8 days a week

madrid – i don’t know if i have been writing sense lately and this countdown is about to end. i think it’s only etchie who’s been reading and commenting on some of my blogs, which i am thankful for because i need feedback darlings. i am a communicator and am not a rock. nor an island. that’s a line from simon and garfunkel’s i am rock.

so, what’s in a song? some say it’s a significant human experience written to express one’s feelings and shared to others with melodies. others say it’s careful arrangement of tunes and words to convey a message. poetry with melody. still others say it’s simply noise. while others rebutt it’s a cultural representation of one’s heritage and society.

i don’t know if i have a good singing voice. but lately i have been singing at a filipino friend’s house and i was told that mine is of the frank sinatra genre. really? i don’t know if it’s in the beer or simply me. but one thing is certain, i sing now with confidence among the crowd. well, i remember the first week i arrived here in madrid, carlos brought me to this spanish karaoke bar and they asked me to sing on stage. since i didn’t know anybody in the audience, i sang to my heart’s delight.

who are my favorite singers? and songs? 8 songs and their artists….

1. enya – hearing her sing orinoco flow is like traveling the world in less than 4 minutes. from cebu to peru. to the shores of tripoli. to babylon. i love the way roma and her partner compose their masterpieces. i love their gaelic songs also.

2. elvis presley – the king! i heard that he has a great asset between his legs but those are not great balls of fire. i love the king’s version of the wonder of you.

3. the beatles – hey, jude. don’t make it bad. let me take down coz i’m going to strawberry fields. there are places i remember all my life. some have changed and have remained. and mother mary comes to me. speaking words of wisdom. let it be. let it be. don’t you just love their lyrics? reverberating into your bones.

Oh Tracy! Source: Google Images

4. tracy chapman – a woman with a very distinct voice and politically-charged compositions. the first album is a revelation. it took some more years for the next album to come up. just like enya, chapman is a writer with the right attitude to boot. it shows in her feelings through the masterpieces she wrote for me and you.

Two weeks in a Virginia jail
For my lover for my lover
Twenty thousand dollar bail
For my lover for my lover
And everybody thinks
That I’me the fool
But they don’t get
Any love from you
The things we won’t do for love
I’d climb a mountain if I had to
And risk my life so I could have you
You, you, you…
Everyday I’m psychoanalyzed
For my lover for my lover
They dope me up and
I tell them lies
For my lover for my lover
I follow my heart
And leave my head to ponder
Deep in this love
No man can shake
I follow my heart
And leave my mind to wonder
Is this love worth
The sacrifices I make

5. regine velasquez – believe me, i’m serious here. i have her butterfly album and the canseco compositions. i love her version of pasko na, sinta ko (it’s christmas, my love). and i always shed tears every time i hear that song.

Tapestry by Carole King. Source: Google Images

6. carole king– her tapestry album is my all time favorite released in 1971. all hits by themselves. opening with i feel the earth move. then so far away. it’s too late. home again. beautiful. way over yonder. you’ve got a friend (she composed for her beloved, james taylor). where you lead. will you love me tomorrow. smackwater jack. (you make me feel like a) natural woman. out in the cold. and tapestry. a prolific composer of more than 1,000 songs. hitmaker.

My life has been a Tapestry of rich and royal hue.
An everlasting vision of an everchanging view.
A wondrous, woven magic in bits of blue and gold
A tapestry to feel and see, Impossible to hold.
Once amid the soft silver sadness in the sky

There came a man of fortune, a drifter passing by.
He wore a torn and tattered cloth around his leathered hide
A coat of many colors,
Yellow-green on either side.
He moved with some uncertainty as if he didn’t know,
Just what he was there for or where he ought to go.
Once he reached for something golden hanging from a tree
And his hand came down empty.

7. joey ayala – i met joey ayala august last year when my charles was writing about their conspiracy garden cafe in quezon city. being a mindanaoan, it was not difficult talking to this man. his concerns are mine too. i took photos of him while he was performing and asked if he could get a copy of these photos i took of him. i gladly obliged. man of vision. i wish more filipinos would see how he cares for the environment through his music. i love his agila (haring ibon).

and of course,

8. madonna – the 80s gay icon. you’re not gay if you don’t have a madonna cd. you’re not gay if you never danced to true blue and papa don’t preach. my all-time favorite madonna songs are crazy for you and vogue!

strike a pose, darling!