Het Verhaal van HET en de Hit Ik Heb Geen Zin Om Op Te Staan. Henk van der Sluis

Om de single 'Ik Heb Geen Zin Om Op Te Staan' bewust meegemaakt te hebben, moet iemand ten minste omstreeks 1955 geboren zijn. Om HET in 1965-66 live gezien te hebben minimaal in 1950 of 51. Daar val ik niet onder. Het nummer bereikte in de winter van 1966 de negende plaats in de Top 40 van Radio Veronica. In 1974 bereikte het zelfs de Top 1000 ter ere van de 500e Top 40. Ik heb me een ochtend verslapen, dus het nummer niet gehoord. Volgens mij kende ik het ook niet en was juist benieuwd wat het was, een nummer met zo'n rare titel.

Dat is beslist goed gekomen in latere jaren en inmiddels is het een van mijn favoriete Nederlandstalige nummers. Het heeft een nihilistische, licht absurdistische tekst en deels nihilistische muzikale begeleiding. Er vallen nogal wat stiltes in de coupletten, om beschaafd te gaan rocken in de refreinen, maar totaal loos te gaan in de solo, waarna weer de stilte valt voor het derde couplet. Het nummer is uitzonderlijk aanstekelijk en zo makkelijk mee te zingen. Toch is het enigszins wonderlijk dat het zo'n grote hit is geworden. Daarvoor breekt het met teveel popwetten, lijkt het. Tegelijkertijd ramt het zichzelf o zo gemakkelijk in je brein. Wanneer ik het wel voor het eerst hoorde? Ik heb echt geen idee meer.

Daarna volgde in 1966 nog een klein hitje. 'Kejje Nagaan', zo mogelijk nog absurdistischer, reikte tot plaats 31 en daarna was het over voor HET. Qua hitnoteringen dan. Ook hier, ik heb echt geen idee wanneer ik het voor 'Kejje Nagaan' eerst hoorde. Inmiddels heb ik beide nummers op een van de cds van de Nederbiet box van rond 2000.

Journalist Henk van der Sluis was een fan van het eerste uur en besloot een boek over de band en de single te schrijven. Het is een boek geworden met een kleine 300 bladzijden. Prachtig vormgegeven als een mini-koffietafel boek met harde kaft, veel kleurige bladzijden en heel veel foto's, die een mooi tijdsbeeld laten zien.

Het nummer begint met zanger Bob Bouber (Boris Blom), nadat deze uit ZZ & de Maskers is gestapt. Hij wordt (stage) manager en zoekt een groep om het door hen geschreven nummer 'Ik Heb Geen Zin Om Op Te Staan' in te spelen. Nu heb ik altijd gedacht dat Bouber de zanger was, maar dat blijkt Jacques Zwart te zijn. Samen met Adri de Hont, Pim van der Linden en Dennis Witbaard vormde hij HET. Ze namen de single en b-kant 'Alleen Op Het Kerkhof' op. Via een promotiecampagne met een bed op de Dam werd de nodige aandacht gegenereerd en de rest is geschiedenis.

Als alles verteld is, is de beroemde single eigenlijk een voetnoot. De band wilde heel andere dingen spelen en was voornamelijk een coverband die "ruige" nummers van The Who, The Rolling Stones en The Small Faces coverde. In een latere incarnatie als Pocomania begeleidden ze de Canadese soulzanger Davy Jones, ook allemaal covers. Intrigerend is, dat deze Jones van de aardbodem verdwenen is rond 1970 in Frankrijk.

In het boek volgen we de band, de leden, de manager, hun vrouwen, een fan en de fanmail, alle bands na HET, de scene en wat niet meer. Soms is het wel wat veel, maar het tijdsbeeld is prachtig. Misschien dat een paar verhalen met een korreltje zout genomen/genoten moeten worden, maar vooruit, ze zijn zeker vermakelijk. (Beatlesleden die hotellades vol poepten in Hamburg?) Als het boek uit is, heb je echt niet het idee dat er meer over HET te weten is.

Tragisch is wel dat bijna alle mensen die aan het woord komen, zijn overleden voor de verschijning van het boek in 2025. Ze hebben het resultaat dus nooit kunnen zien. Een enkeling was reeds overleden voor dat Van der Sluis aan zijn monnikenwerk begon. Dan komen de weduwe en/of familieleden aan het woord. Het resultaat mag er zijn en nogmaals, de vormgeving is echt groots. Een monument voor één parel uit de vaderlandse popmuziek, 'Ik Heb Geen Zin Om Op Te Staan'!

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

Je kunt Het Verhaal van HET hier bestellen:

https://concerto.nl/product/henk-van-der-sluis-het-verhaal-van-het-en-de-hit-ik-heb-geen-zin-om-op-te-staan/ 

Utopia Avenue. David Mitchell

This is not the first book on these pages but may well only be the second novel. Music plays such a central role in David Mitchell's latest that a review on a music blog is justified. Utopia Avenue is all about a fictive U.K./London band called Utopia Avenue. From the first meeting to the fast ending at the verge of a breakthrough.

How do I write about a book without giving clues away? How do I write about a book that I had no intention of writing about when I started reading? So let me try to explain why this book made the right kind of impression on me because of the music component.

I have read a few of David Mitchell's books. My first was 'The Thousand Summer of Jacob de Zoet', after having seen the movie 'Cloud Atlas', not knowing it was a novel, let alone by Mitchell. 'The Bone Clocks' was at least as good as the two novels already mentioned.

Utopia Avenue is not that good. People having read previous novels will recognise the name De Zoet and "horology", so there's a continuum in the writing. It is so good for other reasons. Not just because of the fact it is about music, no. In my opinion David Mitchell gets as close to the creation of music and how a band gels as is possible in writing. He almost makes his listeners feel how the first inkling of a song starts. How it is developed into the song an audience gets to know. How band members make sure they do exactly what needs to be done at the right time once on stage with that song. Mitchell shows those magical moments fans/listeners are never present at or to distant from to notice. Just one example. When the drummer starts playing a 'Take Five' rhythm in the studio, the piano player joins him (With him thinking: 'how special is this?'). Something shifts within her head and from there starts instructing the drummer, while she builds up a song in her mind. The drummer gets songwriting credits as well, showing how exceptional the bond between the four is or will be later on.

Utopia Avenue may be fictive, the people living and working in London, New York or California of 1967/68 are not. So meet David Bowie on a staircase, Brian Jones at a party, Leonard Cohen in an elevator, David Crosby on the side of a stage or John Lennon underneath a table. The cameo's are as real as they could have been and give another dimension to the book.

What is a great read as well, is the way all individual band members go through episodes of strong catharsis and all come out the better for it. The drummer being the drummer of course. That old joke even persists in this book. They all make big strides in life in very different ways.

There's one scene that is totally eerie. A young boy dressed as cowboy comes down to the party his parents are throwing for the hip of London. I'm not giving away what happens, but it does give a sign on how the book will end. That perhaps is the only weakness, as it is spelled out pages before the ending. Yes, what I expected to happen did happen in the way I imagined it from the moment Jerry Garcia's house is left behind. At least I thought that to be the end.

There's an epilogue that is totally surprising and makes me regret only one thing: That it will always remain impossible to hear the music of Utopia Avenue. Everything spells that the two albums were among the most interesting of the late 60s. A mix of folk, blues, jazz and psychedelia the world will never hear.

Being Dutch there are two minor complaints. It is 'bitterballen" and not whatever Mitchell made of it and the first gig abroad Utopia Avenue plays is at a Dutch tv program called 'Fenclup'. They play with, a pre Mariska Veres, Shocking Blue performing 'Lucy Brown Is Back In Town'. A nice gesture but that song was a hit only when Utopia Avenue has reached its end quite some time later in the book. (Unless it was released long before entering the charts of course.)

