Hungry Years (1974 - 1993)

"Painstakingly honest, that's how I like to be…"

JP Den Tex - from: 'Beat & Poetry', 1998.

1 - The Piano Sessions ('74 - '79)

The Piano Sessions are a compilation of early, mainly unfinished songs; it consists of various demos from the seventies. Collector/friend Wim Lau and I recently discovered the tracks on the shelves of our old demo studio in Arnhem (Stable Studio). Its owner Roel Toering has now lovingly remastered them.
At the time when these recordings were made, piano was still my main instrument (I sort of quit playing it in 1980), so that's why the compilation's called The Piano Sessions…

In the lyrics you can hear the great torments of youth, the fragile voice of a romantic, idealistic adolescent brimming with Weltschmerz, self-doubt and self-pity (Sad Song In Your Mind). It was the era of the Vietnam War. My generation as a whole being totally anti-war, I was desperately trying to avoid getting drafted into the Dutch Army (Sunday Night Express). I started out by faking mental illness and, as a dire consequence, almost ended up getting it! It brought me on the verge of severe depression: that's why my lyrics here clearly show suicidal tendencies (Johnny's Birthday).

The last two tracks on the album are from a date a little more recent, probably somewhere around 1978; they first appeared on the Attraction album. In L'amour (a short Italian movie) I travel by train to Paris to meet with my newly conquered French 'gamine', just to find out that French love is more elusive and dangerous than I ever could have imagined… The whimsical nature of the girl in the song shows a strong resemblance to the character of my mother, who had striking French traits, which I sometimes found hard to deal with. For the rest the song is pure Fellinian-style fiction. However, its main theme will frequently pop up again on other, later occasions. Especially the musical Wenderpunktis still very much worth listening to, I think.

The musicians on this track include Jacob Klaasse on piano, Hans Waterman (from Solution) on drums, Tom Barlage (from Solution) on alto saxophone, John Schuursma (from Brainbox and Rob Hoeke Group) on bouzouki and Spanish guitar, as well as buddy Kees Maat (Fungus) on accordion.

2 - From 'Heartbeat' to 'Playtime'

In the second half of1980 I emerged from a deep personal crisis: by then I had left my partner for almost ten years S. and my sweet, little daughter Belou (born in 1977), after a long, hard period of depression, which started around 1975 and gradually grew more serious. One day I even sold all of my musical instruments, quit making music and started working as an assistant driver on a motor ambulance…
But it wouldn't bring me the badly needed inner peace and harmony.  For me life continued to be like an impenetrable, thick fog. At that time I got in touch with Jung's views on dreaming… I soon got a few enlightening dreams as a consequence, and spurred by their crystal clarity decided to break away from repressing, old family traditions, to start living my own life at last.
Now, with hindsight, this seemingly cruel, painful move has proved to be a very wise decision. At that time I really wasn't so sure! Although my chronic depression would soon greatly diminish...

By the end of 1979 it had even disappeared altogether. At the same time, almost out of the blue, I got (through mediation of Ralph v.d. Waart-van Gulik) a surprising offer from Radio Luxemburg's Hubert Terheggen: to make a solo album for his Belgian company, as an independent singer/songwriter… It was a tremendous opportunity. Although I had sold all of my instruments, I was quick to agree.

Amsterdam, where I lived, was bristling with healthy, punk oriented musical action at the time. So it wasn't hard to find good musicians, as well as interesting people. In a word, from now on I led a new, bohemian life…Together with drummer Kees Meerman (from Herman Brood's Wild Romance), Oh Boy's young guitar hero Michiel Jansen and musical companion Jaap van der Sluis on bass guitar we recorded Heartbeat in three exciting weeks. It was released in September of that same year on Ariola Records and immediately drew large attention and critical praise (What True Love Can Do To Your Soul).

About one year later I was asked to make a follow-up album. I agreed, although I wanted a slightly different sound now, with more keyboards and more musical variation. My  sophisticated friends of Dutch band Solution (keyboard player and long time friend Willem Ennes, saxophone player Tom Barlage, drummer Hans Waterman and guitarist Harry Hardholt) were the obvious choice I had in mind. Once again bass player Jaap van der Sluis completed the line-up. As an extra, my new girlfriend J. was proud to join the guys as a backing vocalist on some of the tracks: Playtime!

The title, however, was deliberately misleading… The mood in the streets was somber, as the threat of nuclear destruction still hung heavy over Europe at that time: should intermediate cruise missiles be deployed or not? Large demonstrations took place in all of our main cities. Yet as a former student of Russian language and history I wasn't among the demonstrators anymore: I had started to distrust the Communist Regime as much as I did Capitalist Rule and wrote this elegant, reggae-inspired reflection 'entre les groupes'. Cold War Children never learned how to laugh - Will they ever love ambiguous life…? 

read on >>