Junoon

You are sitting in a room and you put your earphones on, put the ipod on shuffle mode and a song starts playing, there is silence and slow sweet sound of the guitar starts. You sit back and relax and within 10 seconds later table beats kick in and the bass follows. You take a deep breath and a magical voice starts singing, Sayonee. You close your eyes and you are in heaven.

What follows is one of the greatest songs ever played by any rock band. The depth in lyrics and philosophy, the chords progressions, the vocals, the bass and the guitar solo. It is almost a divine experience, something similar to hearing the Bm chord of Hotel California or Robert Plant singing the eternal words from Stairway to heaven.

Junoon was a Sufi Rock band from Pakistan, formed in 1990. The lineup had Salman Ahmad on guitar, and Ali Azmat on Vocal and Brian O’Connell on Bass. Even though Salman Ahmad and Ali Azmat were the famous guys from Junoon, but I would like to give equal importance to Brian, as the Bassline in Junoon songs is mind blowing. A comparison to Cliff Burton in terms of his importance in Metallica is definitely in order.    

I started with Sayonee, which according to me is the band greatest song, however there are many songs whose riffs and guitar solos still make Asians Proud of once having such a great Rock Band, when almost all the legendary rock bands are from the West.

Junoon is a widely recognized band all across the world but for me Junoon is more like an inspiration to write in Hindi. Also, you can see the strong classical foundation in their music and this is something which has always driven me to pursue classical music.

A few of my favorite Junoon songs are Garaj Baras, Jazba Junoon, Yaaron Yehi Dosti Hai, Lal Meri Pat, Pappu Yaar etcetera.

You have to really start listening to Junoon if you are not a fan already.

It’s quite ironic that Sayonee has a line which says, “Kya basher ki Bisat, Aaj hai kal Nahin”, which means that the existence of us, the mere mortals is very temporary. But the same song has made them immortal.  

Another irony (not as great), was in the song Yaaron Yehi Dosti Hai, which talks about the eternal friendship. Eventually Junoon disbanded in 2005 due to many reasons and Ali Azmat and Salman Ahmad still don’t share a very pleasant relationship. As they say, all good things come to an end one day.

Led Zeppelin had to stop

Doors had to stop.

Junoon had to stop.

But it is not about that end.  

It is about the legacy they left behind.

PS: Salman Ahmad is like an unofficial inhouse UNGA musician much to the displeasure of Ali Azmat :P

Also my loyalties have shifted towards Ali  Azmat.  He is really awesome.