by Jojo Soria de Veyra
THREE SONGS (197_?)
Magkombo. Like the Eraserheads' "Huling El Bimbo", this piece brings us back to a time in Philippine pop culture's past, in Magkombo's case when rock bands were called combos, the drummer the jazzer, and combo-meals meant food and drinks for the combo members. Many of these four- to five-man ensembles played for bamboo-fenced outdoor basketball court dances in provincial villages and created a new dream end for alienated young musicians (and Beatles or Led Zep wannabes) all over the country.Balong Malalim. One could approach this as a surrealist song about a swimming pool or an urban or political ambition, or more appropriately as a take on someone's '70s Manila drug experiments. Is "wala namang remedyo ang ating mga ulo" a lament on the intellect's mild usefulness under the Marcos regime? Or on the penis head's own under a Catholic state's anti-sex revolution stance?
Project. The Quezon City projects of the '70s were notorious for being the turfs of illegal-drug dispersions and consumption. The lines "okey ang mga projects, para kang nasa airport" has created a classic, describing both the projects' mapping and the "flights" therein. The lines' veering away from the rhyme provides us also with one of the most humorous quotables in Pinoy rock. (4/04)
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