Wednesday, December 12, 2012
RAVI SHANKAR, HERO?
OK. I will write this.
Ravi Shankar, the renown sitarist, has died at 92. Go look it up.
I was not going to put him on my hero list because, frankly, whenever Ravi was tuning up the sitar, I headed for another room.
I cannot stand the stuff.
But Ravi did do a few things, by the way, other than live past 90 which is the minimal requirement for esrose "hero".
He brought indian music to the west which opened the door for a lot of so called "third world" music which I am grateful for.
I don't mean that he brought it but his popularity fostered by the Beatles, of course, led the music moguls to go out and find alternatives.
If I were in the music business, I would do almost anything to find an alternative to sitar. Second only to the accordion in annoyance.
The other thing about Shankar is that he was a very sweet man. I have seen him in many interviews and he had this charisma that shown through the most intense application of the tabla and the sitar and all those other things that went along with it.
I would gladly sit and watch him and listen to his words then shut off the music part.
I know. I am running this into the ground, really.
I will tell you what. I will do this. I will put up a bit of Ravi and his gang and you can decide whether to play it or not.
Me? No. I will just let it be a silent tribute to the man and his efforts over the years. He made a lot of people happy. Especially George Harrison and anyone who did that is OK in my book.
