The Mystique of a Shirt

On this day, the birthday of Henk Hofstede, on the brink of autumn – probably one of the most melancholic days of the year, of saying goodbye to summer – here is a tribute to him with one of the finest compositions of melodic poetry by Nits, another testimony of the genial and sensitive lyricist that he is, only needing a handful of words to create a little poetic philosophy of life. Happy birthday to you, dear Henk!

Stepping outside, the first thing he does is rolling up his sleeves…He wants to feel the fresh air on his skin.

Maybe the title alone would suffice for you to know what song I want to write about today. It is the shirt that is waving in the meadow, that has this almost mystical echo. Together with “The Eiffel Tower” the song “Under a Canoe” has always had the strangest power over me. It certainly is a defining Nits song, for just as “The river is a synthesizer” in “Zündapp nach Oberheim”, it reveals Nits’ way of looking at the world, their philosophy. It is not a complicated philosophy, but it is one that matters; in a few words “A shirt is waving in the meadow” Nits deliver it, wrapped in a delicious cloud of sounds. It comes in a very special, pleasantly bucolic, musical frame of open space and slow time with the rippling echo of water, and a breath of fresh air of nature accompanying it.

I grew up in a small village, not so far away from our capital, in a house in between meadows and bordered by trees, and at the end of the little wood that lay next to our garden, there was a river. Being close to nature was evident in those days. Being a part of nature was a daily experience. “Under a Canoe” is a song of belonging, of belonging to a world of nature with naked arms and bare shoulders. When you listen closely it bares that we live in a world of wonder, in a mystic unity with nature. When the sunlight shines through the water with the brightly coloured fish, the scene looks like a stained glass window of a cathedral. The mysticism of nature. The objects which fill our lives or cover our bodies mingling with the elements of nature in a mystical coexistence. Our subjective reality is always a part of a greater surrounding world and cannot be without it.

“Under a Canoe” is a very physical song, like a haptic sensation. It is sensual; I think it might even be a love song under cover (one of the very few they wrote…), in a diaphanous disguise of translucently sounding embraces. It is a young song with an old soul. It paints the mystique of youth on a romantic swimming (or diving or snorkelling) excursion in iridescent blue and green colours of water and grass. “The night lies on her shoulders”, … and the shirt is waving in the meadow…, the mystery of what happens between lovers, the enigma of their union. With the camera shyly looking away, focusing on this parabolic shirt that is just waving in the air… And nature quietly humming along…Simply sublime, this “Nits-spiritual” about love and oneness. Who needs to watch another romance on the big screen when there is the subdued ecstasy of this sweetly evocative song…? It exhumes peace of mind and contentment.

This is the wonderful, warm Urk version of course, no images, only the ones you create for yourself…

Joke Roelandt, September 2019