Coley a 'pabalik-balikbayan'

MANILA, Philippines - John Ford Coley has lost count of the number of times he has come to the Philippines for a performance. “I’ve probably been here for 687 times already,” Coley said with a laugh. “Well, coming straight here from the US, perhaps 11 times.”

Make that a dozen times as Coley comes back for another slew of shows, which included one at the Midas Hotel in Roxas Blvd. last Thursday and another at the Casino Filipino-Mimosa Clark yesterday. His culminating show will be on Nov. 15 at the Newport Theater for the Performing Arts in Resorts World Manila. Joining him on the show are the Zoo Band and Ramon “RJ” Jacinto. Prior to the Philippines, Coley had a sold-out show at Sentosa in Singapore. The crowd wouldn’t let him go that he ran out of songs to perform with the band and so, he rendered solo acoustic numbers.

The singing legend’s repeated returns to the Philippines obviously speak of a very loyal Filipino following. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise as Filipinos are a sucker for love songs, and Coley happens to be the voice (together with England Dan, they made up the American pop-country rock duo that became popular in the late ’70s) behind such classics as Love Is The Answer, Gone Too Far, We’ll Never Have to Say Goodbye Again, Come Back To Me, Soldier In the Rain, I’d Really Like To See You Tonight and It’s Sad To Belong.

“The one thing that is wonderful about the Filipino crowd, and Asia, in general is that everyone knows the songs and they sing back the songs to you. In the US, they don’t sing,” Coley said in a presscon last Thursday at the Midas Hotel, which is one of the co-presenters of his Philippine shows mounted by Steve O’Neal Productions.

He also observed that “Filipinos are more romantic than (Americans). The songs that they chose or like, it’s probably the Spanish influence, but there’s an inclination towards the romantic.”

He said that while he has liked many countries where his music has brought him to, there’s something quite special about Filipino audience that makes them a cut above the rest. “The thing I like about the Philippines is that the people laugh a lot, and I was talking to Danee Samonte (who owns Steve O’Neal Productions), and it hit me why I like Manila more than the others — it’s because there’s so much life here. Filipinos are filled with life.”

The first time he set foot on the country was in 2000. He played with Ambrosia and Jimmy Jamison at the Folk Arts Theater. Coley was nursing a flu then and had lost 10 pounds. After his concert in the Philippines, he gained 15 pounds as he enjoyed too much Pinoy food. He named lugaw as his most favorite, which he also cooks at home.

From that first visit, he also realized how big-a-deal his songs to Filipinos. “(The producers said) ‘These are the songs we want you to play.’ And I went, ‘I haven’t played that song since 1977, and I’ve never played those other songs at all.’ Then when they said Sad To Belong, I said ‘I can’t do that,’ and they asked why not? I said ‘It’s a song about cheating. In the US, it was taken out from the radio because people were complaining. I’m not gonna do that.’ But the guy said, ‘We don’t care, we like that song,’” Coley laughingly shared.

While he got to play It’s Sad To Belong again and again in his concerts here, he nevertheless mused, “It’s Sad To Belong is really a funny song for me, because how many times can the right one come along before you figured out it’s the right one? I mean it could go on forever. But well, it’s just a song.”

A native Texan, Coley whose father was an accountant father and mother was into selling shoes, was sent to a school for classical piano after he was caught tapping his fingers on an imaginary keyboard as a toddler. He added, “I also grew up around lots of classical, opera, church and country music. I had a very eclectic musical upbringing.”

Coley, who currently does 40 tour dates a year, said that if he were to define his musical journey with a song of his, it would be We’ll Never Have To Say Goodbye Again.

Music, after all, is a never-ending pursuit and passion for him. “Seriously, I don’t think any musician ever expects to go far. But I just kept on being pushed into music and thank God, He let me go on in there. I get to do something I really enjoy and have fun with. Not once that I can recall of having to play and think I really don’t want to do this. It’s always, let’s go and play.”