(This is a stopgap. The real post will be up tomorrow - the day after at the latest.)
Also, warning: I take rather a lot of liberties in this one.
We've all heard of Coke Studio - that it's a show where the modern legends of playback record songs on camera and suchlike. This would not affect any of us (/Cain) if KK weren't involved - because, damnit, he's been neglected so much by the populace, and no one's suffered through that like we have - but he is (finally, ye heretofore ignorant crowd!), which has put a whole new complexion on the matter.
Therefore, AFG$!@JF#$ GODDAMNIT COKE STUDIO. You have no idea how much this whole thing has Cain on edge. Apart from Tu Aashiqui Hai and Khilte Hain Gul Yahaan, what's he going to sing? What's the whole format going to be like? How long is the show? Will he do an English number? When is his episode going to air anyway? What's going ON? The one thing we're sure of is that we're all looking forward to this like nobody's business - and I for one am goddamn slavering, because this is probably the one place I'm sure of getting recordings I will not need to edit. XD
Let's support each other on this so we don't burn out completely with the anticipation, yeah?
What I'm doing now is some sort of combination of speculation and wishful thinking. We had a thread on the old orkut forum which invited this very thing - it asked people to post the songs they would have liked, or would like, KK to sing. This is an extension of that concept, wherein I shall list a few songs I have come across (English, old Hindi, both of which I've no real clue about
except that I have an English language fetish to knock all others on their heads *ahem*) that I think my life would be complete if I could only hear in his voice. Not that I'm asking, mind you; this is just conjecture/tentative hope.
I've restricted these to ones he's never had a hand in, because any song of his own he reboots is bound to be fantastic in its own right anyway. (Aap Ki Dua hard rock version, I'm lookin' at you. *narrows eyes detective-fashion*)
KK did once tell Rajeev Masand that he wouldn't have minded singing Chhaiyya Chhaiyya, so I don't think I'm crossing any boundaries here; I'm just trying to throw these ideas out there, maybe get some agreement and/or sympathy from the lot of you - and who knows, maybe I might end up striking a chord with the man himself? Maybe?
*dares to hope*
These are in no particular order.
Here goes.
*takes the plunge*
1.
Thomas O'Malley from The Aristocats
All right, I know this is a Disney song, but please bear with me here until I can explain? This is the old Disney, the Disney that made sense and had style, and damn does this have style. I'll admit it hits my cat kink, but it's also the kind of song that needs a certain kind of man to carry it off - and if KK isn't that man, then I'm freakin' Madonna. He has the attitude and the voice and the accent (ever, ever so slightly British - witness at times alone I sit and won-der... know what I mean now?) and did I mention the attitude? The easy confidence that lets him get away with crazy stunts like Antenna is what makes this track his very own.
Take a look, for instance, at this:
"I'm king of the highway,
Prince of the boulevard,
Duke of avant garde -
The world is my backyard - "
I mean, goddamn. This song is made for KK.
2.
Everybody Wants To Be A Cat, also from The Aristocats
This also hits the cat thing, but it's a song about music and how you need attitude to keep it alive (it's a pun on 'cat' interpreted to mean a jazz musician - even if the jazz musicians are actual four-legged cats who can sing. Um, sigh.). It's a sort of companion track to Thomas O'Malley, which is why I put it here.
3.
Life Is A Highway, by Rascal Flatts
This is just the kind of adrenaline-filled song I think KK himself would love.
It's also rock.
It's also got damn good lyrics. The sort of lyrics that stir your blood, make you want to run out into the road with the wind in your hair and damned if anyone's going to stop you. Here's a sample:
There's a world outside every darkened door
Where blues won't haunt you anymore,
For the brave are free and lovers soar -
Come ride with me to the distant shore -
Life is a highway - I wanna ride it all night long...
If you're going my way, I wanna drive it all night long...
Better still,
I'll be there when the light comes in -
Just tell 'em we're survivors -
To sum it up, rock? Check. Lyrics? Check. Attitude? Check. Adrenaline? Check. Car kink? CHECK.
Gotcha? Gotcha.
4.
Christmas Never Comes by Cliff Richard
Because it's beautiful and heartbreaking, and everyone needs their occasional dose of heartbreak, dammit. And KK at the helm would make it all the more devastating.
Yes, I'm a sap.
5.
