Rock around the clock in 1970s Bombay

Abstract

In the 1960s, when the Beatles sang “Love Me Do” and unleashed the youth generation around the world, Bombay too was swept away. Beat groups and rock bands emerged almost overnight. This is a personal account of the rock music scene in Bombay in the 1970s and the following years, with special reference to two young musicians who were both related to the poet Nissim Ezekiel: Nandu Bhende and the poet’s nephew and namesake, Nissim Ezekiel Jr. Through the tracing of these connections with the Ezekiel family, this memoir creates a picture of a cosmopolitan Bombay where poetry, music, advertising and theater came together in the lives and works of the various personalities involved.

Keywords:

• The Beatles
• Bombay rock
• Biddu Appiah
• Nandu Bhende
• Nissim Ezekiel Jr.

Notes

1. For an autobiographical overview of Biddu Appiah’s life, see Appiah (2010b).

2. Nissim Ezekiel (1924–2004) was seen as one of the earliest modernist poets in India – an editor, publisher, poet, and mentor to many younger poets and writers in Bombay.

3. For an overview of the Bombay Marathi stage in the 1960s and after, see Gokhale (2000).

4. See the account in Jussawalla (2014) of his visit to the ailing Nissim Ezekiel who, because of Alzheimer's disease, could barely recognize his former associates and friends (29–32).