Nothing like old-fashioned love songs

ILOILO CITY — Yes, it’s true: Nothing compares with old-fashioned love songs playing not just on the radio but "live" on the stage of the Rose Memorial Auditorium of the Central Philippine University (CPU) in this city on the eve of Valentine’s Day, with the Paul Williams himself in the spotlight.

The show started a bit late, no thanks to the late arrival of the plane that flew Paul and his co-performer, songwriter Dennis Lambert, from Cagayan de Oro City where they did their third in a series of five Valentine shows kicked off in Cebu City (Feb. 10) and followed by those in Davao City (Feb. 11) and at the Big Dome in Quezon City (Feb. 14). They flew in at way past 4 p.m., presided over a press conference at the Aris Bar in Hotel Del Rio where their entourage was billetted, and (of course!) had to check the sound system in the venue.

But just the same, the CPU audience reacted with undiminished enthusiasm, gamely according Paul and Dennis their legendary Ilonggo warmth and hospitality... anticipating and acknowledging each and every song with heart-felt applause, thereby easing the apprehension of the producer, singer Aris Demavivas (the voice behind the late ’60s popular song So Lucky which preceded its Tagalog version, Hajji Alejandro’s Balatkayo, by a few years), and Rebecca Maravilla (who has settled in Iloilo after years in New York), head of the Iloilo City Rotary Club which was the beneficiary of the event. (All of Paul and Dennis’ concerts were produced by Renen de Guia’s Ovation Productions, with only the Iloilo leg co-produced by Aris who, I heard, will bring Pat Upton of the Spiral Staircase here for a series of shows in March.)

Dennis has written, as he himself counted, more than 600 songs, with 300 of them recorded by various artists such as The Righteous Brothers (Dream On), Tavares (It Takes Only a Minute), Player (Baby Come Back), Santana (Stormy), Survivor (Moment of Truth), Natalie Cole (I Live For Your Love) and Sergio Mendes and Brazil 77 (Love Music).

I learned that it was Dennis’ first time to perform "live" and his "greenhorn-ness" hardly showed, even when he was wiping his face — and his glasses — with a white face towel hanging within his reach under his piano, drinking water from a bottle or bumping into the microphone stand while swinging to the beat of Baby Come Back and We Build This City. A round of applause, please, for Dennis Lambert!

As I said, there’s nothing like old-fashioned love songs. So when Dennis started his set, which opened the two-hour concert, with It Only Takes a Minute, he had the audience at the palm of his hand. It was smooth (well, almost!) sailing for him from thereon, sustaining audience interest with Rhinestone Cowboy, Ashes to Ashes and Of All The Things (which was one of the dozen songs compiled by Richard Gomez and Lucy Torres in the giveway CDs during their wedding back in 1998 in Ormoc, Leyte).

And then came Paul Williams, 66 and exuding the aura and unleashing the energy of a 16-year-old.

Dressed all in black and looking at the audience through his signature glasses, Paul apologized for the "slight delay" and proceeded to enrapture the audience with a soulful rendition of I Won’t Last a Day Without You. No, Paul, this was not a world of strangers where you don’t belong, but of eager fans who won’t last a day without you leading them down, what else, memory lane.

From that moment on, Paul never let go of the audience. He was a lovable, diminutive figure all in black but he easily dominated the huge Rose Memorial Auditorium stage that could have swallowed up a singer of lesser stuff. Talent with a Capital T ruled that stage that night.

"You know," he joked in one of his spiels, "I was so tiny I used to be short." A brief laughter in the audience, followed by a hearty, approving applause. That kind of joke reminded me of a concert way back when Jose Feliciano and homegrown singer performer Ato, both visually-challenged (as if you’ve forgotten), met at the stage of the Folk Arts Theater and greeted each other with wide smiles, "Long time no see!"

Remember how rainy days and Mondays always get you down?

"That’s one of my favorites among my songs," Paul admitted during that afternoon’s presscon.

No wonder he sang Rainy Days and Mondays with so much heart and soul barely three hours later, again confirming how "funny but it seems I always wind up here with you, nice to know somebody loves me."

Unbelievable that even if other veterans have been coming and going all these years, from The Lettermen to The Cascades to Paul Anka to Cliff Richard, Paul was performing in these shores for the first time. But better late than never.

And perhaps to make up for lost time, he sang every song as if he were singing it for the first time in his colorful, checkered career decorated with best-selling albums and Grammys, engrossed like the audience was in famously familiar, old-fashioned love songs — Sing Me a Dream, Evergreen, Loveboat, We’ve Only Just Begun, and You and Me Against the World, bringing the nostalgic trip to a close with Rainbow Connection which, again Paul admitted during the presscon, comes closest to describing the essential Paul Williams.

No, there was no encore that night but it was all right. Paul (and Dennis) left us with the assurance that when the evening comes, we’ll all smile because there’s so much of life ahead, with us sharing horizons that are near to us.

Yes, we’ve all only just begun.

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