DR may not have found a mention on this blog before. I met her in TISS, and for an entire year we lived along the same corridor, with rooms facing each other. Our hostel was a particularly beautiful one. We each had a wonderful balcony large enough to fit a mattress. In the evening, when the crows slept for a while before they went nuts at midnight – the campus be drenched in the sounds of birds, running squirrels and falling leaves.
She put my faith back in girls who came from Calcutta. She wasn’t what is commonly refered to as the naika (how do you define it – excessively coy?) variety. But maybe that is just my bias. (Yes, I know it is. I can imagine my friends from Calcutta coming with a frozen fish to beat me up.) She’s a student in Reading, and we are grateful to Google Talk. We sometimes just chat along and do our work like it was in hostel. We also love playing Bappi Lahiri songs for each other. She was home for two days and we had a blast.
Among other things – DR has a habit of picking up weird songs. So I made her sing one of my personal favourites “Sweet Marie” which I think she picked up at La Martiniere Calcutta.
As I was humming this, Sri’s friend ND who is home for dinner states that this song is from the repertoire of the Konkan region. Why and how this song became famous in a school across the country is an interesting question. So well, since I haven’t really got the guts to a podcast, I got DR to start with one. So here she is, singing Sweet Marie which usually gets me giggling. Lyrics:
Sweet Marie! Come to me!
You’re my heart and always shall be
You’re my one and only, you’re my only true love
You’re my one and only, Candy loving sweet!
Any ideas about the origin of this song?
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LOL! DR rocks. She should be signed up by Virgin Records or something! A related post could be on the great Bappi Da’s music as interpreted by Govinda’s pelvis.
chuckling all the way, more so in the “commu too mee” and “candy luvving sveet” parts. :D
wow..!!..sweet marie is becumin’ popular..!!!..thanx to DR..lol..!!!
Thanks neha….i bask in the glory of my recognition on the world wide web…singing a song with phunny accent is sure a telent, what say u? hehe!!..what matters is, it always makes neha giggle and am glad will make a few others smile atleast…:)
Allow me to show off my extremely limited knowledge of Konkan region’s music: it is influenced heavily by Brazil’s popular “baile” genre of (dance) music. I’ve heard some Mangaloreans refer to it as Baile (or baila) music. The ubiquitous picnic anthem “Surangini” is probably the best known example and “Sweet Marie” is another. I think some Alan Lomax-style research is required to get to the origins of “Sweet Marie”.
Till then, can someone play Bob Dylan’s Absolutely Sweet Marie?
Anon2: Hhmm. I leave Bappi interpreting to better experts such as the Great Bong.
Bharat: Isn’t it adorable? Has me laughing everytime. I like the way she says “You’re my heart”.
Swagat: :)
DR: I am not even sure if it’s a talent – I think it’s wired into you almost. (If you dad is reading this – I’m sorry!)
km: Yes ND did mention that it was the Baila. By any chance the wife is Mangalorean? Such knowledge usually comes from extended-spouse-culture. :)
The precious rendition of “Sweet Marie” sounds a lot like the chorus to “The Titanic.”
“It was sad,
it was sad,
it was sad when that great ship went down.
Husbands and wives
Little children lost their lives
it was sad when that great ship went down.”
Sorry, can’t find a midi, but if you’re really interested I’ll look through my music and send along the chords.
PS: Linked to you through India Uncut
As I think about this, the tune is also used for a song called “Passing Through:”
Passing through
Passing through
Sometimes happy
Sometimes blue
Glad that I ran into you
Tell the people that you saw me passing through
Which is a much cheerier lyric than The Titanic.
Sorry, once again no midi.
Cool clip, love the way true love has been made to rhyme with “Julaab” – hilarious!
Richard: This is amazing. I need for DR to learn this up and sing it out now. :)
Pareshaan: Julaab? Rhyme with Julaab!?!
Hi Neha …
I must hurry … so I can’t explain all things, in Global Voices you always using “farsi” instead of “Persian” , please never use that word again and as soon as possible remove all the “farsi”s and write “Persian” instead, and if any Iranian called\write Persian language as “farsi” please show him\her these articles …
Farsi or Persian ? (CHN)
http://heritage.chn.ir/en/Article/?id=88 [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.
“FARSI” or “PERSIAN”? What Is the English Name of Our Language? (Payvand)
http://www.payvand.com/news/03/dec/1083.html [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.
IRAN or PERSIA? FARSI or PERSIAN? (Iran Heritage)
http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/iranorpersia1.htm [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.
“FARSI” or “PERSIAN”? (Payvand)
http://www.payvand.com/news/05/dec/1063.html [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.
The announcement of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_announcement_of_the_Academy_of_Persian_Language_and_Literature [in English]
Persian or Farsi? (Iranian)
http://www.iranian.com/Features/Dec97/Persian/
By Kamran Talattof.
Persian or Farsi? (PersianDirect)
http://www.persiandirect.com/articles/2004/july/id_00001.htm
By Ali Moslehi Moslehabadi
“FARSI”, recently appeared language! (CAIS-SOAS)
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Languages/persian_not_farsi.htm
By Prof. Ehsan Yarshater.
“FARSI”, recently appeared language! (PersianDirect)
http://www.persiandirect.com/articles/2004/july/id_00003.htm
By Prof. Ehsan Yarshater.
Technical Terminology
http://students.washington.edu/irina/persianword/tt.htm
Similar articles in Persian:
http://www.persian-language.org/Group/Article.asp?ID=173 [ in Persian]
http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/iranorpersian.jpg [in Persian]
http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/821108/litera.htm#s22653 [in Persian]
http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/841010/html/societ.htm#s349176 [in Persian]
Have a nice time …
Nimaa: Thanks for this. I’ll need some time to read all these links and get back to you. Perhaps even consult somebody else.
Could you please not insinuate that I get my music “gyan” from my wife (who, you should know, when asked about “baile” asked me if it was “cattle music”. Hmph.)
:D
Your post here reminded me of songs i have heard either on college trips ( Ay Yi Yi Yi In China they do it for chilli) or amongst friends (roll me over…). the common thread running through all my memories around these songs are about goa / mangalore / people from that region so i set out to find whether this is part of their cultural folklore…but stumbled upon something else instead….both the songs i have refered to in particular…have their origins military folklore (vietnam / WW2). they reflected the mood of the soldiers indicated by the double entendre in their lyrics or were sometimes about the war itself. You could read more about them here
http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fishlm/folksongs/afsong.htm
http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/roll_me_over.html
http://www.directquest.com/scouting/learndoteach/songs.htm
but i am still wondering… how did songs of war become popular with people from the coastal belt of india?
km: Am sure your wife would like to read that comment. *Cough*
Reshma: Thanks! This is a treasure trove. I remember Ay Yi Yi very well. How do songs like these enter the repertoire along the Konkan belt? Well “Roll me Over” is definitely not a very pristine song by any measure! :)
Do you think it might have something to do with the Indian Armed Forces? My own experience with the Indian Army is that many times regiments end up passing on strange songs from one batch to the other. Not just soldiers, but also the womenfolk and children – who in turn probably taught it to people outside the cantonment.
The Indian Armed Forces was very active in the Second World War – but more interestingly – military forces from the world over interacted like never before during the war. They probably traded quite a few notes and songs. Not to forget, the Raj meant that we had British sahibs and British Armymen. Isn’t it also true that areas near Mangalore like Coorg supplied quite a few men to the armed forces? The culture mix must have been heady then. Massey Sahib the movie comes to mind. … Oh, fascinating this!!