Was introduced to music and singing very very early in life. I probably "began to sing before I could talk."
This blog puts music into every aspect of life - with a generous dose of nostalgia.
Check out my website at www.sunilpintoentertains.com
It was a bright morning indeed yesterday... as a group of boys, including my son, got onto a school bus headed to the Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai. They were there to support a team of their schoolmates participating in a Science Quiz.
It only dawned on me a little while ago, that this outing was linked to the celebration of National Science Day... that commemorates the discovery of the Raman Effect (named after the physicist C.V. Raman) ... that explains the scattering of light...
Science is all about asking questions and finding answers to them.... the question is Kyun?
By the way, the mention of physics reminds me of the Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj... the physicists from the Big Bang Theory (Barenaked Ladies).
Hope you listened to the lyrics of that song that take you through the wonders of science....
Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with a BIG BANG.
PS. Do check out some of the other posts on this blog with reference to SCIENCE...
When was the last time you stopped to think? Doesn't matter... just pause right now and Think (Aretha Franklin)
And why should you think?
Because... As Gautam Buddha said... "What you think, you become".
To be happy... As Anne Frank said... "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy".
How should you think?
"Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness", says the Queen of Talk TV, Oprah Winfrey
Or you could think like a King... The King of Wishful Thinking (Go West)
How often should you think?
"Few people think more than two or three times a year. I've made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week." - George Bernard Shaw
But Nobel Laureate for Literature 2016 Bob Dylan sings Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.
Whom should you think of?
I've Been Thinking of You (Londonbeat)
In fact, I Can't Stop Thinking About You (Sting)
Or maybe you're thinking about us - I Think We're Alone Now (Tiffany)
What You Thinking Of?
I Think I Love You (Partridge Family)
How should you think?
While most of the time we think to ourselves, sometimes we could be Thinking Out Loud (Ed Sheeran).
Sometimes we think out aloud... We possibly do so more often that we think we do... The 17th century essayist and playwright said, we thinking out loud, when we're talking to a friend.
Go on... Keep Thinking... and when you do, Think Big.
If you've been following this blog or my Facebook page, you would have come across many strange days that you never knew existed. My ready reckoner for these strange and sometimes funny days is #daysoftheyear And among the various things... today (Feb 22) is Be Humble Day.
BE HUMBLE!
Everytime I hear that phrase, I cringe - simply because I've heard the phrase frequently, especially in advice from my dearest Dad. And while everytime he said it, I generally protest that I know exactly what humility is - and It's Hard To Be Humble.
Over the recent years, I'm realising the power of humility and the need to be humble - absolutely no excuses allowed - from me at least. While Dad isn't around, I recall his words and get the reminders through the Word - the Living Word of Faith from the call to Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord.
Signing off with a few quotes from The Holy Bible.
No clues required! It's by the flame-haired singer/songwriter, beatboxer, and guitarist - ED SHEERAN - who's just 26 today... and his current top song - Shape of You.
Oh-i Oh-i Oh-i Oh-i
The first song of his I recall hearing was named after the toy brand that builds creativity in boys... Lego House.
Ed Sheeran has been really popular on the wedding scenes as a first dance song for his Grammy Award winning (Song of the Year 2016 and Best Pop Solo Performance 2016) song - Thinking Out Loud.
I came across an innovative cover version of this song in Konkani a few days ago, performed by a young girl from Goa, Joylita Silveira - Hanv chinttam vhodlean(unfortunately do not have a copy of the song to share). Was looking through this blog and found Ed Sheeran's A Small Bump featured on the post - The Unborn Child.
Besides all his own music, he's been writing great songs for other artistes and friends... check out this compilation.
He started out really young and we pray he keeps making great music till 70 and even beyond.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ED SHEERAN
PS. Seems like Ed Sheeran love Maths as much as me if not more... Have you noticed the names of his albums (+, x and now÷).
Been inundated with Valentines messages, Anniversary greetings (to the many friends who chose to get married on Valentine's Day) and a whole lot of messages about God's love on Facebook and WhatsApp since morning. Among the popular posts is the Facebook Profile Picture Frame Overlay (what a long name for something so simple) from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.
Who is Valentine?
The other Valentine that we know of is Rudolph Valentino - the 'Latin lover' of the silent movies in the 1920s. The first time I heard this name though was as part of the song Viva Y Espana by Sylvia.
Did I mention that Rudolph Valentino was Italian... and love in Italian is That's Amore (Dean Martin).
Amor Amor Amoris the word for 'love' in Spanish... and that song by Dean Martin was a bigger hit for Julio Iglesias.
In the City of Love, the 'song of love' is Chanson d'Amour (Manhattan Transfer).
