RIFLE RANGE BOY

Actually, it all started when I started listening to this old 70s Malay song, "Bum Pam Bum Pam Parara" over the radio. A song that some students used to sing in school with altered lyrics - goncang, goncang parara..-mocking a burly guy named Guan Chiang! Then I discovered via You Tube that that song was initially sang in Greek by a Ari San in the 60s. Then there was a Hindi song with that same tune. Aris San A Greek (non-Jewish) singer who arrived in Israel as a young man in 1957 and within five years became a megastar, club owner, close friend of IDF commanders and politicians, and lover of countless movie actresses and singers. In Israelof the 1960s, everyone was singing Aris’s hits “Sigal” and “Boom pam” and the gossip columns were full of his forbidden love affair with singer Aliza Azikri. For his fans, Aris was the perfect combination of east and west. Then began the rumors that Aris was a spy, and stories of violence between him and Aliza. Aris left Is...

The Malay music scene is familiar with many songs emanated from unabashed plagiarized works of Hindi songwriters. DJ Dave, R Azmi and many the Malay singers of the 40s, 50s and 60s gain fame through these ventures. When we were growing up in RRF, every time an English song hits the pop chart, the market cassette seller would be playing his Cantonese version of the tune almost simultaneously. Of hand, I can remember 'Dance Little Lady Dance' by Tina Charles, 'Ring My Bell' by Anita Ward, fitting this bill. RTM (Radio TV Malaysia) at one time banned local songs penned to foreign tunes and songs glamourizing foregn lands (e.g. Yellow River by Christie). Here for your hearing pleasure, 'Sunshine' by Archies and 'Si Gadis Ayu' by Black Dog Bone...  Followed by 'Fantasy' by Earth, Wind and Fire as well as "Khayalan' by Black Dog Bone again!

Still talking about Shammi Kapoor and his movies, here is another a-go-go type dance in a song which bears a surprisingly similar tune to the one strummed out by The Beatles 2 years previously! A pure coincidence?

Actually, I knew about the similarity between these two tunes even when I was young. At a naive and maybe stupid age, I thought it was a coincidence. Wow! Tamil songs are so modern. Of course, I hope I am wiser now. Please listen to these two songs and be wiser... The first one is by the Shadows. This song Apache was written by Jerry Lordan and recorded originally by British group The Shadows in June 1960 at the famous EMI Abbey Road Studio in London and released on July 1960. The Tamil song is from the movie 'Sarasa B.A.' made in Chennai in 1965 and sang in the melodious voice of P.B. Sreenivas. Click to listen.  http://www.raaga.com/channels/tamil/searchresults.asp?q=TRACK:iravin%20madiyil

Gaddafi son's LSE thesis 'written by Libyan academic' College sets up inquiry into Saif Gaddafi's PhD and the £1.5m donation he later made By Jonathan Owen Sunday, 6 March 2011 EXTRA LARGE LARGENORMAL LSE PRESS OFFICE The LSE's director, Howard Davies, has resigned. David Held will feature in the inquiry Fresh evidence emerged yesterday revealing how Saif Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, plagiarised his PhD thesis at the London School of Economics. One Libyan academic drafted in to help Saif Gaddafi was later rewarded with an ambassador's posting to Europe. The new details came as a Tory MP called for the LSE's entire governing council to resign. The beleaguered institution also faced allegations that an academic had been pressured to admit a relative of an aide to President Bill Clinton to study there. The LSE, widely criticised for the way it solicited funding from Libya, resulting in it being dubbed the "Libyan School of ...

23.6.2010 Plagiarism - acceptable artistic licence? Just listen to above songs, the first one by Rod Stewart (Maggie May) at the 4: 00-minute mark .. and at the beginning of the 80s song by Tamil movies' music maestro Deva in the Movie 'Aasai'. Listen to apparent similarities which are quite obvious even to the tone-deaf or the partially hearing impaired! Of course, the Rod Stewart's song precedes Deva's song, so we know who is copying whom? With the advent of multimedia facilities, the problem of plagiarism is quite rampant, from Ph D. thesis to primary school projects. In India, with so many movies being churning out from their various language studios, it is probably humanly impossible to come out with a freshly brewed new story and fresh new melody with each new movie. Hence, plagiarism is perhaps justified and acceptable as long as it has Indian values and money making (and entertaining). At the end of the day, that is all that matters, is it n...