Doe Maar: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:15, 10 June 2002

Revision as of 03:30, 9 August 2002

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<b>'''Doe Maar</b>''' (1978 - 1984) was a [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[ska]] band with [[punk]] and [[reggae]] influences.

The name is Dutch for <i>''go ahead</i>'', mostly used in a depreciatorydeprecatory, sulkingsulky manner.

They are generally considered to be the most successful band in the history of Dutch pop music, perhaps not by any objective standard (what would that be?), but because everybody says so.

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=== The success ===

<i>''(if you've heard of [[the Beatles]], the following may sound remarkably similar in aspects)</i>''

==== howHow it started ====

For a couple of years, Doe Maar had lead a fringe existanceexistence. The band had more or less decided to split, but were looking for a new bass player to replace Piet Dekker in order to wrap up their performance obligations and to finish recording the second (and what was then thought to be the last) album.

They approached professional player and composer Henny Vrienten, who refused at first, because Doe Maar did not look like the right step in anybody's carreer.

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Later Henny decided to join after all, because Doe Maar looked like a band where 'fun' was a key word, and with him the band suddenly had two gifted song writers in their midst (the other being Ernst Janz) who influenced each other's work in a positive way.

==== accidentalAccidental air time ====

The record company was still not convinced of their quality and held back the release of the album, [[Skunk]], until after the [[december season]] and after [[carnaval]], because they felt that the bands offering would not survive amidst bigger names.

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Listeners immediately picked up on the song, [[Doe Maar's 32 jaar|32 jaar]] (<i>32 years old</i>) although they had difficulty remembering the original name '1 dag of 2' (<i>a day or 2</i>, until radio dj [[Frits Spits]] renamed it to the current title. The rest, as they say, is history.

==== theThe reason ====

The huge success of Doe Maar cannot just be explained as a function of the quality of their music. Here are some possible explanations.

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Doe Maar had two older front men: as Henny Vrienten sings, he was 32 at the time and Ernst Janz was of a similar age. However, they were good looking in their own way and what's more, their songs were unusually raw, honest, direct.

<i>''(of course, everybody says that about the artists they admire -- you won't hear somebody saying 'they were a bunch of lying hypocritshypocrites' -- but perhaps somebody else can expand a bit by some text analysis)</i>''

Of course, the feedback function of any hype could have played a role: once Doe Maar were recognised (consciously or unconsciously) as a hype, they in effect were a hype.

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=== The end ...? ===

The band had a hard time dealing with the success. They did not revel in seeing tens or hundreds of young girls fainting in overly crowded hot venues, nor did they particularly seem to like the overnight and complete loss of privacy. Telling may be name and a stanza from their song 'E&eacute;n nacht alleen' (<i>''One night alone</i>'')

Sylvia, Jeannette, Nathalie en Fien;

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Their break-up in 1984 made it to the usually very high-brow public television eight o' clock news.

However, the band members still enjoyed playing together and admitted to doing so in private. In 1999 they got back together for a one off tour and album, Klaar (<i>''Finished</i>'' or <i>''Ready</i>'', whichever way you want to interpret it).

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