‘Salvation is free’

Netnet Camomot

“IN your head, in your head, they are fighting/With their tanks, and their bombs/And their bombs, and their guns/In your head, in your head they are crying/In your head, in your head/Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie/What’s in your head, in your head/Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie, oh.”

Last song syndrome. Sigh.

And once an artist dies, her songs that are yet to be released also die with her. They can always be recorded by another band or singer, but the voice that’s uniquely her own won’t be there anymore.

Cranberries’ lead singer Dolores O’Riordan died on Jan. 15. The next day, we were watching “Perfect Pitch 3,” and “Zombie” was one of the songs featured in its riff-off scenes.

My taste in songs has been largely influenced by my younger bros’. While Dad listened to jazz, Ray Conniff, and Air Supply, my bros preferred U2, Pearl Jam, The Police, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, R.E.M., and other bands like the Cranberries.

In case you haven’t noticed, three of those bands above have already lost their lead singers: Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Stone Temple Pilots’ Scott Weiland, and O’Riordan.

Journey is not one of my bros’ favorite bands, but I have to mention them here because they’re the lucky ones. The band asked Steve Perry to leave them since they couldn’t wait while he remained undecided on whether to have a hip replacement surgery or not. Years later, they discovered Arnel Pineda through YouTube and finally found someone who could impersonate Perry’s voice.

Bands may decide to disband, with their lead singers moving forward as solo artists. How about the other band members? Well, they can form other bands, like Nirvana’s drummer Dave Grohl who founded the Foo Fighters.

I don’t know if we can compare bands with friendships. After all, bands can only be trabaho lang, walang personalan. But friendships can also be tested when a so-called friend starts to gossip about the others. A group of friends may then choose to move forward without that gossiping member who will of course be able to move forward, too, by pretending to be sugar and spice and everything nice with those she hasn’t victimized yet.

There’s this meme that says, “Who gossips to you, will gossip of you.” Remember that each time someone starts a story with, Ang atong amiga ba… Or, Oi, kabalo ka…

Your only response should be, Paghilum diha!

Shut the f*** up.

Lead singers are dying, bands are disbanding, and all you care about is to gossip about your friend. What kind of a friend are you then? Oh, you’re not a friend. You can’t even be relied on as the friend in phone-a-friend for “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

O’Riordan wrote “Zombie” for Tim Parry, 12, and Jonathan Ball, 3, who were killed in an IRA bombing in Warrington, England in 1993.

The IRA was the Provisional Irish Republican Army that fought for the independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom.

As you can see, conflicts, whether in friendships or among countries and states, can be easily solved if only all parties strive for peace. Gossip doesn’t inspire peace. Bombings don’t inspire peace.

To fight for independence, however, may result to peace if it’s thought to be the best solution to a problem.

So, you say goodbye and don’t look back. No comebacks, please, because you’re not Sharon Cuneta.

Wait, did Ate Shawie ever leave? She has always been there.

It’s Aga Muhlach who makes a comeback and one of the things people notice is his weight. Oh, my.

That is so Pinoy. You meet a friend or acquaintance after months or years not seeing each other, and the only thing you can say is, Gitambok lagi ka. It’s time to memorize a politically correct line for such awkward moments. How about, Blooming lagi ka. And please resist the urge to gossip about what you saw: Dako kaayo iyang tiyan, iyang nawong murag siopao.

Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro politicians should not gain weight to make it easier for them to hop from one political party to another. Hopping to where? Well, to PDP-Laban, the administration party.

When you’re in El Nido, Palawan, the advice is to go island-hopping. In politics, it’s political party-hopping, kind of, If you can’t beat them, join them. More particularly, in preparation for the 2019 election.

I guess it’s safe to conclude that these politicians agree with President Rody Duterte’s War on Drugs.

There’s this song by the Cranberries that goes this way: “To all those people doing lines/Don’t do it, don’t do it/Inject your soul with liberty/It’s free, it’s free/To all the kids with heroin eyes/Don’t do it, don’t do it/Because it’s not, not what it seems/No, no it’s not, not what it seems/Salvation, salvation, salvation is free/Salvation, salvation, salvation is free.”

CDO politicians won’t be able to relate with the song’s first lines, but I gotta feeling they can relate with the last one: “Salvation is free.”