I first started listening to Rock Machine in the year 1988. I was studying in Ooty at that time and when I visited Bombay as Mumbai was known then for my holidays, I visited Rhythm House a music store in South Mumbai and bought their audio cassette. I took it home and listened to it. When I returned to Ooty, I took it with me and played it on rotation. I liked this album as I was brought up on the music of Steely Dan, The Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other bands of the 70s and bands/artistes of the 80s.

I was blown by this band and their debut album ‘Rock N Roll Renegade’. Indian Rockers from amchi Mumbai singing in English and pure rock n roll woohoo… wow wow wow… brilliant to say the least. I had this cassette of their album ‘Rock N Roll Renegade’ in my Sony walkman and constantly listened to this band without switching to any other band.

The band was formed in 1984 and consisted of vocalist Uday Benegal, bassist Mark Selwyn, guitarists Mahesh Tinaikar and Jayesh Gandhi, keyboardist Zubin Balaporia and drummer Mark Menezes.

In 1990, they released their second album ‘The Second Coming’ another classic album with Pretty Child being the track that critics around India wrote about. Infact two songs of the band were featured in the Rolling Stone India 2014 listing of "25 Greatest Indian Rock Songs of the last 25 Years". The songs were Pretty Child from ‘The Second Coming’, 1990 and Top of the Rock from ‘Rock N Roll Renegade’, 1988.

But for me… there were other tracks on the album ‘The Second Album’ that I loved. Here are the top ones that made it to my list.

Turn it on 

This song has lyrics that we can relate to in this day and age of issues going on around us and around the world.  The highlight of this song to me is the layering of the voices immediately after the guitar solo. Wow… even when I listen to this song today, I carefully listen to the solo and am amazed by the forward thinking that this band had.

Bowl Of Madness

A fun song to listen to. Drop the norms and break loose with this song.  The two parts I particular like in this song, is when the sound engineer adds a nice effect on the lyrics “pick up your guitar” and a big burp at the end of the song.

Die For Your Country

This is my favorite song in the album besides Pretty Child.  I have tears in my eyes when I listen to this song even today.  The lyrics in this song are very powerful and like turn it on. This song also has a lot of meaning in today’s day and age.  Also a highlight in this song is Zubin Balaporia’s (keyboards) solo in this song. One of my all time favorite songs.

Pretty Child

Wow… Wow... Wow… just wow. There is always a sense of freshness to this song even when I listen to this song today. This song won Rock Machine an MTV Video Music Award in the Asian Viewer's Choice Award. The beauty of this song is the addition of an Indian instrument (tabla) into a rock n roll song which made this song different and unique. My 15 year old daughter loves this song and even makes her friends listen to it.

Other songs in this album include Crazy, Believing, Cinderella, Screamin’ Out. All in all, this is a classic album. I highly recommend this album to all rock n rollers. One can listen to this album again and again.

Unfortunately, this album is not on Spotify, but it is on YouTube, a link which I have added below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCBIskqEl2s&list=PLAC2A365412668DB6

By Zameer Vahanvaty

Zameer Vahanvaty is a businessman from Mumbai who is passionate about music (60s, 70s and 80s oldies, rock n roll and retro music). He can be reached on retromusicrocks@gmail.com