Fire And Rain and Sholay

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain

I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end

I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend

But I always thought that I’d see you again

James Taylor, Fire And Rain

One of my favourite artists and one of my favourite songs; the drums alone make it worthwhile. You’re right, I’m one of those soppy sentimental guys who loves the “soft” rock that oozed out of the late Sixties into the Seventies, part folk-rock part acoustic-ish harder stuff. Where Traffic and Crosby, Stills Nash and Young and Buffalo Springfield and America and The Mamas and the Papas and Donovan live happily ever after side by side with Dylan and The Band and the Dead and Cohen and Jethro Tull, touching Renbourn and Jansch, through to Carole King et al, on to Delaney and Bonnie and the softer acoustic side of Hendrix and Joplin and Clapton and Stealers Wheel and Loggins and Messina, with a little bit of Poco and The Flying Burrito Brothers and Fotheringay and Lindisfarne and the supergroups of Bloomfield/Kooper/Stills and Blind Faith , against a strong backdrop of Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot and John Martyn and Van Morrison, slowly dribbling into the mid-Seventies and The Doobie Brothers and Queen and Police and Jim Croce and Steely Dan and Supertramp. Come on, I even like Neil Diamond. Really. Always did, still do. [Isn’t it nice when you get to that age when your tastes are genuinely your own?]

Incidentally, if you haven’t tried it, go and visit liveplasma, feed in the names of some of your favourite bands and watch what happens.

And now for something completely different. Triggered by this article I read in the Times yesterday.

They’re re-making Sholay. With a prequel and a sequel and an animated version. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, Sholay is the highest-grossing Bollywood film ever, and one of the few (maybe 50) that I’ve actually seen. And you know what, I really enjoyed it. Even thinking about the way people used to spurt out Gabbar Singh one-liners brought a smile to my face. Now that’s what I call the power of Wikipedia, where I can link to Amjad Khan’s lines. Amazing. Thank you Jimmy Wales.

You must be wondering just where this post is going by now. Don’t worry, I just happen to have a circuitous mind.

You see, I can remember actually queueing in the rain for cinema tickets only once in my life (with Gary Martin, in Calcutta). The film I was queueing for? Sholay…. translated as Fire. In the Rain. Fire And Rain. And so the story goes.