Back to the universal language, here's my cover of Nat King Cole's L-O-V-E.
And all this talk about love reminded me of a beautiful song that my dad used to sing - The Glory of Lovesung by The Platters.
Browsing through Facebook, saw a host of pics taken at malls all geared up for Valentine's Day. And my browse through today's birthdays revealed some very interesting singers born today. So I thought I'd focus on the love around Valentine. Let's open the book... The Book Of Love.
From the soundtrack of 'Shall We Dance', a romantic movie I really enjoyed watching. One of the most sober songs on his repertoire. Any eighties music fan would love Peter Gabriel for his funky music videos like Sledgehammer, Steam, Solsbury Hill among others. Another Peter who celebrates a special #MusicBDay today is Peter Tork from the Monkees. He's 75 today.
What do you do When Love Come Knocking (At Your Door). Just don't do Something Stupid.
Possibly the most popular of the birthday musicians today is Robbie Williams. This song has special memories for me being the first song that my wife and I had worked out as newlyweds.
Back to the original debate - The one about our origins. Where did we come from? Evolution or Creation. Yesterday (12th Feb) was the birth anniversary of Charles Darwin. We know him as the Father of Evolution. Last year #AMusicalTwistToLife marked Darwin Day with a post on The Music of Scienceincluding songs like Monkey To Man (Elvis Costello) and the theme song from the Big Bang Theory(Barenaked Ladies). Yesterday (12th Feb) was also a Sunday - The Lord's Day. And what's more also World Marriage Day (celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of February). In fact the whole of last week, the assigned readings from the Old Testament have been from the book of Genesis, tracing the creation of the world and subsequently the second narrative of the creation story the creation of man. As a catechist, I've have been discussing the creation narrative with my students at Sunday School. And a song that I found at random came to my aid, in demonstrating the wonderful power of God in creating mankind. Here's my version of the song.
A Hundred Pounds of Clay was a hit for Gene McDaniels reaching #3 on the Billboard charts and #11 on the R&B charts in 1961. Incidentally, he was born on 12th February as well.
Were you born in the 70s or earlier? If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, weddings (especially the Catholic ones) were very different from what they are today - in more ways than one. Being one of six siblings, the only weddings that we attended as an entire family were those in the immediate family. In other cases where the family was invited - maybe one or maximum two of us would accompany Mum and Dad to the wedding. And the main reason that I liked to attend weddings was to listen to the band play. And rock n roll to tunes like Hawaii Five-O.
And this was the typical sound and even look of the Mumbai bands. Three of four guitar and maybe, a keyboardist plus a female crooner. They would play the popular tunes of the day and keep the party moving and shaking, and walking hand in hand as they played their tunes including the marches where you had to Walk Don't Run.
Another thing different at weddings was the food service. Dinner would be served in a plate including a mayonnaise salad, puffs or croquets and the most delightful of all deviled eggs.
The bands has some delightful names. In an earlier post I mentioned Crimson Rage. Among others I remember one that sounded like food dish - Blue Buttercups. There was one that went on through to the nineties - named after a drink and this tune - Tequila.
Some of the bands were inspired by the band featured here - The Ventures and another one called Bonnaventures - combining the Ventures with the bandleaders name - Boney. Well, the inpiration behind this post is the music of the Ventures that I was checking out to post today on the 80th birthday of Don Wilson, one of the guitarists.
I've had my own fun times in the band, spending entire Sundays jamming up, working out new songs, tunes, sequences, voices with Blending Stars and Blend. Followed many updates on other bands in town. Have heard of bands breaking up and forming new associations for a whole lot of reasons including Perfidia (Spanish for faithlessness and betrayal).
Another reason for the decline of bands has been the entry of electronic sounds and sequencing machines that saw the Wipe Out of the clean sound that you hear on all these videos here.
Don't worry about a thing 'Cause every little thing gonna be alright Singing' don't worry about a thing 'Cause every little thing gonna be alright
Rise up yest'day morning... Look at the daily news... Three little birds sitting on the masthead... Celebrating the birthday of a Reggae legend BOB MARLEY (1945-1981)
Was a national holiday in Jamaica yesterday to celebrate Bob Marley Day. In addition to being the icon of Reggae and spreading the sound of Jamaica throughout the world, Bob has passed the music down generations. Have liked the song by his son - Ziggy Marley - This Train (from the album Family Time) - this version has the voice of country legend Willie Nelson. This song was part of a winning sequence for a competition I had trained the boys of Our Own English School at Sharjah a few years back.
Just a few days ago - 2nd Feb actually - Bob Marley's grandson Skip Marley signed up with Island Records and shared his first single - Lions.