Wo.

Come As You Are. The Story Of Nirvana. Michael Azarrad

'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was, granted with 'You Could Be Mine', the song that pulled me back towards listening and appreciating new music, after having, musically, barely lived through the 80s. It was late 1991, studies finished, struggling to find meaningful work and the two videos in heavy rotation on MTV, when that station still broadcasted music for a living.

We all know what happened then. The multi-million selling album 'Nevermind', the harsh sounding 'In Utero'. I put it on with my new born son sleeping in his maxicosy and knew at the first note of the album that the little critter was not deaf. All his limbs moved in one direction at once followed by a large wail. (It took a few more years but he became a Nirvana fan.) That first, dissonant note of 'In Utero' was a statement for sure and a scare for all fans probably. Then the attempted suicide and a month later the end. I remember being glad not having bought a ticket to the cancelled NL show. It all ended with the brilliant 'Unplugged' cd (and show). After that Foo Fighters and rehashes of left overs. And a few pretty decent Hole/Courtney Love cds.

A while back I saw parts of the 'Montage Of Heck' movie and remember thinking "what am I looking at"? Total madness, derangement and people with some serious issues. This impression was not changed by reading a book on Nirvana, the writing having started straight after the breakthrough and finished in time to draw attention to itself after things were at its worst for all concerned, except one who wasn't present any more. I had bought the book 20 years ago at a record store long out of assistance. And never started reading it until recently. Why now? Who knows?, it doesn't matter.

Just like the movie for at least 50% of the book I would not have minded not to know about the misery of the private life of Kurt Cobain. The misery of his childhood, the schlepping himself from one home to another, always screwing things up for himself and everyone around him, the torment of other kids, the seemingly seeking of misery. The misery of his stardom and the misery of his marriage. The mysterious stomach aches that always were worse when having to perform. And finally the end where things must have really gone wrong, when Cobain had slipped beyond the attention even of the writer of his biography. Connections had been tied off after a comment of the writer on what had passed in Rome and whether that had been a suicide attempt or not. The writer perhaps even gave a little push towards the end, is what I could read between the lines of the final chapter.

Through all this misery one thing stands out: the magic moments of creating music, the quality of the songs, the enormous talent that this scrawny man from Aberdeen, Washington was endowed with and that it was not enough to save him. In fact it may have done him in. It was too much for him to bare. Everything coming with that talent was far too much to carry for a fragile person without firm anchors to tie him down. Having Courtney Love as a wife probably did not help either. She does get the Yoko role from nearly everyone. And this may just be the right conclusion.

Some biographies are fun to read. This one was not for at least 50% of the time. Why? It is all too embarrassing, too depressing, too negative. From hard drinking, to fights, to stealing medicine, to depression, to drinks, to drugs, to negativity, to suicide. And don't get me started on the role of the so called society press in the lives of Kurt and Courtney. There are some clear linkages here with the Amy Winehouse story for sure. There's just no end to it in this book. It simply so sad.

One thing specificly struck me. Kurt, in a negative mood, looks 20 years ahead and give a pretty accurate description of where we are in the late 10s. People involved mostly with their smartphones and games. To individualistic to really go after rock bands, while music in general indeed has become formalistic. He was right there for large parts.

Reading about Nirvana it seems the band did not have things running for them in 1994. Dave Grohl would have left is my guess. He would have started to release his own work and if that had grown the way it did, he would have left. The alternative seems unlikely. Cobain was the principal songwriter who would never have allowed a second captain on the ship, despite his fantasising about it. If he had, Dave would have brought his first songs already. Just imagine 'This Is A Call' on 'In Utero'. That would have been a jolt, wouldn't it?

Man, am I glad I am nothing like Kurt Cobain or Chris Novoselic. No, I do not have the talent either, but I prefer things stable as they are. When all is said and done and written here, what remains is a simple thank you. For the great music, as that goes beyond saying.

As an afterthought it comes to me that Kurt Cobain is dead for 25 years. 'Nevermind' will be 30 years old two years from now. The Nirvana shirts and sweaters have not totally disappeared from the streets but they are slowly. A whole generation has grown up having heard the band from their parents, at best, without the chance to ever see the band live. They have the DVDs. 25 Years, time sure does fly.

Wo.


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Americana. The Kinks, The Road and the Perfect Riff. Ray Davies

In his third book Ray Davies looks back on two important periods in his life. One in his career and one in his personal life. At the time where the book starts the first part of The kinks' career is, just about, over. The 60s stream of hits is drying up up. The U.S. ban that lasted from 1965 till 1969 is lifted. A new record contract was signed and the band decided it was time to conquer the U.S.

Step by step the band succeeds. More as an all over theatre act than a full fledged rock band, The Kinks grow bigger and bigger by the album. Of course there ís 'Lola' in 1970, that worldwide monster hit, while in fact the song is the odd one out. The last of the huge hits in Europe and The Netherlands. From now on there are concept albums or rock operas nearly exclusively. The Preservation albums, 'Soap Opera', 'Schoolboys In Disgrace'. Tour after tour after tour and slowly everything starts breaking at the fringes of the band. Marriages lay by the way side. Drummer and guitarist fight ever more. Members deciding to choose for their private lives and not the band. People in the entourage dying of terminal illnesses. In Europe the Kinks seems to slowly fade from memory, never really to recover. For a band that, with The Who, is in third place firmly where 60s U.K. bands are concerned, this is a mysterious, unexplainable place to be.

Ray Davies continues, losing himself along the way more and more. With the change of record label in 1977, the band concentrates more on individual songs once more, is coached better it seems by the record label and its owner. Slowly The Kinks gains more ground once again and is on route to score U.S. hits and albums. With the 'Low Budget' album (1979) the band moves into arena's and bigger, becoming one of the great rock bands in the U.S. Again things deteriorate within the band itself. With lesser albums from the second half of the 80s onwards, it all collapses in the mid 90s with a fantastic self-produced acoustic album, 'To The Bone'. The last show is somewhere in Norway in 1996. Ray Davies goes solo with his storytelling.

The other half of Americana focuses on Ray Davies' period in New Orleans ending in being shot in the first days in the new year of 2004. The fact that I hadn't heard anything about that until the 'Americana' album in 2017, tells something about how far from memory Ray Davies had faded in this country in 2004. Working on ideas for his first solo album, but with his soul under his arm, Davies is lost. No band, no marriage, his youngest daughter with her mother in Ireland, no sense of home. The casualty of the road Ray Davies had become is looked at with remorseless insight as he lands himself in New Orleans. In search of himself in a doomed relationship and casting out for things that make sense to do. Leading to being shot in a street robbery in the wrong place at the wrong time and where most likely a cab would have been the right place in all circumstances. The medical complications after the shooting all come by, including the long recovery towards his first solo album, to be released in 2006 only, 'Other People's Lives'. Long after I have closed the book in 2004.

The message I took from the book is another one. The Kinks went on for too long. If the band had gone into a hiatus of four or five years, say after 'Word Of Mouth', like The Rolling Stones more or less did, the band would have reached that famed status of "will they ever perform again"? To keep reaping for 30 years onwards. Everyone involved would have been older and perhaps wiser. In Europe somehow the band lost everything, most likely as the result of focusing nearly exclusively on the U.S. That still does not explain why compared to most other 60s bands, The Kinks come by so much less on the radio. The hits are superb, superior. There is no other word for it. And they are not there.

The uncertainty and yearning for recognition I registered in Ray Davies' shows in the 00s sort of is explained in this book as well. It seems Ray Davies does not believe in the true strength of his songs or yearned for recognition too much, instead of making the songs do the work for him. They can, without effort. This uncertainty comes forward throughout this book.

