I am not at all socially critical
These days, several videos are circulating on social media in which Frank Zappa warns of the alliance of fascists and evangelists that threatens American democracy. The intention is of course to show that Zappa forty years ago already foresaw what is now unfolding in all openness. It is striking how powerfully he reasons in those interviews. While his table companions, for whom the term fascist theocracy is apparently completely new, still protest a bit, Zappa unapproachably points out the facts, meanwhile puffing on a cigar.
Last weekend I was one of the “confused people who joined a pro-Hamas demonstration”, in the words of our most popular political leader. The Hague was red with people who can no longer handle the constant stream of genocidal images and call those above us to account. Shuffling along in the human red line, I had time to think about my own role. Could I do more than just blend in for a day with a crowd of people who show their disgust for our radical right-wing rulers who keep claiming that Israel is defending itself? And what about my fellow artists, when will they finally make themselves heard loud and clear? Where is the new Frank Zappa?
First, a little about myself. On October 29, 1983, I performed at the largest demonstration ever held in the Netherlands, against the stationing of cruise missiles in the Netherlands. 550,000 participants listened to speeches by Mient Jan Faber and Joop Den Uyl on the Malieveld, and to This is Welfare. That still fills me with a certain pride. You can’t accuse me of not trying. Later, I wrote more politically inspired lyrics, about the harsh refugee policy, about right-wing lunatics, about the special place in hell that I think should be created for finfluencers and much more. Don’t get me wrong, I know my place, I’m not a poet, of all the time and energy I put into my music, only a small part goes to the lyrics. Although reviews of our albums are invariably 95% about the lyrics, I’ve only spent 5% of my time on them. My lyrics can be about anything that comes to my mind. About art, about old friends, about (grand)children, and so, also about politics.
(By the way: The Dutch is often called a “socially critical band” but I am not at all socially critical, rather anti-socially critical. I am completely in favor of society, and precisely against everything that threatens the democratic legal order. Seen from this perspective, you should rather accuse Wilders, Orban, Trump, Musk, LePen and their autocratic kindred spirits of social criticism).
In other words: I can go out into the streets dressed in red and express my displeasure with our extreme right-wing government, but I happen to have another outlet through my work, however insignificant. I have no illusion that I can set anything in motion with the lyrics of The Dutch. But perhaps it gives some listeners a good feeling that more people think and feel like them, just as many people in The Hague must have thought and felt, in 1983 and last weekend.
I read a column by Robert van Gijssel in the Volkskrant, in which he, like me, wondered why the mainstream of pop musicians apparently does not want to get involved in politically current themes. There are artists who make an undoubtedly well-intentioned but rather gratuitous gesture by hanging a Palestinian flag on the drum stage or wearing a T-shirt in the Ukrainian colours, and then sing about so-called universal emotional turmoil. I myself do not have the charisma or oratorical gifts of Frank Zappa. But I wonder whether his successor has not been walking around in the music world for a long time. Perhaps he or she goes unnoticed because we now expect our artists to color neatly within the lines, because they don’t want to risk offending a part of their audience. It’s time for the Femke Halsema of Dutch pop music to stand up.
May 19, 2025