Caravan (Thai band)

Caravan ( _th. ฅาราวาน) is a Thai folk-rock band that formed out of the 1973 democracy movement. It launched the Pleng phua cheewit (songs for life) genre that has since been popularized by Carabao.

Personnel

* Surachai "Nga Caravan" Jantimatorn - vocals, acoustic guitar
* Wirasak Suntornsri - guitar, vocals
* Mongkon Utok - vocals, phin (a kind of Thai lute), wut (a panpipe-like Thai instrument), harmonica
* Tongkran Tana - lead guitar, slide guitar, violin, vocals

Band history

The founders of Caravan, Surachai Jantimatorn ("Nga Caravan") and Virasak Suntornsii, were student activists at Ramkamhaeng University at a time when the student movement was instrumental in toppling the dictatorial regime of Thanom Kittikachorn. They sympathasized with the working class farmers in Northeast Thailand.

One of the band's most popular songs is "Kon Gap Kwai" ("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 songwriters, Somkit Singson and Visa Kantap, who were both critical of the Thanom regime. [ [http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Thai/music/song4life/kongapkwai.htm Kon Gap Kwai (Man and Buffalo)] , Seasite.niu.edu, Northern Illinois University.] Other songs condemned the presence of the US military.

Early albums included "Caravan Volume 1" (1975) and "Caravan Volume 2" (1976) and "Ruam Botpleng Sipsee Tulaa Siphok Vol. 2" ("A Collection Of Songs For 14th 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. After amnesty was declared in 1979, the band's members gradually returned from exile and by 1982 it had released the album "Deuanpen" ("Full Moon"). Other albums followed, including "Kon Dtii Lsk" ("Blacksmith", 1983) and "Live at the 50th Anniversary of Thammasat University" (1984). A concert album, "Live in Japan at Taku Taku" (1988) showed that the band's influence was growing outside Thailand. [ [http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Thai/music/song4life/songlife.htm Songs for Life: The Origin of the Political Song Movement] , Seasite.niu.edu, Northern Illinois University.] [ [http://www.musicweb-international.com/encyclopaedia/c/C32.HTM Music Web Encyclopedia of Popular Music] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.caravanonzon.com/ Official Web site (in Thai only)]