A book that is straightforward and written well enough. Ray Davies is an entertaining causeur. I can imagine sitting around the hearth listening to his stories spell bound. A few times he skips a topic too easily -Hey, what did really happen here or Give me some more details, please. Perhaps that is for biographers and not himself to tell. The book would also have been a perfect stepping stone to the albums, if I hadn't found out about the book after the second album. So be it, it's time to read 'X-Ray', his first book.

In my reviews of 'Americana part I and II' I mentioned that Ray Davies seemed to have, perhaps finally, resigned himself to what and who he is. That there is nothing left to prove as he has done it all, so was able to come with two great and dignified albums. I hope that is the case as he has proven it all, time and again. In his music and in his books.

Wo.

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REM. Van Subcultuur Naar Internationaal Podium. Dave Bowler & Bryan Dray

So here's a short review of a book I bought in 1996 and never got around reading. It dutifully followed me around from address to address, never to be taken from the shelf I put it on, except to be packed once again. Until the early summer of 2018. There were two reasons for doing that: 1) In my review of the Roger Waters show I referenced R.E.M. and 2) for some reason, I can't recall, I wanted to find out how 'Radio Free Europe' sounds like, as I always hear about the that song and have never, consciously at least, heard it. And then I remembered I had this book and tried to find it.

R.E.M. has never been my favourite band. In the 80s I heard about this band that was supposed to be the new The Byrds or the new Tom Petty. Both not the kind of endorsement that invited me to listen to its music. I had a tape with a live show from somewhere in the 80s that did not convince me. Two cassette tapes from around 1990 with copies of albums, I think 'Document' and Green', that I never found a reason for playing really. My musical taste was in limbo in the late 80s. Stuck between what had been and what I did not like in the 80s.

And then came 'Losing My Religion' and from there onwards I tried to get into R.E.M. and was sorry to hear of Buck-Mills-Stype putting the band to pasture as I liked the band better per album ever since. Its 80s output still went by the song. I never truly found a reason to reach back right up to this day. That may change now I've listened to 'Murmur' with my 2018 ears. When the band quit, several years back, it did so with an album I can't even recall the title of, but that showed a band in great shape and form, that could have grown old gracefully, but decided not to. Independent thinkers as they were (probably are) as I found out by reading this biography, they chose to call it quits while they were still artistically winning.

This book, originally titled, 'REM-documental', follows the band from its first steps in the alternative 1980 scene of Athens right up the release of 'Monster' in 1994. Dutifully the authors follow the band forward in time per album. There's no true depth, hardly any explaining, just the words of the various band members and people around the band culled from interviews in English language music magazines, mostly from the U.K. as well. An aptly chosen title it seems, 'Documental'.

A few things truly stand out. The choices the band made career-wise, were not the easiest to make. R.E.M. became bigger by the album, allowing the band to mature fairly naturally, through the hardships and the slow growth towards bigger and lusher pastures. Control is an important word in the career of the band. True control and no compromises are impossible for every person in life, but this band tried hard to have it over its own career. It came a long way, I learned.

Yes, there's a lot mystique involved around the lyrics and the consciously subdued vocals of Michael Stype adding to the mystery of what he truly is singing. As anyone can see, the titles to songs are often sort of incomprehensible. 'Swan Swan H'? You tell me and that's just one example.

R.E.M. has a clear vision of its music and where it wants to go with that music. Political messages are all over the place and that somehow stuck with me, the none fan, as I think it's time for R.E.M. to step back on stages and telling the world what's happening right here and now.

Finally, what surprised me is that the band more or less gave up on Europe while under contract to IRS, Miles Copeland's label. R.E.M. was a huge underground name over here in the 80s. They never could have become that if the records did not reach the right people. So what's the true story Mrs. Bowler and Dray? This part truly surprised me, as finding a distribution channel isn't an impossibility, even for an U.S. based independent label in the 80s.

As most biographies, R.E.M.'s reads like a page turner. Am I truly learning something? Of course a few things, about the start of the band, producers they worked with and why, but in the end not really enough. For that this book is too light weight. There's not much in there had I been a fan and following the band from an early stage. So for now certainly enough and like I wrote: this is a good read. Perhaps this combination comes with the publisher?

In Dutch the book in 2018 is only available in second hand stores. The publisher, the Free Record Shop, is out of existence for years also. One the many chain stores that went under with the advent of the Internet and illegal downloading in particular. Also a far to shallow record store. I hardly ever went there to buy anything really as it hardly had records I was looking for. Discount DVDs, yes. And somehow this book it seems.

Wo.


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Hay. Sander Donkers

"Biografie van grootste rockster van Nederland" luidt de ondertitel van Hay. Dat lijkt me volkomen terecht. De man die helemaal aan het einde van het boek ineens echt tevoorschijn komt, als een soort appendix, Herman Brood, mag uiteindelijk niet eens in de schaduw van Barry Hay (en zijn drie Earring broeders) staan. Laten we wel wezen, een paar leuke hits en verder veel raar gedrag en merkwaardig populaire schilderijen in de slipstream van zijn functie als nationale knuffeljunk. Zoals ik al schreef, er is qua prestaties geen vergelijking mogelijk, met niemand.

Barry Hay is dan toch echt de enige die deze titel met verve mag dragen. Als dit boek iets laat zien, dan is het de wijze waarop de Earring in de laatste 25 jaar verworden is tot een Nederlands icoon, rock royalty, waarvan wij er verder geen hebben. Er is niemand meer actief op dat niveau. Ze zijn allemaal aan de kant van de weg achtergelaten.

Sander Donkers heeft een soort pact gesloten met Barry Hay en zijn gezin, waardoor hij op de huid van Hay kon kruipen en alle verhalen die Barry kwijt wilde direct kon optekenen. Het laat zien hoe verwarrend zijn jeugd geweest moet zijn als jongetje van zeven die door zijn moeder uit zijn geboorte land, India, wordt weggeplukt en in Nederland op kostscholen wordt geplaatst. Daarna hoe dat jongetje uitgroeid tot een zanger in Haagse bandjes, tot dat hij gevraagd wordt in de Golden Earrings te komen spelen, een band die duidelijk haar plafond had bereikt in de toenmalige samenstelling met zanger Frans Krassenburg, aan wie verder niet één woord vuil wordt gemaakt. Ja, deze man zal zich verraden gevoeld hebben. Met Hay ging het direct de vaart der volkeren in. Vooral toen bleek dat de band echt beter werd door zijn zang, uitstraling en beheersing van het Engels. En door te kiezen voor ROCK. Langzaam groeide hij uit tot de tekstdichter van de band, met vrijwel alle grote hits op zijn naam. Natuurlijk, het muzikale talent van George Kooymans staat aan de basis van alles.

Het boek leest als een jongensboek. De schelm die door het leven struint en eigenlijk vrijwel overal mee weg komt. Een rokende puinhoop achter laat hier en daar, inclusief zichzelf. De financiële, bijna ondergang, komt niet als een verrassing wie 'Haagsche Bluf' en nu 'Hay' leest. De rand van de afgrond die de V.S. heet. Het geplukt worden door managertypes als Freddie Haaijen en Willem van Kooten, zonder wie wij allemaal nooit van hen gehoord hadden, wat het zo dubbel maakt. Ook voor Barry Hay zelf. Het mooie en misschien ook wel knappe van deze band is, dat ze het allemaal net op tijd inzagen en de zakelijke kant zelf ter hand hebben genomen. Vanaf dat moment is er een stijgende lijn. Niet zo zeer meer in platenverkoop, maar wel in pure omzet en winst. Golden Earring vond zichzelf niet alleen muzikaal een paar keer opnieuw uit, maar ook zakelijk. Dat is uiteindelijk het werkelijke geheim achter deze band en de reden waarom ze er nog steeds zijn. Naast ijzersterke hitsingles hadden de mannen het uithoudingsvermogen om door te zetten, ook als het (zwaar) tegenzat.

