From Indonesia, here are the Pandjaitan Brothers, Panbers for short. They formed in 1966 in Surabaya, East Java, the second largest city after Jakarta (and where the average high year-round doesn't get below 86 degrees, way too hot!). They became stars in their country upon releasing the hit single,"Akhir Cinta", in 1970. After other groups criticized them for not sounding sufficiently Western, they released Haai in response.
Haai is a song about the joy of creating and experiencing music. Lead singer Benny Pandjaitan sings:
Playing and singing with music, happy I am, and Every music and melody I love. He also sings I like Beatles songs, I love Rolling Stones, I love Led Zeppelin, but also the Panbers I love. I love those three bands as well. On revolution pancakes in 2016, I included 16 Beatles songs, 11 Rolling Stones songs, and 12 Led Zeppelin songs. That's 10% of the 366 songs from that year. There is so much great music all over the world. It's too bad commercial radio stations are so afraid to expand their playlists. Classic rock radio is awful. How many times do they have to play Go Your Own Way and Hotel California? Too many. How about playing a song like Haai, or even something by Can or Love? Nope, we might alienate our zombie listeners (and advertisers). That would be bad for business. Ughh. Bad attitude. Baditude, dude. Hey, cmon, at least we play Walk on the Wild Side once in awhile. Yeah, going out on a limb there. One song by Lou Reed. That's all.
Haai is from the compilation Those Shocking Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk: 1970 - 1978. Panbers supposedly recorded over 700 songs and released albums over three decades. They even opened for the Bee Gees (another band of brothers) when they visited Jakarta in 1974.
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