My ’60s songbook

If you’re over 40 – over 50 would be even better – you could do worse than spend your Tuesday evenings taking a table at Dish at the Rockwell Power Plant for a mega-dose of ‘60s music served up by a live band. At the instance of writer and hotelier Erlinda Panlilio, a group of friends and I paid a visit to Dish last week, and we had a blast, as did a couple of hundred other people, many of whom were up on their feet doing the boogaloo, the jerk, the twist, the shing-a-ling, and the soul before the night was over. And you can’t go wrong going to a gig with the likes of Jose Mari Chan and Mitch Valdez in the audience (Chan graciously obliged the crowd by warbling Constantly and If I Fell.)

We’d never been to Dish (run by partners EJ Litton, Rikki Dee and Philip Cu Unjieng, a fellow Philippine STAR writer) before, and were pleasantly surprised to discover that, even before the music, the place served good food at very reasonable prices. (Minimalist me went for the yummy roast duck with rice, P190.) Best to line up (yes, there’s a queue, so be sure to make prior reservations at 898-18-24) and grab dinner at around 7:30 p.m.; the show – which is, wonder of wonders, free – starts at 9:15 p.m. Retro Tuesdays usually feature a band called the Spirit of ’67, but another group, the Rocking Revival, was on last week, and it acquitted itself admirably with its repertoire of ‘60s top tunes.

I’ve always been amazed by the power of ‘60s music to make us baby boomers instantly feel better about ourselves and the world at large, no matter the aches and aggravations of middle age. I suppose it’s all about a return to what we like to imagine was our age of innocence (which, ironically, we were then trying to lose as quickly as possible).

It helps, of course, that we actually survived the ‘60s and the even more tumultuous decades that followed. Nostalgia is truly the privilege of those whose lives have improved with age, for some of whom even a wretched past can begin to acquire an affectionate sheen over time, given the distance once has traveled since.

I myself have very happy memories of the ‘60s, which was when I more or less grew up – yes, sometimes that happens in high school – and when I first learned about essentials like the opposite sex, parties, politics, physics, and what to do (well, at least in theory) with the opposite sex.

I was also something of a fashion plate in high school, as far as what my kid Demi would later call kadiri fashions went: I was among the first, if not the very first, to wear bell-bottom pants to a weekend school party (and we never ran out of excuses to have one: an acquaintance party or an induction ball was always handy). They were no ordinary bell-bottoms, either: they had to be plaid (red and green checks, natch) and a little bitin, to allow my zippered boots to show, specially tailored by La Jolla Clothiers of Barrio Malinao in Pasig. And, to look even cooler, I topped the pants with a turtleneck sweater – white with horizontal apple-green stripes. I think that the total effect would’ve worked a little better if I wasn’t stuck with a regulation PMT crew cut, but, hey, you go with what you have.

I had other outfits made for other parties and other occasions: a hippie vest my mother stitched out of curtain, feedbag, and tablecloth retazos; salmon-pink and pastel-purple shirts with bulbous sleeves and pointy collars reaching down to here; and, following a Monkees episode, a gold shirt with a double row of buttons running down the front. Austin Powers would’ve been mighty impressed – but I have a feeling that my family if no one else would shoot me dead if they caught me wearing these things today, whether privately or out in the open street.

All these came swirling back to my mind last Tuesday as the band struck up Manfred Mann’s Doo Wah Diddy and as fat and balding 50-year-olds all around the room turned 15 again and discovered a sudden springiness in their step and a lilt in their smoke- and whisky-ravaged voices.

As one ‘60s standard followed another, I found myself making a list of my quintessential ‘60s songbook selections, which I’ve been refining over the past few days and am now prepared to present to you, as a doctoral candidate would his dissertation.

Ladies and gentlemen of the ‘60s, it is my well-considered contention that any and all of the following musical compositions best represent, to us Pinoys, the decade of the Amboy, of Woodstock, the Vietnam War, and Flower Power, of Gloria Diaz and Apollo 11, of Divina Valencia, Stella Suarez, and The Sensations. I chose these tunes not for any intrinsic musical merit (Yesterday was arguably the Beatles’ best, for example, but it exuded a melancholy we had yet to earn), but for their uncanny ability to be recognized in three or four notes, to be sung along to by everyone, and to get you nodding, swooning, and dancing (even the slow ones – remember the infamous cop-a-feel sweet?) And so herewith – drum roll, please – my ‘60s shortlist:

1. Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones

2. My Girl by The Temptations

3. Build Me Up, Buttercup by The Foundations

4. Light My Fire by The Doors

5. Going Out of My Head/Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by The Lettermen

6. Bus Stop by The Hollies

7. Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harum

8. Cherish by The Association

9. Ticket to Ride by The Beatles

10. To Love Somebody by the Bee Gees

Now, fellow oldies, before you flood me with a ton of outraged missives arguing for the relative virtues of California Dreaming by The Mamas and the Papas or of Woolly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, let me say that I came up with my shortlist after anguished deliberation, and that you can always do your own. Better yet, burn a CD (and send me a copy, har, har). I know there’s a pile of ready-made ‘60s CDs out there in Greenhills to choose from, but there’s nothing like being your own DJ and remaking your own musical memories. (Are you there, Peewee Leynes?) Here’s the rest of the best, in no particular order, according to PenBoy:

Mr. Dyingly Sad by The Critters; Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel; Because by the Dave Clark Five; Black Is Black by Los Bravos; Downtown by Petula Clark; Both Sides Now by Judy Collins; Constantly by Cliff Richard; I Go to Pieces by Peter and Gordon; Distant Shores by Chad and Jeremy; MacArthur Park by Richard Harris; Up, Up and Away by the Fifth Dimension; Do the Twist by Chubby Checker; Stop in the Name of Love by The Supremes; Mony Mony by Tommy James and the Shondells; You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling by the Righteous Brothers; Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys; This Diamond Ring by Gary Lewis and The Playboys; You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice by The Lovin’ Spoonful; Walk Away, Renee by The Four Tops; Hang On, Sloopy by The McCoys; House of the Rising Sun by Eric Burdon and The Animals; She’s Not There by The Zombies; I Wanna Be Free by the Monkees; I Need You by The Kinks; More Love by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles; Do You Know the Way to San Jose by Dionne Warwick; Sock It to Me, Baby by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels; Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter by Herman’s Hermits; Don’t You Care by The Buckinghams; A Taste of Honey by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass; and The Thought of Loving You by The Spiral Staircase.

Did I miss anything? I’m sure – loads of good if not better music (but you couldn’t dance to Dave Brubeck, could you?). Where’s Elvis? (Ask Jimmy Abad, who came looking for a ‘50s barn dance – wrong decade, sorry!) Remind me – nicely – and I might post your preferences.

And by the way, you can catch the Spirit of ’67 in a concert to be held Feb. 1 at Chocolate Kiss, Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman. See you there!

* * *

Send e-mail to Butch Dalisay at penmanila@yahoo.com.