Tag: music

“Yesterday” by the Beatles (1965)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 25 February 2024
Photo from petalrepublic.com.

It is the last Sunday in February, the second in the Season of Lent and most likely, everybody is feeling like “suddenly” the month is over with everything happening so fast just like in the song Yesterday by the Beatles.

Released in 1965 from their album Help!, Yesterday was actually written by Paul McCartney after a dream while staying with his former girlfriend, Jane Asher. It is a sad love song that speaks, as usual, of break-up.

The lyrics and music are simple that McCartney had to research for sometime if he had copied its melody from an existing music at that time. But, its simplicity and eloquence caught so many generations then and now as the song speaks so well of everyone’s experience. Yesterday one of the most covered songs of all time, being interpreted by almost every artist in all continents over 2000 times since its release!

You may check our Sunday blog today on the correlation of Yesterday with the transfiguration of Jesus (https://lordmychef.com/2024/02/24/troubles-on-the-road-to-easter/).

What I wish to share with you this lovely Sunday is my realization that aside from old music getting better with age as it takes on a life of its own, there is also a simultaneous change and maturity among us listeners and fans of our favorite artists and bands of their music.

I practically grew up listening to the music of the Beatles, being born in 1965, the same year Yesterday was released. I have never understood all their songs but growing up at that time surrounded by their music, I have also fallen in love with the sound of Beatles like most of my generation.

And now, I just felt everything so “suddenly” too, of how fast time flies that indeed, “I’m not half the man I used to be”! 

Yesterday all my trouble seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh I believe in yesterday

Suddenly I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
Oh yesterday came suddenly

It was that line that actually moved me to link Yesterday with the transfiguration of Jesus, “Suddenly I’m not half the man I used to be.”

The lesson is very simple but many times, it could take us a lifetime learning or realizing. Most of all, accepting and owning.

Like the road to Easter, our lives are always marked with so many light and darkness, failures and triumphs, tears and laughter, even little deaths. Jesus tells us in his transfiguration that the scandal of the Cross cannot be removed from the glory of his Resurrection. There can be no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.

The good news is that in every passages in life we go through, every difficulty we hurdle, every pain and sufferings we endure, we always emerge a different person after – not half the man I used to be.

Of course, it still depends on us if we become better or bitter with every pain we go through. But, like the song Yesterday that went through a long process of ups and downs even before being recorded and released, it had emerged a very great music, a classic in our own time.

How consoling to think that great men and women, like McCartney and all the other artists we look up to went through a lot of troubles in life and have emerged better and wiser as persons.

And that’s because Jesus Christ was there first to suffer and die for us so that when he rose again from the dead, we too shall rise with him. Have a blessed week ahead, folks!

From YouTube.com.

“A Horse With No Name” by America (1971)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 18 February 2024
Photo by author, view of Israel from side of Jordan, May 2019.

It is the first week of Lent where the gospel is always about the temptation of Jesus by the devil in the desert. Naturally, the other thing that came to our mind while praying was the song A Horse With No Name by three young Americans who called themselves “America”.

It was still the great heydays of rock n’ roll and even though we were still too young at the time when this was playing on the airwaves, we just knew it was a great music especially when every grown up man was listening to it, humming it and even plucking its chords in their guitars. At that time, we just loved the melody and poetry of the lyrics, beginning with the unusual title A Horse With No Name with its very propitious guitars that kicked our imaginations of a far away journey in the desert.

On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound
I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can’t remember your name
‘Cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain
La la la la la la…

The desert is more than a place in the Bible. It was more of a setting for meeting and experiencing God amid its dryness and wilderness. Every great prophet in the Old Testament went to the desert to pray and meet God; hence, in the New Testament, Jesus was shown as going first to the desert before launching his mission.

How ironic yet amazing that it is in the desert of our life’s poverty and limitations, sickness and weakness, dryness and weariness when we actually meet God, when we experience fulfillment and meaning in life (https://lordmychef.com/2024/02/17/lent-a-pilgrimage-to-god/). This biblical meaning of the desert was not far from the views of the song’s composer, Dewel Bunnell who explained later that A Horse With No Name was “a metaphor for a vehicle to get away from life’s confusion into a quiet, peaceful place” (from Wikipedia).

However, we remember too how when we were in high school (early 80’s) while listening to “American Top 40” on 99.5RT-FM when Casey Kasem claimed Bunnell saying that they were simply playing with words and chords when they came up with A Horse With No Name!

