When actor Joost Prinsen released his first solo album in 1977, VARA television devoted this television special to 10 of the 13 tracks on the LP. All songs were written by Prinsen long time collaborators Willem Wilmink and Hans Dorrestijn, with music by Harry Bannink. The foursome had worked together before on "De Stratenmaker Op Zee Show". Some, but certainly not all of them are introduced by Joost, who gives a little insight into their background and Wilmink & Dorrestijn's writing styles.
Most of the numbers have rather wistful subjects such as lost loves, ugliness and foreign laborers. Thankfully there are some comedic ditties to brighten the proceedings in between. Also featured is a song Prinsen first performed on De Stratemaker Op Zee Show, "Frekie". The story goes that this was originally a poem until Wilmink was persuaded to add a verse (consisting of only one line). Dorrestijn also wrote lyrics to accompany the theme from the Vara television series "Oorlogswinter" (in which Prinsen briefly appeared), even though the words have very little to do with the series itself. Still, anyone who watched the series will immediately recognize Harry Bannink's haunting theme.
At least two singles were released to promote the album and I suppose the performances from this special, most of which take the form of music videos anyway, could have been used to promote these singles on shows such as "Avro's Toppop". During the end credits the song "Voor Een Naakt Iemand" is accompanied by just that, a naked person (a woman lying on a stone bench who slowly turns into a statue over the course of the song). Of course similar nudity caused a lot of commotion in 1967 in the VPRO program 'Hoepla'. But ten years later such things had been apparently been well accepted on Dutch television.
7 out of 10
