Carabao : What colour is the buffalo?

[Mid]

Opinion

What colour is the buffalo?
12/03/2011


Kong Rithdee writes about movies and popular culture for the Bangkok Post.

I would have loved to gorge myself sick one exotic offerings of the super gala dinner which netted 750 million baht. It must have been a thrill to sit and eat at that two-million-baht-a-table of the Democrat Party's fund-raising mega-meal _ roughly at 200,000 per head, or 50,000 baht per course, which reportedly featured spiced snowfish and balsam salad and (perhaps) dragon fin soup glazed in melted Himalayan spring ice. Eating and digesting and (later, need be) breaking wind _ all to show succour for our ruling political party.

Above all, I would've loved to enjoy the music and entertainment, especially the headline act of the night: Carabao.

The frontman of Thailand's No. 1 "songs for life" band, the Harley Davidson-loving Add Carabao, thundered on stage: "I support the Democrats!"

Swigging his Red Carabao energy drink full of vitamin B12, the singer-songwriter had even penned a new campaign song for the party, exalting its ideology and steadfast commitment: "We are Democrats/We stand for democracy..."

The atmosphere at the two-million-baht democratic table must have been very cheerful.

Well, it would have been fun, too, had Add decided to sing the song he wrote in 1992 called Chuan Puay, a pun on the then-Democrat leader Chuan Leekpai.

The song, written not long after the Black May incident, is a satire against the land scandal the party was embroiled in. True to form, Chuan Puay was banned from the airwaves by the censorship board. As we all know, the Democrats have always championed freedom of expression, especially from a band that has devoted the best part of its colourful career to singing protest songs, sometimes with a Marxist bent, and crying out against injustice, capitalism and corrupt politicians of all stripes and parties.

Like Bob Dylan (yes, one of Add's idols) said: The Times They Are a-Changin'. Whether you love or loathe Carabao, you can trace the development, the ups and downs, and the chameleon-like nature of Thailand's political history of the past 30 years through Carabao's bouncy numbers and witty lyrics. Add and his mates _ borrowing the Tagalog word for "buffalo" as their band's name and enshrining the buffalo skull as their insignia _ began by writing ballads about poor peasants wronged by the system (their 10-song series Tuek Kwai Tui tells a story of hardship of two generations of farmers and has an epic-like, Depression Era quality). Their great numbers from the 1980s are aboute cost of globalisation and industrialisation, about small people with big hearts and working-class heroism, about American neo-imperialism and, of course, about democracy, pure and simple.

A rhyme-master, Add wrote songs that mocked or made fun of many prime ministers, from Chatchai Choonhavan to Banharn Silpa-archa and Chuan Leekpai. In 1985, Carabao was "asked" to perform at Suan Amphorn by coup-maker Manoonkit Roopkajorn (the coup failed). After Black May 1992, Add wrote a song that took a passing jibe at Gen Suchinda Kraprayoon, the military leader who ordered the crackdown on the protesters.

All of this has given Adde aura of a rocker-poet-revolutionary. But news of Add's wealth, his collection of expensive motorcycles and firearms, and his entrepreneurial foray into the energy drink business in the late 1990s, shook the confidence of some fans. Is he really with the working class, or is he exploiting them? Or simply, has he shed his angry anti-establishment zeal and cozied up to the establishment instead? (The singer, for example, has had a snug relationship with the Chang empire: he wrote a song, Sao Beer Chang or "Beer Chang Girls" for its ad campaign).

In the stormy pit of politics, Add has tried to stay away from easy categorisation of being yellow or red, with the result that he has been slammed by both camps. Yet some of Add's later songs, like Khon Saang Chart ("Nation Builders"), carry a creepy nationalistic sentiment, often sung with pompous militarism and free of irony. Another song, Suek Nang Satick ("Slingshot War") has a clear anti-Thaksin message, with lyrics about red-shirted men who are tricked into boarding a train to a protest site in Bangkok. "They confuse democracy with populism," he sings.

As a one-time fan, I observe and, under my breath, hum Carabao's early tunes. I once paid 50 baht to watch the whisky-voiced Add and his band at a dingy neighbourhood bar, where he shouted insults at random politicians as the bandana-wearing crowd, half-drunk mostly, emitted loud cheers in glorious unison. The gig ate two-million-baht dinner seems like the final seal. Too bad, the times they really are a-changin'.

bangkokpost.com




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[Marmite the Dog]

Talentless prick.

[Mid]

disagree on talentless , more realistically a hypocritical , moral bankrupt .

[Rural Surin]

disagree on talentless , more realistically a hypocritical , moral bankrupt .

How's that saying go.....? "....it ain't rebellin', if you're buying what they're sellin'" Carabao's sell-out has it's roots when Aed and company were asked to be official spokesman, and subsequent theme song, for the 1995 SE Asian Games. The cult following is just that.

[brouhaha]

I enjoy some of his stuff and couldn't care less about the sellout stuff. Why would anyone look to a singer as a role model?

[larvidchr]

I enjoy some of his stuff and couldn't care less about the sellout stuff. Why would anyone look to a singer as a role model?

It's the way of our crazy media world these days, Sport stars, teen age pop musicians, X factor participants and Robinson survivors is consulted on life's big questions in talk-shows and the media, 20 year olds writing their memoirs so we all can benefit from their vast experiences etc.

[Mid]

It's the way of our crazy media world these days

ain't nothing new about it Lars .