PRINCE
CNN was quick to call 2016 as “The Year the Music Died”—an obvious allusion of course to the line “the day the music died” from Don McLean’s song “American Pie,” which was a lament for the death of Buddy Holly (Peggy Sue), Ritchie Valens (La Bamba) and Jiles Perry “J. P.” Richardson Jr. (Chantilly Lace) at a plane crash in February 1959 in a cornfield in Iowa.
Not a hackneyed headline for CNN, though.
La Muerte’ scythe had quite a harvest of popular musicians in the year passed. The news network even had a chronological listing of their passing: January 10 -David Bowie; January 17 -Glenn Frey; January 28 Paul Kanter; February 4 -Maurice White; March 4 -Joey Feek; March 11-Keith Emerson; March 23 -Phife Dawg; April 6 -Merle Haggard; April 21 -Prince; November 10 -Leonard Cohen; November 13 -Leon Russell; November 18 -Sharon Jones; December 7 -Greg Lake; December 25 -George Michael.
The year also took away Robert Stigwood, Vanity, Sonny James, Sir George Martin, Ralph Stanley, Scotty Moore, Juan Gabriel, Buckwheat Zydeco, Phil Chess, Kashif, Pete Burns and Rick Parfitt.
Perhaps the most popular song made by this bunch here in the Philippines is “September” by Maurice White’s group Earth, Wind and Fire. After all, it mentioned the date when Martial law was declared.
“September”
Do you remember the 21st night of September? Love was changing the minds of pretenders While chasing the clouds away.//Our hearts were ringing. In the key that our souls were singing. As we danced in the night, remember how the stars stole the night away.
CHORUS: Ba de ya – say do you remember/Ba de ya – dancing in September/Ba de ya – never was a cloudy day/Ba duda, ba duda, ba duda, badu/Ba duda, badu, ba duda, badu/Ba duda, badu, ba duda
My thoughts are with you. Holding hands with your heart to see you. Only blue talk and loveremember how we knew love was here to stay. Now December found the love we shared in September. Only blue talk and love,remember the true love we share today.(CHORUS)
The bell was ringing, aha. Our souls were singing. Do you remember. Never a cloudy day (CHORUS 2x)
MICHAEL
Perhaps the second most recognized output from this group is George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”—what with its association to the Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili video.
“Careless Whisper”
I feel so unsure/As I take your hand/And lead you to the dance floor/As the music dies/Something in your eyes/Calls to mind a silver screen/And all its sad goodbyes
[Chorus:] I’m never gonna dance again/Guilty feet have got no rhythm/Though it’s easy to pretend I know you’re not a fool/I should’ve known better than to cheat a friend/And waste a chance that I’ve been given/So I’m never gonna dance again/The way I danced with you
Time can never mend/The careless whispers of a good friend/To the heart and mind/Ignorance is kind/There’s no comfort in the truth/Pain is all you’ll find. [Chorus]
Tonight the music seems so loud/I wish that we could lose this crowd/Maybe it’s better this way We’d hurt each other with the things we want to say/We could have been so good together/We could have lived this dance forever/But now who’s gonna dance with me/Please stay/[Chorus]/Was what I did so wrong/Now that you’ve gone (3x)/So wrong that you had to leave me alone?
Leon Russell was more famous for his looks, than his music. But the Carpenters made a hit of his song.
“Masquerade”
Are we really happy/With this lonely game we play?/Looking for the right words to say/Searching but not finding understanding anyway/We’re lost in this masquerade
Both afraid to say we’re just too far away/From being close together from the start
We tried to talk it over but the words got in the way/We’re lost inside this lonely game we play/
Thoughts of leaving disappear/Each time I see your eyes/And no matter how hard I try/To understand the reason why we carry on this way/We’re lost in this masquerade (2x) (and we’re lost in a masquerade)
And of course it’s hard to claim you’re a rocker if you don’t know David Bowie and his songs. Here’s the one that defines him:
“Space Oditty”
Ground Control to Major Tom (2x)/Take your protein pills and put your helmet on/Ground Control to Major Tom (ten, nine, eight, seven, six)/Commencing countdown, engines on (five, four, three)/Check ignition and may God’s love be with you (two, one, liftoff)
This is Ground Control to Major Tom/You’ve really made the grade/And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear/Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare/”
This is Major Tom to Ground Control/I’m stepping through the door/And I’m floating in a most peculiar way/And the stars look very different today/For here/Am I sitting in a tin can/Far above the world/Planet Earth is blue/And there’s nothing I can do
Though I’m past one hundred thousand miles/I’m feeling very still/And I think my spaceship knows which way to go/Tell my wife I love her very much she knows
Ground Control to Major Tom/Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong/Can you hear me, Major Tom? (3x)/Can you
“Here am I floating ’round my tin can/Far above the moon/Planet Earth is blue/And there’s nothing I can do”
