Dear FN, A very nicely written piece.....brought back a flood of musical memories
A few points to add ... 1: Lunch time was when one was able to hear Western music on AIR Goa.The Gujarati chaps who shared the accommodation (at Viegas House) with us often berated me for listening to 'bad influence' music. They must be in charge of music-morals these days. 2: This is not to state that I did not enjoy Hindi music. I actually did and still do even though I prefer the less "jump-up" Bollywood music of the late 60s and early70s. 3: BTW: I had the good fortune of having been invited to host 4 music half-hours (I believe it was on Thursday evenings when popular English music was played). It was in my final year of the MBBS...so regrettably (for me) I could not do it for more than those 4 times. 4: Thereafter....English music appeared to have become 'persona non grata' at AIR Goa. Your perception that it was 'politically incorrect' to play English music mirrors mine. We were in Nachinola on one afternoon in mid-Jan 1980 when, to our general surprise, Western music preceded the News and followed it. 5: Sri Lanka underwent a similar cultural revolution from the time of Solomon Dias Bandaranaike (I almost typed Bandodkar). The music which suffered was the Baila music. Ironic that the very individual who try to "Buddhistify and Sinhalize" Ceylon, was himself assassinated by a Sinhala Buddhist monk. 6: Back to Baila: While Vernon Correa helped the propagation of Baila over the airwaves, it was Wally Bastiansz who is credited for keeping it alive. His "Irene Josephine" is iconic and (from what I hear) is very popular in Sri Lanka today. (I realise that a Baila group had performed in Goa a couple of years ago, but it is worth listening to it on youtube...and find tiny shades of commonality with our own Konkani music.) Here is Desmond de Silva who was instrumental in making made the financial success it now is.....and (as expected) with financial success, what was 'politically incorrect' became ....."Amchencch murre" ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEHbfelsEFk 7: The story of 1970s Western music (esp on LPs) available to us in Goa - would be part told if mention was not made of the Colombo Jetliners and Mignonne Fernando. Vernon Corea and Tony Fernando (Mignone's husband) were responsible for Western music to spread from Ceylon to Goa and other parts of India and East Africa.....until it became "inconvenient". 8: Here is a short snippet of the 2013 Farewell performance by Jetliners and Mignonne Fernando. I recollect the songs from 1:30 to 4:52. Hope you do too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wazx3WgrF8A jc On 8 February 2015 at 15:51, Frederick FN Noronha wrote: Am referring to radio, the prime means of communication and music promotion of those times. While AIR (All India Radio) at Altinho had its daily afternoon fix of Western music, often with 'Yours Truly' Imelda behind the phone, if one recalls right, for maybe an hour The only other option was Friday night, Your Favourites (where college boys and other pranksters sent out mischievous 'requests' in their 'friends' names) from Panjim. Of course, there were LPs and 45rpms on records, but those were few and far to come by... besides being costly. All this, put together, one assumes because I was not around in those times, was a far cry from the Emissora de Goa Western music output, when Goa was a popular radio station being heard as far away as in East Africa.......Radio Ceylon It was therefore my perception that Western music was seen as 'politically incorrect' in the 1960s and 1970s, at least in the officially-controlled channels which were dominant then. FN
