The Zipps were a delightful little mid-'60s Merseybeat band from the Nether Regions, playing their zippy peppy tunes with an Easybeats-esque sense of decent mid-60s hookery before diving headlong into mind-not-expanding harpsichord-fuelled light psycho-delia. The hooks may not be timeless, but there's certainly a lot of unintentional humor to be enjoyed! First of all, who doesn't adore an adorable Dutch accent? "Hurt" becomes "Hirt," "too" becomes "tu" with an umlaut over the u, and the adoration of adorable angora ardure arbor
Instead of making unlimited fun of the Dutch and their silly Dutch ways (i.e. splitting the check whenever they go out on a date), why don't I describe the band's history chronologically? Wouldn't that be nice? Seemingly not content to rely on the speedy Chuck Berryisms of "Highway Gambler" and charmingly naive Bo Diddlyisms of "Roll The Cotton Down" that adorned their harmless and catchy debut single, the band quickly progressed to writing darker and more dynamic (not to mention shake-your-headingly dated) '60s lingo pieces like "Hipsterism" and "Kicks And Chicks" ("So hang arond, stick arond - git yir kicks! Hang arond, stick arond, git yir chicks!") Catchy? Heck yes! Good tunes all around those two are, with recorders, jazzy guitar solos and everything. But The Zipps' career wasn't over yet. Not by a longshoreman!
The drug use continued, resulting in the 15-minute Dutch-language (if there IS in fact a "Dutch language") "Beat And Poetry" single, which is exactly what it sounds like, and not in a good way. This was followed by the much more enjoyable (if not for the reasons they intended) laugh-yourself-hoarse "Marie Juana" (a FAR too dramatic harpsichord song about a.... "girl".... named "Marie Juana") and what I'd have to guess was intended as a legitimate novelty track, "The Struggle For Ice-Cold Milk of Benzi The Bassplayer or How To Promote Original Dutch Milk" (or "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite Part II," if you ask my vocal melody). After this they backed up some lowlife non-American lounge singer for one unlistenably bland single before all bustin' up, reforming a couple years later to record the fuzzed-out mind-expanding drug fucking over-serious idiocy "When You Tell It, Tell It Well" and its presumed b-side, the cool evil thumping psych-beat nugget "Lotus Love." Then there's a couple of live tunes, a non-English interview that's news to me, and four hundred billion goddamned alternate versions of "Kicks And Chicks" for all those folks who bought the disc after hearing the Nuggets Vol. II box set.
by Mark Prindle
Tracks
1. Highway Gambler (Philip "Byron" Elzerman) - 2:08
2. Roll The Cotton Down (Philip "Byron" Elzerman) - 2:42
3. Kicks And Chicks (Ben Katerberg, Peter Nuyten) - 3:11
4. Hipsterism (Ben Katerberg, Peter Nuyten) - 3:07
5. Beat And Poetry (Part 1) (Ben Katerberg, Cees Boender, John Noce Santoro, Peter Nuyten, Philip "Byron" Elzerman, Theo Verschoor) - 7:06
6. Beat And Poetry (Part 2) (Ben Katerberg, Cees Boender, John Noce Santoro, Peter Nuyten, Philip "Byron" Elzerman, Theo Verschoor) - 7:40
7. Marie Juana (Ben Katerberg, Peter Nuyten) - 3:14
8. The Struggle For Ice-Cold Milk Of Benzi The Bassplayer Or How To Promote Original Dutch Milk (Ben Katerberg, Peter Nuyten, Philip "Byron" Elzerman) - 2:23
9. When You Tell It, Tell It Well..! (Marian De Garriga) - 3:09
10.Lotus Love (Philip "Byron" Elzerman) - 2:50
11.Walking On This Road To Mine Town (Traditional) - 2:48
12.The Beer Hall Song (Traditional) - 4:54
13.Kicks And Chicks (Ben Katerberg, Peter Nuyten) - 3:35
14.Avec De L'Italie (Philippe Salerne) - 2:08
15.Venez Voire Comme On S'Aime (Philippe Salerne) - 1:30
16.Lotus Love (Philip "Byron" Elzerman) - 2:54
17.The Struggle For Ice-Cold Milk Of Benzi The Bassplayer Or How To Promote Original Dutch Milk (Ben Katerberg, Peter Nuyten, Philip "Byron" Elzerman) - 2:21
18.Kicks And Chicks (Ben Katerberg, Peter Nuyten) - 3:10
19.LSD 25 Interview - 6:28
Tracks 14-15 as Philippe Salerne And The Zipps
The Zipps
*Jan Bek - Vocals (1965-1966)
*Philip "Byron" Elzerman - Vocals, Guitar, Flute, Harmonica
*Peter Nuyten - Guitar (1965-1967)
*Theo Verschoor - Bass (1965-67)
*John Noce Santoro - Drums (1965-1967,1968-1969)
*Wim Klein - Drums (1967)
*Dick Visschers - Guitar (1968-69)
*Ruud Van Seventer - Bass (1968-69)
Don't save money on cover ART designers, I say ; ) Wonder who is responsible for this faux pas.
ReplyDeletethere is a Greek proverb that says: "don't look a gift horse in the mouth"
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