It Started With a Smile

The forgotten joy of music.

Let’s engage in some Nits historiography of the whimsical, improvisational kind. Apart from their sound, one of the most striking resemblances between Nits and The Beatles is their “easygoing”, humorous way of looking at life. The spontaneous smiles and jokes are always fraternising with the music on stage. Music seems to be good fun, in the first place. And when it’s no longer fun, it should stop. This is – as I see it – especially the prerogative of pop music, or so it should be, or so it was intended to be, in its beginnings. Nits, in a somewhat atypical spirit of the times, reclaimed that privilege, let’s say in the early eighties and onwards. No doom and gloom please for these little pests. As their names so evidently suggest, they don’t even take themselves so very seriously, which is always a good start… Insectoid creatures are not exactly known for their big egos. The cricket sings and takes life with ease, laughter and joyous carefreeness. That’s the start. The smile.

And then. Finding inspiration for writing music doesn’t need to be hard. It can be as easy as looking through the window or reading a newspaper. As did John and Paul and Henk – and occasionally George and Ringo. Things are really simple when you are a genius and love life. You just wake up on a day in the life and go about your daily business, drag a comb across your head, drink a cup of tea, catch the bus and oh, when you’re lucky, it will surely rain … You just listen around and observe. Yes, it’s as simple as that, you just get out of bed and you are ready to go and make music, you are ready to compose about the joy of life. Don’t think about it too hard, don’t get too depressed about the state of the world, just get on with your life – and your music – with a smile, and then some wit and irony, and some poetry will get you a long way. John Lennon said that he wrote the song “Rain”, “because of them people always moaning about the weather”, about the rain. And he didn’t mind: oh just let it rain. 

The Beatles seem to have been especially attentive to the different paces of life in this world, to all its tantalising, different dynamics, its various day-to-day rhythms, its progressions and its deviations, its sudden detours and distractions; their music has these same wildly differing structures and playful scenarios built in it all the time. And it is changing, revolving all the time too, moving, rolling, turning around its axis; the way their music behaves, I’d say they show how music revolves about our daily lives, in a natural, spontaneous and joyful way. Making you dizzy with its immaterial wealth and crazy lucidness. They sing about the joy of life basically. When music picks up all the good vibrations of life itself. Oh this rainsong always makes me feel happy! “That when it rains or shines – It’s just a state of mind”, John Lennon sings, giving us a free lesson in “Befindlichkeit”, the elegant philosophical concept of an existentialist, so much easier to understand when John goes on about it. So much easier to comprehend when Paul McCartney’s sliding bass professes the deepest truths in a sly and wicked manner, while joking and jollying around, imitating and gently mocking the tiresome moaning about the rain. And John Lennon’s voice, a stronghold of unwavering tone whatever the weather, gliding on irony and a witty wiseness, determined to convince and seduce at the same time. Ringo, who doesn’t really see what the problem is in the first place, with the inimitable nonchalance of a genius whipper of the drumsticks, almost revealing the mystery of rhythm. Yes, this music is cheerful, yet profound, as it should be – or so Friedrich Nietzsche wrote. “La légèreté est belle si elle est alliée à la profondeur” “ Lightness is beautiful when it goes hand in hand with profoundness”, the French journalist and philosopher Jean d’Ormesson writes. This maxim applies to Nits first and foremost. And so does all of the above.

Streets with rain. tewsyawlaerasteertsehT. It could be Penny Lane or Dapperstreet. But it’s a fresh morning in music world. “Penny Lane” is like a fresh morning song; like waking up in a bright, young, playful world of joy, almost a little toy world, with the fireman, the barber and the nurse, yes, like a little play too – as their predecessor Shakespeare so observantly wrote – or like a child imitating the world in his or her play. The fun, the charm, the pleasure, the happiness, the innocence – and a bit of wickedness – the sense of discovery are all still there, and a bit of absurdity too. The sheer joy of recreating something that you live through every day, the combination of witty, ingenious music and equally witty, clever words, without the moaning, without the complaining, in all its appetisingly complicated uncomplicatedness – only the banker never wearing a mac feels a bit strange. A fire engine, poppies, photographs, a motor car, rain and sun, they have them too back in the Dutch Mountains. And a portrait or a coin with the head of a queen, yes those worlds they look very much the same. All the same familiar things in your ears and in your eyes.
Meanwhile back {don’t you just love this musical changing of the decor in “Penny Lane”?} … in Dapperstreet … things can sometimes get somewhat sombre and cloudy. There can be a few tears falling so now and then too, or some rain on broken windows. But not to worry. Rain is falling down often in Nitsland, but it’s never a bad thing. Just put the kettle on and brew yourself something nice, with some twisted herbs maybe. And just listen to the “Rain”. Nits know all about it and that it is not a big deal. Just like The Beatles, they are masters in the art of the bearable lightness of being … “Rainfallagain” and “The Wind, The Rain”, have you ever seen a band play a song about the rain with such big, genuine smiles on their faces?! Henk only recently said that the flowers need some rain. So … what’s to worry about …? 
Suddenly we are happy in Dapperstreet. It ends with a smile.

Through the passion and joy Nits share for life, their musical soul dilated and opened up into a world of empathic beauty and poetry that we can easily adhere to. Their good mood turned out to be contagious. On their album “angst” which centred around one of the darkest episodes of recent European history, Henk Hofstede introduced us to his yellow socks knitted by his grandma. The colour is important; it is the hue of the sun, of joy, the colour of a smile. Funnily enough, I have always associated the name “Nits” and the way they design and write it, with the colour yellow: the name evokes to me – as I wrote in a much earlier text – a yellow square. I guess a sunny sort of symmetry belongs to the work of Nits: it is like a perfect little universe in music with the sun always on hand after the rain and snow and clouds have all disappeared. Their music is like a peacefully floating equanimity. And now after 50 years the colour is still yellow. In fact the colour became ever more prominent. On their most recent tour the frontman of Nits is not only sporting yellow socks, he even brought with him a yellow hat: yellow is the colour from his head down to his toes … Henk Hofstede’s collection of Nits objects somehow brings solace. And another souvenir of course of childhood days.
It’s like with the fables of La Fontaine which make the world feel a little lighter. In order to try and make sense of their recent misfortunes Nits chose the form of a fable of a tree, a house, a bird and a fire. A Nits fable as beautiful as there ever was one. Curiously enough Nits seem to reunite the good in both the cricket and the ant in their way of making music. Playing music is a serious business, but then again not really. I fondly remember the “yodelling” sound of Henk Hofstede on “In The Dutch Mountains” … mountains that are alive with the sound of music. Which reminds me again of a childhood favourite of mine: the Rodgers & Hammerstein song “The Lonely Goatherd” from the movie “The Sound Of Music”. It’s just a song of pure joy in a childhood world between rolling hills and mountainsides. Things can get bad in this world of ours, but there’s always music coming down from the mountains.
I must confess that I bought myself some yellow socks too … and you know … it really works. 🙂

Of all the forms he always preferred the small. Of all the colours he prefers yellow.

Joke Roelandt, March 2024