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Mohd Rafi is the Greatest Singer India Produced

Topic started by Srikant (@ 12.47.54.252) on Fri Jun 1 14:28:05 EDT 2001.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Mohd Rafi - 100
Lata Mangeshkar - 98
SPBalasubramaniam - 96
Kishore Kumar - 95
Yesudas - 94
P Susheela - 93
Asha Bhonsale - 92
S Janaki - 90
Mukesh - 90
PB SRINIVAS - 85
JayaChandiran - 85
HariHaran - 85
TM Soundararajan - 80
Mannadey - 85
unniKrishnan - 85
MahendraKapoor - 80
Malasia Vasudevan - 75
IlayaRaja - 70
SD Burman - 75
MSV - 65
Rahman - 60

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: comment (@ 65.9.136.158) on: Wed Jun 13 23:39:04 EDT 2001
  
  
  
  rajag , kalpadam even in tic20,
  we can try norton antipoochi next time..:)
  
  
• From: comment (@ 65.9.136.158) on: Wed Jun 13 23:43:24 EDT 2001
  
  lv, I once again repeat
  in everyones F Opinion:
  Other than abusing everyone, you have not made single contribution to this thread other than abusing everyone and using spb/kjy appreciation as a shield,
  
  
• From: Ganga (@ 205.188.196.36) on: Thu Jun 14 00:08:22 EDT 2001
  
  IMF,
  There is a legend that says mohemmed's voice is so rough that his friend nicknamed him 'roughi' and that's how he used to be called rafi. But let us not believe it. Because if it is true he should have been known as gruffy and stuffy too. But since he is not the legend must be false. But let us weigh the talents of rafi and SPB. But if you weigh rafi and SPB you know which side the scale would tilt. This is in spite of SPB being on a diet. So you do not have a chance for rafi there. But consider SPB. He had been singing tamil songs and kannada songs and especially with the cauvery issue and what not you do not know how dangerous it is to have a kannada and tamil side by side and yet be calm. So you should know to appreciate SPB. you may wondering by now whether I am a habitual driveller like this, but I assure you that this is my maiden attempt and I feel I seemed to be excelling you if not better. A full fledged discussion with you would definitely make me go to where you escaped from.
  
  
• From: eden (@ 210.214.5.247) on: Thu Jun 14 02:31:12 EDT 2001
  
  Comment,
  
  snake legs are known to another snake is not the correct translation of `pAmbaRiyum pAmbinakkAl':-))It should have been `snake knows the path of another snake', here `kAl' is route or path and not leg:-))
  
  
• From: comment (@ 65.9.136.158) on: Thu Jun 14 08:20:09 EDT 2001
  
  eden, i know that very well, i just made a direct translation to maintain some humor... .:)
  
  
• From: aruLaracan (@ 134.124.160.10) on: Thu Jun 14 12:11:42 EDT 2001
  
  ganga: way to go. the day begins with a big bang (of laughter :-)) ). thanks a lot.
  
  
• From: Ganga (@ 64.209.142.190) on: Thu Jun 14 12:47:32 EDT 2001
  
  IMF,
  In those good old days when I was listening to Md rafi, I cannot help have a vague feeling that he was either singing from a well or was seriously suffering from bronchial aasthma. Singing from a well because the voice while singing used to be feeble, Asthma because the breathing sound between the lines is clearly audible. This had a serious effect on me, because whenever some guests ask me to sing a rafi song I immediately jump into the nearest well. Man! I tell you !! that leaves the audience spellbound!!
  But later we discovered that it was no fault of Rafi. It was all the handiwork of a certain cockroach which decided to raise its family in the neighbourhood of a certain sensitive valve in our radio and thought that the solder joining the valve to the PCB is not very conducive to the upbringing of its offsprings. I realised it then that, this cockroach, say, let us name it HMF for convenience, so that we can have an easy sequence of pests in alphabetical order, was also a fanatic of Rafi, was connecting its headphones to the valve directly. I realised it now that there is value in the truism 'PESTS SHARE A COMMON TRAIT'.
  
  
• From: bm (@ 205.188.200.58) on: Thu Jun 14 12:58:30 EDT 2001
  
  Ganga ..Ithanai NaaLai Engirundh(eenga)aai..:)?
  
  
• From: Ganga (@ 64.209.142.190) on: Thu Jun 14 13:01:38 EDT 2001
  
  IMF,
  When we want to establish that Md Rafi is the greatest singer, I do not understand why we are comparing him with others. This looks crazy to me. When they declared Gandhi as Mahathma did they compare him with every other aathmaa and finally came to a conclusion?? At least I am pretty sure they did not compare me. For if they had done it without my knowledge, I would say they are pretty sneaky about this. That is why I do not consider Gandhi as Mahathma and always refer M.G.Roads as G Roads only. I do not know whether it has anything to do with some of my mails to India not being delivered properly, but that is digressing from the topic. Since digressing from the topic is a norm in this discussion Forum, I do not feel guilty about it.
  All I am saying is declaring somebody as great is an essential feature of democracy and the fault is with democracy and not in declaring. You can be declared as the Greatest Thinker, even though we both know that you do not deserved to be called even the Greatest Stinker. In a democracy it is possible. Not in a dictatorship. There you know who is the Greatest thinker or the Greatest stinker. It is probably the same person depending on which side you are in. But in democracy every donkey is allowed to have his own subjective opinion as the greatest and is expected to expect others to agree with him. In the resulting bray...I mean fray, the core of the issue gets lost. What can I say?
  
