It’s all happening

The sudden passing away of two icons was greeted with shock and sadness from around the Music and cricket world. I was wondering what was happening this week?

SP Balasubramanyam’s voice, which will echo in everyone’s house forever, a family member in every household, his voice will live with us for generations to come. Jones was an ODI pioneer, a stylish batsman, a gritty Victorian, a hero to a generation. Cricket and music were my best company in my teenage days. In the mid-’80s to mid-’90s till I left my hometown I used to be at awe with SPB’s songs and Dean Jones’ One day magic as channel 9 Australia used to picturise it.

SPB

How can I forget that song which made me go back and hear him again and again? In the late ’80s and ’90s if I had watched a couple of Tamil movies one thing was sure it will have an SPB song. Like me, I had a group of friends who used to share cassettes of all the latest Tamil songs, and later I used to go back and take the video cassettes to see those films. I fondly remember one particular movie where he sang “breathless” and it was a treat to watch him performing that song on screen. My memories of SPB dates back from the first Tamil movie I must have seen which was Punnakai Mannan followed by another one which I fondly remember seeing it in the theatre, which was Chinna Thambi. I liked the energy in the song and how he smiles and enjoys it himself. When I heard his Hindi songs from Ek Duuje ke Liye and Maine Pyar Kiya it was a recognition of his amazing talent.

Dean Jones

Those were the days I would wake up with an alarm at 4:30 sometime along with my mother. We would sit and watch Benson and Hedges series matches. It was an attraction to see the players in colored jersey and white ball. Those were the days when at school we used to discuss the battle between Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Dean Jones. We had some experts in school who would say, “The only batsman who can play Laxman’s leg-spin will be Dean Jones”. Off late, a couple of times I had seen his commentary and I liked his presentation skills and the details which he used during that Dugout ( a new word for me as well) show in those T20 matches. Deano as he was fondly called was a compassionate individual off-field as I could read from this article. I used to hate test cricket then and now ( no cricket) as well and I found this one very fascinating from Deano.

Paying my RICH tribute to the breathless singer who was singing every song as his first one and as someone said ” Where words fail music speaks.” SPB to me was the icon who differentiated and showed the difference that “There are those who sing the song and there are those who live the song“. My gratitude for making me remember my teenage years.

My RICH tribute to Deano from another article where his characteristic pizzazz and sharp analysis was praised. To me, Dean Jones’s one-day magic association is etched in my memory.

This week, the sudden departure of these legends took me back to those days of my music and cricket. I used to listen to music in my Panasonic tape recorder and watch Deano’s one day magic in our first color TV (Dyanora make).

Let me leave you with this famous line from Bill Lawry. His trademark calls “Got im(them), yes!” and “It’s all happening”