Asha Bhosle

Legendary Indian singer Asha Bhosle died a few days ago aged 92. Her singing career,alongside acting and television presenting work, spanned eight decades and apparently she is the most recorded artist in history. She may be best known to British indie audiences from the title and lyrics of their 1997 single Brimful Of Asha.

Brimful Of Asha

What a great song- The Velvet Underground via Indian TV and film, the beauty of the 7" single as an art form, Asha's sister Lata Mangeshkar (also a singer of renown), Ferguson Mono, Jacques Dutronc, the Bolan boogie, Trojan Records... a lyrical stream of consciousness that makes perfect sense even if you don't get all the references. The single stalled on release but a Norman Cook remix smashed its way to the top of the charts and it sold millions. Asha herself said that the song was significant, the moment that two worlds, British indie rock and Bollywood, collided.

Asha Bhosle sang on this song, O Je Suis Seul,too by West India Company. West India Company were Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe (from Blancmange), Asha and tabla player Pandit Dinesh (when West India Company started in 1984 Vince Clarke was involved too but Erasure became a much bigger day job). 

In 1989 West India Company rubbed shoulders with Dr Alex Paterson of The Orb and his Battersea neighbour Andrew Weatherall (then at the start of his remix career) and the pair did two remixes of O Je Suis Seul, another Asha Bhosle cultural collision, this time, acid house/ ambient house and Bollywood spliced. Weatherall drops in the 'Yep, I know that feeling' sample, Nastassja Kinski in Paris, Texas, one he'd use again on Screamadelica a year later. Thrash, then of The Orb, engineered both remixes, the Bhagwan Boogie is Andrew and the Orient Express Mix is Andrew and Alex. 

O Je Suis Seul (Bhagwan Boogie)

O Je Suis Seul (Orient Express Mix)

Both are totally of their time, have a wonderful 1989 innocence about them and are completely fantastic, the Bhagwan Boogie especially. 

Asha also sang on Bow Down Mister, Boy George's late 80s/ early 90s acid house/ Hare Krishna outfit Jesus Loves You. George wrote the song on a trip to India- Asha said several times it was the song she was most pleased to have contributed to. Her vocal in the second half elevates the song. 

Bow Down Mister (A Small Portion 2 B Polite Mix)

Asha Bhosle also appears on this 2021 track by Bicep, a duo from Belfast. Asha's vocal is a strong presence in the track, set back from the tumbling and thumping drums and the skipping synths, the track on the verge of falling apart. The album Isles was released in early 2021, a point where any communal activities- dancing, clubbing, going to gigs, even meeting indoors- were out of the question. Asha's vocal seems to fully capture that in a way, partway between euphoria and melancholia. 

Sundial

Lastly, and I was completely unaware of this song until this week, is this- in 2002 Asha sang a duet with Michael Stipe, a song that appeared on an album by 1 Giant Leap (Faithless' Jamie Cato). The Way You Dream is pretty stunning- eight minutes long, building gradually with tabla and samples, Asha's divine voice, strings, Michael joining in just after two minutes, singing along with and around the vocal the 1 Giaat Leap pair had already recorded with Asha. 

Asha's funeral took place two days ago, huge crowds coming out to pay tribute to her as she made her way to be cremated where she was sent off with a gun salute. 

RIP Asha Bhosle. 

Soundtrack Saturday

In Wim Wenders 1984 film Paris, Texas, Harry Dean Stanton wanders around the West Texas desert, disheveled and bewildered. He collapses in a convenience store and via his wallet he is identified as Travis Henderson. Travis' brother in Los Angeles is contacted and he comes and picks him up. He had not heard from Travis for four years and believed him to be dead. Gradually, the story unfolds. Travis is re- united with his son and then goes to Houston to look for Jane, Hunter's mother and Travis' ex (Nastassja Kinsky), who it turns out is working in a peep show club. 

Paris, Texas is a very visual film. Harry Dean Stanton's face and baseball cap. The desert. Nastassja's blonde hair and bright pink jumper. The sunsets over L.A. Billboards and shop fronts. But it's also very much defined by its soundtrack, Ry Cooder's music, the Tex- Mex songs, the dialogue included in the soundtrack including the famous eight minute long 'I knew these people...' speech (and the point at which after Travis has talked to Jane on the phone at the peep show club for several minutes, Jane sighs, 'yep, I know that feeling', sampled by Andrew Weatherall on Screamadelica as the endnote of I''m Coming Down. I knew these people... was also sampled by The Orb and others). 

As an album Ry Cooder's songs and score work on their own. Listening to it makes one want to watch the film again of course- never a bad thing. Ry Cooder's playing- slide guitar, Tex Mex blues, finger picking, reverb- is perfect, evoking Travis and Jane's loss and melancholy, and the vast emptiness of the desert. Wenders placed ambient microphones to pick up the sound of the desert and the wind. Cooder discovered the desert wind is in E- flat so he tuned all the instruments to that note, Cooder's guitar pitched to the key of the wind. 

