Reggie, thank you for the memories and the music. RIP, my friend.

For many of us who grew up with the music of The Quests in the sixties and seventies, it was a sad moment when I learned of the passing of it's lead guitarist, Reggie Verghese, who died from a heart attack June 16 2015. He was a great musician and notably one of the best axemen in the region. His good friend and rhythm guitarist, Jap Chong, too passed away last year on March 2. To Reggie, we thank you for the music and may your soul find eternal peace in the arms of our Lord.

Read news article here.

Listen to 'Shanty', their first release and big hit in 1964.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0EIzCS5dow

Have our government at last decided to go Gospel singing for this year's National Day celebrations?

The “Janji Ditepati” (Promises Fulfilled) melody picked for National Day celebration this year is heating up the airwaves but for the wrong reasons, with some online users noting its striking resemblance to a 2008 gospel song by Jakarta-based Christian band True Worshippers, featuring Indonesian songstress Ruth Sahanaya.

The latest controversy, coming just days after a public furore forced Putrajaya to axe the badly-designed 55th National Day logo in favour of the 1 Malaysia logo, could see more red cheeks for government officials and could further strain diplomatic ties with the Southeast Asian giant.

Malaysia’s chattering class has been critical over the “Janji Ditepati” lyrics, penned by Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim but four days ago, they intensified their attacks on popular video-sharing site YouTube, and other social networking sites like Facebook after a blogger who professed to be a Christian pointed out that the song’s melody was strikingly similar to an Indonesian gospel song titled “Serukan Namanya” (Call out His name).

“Lagu tema KEMERDEKAAN MALAYSIA ke 55 kedengaran seperti LAGU Pujian di GEREJA (Malaysia’s 55th National Day theme song sounds like a church praise song),” said the anonymous blogger’s July 30 entry.

“Hal ini lagi mengejutkan sekiranya lagu tema kebangsaan di ambil dari lagu rohani org Kristen… Mungkin kementerian tidak tau tapi seharusnya pencipta lagu ni tdk berbuat demikian (menciplak) sebab did ditugaskan untk membuat lagu tema kemerdekaan. [This matter is all the more shocking if the national theme song is taken from the Christians’ spiritual song… Perhaps the ministry is unaware but the songwriter should not do so (plagiarise) because he was tasked with creating the national theme],” the blogger said.

The unnamed blogger urged the ministry to demand a refund from the songwriter and to replace the song, which has been panned for its lyrics, with another.

Copies of the posting and video links to both “Janji Ditepati” and its comparison to “Serukan Namanya” have since gone viral and were repeated on several blogs and online community fora such as Miricommunity.net, an Internet bulletin board popularly visited by Malaysians who hail from Sarawak.

“Amen, Yesuslah Raja!! Tapi sorry ya, Rais Yatim dengan lagu ‘Janji Ditepati’nya sama style dengan lagu ni (Amen Jesus is King!! But sorry, Rais Yatim with his ‘Janji Ditepati’ has the same style as this song),” said a YouTube commentor under the moniker amoker27 in one of the video clips featuring the Indonesian song here that has seen over 100,000 views since being uploaded on September 5, 2008.

The song, by Christian band True Worshippers led by Sidney Mohede and whose members include the regionally popular artiste Ruth Sahanaya, was released in their 2008 album “All Things New”.
“Now i really hate our ministry because duplicate this song and make it political in malaysia. really shame of my own country because of our idiot minister. sorry indonesia!!” said another YouTube commenter under the name vandridel.

The apology to Indonesia was in reference to upset Indonesians who attacked Malaysia’s missions in the archipelago, hurling eggs, stones and pieces of wood injuring personnel and damaging property as recently as June, claiming cultural theft after Rais had announced a move to add North Sumatra’s Tortor dance and the Gordang Sambilan drums to the its heritage list.

The two neighbouring countries are known to have a history of political, economic, and cultural friction.

But “Janji Ditepati’s” melody was purportedly created by a group of people only identified as Aye, Jasnie, Arman E six.

A YouTube posting of the video clip here has drawn over 255,000 views since it was uploaded on July 27 with over 30,600 dislikes compared to only 415 likes as of this morning.
Rais had also acknowledged the brickbats when he took to Twitter two days ago and invited the public to share their views on the song he wrote.

“Apa pandangan sdr tntg lagu janji d tepati? Di utube dah cecah 140k lebih. Tapi yg ‘ibu jari k bawah’ ada juga (What are your views on the Janji Ditepati song? On YouTube, there are more than 140,000 views. But there are those who have also given it a ‘thumbs-down’,” the minister said on his account ‏@DrRaisYatim.

[Source: The MI]

Now, listen to the two songs.

