Motley Moose – Archive

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”. For example …..

SEPARATED at BIRTH – two former politicians: Gilles Vaillancourt – set to stand trial for his actions while mayor of Laval, Québec – and former US House speaker Dennis Hastert.

   

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.

ART NOTES – works by Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley in an exhibition entitled American Adversaries are at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas through January 20th.

WOTTA CONTRAST – as we read more about the pipeline-to-prison here in the US, inmate numbers in Germany are steadily declining …. so that some states are selling off unneeded correctional facilities to private investors.

BRAIN TEASER – try this Quiz of the Week’s News from the BBC.

WEDNESDAY’s CHILD is the late Buddha the Cat – a quite overweight Tennessee kitteh whose video went viral when he was placed on an underwater treadmill to lose weight, which he did …… but a congenital heart condition ended his life.

A LONG-SINCE unreleased (and forgotten) 1980’s recording by Johnny Cash was located in his archives – and will be released in 2014.

BOOK NOTES – some forty-three years after his death, a new volume of interviews, thoughts and diaries by Jimi Hendrix has been published.

THURSDAY’s CHILD is Freckles the Cat – a kitteh found alive in a rubble, with burnt paws and singed whiskers, but recovering: one week after flames destroyed a Kentucky animal shelter and killed three dozen pets.

THIS PAST SUNDAY on NPR, I heard a segment with David Harris-Gershon – formerly known on this site as The Troubadour – about his memoir entitled What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist who Tried to Kill Your Wife? … conducted by Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin. At the first link is both the audio and a written transcript.

HAIL and FAREWELL to the legendary jazz guitarist Jim Hall – who had time, it seemed, for every aspiring guitarist who sought his help – who has died at the age of 83.

SEPARATED at BIRTH – TV star Krysten Ritter (“Breaking Bad”, “Gilmore Girls”) and Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway.

   

……and finally, for a song of the week …………… seven years ago last week, we lost a Dutch singer that – for a brief time – had quite an international following. While she had a less-visible subsequent solo career, Mariska Veres and her Shocking Blue bandmates had some great chart success (including Venus that reached #1 in the US) that helped other Dutch musicians gain a following – and her passing was mourned by more than a few on this side of the Atlantic.

Mariska Veres was born in The Hague in 1947, and her striking appearance came in no small part from her own mixed heritage. Her father was a Hungarian violinist of Romani (gypsy) origin, and her mother was born in Germany of French and Russian ancestry. As a seventeen year-old, the strong-voiced Mariska played in several bands in the Netherlands – with Les Mysteres in 1964 (and you can hear their version of the classic Summertime by George Gershwin) – and then in the post-Beatle era, other bands with English names (Blue Fighters, Danny and his Favourites, the Motowns) before joining the Bumble Bees in 1966.

Meanwhile, the band Shocking Blue was founded in 1967 by guitarist Robbie van Leeuwen (with bassist Klaasje van der Wal and drummer Cor van der Beek) as well as vocalist Fred de Wilde. Shortly thereafter, Shocking Blue’s manager saw the Bumble Bees perform and was blown away by Mariska Veres (likening her to the Jefferson Airplane vocalist Grace Slick). That encounter proved invaluable, as Fred de Wilde had to join the Dutch Army in 1968 … and the band’s manager prevailed upon van Leeuwen (who had become a prolific songwriter) to recruit Mariska Veres to join the band.

As someone whose boyhood crush was Grace Slick: I saw some definite parallels between the two singers. Both had strong voices that could break-through the (comparatively) weak PA systems of the day, both had striking looks (including long dark hair) and both were recruited to (a) leave their old band and (b) to replace departing lead singers in their new bands – in the case of Grace Slick, it meant leaving The Great Society to replace Signe Toly Anderson (who was beginning a family).

Unlike Grace Slick (who noted her many inter-band trysts in her vivid memoirs several years ago), Mariska Veres made it clear to her new bandmates that she wanted strictly a professional relationship with them. And unlike nearly all rock musicians of the late ’60’s – early 70’s era who hit the big time: she neither smoked, drank nor used drugs.

   

The very first single they released was the Robbie van Leeuwen-written 1969 smash hit Venus (more on this later on). On their US tour, the syndicated columnist Earl Wilson referred to her as a “beautiful busty girl” (ouch) but the song reached #1 in the US.

They also had several other singles and albums that garnered sales and acclaim, such as “Blossom Lady”, “Eve and the Apple” and perhaps their second-best selling tune, Never Marry a Railroad Man – part of van Leeuwen’s love of Americana themes. The B-side of their big hit was, in fact, my own favorite Shocking Blue song: and at this link you can hear the band play Hot Sand – with some added sitar.

The band’s guitarist Robbie van Leeuwen later noted that when their new singer joined, everything changed – “In one year, everything we dreamed about happened. We sold millions around the world, and gave other Dutch groups a belief in their own potential”. The success of Focus (featuring the guitar of Jan Akkerman on Hocus Pocus) and the band Golden Earring would seem to bear this out, that the record industry was paying attention to Dutch bands.  

Shocking Blue broke up in 1974, and Mariska Veres began a solo career (in a more low-key manner). Ten years following the break-up (due to a successful cover version of their big hit) the band reunited for a time, before van Leeuwen left to go into record producing (and he later produced some of Mariska’s subsequent recordings).  

In 1993, Mariska Veres formed the Shocking Jazz Quintet – which performed both Shocking Blue tunes (plus other 1960’s-70’s pop/show tunes) … yet in a softer, jazz format for a middle-aged performer. They released an album Shocking You in 1993. And in a nod to her father’s ancestry, she also recorded an album in 2003 entitled Gipsy Heart – and at this link you can hear “Veled Vagyok Meg Gondolatban”.

   

Mariska Veres died of cancer in early December, 2006 at the age of 59. A noted cat lover (another gold mark for her, in my opinion) she told a Belgian magazine a few years earlier of how she had overcome the downside of her early fame. “Back then, I was just a painted doll – nobody could ever reach me. Nowadays, I am more open to people”.

   

For an example of her later recording career: here is a video of her and the Shocking Jazz Quintet singing the bouncy Lot of Living to Do from the play Bye, Bye Birdie of 1960.

But let’s close with her signature tune …which gained even more notoriety over the years. Venus was sampled by the Dutch band Stars on 45 and their medley reached #1 in the US. Five years later, the English girl-group Bananarama had a hit with Venus that also reached #1. And while allowing for the fact that the Stars on 45 only had part of Venus …. nonetheless this song has reached #1 in the US … three times.

A few months before her death, Mariska Veres performed this song on Netherlands television, with a full band (including horns) to a sing-along audience. And below you can hear it.