A racy disco number from the early 80s

Dear SPB Fans,

This song is “Solla Solla Enna Perumai…” from the Tamil Film “Ellaam Inba Mayam” (1981). Music by IR.

After a very long time (more than 20 years) , I happened to hear this song and immediately it filled me with nostalgia of the times when I viewed this song on the screen and watched dumbfound at the modulation of our SPB voice and the matching gutsy dancing by Kamal. I used to murmur this song all day long during those times and after that it had gone to the archives and has come to surface only now.

This is a great disco number which came prior to “Ilamai Idho Idho”. In this song, I would say our SPB has made Kamal to dance to his gutsy singing. Kamal would have had no other choice but to match up to the ferocious singing of our SPB. In fact, I would say SPB had made it easy for Kamal to dance since he had already danced with his voice and given the required momentum for Kamal to fall in line comfortably without much effort. I think this must be one of those songs where our SPB has brought in so many voice modulations. Just listen to the ferociousness with which he renders this song and also keeps changing the tone of the voice throughout the song and also before the second charanam from shriek to bass. Mind blowing. IR is fortunate indeed to have our SPB give life to his composition.

IR’s orchestration – what to say – no words at all. Just listen to the way he has made all the instruments play to his tune and had given a great disco number. Simply superb.

I was charged up all through listening to this yesteryear disco song.

Please find below a discussion article on this song, extracted from a site where the writer talks in detail the technicalities of the song.

The one thing that immediately popped up to my mind is the way IR has used the chorus in the whole song. Plus the voice modulation though out the song. Let me try to put down my view as below. The opening is grand. A guitar strumming and then percussion alone soon follows. Then comes the harder to diagnose factor. Is it the vocal counter parts or is it some instrument or is it both some instrument and the chorus together. SPB is the de facto choice for songs of such voice modulation. Boisterous singing by SPB soon follows. Listen to the percussion, rhythm change in the pallavi. Another subtle thing to notice in the pallavi is the way SPB modulates his voice. Ie, the way he sings the “Solla solla enna” is different from the way he sings the word “Perumai” (more bass effect in this word), and this continues through out the song. The guitar and the percussion complementing each other are nothing but pure ingenuity. CSR, listen carefully that the guitar is alone for some good seconds (Before SPB sings the first charanam being prominent, but if you listen, the first interlude has lots of place where you can hear the guitar alone.). (The !!).Percussion stop. The second interlude is amazing. The sax/ trombone is terrific (an amazing display of jazz elements). The voice modulation from shriek voice, to normal voice to the bass voice when the chorus singing “Thaatha thatha “ is mind boggling. Also listen to the chorus meanwhile singing “Thom”, just giving an impression that it’s a percussion beat, but i guess its only the chorus singing it in such a way. The ending of the song is another beauty. Listen to SPB’s imitation there. The song goes to a crescendo with all the clapping. All this before “sakala kala vallavan” is some thing to notice and ponder over the genius that IR is. Thanks CSR for reminding the song. This song is in a cd combo released by universal Panner Pushpangal/ Ellam Inba mayam/ Kadal Meengal. Another underrated gem of a song. Can we take this to the other fans in the group too.



ENJOY THE VIDEO SONG

Dear Friends, i could get hold of only the video version of this song. So, some may not be able to see & hear to this song in case of low Internet speed connectivity. I am sorry for this. I am not able to get hold of a purely audio version, If someone is able to find it please email the link to me and i will include it here