 Serukan Namanya (Call out His name) by The True Worshippers

Janji Di-tepati (Hari Merdeka Ke-55)

The first Malay song I learned to sing

When one talks about Malay songs, especially those generated from the sixties, the works of the late P Ramlee would immediately come to mind. His hits such as "Gelora" and "Getaran Jiwa" were making to the charts and his songs could virtually be heard at every home party or school concert, alongside the more popular western pop songs. As for me, as a budding musician during this period, it was not P Ramlee's works that got me to singing Malay songs, but one particular song from Indonesia. It was 1963 and I was in Form 3 then. One morning while we were undergoing a History lesson, a classmate seated next to me hummed this song. It was melodious and catchy and I asked him for the title, thinking it was some western pop song. He told me it was "Selalu" and recorded by an Indonesian duo. Due to their tight harmony, one can consider them to be "The Everly Brothers" of Indonesia. Regretfully, this song was taken off the air when President Soekarno launched his "Konfrontasi" on Malaysia. By then, I was very much hooked onto this song and when I finally formed a band the following year, I made sure it was part of my repertoire when performing at Malay weddings.

Ever since then, I have been searching high and low for this album but could not find it until last year I came across it on YouTube and it was so good to hear the song again. Here it is, "Selalu" by Koes Bersaudara, 46 years on.

Unlike local Malay songs of the day, chords applied were mainly on minor keys. For a change, this song uses major keys on a rotational half bar application.

What?? PERKASA to host a 'Woodstock'. Oh puhleeeezz....

Came across this write-up from blogger 'Malaysia Must Know The Truth' and I personally felt such an affront to people of my generation who was there during the Woodstock era. First and foremost, I wonder whether they understand the significance of Woodstock. It was an event to promote peace and love. PERKASA is an anti-thesis to what Woodstock stands for. They promote hate and racial prejudice.

The UMNO funded racist wing of morons aka Perkasa is really desperate to be actively back with main-stream BN that they would go to great lengths to suck-up and be noticed as truly UMNO friendly.( here )

Tell me now. What is never political about Perkasa or even UMNO ? Everything IS ! So now they want to gather 15,000 scums of society or "mat rempits"into a stadium for 2 days and call it "Woodstock" ! Get original la please ! Woodstock 69 was for real man....not for kids, fakes and crooked politicians !

No sex, no cigarettes,no drugs and no music and no motor-bikes ! Yikes !!!...and you think you can keep those "mat rempits" inside a stadium for 2 hours, not 2 days without any of those ? They'll start screaming and tearing at their t-shirts and chew on the stadium seats, man.....and then of course they'll start "snatching" each others bags and wallets in musical chair fashion, yes ?

But I'm still wondering why the deputy chief of UMNO Youth, Razali Ibrahim, stressed these youths were not being paid any money to attend ?
Smelly already ?

It's Cliff Richard and The Shadows all over again!

This is certainly great news if you are a fan of Cliff Richard and The Shadows. After more than 30 years, Cliff, Hank, Bruce and Brian are back again, this time to record a new studio album entitled "Reunited". If memory serves me right, the last time Cliff performed with The Shadows was at the London Palladium (or was it the Albert Hall) at a re-union concert in 1979. After that, Cliff continued with his solo career while The Shadows went dormant as a result of Hank's change of residence to Perth, Australia. However, they did get back once in a while to perform in the UK, including their last concert as a group in 2004. The new album consists of 22 tracks (cost me RM40) with the inclusion of three brand new tracks, all backed by The Shadows just like the good old days. Even listening to the album brings back that nostalgic feeling of the 60s when both Cliff and The Shads rode high on the charts. Anyway, welcome back, boys. We miss you.

The album was recorded in January this year in conjunction with their 50th anniversary performing as a group. Despite the fact that all the tracks were given contemporary treatment, they kind of appeared 'stiff' compared with today's pop music accompanied by strings, keyboard and wind instruments. I guess Cliff and the boys wanted the songs to remain in the sixties mode to create that nostalgic feeling. The instrumentation by The Shads remain almost the same except with some variations in some of the pieces, and of course, not forgetting Cliff's now aging voice (which didn't sound too bad at all, actually).

Even though all of them have passed the mid-60 mark, you can never keep a good band down.

Tracks include:

1. I could easily fall (in love with you)

2. The Young Ones

3. Move it.

4. Living doll

5. Bachelor Boy

6. Nine times out of ten

7. C'mon everybody (new)

8. Travellin' light

9. It'll be me

10. In the country

11. On the beach

12. The next time

13. Please don't tease

14. Sea cruise (new)

15. Willie and the hand jive

16. Summer Holiday

17. Do you wanna dance

18. Don't talk to him

19. Time drags by

20. Gee whizz its you

21. Lucky lips

22. Singing the blues (new)

Even though you may already have the above (vinyl, cassettes or CD), there is nothing like adding this album to complete your collection.