Shocking Blue: Send Me A Postcard, Darling

I had an ideal setting as a kid: my parents provided for the family a house, a warm, stable setting, regular family meals, lots of books and music and a color TV, a yard and game room to play in, pets, and our own rooms. I was ideally situated with two older sisters and a younger brother. It was the perfect milieu for learning and exposure to ideas, sports and general culture, all encouraged by my parents.

One of my favorite things besides reading and watching movies and world news was exploring my sisters' record collections and talking about music. Now, when I listen to the Shocking Blue compilation Singles A's and B's, I feel like those halcyon days are in the present once again.

Besides "Venus," which I'm always thrilled to hear, Shocking Blue evokes a synthesis of a big chunk of the sound of the late 60s and early 70s. Robbie van Leeuwen (b. The Hague, Netherlands/Holland, 10/29/1944), the band's guitarist and primary creative artiste, had an excellent sense of what makes a catchy, well-performed pop song of the slightly rough variety. Hearing the songs performed with the powerful vocals of Mariska Veres makes them still a tasty aural treat. A song like "Send Me A Postcard" stands on its own right, replete with high drama; it also brings to mind Jefferson Airplane, Iron Butterfly, Creedence Clearwater Revival, T. Rex, The Band, The Lovin' Spoonful, Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and countless others. Active and catchy guitar licks, big bouncy drums, organ, with zany additions of sitar, bongos, harmonica, echo and occasional extra flourishes like mandolin and Spanish guitar. Plus some country twang, some girl group dewop, ballads, and so on.

Mariska Veres' singing is potent, more akin to Grace Slick than Janis Joplin in that she is singing a song, not putting her whole life on the line while singing it; it is also exotic. Her English is good, with interesting inflections -- like van Leeuwen, she was born in The Hague (ca. 1949), but has German, Hungarian, and Gypsy lineage that's apparent in photographs. Van Leeuwan wrote his lyrics in English, making them quirky and refeshing, even when delving into pop cliche. Combined, there are endearing oddities -- Veres beginning "Venus" with "A Godness on a mountain top . . ." and, I still swear by this, singing "Making every man you met" instead of the printed lyrics, "making every man mad," a slight rewording of the more typically American "driving every man mad." One of the interesting aspects of Shocking Blue is how much they turn to America for their inspiration, even when the results are slightly off-kilter.

Shocking Blue had great success in Europe (less so in the USA) between 1969 and the mid-1970s; once van Leeuwen left the band, it was bye-bye time. Abba was in the wings, though. Both bands had their own version of "Waterloo."





Some of the coolest songs on Singles A's and B's besides "Venus:"
Mighty Joe
Send Me A Postcard
Long And Lonesome Road
Never Marry A Railroad Man
Ink Pot
Rock In The Sea
Dream On Dreamer
Hello Darkness
Shocking You
Sally Was A Good Old Girl
Blossom Lady
Out Of Sight Out of Mind
Eve And The Apple (cheesy! "Well, she took the apple and we lost Paradise!")
Oh Lord
Roll Engine Roll
Harley Davidson
Keep It If You Want It
Give My Love To The Sunrise
In My Time of Dying (traditional)
Everything That's Mine

Today's Rune: Partnership.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Baby! Here's to the Detroit Tigers in Game One of the 2006 World Series.