His significance for Dutch pop music is without a doubt great. Henny Vrienten, who died this week, became, together with his musical accomplice Ernst Jansz, the face of Nederpop in the eighties. The overwhelming success of Doe Maar was the prelude to generations of Dutch-speaking singers and bands. Toon Bear. Charity. The Frank Boeijen Group. The Cabinet. Hiding as a rocker behind mediocre English lyrics, sung with a Dutch accent, was no longer necessary. The shame about singing in Dutch was finally over. The current hip-hop generation is also indebted to word artist Vrienten.
Doe Maar felt exactly the zeitgeist, in the midst of the Cold War and growing individualism. With songs like ‘De bom’ (by Ernst Jansz), ‘Nederwiet†Joost Belinfante) and ‘Is this all’ (Vrienten). As a singing bassist, Henny Vrienten became an important ambassador for an instrument that is generally less visible in pop history, with the exception of Paul McCartney and Sting. Suddenly bassists were cooler than guitarists or drummers.
Even when Doe Maar was closed down (at least temporarily), Vrienten continued to leave his mark as a silent force on the music that generations have grown up with, often unknowingly. He composed the music for numerous TV shows (sesame street† Clock house), movies (Abel† Sonny Boy) and the musical Ciske de Rat and continued to make music in a succession of smaller and larger projects, as if his life depended on it. Time and gravity, he once said in an interview, were his greatest enemies.
In the heyday of Doe Maar, fame was the enemy. The Netherlands had not experienced anything like this since Beatlemania. Screaming girls, attention from the tabloid press and a sea of merchandise in the typical fluor colors for Doe Maar. As with The Beatles, that fame was stifling. It was less and less about the music. The band got stuck between an increasingly younger audience and the ‘serious’ pop fan, who didn’t like all those swooning teenagers. Hence the decision to stop in 1984, at the peak. A courageous decision: few artists are given the opportunity to see when they’ve had enough. Continuing in the same groove is easier than reinventing yourself.
The Beatles’ musical influence extends, of course, but Doe Maar still sounds remarkably fresh and original, even to today’s ears. Pop tunes, clever arrangements, combined with intelligent, Dutch lyrics, immersed in an exciting sauce of ska and reggae. Typical for Vrienten is the discomfort he felt with the borrowed neighbor that Doe Maar played in reggae. A lot of reggae music is “made from behind — just like the blues in the United States, for example — and we’re all just well-fed, healthy provincials.” he said in 2019† “I would not call it exploitation, because of course it remains a kind of homage, but it remains a bit double.”
Vrienten was less enthusiastic about ‘Nederwiet’ later in life, especially when weed became stronger and less harmless due to smarter cultivation. “People get into psychological problems because of it,” he said in an interview. “So I can no longer sing ‘Nederwiet’ full-heartedly, especially not for a young audience.” Vrienten in a nutshell: not only a gifted composer and musician, but also a beautiful, committed person.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of April 27, 2022