“Ang mga bituin sa langit at mga katha ng isip ay hindi sapat upang mabuhay ang daigdig.”

“Salamat, Salamat Musika” by Nanette Inventor | I have local music in my head these past few days. There’s next month’s Great Philippine Song Hits, which means I’m listing down Filipino classics again. Although I find myself being a bit more aggressive about local album reviews – as I told a friend, it’s really the only way I can bolster my local music coverage. Inevitably that means I’m posting an OPM song today, at the expense of a Japanese indie pop track (don’t fear, we’re just moving it to tomorrow). I’ve been exploring the original Metropop song list (again, for next month) and I rediscovered this track, composed by Gary Granada and grand prize winner for the 1984 professional competition. Also, I heard this on Pinas FM a year or so ago – expect them to dig up regrettably obscure Filipino classics, the ones you don’t hear on other so-called masa stations – and I thought, we do have a lot of songs extolling music in general, yes? (Here’s another from our archives.) Especially back at the time, but then, the context seems to be “how else can you express thoughts the powers that be would otherwise clamp down on?” As for these times, these thoughts are marginalized. You can’t be too safe. You have YouTube subscribers to care about. [NB]