These are the lyrics to the song “American Junk” released by Jim Paredes and the Apo Hiking Society in 1987.
Leave me alone to my third world devices
I don’t need your technology
You just want my natural resources
And then you leave me poor and in misery
Third world blues is what I got
Troubles, yes I got a lot(American Junk)
Get it out of my bloodstream
(American Junk)
Get it out of my system
(American Junk)
I can only take so much
(American Junk)
Gotta get back to who I amYou call it new music
I call it pollution
You music I now see on my television
(American Top 40)
Why is it now I can only sing
In English language that you people bring
(Da da da da)
Why is it now that they only
Play top 40 music on TV and radioIt’s been so long since I had
A glance of what I think I really am
Watch the video of a past performance here:
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Paredes is well aware that nobody truly is “infallible”. Not even him, considering that he has, on many cccasions demonstrated an astounding yawning inconsistency when it comes to matching his personal philosophies and his political leanings.
Unfortunately, in a star-struck society like the Philippines, celebrities are regarded as infallible. And that is the sort of environment where Paredes thrives.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Kaya naman pala pinili ni Jim maging Australian ano?
Ah yes, i’ve also wanted to point this out too. This song was probably because of the “bases out” fad post-marcos era wherein the govt and military thought they had enough hardware and no need for uncle sam’s support. unfortunately, a few years later, pinatubo erupted and buried/destroyed tons of military ordinance and left them scratching their heads.
Nature and God have revenge for us,with that Pinatubo volcan explosions.
I doubt we need to take singers seriously for what they sing. Most of them anyway just sing songs for hire and don’t even mean them. How many singers have sung “you’re the only one for me,” then they divorce several times.
Well, to be fair, music in the 80’s and 90’s had more “activism” and “social awareness” underpinning it than the music being produced now. Nowadays all you get is things like “romanticized” ideas of love, unrequited love, bitches and hos, and bling-bling.
I’d like to add, also, that commentator T above brought up a good point; while songs can sound good of and by themselves, they also need to be taken in the context of the era in which they were composed.
When it comes to “activism” and “social awareness,” nothing beats Yano for me. With songs like “Edsa,” “Trapo” “Banal na Aso, Santong Kabayo,” and my favorite “Conyo Ka Pre.” The last one we can sing to this blog’s critics. hehe
Yeah, I like Yano in the 90s & most of their songs are purely social & political in nature. But I like The Jerks especially this song which is reflected to our current national problems: https://youtu.be/QuPd0Sq8c8M
pano mag mura ang conyong ilokana?…. ukinnam syet!
that goes for all the conyo, or pretending to be conyo
I still believe Grin Department is grossly underrated band. Speaking of which, what the hell happened to Mr Mema extraordinaire gnogid? I’d like to dedicate this song in his honor:
=)
The only way to infallibility is to confess to one’s fallibility.
Its ironic though that Jim Paredes is a pro-LP/Yellow supporter during the 2016 election & he criticize Duterte in spite that our president is an anti-American unlike PNoy & Mar.
However I would like to comment on this song, there’s a conversation on it that Jim pretend an English teacher & he’ll teach that language to his fellow bandmate & I forgot who he is, and he said “Apple” but his bandmate said it as Epple and not “Apple” but Jim confronted it & he said his bandmate should it said “Apple” & not Epple, but his bandmate defend it that they’re both the same thing.
Well that’s the problem because there are many different English accents on this planet & yes, English is the most spoken language in the world, thanks to the involvement of the world’s largest empire on modern history known as the British Empire, but as the English language spread outside Great Britain since the 17th century, there are many English accents that spewed out like the Aussies, Canadian, American, Creole, Indian, Singaporean, etc., etc. & sometimes those different English accents are now difficult to understand & fuse it in one common language. And this is a big problem to those BPO/Call Center agents when they’ll speak to English speaking clients in all of English-speaking countries like USA, Canada, Philippines, India, UK, Australia, etc., etc. So that’s why I really don’t like to work there unlike before. English language is so complicated, really unlike Filipino language or maybe Spanish, Japanese, Malay & Italian. :\
Here’s the one of the best anti-American song on this planet & would like to post it here. It was sang by the Canadian rock band, Guess Who & you know this one & was sang later by Lenny Kravitz for a sequel to the movie Austin Powers. The song is American Women
https://youtu.be/gkqfpkTTy2w
There is no LOGICAL reason why The Philippines is not a first world country. It has massive amounts of natural resources compared to say, South Korea, which has none, yet has the 11th largest economy on earth. They have 45 million highly educated, hard working people while The Philippines has 110 million under educated lazy people. What is the excuse here? That is the real question you need to ask yourselves.
Here are the reasons why the Filipinos will never be able to develop themselves in order to make the Philippines to become a 1st world country (Clue: blame BAD CULTURES):
http://www.filipiknow.net/negative-traits-of-filipinos/
October 26, 2017 AM – I listened to Jim and his group’s songs (Apo Hiking Society) this morning. Somehow, they are no longer as beautiful as they were before…….
from an Old Apo Fan…..call me “very appreciative” before……
Well I’m here cuz Y nat kokonat poknat