Caravan ( tailandés : คาราวาน , RTGS : Kharawan ), [1] es una banda de folk - rock tailandesa que se formó a partir del movimiento democrático de 1973 . Lanzó el género phleng phuea chiwit (เพลงเพื่อชีวิต, iluminado. "canciones para la vida") que desde entonces ha sido popularizado por Carabao .
Surachai Jantimatawn fue el vocalista y compositor principal de la banda. También tocaba la guitarra. Wirasak Suntornsii tocaba la guitarra y ocasionalmente también hacía el bajo y la voz principal. Mongkhon Uthok cantaba y tocaba phin (un instrumento de cuerda tailandés), armónica, wut (un instrumento tailandés parecido a una flauta de pan) y saw (la versión tailandesa del violín erhu chino). Thongkran Thana tocó el violín, la guitarra slide y la guitarra solista en las encarnaciones eléctricas posteriores de la banda. A menudo se les unía Phongthep Kradonchamnan , más tarde un conocido artista phleng phuea chiwit por derecho propio, en percusión, flauta y voz tailandesas.
Caravan era conocido por combinar música folclórica tailandesa y occidental en arreglos dominados por guitarras acústicas, pero aderezado con el uso de instrumentos tradicionales tailandeses por parte de Uthok, así como el uso frecuente de percusión de estilo tailandés. La mayoría de sus canciones de influencia tailandesa tomaron la forma de baladas folclóricas, pero también hicieron un uso frecuente de los ritmos " mor lam ", más rápidos y de percusión. En sus inicios, a menudo tomaban melodías directamente de canciones populares estadounidenses y británicas como "Song to Woody", "Yellow Bird", "John Barleycorn Must Die" y "A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall" y las adaptaban con letras políticas en tailandés. Su música posterior a veces tuvo una notable influencia de la música country en canciones como "Num Phanejawn" y "Fon Thewa", aunque en general, la influencia del folk occidental disminuyó a medida que avanzaba su carrera. Cuando la banda se volvió eléctrica, amplió su gama de sonidos para incluir influencias del rock, el reggae, la música folclórica de otros países asiáticos y una gama más amplia de estilos musicales tailandeses.
The founders of Caravan, Surachai Jantimathawn ("Nga Caravan") and Wirasak Sunthawnsi, were student activists at Ramkhamhaeng University at a time when the student movement was instrumental in toppling the dictatorial regime of Thanom Kittikachorn. They sympathized with the working class farmers in Northeast Thailand. They were soon joined by Mongkhon Uthok and Thongkran Thana.
One of the band's most popular songs is "Khon Kap Khwai" ("Man and Buffalo"), which rhapsodizes the relationship of rice farmers and their water buffalo, but with the lyrics that include "Come, let's go now! Come, let's go! Carry our plows and guns to the fields!", it was also a political statement by lyricists Somkit Singson[2] and Visa Kantap, who were both critical of the Thanom regime.[3] Other songs condemned the presence of the US military.
Early albums included Khon Kap Khwai (1975) and Amerikan Antarai (1976) and Ruam Botpleng Sipsee Tulaa Siphok Vol. 2 (A Collection Of Songs For 14 October 1973, Vol. 2, 1976).
After the 6 October 1976 Massacre, student activists, including members of Caravan, fled to the countryside and neighboring Laos, taking shelter with the Communist Party of Thailand. When amnesty was declared in 1979, the band's members gradually returned from exile, and by 1982 Caravan had released the album Deuan Phen (Full Moon). Other albums followed, including Khon Ti Lek (Blacksmith, 1983) and Live at the 50th Anniversary of Thammasat University (1984).
In the mid-1980s, the band went electric, adding a bassist and drummer for studio and live performances. The electric period, starting with the album 1985 included one of the band's best-known songs "Dawk Mai Hai Khun" ("Flowers For You") which was a Thai-language adaptation of Okinawan musician Shoukichi Kina's international hit "Subete no Hito no Kokoro ni Hana o." Three more electric albums followed, including Khon Klai Baan, US-Japan and Anon. A concert album, Live in Japan at Taku Taku (1988) showed that the band's influence was growing outside Thailand.[4][5]
Sunthawnsi left the band after the Khon Klai Ban album and was not replaced. At the end of the 1980s, the band decided to break up and staged a series of acoustic farewell concerts, joined again by Sunthawnsi, as well as frequent collaborator Phongthep Kradonchamnan and percussionalist Ut Yannawa, who had played drums and percussion on the band's electric albums.
Since then, the band has reunited a number of times to play live concerts, although they have recorded little new music since the 1990s, with only new albums (Klap Ma Thoet and Tulakhom) being made in the past two decades.
The band supported the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD or the "Yellow Shirts") and frequently played during their protests against then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 and the anti-government protests 2008.[6] Members of the band also appeared in support of the anti-Pheu Thai government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC or the "Whistleblowers) in the protests between November 2013 and May 2014.[citation needed]
- Live on Air at CITR Radio Station, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 1991
- Live at Washington University, Seattle, WA, USA, 1991
- Tokyo, Matsumoto, Izumo, Hiroshima, Toyono-Osaka, Takatsuki, Seika University Kyoto etc.
etc.
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