The next entry in our Rockin’ The World Cup series is The Netherlands. I’ve asked my blogging-friend and current Netherlander Hans Werksman to guest-blog this particular post, and he doesn’t fail to impress. Hans is the editor of Here Comes The Flood, a favorite music blog of mine and one I recommend checking out. He routinely offers up great live shows to download as well as a string of memorable music quotes he seems to find. Those are my favorite. But now I’ll hand over the reins to Hans…
And as a final touch God created the Dutch. Or so they say. Dutch soccer is famous all over the world. The passing game! Johan Cruijff, Willem van Hanegem, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten … Drop any of their names and the beer is on the house. But we were never world champion, we’re the only country to lose two consecutive finals in a row. Any Dutch man over 38 remembers where he was when Holland lost the 1974 match against Germany. It took 14 years to get rid of the trauma when we beat the Germans in the semi-finals on their own turf (yeah, we went on to beat the Russians in the final to become European champion, big deal).
Ok, Dutch music. Let´s get started with one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorites:
George Baker Selection – Little Green Bag. No, this song is not about dope, the guy who wrote it has no idea what it’s about in fact, he just liked the sound of the words. This is the only cool song he ever wrote. Avoid at all costs albums with titles such as Paloma Blanca.
Golden Earring – Radar Love. The ultimate road song. This is an acoustic version recorded live in a bar in the center of Amsterdam. The Earrings are an institution, they have been around longer than the Grateful Dead, and are still going strong.
Bettie Serveert – Afterhours. Bettie is a popular indie band, who have a released of string of high-quality albums. In 1997 they did a short tour perfoming Velvet Underground songs. The Amsterdam show was recorded for a live cd. Great song to hear in a bar while discussing the match of today.
Click on the flag for more info about The Netherlands’ national team and their upcoming schedule.
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Aw, how could you miss out Shocking Blue’s “Love Buzz” – an all time classic!
Thanks Hans. Surprised to see some input from some European influences. I went to your blog. Great site. Keep it up. Hope I get to the Netherlands someday, and Scandinavia too. When my son had a passport before I did, and travelled to Europe, which I’ve still never been to? I knew something wasn’t right. Mostly that, I need to get there. It’s on my list.
Take care and thanks for the feature here. I’ll check out your site more often….or try to. I’m not good at remembering them all, but I like yours. Take care man. I’m “trying” to get this soccer thing..I’ve been watching it.
dad
@The Riverboat Captain:
Yeah, I gave Shocking Blue some serious thought – I own a great 5cd box with 60s Dutch music – so that I could mention that Love Buzz was covered by Nirvana …
Nice Hans, But how could you make a typo in the name of the dutch son of God, JC?
Not a typo. English speaking people don’t understand the “ij” in a name (and that’s why the name of Rotterdam team Feijenoord is now spelled as Feyenoord – JC made them Dutch champion in 1984).
Damnit lol, is it “Johan Cruyff” or “Johnan Curff?”
You crazy kids gotta decide, Google tells me it’s Johan Cruyff but I’m going to believe Hans if he says he’s sure.
His official website in Dutch, hence the “ij”:
http://www.cruijff.com/
(hey, I wrote the HTML and the scripting for that one a couple of years ago)
Two English sites, hence the “y”:
http://www.cruyff-foundation.org/
http://www.worldofjohancruyff.com/
His official site says “Johan Cruijff,” therefore that is what I shall post.
Still, he is our Son of God. Another (American) Son of God is John Coltrane.
Must mention John Cale. He’s Welsh ..
Johan Cruijff – the only man to tell Adidas what to do – didn’t he ask for two stripes on his shirt and not three? A genius footballer.
Does the Riverboat have internet service aborad? Thank You
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