De persoon Barry Hay? Ja, wat moet ik er van zeggen? Hij leeft zijn rock en roll droom, ten volle, maar lijkt mij van de buitenkant, maar door het boek ook van zijn binnenkant, een moeilijk persoon. Iemand die uiteindelijk weg blijft vluchten van een paar demomen, die, eenmaal geconfronteerd, zijn leven misschien iets makkelijker kunnen maken. Hij accepteert het allemaal wel, stapt makkelijk over dingen heen. "There's no such things as perfect paradise", lijkt zijn levensmotto te zijn. Ook weer niet zo slecht. Toch, dat deel van het boek interesseert mij eigenlijk het minste. Wel ben ik blij voor hem dat hij het geluk gevonden heeft met Sandra en zijn dochtes en vol omarmt.

Het is mooi om te lezen hoe de band zich ontwikkelde en Barry als zanger. Voor mij persoonlijk is de Earring altijd een singles band geweest. Ik heb veel van hun jaren 70 en 80 albums, maar uiteindelijk speelde ik ze zelden en kwam ik altijd uit bij een Arcade of K-Tel Greatest Hits lp. Hun singles heb ik door de jaren heen bij elkaar gespaard. Er ontbreken er nog een paar, vooral van voor 1969. De aller, allermooiste heb ik wel 'Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart' een wondertje van muzikale schoonheid. De laatste aanwinst is 'Where Will I Be', die ik een paar maanden terug tweedehands op de kop tikte voor een paar euro. Voor nu heb ik me voorgenomen om 'Seven Tears' weer eens op te zetten. Dat begint me 'She Flies On Strange Wings'. Nog zo'n enorm sterke single van Golden Earring.

Wat het hele verhaal mij weer eens deed realiseren is hoeveel goede en echt heel erg goede nummers deze band geschreven heeft in de afgelopen 52 jaar. Ja, 52 jaar, dat staat er echt en daarvan heb ik er heel veel bewust mee gemaakt, die hele groei vanaf eind jaren 60 mogen beluisteren. En dan gaat mijn petje nu gewoon even af voor Neerlands grootste rockster en zijn drie strijdmakkers. Chapeau!

Wo.

1971. Never A Dull Moment. David Hepworth

Every one experiences a year that is defining for his taste(s) in music. For writer David Hepworth that was the year he came of age, 1971. There is one difference between the importance all others give to their respective years: Hepworth claims he is right about his year. According to him 1971 was the most important year in popular music. In 12 chapters, one for each month, he goes about proving he is right. As he admits, every one will have his year. Let me add that with the right amount of research and the ability to write well others may get a long way proving it as well. He does have a few fair points though.

I bought 1971 on the same day as I bought John Savage's '1966' (read on here: http://wonomagazine.blogspot.nl/2016/12/1966-year-decade-exploded-jon-savage.html). Personally I tend more towards the latter book, than the former, but that aside.

In his book Hepworth gives his readers a host of stories, facts and gossip about music and the music industry. Where music industry moguls lost all control in 1966, when things started happening that they could no longer control and certainly did not understand, in 1971 a new generation of music moguls started to take over and we on their way building their own empires. Whether new or on the building blocks of old, industry stepped back in and took control over musical careers as artists would soon start to find out.

1971. Never A Dull Moment takes its title from a 1972 Rod Steward LP from after his major breakthrough in 1971 with 'Every Picture Tells A Story'. The album that was the true starting point of a career that lasts right up until today. Hepworth shows more signs of the turns some artists made in that year that defined the rest of their career. The Rolling Stones and music publishing e.g.. Only in 2017 the tax evasions through Promotone B.V. in Amsterdam is getting serious negative publicity. The band became a business company with a CEO (Jagger) and a board of directors. The way in which singer-songwriters were held in high regard from 1971 onwards, shows how mature the rock market had become. The book holds many of these smaller and bigger stories. All with delightful details that one could only learn by reading up on each individual artist. Something Hepworth obviously has done before connecting the dots between them.

Who slept with whom, who wrote for others -reminding us along the way that gossip magazines didn't exist in 1971-, who was influenced by whom at the exact right moment, who broke through to make a difference and who did not. From the likes of Slade, hitting the big time, to T. Rex and from the transformation of David Bowie to the failure of Big Star and the vision of Roxy Music in 1971, Hepworth touches upon them all, including explanations for longevity and instant, but short success. What he shows in an excellent way is how hard some of the acts worked to gain their success, where others were not able to go to that extremes or just were not good enough, like T.Rex's Marc Bolan or were to insecure like George Harrison.

For me 1971 is not such an important musical year. 1968-1969 may have been the most defining as in that year I started to discover music for myself and in the mid-70s I discovered albums. Of course there are brilliant albums from 1971, but for several albums over which a lot of fuss is showered in this book, like 'What's Going On'; all the singer-songwriters of the time; T.Rex and Sly & The Family Stone to name some, goes that I'm still not hearing it 46 years after the facts. So the conclusion has to be that everyone has his or her own year of defining musical moments. For David Hepworth that is 1971. His book, 1971. Never A Dull Moment, is an extremely enjoyable read, with lots of details that make it worthwhile for most musiclovers of the time to take notice of and enjoy.

Without giving anything away about his conclusions surrounding Elvis Presley shows in 1971, in that he is totally right, but then, the average human being is feeling safer and more secure with what he knows. He overlooks an important fact. New acts are discovered by the day and gain new fans. Hey, even at my age it tends to happen, regularly.

Wo.

Clapton. The Autobiography. Eric Clapton

A nice book for the holiday, this autobiography is. Years ago a friend gave it to me for my birthday and this year I put it in the bag filled to the brim with books to take with me

Am I a giant Clapton fan? No, never have been, but there certainly were periods in his career that I appreciated what he was doing or learned it in hindsight, working my way back. When all is said and done I like him best when he plays the blues or the psychedelic variations of it as with Cream and later on Derek & the Dominos. The last two decennia, parts of the 70s and 80s could have passed me by easily and they did. But there always were some great songs, somewhere in between. I faintly remember reading another biography, a few decades back, having picked up 'Survivor' second hand at a book fair on far off continent.

Clapton reads away easily. It is written with a pen for speed. At the same time it is not extremely well written. For that it has a too high "and then" element, topics change totally unexpectedly, as well as the introspection that never runs very deep. On the other hand, I am not overly interested in his inner struggles, no matter how defining they are for the person Eric Clapton. I would have liked to have learned a little bit more about how the music was made, what choices had to be made there. What is utterly annoying in the Dutch translation I read, is the many mistakes that were not taken out when editing the book. Especially in the final part of the book the mistakes becomes abundant.

What Clapton shows quite well, is the decent of Eric Clapton. The mysteries surrounding his parents and grandparents are well explained and written in an interesting way. It certainly explains something about the man and how the secretiveness surrounding his origins worked its way into what kind of person Eric Clapton became: uncertain, closed up and keeping things hid. When parents turn out to be (step)grandparents and aunts grandaunts, things become confusing. Still, it is clear that his family was supportive of him, loving and caring and that he received the support needed to make his steps into the musical world of the early 1960s in London.

This part of his career is also well documented. The slow steps upwards, the mixing of the minds and the ones that got lucky and rose to the top. Almost all with an enduring career are mentioned, with the exception of The Kinks. What struck me most is how much The Beatles were the top of the tops. They are more or less looked upon as kings. Underneath them are The Rolling Stones, but way, way below. The Rolling Stones were approachable, The Beatles approached. The hierarchy in the 1960s, no matter how big others became, was evident for all. "Clapton = God" was written on walls in London. Sure, but then there were The Beatles.

