Totoy Bato (real name: Rodolfo Laxamana) is Pampanga’s foremost minstrel man, an itinerant singer of bawdy Kapampangan ballads, folk songs and English pop hits reworked with Kapampangan lyrics. A legendary name in the local music scene, Totoy Bato, accompanied only by his guitar, sings just about everything: from his favorite Kapampangan places, about love gone wrong, the loneliness of a Saudi worker to the wayward lives of OFW’s. When he belts a song in a familiar style that harkens back to the “polosas” of yore, Totoy doesn’t just sing the lyrics but also speaks the truth, often sugarcoating it with his seeming flippance and frivolity. That’s what makes his music so appealing, a spoonful of humor does make the medicine go down.
Now a gang of young Kapampangan rockers have taken his songs (including adapted traditional tunes) and given them a contemporary rock beat, in a new CD co-produced by the Holy Angel University Center for Kapampangan Studies and Kalalangan Kamaru (19 year old Jason Paul Laxamana, also the CD project director).
I confess, I am not exactly a rock fan—Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody are the only valid rock songs that I can listen to in their entirety. But when I played the RockKapampangan CD, I found myself listening to the entire 16 tracks not once, but twice. I still find some of the songs too loud for comfort, but the arrangements are interestingly fresh and engaging.
“Sibul ning Arayat” has been given an upbeat reggae makeover (band: 5 Against The Wall), so refreshingly light and lilting. “Istorya nang Raffy Balboa” by Chilimansi, stuck close to the original treatment, but this version has more drama to the narrative. Tibuan’s cover of “Sintang Pangarap” likewise puts a funky spin to this already irreverent song of courtship.
Mental Floss’s “Ing Lugud Ning Indu” has been energized with an effective opening electric guitar riff that leads to a stirring Sampaguita-esque rendition (sorry for my point of reference, my age is showing) of this paean to mothers, as if to tell us that this is how a tribute should be sung—loud and proud.
The last track, “Atin Ku Pung Singsing” I thought was almost untouched, perhaps out of respect for tradition. Jason has appended additional lyrics that talk about the lost ring now found : “Ikit kune ing singsing, mitambunan abu/ Ngenin’g ikit kune sinup kuneng tutu/Bang e ne mabating me ku man marayu/Salesen keng sulud kening taliri ku” (I have found the ring, buried under the ash..now that I have regained it, I will now keep it well. So that it will not be lost again even if I travel far, I will wear it properly on my finger..”.)
Totoy Bato need not worry about the future of Kapampangan music—the youth lies in wait to wear his mantle—and inherit the earth. As Robby Tantingco, CKS Director puts it: “If we want culture to survive, it will be on their terms, not ours. And if this is how our cherished songs will end up, so be it. Rock rules!”
(Other tracks: Dayang Kapampangan (fourth clan)/Atsing Rosing (dialago)/Ing Lugud ning Indu (mental floss)/ Katatagan king Pamikalaban (neophytes)/Kasmasaman (t.h.e.m.)/Dalumdum ding Bengi (cyclo)/ Aldo ning Kekaming Kasal (amygdala)/ Aliwa Kang Talaga (mernuts)/ Indung Balayan (silence)/ Saug a Malati (pulse rhythm)/ 40 Aldo (fine time)
(25 February 2008)
Meron po ba tayo written biography ni Sir Totoy Bato?
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