NADYI-JINGLE AKO!!!

HELLO! 

I am Eric A. Guillermo, the youngest among six siblings who published JINGLE, the music magazine with song lyrics and guitar chords plus artworks, jokes, articles, etc., in the early 70's. My eldest brother called it “Chordbook".     

 

I am now 62 years old and I professionally own my time. My three children -- Gina, Paolo and Jaila -- are all grown-up and doing well with their lives and careers. Matthew Levi is my only apo (for now). I am happily married to my long-time partner, Nerissa, who once wrote for us (and was editor, too) in some of our publications back in the days. Yeah, the good ole days…

I was starting to learn to play the guitar back then and I asked my Kuya Gilbert, the eventual editor/publisher in the clan, to buy me songbooks with guitar chords in Manila. He was studying in FEU at that time.   

I immediately noticed the wrong chords they had and brought it up with him while strumming the guitar and humming the zeroed in song. He said, "Oo nga ano" while nodding his head in approval. And the rest is history, so they say. 

Nora Aunor

I was in fourth year high school in Jose Rizal College (now University), October 1970 to be exact, when the first issue of JINGLE featuring Nora Aunor on the cover rolled off the press. I’m really at a loss as to why my Kuya chose Ate Guy for our launching cover -- must be the business acumen of my brother. Needless to say, Ate Guy “changed” our lives forever! 

Fast-forward…I would have not started this blog if it was not for my balikbayan sister-in-law Eleanor who visited us from Florida, USA recently. She convinced me to write down my memories while I can still remember them. And instead of rotting away into the doldrums of retirement, she egged me to use time to my best advantage and just write, write, write about JINGLE.  One persistent fan, isn't she?

During our roadtrips and tambay mode sa house while she (and her daughter) was here, we did a lot of reminiscing about JINGLE and how it used to be. She was so fascinated by all the side stories she never heard before and was in awe at how, up to now, people speak about it as if yesterday lang nag-fold up yung JINGLE. “The best time to start writing down all of these is now. If other people can write about it, dapat mas lalo ka na kasi yours is the family that started it all,” E. insisted.

May relevance pa ba kami? May market pa kaya ito? May interesado pa ba sa JINGLE bukod sa mga dating fans, employees, editorial staff at writers? Natatandaan pa ba kaya kami ng mga tao? These are the nagging questions that bugged and held me back from being fully convinced to start a blog. After JINGLE, we chose to live a quiet and simple life –- and one that is vastly different from what we once had. Sabi nga ng Kuya sa wife ko when she did an academic paper on JINGLE, “Tapos na ang JINGLE, Nerissa. It’s all over.”

Pero hindi pa tapos ang JINGLE.

Retro-REWIND...At yun na nga ang nangyari...BUMENTA (all caps yan ha) ang first issue namin! Nakalimang reprintings nga yun of about 30,000 copies each, as far as I can remember. Kung magpapaimprenta kasi kami ng marami, baka di mabili at itatambak lang sa bodega. Lugi kami agad. Eh di namin alam na magki-click... 

   

Na-sold out nga lahat. Kung me tatlong piso ka, makakabili ka na ng kopya. Ganun kamura that time ang bilihin...Kinse sentimos nga ang pamasahe sa dyip. Nagpapaimprenta pa kasi kami nun sa Manila Chronicle sa Intramuros. Every two months ang labas namin. Forthnightly baga.   

 

I vividly remember nung kinakapa (later on eh sinisipra na ang term) pa yung mga pahabol na songs sa bahay namin sa Lope K. Santos St. sa San Juan. Doon kasi kami lumaking magkakapatid. Vinyl records pa at turntable na paulit-ulit inaangat ang needle pabalik-balik para mahuli ang tamang chords. It was a painstaking and thankless job. First album ng CTA (Chicago Transit Authority), hanggang maging Chicago na lang sa present day, ang nakasalang nun. Mga kapitbahay naming guitarists na sila Ogie Tupaz at Ricky Gruet at schoolmate artists ng Kuya (namely Emil Davocol and Dan Tagbo) ang mga naunang tumulong sa amin. 