Paris, Texas  

Cancion Mixteca is a Mexican folk song, written by Jose Lopez Alvarez between 1912 and 1915. It has become the song for many Mexicans who have left their homeland, a song of homesickness. In the film and on the soundtrack Harry Dean Stanton sings it, with Cooder on guitar and piano. 

'So far am I from the land where I was born!
Immense nostalgia invades my thoughts,
and, to see myself, as lone and dismal as leaf on the wind,
I would that I'd weep ‒ I would that I'd die ‒ out of sorrow!

O land of sunshine! I sigh for‐to see you.
Now that, far from you, I live without light ‒ without love.
And, to see myself, as lone and dismal as leaf on the wind,
I would that I'd weep ‒ I would that I'd die ‒ out of sorrow!'

Cancion Mixteca

And here's the monologue. It's not a Paris, Texas post without it. 

I Knew These People 

Canción Mixteca

Playing around with the Harry Dean Stanton monologue from Paris, Texas when I was putting yesterday's Isolation Mix together last week caused me to play the entire soundtrack through a few times. It's not a very long album, only ten tracks and if it wasn't for 'I Knew These People...' which clocks in at over eight minutes it would be much shorter. Ry Cooder's guitar playing, all slide guitar, delicate finger picking, reverb and atmosphere, perfectly matches the moods and look of the film- the dust of the desert, the longing of the characters, the melancholy and loss of Travis and Jane. Ry Cooder said in 2018 that director Wim Wenders caught the ambience of the south west of the USA with the use of ambient microphones which picked up the sound of the desert and the wind, which he discovered is in E♭. So for the soundtrack they tuned all the instruments to E♭. That's the kind of detail I like, tuning your guitar to the key of the wind.

This song, Canción Mixteca, is ne of the highlights of the soundtrack and is little more than Ry Cooder's echo laden guitar, some piano and Harry Dean Stanton singing. The song is a Mexican folk song, written between 1912 and 1915 by Jose Lopez Alvarez. He wrote it in Mexico City suffering from homesickness for Oaxaca, his home. Since then it has been adopted by many Mexican exiles who long for their hometown.

'So far am I from the land where I was born!
Immense nostalgia invades my thoughts,
and, to see myself, as lone and dismal as leaf on the wind,
I would that I'd weep ‒ I would that I'd die ‒ out of sorrow!

O land of sunshine! I sigh for‐to see you.
Now that, far from you, I live without light ‒ without love.
And, to see myself, as lone and dismal as leaf on the wind,
I would that I'd weep ‒ I would that I'd die ‒ out of sorrow!'

Canción Mixteca

Back To The Source

This is really good and tailor made for a Sunday morning. Balearic DJ Dr Rob has put together a mix of the source material that inspired some of Andrew Weatherall's productions and remixes (and provided the samples). It opens with the famous Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski dialogue from Paris, Texas (the source of the 'yep, I know that feeling' line at the end of I'm Coming Down on Screamdelica) and then winds its way from there through some of Weatherall's record collection- Miles Davis, Bill Laswell, Lee and Nancy, Claire Hammil, American Spring (produced by Brian Wilson), the acid trip and tape loop drone of Tomorrow Never Knows, Billy Stewart, The Emotions, Gang Of Four, Fearless Four, Brilliant, the headspinning and heavy Hey Ho by Dub Syndicate, some even heavier Big Youth and Depth Charge- a mix that works both for trainspotters and general chilled out enjoyment.



Tracklist in full-

Harry Dean Stanton – I Knew These People
Bill Laswell – Lost Roads
Miles Davis – Saeta
American Spring – Sweet Mountain
Lee Hazlewood – Some Velvet Morning
Claire Hammil – Tides
The Beatles – Tomorrow Never Knows
Billy Stewart – Summertime
The Emotions – Don`t Want To Lose Your Love
Gang Of Four – What We All Want
Fearless Four – Rockin' It
Brilliant – Colours
Dub Syndicate – Hey Ho
Big Youth – Yabby Youth
Depth Charge – Depth Charge

Bonus selection- here's the Paris, Texas clip from the start of the mix and the end of the film, a scene and film that is always worth spending ten minutes with.

Places

I've been uncovering and re-discovering bits and bobs by Dreadzone recently, which includes keeping an eye on the Soundcloud page of Greg Dread. Coming out of the ashes of Big Audio Dynamite they spliced dub with dance and made many good tunes through the 90s and into the 21st century, for a variety of record labels. Last year's Escapades album reunited them with Mick Jones for the single Too Late. This song has been posted by Greg Dread- Places, a beautiful tune and vocal, with some dialogue sampled from Harry Dean Stanton in Paris Texas (above with Nastassja Kinski). The cost of the sample led to it being removed from the released version- which is a shame as it works really well. I'm currently playing this half a dozen times a day.