I Can See A Woman Crying

What's Your Problem Dear

No Particular Reason

Hare

One Fine Day In Heaven

There's My Firstborn Talking

Solid Ground

Raquel Sing Us A Song

Alida Pott (album edit)

In 'There's My Firstborn Talking', Hans Croon sings about his daughter Djuna, who recently became a professor at the University of Durham, near Newcastle, at the age of 30. Her subject is theoretical physics, she investigates black holes, dark matter, dying stars, supernovas, gravitational waves and the smallest particles. When Hans sees and hears his daughter in an online lecture, he experiences his own big bang and thinks back to the time when she released some cosmic forces as an adolescent.

See the particles bouncing
In a deadly blaze
Like a fly on a windshield
Trapped in a purple haze
Kinetic energy rising
To a billion degrees
It’s getting so dark

With the binary mergers
And the giant branch
Like a whirling snowflake
In an avalanche
You could do the math now
And calculate 
The size of the spark

There’s my firstborn talking
All black holes, white dwarfs
Particles colliding
And merging in stars

There’s my firstborn talking
Gravitational waves
Neutron stars exploding
And meeting their graves

On a distant planet
A lot of lightyears away
We made the galaxy tremble
Until we stopped to say
How could we be so foolish
In our stubborn ways
And we put out the spark

There’s my firstborn talking
Space and time rewind
She’s got more than a handful
Dimensions in mind

There’s my firstborn talking
Astrophysics and art
How I love that girl
With all of my heart

There’s my firstborn talking
Gravitational waves
Neutron stars exploding
And meeting their graves

There’s my firstborn talking
Astrophysics and art
How I love that girl
With all of my heart

There's My Firstborn Talking (single edit)

Goodbye now, we´re leaving 
We must be on our way again 
We´ll wander around North Laine 
I´ll buy you a pale ale there and then
Musicians are trying 
New stuff at GAK each day 
They sing in the gardens 
And aim for the Brighton Dome to play

Anything goes in Brighton and Hove 
Nothing feels more alive 
Brighton & Hove, that´s where I´ll go
 I´m gonna jump in and take a dive 

We´ll swim to the West Pier 
And watch the steel come falling down 
A taste @ Marrocco´s 
Then off to Gardner Street downtown

 Anything goes in Brighton and Hove 
Nothing feels more alive 
Brighton & Hove, that´s where I´ll go
 I´m gonna jump in and take a dive

(vocoder sings: Brighton and Hove / That’s where I’ll go / In Kemptown / In Bond Street On Church Road / The heartbeat)

Backing vocals: Yalisha Mustamu; tenor saxophone: Jeroen van Genuchten; bariton saxophone: Wouter Schueler; trumpet: Luuk Hof; french horn: Jochem van Hoogdalem

© Hans Croon

Four

Brighton and Hove

Brighton And Hove

Isn’t it plain to see
Isn’t it obviously
Just give us your private key
We’re saying hello, dear friend
We’re taking you by the hand
Aren’t we heaven sent

You can’t be wrong
As long as your switch is on
You can’t be wrong
As long as you go along

Nothing is more obscene
Then being a human being
Who doesn’t come clean, I mean
What is it all about
What is your life without
A place in the gracious crowd

You can’t be wrong
As long as your switch is on
You can’t be wrong
As long as you go along

Did your mother tell you
What you need to know
That we won’t be evil ‘til we grow
A bit too slow 

Tenor saxophone: Jeroen van Genuchten; bariton saxophone: Wouter Schueler; trumpet: Luuk Hof; trumpet solo: Cees Trappenburg; percussion: Wout de Kruif

© Hans Croon

You Cant Be Wrong

You Can't Be Wrong

Mrs Wilson, standing by the door
Mr Wilson calls her Eleanor
Please move on, she says
We have to be on time
The train won't wait
So Mr and Mrs Wilson
Leave at four o'clock p.m.
Just in time to avoid the traffic jam
When they reach the tube
A crowd is pouring in
And so it goes when Mr Wilson says

We're carrying a massive load
The moment we type the code
This train is about to explode
Oh yeah, explode

Everyone was taken by surprise
The papers, the experts, began to analyze
How could this be true 
They seemed to be so nice
The neighbours said
But twenty-four were dead and
Buried, before the week was done
They searched for motives
And concluded there were none
As time went by the news 
About Fred and Eleanor
Just seemed to fade
Till Mr Johnson said

We're carrying a massive load
The moment we type the code
This train is about to explode
Oh yeah, explode

© Hans Croon

This Train Is About To Explode

We wrote this song wondering why on earth all the Have-nots fight each other over identity issues like nationality, ancestors, skin color etc, while the Haves lean back, enjoy the view and sit on their money. Symbolising this madness are the herons of the Albert Cuyp market duelling for the left-overs at the end of the day, in a series of photos by Jantje Geldof.

Oh our identity
Feels like we’re going to be
Sharing a destiny
Sounds like religion to me

Strange ideology
Not what it used to be
Defined by nativity
Not that it matters to me

Bear with me
And hear my strategy
‘Cause we’re not going to be
Enemies
So please be good to me
And enter sanctuary

You’re not the chosen one
Born on a magical day
Claiming Jerusalem
Outsiders left to obey

Oh, that’s peculiar 
Just like the sound of your voice
Your mind’s getting narrower
Feels like you’re left with no choice

Bear with me
And hear my strategy
‘Cause we’re not going to be
Enemies
So please be good to me
And enter sanctuary

Enter Sanctuary

Enter Sanctuary (featuring Fay Lovsky)

In 2019, the grandchildren of Jansje Punt recognised their grandma from a painting by Charley Toorop that was printed in the newspaper. Until then it was unknown who the working-class woman in the 1943 painting was. They told the Stedelijk Museum Jansje had been Toorop’s housekeeper.  During the Second World War, her three sons were put to work in Nazi Germany. Probably the reason she is looking so worried, standing in a bombed-out street in Rotterdam.

Are you going to San Francisco
In the summer
We’ll be hiking to the west coast 
We’ll be surfin’ couches

We’ll have flower weddings
In purple settings
Chocolate headings
Will be printed on the records
That we’ll give to strangers
And we’ll dance like it’s 1968 again

Plastic Onos and U2 Bonos
In monokini’s
Will be there on our arrival
And the people cheering
And we’ll dance like it’s 1968 again

Are you going to San Francisco
We’re going to scare some devils
Like it’s 1968

Are you moving to the valley
Start a business
With your libertarian values
It’s so horrifying
We’ll have you shamed like it’s 1968 again

Are you going to San Francisco
We’re going to scare some devils
Like it’s 1968

1968

'Solid Ground', released 22022022, has 10 tracks. The Dutch is Hans Croon (vox, guitar), Bert Croon (keyboards), Jan de Kruijf (bass), Klaas Jonkmans (drums). Bert, Jan and Klaas also sing backing vocals. Fay Lovsky sings backing vocals on Alida Pott, Megan de Kruijf sings backing vocals on One Fine Day In Heaven and I Can See A Woman Crying. Cees Trappenburg's trumpet is on There's My Firstborn Talking.
Mixed and produced by Jan de Kruijf, mastered by Wout de Kruif.

The Dutch

Popular tracks