paranoidandroid

While it may be hard for my generation to fathom what exactly was the lifestyle during the 70s, I must say that I have always been intrigued, ergo, fascinated by it. Both my parents have been blessed enough to have lived in that time and I am never satisfied with their answers whenever I ask them about stuffs, more specifically, Rock and Roll.

I would blame this whole fascination thingy during my early years, when I was around nine or ten years old. We had a good lifestyle back then for my father was able to work abroad and every time he goes home for a month-long vacation, hordes and hordes of cassette tapes would overflow our living room sofa. I would eventually find myself looking at those cassette tapes and wonder why would my father buy all of those music and would even wonder more as to why my father didn't even bought me a single cassette tape (as to those times, I would say that I am pretty much in awe of Pinoy bands such as PnE or Eraserheads). Since I was too young back then to really relish what music is all about, I always end up listening to those tapes whenever my father would have his friends come over for drinks. The earliest that I could remember singing myself to was Eagle's Hotel Califonia. I know, I know, Hotel California is one of those pseudo-rock songs but what the hell, that song opened doors for me. My father would switch from Eagles to Lynyrd Skynyrd, Crossby, Still, Nash and Young to Simon & Garfunkel (which I disliked at first), Led Zeppelin and who knows what else.

This whole 70-ish itch that I am currently having spawned from watching movies about 70s Rock and Roll lifestyle (e.g, Almost Famous, Detroit Rock City, Sid and Nancy, Control) and yes, by the wonders of the interweb itself. I could not have known that Rock and Roll era could have been the coolest era to have lived in without the interweb. It is just a shame I wasn't able to live through it. But then again, all these gloriousness, these praises, could I have been able to express my desire to live during that era if I was here in the Philippines? I don't think so. For even if the Philippines was one of the popular, if not, richest amongst Southeast Asia, the Rock and Roll scene here would be measly compared to the scene in America.

I fantasize about being able to live during those years, being a teenager on my way to true sense of freedom, by that I meant going wherever you like, listening to whatever you like, much like the life of a groupie (which is hard to come by today). It could have been really great to be able to be "friends" with all of those bands, scratch that, poets that made such beautiful music, even for just a night or a day (and sleeping with them would be a bonus LOL), nothing serious, and your personal life is in its truest form: PERSONAL. Having a pseudonym would be neat and then after years of being with them, experiencing it all first hand, you would disappear, vanish, like that of a smoke from a cigarette. It would have been great. It would have been such a pleasure and an honor as well.

After being able to finally know these poets and their beautiful music, I wonder if there is a single musician out there who truly makes good music and is a poet by heart. Like Ian Curtis whom I have adored by his poems alone. By Lou Reed, whose Venus In Furs made such an impact on me, about sadomasochism and dirty, and I mean dirty women. Like Simon & Garfunkel's never-ending opus of sorts. And let us not forget Led Zeppelin's contribution to all of these beautiful chaos. Their Achilles' Last Stand bounded me senseless when I first heard it. And yes, Jim Morisson. He, is a vision of pure brilliancy, alongside Ian Curtis for that very matter.

I still don't think that I am much of music junkie today and back then but I have developed a new sense of wave of emotions whenever I listen to my preferred music of choice, depending on my mood.

And this is just one of those moods that resulted to a two-hour "writer's block" and finally releasing all of those thoughts, no matter how senseless and grammatically-wrong.