Whatever… but the music has become a classic because of its sincere message about life as a mystery not meant to be solved at all (because it is unsolvable!). For five decades since releasing A Horse With No Name, the trio of America had taught us how to deal with life’s mysteries by simply allowing ourselves to be wrapped by these mysteries, keeping our hearts and minds open in awaiting new revelations unfolding before us daily. Don’t forget too to have that sense of awe while being wrapped by life’s mysteries which is actually what Lent is asking us during this season as we return to God, our very root and grounding in order to find ourselves anew who are so lost in this world of so many disguises.

After nine days I let the horse run free
‘Cause the desert had turned to sea
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The ocean is a desert with its life underground
And a perfect disguise above
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground
But the humans will give no love

Here’s America with their first hit A Horse With No Name. Sing along, reflect and, pray. Have a blessed week ahead in this desert of life!

From YoutTube.com

“What Might Have Been” by Lou Pardini (1996)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 11 February 2024
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo in Virginia, 02 February 2024.

It’s the final Sunday in Ordinary Time before we begin our 40-day journey of Lent this Ash Wednesday which falls on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. That is why we have chosen a music that is light and easy and romantic, though poignant about those big what ifs in life, What Might Have Been by Grammy-nominated Lou Pardini.

Co-written with jazz vocalist Ms. Kevyn Lettau, What Might Have Been is Pardini’s most popular song especially here in the Philippines and Asia that was included in his first solo album Live and Let Live released in 1996. Unknown to many, Pardini’s first composition ever recorded was also Smokey Robinson’s most popular song, Just To See Her released in 1987. It earned Robinson a Grammy while Pardini was nominated to a Grammy too for the composition. From 2009-2022, Pardini was the lead vocalist and keyboardist of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Chicago. He had collaborated too with almost major bands and vocalists in his career with some stints in Hollywood providing music in some movies and TV shows.

What Might Have Been tells us the story of a love lost and the resulting regrets by the singer. Most of all, it touches one of everyone’s favorite subject and theme or question in life: ”what might have been” our lives be had we made the right choices or have been better or wiser, perhaps more faithful or understanding?

Somewhere lost in the wind
I’m watching you
Sunlight touching your hair
And I remember
Somehow
We said that we would never stray
But somehow we lost our way
Promises to often spoken
Are easily broken apart
I’m ready this time
I know that I’m
No longer undecided
Don’t want to be a fool wondering…
… What might have been
Trace of forever lingering
Drawing me closer to you
A new beginning
Now I know
There is no doubt
I understand
Just how fragile love can be
I can’t forget
Your memory found me
Now I know where I belong…
I’m ready this time
I know that I’m
No longer undecided
Don’t want to be a fool wondering…
… What might have been

I love that last stanza saying, “I’m ready this time/I know that I’m/No longer undecided/Don’t want to be a fool wondering…/What might have been/.” We find this stanza so appropriate and close with the lessons of this Sunday’s gospel when a leper approached Jesus, knelt before him and begged, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean” (Mk. 1:40-41). 

Many times in life, we are afraid of approaching the love of our life, even God, for so many reasons but later we find them not important at all. Worst, there were times the other person was just waiting for us to make the move or to approach her/him or them.

Jesus is passing by everyday in our lives, welcoming us even in our worst selves or situations like that leper (https://lordmychef.com/2024/02/10/approaching-jesus-approachable-like-jesus/). Let us approach him, go to him and express what’s deepest in our hearts no matter what these may be. Jesus loves us so much. He wants us to come to him and join him in his journey. Let us leave our comfort zones like our past with all of its mistakes and failures, pains and hurts to start anew in him again. It is Christ’s will too that we be better.

Like in that beautiful lines by Pardini, let us be ready this time, decide once and for all to come to Jesus and follow him instead of wondering what might have been. Don’t let this chance to pass again. Jesus is waiting for us. Have a lovely Sunday, friends!

From YouTube.com

“Touch & Go” by Rupert Holmes (1976)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 04 February 2024
Photo by author, Our Lady of Fatima University-Laguna Campus in Sta. Rosa, 19 February 2024.

Our gospel this Sunday speaks a lot about the importance of person-to-person communication, of the healing wonders of the sense of touch and its deeper implications in our relationships when Jesus healed the mother-in-law of Simon Peter.