  
• From: Manga (@ 38.220.167.200) on: Thu Jun 14 13:13:44 EDT 2001
  
  Ganga - ROFL :-) Well said :-)
  
  
• From: Ganga (@ 64.209.142.190) on: Thu Jun 14 13:16:01 EDT 2001
  
  IMF,
  When I was reading your post about how Rafi stayed for long time on a high pitch, I was reminded of this singer, who was approached by the great audience after the concert and was showered praises for staying in the high pitch for a very long time. This singer being a close of friend of mine later confessed to me that he did not sleep well in the previous night and was forced to yawn during the concert audibly which had the apprciation of his audience. BTW do you know rafi had any insomnia problems?
  
  
• From: comment (@ 12.5.10.153) on: Thu Jun 14 13:19:46 EDT 2001
  
  Ganga :) :) :)
  
  
• From: Godavari (@ 155.45.172.67) on: Thu Jun 14 13:21:26 EDT 2001
  
  He probably couldn't sleep thinking of how well SPB was going to sing a couple of decades later :-) :-)
  
  
• From: Sriram Lakshman (@ 12.47.54.252) on: Thu Jun 14 13:54:18 EDT 2001
  
  IMF, aNNa joooooooooooot !!! mannichchaks......forgive me.....mainE gustakheee kee hai, mAph kardO.....kshamikkaNum.
  rajaG, enna vishEsham ?
  
  
• From: gunds (@ 148.87.1.170) on: Thu Jun 14 15:20:06 EDT 2001
  
  man ( or wo..??) GANGA, u rock .. really good sense of humor ..try movies maaaan ... :))
  
  
• From: Ganga (@ 64.209.142.190) on: Thu Jun 14 15:35:43 EDT 2001
  
  IMF and other guys,
  As you all know ,I am not a regular visitor here. Whatever I wrote were purely for the fun and timepass. IMF, I have nothing against you nor against the esteemed singer Md Rafi. I was only using you to make a good effect of the fun. I sincerely apologise if it hurts you. You would clearly see that I was not trying to belittle Rafi, even though I was saying it in a weirdish way.As usual I would stay away and let you guys continue. Thanks.
  
  
• From: rajaG (@ 208.24.179.129) on: Thu Jun 14 15:35:48 EDT 2001
  
  Range (in statistics and in music) is defined as the distance/gap between the highest value and the lowest value of any metric. In the case of human voice, it is obviously measured by the lowest note and the highest note a person can touch and sustain. While the Indian classical nomenclature (sa re ga ma) gives a good indication of range it is still a relative measure. Sudha Ragunathan hitting the mElstaayi 'pa' in 5 katta (safEd 5) might still be a 'ri' for somebody whose voice is in 1 katta (safEd 1). Absolute note is the standard nomenclature of Western Music. For example E is E and G is G. Talking about SPB's range, he sang Suvvi Suvvi Suvvaalammaa and hit the keezh "sa" i.e the lowest E. In Rajai kaiya vachcha (set in A major) he hits the highest B flat note. To chart out his range, it will look like
  E1 to E2 to E3 to B#3 - which is over 2 and 1/2 octaves. Typically lady singers have a much higher range plus they can smoothly transition into falsettos thereby increasing their ranges too. Incidentally, there may be an occassion that SPB has hit a note higher than B#3 or lower than E1, but I am guessing that it is NOT typical.
  
  Rafi was very comfortable in the upper octaves being more of a tenor. Duniya kE rakhwaalE was set in E minor and he goes up all the way upto madhyam which happens to be A3. In the live show versions he went upto pa (but the scales were reduced to D minor) so he was still hitting A3 as the highest note in the song. Man tarpat was also set with E2 as sa ( A minor is the root chord since hindolam has no panchamam). When he says sun mOrE vyaakul man.........., he hits the upper madhyam which also happens to be A3. I however believe that Rafi was quite comfortable in staying in the upper notes and probably had an upper tip which could even touch the C4 note.
  The question is about the lower notes. Rafi has virtually NO song where he could comfortably traverse an E3 or F3 note (in fact I wonder if there is any song where he has even touched these notes). This is what people refer to as an absence of bass, in the voice. Discussion of bass is merely an observation - it has no bearing on the talents of a singer.
  
  When forumers talk about Rafi's bass, I wonder how many of them have ever sat with a Harmonium or a keyboard and try to gauge the scale in which the songs have been presented.
  
  
  
  
  
• From: rajaG (@ 207.43.195.202) on: Thu Jun 14 16:11:05 EDT 2001
  
  Incidentally, I have NOT claimed that SPB has the widest voice range. I have just used his singing as an example. There are many classical singers who have a much wider range. If you take a typical male voice using C as the base scale then C1 to B1 would be mandhra sthaayi (keezh sthaayi) C2 to B2 would be thaara sthaayi (madhya sthaayi) and C3 to B3 would be mEl sthaayi. About C4 to B4 - would be kadhavu idukkula eli chikkinda sthaayi:-) Once again I have used, the Harmonium which has typically 3.5 octaves as the reference for C1, C2 etc.
  
  About Rafi's singing, sorry to belabour the point, if somebody can come up with real examples of in a "specific" song he has touched these "specific" notes (on the Western scale) which clearly establishes his prowess in the bass notes, I will gladly revise my opinion. Merely mentioning "I think he sounds cool in these notes", or "His bass in sow baar janam lEngE is better than KK's bass in panthi hoon mai" will get my usual "You don't know your sh*t man!" response:-)
  
  
  
• From: rajaG (@ 207.43.195.202) on: Thu Jun 14 16:32:36 EDT 2001
  
  oops! correction - I believe the order should be mandhra sthaayi, madhyasthaayi, and thaarasthaai (mElsthaayi or uchchasththaayi).
  
  

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