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RETROSCOPE: MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUITAR

RETROSCOPE: MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUITAR

by Khalid Mohamed October 8 2025, 12:00 am Estimated Reading Time: 8 mins, 10 secs

Khalid Mohamed replays the life and oeuvre of Van Shipley, who was a formidable name once, but has never been acknowledged in our Nation’s Hall of Music Fame. Play it again, he says.  

Discover the fascinating journey of Van Shipley (1927–2008), India’s first electric guitarist and a pioneer of instrumental Hindi film music. From his unforgettable meeting with a young fan at Mumbai’s Rhythm House to his mastery of the eight-string guitar, Shipley revolutionized how Indian melodies met global harmonies. Through personal recollections, insights from his daughter Ingrid Shipley, and musical milestones across continents, this piece celebrates a visionary artist who bridged classical tradition and modern innovation — the true “Man with the Golden Guitar.”

Back in the 1970s during a rain-lacerating July afternoon, a bunch of us from St Xavier’s College – after snacking at the wonderful, now defunct Samovar Café – had sprinted into the Rhythm House, equally iconic and gone, too.
Dressed in sunflower-bright colours, Van Shipley (1927-2008), was checking out the sales of his album, Wondrous Melodies, of instrumental renditions from Bombay’s chart-busting movie soundtracks. Since my wallet was near-empty, I asked a friend to loan me Rs 35 or so, the price of a long-playing album then. Overhearing us, the prolific musician known as ‘The Man with the Golden Guitar’, asked for my name, signed the album with a flourish with a blue-ink pen, “That’s a little gift from me. Enjoy!”

He expressed surprise that a college boy was interested in ‘instrumentals’. I blabbered on that among my music collection, I had the LPs of the background scores by Henry Mancini and the recordings of The Shadows minus the voice of their star vocalist Cliff Richard, the cha cha chas of Xavier Cougat and oddly enough Miklos Rosza’s background score of Ben-Hur – odd because it was too dramatically orchestrated, and quite taxing for replays. Laughed he, “Grow up a few more years and hear it again. It’s a masterpiece.”

Conversations with Ingrid: The Legacy Lives On

Now on a whimsical instinct on a rainy day lately, I got in touch via Facebook with his daughter, Ingrid, who was a bit wary, but thawed steadily, informing me that her father and mother Olive were parents to seven children: four sons and three daughters. Since the parents were Hollywood movie buffs, the children were named after Orson (Welles), Glen (Ford), Gene (Kelly), Ingrid (Bergman), Gary (Cooper), Deborah (Kerr) and Audrey (Hepburn).
She said quite stoically that her father was way ahead of his times. Besides creating an eight-string guitar, Van Shipley also invented a futuristic violin. With the guitar, he would play classical Indian music, the extra strings providing the drone sounds.

Growing up in a Pali Hill, Bandra house, the children were surrounded by innumerable musical instruments including a strange vibraphone bought from a church in Bombay, a glockenspiel, violins, congas, bongos and guitars. “None of us has followed in his footsteps,” she continued, “except for Glen who is a recording engineer. Dad was a painter, too, and whenever he could snatch time anywhere in the world, he would pick up art supplies and paint landscapes on canvas, boards and even foam. I guess I became an artist under his influence.”

The Shipleys were also big-time into jazz masters Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck and Stephane Grappelli. The Bandra home resonated music recordings from South America, the Caribbeans, the Middle East and Asia. The kids were introduced to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Neil Diamond, and advised to keep their ears and minds open, be it also to gospel, soul and rhythm and blues.

Unfortunately, a heart stroke crushed Van Shipley’s career. He couldn’t use one hand anymore. Lamented Ingrid, “Dad never got his just recognition. Experimentation wasn’t appreciated, he always had to fight with the music labels to make new recordings. Naushad was his favourite composer, he respected the others too for giving him the material for his art. Maybe, it would be different today with the voluminous acceptance of all sorts of new sounds on the social media outlets.”

