Sit Properly

Saturdays were always my sleep-in day when I was in school. A well deserved day off. Friday nights were football games and high school dances where I’d try to convince some poor gal that she really did want to slow dance with me to some Def Leppard power ballad spun by the DJ in the gymnasium. It seldom worked. I’d return home pretty bummed and sleep as long as I could on Saturday morning.

But now I look forward to Saturdays! Not because the ladies are finally digging Warrant, Poison or LA Guns (haha!), oh no! It’s because every Saturday I’m posting another Classic ISKCON Tape! WAAAAAAAAY better than power ballads!

Today, I’ve got a tape from the LA temple.
KT-05 Visnujana Swami – Hansadutta – Los Angeles Temple Studio Recording

Here’s a track list…

1) Visnujana Swami – Hare Krishna Kirtan
2) Visnujana Swami – Nrsimha Prayers + Jaya Radha-Madhava
3) Visnujana Swami – Vasanti-rasa
4) Visnujana Swami – Vasanti-rasa (Spoken English Translation)
5) Visnujana Swami – Nama-sankirtana
6) Hansadutta – Jaya Radha-Madhava + Hare Krishna Kirtan
7) Hansadutta – Gaura Arati

Thanks to Brian, I also have the original artwork from the original release. Check it out…

What’s interesting from the original artwork is that it claims the kirtans to be from the New York temple, while the newer artwork (well, the newer cassettes) claim it to be from LA. I believe Side A was recorded in LA, Side B in NY. Or, rather, Visnujana Swami in LA, Hansadutta in NY.

From the original spine it seems that the songs on the original KT-5 are completely different from the songs on the new KT-5. It is, in fact, the same recording, the original KT-5 doesn’t list all of the songs and uses an alternate title here and there.

Also note that the same cover was used for all of the KT & SB cassette series tapes. Only the spines were different.

When dealing with ISKCON history, so many people focus on the happy, wonderful times or the dark, nasty times. But nobody seems to be focusing on the fairly boring times. That’s where I come in, I guess. I just wish that I had some help.

Click here to download KT-5.

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ps – Yeah, Hansadutta yet again, just can’t get rid of this guy!

Today, for no real reason, I have a treat for you all.

Sometime in the late 70s or early 80s, Acyutananda Swami recorded every song in the Songs of Vaisnava Acaryas songbook.

Would you like them?

Ok, then click here to download a rar file of all 52 songs! (72MB)

Hey! Lucky you!!

Hello Vaikuntha!! ARE YOU READY TO ROOOOOOOCK?!?!

Remember back when you were a kid, back when you’d rock out to Kiss or Journey, probably had a van with purple tinted windows and an airbrushed painting of a wizard on the side… You’d throw on your denim jacket with the Judas Priest patch on the back and head out to a metal show on a Saturday night. And when you weren’t bangin’ yer head in the front row, you’d be at home listening to your favorite rock gods on your Solid State stereo system! The studio albums were great and all, but nothing could capture the raw energy of the live show like the obligatory live album!

Classics like Kiss’s Alive to Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokan, if you weren’t there rockin’ out, you were at home rockin’ out to the live albums!

And now that you’re a devotee, the same is true for kirtans!

Vs.

Everybody knows that kirtans are best when you’re there in person, jumping around and swaying in the temple or on the street… but what if you could take that very same feeling home with you? Too good to be true, you say?

Well think again, prabhus! THINK AGAIN!

Trade in your van with purple tinted windows for a sankirtana van, your ripped up denim jacket for a nice wool chadar and your Frampton Comes Alive LP for this….

LIVE New York Kirtans!!

Ah yes! The illustrious KT-4! You were just itchin’ for KT-4, weren’t ya! Good! KT-4 is stuffed full of LIVE kirtans from the New York Temple!

KT-04 – Hare Krishna Kirtans (New York)

1) – 5) Five tracks of Live New York kirtans!

Click here to download and rock out! ….and no, they will not play “Freebird,” so don’t ask, ok?

[93MB, btw... oh and if you get an error message, try again later, mediafire.com has been wonky lately]

And here’s a list of all the tapes…

Saturday mornings, for me growing up, were all about cartoons. I’d look forward in oh-so-great anticipation. Through the whole week, I could hardly wait to wake up early on Saturday, grab a bowl of cereal and plop myself in front of the TV. Nothing better growing up, right?

Well now I’m bringing Saturdays back. No, it’s not cartoons, it’s Classic ISKCON music! So wake up early on Saturday, grab yourself a bowl of cereal, put on your dancin’ shoes (or.. um.. take off your nondancin’ shoes, I guess) and download the latest selection!

This week’s is New York Kirtans.

KT-03 New York Kirtans*

1) Samsara Prayers
2) Govindam Adi Purusam
3) Hare Krishna Kirtan
4) Gaura-arati Kirtan
5) Tulasi Kirtan
6) Hare Krishna Kirtan
6) Hare Krishna Kirtan

Click here to download.

