by Jojo Soria de Veyra
TEN SONGS (19__?)
Tuldok. Egalitarianism as an ethos is of a different mold in the Philippines, much more touchy to the capital-deficient and diplomas-deprived majority of this Christian and class-ridden country. It is from an awareness of this fact that Tuldok begins to emit a worthy visceral fume on, say, the Republicanized Fil-Am balikbayan who might otherwise regard the song's epistemological equalizing thirst as too Democrat and corny. From the local communist's angle, on the other hand, this country-rock song should sound too pacifist in being religious instead of merely historical ("maraming nag-aaway, tuldok lang ang dahilan").Masdan Mo Ang Kapaligiran. This became a bestseller to a crowd that was often hit as communist-sympathizing for being environmentalist (read: anti-factories), despite the offer of the lines "hindi nga masama ang pag-unlad/ at malayo-layo na rin ang ating narating". For this hit song came out when environmentalism was not yet a yuppie and celebrity lip-serviced religion.
Usok. Almost Christian (Rastafarian?) in essence, this reggae-style song (care of the line "tinangay na ng hangin ang masamang panaginip") also provides a picture of economic hope when placed within our memory of the Marcosian and Estradan flights' aftermaths. But while Filipino forgiveness is much-maligned as a facet of our character by many a political and social critic, Usok provides a positive look at that character even as it doesn't mention justice, but probably because it doesn't (couldn't) mention Marcos or Estrada.
Ang Bayan Kong Sinilangan. Here's an elegy on the failure of justice from all sides. Set in Cotabato in Mindanao, the song seems to be obliquely aware of fundamentalist Moslems' clamor for Islamic government in the island, of some Mindanaoenes' mere demand for equal budget appropriations for Mindanao interests, and of military paranoia that has created a Vietnam of sorts with the customary "hamletting" and all, when it sings "dahil walang respeto sa prinsipyo ng kapwa tao...".
Gising Na Kaibigan. It is not hard to imagine this piece being used as an audio material for some leftist or activist A-V presentation, although it may actually be just a pat on the backs of our dropouts'/outcasts' popular propensity to self-learn. I doubt that this was meant to be another bourgeois cum capitalist's illustration of the legendary Juan Tamad; I'm more inclined to believe this was written as a song of hope for the hopeless.
Magnanakaw. For a country where the wide gap between rich and poor created a classic landscape of tall fences, Asin concocted a song that defined the proudly-Filipino word "magnanakaw" as not exclusive to lower-class miserables outside of those very fences.
Pagbabalik. Probably the first Pinoy rock song for homesick criminals, it sets in the Tagalog language the interesting contrast between individual crime and the longing for one's country's (bayan's) or hometown's (bayan's) embrace.
Hangin. A pastoral with a back-to-basics agenda. You could say it's folk rock's wont, but this piece may have become a more useful song for the recent decades of plastic kings.
Ang Buhay Ko. The musician's/artist's plight cum passion and his/her marriage to poverty and travel. A universal cliché or continuing Third World truth? The clip-clopping beat may picture archaic horses, but Heber Bartolome (not of Asin) is still recruiting musicians for Japan even after tiring of fighting the payola system (among other things) in Manila's music industry.
Balita. Beyond news-writing is this song's depiction of a Cebuano-speaking part of the country, a Lupang Ipinangako (Promised Land). Promised to Christians? To Moslems? To post-Commonwealth Filipinos? To illegal loggers and gold miners? Corollary reading would be this: all promised lands are war zones. (4/04)
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Himig ng Pag-Ibig. And what about this one? A simple love song in Tagalog? Or does it, in the wartorn and allusionistically poverty-stricken or freedom-poor atmosphere of the surrounding songs, reek of a disappeared loved one?
Itanong Mo Sa Mga Bata. And when one is indeed thinking of that disappeared loved one and friends, where does one veer his/her attention to? That's right, taking care of the kids who'd need that love more. Though useful for OFWs tiring of their sacrifice and needing to be reminded of their children's future as the cause, this could also be a song about broken marriages, or isolation by some disease. Stricken by cancer and left alone in a cancer ward, what should one do? Suicide? Or do some last thing in life for the kids? (6/05)
Copyright © 2004 Jojo
Soria de
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