And then an outsider flew in from the U.S. Again, it becomes clear how large the impact of Jimi Hendrix was on all things British. He blew everyone away with this playing, his skills, his show. Pete Townsend hid under a stone for three years (and wrote his masterpiece 'Tommy' any way). Eric Clapton met his match in each and every way. He ran into the candy of the week phenomenon with the release of Cream's album that hardly received attention because 'Are You Experienced' was the candy. By way of the U.S. Cream found its place in the pantheon any way.

Looking at how important Cream was for Clapton's career path, it amazes me how little is written on the band. Its biggest hit, 'White Room' isn't mentioned at all. Sure, of course a chapter is filled with words on Cream, but I would have liked to learn more. The famed clash of the characters, etc.

Following the acclaimed Derek & the Dominos album Clapton fell into a heroin addiction lasting years, followed by an alcohol addiction of about a decade and some more. In this period he has made several songs that are very much worthwhile, but basically leaned on others mostly and gave them the room to have their place by removing himself. It is a period in which he seems to not dare expose and explore his greatest talent: playing the guitar. Clapton gives some explanations for this, but it makes me wonder what his work could have sounded like, had he worked like he could have in his prime years. We will never know, except, perhaps, in some later live versions of the work.

From there on this is more and more the case. Clapton nosedives into addictions of various kinds, towards the end of the book he's clean for years, but clearly has a buying addiction and the money to afford it. I have heard about all that and it is close to a miracle the man is still alive today. It's too bad, as we will never know what he could have produced if he had not succumbed to heroin and then alcohol. Years of nothing and then years of the uncertainty of not wanting to be the front man. Something he did become in the 80s. I remember hearing a great live show on the radio somewhere around the 'Behind The Sun' album, with great blues tracks, Cream songs and solo work like 'Forever Man'. This is the song where his guitar really soars again, perhaps matching 'Layla' for the first time. In the 90s I saw Clapton live in a stadium with Elton John and in an arena following the 'From The Cradle' album playing a great blues show. That was enough.

What also is illuminating, is how others keep the falling artist upright just enough to pursue his career. People who work tirelessly, for a good salary, no doubt, to keep things on track and the permanently drunk artist upright just enough so he shows up in time to do what he has to do: record, play, talk to the press, etc. Also in this case there is hardly anyone trying to steer him in another direction. Clapton is the boss, the chicken with the golden eggs. In this case nobody had to say with famous hindsight, "if only I had ....". Eric Clapton lived to tell and more.

Clapton finally truly fell in love, settled down and raised a family with wife and three daughters. The point where all the unrest in his head settled down, allowing him to appreciate what he has. It seems also like he ran out of ambition, condition and ideas around 2007. That is fine. Whatever was released after the release of this book, did not keep my attention for long. Clapton's days were already over as far as I am concerned. Every once in a while I play one of his old albums. In general I need something with a little more spark in it these days.

The book sort of peters out like his music did, for me. I'm glad for Eric Clapton that he found what he was looking for though.

Wo.

Time Out Of Mind. The Lives Of Bob Dylan. Ian Bell

Several years ago Wo. reviewed part 1 of this Dylan biography. You can read his findings here: https://wonomagazine.blogspot.nl/2013/08/once-upon-time-lives-of-bob-dylan-by.html.

Now for part 2, but not before I point out the seeming oddity of the picture. Has it been photoshopped? Dylan's extended second and third fingers seem to indicate that he's smoking, don't they?

Part 2 starts with the live resurrection of Dylan and that brilliant album 'Blood On The Tracks'. This was just before I truly discovered Bob Dylan myself with the album 'Desire'. Quite simply one of my favourite Dylan albums. All the rest that came before was only discovered by me in the 80s and 90s. Whether on cd or second hand LP, whatever came on my path. I learned fairly quickly that the early Dylan, the folk/political hero was not for me. It just isn't my music, really.

Unfortunately for me, and the rest of the world, the career of Bob Dylan took a turn for the worst, after 'Desire'. After the so-so 'Street Legal', which holds a few brilliant songs, and the as far as I'm concerned great live album 'At Budokan', Dylan went religious or lost touch with his inner skills or just didn't care. With a few minor sparks on 'I and I' and 'Down In the Groove' (yes, I do hear them Mr. Bell) the 80s went by like for many 60s hero's: in a shambles of pretty awful music. It's not just Dylan, mind. Paul McCartney, Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, they all came up with (mostly) mediocre albums at best, to all return with a strong album in 1989. Why was that? (Van Morrison is the exception to this rule.)

The mystery of the great songs released on 'Biograph', the box set that got me into Dylan more, and "The Bootleg Series, Volume One', that won me over definitely, is something that Bell can only speculate about. The only one who knows why these songs did not make an album great or better, is Dylan himself and he's not talking. The fact that they got released anyway, means that either he saved them for a purpose or lost the final say over what is released and what not, after the original release. Fact is that Bell speculates a lot, but cannot fathom the true reasons.

What he does do, is that he seems to have started to dislike Bob Dylan because of it. The focus lies so much on what is withheld (from him), that it has become personal, while writing this book. It is the artist who decides what to release; even if it hurts his career, and not Mr. Bell or me. I've wondered, yes, of course, after having heard some of these great tracks, later, but that is all. I never cared about bootleg albums and such, so I was simply very pleasantly surprised when I bought the box sets and found all these great, some fantastic new songs there. Instead of being fed live versions and studio version #8 and #9, that for usually very obvious reasons did not make the record, what all other bands usually serve up in exchange for a lot of money, Dylan comes up with new songs that are great. I am the happier for it.

What Bell derives at, is that Dylan seems to have lost his ability to write and compose and his ability to see what is best work was. Personally I have come to the conclusion, somewhere in the 80s already, that he has tried to destroy his career for whatever reason and in the end miserably failed, because in the end he is too good and original an artist. The responses to the first radical change to electric may have genuinely surprised him, after that it was all effect. Maybe some self-loathing was involved after his marriage failed, who knows? Fact is that from 1979 onwards he has been trying to alienate his audience from him. Audiences that keep turning up right up to today, while he has no voice left and is unable to play guitar any more.

The part Bell doesn't cover any more, the book stops in 2012, is where Dylan has lost me completely. Who wants to hear someone with a croaky voice sing Sinatra, Crosby, etc.? I do not even want to hear the originals. It had happened before that with his last albums with original material. I haven't bothered to buy 'Tempest' and the one before that. Just like I didn't like 'Love and Theft'. That's fine. A lot of people like the albums, so I'm happy for them. It's just not my music. What I do, is play the albums I like every once in a while and enjoy them thoroughly. And all those Dylan's Ian Bell writes about? I leave them to Robert Allen Zimmerman to figure out. There's only one Bob Dylan, the one that evolved in public, where we ordinary mortals change more privately. And live? I've seen him three times, which is more than enough. One of them was good, I can't remember when it was, but I came home with a 'Time Out Of Mind' t-shirt.

Time Out Of Mind is very well written and thoroughly researched by Ian Bell. First hand accounts tell about what happened around Dylan or how people perceived things. It's too bad that so much focus on all these bad albums seems necessarily. Where it works is as a counterpoint to the prominent resurrection of Dylan that started with 'Time Out Of Mind'. Ian Bell runs out of pages to let us know how brilliant he thinks Dylan is from here onwards and that he truly is the greatest artist of his time. His book, 'Chronicles', his movie, 'Masters and Commanders', his record, 'Modern Times' and everything after are all lauded by him. Even the Christmas album is 'fun".

Again it becomes clear how much controversy there is around the person(s) Bob Dylan. (Take the cover of 'Oor' 4-2017. Dylan is on the cover, apparently for no special reason as the caption of the cover story reads "Bob Dylan, the treason of the saviour". Once inside I find it is because the April concerts in Amsterdam and his latest album. Controversy rages and sells, still, in 2017.) Nothing the man does can do without eschatology of his each and every word, deed and non-deeds. Ending in op-eds and research papers. There has probably never been an artist who has been (peer) reviewed so often and relentlessly. "I know nothing about it, I haven't seen/read a thing", is Dylan's standard reply it seems, in interviews. In the meantime he plays with it all. Let me give an example from beyond this book.

