I was VERY surprised Ross, to see that a song like
Avond or something like that was placed on number 4
of last years Top 2000 (!??). My girlfriend said that
she had heard that this song might end on number one
this year?? and from your posting I gather that maybe
it ended on number one this year indeed??. In any
case: I used to play Boudewijn a lot (and sang him
too) year and years ago. I have never ever heard of
this seemingly famous song Avond and can not imagine
that so many people have heard, bought and liked it
so much that it would justify such a high position in
the Top 2000 charts. Absolute nonsense I think. Last
year I thought that maybe one singular and very big
fan had voted 10,000 times or something like that.
Boudewijn was quite good many many years ago. I do
not find his latest work so very special. I once saw
him only a couple of years ago, when he played on the
Crossing Border festival. Right after his not so
special performance (to my personal opinion, of
course) John Hiatt also played a set, and then one
could easily see (and hear!!!) the difference between
somebody who is "world famous in The Netherlands" and
a real musical giant. It was clear from the very
first note that Hiatt played.
BUT I have to add on a more positive note that the
old work of De Groot (with lyrics by Lennart Nijgh
(who still owes De Groot Euro 4.5378, this remark is
only meant for Marco and other Dutch music lovers ;-
)) is kind of part of our Dutch musical culture and
is really good. Some songs are kind of classics in
Holland. And I would trade a lot of the music
currently made by Dutch singers for the old work of
De Groot.
