt I’ve have been able to embrace it to the degree I have(though still superficial from Shankar and Banerjee's points of view).
I hadn't thought much about soul when I heard John Peel play "anyone who knows what love is ........." by Irma Thomas.
the mono version is the one included here as there is so much more emotion in that than the stereo version - there's a lot of this sentiment from Dave Godin in the liner notes with perhaps a little bit of hyperbole but all is forgiven once you hear the tracks.
I've gone on to buy albums from many of the artists featured on this album and its sequels.
A revelation to my closed ears.
SJB