Fans like to see several of his albums as triptychs. They most probably are not and certainly were not started as thus. Out comes Dylan's latest album in 2017. What does he call it 'Triplicate'. That most be a joke.

With his latest albums (until 2012), reviewed and far beyond by Bell, Dylan has explored the music of the American songbook, like he did in his legendary radio shows 'Theme Time Hour With Bob Dylan'. These shows sort of resulted you could say in three albums, five records, filled with songs from that songbook as sung by Dylan. The man who all but lost his voice.

Who the man beneath all the masks is, if there is a "real" Bob Dylan, we will not divine from Bell's books. For that Dylan is too elusive. He plays the "Bob Dylan game" masterly. Always sowing confusion and thus able to be himself on the two nights in the year he's not out on the road somewhere in the world. With the Nobel Prize in his pocket, something which is speculated on hugely in Time Out Of Mind, it is time to contemplate Bob Dylan's next move. With 'Triplicate' he most probably released his final tribute album. Can he surprise the world again? I won't be surprised if he does. This man is full of them for over 50 years.

Did I read enough on Dylan? Probably yes, but I may surprise myself some more too.

To end on a positive note here. Because of Ian Bell's words I am listening to 'Tempest' again and boy was I wrong to halt at "that" voice at the time. Yes, masterpiece. My sincere apologies, Mr. Dylan.

Wo.

Invisible Republic. Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes. Greil Markus

"John is in the BASEMENT", as we know and we know what he's doing there and where Bob Dylan was and what he was thinking at the same time.The still on the front of Greil Markus' book on The Basement Tapes totally explains itself.

When in the early summer of 1966 Bob Dylan fell from his motorcycle (or not), the world shifted just a little. It is one of that sort of incidents after which something changed, an incident that can be pinpointed to as the moment of change. Dylan who had been battling his audiences who wanted him in his old, acoustic, place as the voice of his generation, while he was busy changing the face of popular and rock music. While he was working on the career he was about to have. Dylan is like Picasso, I always tend to think. His works can be defined into periods, with change as soon as he's bored or said enough and then reinvents himself, baffling all those left behind with their expectations. Often speechless or even in anger, as the man does not do what is expected of him.

In the summer of 1966 Dylan disappeared from the face of the earth, the public side of it. Just like The Beatles did in that same summer. After his recuperation he invited his touring band to come to where he was residing in the Catskills, upstate New York, somewhere around the later very famous Woodstock. There they started a recording process that all in all lasted for almost a year. Music that at the time did not lead to a single record being released. Dylan's late 1967 record had nothing to do with the basement recordings (as they didn't with his success album 'Blonde On Blonde' from 1966).

The sessions led to some hits for other artists and to a few songs on The Band's debut album 'Music From Big Pink', where the basement was situated in. So here we have recording sessions producing dozens of songs, old folk song covers by artist from 'Anthology of American Folk Music' and others and loads of Dylan originals. Some of which are hardly more that snippets full of laughter, never returned to.

That is the physical output. The sessions did something else to. According to Greil Marcus the author of this book, the sessions more or less started the music we now call (alt.)Americana. It started the career of The Band, who found its own voice and songwriting talent in the process, combining the past with the present. And, it set Dylan on a different path, allowing folk and country (back) into his version of rock and pop, mixing everything. Although the extremely stern 'John Wesley Harding' still is a hard album to stomach nearly 50 years later.

In his story trying to tie 'The Basement Tapes' to American (musical) history Greil Markus sometimes goes straight over my head. I just lack some fundamental knowledge that seems to be necessary to really follow him. By creating mythological worlds, the "invisible republic", "Smithville" and "Kill Devil Hill", where he lets loose the songs and personae singing and/or within the songs, a world is created in which to explain the lyrics to the songs. All these worlds converge in that basement and come out as something different, something new but of an undefinable age. Some of the songs are downright dangerous, impossible to escape with your life from, Markus suggests.

In other parts he brings the 1920s singer Dock Boggs alive with his description of the man, his life, his stories, as taped by Mike Seeger, and the times in the backwaters of Virginia and Kentucky. Listening to Boggs' music for the first time on Spotify, yes the man is on there, it is still not difficult to hear the impact the man and his banjo may have had at the time. The voice rough, un-trained, raspy, nasal. And who does that make me think of?

The Basement Tapes I have written on after the release of the box set containing it all or so they claim. (Read more here: http://wonomagazine.blogspot.nl/2014/11/the-basement-tapes-complete-bootleg.html) The book is certainly an aid to understand what went on at the time a bit better. Greil Marcus may sound a bit pompous here and there and flying high as a bird, things do come together. Showing how important these recording from 1967 up to early 1968 were and what great songs came from them.

Because that it did. Released as hits for others, Manfred Mann's 'Mighty Quinn' is in my possession for many decades and 'This Wheel's On Fire' by Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger's Trinity being one of my favourite songs of the era, and on loads of illegal records that somehow found their way from copies of the tapes in the possession of The Band's organist Garth Hudson, who recorded the whole process. It wasn't until 1975 that a double album was released from the tapes and through the years more and more came out, until in 2014 most of the tapes found their way to a cd box release.

In the U.S. religion has always embattled wordly expressions, Markus writes, going all the way back to the first settlers, often religious persecuted groups off to a new start in a new world. This battle goes on right up to today. Dylan & The Band made the worldly songs win in their day, as the singers and their cultural heritage they tapped into were all but dead in 1975. That makes me point out that we are coming to such a tipping point again in 2017. The generation that led the world into Americana is about to leave this world. Three of The Band's five members are no longer among us. Tribute bands are starting to draw large audiences as the originals are no longer there to play for us. That leaves me with one question: is a new sort of basement tapes gathering of musicians necessary? There's one major difference with 1967? Dock Boggs is on Spotify for everyone to hear, let alone what came after him. That is not the same as preserving that voice, that culture and passing the flame to a next generation. And that is exactly what Bob Dylan and his band, later The Band, did during these recording sessions, bundling energy and passing the flame.

Wo.

1966. The year the decade exploded. Jon Savage

1966 was the year I turned 6. The year I broke my leg, moved from infant school to the first grade, was shocked to find out I was supposed to write with my right hand and the year that I was exposed to pop music in a serious way for the first time in my life. Coming from a merchant marine family, my mother went on a long trip with my dad and I stayed with a family that I'd known all my life with two daughters aged 18 and 14, with The Beatles LPs, singles and a transistor radio. I can't remember being overly enthusiastic about music but do remember hearing it and that I only wanted to hear singles not LPs.

So there's no way to claim that I was into the events described in this book, for from even. But I did see that the older brothers of friends and neighbours were growing their hair longer and drove these cool mopeds with a high steer, that their older sisters wore hipper clothes and shorter skirts than their mothers. Things changed a little. Beyond my reach for years to come.

When I look back at the music of 1966 and let's not forget all the horrible songs that were around at the time, is what Savage also mentions: in three years time The Beatles went from ditty little love songs to 'Tomorrow Never Knows' and the Rolling Stones from R&B and blues covers to blasting songs like 'Paint It Black'. The Beatles went from being liked by my then 38 year old aunt, who bought several of the older singles, to a band that she thoroughly disliked. 1966 was the year the generations truly parted. Let's not forget that this change went by most people by far or was simply beyond the reach of most people, whether young or old in 1966. 50 Years down the line that division may still count, as we can ask ourselves who in this age group voted for Donald Trump and who for Hillary Clinton? A small vanguard of the (cultural) elite led society into changes that are still felt to this day, but were sincerely detested by the political and governing elite and perceived as a threat to the nation, like all generation conflicts are. The abyss opened itself. So what?, we can say now. Of course some people derailed totally, but most came out alright and the better for it. They became the pillars of society.

