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[av_heading heading=’MY LIFE AS ART ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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Wednesday, November 29, 2017
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XXIV. MY WAY
The trouble with “My Way” is that everyone knows it, and everyone has an opinion. One can easily get killed by singing it the wrong way.
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Because Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way” has always been so popular in karaoke bars and sing-alongs, Matt once googled it, surprised to find out it was originally in French as “Commed’ Habitude,” meaning “As Usual,” a 1967 composition by Jacques Revaux and Claude Francois about the end of a love affair.
The English lyrics, unrelated to the original French, tell the story of a man who is nearing death, who is comfortable with, and takes full responsibility for, how he dealt with all the twists of his life while maintaining a respectable degree of integrity.
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Paul Anka (of the hit songs “Diana” and “It’s Time To Cry,” both Mercedes’ favorites, as Matt fondly remembered) wrote it for Frank Sinatra, whose version is still the most popular despite Elvis Presley’s, Dorothy Squires’s, Shirley Bassey’s, the Sex Pistols’ with Sid Vicious on vocals.
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In the closing years of the first decade of the new millennium, “My Way” was so popular at karaoke bars in the country that it had been declared responsible for a number of deaths — at least half a dozen have been recorded by the media — after arguments over performances degenerated into violence.
The Philippine media called the phenomenon “My Way killings.”
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Four years ago, for example, a man was shot dead for singing “My Way” out of tune, in a bar where Matt sang often.
Someone didn’t like the way the guy at the other table clapped after he tried to imitate old blue eyes Sinatra, so the singer, a drunken cop, took his revolver, shot the guy who applauded in his kind of way.
Some people say the song is cursed.
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The lyrics are unapologetically arrogant, evoking a feeling of pride in the singer, as if you’re somebody when you’re really nobody at all.
It covers up failures, that’s why it leads to fights especially among the inebriated lot.
Then, there are breaches of karaoke etiquette like hogging the microphone, laughing at someone’s singing, or choosing the song that has already been sung. In this case, the ever popular “My Way.”
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Perhaps because the song often strikes a deadly chord, many karaoke bars have removed it from their playbooks as a way of self-censorship out of perceived self-preservation.
But Isla Pulang Pasayan now, as ever, felt cut off from the rest of the country.
Instead of being affected or concerned about the cursed song, the revelers cheered the singer on the stage.
*
The cadaverous man was so drunk he forgot the lyrics in the middle of the song. He sang with a slur,
And now, the end is near,
And so I face the final curtain.
My friends, I’ll say it…
he remembered ‘clear’ wrongly, said, dear instead.
The audience laughed.
I’ll state my case of which I’m curtain.
*
Nobody noticed he said ‘curtain’ instead of ‘certain.’
He looped the song.
And now, the end is near,
The audience went wild.
And so I face the final curtain.
He sang louder,
And now, the end is near,
And so I face the final curtain.
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Then, more to himself, he said to the microphone, Oh, God, I forgot the line.
The audience rolled down the aisle laughing.
Another drunk man, in the audience, jeered at him, Go back to the beginning. You might remember it.
The audience laughed in good humor.
*
The cadaverous man hummed the song’s beginning,
And now the end is near
jumped to another verse,
Regrets? I’ve had a few,
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do…
took the microphone from the stand, giddily went to the edge of the stage, continued the song, jumping on to another verse,
I… did… it…
He pitched unsteadily at the edge of the stage, and fell hard with a loud ka-boom!
*
The audience went wild, gave him a rousing ovation.
The cadaverous man stood up, continued the song,
Yes, I did it my… wii.
The boisterous audience gave him wild applause.
He raised his arms into a “V” sign, with both hands doing Victory Joe signs, too.
On his way back to the stage, the audience patted his back, shook his hand.
He smiled showing all his rotten gums. (To be continued)/PN
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