Monday, March 2, 2009

The Great Indian slide story

One can say the "The Indian slide guitar" has gone through a long and interesting journey .Long enough to write books or maybe but short enough to even go unnoticed .

The Saga

The first few instances of Slide guitar being heard in Indian music was early 4os when it was used predominently in film scores in the great Bollywood . It can be heard very clearly in the movie "MAHAL" starring the debonair Ashok Kumar and one of the most beautiful starlet to have hit the screen MADHUBALA .
Let me point out that the Indian music scenario was ,is and will always be ruled by the Vocal faculty that is the Singer . In Indian Film background scores have rarely made any meaning to the listeners . Countinuing on what I said the slide guitar could be heard very clearly in the movie cause the movie had a haunting background score .The mood was suspense , melancholic and somewhat dark . In all these desriptions the Slide guiatr fitted very well .

As time passed it was once again used rather liberally by none other than SD Burman in his combination with the enigmatic GURUDATT in most of his productions especially PYASA