Ahh, the Power of Words In Music

Spinner has compiled a list of what they think are the Best Opening Lyrics in a song and, to balance it out, their Worst Lyrics Ever.

I know some people more than a dozen years my senior who break into smiles whenever they hear V.S.T. and Co.'s "Haaah...awitin mo, at isasayaw ko...Ohohah". They sing along and move their bodies to it, though surely not as vigorously as when they were younger, and they also don't get out of their seats anymore. Can you imagine someone dancing while sitting down? Is that my future? Is that all our futures? Oh wait. I don't know how to dance. I'm safe.

And then a few years ago, I remember feeling creeped out when I heard and saw my 13-year old niece and her friends singing and "shaking their groove thing" with so much enthusiasm to "My humps, my humps my lovely lady lumps, in the back and in the front". My skin crawled. Something felt very, very wrong.

As for the time when I was growing up, "Time, like a clock in my heart" seems pretty obviously redundant now, more than twenty years later. And what the heck is a Karma Chameleon? And what does this mean? Is it poetry?

“You've gone too far this time” but I'm dancing on the Valentine
I tell you somebody's fooling around with my chances on the danger line"

Well, maybe...maybe it is. But to be certain, go ask a real poet.

Full disclosure: I humbly admit that I sang and tried to shake my groove thing to this stuff way back when, along with everyone else I grew up with. I'm looking back with older eyes, and yes, I'm smiling widely right now. Partly from embarrassment.

In the late 1980's (or it could've been the early 90's), a very sentimental man who was then about 65 years old told me that they don't write lyrics like they used to (in different variations, I recognized this statement of his as the endless lament of the aged who consider their youth the best of times, and that in their opinion the current is deplorable because "things just aren't what they used to be").

"Take this example," he said to me. "How poetic, meaningful, and beautiful can these lyrics be: 'Love is a many splendored thing', by Sinatra. What does your generation have?"

Being younger then, and less respectful, at mas walang takot, humirit ako.

"'Love is a battlefield', by Benatar," I answered him. He wasn't amused.

Some lyrics though have stuck with me over the years, and still mean just as much now, if not more. When I'm 65, I wonder if I'll corner some poor soul in his 20's, recite these lyrics to him, and tell him "What does your generation have?" I hope not. And I really should listen to more of the newer songs.

Ahh, the power of words in music.

But for today, my smile is at its purest whenever I see my kids dance, with all their energy, while singing "We're all in this together".

Since Spinner's list is for songs that were hits in the U.S., I wonder which O.P.M. lyrics would fall into which side, best or worst.

"Don't touch my birdie"?

"Humanap ka ng pangit, ibigin mong tunay"?

Haynako, "Ewan".