Some caveats: The sound quality isn’t great. These are from old tapes recorded by devotees. Quality wasn’t a priority. Also, they’re MP3s encoded at 128kbs – not the highest quality. But listenable.

Here’s a list of all the tapes…

*This is the first time I’m using MediaFire.com to host the file. Also, this is the first time I’m hosting it as a rar file. Please let me know if you have problems.

It’s Ekadasi! Haribol! On Saturday I posted a tape produced by Golden Avatar Productions. And today I’m posting a record produced by them. This is a fun record called Every Town & Village. It’s definitely one of the rarer releases, though it does seems to be one of the few that was released exclusively in the US.

Unlike most of the albums, this one has full production credits. You can read them on the back of the album cover.

The songs on Every Town and Village were recorded at the 1972 San Francisco Ratha Yatra and the New York Temple. It was released in 1972.

It was impossible to separate the individual songs into tracks as often one song would fade into the next. I wanted to preserve that feeling so each side is one track. It’s much better this way, I assure you. However, this does mean that I won’t have previews for you. My apologies.

Side One

1) Samkirtan 1:40 – A great tune. I don’t know who is leading, but the tune is great. I’m pretty sure I’ve not heard it before. Luckily, it’s repeated quite a lot. Simple kirtan with harmonium, kartals and mrdanga.

2) Temple Kirtan 11:13 – This slow but kind of rowdy kirtana seemed like a bunch of fun. We don’t really have kirtans like this anymore. Sort of a subdued rowdiness. It picks up the pace in the end. It’s blissful, trust me.

3) Samkirtan :50 – And it’s back for 50 seconds of fun!

4) Arati 5:13 – A really sweet recording of Gaura-arati with Hansadutta on vocals (I’m pretty sure about this). Though it does slightly speed up towards the end, our dear vocals restrains himself and stays pretty much on script.

5) Samkirtan 1:41 – What a way to end side one!

Side Two

1) Samkirtan 1:40 – And why not start side two the same way? Same great melody!

2) Jaya Radha Govinda 5: 58 – This, I assume, was recorded in New York at the Radha Govinda Temple. Though I seem to think I hear Malati Prabhu’s vocals in the response (she’s fairly noticeable). Whichever, this is slow and sweet.

3) Samkirtan :54 – Hey! How about 54 more seconds of it?! Jaya!

4) Jaya Jagadisha Hare 8:53 – I think this was also lead by Hansadutta. This is the slowest rendition of Jaya Jagadisha that I’ve ever heard. It’s kind of droney, but nice. It picks up a bit towards the end. Hansadutta does a bit of improvising, but not much at all (especially compared to the European recordings).

5) Samkirtan 5:30 – Same tune. Heck, maybe it’s all of them put together into one long cut. It’s hard to tell, while this one is a wonderful melody, it doesn’t change much. Only the mrdanga gets a bit boisterous. Still, this is one great kirtan!

As requested, I have better quality scans for this one. My scanner isn’t quite big enough to do album covers, and for that I apologize. The bottom 1/2″ of the cover is cut off. I’ll try to even it out for next time.

Anyway, this is a rare one. There’s one up on Ebay for $100. But why spend it when you can just download it here?

Click here to download the entire album in one big zip file! (85 MB)

[ps - the higher quality scans are *not* in the zip file - you'll have to grab them right from here - sorry]

Haribol!

In the late 70′s and early 80s, ISKCON released a 20 tape series of kirtans and bhajans. As far as I know, none of these were released on any of the classic ISKCON records. Neither have they been released to CD.

I’ll be posting one each Saturday. And this week’s is Delhi Aratika!

Delhi Aratika claims to be produced by “Golden Avatar Productions.” I have no idea who Golden Avatar Productions was, but their name was on some vinyl as well. Also I believe there was a Golden Avatar cassette series, but I can’t remember. This is the only “Krishna Tapes” series that is associated with Golden Avatar Productions.

I think I’ll post a Golden Avatar Productions LP next Ekadasi. Hey, why not?

There are no credits on any of the tapes. And often, the title of the tape reflects only what’s on one side. For example, this is called Delhi Aratika, but some of the songs may have been produced somewhere else. Who knows.

Anyway, here it is…

KT-02 Delhi Aratika
01 – Golden Avatar Productions – Jaya Radha
02 – Golden Avatar Productions – Baja Jure Mana
03 – Golden Avatar Productions – Jaya Radha Madhava
04 – Golden Avatar Productions – Sri Nam Kirtana
05 – Golden Avatar Productions – Kirtana
06 – Golden Avatar Productions – Delhi Aratika

Some caveats: The sound quality isn’t great. These are from old tapes recorded by devotees. Quality wasn’t a priority. Also, they’re MP3s encoded at 128kbs – not the highest quality. But listenable.

Here’s a list of all the tapes…