On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

Mark 1:29-31

See how the evangelist narrated in details the healing by Jesus who “approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.” More than the actual touching and face-to-face or actual encounter, the scene speaks so well of deep personal relationships among us. That is why we have chosen Rupert Holmes’ 1976 single Touch and Go.

Nobody said that
Life is always fair
Sometimes it clips your wings
While you’re in mid-air
But there’s a thread
Between your life and mine
And when you’re losin’ hope
This rope won’t unwind

REFRAIN:
Hold on tight
‘Cause life is touch and go
It’s sink and swim
But never doubt
If you’re out on a limb
I’ll get the call
To break your fall
I’ll never leave you
Even when life
Is touch and go
Or hit and run
We’ll never break
If we take it as one
I’m here to stay,
I pray you know
I’ll never touch
I’ll never touch and go

Someday you’ll find
There’s nothin’ in the night
That wasn’t there before
You turned out the light
Straight from your mind
The monster ‘neath your bed
The voices in the hall
They’re all in your head

A gifted musician with a knack in story-telling, Holmes’ songs are always imbued with his deep insights about life he had gathered from ordinary experiences like his earlier hit Terminal (1974) and his two hit singles Escape (The Piña Colada Song) in 1979 and Him in 1980. These three are all dashed with humor that can tickle our bones but disturb our conscience too.

In Touch and Go, Holmes goes philosophical, sounding a bit like Job in today’s first reading of how life can sometimes be unfair that “Sometimes it clips your wings while you’re on mid-air” while assuring his beloved of his deep love and dedication that no matter what happens, he would always be there by her side to save her.

That is exactly what Jesus tells us in the gospel this Sunday, of how he would always approach us, grasp our hand and help us up when we are down. The question is, are we in touch with Jesus too? Or, we always go and leave him especially when things are doing great in our lives?

If us humans like Holmes can boldly assure our beloved of always being there, of being in touch and connected especially in times of trials and sufferings, all the more is Jesus Christ who had come to empower us by connecting us with God and one another always in loving service (https://lordmychef.com/2024/02/03/real-power-empowers/).

It is a Sunday. Don’t forget to celebrate Mass or go to your places of worship to get in touch with God and with others in your community. Here is Rupert Holmes to help you chill more on this cool February Sunday amidst life’s many “touch and go, sink and swim” situations.

From Youtube.com.

“Waiting for Love” by Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’77 (1974)

The Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 January 2024
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, in Tagalag, Valenzuela City, 13 September 2023.

It’s the first Sunday of 2024 and we are celebrating in the Church today the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord used to be known as Feast of the Three Kings.  Today is the final Sunday of the Christmas season which closes tomorrow with the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus before we go into the Ordinary Time the following Tuesday.

From the Greek word epiphanes that means appearance or manifestation, today’s celebration reminds us that Jesus came for everyone especially those forgotten and unloved, the poor and marginalized, the sinner and those lost. 

Most of all, Christ became human like us except in sin so that it would be easier for us to find God who loves us so much without any reservations.  In fact, it is actually God who searches for us and always finds us.  Whenever we think we are looking for God and have found Him, it was actually God who first sought us and found us. 

It was God who moved the magi from the East to search for Jesus Christ born in Bethlehem and they found him. Ironically, it was the people of Jerusalem, especially King Herod along with the scribes and priests who knew where the Christ would be born were the ones who did not find him because they were not really interested in finding Jesus.

Christmas is being “out” with Christ when we think less of ourselves within like the magi from the East who went out of their ways, of their comfort zones and even ivory towers to find Jesus in Bethlehem… Yes, Jesus is out there, manifesting himself daily in so many ways but we could not recognize him because we are locked inside our own beliefs of the Christ, held captive by our many fears like King Herod and the people of Jerusalem.

https://lordmychef.com/2024/01/06/our-questions-our-epiphanies/

This is the second time we are featuring on Epiphany Sunday Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’77’s classic “Waiting for Love” composed by Randy McNeill from their 1974 album Vintage 74. One good thing with social media today is how we are able to unearth or discover so many wonderful things about our music in the past like the impressive talents behind this lovely song with vocals from the lovely Bonnie Bowden who collaborated with many other albums later with Mr. Mendes as well as Jazz artist George Duke. Jazz legend Dave Grusin was the conductor and arranger for the orchestra music of the album with some acoustic guitar renditions by another legend Antonio Carlos Jobim.

