Rahul Dev Burman

Last summer, Jamie turned up in Ostend as he was invited to participate to some flemish tv show. After some beers in town, we started to feel starvation then we went at mine with his agent and promoter for some night cooking action. Probably we talked crap for a bit but I remember we talked about India and Jamie said he was totally amazed by a couple of people playing on the roof of his hotel in order to welcome him and his band. It brought him much inspiration that he went to a music store down the street and asked for the craziest indian composer. He came back with R D Burman. We downwloaded some straight away and had a good laugh. It stayed in my player for weeks and I reckon mister Burman deserves to be known by everyone. It sounds like a curry of cha cha, country, exotica, espionage with a touch of musical comedy. All in once. How serious is that! You'll have to find your way in the thousands tracks he made though... Good luck!

Following a heart attack in 1988, R D Burman underwent a bypass surgery abroad the next year. While recuperating he is said to have composed over 2,000 tunes which he kept in his memory bank. He often said that his best tunes came to him in his dreams and that he had to be in happy frame of mind even while composing sad tunes. "When I am down, I end up making a mess of things," he is reported to have said.

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