It seldom happens that my desire to fetch myself a glass of water leads to a post but Saturday it happened. I really thought it was a video of Separate Ways coming from the maids TV when I passed by . Then I saw Arnel's face so he does sound like Steve Perry. Journey's Separate Ways was a song I have loved since it's release. I was in Grade 10 and remember it clearly. It got new legs with me recently in that a blogger I enjoy links to it constantly . Blog is called Club Trillion .
Before I get really going boys and girls . Our word of the day is Intrinsic
* belonging to a thing by its very nature; "form was treated as something intrinsic, as the very essence of the thing"- John Dewey
* situated within or belonging solely to the organ or body part on which it acts; "intrinsic muscles"
I will forever comment on the phenomena where something gets wings or gets noticed /pansin just because of "perceived pinoyness". Automatically something is better or even worth noticing now because of added pinoyness. Somebody who is much more articulate and intellectual noticed the same thing. Read it here.
Journey has been around since the mid 70's. I first noticed them when Lovin Touchin Squeezin hit the airwaves. Escape along with Foreigner 4 might as well be soundtrack of 1981. Kids, those are entire albums and not single songs. Journey was actually a splinter band from Santana.
But to the subject at hand. What do I have against Arnel Pineda? Nothing really. What I am going to call out today is all the Pinoys jumping on the Journey bandwagon just because "one of them is one of us".
These are my simple views on how proud you should be of your country of origin as I stated them in the original "He's One of Us":
* What is good is good , regardless of age, gender or country of origin
* Be a good citizen of the world and being good to your country will automatically follow.
* We share the same biology regardless of ideology (thanks Sting)
* Instead of being proud of a guy in shorts who pounds Mexican brain cells into submission, be proud of a community that votes politicians who are selfless, intelligent and altruistic.
* All men are brothers until the day they die, its a wonderful world. (The most neglected line of a very misunderstood song, Short People by Randy Newman).
I believe that by following those guidelines. I am less prejudice on the aspect of country and more attentive to the intrinsic value of things. One major league baseball team can have 15 "Americans" 4 Dominican Republicans, 2 Japanese , 2 Columbians, a Canadian and a Korean. What does it matter? As long as they win???
Anyway so now the typical pinoy likes Journey because of Pinoy content.
Here is the irony. Arnel was recruited by Neil Schon not because of his song writing abilities or his creativity or his originality. He is now the lead singer of Journey because he sounds exactly like the old singer of Journey. You see what I am getting at? This guy is no more talented than the top 5% of Elvis Impersonators.
Arnel is where he is at because he is living out the concept of "gaya gaya". Journey themselves with Steve Perry have not produced many hits after the mid eighties. So as a marketing technique ( or what Dire Straits called Money for Nothing). They are rerecording their old songs with Arnel. Who sounds like the first thing anyway. If Arnel helped write something that would make me listen to album then I will be impressed. As I would with any musician. If Arnel helped write something that would break Journey's radio drought then I would be impressed.
Take the case of Van Halen. For whatever the reason, David Lee Roth left the band. They did not search You Tube for a DLR clone. Ok there was no Youtube in 1985 but you get my point. They got someone who added to their vision of what the band should be. They were credible with Sammy Hagar. They were relevant with albums that were were post DLR. Maybe not with me but others supported VH even more.
Very few pinoys under 30 cared about Journey before Arnel. But now that "one of them is one of us" , that is all they need to care ?? Extrapolating from that , I came up with my own formula based on this phenomena.
Take:
a) hypothetical disabled/ retired / deceased singer from popular band in 80s that younger pinoys don't care about.
b) pinoy sound-alike
c) band from a)
Apply the formula and ask if pinoys will care now that "one of them is one of us".
If Vince Neil were to go back into race car driving would most pinoys care if Motley Crue had a pinoy sound-alike?
If Simon Lebon were to go into modelling full time would most pinoys care if Duran Duran had a pinoy sound-alike?
If Brian Johnson were to quit to hunt full time would most pinoys care if AC/DC had a pinoy sound-alike?
If Klaus Meine were to quit to party full time with his peepel would most pinoys care if the Scorpions had a pinoy sound-alike?
Kevin Dubrow is now singing with the choir invisible. Would most pinoys care if Quiet Riot had a pinoy sound-alike?
The answer to all 5 questions is yes, yes , yes and yes . Just apply the one of them is one of us rule. Our country men do it all the time anyway. By focusing too much on nationality we lose sight of the qualities an individual brings to the table. That can be defined as PREJUDICE.
All I am saying is if you want to be proud of something , be proud of the right thing for the right reason. If you like something. Why was Journey not worthy of attention when they were pinoyless? Like it for it's intrinsic value an not because One of them is one of us.
Ed
Videos included:
1) Original Separate Ways Video
2) The funniest remake ever of any video (Separate Ways)
If not seen on this post can be seen by going to
http://cornholiogogs.multiply.com/
and clicking one of these tags
Tags: Nationalism, Journey , Arnel Pineda, Intrinsic,
related posts:
http://cornholiogogs.multiply.com/journal/item/518/Hes_One_of_Us_Thats_Why
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