crossline

21 Songs
Aledel Gonzalez-Cuizon

We fix it so our loveis high fidelityMix it so we never lose the melodyWe try to equalize ourlives in stereo
-- America (“Stereo,” Perspective, 1984)

GERRY BECKLEY AND Dewey Bunnell (okay, you too, Dan Peek) are on top of my compact disc (CD) collection heirarchy. The first CD I bought was theirs: History: America’s Greatest Hits. They released it in 1975 but I purchased it only 20 years later when I was in college and I had Christmas money.

I appreciated their music when I started to learn to play the guitar. I bet anyone who wanted to learn guitar knew how to strum “Horse With No Name” as well as an aspiring pianist could play “Do-Re-Mi.”

I went on to faster tunes such as “Tin Man,” “You Can Do Magic,” “Sister Golden Hair” and “Ventura Highway.” The chords were easy and the lyrics, easier to remember. It’s no wonder then that their songs were the staple during brownouts and the drinking sessions at the eskina (corner). There was no need to memorize fancy chord plays or words that were hard to pronounce.

It’s been months since the America concert at the Waterfront Hotel but the band’s songs still play in my PC and in my head. My husband, Allan, the uber fan of the band, couldn’t help but laugh. He’s already influenced me with his love for technology; he can’t believe his love for America (the band, not the country or actress) also rubbed off on me.

But I can never match Allan’s love for the band. He knows much about them and their songs, including those that weren’t popular. Who else has a tape of the band’s interview over a Cebu FM station when they were here in 1992?

All I do is help my husband with his collection of America CDs. Nine Christmases ago, I gave him two albums of their greatest hits (History and You Can Do Magic). I also gave him three CDs of albums that are hard to find in music stores these days. Last Christmas, I would have given my husband the latest one, Here and Now, except the stores ran out of the stuff just when I had the money to buy them. I had to ask a friend in the US to buy the CD and bring it with her when she returned last Christmas.

It really wasn’t a surprise to see CD jackets in Allan’s bag that Saturday.

“We’ll never know if there’d be an autograph session,” he said.

He feared, though, that he might appear like a bumbling idiot if he would be able to talk to them. I assured him that he won’t.

So there I was with Allan and hundreds of fans lining up at the hotel to see the band perform in Cebu for the first time since 1992. (Other articles said it was the first time for the band to come to the country in 26 years. Actually, Gerry and Dewey were in Manila in 2005. Their concert then coincided with the Valentine’s Day bombing in Makati.)

The people in the crowd were of mixed ages. I saw girls in their 20s who went gaga when Gerry played “All My Life,” solo on the piano. I bet their knowledge of the song (released in the 1979 album, Silent Letter) comes from the numerous times this song has been played in weddings or revived by local bands.

There were those in their 30s (ehem) who tapped their feet to the music and sang along with the band. Allan wrote down the entire playlist on our tickets. He did this while the concert was going on so he was actually writing in the dark. It’s exactly what he did in the 1992 concert at the Cebu Coliseum.

Thanks to the millions of times that he watched DVDs of their concerts, Allan knew that Gerry would say, “You can do it!” after singing “You Can Do Magic.”

And then there were those in their 40s and beyond who probably felt like they were in one huge drinking session at the eskina, only that that the real band was playing.

“Funny, I’ve been there/And you’ve been here/ We ain’t have the time to drink that beer,” belted the guy seated behind us.

It was clear that the guy loved the band’s songs because he took the chance to display his videoke prowess.

“You just send me the beeellls/ Inspectowr Meeells/ Inspectowrrr!”

Gerry sang “All My Life” solo so when he sang “There was a time…,” the guy behind us felt obliged to be backup singer and crooned “Aaaaaah….”

The band was strictly business from the moment they struck the first chord in “Riverside” until the end of “Horse With No Name.” They talked a bit but they made sure to churn out hit after hit to the audience’s delight.

Indeed, theirs is music that spans generations and even income classes.

America didn’t play other hits like “Right Before Your Eyes,” “Stereo” or “Sometimes Lovers” but 21 songs in nearly two hours is not bad at all. Considering the World Tour they’re having, these guys still have so many fans to visit and memory lanes to open.

But in case Gerry or Dewey wants to know, America’s biggest fan was there last Saturday to take their picture, shake their hands and show Dewey a ticket of their 1992 concert in Cebu. 

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