Besides Bob Marley's birthday, yesterday was also the birthday of Natalie Cole (1950 - 2015). The daughter of jazz icon Nat King Cole who became as 'unforgettable' as him with the tribute to her dad, called 'Unforgettable'. Here's one of my favorites from both father and daughter - L.O.V.E. (You could check out my cover on my SoundCloud channel)
My blog content team (my two sons) had lined up an entire list of musicians and artists who celebrated their birthdays yesterday... including Axl Rose (Guns n Roses) - Sweet Child Of Mine is Kaniel's favorite lead rift.
Rick Astley - famous for 'Rickrolling' on Never Gonna Give You Up.
There's one more family that I need to mention in this post - nowhere as famous as the Marleys or the Coles. But the family celebrated the birthdays of not one - but two professional musicians from the extended clan... Just in case you're wondering, I'm referring to the Pinto clan - my own. My eldest nephew - Keith Pereira has turned out to be quite a celebrity in the Country Music circles in New Zealand having performed at the Auckland Country Music Competition and having won honours at the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards. This young Biomedical Engineer is going places. He just launched his Facebook Page (Keith Pereira Music) including this recent video - Shotgunthat's piling on the likes. Keith also featured on the earlier post on this blog entitled Pure Country.
Didn't I say two? The other singer in the clan with a birthday yesterday has been active on the Mumbai advertising and jingle circles for years now in addition to jazz performances and more recently Bollywood background vocals. Bianca Gomes (Pinto by marriage to my cousin Neumann) is a member of the all star musical collaboration Ananthaal with the very talented composer and producer Clinton Cerejo and 'Jai Ho' Vijayprakash (the background vocalist). Check out my favorite from her repertoire - Manhattan from English Vinglish.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEITH
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIANCA
(though a day late)
LET THE MUSIC AND THE CREATIVITY SCALE TO NEWER HEIGHTS IN THE YEAR AHEAD
Remember the days when the only TV channel was Doordarshan, and the most popular show on TV was the Hindi movie and Chitrahaar/ Chhayageet. Remember during Halloween they would play scary songs or songs from ghost movies including this one... Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil (translated to 'lamps are lit in some places, in others hearts').
This song was from a movie called Bees Saal Baad (After Twenty Years). I don't normally feature Hindi songs on this blog... but today is special, because twenty years ago a big Bollywood fan entered the fold of our family... and the best song that I've ever heard him sing is Lift Karadey by Adnan Sami.
Lift deke deke Love ho gaya... That's the story of the very 'vitty' Vikas (or should I say the 'wery' witty Weakis - he gets called that more often in NZ) and my Whitney Houston cover singer sister Priya... Twenty years ago, they were united in marriage to get started with the Greatest Love Of All.
Congratulations Priya and Vikas on the 20 years of togetherness. May this love grow with every passing day. And may there always be laughter and happiness in every thing you do.
Your wedding day was the most fun family wedding ever... and remember that special song... your song... Paint My Love- Michael Learns To Rock.
Looks like a Don week this... After yesterday's feast of St. John Bosco (Don Bosco), today we are celebrating another Don... Don the elder Everly.... He and his younger brother Phil ruled the airwaves way before I was born (and most probably you too). Back in the 1950s, these two brothers with their guitars and harmonized vocals could keep you mesmerized - Yes I already mentioned the Everly Brothers.
Bird Dog/ Til' I Kissed You - I've never really understood the meaning of the Bird Dog song, though it can entertain with its funky beat... Could sway along to it and even snap my fingers to the beat... What's a bird dog? If you have an insight, share it with me...
This next song is a Love Song that sounds more appropriate when sung by a man and a woman. My favorite cover of Let It Be Me has been by country singers Skeeter Davis and Bobby Bare... but here's the original nevertheless...
Got a couple of ballads going back to back - Love Hurts and Crying In The Rain
Don is eighty today... He lost his younger brother in 2014 at age 74. And he probably would like to sing this song to his bro... Walk Right Back...
The Everly Brothers were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Take a break from the music to check out this clip being introduced by Neil Young.
One of the best fusions of Country and Rock I've heard has been unmistakably the guitar sound of Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) and Chet Atkins... Here they both are with the guitaring brothers and Michael McDonald... Why Worry?
From waking you up in the morning to bidding you farewell and thereafter in your dreams, the Everly Brothers have a song for everything. Here they are singing their favorites introduced by another famous duo - Simon and Garfunkel... three of the best songs ever... Wake Up Little Suzie, All I Have To Do Is Dream, Bye Bye Love...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DON EVERLY
P.S. Want to know more about the Everly Brothers? Check out their story here.
