The 1960s seemed to be a much colourful and cooler period: India, though, was still a rather underdeveloped nation, but world over there was so much happening. There was the hippie movement, women's liberation and second-wave feminism, and more importantly, a steady flow of rock and roll music. The Mellow Circle celebrated 50 years of Simon & Garfunkel on July 26 and 27 at the Museum Theatre with two concerts, the proceeds of which will go to Prathyasha, a home for children with HIV.
While Augustine Paul, music director of the Madras Musical Association Choir conducted the 50-voice Mellow Circle choir, uniformly dressed in shirts with the duo's face, Timothy Madhukar, Christopher Stanley, Yohan Chako and Johnson J Wilson shone through the vocals ably supported by the Blue Note.
The two-hour-long concert took the audience through some of Simon and Garfunkel's greatest hits such as Mrs. Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cecilia and more. Although the concert was rather overwhelming — two hours of songs by the same artiste can get to you — the approach by Mellow Circle was interesting. Instead of announcing the name of each song to be played, an interview with either Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel talking about the song was played. This made the audience aware of the relevance of each song and the history behind it — for instance Kathy's Song, penned by Paul Simon, was about his girlfriend whom he met in England while living there in the mid '60s.
Some songs were extremely lively; members of the choir did a small dance, while the audience tapped their feet in appreciation. Others like 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night (here it was rechristened 8 O'Clock News) had news clips playing and a voice reading news in the background, while the choir sang the popular Christmas carol. Citizen of the Planet even had a performance of sand art to accompany the song, a unique concept but was actually very distracting. As expected, exuberant songs such as The Boxer, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, and Kodachrome/Maybellene received the loudest cheers. If Simon and Garfunkel were present at the concert, they would've been moved by this thoughtful tribute.
