Getting close to wrapping up this week of Dutch records, with another “dubbelalbum” that I got for 6 Euro. This thing just screamed Dutch music and for that reason alone I got it. Not for the subtle reference to Guardians of the Galaxy.
Well, it would not have been a trip to Amsterdam without some time spent at my favorite park in town and probably the world, Vondelpark. I made three trips out there during my last stay, two months ago. As stated in the last posts, the weather was pretty poor. One day was covered with snow, one day was slightly rainy, and the third day was quite nice but the grass and lesser traveled paths were pretty muddy due to the earlier weather. But still a good time had each day. I sat at my favorite bench and listened to last months songs on my I-pod as well as walked all around the park. Other than that, nothing radically new here. The pictures I took probably look the same as last years.
I can also say the same for my second favorite park, Oosterpark. I was there one day this trip and took the same pictures of the same statue of the boy on the goat. When I went, the snow from a few days before was melting, sort of making a snowman graveyard if you will. Anyway, as always, I enjoyed my time in this park as well although really nothing new from last trip either.
During the last two trips, I have taken a liking to going to the zoo but perhaps I am just getting old.
The Doug Henning doppelganger on the cover of today’s post, Boudewijn de Groot (1944) is a Dutch singer/songwriter who like yesterday’s subject, was born in the Dutch East Indes. Unlike yesterday’s subject, de Groot was born in captivity in a Japanese camp. His mother would die a year later. He and his family returned to the Netherlands in 1946. Starting his career as a protest singer, he had a significant amount of hits in the late 60’s. He sung about nuclear war, Vietnam, and LBJ, which seems strange to me for a Dutch singer to sing about, in Dutch no doubt.
Oddly enough, his one of his biggest hits “Jimmy” came out after the release of this record. in 1973 (much like tomorrow;s subject). He has some sporadic success in the years that followed and is still alive at the time of this writing.
As stated above, this record was released in 1971 and was a greatest hits compilation of his impressive work from the 60’s. As stated at the time, he was regarded as a protest singer and some critics both positively and negatively, compared him to George Harrison (although I would say his early stuff is closer to Phil Ochs). Anyway, these songs are pretty well put together. It should be noted that none of the songs I posted are overtly political but after glancing at a few titles, I can see some evidence of some protest work. I probably should have written more on the subject but I am in the middle of doing ten things while writing this post so I will just say that I really enjoyed this album.
For a sample, I was torn between about ten songs, but ultimately went with one of his bigger known tunes, “Picknick” which starts with that noted Harrison influence. Next I went with “Ken ke dat land” (Do You Know That Country). From there, I submit “Zonder vrienden kan ik niet” (You Can Not Do Without Friends). Finally, I went with de Groot’s cover of the Kink’s “Well Respected Man”.
I did not think I would really like this album when I bought it. I thought it would be typical 1970’s Euro-pop. Instead, I was greatly impressed by this record. Satisfactory.