What we like most with Waiting for Love that rings true to everyone of us is the fact how very often we are so locked inside – with our past pains and hurts, even sins and failures as well as presumptions on everyone and everything that we could not find Jesus and love itself outside in other people. 

Was it something in the rain
Or a chance of love again
That made me explain
The secrets of my soul
I guess I only needed
Someone to hold

But I was gone without a trace
And the rain blew away

And it seems I've spent my whole life
Waiting for love
And when it comes
I always run away

Was it something on a dream
That touched my memory
Or a picture I didn't know I'd seen
That made me stop and stare
And then I lost him,
If he was ever there

Waiting for Love challenges us like the Epiphany to be wise like the magi to recognize and follow Jesus appearing daily in our lives in many occasions and circumstances. Surely, there were other people who have seen the bright star of Bethlehem when Christ was born but why only the three magi from the East came to follow it and search for Jesus? 

This 2024, stop being “afraid of being close where I need to be the most”to start following and believing in the bright star of Jesus Christ found in people who come to us daily. Cheers to more love this 2024!

Here is Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’77…

From YouTube.com

“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by the Police, 1981

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 19 November 2023
The Housewife 1871 Frederick Walker 1840-1875 Bequeathed by R.H. Prance 1920 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N0352.

Hi everyone! So glad to be back this Sunday for our music related with our Mass celebration. We hope you have gone to your local church or wherever for the Sunday Mass where the first reading was taken from the Book of Proverbs that spoke of a “worthy wife”, a perfect wife.

When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband, untrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She obtains wool and flax and works with loving hands. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her fingers ply the spindle. She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy.

Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20

You must be wondering if there is a perfect wife – or a perfect husband – who really exist.

Of course, none. Nobody is perfect. You have to understand human words are so limited to express God’s thoughts and words. What the author of Proverbs mean today is an “ideal wife” – someone who keeps all the little things at home we (especially men and children) often take for granted that are actually the most important things that keep our homes nice and clean, cozy and orderly (https://lordmychef.com/2023/11/18/little-things-are-the-big-things/).

The reading from the Book of Proverbs this Sunday invites us to imitate the attitudes of the “worthy wife” like her diligence and fidelity to her tasks at home in actively waiting for the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the world. It supports the teaching of Jesus in today’s parable of the talents that God is not asking us great things in life but simply to be faithful to the tasks and responsibilities he entrusted to us. Exactly like the perfect wife who got everything covered not only at home but even outside! When we die, the only thing Jesus will ask us is how we have cared for those persons and things he entrusted us in this life – not what we have done nor achieved nor amassed like wealth.

And that is why as I prayed while preparing this Sunday’s homily, I kept hearing at the back of my head Sting and the Police singing their 1981 hit Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.

Though I’ve tried before to tell her
Of the feelings I have for her in my heart
Every time that I come near her
I just lose my nerve as I’ve done from the start
Every little thing she does is magic
Everything she do just turns me on
Even though my life before was tragic
Now I know my love for her goes on
Do I have to tell the story
Of a thousand rainy days since we first met?
It’s a big enough umbrella
But it’s always me that ends up getting wet
Every little thing she does is magic
Everything she do just turns me on
Even though my life before was tragic
Now I know my love for her goes on

Written by Sting, the song is about a man who could not express his love for a woman he finds so beautiful and amazing. The song is actually about unrequited love and she never became his wife!

I resolved to call her up
A thousand times a day
And ask her if she’ll marry me
Some old-fashioned way
But my silent fears have gripped me
Long before I reach the phone
Long before my tongue has tripped me
Must I always be alone

And so you ask how do I find this song related with that reading from the Book of Proverbs about a perfect wife? We find that in the repetitive chorus line “Every little thing she does is magic” as well as in the superb instrumentation, especially its opening tune. This piece of music in itself is magic.

Let’s face it, man… women are so good in this life that without them, our world would stop, including the Church. For me, that “battle of sexes” had long been won by women because they are better than us in many accounts. That is why God gave them to us as our part-ners in life. Women, especially mothers and wives, have that attention to details we could not see (ask any husband how his wife could still see even even nothing can be seen?). Most of all, they have that flair and elan so built in within them that everything they do is magic – effortless, easy, so natural and personal.

Jesus is not asking us to do something so great or monumental in life. He simply wants us to be faithful and consistent with our calling as his disciples, as Christians who lovingly serve God through one another. Something that women, especially wives and mothers, could teach us a lot with in this life. Here’s the Police to all the great women out there with their loving and faithful men.

