Photo by www.thefeedph.com
Originally I was planning to do an album review of ‘Bente’ which is the Greatest Hits package of PNE which album marks the band’s 20 years in the music industry.
However, most of the songs in the track listing are already very familiar to almost everyone because most of their hits are classics already.
So, I decided instead to write a career retrospective of Parokya ni Edgar that would loosely chronicle the band’s early influence on a music aficionado like myself. I was a very young teen then during the whole “90’s Rock Boom!”.
I would like the readers to see what the music of Parokya ni Edgar meant for my generation who were lucky enough to have first heard their songs when they were first released. I would also like to share what our initial impressions were of the band when they were still building up their reputation–the time that I feel they were at their “rawest” and funniest!
Here we go!
*****
Flashback
The very first time that I heard of these guys and began to take notice of them was when I was in grade school. At the time, there weren’t a lot of things to do to help deal with the tediousness of school life and to help “loosen” that load you had on your shoulders.
There was one way, though, and that was listening to music.
I clearly remember when we would bring our Walkman which we kept in our backpacks. And we would just bring them out during lunch break, recess, and after school when we were waiting to be fetched.
One of those cassette tapes that was hugely popular back in those days was PNE’s second album with a tongue twister of a title ‘Buruguduystunstugudunstuy‘. Yes, that was the title of that album and it was funny to see the reaction of the sales people at record stores when you were asking if they had it. In fact, one salesman was so irritated, he retorted, “Niloloko mo ba ako?”.
For those who remember this album, I think you guys can guess what I will talk about next. Of course, it is the track “Please Don’t Touch my Birdie”! That was such a massive hit back then that everybody–students down to the janitors–would be singing it, especially its chorus section. We students just got a wild kick out of it–to the great annoyance of our teachers, though, especially the famous Mr. Fabian who blurted out: “May nagdadala ba ng ibon dito sa loob ng classroom? Ang tagal ko na narininig puro: “Don’t touch my birdie!“.
From the unmistakable intro of that song that had students laughing and to just how Chito Miranda would deliver his vocals in this one… it felt like he was telling a story! Let us just leave it there.
And the best part about it, most of our strictest teachers couldn’t understand the lyrics. Let’s just say they were the last ones who finally caught on to the true meaning of this particular track… and they confiscated those cassette tapes of PNE!
Eventually, because many of us would go to school with “reappearing” cassette tapes of PNE, they were added to the list of items to be confiscated once spotted by our teachers.
That’s how it was… and you just had to live with it. But it did make getting through day by day at school a lot tougher for someone like me because music is such an integral part of my life. I honestly can’t imagine a world without music in our lives–because I did experience that “silence” for years in school when it became strictly prohibited to even bring a Walkman.
Wrongly, teachers thought listening to music during our free time served as a distraction from schoolwork. In reality, music kept us from being restless. It was a momentary respite from back-to-back bombardments of lectures when your brains could not absorb more.
Well, it was good while it lasted when we could still bring our Walkmans and our favorite cassette tapes to school. Music had provided us escape!
Photo by www.thefeedph.com
So, on the other hand, while local bands like Rivermaya helped introduce us to well-crafted pop-rock songs that are undeniably Filipino at heart, it was Parokya ni Edgar then that tickled our funny bone and made us realize that we all had it in ourselves to even poke fun at everyday situations.
I mean this in good spirit when I say Parokya ni Edgar were “green minded” even before we knew how to think that way.
*****
Present Day
When I think of it, Chito Miranda and company have done more than last for 20 years. It is not mere longevity that I speak of. It is that their brand of music has been so deeply ingrained into the mind set of Filipinos. Especially during my time, their music just latched on to you!
Parokya ni Edgar has surpassed at least two generations already.
Depending on who you ask, they are considered to be the one true surviving band from the “90’s Rock Boom!” since they never disbanded which has led the band line-up to remain mostly intact with the exception of the departure of Vinci Montaner. It should be noted though that his leaving the band wasn’t caused by creative differences or a falling out among the other band members of Parokya. It was in good terms when he parted ways with PNE.
It has been a long journey for Parokya ni Edgar that hasn’t always been bump-free.
For these guys to reach the status they have now–from being one of the youngest acts that helped “ignite” the “90’s Rock Boom!” to now being one of the respected elder statesmen of the local scene–is truly laudable.