I saw them standing there (almost)
I was playing Texas Hold ‘Em with a bunch of younger guys a couple of weeks ago in my favorite poker joint and one of them was delivering a spirited rendition of Bruno Mars’ Nothing on You (yes, this old fogey knows the singer and the song) — probably to disguise a pair of Kings — and the table talk came around to our preferences in music.
“I can tell where this is going,” I thought. But then they call me “Daddy Butch” in the place — everyone above 50 is a “daddy” or a “mommy,” which is better than the monikers some other regulars sport, such as “Itlog,” “Daga,” “Paos,” and “Payat”— so my age wasn’t the issue. The young ‘uns were really interested in knowing what kind of music my generation listened to, so after everyone else had spoken in praise of pop, hip-hop, grunge and metal, I yielded the one and only answer any soul born in 1954 can truthfully produce: “The Beatles.”
Some nodded, smiling, and then our dealer — a sweet girl in her mid- to late 20s —shuffled the cards and said, “Were they really big?”
I have to say, I almost lost it at that point.
I pride myself at the table on my poker face, a point my adversaries readily concede — “You can never tell what hand Daddy Butch is holding!”, I’d often hear. But that fearsome inscrutability more likely comes from the fact that, at the freewheeling 10-20 cash game, I’ll bet on anything from a pocket pair of Jacks to a 7-deuce off-suit. In other words, I’m what they call a “loose and aggressive player,” possibly mad, possibly idiotic, possibly serious. I lose a lot of money playing this way (I behave much better in tournaments) but it’s worth the sight of my tablemates guessing and squirming.
But again, I almost lost that carefully crafted coolness when I heard (with better emphasis) “Were THE BEATLES really big???” It was worse, to me, than those schoolkids who asked why Mabini was chairbound throughout that whole Heneral Luna movie. I felt a vile sourness welling up from my gut and bubbling out of my ears and nostrils. You might forget the Philippine Revolution of 1896 and I won’t even bother you with trivia like the Tydings-McDuffie Act and the Military Bases Agreement, but The Beatles????? (Let’s add a couple more question marks for real emphasis.)
I was too apoplectic to answer, but eventually someone on my left, a forty-something fellow who just might have been old enough to be rocked to sleep to the strains of “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da,” said “Yes, they were big.”
“Bigger than Nirvana?” someone else chimed in.
“Yes, bigger than Nirvana.”
“Bigger than One Direction?”
“Yes, bigger than One Direction.”
“Bigger than Michael Jackson?”
“Well, maybe MJ came closest to the Beatles in popularity.”
“Actually, they even claimed to be more popular than Jesus Christ,” I finally said, “and depending on the number of Muslims and Buddhists in the world at that time, it just might have been true.”
“Really, they said that? When?”
“In 1966 — just before they came to the Philippines.”
“They CAME to the Philippines?”
“Sure — they had a big concert here on July 4, 1966 — and I ALMOST saw them!” The bile had snuck down my throat now, and I was feeling much better, given a rapt audience for one of my favorite stories.
With full relish, I recounted how the Fab Four flew into Manila, were met by screaming, fishnet-stockinged girls, offended Bongbong Marcos, and were practically chased out of the old MIA by Liberace fans who clearly believed that — at least in the Philippines — the Beatles couldn’t possibly be bigger than the Marcoses.
Somewhere in there I interjected the story of how my mother had promised a 12-year-old named Butch that they were going to see the Beatles at the Rizal Coliseum. The indulgent mother and her eager son get as far as Quiapo Boulevard from their humble abode in Pasig, whereupon she sees a new moviehouse trumpeting the wonders of Cinerama. “Let’s watch this movie instead!” the lady says, and the boy’s once-in-a-lifetime chance of seeing John, Paul, George and Ringo standing on the stage — albeit from 1,674 feet away in the bleachers — vanishes into the gutter. That afternoon, as luckier fans swoon to Please, Please Me and I Wanna Hold Your Hand, tank fire and bazookas echo in the boy’s ears, all throughout the two hours of “The Battle of the Bulge.”
My poker playmates look at me with wide-eyed wonder — I try to read their faces, like a a poker player ought to be be able to do — but I can’t tell if they can’t believe that I’m that old, or if they’re just awed to be sitting at the same table with someone who actually breathed the same jeepney-flavored air in the same politician-infested city as the lads from Liverpool.
They got nothing on you, Beatles!
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And if these memories make you feel like suiting up in your collarless jackets and zippered boots and swaying to Eight Days a Week, you’ll get a chance to relive the Beatles experience when one of Britain’s finest Beatles tribute bands — called, well, Britain’s Finest — come to Manila for a concert on Oct. 14, Wednesday, at the tent of the Midas Hotel and Casino on Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City.
You can get your tickets (P3,800 for the VIP and P2,800 for the gold section) at all SM Tickets (470-222) and TicketWorld (891-9999) outlets or via Error! Hyperlink reference not valid..
I’m planning to go, but I think I’ll leave my mom at home this time.
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Email me at penmanila@yahoo.com and check out my blog at www.penmanila.ph.
