These mustangs hopped houses, fifty years apart

As a teenager in 1967, Capt. A. Ranganathan played host to the band, The Mustangs, in his house in Tambaram; and half-a-century later, he repeated the gesture in Injambakkam. This Madras Day, he tarmacs down memory lane to recapture a sound that rocked Madras in the 1960s

In the 1960s, while under the spell of the Moptops, Madras was simultaneously lapping up fare from a campus-grown talent, The Mustangs from the woods of Madras Christian College (MCC).

A student of MCC from 1965-68, when he pursued chemistry on the campus and flying outside, Capt. A. Ranganathan brought a guitar religiously to his weekly to-do list.

(After decades as pilot, Capt. Ranganatthan is now a commentator on matters relating to aviation; and he still keeps his guitars well-strummed).

Back then, at the MCC of the 1960s, he was strumming the strings for Selaiyur Swingsters, an MCC band associated with the Selaiyur Hall and contemporaneous with The Mustangs. The Mustangs were born in 1965 at a time when ever inch of the international stage seemed taken by inimitable music talent. Beatlemania. The sound of The Rolling Stones could be heard loud and clear. In terms of chart-busting releases, the 1960s might not have belonged to Elvis Presley the way the preceding decade did, but he already had a body of work that inspired regular Presley cover concerts far and wide.

In Madras, there was the best possible “amplifier” of these voices — The Mustangs. With evident music talent, stage presence and big-star attitude sans the arrogance, they “owned” the cover versions of international acts they performed at campus music events, and later at concert halls across Madras and beyond.

Capt. Ranganathan would have loved to hold court, standing shoulder to shoulder with The Mustangs. That coveted position was hardly a distant dream; he got to experience a version of it regularly. He has had the privilege of participating in The Mustangs’ practice sessions as a guitarist’ for a while, even without stirring from his house.

“In 1967, there was a beach show in Madras which The Mustangs won. The victory was preceded by intense practice sessions. During the day, The Mustangs would not be allowed to practise in any of the Halls. My father Dr. Anathakrishnan being a professor of Chemistry at MCC, we had a house on the campus. He reluctantly agreed to let the Mustangs practise at our house.”