de prins op de groene erwt kuste de prinses en hij

Fantastisch
wat herinneringen
met mensen kunnen
doen.

Vijftig jaar geleden
sliep ik in 'n houten huisje
in de tuin met 'n grote houten radio
& Radio Luxembourg~208 {& AFN!}
met popmuziek van die jaren
& Sam Cooke ben ik nooit vergeten.
Als je 12/13 jaar bent
maken liedjes & melodietjes
net zo'n diepe indruk als al de boeken die je leest
en alles wat je ziet en
ervaart.

Heel de wereld
ligt voor je open en alles is nog nieuw!
1957: ik was net begonnen met m'n eerste Franse woordjes
& in de volgende vier jaar kwamen er
ook Engelse & Duitse bij ~
geschiedenis & aardrijkskunde ~
tekenen & schilderen ~
zingen & heel veel
lezen!

The Best Things
in Life are Free:
nobody knows you
when you're down and out.
Frankie & Johnny:
try a little tenderness cause I love you
for sentimental reasons
and if I had a hammer when I fall in love
I'll be twistin' the night away
with this little light of mine ~
blowin' in the wind
with the Tennessee
waltz
...

Anyway,
those first popsongs
really did impress me very much every evenin'
in my little lonely wooden house in the garden
samen met Eric de Noorman & Kapitein Rob,
Lord Lister & de Rode Pimpernel, detectives
& all kinds of strange adventures from
all times and places.

Some years later
I bought a record of a gospel sermon/service {LIVE!}
in Harlem, New York with songs like "The Lord God is my Shepherd"
& speaches like:
our life is like a train to eternity,
to get on that train you need a ticket
and that ticket is Jesus ~
you're not going to be able to get on that train
if you don't have Jesus as you ticket
and all kinds of stuff
like that!

In de oude schuur
van m'n opa had ik ook 'n grote muurplaat gevonden
met de brede weg naar 't verderf & 't smalle pad dat voert naar het eeuwige leven.
Al dat soort van herinneringen vormen de illustraties van je bestaan met de sprookjes die je hoort
& de mydibijbelverhaaltjes tussen paradijs
& 't koninkrijk der goddelijke
hemelen
...

Ik was alweer 19
in 1964 when Sam Cooke died
in a fatal shooting incident in a motel in Los Angeles on December 11:
he was only twenty-seven years old & had already shown many times over that he would belong
to the Very Big of American show business. Unfortunately, this would never be ~
he was shot or died like Martin Luther King, Marilyn Monroe & John F. Kennedy
& his brother Robert and so many others
of other times &
places
...

This preacher's son
from Chicago, who began his vocal career with gospel groups
and changed over to pop songs in 1956, was lost to his fans at a time when his talent
had not yet been fully developed. Yet, he was
already being called the "Black Sinatra,"
since he was fluent in all styles
just like the great Frank,
and did not shun any
type of song.

There are just
more than seven years
between the first hit with which Sam Cooke shook the pop world,
"You Send Me," which made it to the number one hit in America in the autumn of 1957,
and his last hit, "Shake,", which came out in January 1965.
By that time I had refused to be a soldier in the Dutch
Army, put into a labor camp & sent to prison when I
refused that too ~ the rest already
is known?!

So now
I am looking back
upon fifty years that hurried by like in a flash
of the near death experience or in lucid dreams
in which all things are connected & have their
extra meanings &
purposes
.......

Anyway,
within a few years
of Sam's successful beginning as a pop singer,
it was clear to everyone that this Cooke had more in his musical rucksack & sleeping bag
than just singing teenage top hits! After his death
the critics rightfully stated that Sam Cooke had
in fact stood at the head of the entire sweet
soul balled tradition. Artists such as Otis
Redding & Al Green, Smokey Robinson
& Marvin Gaye have never concealed
Sam Cooke's tremendous influence
on their vocal achievements
.............

And what's more,
Sam Cooke proved, just as Ray Charles
that as a rhythm 'n' blues artist he could keep up an extremely vital musical relation~
ship with a black audience while he was also able to sing old standards effortlessly in the expensive night-clubs frequented by whites. Folk came just as easy for Sam Cooke just like about every other genre light music: a sublime singer & full-blooded entertainer like Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt, Mahalia Jackson
& Buffy Sainte Mary & so many others {Judy Collins, Bob Dylon, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez,
Jackson Browne, Donovan, Leonard Cohen
and so on}!

Het grote voordeel
van tegenwoordig is dat je niet alleen meer
zoals vroeger bijna helemaal afhankelijk bent van radio
& platen maar dat je al die 'oudjes'
ook terug kunt horen & zien
op de tv
e.d.?!

Net
zoals de Duitsers
hun geschiedenis al meer dan vijftig jaar eindeloos
blijven 'herkauwen' in alle fijne details
in zwartwit
EN
kleuren!

Al
die muziek
gecombineerd met mydi~
bijbelverhalen & 'gewone' historie is 'n
eindeloos vliegend Sindbadtapijt
of de Sesamgrot van Ali Baba
& z'n veertig rovers midden
in de woestijn, Petra
& Sinai
...

Stardust
we are, golden,
& we have to get back
to The Garden one way
or another:
that's
what our brains
are for!

Die
combinatie van
talen, melodietjes, visuele
& alle andere 'international'
sensory perceptions
is realy fabulously
dear to
me!

Sleep well:
dream sweet &
tell us all
about
IT