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I’M obsessed with music. I grew up listening to
Elvis Presley, thanks to my record-collecting father. In third
grade, I sang ‘Love Me Tender’ for our music class and realized
quickly I had no future in show business. Which probably explains
why I studied hard. Still, whatever financial fruits that resulted
from all that studying, I methodically splurged on recorded music
anyway—in the form of 2,000 CDs (and counting), an iPod that’s
already running low on memory, and an assortment of loud speakers
that include a Blaupunkt setup in the car. My idea of hell is a day
without music.
So even if I’m editing a car
magazine, I constantly find ways to incorporate music into the
content. Beside my monthly editor’s note, for instance, lies a
sidebar that features “This Month’s Driving Music.” It might
seem a forced effort but my argument has always been: Driving and
music go together. One reader even censured me for devoting “too
much” space to music in a car magazine. I began wondering if
anybody else saw my point.
Thankfully, BMW did. And in a big
way at that.
Shunning traditional ways of
holding ride-and-drive events, BMW Phils. Senior Corporate
Communications Manager Leana Farrales thought of a creative way in
which the motoring press could appreciate the merits of her
company’s diesel variants. In a nutshell, she invited us to drive
the 120d, the 530d, the X3 2.0d and the X5 3.0d to Tagaytay while
listening to the same set of songs. Before the day trip, she made
the participants answer some thought-provoking questions. What’s
the best break-up song? What’s your favorite make-out music?
What’s the best spirited-driving track? For the winding road?
What’s the perfect beach tune? And finally, what’s your ultimate
song?
After the participants gamely
answered the questions, BMW made six compilation CDs and gave
everyone a copy of each. On the day of the drive, we took off from
The Fort Global City after popping in the same CD. At last, I
thought, a carmaker that truly understood the vital connection
between music and motoring.
For reasons not entirely clear to
me, we began the joyride with the Beach Music CD. ‘Rock Lobster’
by the B-52’s—handpicked by Anjo (I’m using aliases to spare
people from the embarrassment of their musical tastes)—kicked off
the selection. Makes sense. Beach...lobster. It also implies Anjo
was already attending parties in 1978, the year this song was
released. Other notable tracks in the CD were ‘Here Comes The
Sun’ by Nina Simone, chosen by Ikka, a non-motoring reporter who
covered her first (and probably last) motoring gig; ‘Summer
Breeze’ by Jason Mraz, contributed by Brian; and ‘Garota De
Ipanema’ by Astrud Gilberto, suggested by Popong.
When our convoy hit a clear
stretch of road, Leana announced over the radio that we were to play
the Spirited Driving CD next. U2’s ‘Vertigo’, again chosen by
Brian, immediately set the tone with the famous uno-dos-tres-catorse
countdown. Leana herself had a nice little contribution to the CD,
‘I Like The Way’ by the BodyRockers, which she nicked from Top
Gear’s The Ultimate Driving Experience compilation album. Andy
scared us a bit with Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People’,
while Aris shamelessly ripped a track from his teenaged daughter’s
iPod, ‘Don’t Give Up’ by Chicane.
The Winding Road CD continued the
up-tempo theme, inspiring some to test the limits of the oil-burning
Beemers and narrowly missing potential fender-benders in the
process. The CD included ‘And You And I’ by Yes (Dong),
‘Danger Zone’ by Kenny Loggins (Angelo), ‘Smooth’ by Santana
(Lito), ‘Santeria’ by Sublime (Kat), and ‘Rock Star’ by
Nickelback (James). Again, Andy scared us with Metallica’s
‘Master Of Puppets’. Good thing it was countered by Todd
Rundgren’s heartfelt ‘Can We Still Be Friends’, a song Brian
dedicates to all the girls who turned him down.
The music for the trip back was a
lot more enjoyable. The Make-Out CD had ‘Me And Mrs. Jones’ by
Billy Paul (James); ‘Love Won’t Let Me Wait’ by Luther
Vandross (Popong); and, of course, ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by
Celine Dion (Angelo). One presumptuous journalist contributed
‘Honey, Please, Can’t Ya See’ by Barry White and commented:
“Women have told me that this song makes them orgasmic.” The
nerve. The one oddball choice in this selection is that of Aris’.
I mean, who the hell makes love to Bon Jovi’s ‘Bed Of Roses’?
For the Break-Up CD, the
participants enumerated the likes of ‘How Can You Mend A Broken
Heart’ by Al Green (Anjo), ‘I’ll Be Over You’ by Toto
(Dong), ‘The King Of Wishful Thinking’ by Go West (Angelo), and
‘Pare Ko’ by Eraserheads (Brian). True to form, Andy shocked
everyone again by picking Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Take The
Power Back’. This is one angry man.
The last selection, the Ultimate
Songs CD, was saved for last. It started with Dire Straits’
‘Money For Nothing’ (Anjo) and swiftly segued into Barry
Manilow’s ‘Copacabana’ (Lito...Lito German...of BMW Phils.).
We then cruised nicely to the beat of the Hours’ ‘Ali In The
Jungle’ (Leana), the Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take’
(Angelo), and Tom Waits’ ‘Jockey Full Of Bourbon’ (Ikka).
As we reached the homestretch,
the last three songs in the CD treated us to some of the best aural
experience we could ever imagine. There was Luciano Pavarotti’s
‘Nessun Dorma’ (Popong), followed by Led Zeppelin’s
‘Stairway To Heaven’ (Aris). The ultimate of the ultimate songs?
It had to be my own pick.
As we reentered Metro Manila in
those quiet, powerful diesel BMWs, Vilma Santos had us tapping our
feet to ‘Tweedle Dee’.
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