A mystery tape recording from Ramai Swami's band's concert


I came across this gem today when I was looking for Ramai Swami's lectures online. Ramai Swami is an Australian sannyasi (renunciate travelling monk) and a disciple of Srila Prabhupada. When I was first becaming interested in the Hare Krishna philosophy, I was in high school and one of my new acquaintances who introduced me to it, gave me three musical tapes to listen to. Two of them were by Australian devotees, Ramai Swami and Krishna Premi devi dasi, and the other was by an Italian devotee, Krishna Prema das. All three of them left a deep impression on me and I listened to them whenever I came home from school. Actually, this account is not completely correct. One of the tapes she gave me initially was by Harikesha Swami, but I did not like it and asked for a different tape, so she replaced it with Krishna Prema's album Krishna Vision.

Years later I moved to Australia and got a chance to travel with Ramai Swami and his band on his famous double-decker bus tour from Brisbane to Cairns in 1996.

Thus one of my first introductions to Hare Krishna music was by Ramai Swami and here is a link to a great concert by him and his band. I loved listening to it today and I hope you will too. The music styles are rock and reggae. It is expertly and engagingly performed. My guess is it is from the 1980s, although it is hard to tell when exactly. I love the sound of the saxophone on this tape.

Update from the former band members:

Year: 1992
Place: Townsville, live at the CWA hall 1992

Vocals: Ramai Swami, ?
Keyboard: Ramai Swami
Guitar: Subhadra Das (Sean Pinnell)
Bass Guitar: Laxmivan Das (Michael Kubitzky)
Drums: Rasa Rasika Das (Russell St Claire) or Sudama Vipra Das (Stephen Kulakowski)
Saxophone: Bhakta Craig


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