Another interesting parallel is that the older generation more or less accused the babyboomers of just looking out for themselves. There was no solidarity with, especially, the U.S., e.g. in fighting the war the country called upon: Vietnam. In 2016 in NL the 50Plus party draws an ever growing voter potential of babyboomers. Again they are accused of going after choices that are good for their generation and not for younger people. Solidarity is less and less important, while general well-being in society is built on just that.

1966 was the year of the babyboomers who followed artists that were just a few years older in most cases. Born in the very late thirties at most, but most were from 1940-1943. In 1965 they expanded their minds with hallucinogenic substances and by 1966 the music changed. From 'Eight Miles High' to 'Paint It Black' and 'Tomorrow Never Knows' to 'Rainy Day Women #12 to 35' or fill in your favourite song on the line here

On the basis of hit and obscure songs Savage follows the year in 12 essays. One per month on a specific topic, fashion, the bomb, LSD, feminism, black power, etc. By using original publications of the time, whether books, newspaperclippings, magazines, etc. he recreates what came to the fore then and thus is able to look back at it now. In this vein he comes to the core of developments and conflicts. Society trying to seize back control, the vanguard pushing out harder and louder, involving more and more people, students, youths, taking it far beyond a decadent inner circles of young aristocrats in London or the few dopeheads in San Francisco.

What strikes me most, is the violence that raged through cities and university campuses in 1966. It's only one year away from "the summer of love" and there's fighting in the streets. On the one hand fists are raised in the ghettos and on the other students and youths are fighting for their rights. Against a society that tries to put the genie back into the bottle. Ronald Reagan's political career started out on just that ticket. 1966 was as hard as some of its biggest hits.

Jon Savage captures the year in a masterly way. Different sides come forward and the developments in popular music come out very well. This makes the book extremely interesting reading for everyone with an interest in music, history, sociology and political science. What stands out most, from the point of view of this blog, is the fantastic music that was made in 1966. A year of transition, the year that rock, psychedelia and soul became or were about to become mainstream. The year in which in music the doors were opened and executives could not keep up for a few years. That would change all to soon, but not in the years that followed.

And The Beatles? The Fab Four was the band everyone looked (up) to, that led in every way. "They have to sort things out for us" is a quote in the book. The band had quit touring that summer, dead tired and less caring about the band than ever before, went on hiatus and came back with the inspiration to start making just fabulous music. By the time the world got a glimpse of where things were going it was 1967.

Wo.

Dit was Veronica. Auke Kok

Dit boek stond al jaren vaag op een leeslijst en nu is het er van gekomen in 2016. Wat een jeugdsentiment, wat een verbazing en flink wat kijkjes achter de schermen. Het boek van Auke Kok toont heel goed aan hoe het Radio Veronica vergaan is tussen de voorbereidingen op de eerste uitzending tot en met het Wilhelmus vlak voor 18.00 uur op 31 augustus 1974 en die laatste tonen van de Veronica jingle. De manier waarop de politiek met ongewenste dingen omgaat. Dat heb ik van binnenuit mogen aanschouwen aangaande de opvolgers van de Telegraaf en Telefoonwet, (1904) moest ik daar dan achter schrijven, die figureert in het boek van Auke Kok. Figureert? Die wet is een heel belangrijke bijrolspeler in dit boek. De charme van het Veronica verhaal is de gedwongen sluiting. Zonder T&T (1904), geen sluiting en een heel ander verhaal. Immers, geen mega acties, geen romantische herinneringen aan groot onrecht, geen roemrucht einde.

Het verhaal is deels bekend uit eindeloze herhalingen op radio en tv en andere publicaties. Wat wel een openbaring is, maar niet echt een verrassing, was hoe diep commerciële belangen op de achtergrond speelden. Wie waar aan verdiende. Hoe bandjes langs en via Veronica moesten om een kans op een hit te maken. Hoe managers en artiesten rechten deelden met befaamde discjockeys die de rechten in handen kregen via zelf opgerichte uitgeversmaatschappijen. Diskjockeys als muzikanten, tekstschrijvers, producers, rechthebbenden. Dat is een aspect. Het boek is indirect heel persoonlijk.

Wat het boek vooral los maakte waren mijn eigen herinneringen. Waar te beginnen? Misschien een citaat van mijn moeder, gemaakt jaren na het einde in 1974. Als ik overdag luisterde naar Veronica, hoorde ik de Zangeres Zonder Naam en Vader Abraham. Hè?, dacht ik toen. Nu herinner ik me dat dat soort types niet uit de Top 40 te slaan waren, dus ze moesten wel gedraaid worden: als ik op school zat. Wie? Chiel Montagne natuurlijk. 'Op Losse Groeven'? Natuurlijk, denk ik nu na het lezen.

Veronica ging aan voor ik naar school ging, tussen de middag (Jan van Veen) en als ik thuis kwam en niet buiten speelde. (Wat speelt er als ik dit opschrijf? 'Saartje kom je buiten spelen' van Aapnootmies.) Zaterdagmiddag? Dat was de Top 40. "De nationale zaterdagmiddag gebeurtenis", maar daar heb ik al genoeg op dit blog over geschreven.

Ik logeerde wel eens bij mensen met veel oudere dochters in het huis waar ik als baby en peuter had gewoond op de bovenste etage. In de bovenste overloop stond een trap die nog hoger ging, naar het dak. Tijdens het logeren stond een keer het luik boven aan de trap open. Ik de trap op en steek mijn hoofd door het gat. Een magische wereld van blauwe lucht en een dak met grint, schoorstenen, antennes en draden openbaarde zich. Tegen een schoorsteen zat de jongste dochter geleund, genietend van de zon en het geluid uit haar transistor radiootje. Daar kwam muziek uit van Radio Veronica. Als ik heel stil naast haar zou gaan zitten en niet zou gaan lopen over het dak, dan mocht even meeluisteren. Waarnaar? Geen idee meer, maar dit was mijn kennismaking met Veronica. (De spanning en aantrekkingskracht van het dak waren beslist groter dan de muziek, ik zal het maar toegeven.) Ik heb regelmatig gelogeerd bij dit gezin en daar zit muziek aan vast. 'All My Love' van Cliff, 'Stop Stop Stop' van The Hollies is zo'n blokje wat aan elkaar vast zit bijvoorbeeld.

Thuiskomen tussen de middag en Jan van Veen die 'Crimson And Clover' drie keer achter elkaar draait omdat hij het zo'n goed nummer vindt. En hem vijf keer zal draaien als hij in de top 3 komt. Dat maakte indruk. Dan moest het wel een heel goed nummer zijn.

Eind 1969 verhuisden we de grote stad uit naar de provincie. Tot onze verbazing kwam er geen geluid uit de radio op 192 AM. Niets dan geruis. De Top 40? Daar hadden ze nog nooit van gehoord daar en de hits van dat moment, inclusief 'Mexico' van de Zangeres Zonder Naam, kende niemand. Hilversum III bleef over en dat was geen plezier. Het duurde tot de frequentie verandering naar 538 (dat bleek eigenlijk 539 te zijn), dat aldaar Veronica weer te beluisteren viel op mijn transistor, een rood bolletje uit Taiwan, die ik inmiddels had gekregen.

Een ding miste ik volledig in Dit was Veronica. Op 192 klonken altijd altijd morsetekens door. Daar weidt Kok geen woord aan. Mijn vader zei altijd, dat komt van vissersboten af. Zelfs toen vroeg ik mij af of die transmissies niet erg gestoord werden door de muziek. Er is dus geen antwoord in dit boek.

