I had just finished watching a downloaded copy of Greys Anatomy earlier today when I found out that Francis M had passed away. Though I’m not what you would call a big fan, his Mga Kababayan album was the very first cassete tape that I bought. I remember the year distinctly because 5 out of the 12 sections we had in 4th grade chose the title song for their class night presentation (back then we still had those).
His name would usually come up in random conversations with my kuya. Why? His face was never one that needed the magic touch of a Belo or Calayan. I think I even remember my brother saying that if he aged as well as Francis M, he wouldn’t mind reaching 50 at all.
And have you seen the guy’s videogame collection? OMG. The Nintendo 64 hadn’t even reached our shores, but I caught him on TV being featured because of his videogame collection. When GamesMaster was still being published, I had tried to push for the guy to be featured. I did that not just because of the videogames.
Francis M represented, insipired, and spawned a generation of music and country loving Pinoys. Peace out man, you will surely be missed.