   

Yung kapatid na sinundan ko, si Raul, ang naging right hand man ni Kuya Gilbert. Nagpupuyat sila sa office ng Chronicle. Minsan sinasama nila ako. Pasundot-sundot na checking ng chords with matching playing the guitar ang drama ko nun. Eh yun ang utos ng Kuya ko eh. I-check ko daw. I was about 14 years old then...malay ko ba sa salitang “responsibilidad”. Maaga kaming natutong kumayod kasi namatay agad ang tatay namin. We were very young then.   

Photo@lougopal.com

After a hard day’s work, bago kami umuwi, kakain muna kami sa Aristocrat (na hanggang ngayon eh bukas pa rin) sa Roxas Blvd. kasama yung isang employee ng Chronicle na si Zosimo Gutiza (I will forever remember this guy). Chicken barbecue with matching java rice and atchara. Espesyal na yun.  

 

You might want to ask what's the story behind our brand. "Pare, dyi-jingle lang ako" or "Nadyi-jingle ako" were often used by groups back then. Sino ba naman ang di nakakaalam sa local slang na ito which means “to urinate”? Even among the young ones today, this colloquial is still widely used.  

   

Yung logo namin eh gawa ni Emil Davocol na kasama ng Kuya sa school organ ng FEU. He was a cartoonist there. He later on became a well-known photographer (naging camera clubmate lang naman niya si Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala, the patriarch of the Ayala empire). It was only during the mini-reunion of JINGLE’s former staff and employees during my mom’s funeral did I learn from Mike Jamir that Emil already passed away. May his good soul rest in peace. 

MORE PUN INTENDED…Sa heading ng featured hit songs that time eh pinagdikit nila ang HITS ng ganito: HITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITS in reverse and in one line using the length of the three columns combined with approximate height of 3/4 inch. “Shit” ang may kapilyuhang gustong iparating. Hindi ko rin makakalimutan yung "The pen is mightier than the sword" na catch phrase ng jokes corner. If you highlight “pen is” eh yun na. Meron ding full black and white page ng individual sketches of the Beatles (in different issues) by Dan Tagbo. Hindi ko rin makalimutan yung full-color na drawing ni Dan na babaeng mahaba ang buhok na naggigitara na lumabas sa inside cover na psychedelic ang dating. Ang ganda nun...parang gawa ni Andy Warhol. Multi-colors. We had this painting by Dan color separated for printing.    

IBM Selectric Typewriter (ball fonts at left)

Note that there were no computers then. The latest in technology available during those times was the electric typewriter. Yung mga chords nga eh isa-isa naming dinidikit sa ibabaw ng lyrics. Manu-mano. Ganun kahirap. Later on eh IBM invented a more modern typesetting machine using different small balls for fonts. Merong medium, bold and italicized letters na iba-iba ang points for your size option. When the lyrics were typed and so were the corresponding chords. Yun nga lang...cut and paste (literally) pa rin ang pagpasok ng corrections. Ganun ang prosesong kinagisnan. 

  

And because we were always pressed for time (we had to beat deadlines issue after issue), it couldn’t be helped that we had errors with the lyrics. Kapa system din kasi kami pagdating sa lyrics pag wala nito sa album sleeves. Pag local ang record, usually nagtitipid sila at di na nila sinasama ang lyrics. Hindi pa kasi namin alam that time na pwedeng manghingi ng original lyrics sa local recording companies. Iba pag imported. Kumpleto lahat.

33 rpm Vinyl (@digitaltrends.com)

For the digital natives (millennials), vinyls originally came in two types: a long playing is 33 rpm (revolutions per minute); had a small hole in the middle; and usually contained a little more than 12 songs.  The single record or “45” is the smaller vinyl (with a bigger hole in the middle) which contained one song on each side (A and B). Later on a third kind came out in the market –- yung remixes. These are extended versions of dance hits that filled up one whole side of an LP. Me rennaisance nga ang vinyl ngayon for collectors. Madami akong nakikita sa mga special shops. 

Blind Faith (Eric Clapton far right)

Retro-TRIVIA… Marami ngang nagtaka nun at naintriga, like Ces Rodriguez (will tell you all about her and Mike Jamir in the coming blogs) kung bakit meron kaming Blind Faith song na "Presence of the Lord" featuring Eric Clapton sa first issue. May hippie kasi kaming kapitbahay nun na marunong ding mag-guitar by the name of Tony Padilla. For some undetermined reason, he suggested na ilagay namin yun. Siya pa nga ang kumapa ng song. Trip lang.