Education by Pink Floyd
Because we don't need none of it. You're just a brick in the wall, teachah. XD
Also, Pink Floyd. *rubs hands in conspiratorial glee*
6.
Khoya Khoya Chaand Which I don't know anything about except it's Mohammad Rafi. And that it's flirtatious and romantic and awesome. And yeah, I kinda like cheese, why do you ask.
Conjecture: Ms Jyothy might like this one. XD
7.
Neele Neele AmbarKishore Kumar? Kishore Kumar. I also recall a Nitin Bali version of it from my early childhood. But damned if a KK version wouldn't be perfect as all hell. (XD, phrasal oxymoron.)
It might even make my love-hate relationship with rain less complicated.
8.
It's My Life by Bon Jovi
Because the idea of KK saying This ain't a song for the broken-hearted is almost more than my hormones can take. (Hint: it's the ain't.) Excuse me while I go squeal like a teakettle.
9.
Iris by Ronan Keating, the Goo Goo Dolls, Coldplay and apparently a lot of other people
Mainly because of the lyrics. They're beautiful.
I'd quote the chorus at you, or the verse (that says And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming, or the moment of truth in your lies / When everything seems like the movies, yeah you bleed just to know you're alive...)
...but I'll settle for the first line: I'd give up forever to touch you -
I'd die of ecstasy if he sang that. To anyone.
10.
Fernando by ABBA
I've associated this song with him for goodness only knows how long, and I don't know why. I vaguely recall reading something last year which connected him with Fernando (a recollection of some college festival?) and thinking Well, that just proves me right.
I'd like to be proven right again. I've no idea if it'll ever happen.
11.
Summer Night City, also by ABBA
Same as the above without the college festival thing. The lyrics of this one are oddly compelling - if a little...risqué...
In other words, don't even ask, because I don't know. It's the hormones. *points to bloodstream*
12.
Oh, Lady Be Good, originally performed by Fred Astaire
Because it's sexy. In the old-world-intellectual-flirt way in which KK knows how to turn on the charm. Goddamn that man's handshake. *swoon*
Also, apparently the Lady Be Good was a World War II fighter plane.
Cain is laughing like a complete maniac right now. XD
13.
Ishq Kabhi Kario Naa by Sunidhi Chauhan, from Musaafir
I once heard a version of this by Sukhwinder Singh, but it just didn't cut it. The song's made for KK - it's got a reasonably high pitch, a certain degree of energy (did I mention adrenaline earlier?) and requires someone with the kind of verve that would enable one to carry it off.
Also, the idea of him exhorting you not to fall in love while being so goddamn attractive himself...is appealing.
14. Anything involving speak/singing to some sort of rhythm, on the lines of the new version of Dum Maaro Dum. Now don't get me wrong - I hate the song, and I hate what they've done to the original; however, I think the medium could be worked with. The lyrics could be written decently, for one - perhaps with a few English words thrown in - perhaps with a few English lines thrown in. The score could be fixed. It could be done, oh glory, without the ideologically admirable goal of a bunch of half-dressed females in the video. The whole thing could be made classy, which is something that currently isn't happening.
If the spoken/sung thing is going to work - truly work, not just in terms of popularity! - then it's KK who can do it. He's got the sense of rhythm to make an effortless transition from speech to tune, as everyone who's heard him live damn well knows.
And also, his speaking voice is sexy.
15. Iraada
Seriously, anything called that. XD
Though what I mean is something written around that word. Rock. Passion. The works. I should shut up.
16. I've saved this for the end, because it's perhaps one of my deepest desires.
Vande Maataram.
I don't mean AR Rahman's interpretation of it - I mean the National Song. In the original Sanskrit, in the original tune, with no or almost no accompaniment. Simply that in his voice would be heaven.
Pure heaven.
I'm a sap.
Well then, for better or for worse, that's done. Let me clarify once more that this is nothing more than speculation and extremely wild hope. Let me also invite - nay, exhort! - anyone who reads this to share their own speculation and extremely wild hope here.
The suspense is killing Cain - as I'm sure it is everyone else, because though we know Coke Studio is going to be awesome, we don't know exactly what direction the awesomeness is going to take.
The way I'm drooling, it looks like I'm on the road to running dry.
All I know is some of it's rock, and baby, I'm his.
I'm also a sentimental fool.
*clicking gesture*
Cain out.
