Water blues for cheerful people
 Water sometimes has a strange effect on people’s mood. The great blues singers in music history were all sad dreamers who sat by the side of the harbour pondering about life with their minds full of melancholy. Me, I’m just sitting here on this campsite in Holland, and it sure is hard to be sad here.
I always have a day-dream on a Dutch campsite. People often have something with water. If you compare this with other things like earth, air or fire, we have an exceptional relation to water. Water has what the other three don’t have. Water attracts. Trough the ages water has done something to people that cannot be explained. If you don’t have to live from it as a fisherman or ferryman, there is absolutely no need for the sea. And yet, water always attracts millions of people. Now take Zeeland, the unsurpassed, ultimate southwest part of Holland stuffed with Dutch campsites. If you’re looking for exciting water borders, a Dutch campsite in Zeeland is the place to be. Here there is Zierikzee. At the old harbour side, on a terrace on a comfortable chair of a campsite in Holland, I have a wonderful view at the harbour. I just ordered a glass of local bitter. Apart from the alcohol, there’s a lot of water in it, too.
 Tearjerkers
Don’t try to explain to the Zeeland people on campsites in Holland what water is. Lots of people earn their money at sea here but it was the same sea that caused the biggest disaster in the Zeeland history, killing thousands of people in the big 1953 flood. Water is cold, water is incredible wet, and often dangerous. Maybe that is the true reason why so many people on Dutch campsites sing about water in a melancholic way. Sailor’s songs are tear-jerkers without exception. If you call yourself a singer and sing about the sea, the music is turned into a minor key. After half an intro-tone you know for sure: this song is about water. And just water is not enough – in a real tearjerker some rain has got to fall on campsites in Holland. No thunderstorms, but some dull, dreary rain has to be added to the music.
Otis
The biggest water criers are not on Dutch campsites but in the US of America. They use a much better word for a tearjerker. They call it the blues. If someone you love has left you, or if eveeything seems to be going wrong there’s nothing else but sing those blues. Why not go to a gloomy porch, a Dutch campsite or a dark, misty scrapyard? No, we all choose the quayside. That’s the best place to cry out your melancholic mood, better then on a campsite in Holland. Otis Redding, one of the most famous soul singers who is well known for his up tempo stirred up music, has recorded only one melancholic song: ‘Sitting at the dock of the bay.’ Yes indeed, day-dreaming at the water side. Two weeks later he killed in a plane crash. This cannot be a coincidence, can it?
 It works
Talking about coincidence on Dutch campsites: from the open door of a harbour pub the aged cracking voice of Rod Stewart is coming out. ‘I am sailing, I am sailing…’ It's heartbreaking. And it’s about water, partly overruled by the sound of the rigging in the ship’s masts. Do I feel a melancholic mood coming up? I take a nip from my bitter, and enjoy what I see, what I hear, what I feel. Without thinking I start to hum softly to the melancholic music. Hm, tastes good, this bitter. It must be strong though as my eyes begin to well up! In the opposite chair an old sailor makes an understanding gesture, while lifting the same drink. I’m convinced: this water side has its effects on me, too. Water is blues.
|
