Heber Bartolome, the Filipino folk music legend who preached the value of self-worth in his masterpiece “Tayo’y Mga Pinoy,” died Monday night, his brother Jesse confirmed.
He was 74. “Nawalan siya ng pulso kaya dinala sa Veterans (Memorial Medical Center),” Jesse told ABS-CBN News. “Mahusay na pintor (Heber), matulungin sa kapwa. “Isa siyang haligi ng Pinoy rock. May social relevance ang mga gawa niya. Pero may love songs din siya,” his brother Jesse said.
Heber Bartolome formed Banyuhay with brothers Jesse and Levi, whose work catapulted them to fame in the 1970s and whose songs spoke to common folk and their struggles.
“Wala akong kantang hindi hango sa tunay na karanasan. Kasi mahirap magsulat ng hindi mo naman naranasan. Ang maganda kasi sa mga sinusulat mo, iyong mga binabanggit mong salita nagmamarka sa mga nakikinig na meron karanasan ganu’ng din,” Bartolome said in an interview with GoodNewsPilipinas.com in June.
He named his band after a literary magazine he put together before martial law was declared in 1972. He was designated a visual artist and contributed poems on Banyuhay, which means metamorphosis.
A University of the Philippines alumnus, Bartolome and his band are considered OPM pillars. Besides being a musician, he was also a painter.
Later on, he taught Filipino literature at De La Salle University; Gary Valenciano and Ralph Recto were among his students, he said in the same interview.
But Bartolome’s pièce de résistance was “Tayo’y Mga Pinoy”, a song that protested against Filipinos subsuming their identity in favor of Western tendencies.
He said the music and words to it just came to him.
“Nakatayo lang kami sa pinto sa tapat ng dormitoryo namin. Inaantay ko kapatid ko. Siya naman merong gitara. May mga inii-scale siya. Tapos nagcomment ako, ganito dapat scale. Tapos sa scale na iyon nanggaling iyong melody,” he told GoodNewsPilipinas.com.”Lagi kong sinasabi God given ang mga sinulat ko. Parang ginagamit ka ng kung sino na, may bumubulong. Biglang dadaan sa isip mo. Hindi iyong parang susulat ako ng tungkol sa pagiging makabayan. Wala akong ganu’ng mga impression.”
The nationalist message behind “Tayo’y Mga Pinoy” caught the attention of Francis Magalona, who sampled it in a rap version he produced and released in the 1992 album “Rap Is Francism.” ( ABS-CBN News)
