The Purpose of Life ……. contd

Mohammed Rafi (Hindi: मोहम्मद रफ़ी, Urdu: محمد رفیع; December 24, 1924 – July 31, 1980), often addressed as Rafi Saahab, was an Indian playback singer whose career spanned four decades. A versatile singer, Rafi sang in many Indian languages including Hindi, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada and Telugu. He also recorded English and Persian songs. He is primarily remembered, however, for his Hindi-Urdu songs, which still remain very popular in the Indian subcontinent and also among the Indian diaspora. Along with Mukesh and Kishore Kumar, he was one of the leading male Bollywood playback singers from the 1940s to the mid 1980s. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1965.

 

Rafi was born the youngest of six sons of Hajji Ali Mohammad at Kotla Sultan Singh (or Kotla Sultanpur), a town near Amritsar in Punjab (British India). Rafi, whose nickname was Pheeko, started singing by imitating chants of a fakir in his village. In 1935-36, Rafi’s father shifted to Lahore, and the rest of the family followed later. Rafi’s family managed a men’s salon in Lahore’s Noor Mohalla. It was his brother-in-law Mohammed Hameed who spotted the talent in Rafi and encouraged him. Rafi learnt Hindustani classical music from maestros Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwanlal Matto and Firoze Nizami.

 

Rafi’s first public performance came at the age of 13, when he was allowed to sing at a concert featuring the legendary K. L. Saigal. In 1942, Rafi, under Shyam Sunder, made his debut as a playback singer in the duet “Soniye nee, Heeriye nee” with Zeenat Begum in the Punjabi film Gul Baloch (the film was released in 1944). Soon after, Rafi was invited by the Lahore radio station to sing for them.

 

 Rafi’s association with Naushad helped the former establish himself as one of the most prominent playback singers in Bollywood. Songs from Baiju Bawra (1952) like “O duniya ke rakhwale” and “Man tarpat Hari darshan ko aaj” furthered Rafi’s credentials. Naushad, who had been using Talat Mahmood for his songs, began favoring Rafi as the male voice in almost every song composed by him. Rafi would sing a total of 149 songs (81 of them solo) for Naushad.

 

 

On Thursday, July 31, 1980, Rafi died at 10:50 p.m., following a massive heart attack. His last song was “Shaam phir kyun udaas hai dost” (Aas Paas), which he had recorded with Laxmikant-Pyarelal several days before his death. He was survived by four sons (Saeed Rafi, Khalid Rafi, Hamid Rafi, Shahid Rafi), 3 daughters (Parveen, Nasreen, Yasmin) and 18 grandchildren.

 

 

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed “The Boss”, is an American songwriter, singer and musician. He records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock infused with pop hooks, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.

 

Springsteen’s recordings have tended to alternate between commercially accessible rock albums and somber folk-oriented works. Much of his status stems from the concerts and marathon shows in which he and the E Street Band perform intense ballads, rousing anthems, and party rock and roll songs, amongst which he intersperses whimsical or deeply emotional stories.

 

His most famous albums, Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., epitomize his penchant for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily life in America. He has gradually become identified with liberal politics. He is also noted for his support of various relief and rebuilding efforts in New Jersey and elsewhere, and for his response to the September 11th attacks, on which his album The Rising reflects. He has earned numerous awards for his work, including nineteen Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award, and continues to have a strong global fan base. He has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and 120 million worldwide.

 

Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Boro. He lived off South Street in Freehold Boro and attended Freehold Regional High School (today known as Freehold Borough High School). His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was, amongst other vocations, a bus driver of Dutch and Irish ancestry, his (Dutch) surname means stepping stone. His mother, Adele Ann Zerilli, was a legal secretary of Italian ancestry. He has an older sister, Virginia – who took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums – and a younger sister, Pamela. Pamela Springsteen had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time. Raised a Roman Catholic,^[ Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima parochial school in Freehold Borough, where he was at odds with both the nuns and other students, even though much of his later music reflected a deep Catholic ethos and included many rock-influenced, traditional Irish-Catholic hymns.

 

In 1965, he went to the house of Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in town. They helped him become lead guitarist and subsequently the lead singer of The Castiles. The Castiles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township, New Jersey and played a variety of venues, including in Greenwich Village. Springsteen acquired the nickname “The Boss” during this period as when he played club gigs with a band he took on the task of collecting the band’s nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates. Springsteen, however, has never liked this nickname, due to his dislike of bosses. Previously he had the nickname “Doctor”. Even after Springsteen gained international acclaim, his New Jersey roots showed through in his music, and he often praised “the great state of New Jersey” in his live shows. 

U2 With Boss

 

Mr. Mister was an American pop rock band of the 1980s. The band’s name came from an inside joke about a Weather Report record called Mr. Gone where they referred to each other as “Mister This” or “Mister That”, and eventually selected “Mr. Mister.” Mr. Mister may be considered as representative of the melodic sound of 1980s pop rock. The band consisted of Richard Page on vocals and bass guitar, Steve George on keyboards, Pat Mastelotto on acoustic and electronic drums and Steve Farris on guitars.

 

 

I can go on and on …… about those who have stirred my enthusiasm … I guess, I can be thankful to all of them, these legends, for inspiring me and most of all, teaching me to enjoy good music.