The Making of India’s First Electric Guitarist

Gratifyingly, music scholar Piyuush N Panday has dived deeply into the career of Van Shipley. In fact, the musician is credited as the first electric guitarist in India. A well-known name in the Hindi film industry, he not only played the guitar and the violin in the orchestras of composers, but also created music for films, and was one of the first musicians to release independent albums of instrumental versions of Hindi film songs.
He was born Valentine Van Shipley in Lucknow on 30th August 1927, into a family of music lovers. His mother was a skilled sitar player, whose guru was the famed Ustad Yusuf Ali Khan. His siblings, three brothers and two sisters, were also musicians who had inherited their mother's love for music.
Van was the only one though, who would go on to become a professional musician. His father, a high-ranking army officer, later served at the Botanical Gardens, Saharanpur. Here, his son would learn to play the tabla, the violin and the guitar.

His first violin lessons were from Gagan Chatterjee, an Allahabad-based violinist. And he learnt Hindustani classical music from Ustad Bande Hasan Khan, the noted khayal singer. The young lad would soon accompany him on the violin. Ustad Vilayat Khan was his school friend. Moreover, he forged a lasting friendship with Pandit Ravi Shankar whom he met in 1941.

His training in Hindustani classical music prompted him to build a unique eight-string guitar in the 1940s to play Indian classical music. He also created an electric violin, which he called his Gypsy Violin, used on almost all his later albums. One of his most cherished accomplishments was his record for the Columbia label, for which he played Raag Jogiya and Raag Yaman Kalyan on the guitar.

A Global Musician and a Forgotten Pioneer

In 1940, he had met Talat Mehmood, who had by then made his name singing ghazals at the All-India-Radio, Lucknow, and had invited Van Shipley to join him. While in Lucknow, he continued his training in violin from Ustad Allaudin Khan. He also took sarod lessons from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the music director of A.I.R., Lucknow.

Film music beckoned: Van Shipley moved to Pune where he joined Prabhat Studios. His first job was as assistant music director duo Husnlal-Bhagatram, for the film Chand (1944). While in Pune, lasting friendships were formed with Dev Anand and Guru Dutt, with whom he shared living quarters, and with character actors Rehman and Sapru.

When Prabhat Studios split, Van Shipley joined producer Baburao Pai (incidentally he coined the term ‘silver jubilee’) in Bombay. Van Shipley’s earliest films were Nargis (1946), Anmol Ghadi (1946) and Mera Suhag (1947). He was soon working with music directors Khemchand Prakash, C Ramchandra, Anil Biswas, Roshan and Ghulam Haider.

In 1947, Van Shipley went on a six-month tour of South America, the Hawaiian islands, and South Africa to study the music of those countries. When he returned, he began making waves as a soloist.

It is chronicled that an adolescent Nutan asked him if he would perform in a show with her at St. Xavier's College. The producer of the show was none other than Raj Kapoor who was about to start on his second film Barsaat (1949). Shipley was asked to do the violin playback. His violin solo became associated with the screen-shot that became the R.K. logo. In 1952's Awara, he added his electric guitar to the famous dream sequence.

As the phrase goes, there was no looking back. He was an integral part of the soundtracks of 1500 films, and was mentioned in film credits. The HMV label signed him up as an individual instrumentalist; his first record for them was the instrumental version of Tum bhi bhula do (Jugnu), rendered on the guitar.
In 1955, Van Shipley teamed up with Enoch Daniels, the accordion player whom he had met at Prabhat Studios, Pune. In 1956, with Talat Mehmood and Enoch Daniels, he toured British East Africa, kickstarting overseas concerts by Indian performers.

Followed concerts in Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean Islands, Suriname, Guyana and the U.S. cities, New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Buffalo and Detroit.

The restless globe-trotter performed for heads of state Zhou En-Lai, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Alexei Kosygin, Mrs Indira Gandhi and V.V. Giri. At one such performance, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had presented a red rose to Van Shipley to show his appreciation.

Van Shipley spoke impeccable Urdu, and had his own calligraphy set so he could write the language. He was also a keen photographer.

A little known fact about Van Shipley is that he also acted in a few films, beginning with guest appearances in Fareb (1953), Dharampatni (1953), Carnival Queen (1955) and Cha Cha Cha (1964). He acted as the hero in a couple of movies, which, according to his own notes, did not prove to be successful.

Van Shipley's first independent record, The Man with the Golden Guitar, was released in 1962. Since then he would release an album every year until 1982. He passed away following a heart seizure in March 2008.
Ingrid now lives in New York, her brother Glen is in Switzerland and sister Audrey in Dubai. The rest are in Mumbai. “When I look back, I’m so grateful for the life provided for us by our parents,” she concluded, “We learned all that we know from my father, be it in terms of music, art, independence and style.”    




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