The Jeepney Driver Who Got Us Laughing

 He has gone to the great beyond.  But his songs remain. The songs were hilarious, well at least to our ears then – growing up in a household where such contraptions as computers, or cable tv were unheard-of.  No electricity during the day and during the nights – recurrent brown-outs were totally acceptable.  Friends snorted out their disbelief when I told them that we used to have a refrigerator  – run by kerosene.   Back then people in our hometown turn to transistor radios for entertainment.  I didn’t hear of FM stations – not until I reached high school.  I’d seen pictures of Voltes V on my classmates’ notebooks, but not on TV. 

But the tear-jerkers, comedies, and action-packed dramas blaring from the transistors made some lasting imprints on our memories.  Our black and white TV with only three stations airing was more of an ornamental furniture than a source of entertainment. Contemporaneous to these archaic modes of entertainment were the novelty songs of Yoyoy Villame that dominate the AM airwaves. Who could forget the historically anomalous lyrics in “Magellan”? Never mind the botched-up English, the song is a certified classic.  I dare any brother Chinese if he understood a word in “Butsi kek”? Likely not.  But chances are – he could very well recite the strange words of the song.  I didn’t know until now that Butsikek was actually “Buchi cake” he saw in Chinatown.  His songs still drew chuckles despite hearing them a hundred times before.

Yoyoy is most probably dismissed as nothing more than a dilettante – but beneath that, I definitely see brilliance – a genuine gift in the man.  I have always admired men who made a mark for themselves despite the circumstances they’re in.  A simple jeepney driver, a former soldier, a Boholano  – he created songs – with words and melody that could no longer escape us.

His death did not make much great news which happened at the height of this spectacle we call elections.  In fact, I just learned of it yesterday.  I have never met the man nor have personally seen him.  But from what I’ve read about him, he was living the real character of his songs – risibly unpretentious, reflective of the ordinary life that he lived.  That made him extraordinary.

He will definitely be remembered.  And this is my simple tribute to the man.

Roman Tesorio Villame (1932-2007)