Why I'm scared of music

This is the beginning of spooky week — in preparation for Halloween. I am therefore compelled to write about something scary.

And so for today, I choose to write a topic that scares me — music. There is no music in my heart and am ignorant about songs of whatever kind.

This paper’s official music reviewer Baby Gil therefore need not get scared that I am intruding just this once into her territory. I swear — even when the time comes she has to retire (followers of her Sounds Familiar column, however, would want her to stay forever because of her credibility as a music critic) I will not be among those jostling for the position. Not even if our editor Ricky Lo poked a gun at me to take over.

Music is way out of my alley. Surely, I have favorite songs — though very few. And I am the type who gets obsessed with a tune that I don’t mind listening to over and over and over again.

For my birthday 12 years ago, my friends asked me what present I wanted from them. The theme song from the Thomas Crown Affair, Windmills of Your Mind, is my perpetual favorite.

And so I asked them to tape for me — in cassette form — all the versions of Windmills of Your Mind by all artists, both local and foreign.

That proved to be a tedious research for them and I showed my disappointment later when they were unable to find a Windmills of Your Mind version by Atang de la Rama. I just consoled myself with the fact that maybe the late National Artist never recorded one.

Oh, by the way, to Nora Aunor: I am still waiting for the recorded version you did of Windmills of Your Mind that you made in 1989. I haven’t forgotten your promise.

But now, I have a new favorite. I first heard it during a lunar phenomenon that occurred this year — sometime June.

I get this pleasure looking at the moon at its brightest or during a lunar eclipse — and this obviously explains why I am lunatic. I live on the 36th floor — the topmost on my side of the building. I get a spectacular view whether it’s north or south or east or west. The moon can never hide from me except from behind the clouds.

When it was announced that we were going to experience a rare lunar display in the skies, I rolled up the shades starting at 1 a.m. and to complete my moon watching, I turned on the radio.

And then — wham! — they played this song that began to haunt me from that time on. It was a Tagalog song that undeniably had a melody that sounded haunting and eerie. The feeling gave me goose bumps — like some vampire would wave at me any minute from the other side of the floor to ceiling glass window. Or a manananggal flapping her wings from the outside.

But I love scaring myself. That was the perfect setting. I still relish that moment in my head. It was eerily serene. I never felt so relaxed and calm.

Unfortunately, there was no disc jockey on board that time to identify the title of the song for me. I spent night after night waiting for the song to be played again.

It took a whole month for me to hear that song once more. I chanced upon it by accident. I was going to take a shower and I wanted to entertain myself while scrubbing my back. There was that song again. But alas, still no DJ. I kept googling one of the lines that I remember of its lyrics without success.

For some reason, there was something in my head that told me that it could have come from a horror series. Regal Shockers? No, that was so 20 years ago!

I don’t recall GMA 7 airing a drama-horror program in recent months and years, except for Spooky Nights. No, they don’t use that tune there.

    I tried Channel 2 and remembered Lobo, the ill-fated horror series of Piolo Pascual and Angel Locsin. And that was quite a long time ago. No result in the Internet. All I saw were KC Concepcion’s latest love problems with Piolo.

And then I googled another line from the song — “kahit walang sabihin …” There it came out! So it was the theme from Imortal, a more successful horror series. More recent, too. The song’s title is Kahit Walang Sabihin.

It was composed and sung by Rico Blanco. I was never really a Rico Blanco fan. I gave him good reviews though as an actor in the indie comedy Nasaan Ka, Francis?

And now it is my favorite song after Windmills of Your Mind. I had that immediately uploaded in my iPod. I listen to it repeatedly and appreciate Rico Blanco’s rendition of it, especially the part that goes “bawa’t patak ng dugo …” He sings it like blood is still trickling down from his mouth after a good bite on his victim’s neck.

When I tried singing it in the same manner, I sounded like I was choking on my phlegm. I will leave the singing to him. I will only listen and you bet I will be playing that song on Halloween night.

You think I’m odd? All my friends think so, too. I am the only one who likes that song — probably the only one who knows it. That comes as no surprise since I’m the only one among them who is familiar with Rangoon Moon by Double and is crazy about it.

When I made them listen to Kahit Walang Sabihin, they found it strange. A few liked it, but were not obsessed with it the way I am. The fact that I had to bribe someone to put it in my iPod — because I wouldn’t know how — only indicates that I am insane about the song, its creepy melody and lyrics.

Then one day two weeks ago, my 52-year-old yaya went missing. I tried to reach her on her cell phone and I nearly fell off the window when I heard that her ring tone was Kahit Walang Sabihin. 

When I called up somebody who helps around the kitchen when I host dinner at home, that was also her ring tone. No, the two women don’t like each other and hardly talk. But the three of us undeniably adore Kahit Walang Sabihin.

What is in that song that possesses everyone who stays in our house?

Scary.