By: Atty. Marlo T. Cristobal
This is a travel anecdote l sent to a few friends sometime ago but needs retelling to the viewers of the Banateros website for their reading treat or, to borrow the phrase that lawyers overuse in legal documents, for “whatever purpose it may serve.”
We were about into the 5th hour of our flight on November 13, 2023, when our PAL Boeing flight (104) bound for San Francisco, USA, ran into rough air pockets that sent our aircraft continuously jarring for more than 30 minutes.
Before our flight, l psyched myself up to sleep during our entire flying knowing that it was going to be the usual boring, long flight. Before, l used to entertain myself in long flights watching in-flight movies, but l had voraciously gorged on Netflix movies at home everyday up to the wee hours of the morning for almost three years from my retirement, that this time my notorious zeal for movies had undergone moderation. I felt like regurgitating food l swallowed greedily viewing more in-flight movies. And so l hardly felt then my old appetite for movies our aircraft made available to passengers that l decided to just play instead the in-flight music to lullaby myself into sleep.
I was listening to the ABBA music when not long thereafter our aircraft started to frightfully vibrate as it grappled with air pockets. I got scared and troubled initially since the grave shaking of the aircraft showed no signs of abating. But here came into play the power of music.
In all candor, l have an ear for music. The blast, for instance, of the mere first notes of a song by a singer, my ear can detect the subtle discordant sound waves that may not be picked up ordinarily by somebody’s ear. l may not have the vocal chord for music, but l have definitely the ear for it.
At that point of my apprehension of danger, my ears nonetheless tended to be attracted and consumed by the soothing and pleasing melody of ABBA songs vented through my headphone. That moment l realized the beauty and merit of ABBA music. I was already a lawyer when l first heard ABBA music through its famous “Dancing Queen,” which was invariably played in dancing floors that occasioned my awkward, if not insane, way of dancing.
The ABBA band rose to fame not in my teenage years that it did not command my idolatry for it. It was Elvis Presley who took the thunder from the music world when l was a teenager, hence, he captivated my iconic fondness for him as l, a young man of typical idolatrous bent for showbiz personages, thoroughly followed all his songs giving me the fullest chance to assess his songs. Music history blares, and l totally agree, he is one of the greatest singers of all time. His deep, well-rounded, utterly captivating voice is flawless in his ballad songs (not rock n role songs) and gospel songs and thus bound to easily spellbind the human spirit.
ABBA music struck me as exuding intense magical power. All — as in all — the more than twenty songs l listened to, many of which l was hearing for the first time then, percolated a uniform, unvarying rhythm of one-two beat tempo. It is here in the very monochromatic one-two beat tempo of ABBA music where its strong magic lies. This simple but sustained tempo harbored the rapturous and perfect blend of notes of a palpably gifted vocals of these quadruple singers. It was a sheer beauteous monotony that lulled my psyche into repose and calmness. It was this sustained pleasing monotony of melody i.e., this repetitive single two-beat tempo of all the songs, that lulled and carried me away into ease, and, more importantly, into a sleeping beauty amid and despite a scary air-pocket-sustained turbulence of the moment. l got so beguiled by the ABBA songs that l ceased feeling the overexcitement of the plane issues with air pockets. I did not even notice the plane turbulence had ceased eventually, and it’s boring and tiring engine drone had turned to annoy no more.
The sweet blend of the flawless, gliding notes from the ABBA singers literally hypnotized me to sleep while my nerves were in a tense state. This quartet must be a talent ultra with all its exceptional gift of a musical voice that can “quiet a storm,” as it were. They definitely enriched music and graced the music world — as Elvis supremely did. The flight Captain at the height of his plane disturbance could have very well cautioned through the plane public address system the passengers, “This is your Captain speaking, fight off air pockets scares, drown your ears with ABBA songs!”