Toen het einde kwam, en hier herken ik mijzelf in Kok's analyse, zat Veronica in een spagaat tussen Vader Abraham en The Rubettes en zo enerzijds en de betere muziek, die grotendeels uit de Top 40 verdwenen was. Vlak voor het einde kwam de 'Top 1000', de grootste hits uit de eerste 500 Top 40's als een prachtige happening, maar met de Top 40 zelf van 1974 had ik al heel weinig meer. Ik kende de nummers allemaal, maar dat was het dan wel. Ik stond vlak voor mijn doorbraak naar die betere muziek. Pink Floyd, Bowie, The Beatles albums, The Stones, The Doors, etc. Waarschijnlijk was ik veel minder gaan luisteren naar Veronica als het was blijven bestaan en meer naar mijn eigen muziek. De romantiek zit in de ondergang.

En daar zit in ieder geval mijn eigen sentiment. De gedachte aan die mooie muziek die ik als lagere schoolkind en vlak daarna allemaal ontdekte via dit station. Maar met Klaas Vaak (Tom Mulder), Chiel Montagne en Will Luikinga had ik toen al heel weinig mee. 'Koffietijd'? Vreselijk. 'Lexjo' daar en tegen was geweldig stoer.

En dan die andere kant van Veronica. De 'Juxebox' tussen 18.00 en 19.00 uur met heel veel vreselijke muziek of 'Men vraagt en wij draaien' op zondagmorgen. Dat was wel het allerergste dat een jongetje dat heel lang haar wil, maar niet mag van zijn ouders, ooit kon aanhoren. Muziek voor opa's en oma's, maar wel op Veronica.

De laatste anecdote gaat toch over 'Jukebox'. 'Ja Zuster, Nee Zuster', was toch wel de serie van mijn heel vroege jeugd. Als ik het al kon zien, want een t.v. hadden mijn ouders niet. 'De Oude Jacob' mijn favoriet. Dat moest dus gespeeld worden op mijn verjaardag. De radio aan in de huiskamer, wij luisteren tijdens het eten in de zijkamer. Mijn ouders zeiden niets en het duurde en duurde maar. Het rumoer aan tafel werd luider, naar mate het uur vorderde. Tegen het einde klonk 'De Oude Jacob'. Of het voor mij was, ben ik nooit achter gekomen. Mijn ouders hebben er nooit iets over gezegd. Toeval of toch niet?

Het einde kwam en natuurlijk zat ik aan de radio. Met tranen in de ogen tijdens het 'Wilhelmus'. Het verhaal van Rob Out ging behoorlijk langs me heen. Dat 'Why' van The Cats werd gedraaid, kon ik me herinneren. Eigenlijk vond ik de meeste van de gespeelde nummers in dat laatste uur niet zo veel. Voor veel van de betrokkenen sloten hier 'the best days of their lives'. De muziek uit deze periode is mij, when all else fails, het meest dierbaarst. Geprint op een lege plaat. Dat maakt toch de grootste indruk.

En toen was het stil (al luister ik naar een paar prachtige Veronica jingles op dit moment). Alles wat daarna kwam bij de VOO, werd steeds minder voor mij. En nu 42 jaar later heb ik nog steeds een abonnement op de Veronica gids. Waarom? Dat is een vraag die ik mijzelf recentelijk weer eens heb gesteld. Er staat op de strips na niets meer in dat mij boeit. Er gaat een einde aan komen, die band. Het gevoel zal altijd blijven, de muziek waarmee ik ben opgegroeid zit in me, mede dankzij Radio Veronica.

Maar het einde van het boek is heel onbevredigend. Hoezo is niet meer te achterhalen hoe het bij de oprichting van de VOO is gegaan? De ondergang is het logische einde van dit boek, maar deze zin? Een deel 2 lijkt me eigenlijk voor de hand liggen. Of ik die zal lezen? Nee, dat denk ik niet.

Wo.

Voor de Veronica jingles klik hier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L72aD5Hu4mE

en hier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ3RVUxoD34

Just Kids. Patti Smith

Somewhere I read that the book will be filmed as a tv series. Why not? Its spans the years in New York City that said goodbye to Andy Warhol and worked its way into the 70s gay and disco scene on the one hand and the punk/new wave scene on the other. As a good a topic as any and with two icons at the center as its heroes. Many legendary persons walk into and out of Patti Smith’s recollections of the time she lived and worked with Robert Mapplethorpe before the world had heard of either of them.

Patti Smith entered my life somewhere late 1975 or early 1976 when her album ‘Horses’ entered the album charts. Man, did I hate it. Absolutely nothing for me. I was waiting to hear another song from ‘Wish You Were Here’ or ‘Desire’. ‘A Night at the Opera’. And here was this bunch of noise from a woman who clearly could not sing. Things change in life. Taste change for music as well as food or art for that matter.

I can’t remember where I was exposed to Robert Mapplethorpe’s pictures for the first time. I think it was in New York in the fall of 1992. What I remember, is staring in horror at some of the pictures of people in the most extreme positions, in situations beyond what ever I could have imagined myself. While at the same time being fascinated by the beauty of the picture itself. With a picture of the man himself, by then already dead, as the devil incarnated. Shock, horror, beauty, art. No other artist ever came close to creating all these contrasting feelings, thoughts and emotions inside of me.

In Just Kids Patti Smith recreates the world in NYC in the late sixties and the early seventies. A period when Mapplethorpe couldn’t wait to get recognized, went far over the edge to chase his ambitions, where Patti supported and loved him when he needed it and he provided shelter for and loved her in his own way. Two uncertain young person trying to keep themselves alive in a big city that doesn’t care. Until that point in time that some of the people they meet do start to care as they recognize something in the drive and talent both have. People in influential places that were able to change matters a little for them that provided them with the next step up the stairs.

What strikes me is that large sections in the book have nothing to do with singing or music. Patti Smith tried to be an artist and a poet. Worked in a bookshop. The music came later. At the time she started to perform with her poems, she brought a guitarist. The one that is still at her side in 2015, Lenny Kaye.

There are a few little mistakes in the book, when a reference is made to a song or record when it wasn’t released yet, but who cares. It is about the feeling that is expressed with the reference. What is striking, is that years before either Mapplethorpe or she became famous, they meet all these famous person. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix? They have small roles in Just Kids. (Beat) poets, the Warhol entourage, Sam Sheppard, musicians? All there. The Velvet Underground playing in Max’s Kansas City? Patti is present as she frequents the place regularly and knows the right people. Signs that both are moving up in the world, start getting noticed, before the rest of the world does so. It is that which fascinates me in the book. We get an insight into the years of hard work and being dirt poor at times living in places without warm water or bad heating. And bad food, most of the time. And Patti barely drinks, doesn't do drugs, at least in the pages covering the first 26 years of her life, doesn't smoke (idem) and is a law abiding, religiously raised young woman, who sometimes imagines doing bad things like kicking in a window and looting the store. Everything I had not expected from the wild image or perhaps better wild look of those years soon to come.

For the rest. What to think of a woman who lives with a man who loves other men? I decided not to judge. They loved each other. Each in his/her own way and made a pledge to not leave each other until they both could and had made it. It got them there and both followed their own path. For the one it all ended too soon, the other is till on stage and performs her breakthrough album to celebrate its 40th birthday.

At times the references to people are a bit too much, some descriptions too arty or only possible to write with the wisdom of hindsight, but in the end it’s all alright. Just Kids gives an insight that is extremely interesting and fascinating into the lives of two successful artists before that time on the rise to where they would be in some years. Through dedication and hardship with some hard work thrown in there. The acclaim for the book is well deserved.

And musically? Things became quite alright between Patti Smith and I. With 'Wave' as my absolute favorite album. Let me make a promise here. I'll review 'Horses' later this year in honour of the 40 year celebration. And as I still haven't seen her live, perhaps it's time to do so.

Wo.

You can buy Just Kids on Bol.com