From Youtube.com.

Mater Dolorosa & Alanis Morisette

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 15 September 2023
“Mater Dolorosa” also known as “Blue Madonna” (1616) by Carlo Dolci. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

I started praying about this blog last month after the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It just occurred to me on that day to greet some of my “girlfriends” – yes, God has blessed me with so many of them who are mostly women and ladies who have taught me and shared with me so many lessons and thoughts about life only women can see.

One of them is my former colleague at GMA-7 News, Kelly, widowed for six years since the passing of her husband Larry whom I have visited and anointed many times during his long battle with cancer. When I asked her how she has been doing since our last meeting before the pandemic, she was her usual self – candid yet a bit sardonic in her reply, “I’m good. I have health issues but I’m handling them, living a simple but contented life… alam mo naman ako, I’m so Alannis Morissette.”

I thought she was again speaking “gay” as in chorva when she described herself as Alannis Morisette. And before I could ask her the meaning of “Alanis Morissette”, she turned out to be speaking English – referring to the singer Alanis Morissette as she sent me lyrics of her 1995 song Hand in My Pocket. Immediately I checked it on Youtube and found it perfect too for today’s celebration of the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows or Mater Dolorosa as it speaks of every woman’s sacrifice and sufferings in this world that is sadly still dominated by male chauvinists.

Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows reminds us of every woman’s fidelity to God through her husband and children, family and loved ones as well as vocation. Her remaining at the foot of the Cross was her lowest and painful point in life to be with her crucified Son, Jesus Christ. She was so absorbed with his pain and sufferings that at Easter, she was in turn absorbed by the glory of our Risen Lord which culminated at her Assumption into heaven.

How was Mary able to keep her composure? Oneness in Christ her Son from whom all good things come even in the most trying times. When I look at her face as portrayed in the arts, it is not pity that I feel but her dignity, nobility and simplicity. Notice her praying hands, totally surrendering herself to God which began at the Annunciation when she told the angel, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk.1:38). There at the foot of the Cross of Jesus, her hands remained in praying position, entrusting everything to God, filled with faith, hope and love.

Alanis Morissette express almost the same faith, hope and love in the modern sense today with her 1995 Hand in My Pocket. A Canadian-American, Morissette grew up in a devout Roman Catholic family. Although she is now a practicing Buddhist, Morissette claimed repeatedly in some interviews that she owes her singing career to her Catholic faith. Her personal life is marked with so many pains and sufferings too, going through depressions and eating disorders as well as having been raped while 15 years old. It was from these experiences that she got all her inspirations in her many songs that strike chords in the hearts of many modern people, not just women, who strive to find meaning by hoping to brighter tomorrows amid the many hardships modern life has brought us.

I’m broke, but I’m happy
I’m poor, but I’m kind
I’m short, but I’m healthy, yeah
I’m high, but I’m grounded
I’m sane, but I’m overwhelmed
I’m lost, but I’m hopeful, baby
And what it all comes down to
Is that everything’s gonna be fine, fine, fine
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is giving a high five

We just have to remember our own mothers to realize and appreciate how our Lady of Sorrows and Alanis Morissette were able to bear all of life’s sufferings. It is in their hands. The praying hands. The hand in the pocket holding on to the present realities and the other hand up in the air hoping everything will be fine.

How ironic – pun intended as it is the title too of my favorite Morissette song – that despite all the great love women have offered and given us through our own mothers and sisters, aunts and grandmothers, teachers and nurses, not to forget the multitude of women who make our economy grow by laboring here and abroad plus the nuns who pray and run so many orphanages, women are still neglected and forgotten, even unloved, maltreated, and abused. Sadly, their fellow women are the ones who inflict those pains in this cruel and ungrateful world.

Starting today, be kind to women, especially those closest to you, those who have remained loving and kind despite your excesses and other idiosyncrasies.

Here is Ms. Alanis Morissette. Her music video is very interesting too, showing the many contrasts every disciple of Christ like Mary our Lady of Sorrows goes through in this life. Set in black and white, it evokes rawness yet at the same time brings out that eternal spring of hope within each one of us. Have a blessed rest day ahead!

From YouTube.com.

Everytime You Go Away (1980) by Hall & Oates

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 15 May 2023
Photo by author, Jesuit Cemetery at the Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 21 March 2023.

