Then she said, “Wait, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out; for the man will not rest until he has settled it today.â€
I’ve been on a mountain in Maryland doing maintenance work & mowing lawns for the past week, so bare with me here as I get back into the swing of things, or in the case of this next album, the blues of things.
Ghost World Soundtrack (2001)
This album was introduced to me with three words: “Jaan Pehechaan Ho,” the album’s opening track that starts the film off as well, an obscure Bollywood romp that was like nothing in the world that I had ever heard before (maybe it’s me being musically sheltered, or maybe it’s a lost sound after all that would tear apart any American ear). Trumpet lines flitter in & out without stereo panning – it’s just the feel, the twitchy fingers – & that mystery masked man’s voice is leveled in the mix in ways I hadn’t known existed before. It was the song that tore things open for me, conventions of song structure thrown to scrap (& it isn’t even that abstract of a song! in fact, it’s rather standard!). & you talk about lo-fi…I didn’t know the half of it.
Because this album’s music is ripped from the annals of 78-rpm heap piles for the most part (save for a couple of joke tracks that you skip & then big-band standards re-done with a modern band that you mostly skip as well), introducing me to the BLUES for the first real time, & giving me the gritty stuff that was broken because it was old & the records dusty, not because it was anything over-emotional. Ghost World also gave me “Devil Got My Woman,” which was THAT song for me (& on a good day, it still is), the song that was on repeat forever right on the cusp of high school’s start; I believe it’s made me cry before, & probably after the first listen. It’s an amazing, haunting track with an aged falsetto & the bumps from record grooves balancing with your heart beat as it gets slower…& slower.
Songs like this & Little Hat Jones’ “Bye Bye Baby Blues” were something like eye-openers, launching me into areas that I took a few steps towards & had to step back, the history there was just too much. The blues is still an area of music that I have only begun to graze, but its impact on where I headed musically & historically is undeniable. The movie is good, too, if only for the first half (I really didn’t like the ending, for what it’s worth, though Steve Buscemi does his usual amazing job), but the soundtrack is worth your money & then some.
ALSO: Now through the magic of YouTube I am able to bring you the original “Jaan Pehechaan Ho” video from the film in which it was originally performed, Gumnaam. Amazing, I have something new on my rent list now.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/FyEnG_DEB1I" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]