Supersister Project live // no, cancelled // She Was Naked

Thursday 18 November would have been the day on which I should have gone to my first live show since early March 2020. The farewell show of Canshaker Pi in Tolhuistuin on a Saturday evening. An evening in which I seriously doubted whether it was a smart thing to do, going to a venue with hundreds of other people, all potential virus carriers. I lived to tell and had a great evening.

During the first lockdown my girlfriend and I played numerous duo shows in our front garden for neighbours and friends, who all socially distanced, watched us sing and play. Late September I played a live show with my band Sweetwood, as part of Neighbour Day, standing in the muddle of the street. We played with a guest drummer, our close by neighbour Léon Klaasse. So I played myself more than ever. but going to a show, no that had not happened.

Léon told us that he was going to play with Robert Jan Stips and Rinus Gerritsen in Supersister Project. As a band Sweetwoord decided to go and watch him play. Supersister is something that is from before our time or nearly, as in my case. They were able to play all shows and The Hague was the final one. The show turned to a seated show, but we still had tickets. And then Léon phoned on Thursday afternoon, that the show was cancelled, as Stips had contracted Covid. I wish him a speedy and full recovery!

So instead of reviewing the show, let me focus on Supersister's biggest hit, as it is a curiosum of grand proportions. Somewhere in the early 70s and I can't for the life of me remember who gave it to me on what occasion, I was given a compilation album with Dutch (almost) hits from 1967 to 1971. The acts were all on the Polydor label. One of the songs on that album is 'She Was Naked' by Supersister. The lyrics undoubtedly the fantasy of a pubescent, fevered dream, appealed to me as an 11 year old who still had to see a woman naked for the first time.

Supersister was a band from The Hague with an unusual line up. Drums, bass, keyboard and flute. Having started in highschool, the band progressed from a psychedelic band to a progressive and jazzrock band. It ended up recording three albums in the original line up. There are two surviving members of who only Robert Jan Stips is active in Supersister Project.

She Was Naked was released as a single by the band and picked up by pirate radio station Radio Veronica ending in the charts on number 11, the band's biggest hit and the opening to a recording career.

The single starts with a organ that slowly swells before a single, soft bass note takes over announcing the first verse. Soft drumming, soft singing, a beautiful flute intertwining with the singing. This part of the song is so soft and yet intense, as it begs listening.

And then it is one minute and fourty seconds. A totally distorted bass guitar takes over the song in a relentless riff. Unless someone is playing guitar anyway. There is a clean bass behind the distored part, playing the same notes. The Hammond organ screaming behind it. Gone is the flute, this is rock and roll.

The surprises are far from over. The "Dona nobis pacem" part is the next surprise. Who comes up with a part like this? Now Supersister has a song with the same title as well, but it has nothing to do with this chorus in She Was Naked. The total silence invoking a Gregorian Medieval monk choir style of singing as a final farewell, but not before a crescendo of grand propotions.

This music now is totally out there. The outro has two parts, why make things simple when you don't have to? First Sacha van Geest plays a great flute solo and finally Robert Jan Stips ends it all and most likely finishes off his organ as well. I can't imagine an instrument surviving a solo like this.

Reading some more on Wikipedia, I find out that She Was Naked is as it were a compilation of different compositions. The producer picked out parts of longer compositions that he liked and glued them together. That knowledge explains a lot, reading back what I just wrote. She Was Naked is a bizarre song but at the same so much worth listening.

She Was Naked is a forgotten song or nearly, as I'm writing on it. Had I not gotten that compilation album, I doubt if I had ever picked up on the band. After Sweetwood had decided to go, I checked my record collection. My memory is still working as, yes, there was a compilation cd bought in the early 00s. I think I played it once and maybe not completely. In the past weeks I have already played it a few times and when I encounter one of the studio albums of the band second hand I think it may come with me, if priced reasonably.

Let's hope that not too far from now we can go and watch the show together. That would be nice.

Wout de Natris