Monday, April 20, 2015

BAPPI LAHIRI | BOLLYWOOD'S DISCO KING


On April 22, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio celebrated the crazy, infectious music of Bappi Lahiri, Bollywood's self-proclaimed Disco King. 

Lahiri, whose mother and father were both musical professionals, may be best known for the soundtrack to 1982's outlandish and hilarious Mithun-vehicle, Disco Dancer, but there's more to this composer -- and frequent musical plagiarist -- than first meets the ear. 

We danced our sweet asses off to many of the hits, of course, but we also dug deep into the Lahiri catalog, exploring crazy experimental collaborations with Kishore Kumar (including a just-discovered track from a film that -- holy role reversal, Bappi! -- Kumar directed and wrote the music for and which Lahiri belted out) and surprisingly haunting melodies from the early 70s, to extended Hindi disco mixes from the 80s, to award-winning Telugu tongue-twisters from the 90s, to remixes and "rap" from the 2000s to today. And, we heard a few things his parents recorded as well.

Listen to the show now in the archives

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