The Video Cassette Collection - 4

Track: I am Every Woman
Album: The Bodyguard (OST)
Year: 1993

What a range this woman has in her voice! Whitney Houston.

This track is supposed to be the remade version of Chaka Khan's "I am Every Woman" from the late 70's. But I love this video for Whitney alone. It's as slick as it gets with all those disco beats and moves and her sparkling wide smile. All energy! It's the kind of song that fits in perfectly well for singing together in parties or picnic trips. I remember humming this during the recess time those days in school and how I banged the desk in sync with, "I got it...I got it...I got it...got it...baby...baby".

The Video Cassette Collection - 3

Track: C'est dur dur d'être un bébé (It's tough to be a baby)
Album: Pochette surprise
Year: 1992

Can you imagine that the singer Jordy Lemoine was just around 4 years old when this single was released! This video has to be the only one of its kind till date. It will put a wide smile on your face every time you watch it. Very simple yet catchy tune! Jordy's baby accent is the drawing point. But be warned this song is not just for kids. There is something strikingly important for the adults and it's deliberately shown at around 1:50 min.

My favorite part is when both the kids, in the later part of the song, just stand together and recite the lines, "Oh la la bébé, Oh la la bébé" - adorably cute!

The Video Cassette Collection - 2

Track: Ice Ice Baby
Album: To the Extreme 
Year: 1990

Yo V.I.P...Let's kick it!

Snap your fingers...
Tap your foot...
And get on with this little beauty of a rap!

This classic hip hop styled video never gets me tired. I can watch this video in loops even today. Simply love the footwork of the dancers! The rhythm really keeps resounding in your body even after the track ends. Such an influence! Few of the lines that I like,

Dance go rush to the speaker that booms
I'm killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom...

All right stop collaborate and listen...

Check what the girl does at 2:51. Had you watched the Kadhalikkum Pennin song from the movie Kadhalan, it should ring a bell for sure.

The Video Cassette Collection - 1

Track: Didi
Album: Khaled
Year: 1992

The first song from that collection. This track was an absolute rage those days. I love this for the great colors used throughout. It was a whiff of fresh air when I first saw it. Check the beats that take off after a delay in the beginning and his hoarse voice that sounds just painfully cute. With the sax in play, the frisky mood of the song soars through the roof between 2:07 and 2:33. And the rhythm will make you shake your body for sure! Full of exuberance!

The Video Cassette Collection

The early 90's were good old times for me. I was beginning to develop a taste on my own for music, movies and books. It was the time when the cable revolution (the STAR TV revolution) started rocking India as Doordarshan was pushed to the backseat. But one of the channels that spread the craze of music was MTV.

Right from childhood, I have been fascinated of collecting something. Stamps, coins, match box covers from the streets, marbles, audio songs and movies. Apart from the movies, we had a huge collection of video songs in Tamil (50s to 90s), and English, and old Hindi songs too. Those days, nobody knew what exactly CDs were. Cassettes were the order of the day. And my parents, being great fans of the classic Hindi songs as well never failed to grab their favorites from programs in Zee Tv (that was the only Hindi channel on cable). The name of that program was Farmaayish as I remember. Likewise, we had recorded a huge number of video songs from MTV.

During the weekends, I used to spend my time watching those videos again and again until  the sequence of those songs in the cassettes got nailed into my memory. Though I never got the lyrics exactly, I used to sing the way my mind grasped them in that little age. I used my own pronunciations which sound quite funny when I recall them now.

How could  I forget those weekends? Record, watch, rewind, watch, dance, sing, re-record with a better clarity, watch, rewind, dance, sing, rewind, record, watch, dance, rewind, sing, whistle, dance, sing, whistle, sing, whistle... ah! Those were days with real character. Later, there was this CD revolution and then the DVD, and now the Blu ray, and maybe another one in the next few months. Change is in the acceleration indeed. But none of them can beat those good old cheap cassettes. Those wrinkled sides of the tape, annoying recording lines and the grains on the screen, and the way the video appears when it's fast-forwarded - truly classic! I still have those tapes. The smell of those memories stay fresh inside me. I still smell them! I do! I'd love to share a few of those songs in the next few posts and express my memories attached with that collection. 

Truth

The sweetest form of truth is in the slight exaggeration of it.

The Maverick Comedian

Bold and boisterous, Goundamani is one of the rarest pearls in the history of cinema!

Solitude

Being alone in a room is better than being overlooked in a crowd.

Groupism

Groupism is flourishing in the name of unity.

The Cutest!