Hello dear friends! After almost a year of absence, we are back with our featured music we find related with our Sunday Mass gospel yesterday when Jesus told his disciples to keep his commandment of love as he prepared them for his approaching Passion, Death, and Resurrection leading to his Ascension.

In our homily, we have reflected that loving entails suffering.

And the most painful suffering in loving is when our beloved leaves us, whether temporarily or permanently like in death (https://lordmychef.com/2023/05/14/loving-living-leaving/) or infidelity of a partner in any relationship.

The song “Everytime You Go Away” captures that pain of leaving, of being left behind by a beloved because every leaving tears him apart as she takes a piece of him.

And everytime you go away
You take a piece of me with you
And everytime you go away
You take a piece of me with you, you

Sharing with you that part of our homily yeterday:

“Leaving is the most painful part of loving because every time a beloved leaves us, he/she takes a part of us, leaving us hollowed for the rest of our lives. The pain remains, leaving a hole in us. We merely transcend and move on but that hole remains. This is where loving and living become most challenging, most beautiful as they lead us to more amazing revelations as Christ had promised: “And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him” (Jn.14:21).

When we continue to love and live despite our loved ones leaving us, we soon realize that life is actually more of a series of coming than of leaving. When children leave home to go to college, they come to new sage in their lives; when they get married and leave home, they come to form their own family too! When a beloved leaves us in death, he/she comes to eternal life.

Meanwhile, we who are left behind live on, loving amid the pains of a beloved’s leaving, risking and hoping in love. That is when new things open up for us as we slowly discover many other things that do not necessarily replace the one we love and left us but actually make them more present in their absence. That is because we sooner or later find out that we have become like the ones we love who have left us! We are slowly transformed by their physical absence because their leaving had pushed us to love more that in the process, we have become like them. Is it not that is the reason of love, that we become like the one we love, be it God or another person?”

Everytime You Go Away was composed by Daryl Hall in 1980 that was included in their studio album Voices with John Oates. It was covered by Paul Young in 1985 and became an instant hit worldwide.

We prefer the Hall & Oates original not only because we are a big fan of the dynamic duo ever since the 80’s but we find Paul Young’s version so pop and light, even cheesy. Daryl Hall’s version is still the best, so heart-felt rendition as you could feel his soul in his impressive vocals that are so powerful yet, so lovingly muy simpatico! Here is a man truly in love despite the pains and hurts by his girlfriend’s leaving and infidelity. Worth mentioning too are the great instrumentations so characteristic of every Hall & Oates music that are mostly considered now as classics.

Hear now and listen to Hall & Oates’ Everytime You Go Away… fall in love again despite the loss.

We have no intentions of infringing into the copyrights of this music and its uploader except to share its beauty and listening pleasure.

Jopay

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-29 ng Disyembre 2022
*Isang tula bunsod ng nakatutuwa na awitin ng Mayonnaise.
Sino ka nga ba, Jopay?
Ako ay nakikisabay,
nakikibagay sa sayaw at ingay
pero pramis,
ang sarap sumakay 
sa awit sa iyo ay alay!
Jopay, 
gusto ko rin umuwi sa bahay
simpleng buhay 
hawak lang pamaypay
sabay kaway kaway
maski kaaway!
Kung sino ka man, Jopay,
totoo sabi nila sa iyo:
minsan masarap umalis
sa tunay na mundo,
walang gulo -
pero wala ding tao!
Kaya kung ako sa iyo,
Jopay, kakanta na lang ako
sabay sayaw:
spaghetti pababa
spaghetti pataas
ganyan ang buhay, Jopay,
isang magandang sayaw
lalo na kung iyong kasabay
mahal sa buhay 
mga kaibigan
hindi ka iiwan
maski kelan.
Mayroon tayong
isang kasabay
 sa sayaw ng buhay, Jopay:
tunay ka kaibigan
huwag lang siya ang mawawala
tiyak ika'y matutuwa
sa hapis at lungkot
hirap at dusa
hindi mo alintana
mga ito'y nalampasan mo na
siya palagi mong kasama
hanggang sa bahay ng Ama!
Pasensiya ka na, Jopay
ako ma'y walang kasama
at kausap dito sa bahay
sa mundong magulo;
naisip ko lang tumula para sa iyo
at sa mga kagaya mo
palaging masaya sa paningin
pero maraming kinikimkim
saloobin at pasanin
kaya isang taus-pusong panalangin
aking alay sa inyo,
para lumigaya kayo!

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