Song for You

You always ask me why I love you.... this song says it all....

This song was featured in Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston's movie Rockstar

the show is over - close the storybook
will be no encore
and all the random hands that i have shook
well, they're reaching for the door
i watch the backs as they leave single-file
you stood stubborn, cheering all the while

i know i can be colorful
i know i can be grey
i know this loser's living fortunate
cause i know you will love me either way

most were being good for goodness sake
but you wouldn't pantomime
you are more beautiful when you awake
than most are in a lifetime
through the haze that is my memory
you stayed for drama though you paid for a comedy

i know i can be colorful
i know i can be grey
and i know this loser's living fortunate
and i know you will love me either way

look ahead as far as you can see
we live in drama but we die in a comedy

i know i can be colorful (when you live in black and white)
i know i can be grey (my colors fade away)
i know this loser's living fortunate
cause i know you will love me either way 

Tragic Love Songs

Below are tragic love songs (not necessarily romantic) that tug at the heart and inspire.  Hope you like it too:

               Buloy - Parokya ni Edgar

 This song propelled Parokya to stardom during the time when Yano, Eraserheads, Rivermaya and Teeth dominated the alternative rock mainstream.  The Eraserheads and Rivermaya eventually became enshrined as rock icons of Philippine music while Teeth and Yano disappeared into oblivion.  More than 15 years into the business, Parokya ni Edgar remains strong and much loved by music enthusiasts as their music transcends age, gender and social class.

             Better Days- Dianne Reeves

A grandmother advises her grandchild that everything will only get better if you persevere despite the hardship that life has to offer.

              Ang Huling El Bimbo- Eraserheads

Perhaps one of the most iconic songs by the Eraserheads.  A tragic love song about a childhood love that was lost.

                    Tonight - FM Static

This song was allegedly written for the composer's girlfriend who died in the 9/11 terror attacks.  Makes the message of the song pierce the heart more.

                     Honey - Bobby Goldsboro

The song is looped.  Bobby's soulful melancholic voice and the choral background add drama to this tragic song.  Kumusta ang hair niya d? Lolz

                   Last Kiss - Pearl Jam

This song is based (I'm not sure though) on Eddie Vedder's girlfriend who died in a car crash just like what the lyrics say.

                  Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton

This song was written after Clapton's 2 year old kid fell from a window and died.

                 One Sweet Day-  Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men

Still one of the best duets and most commonly sang duets during videoke sessions.

          Dance With My Father - Luther Van Dross

Perhaps one of the most inspiring songs written.  A last song for a departed dad.

I hope you enjoyed the videos I posted here.  Feel free to post comments or suggest more tragic songs. :-)      

Goodbye Amy

And so pass one of the greatest voices to ever have graced the airwaves in recent memory, Amy Winehouse.

It probably was an OD, a tragedy waiting to happen for someone so dependent, so addicted to her cocktails of poison.  She infused herself with drugs and alcohol as easily as she can breathe out a soulful tune so effortlessly.  It is so sad to lose someone of so much talent by being a drug addict.  Russell Brand said this about Amy and other addicts out there:  "All addicts, regardless of the substance or their social status share a consistent and obvious symptom; they're not quite present when you talk to them. They communicate to you through a barely discernible but un-ignorable veil. Whether a homeless smack head troubling you for 50p for a cup of tea or a coked-up, pinstriped exec foaming off about his ‘speedboat' there is a toxic aura that prevents connection. They have about them the air of elsewhere, that they're looking through you to somewhere else they'd rather be. And of course they are. The priority of any addict is to anesthetize the pain of living to ease the passage of the day with some purchased relief."

I, too, have lost a childhood friend due to drug addiction.  We were in second year college when he ODed.  We were able to visit him in the ICU at St Paul while he was comatose.  Several classmates told us that when they visited John Mark, they were crying feeling sorry for him wanting him to come back to us.  They said a tear fell from the corner of his closed eyes.  The following morning, we heard they news, he's gone.

 Amy Winehouse is a testament to what Bill Gates famously quoted (which I will rephrase): I wish everyone was rich and famous, so that they will know that that it will not bring them true happiness.  Amy Winehouse was at the top of her game four, five years ago.  She won five Grammy's and was tabloid trash for her tumultuous domestic life and her utterly destructive lifestyle.  But how, when sober, can she wow audiences with her soulful and effortless contralto.  She's one of those singers who can just stand there and sing.  Just stand there and amaze you. No need to flap around like a chicken or climb up and down boxes or show off skin and abs to get attention like what Gaga, Britney or Keisha do.  Few artists can do it like Amy Winehouse (read: a sober stonefree Amy Winehouse). Just stand there and sing: Adele, Duffy, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, our very own Kuh Ledesma, among others. 

I'm one of Amy Winehouse's biggest fans and I would surely miss her.  But her addiction ultimately led to her untimely but predictable demise.  Many more artists will come and go and Amy, amazing as she is a singer/songwriter, was not able to establish herself as one of the greatest and given less than five years she will be forgotten.  Like a haunting memory, I will be one of those who will not forget.   Her music will live on like these few lines from her song Wake Up Alone:
If I was my heart
I'd rather be restless
The second I stop the sleep catches up and I'm breathless
This ache in my chest
As my day is done now
The dark covers me and I cannot run now

Her music will live on.  Her demons are gone now.  They've won, you see.  There's no running now.  It's over. The final curtain has dropped.

And so pass one of the greatest voices to ever have graced the airwaves in recent memory, Amy Winehouse. With all her talents and potential perhaps that is all she'll ever be.  A memory.