So many (punk) musicians are looking for the job to end all jobs: becoming a professional musician. They talk about ‘putting their band on the market’, they start asking guarantees, they tire themselves getting to know all the ‘right’ people. Before you know it, their music and artwork has to be professional too. And then it turns out ‘professional’ is not the same as the top of your possibilities. Professional is what they think the ‘right’ people like. Still, 99,9% of all those ‘professional’ bands never get the big breakthrough they hope so hard for. At the end of the day, they aren’t any better off than most DIY bands. Often they’re even worse off, because asking for guarantees doesn’t get you gigs very fast. Also the ‘right’ people with all the connections in the Dutch clubcircuit don’t have so much connections outside off the Netherlands. So any breakthrough that does happen will be limited to 40,000 square kilometres of soggy river deposits. Still, the professional musician has one certainty in life: he is somehow on a higher level than people that are in bands for the fun of it. Those poor hippies that play for gas money and a plate of lentilsoup might give it the best they have for years and years. Maybe they selfmanage their bands across countless countries. Maybe they put out their own records. They might be known all over the world and not even lose any money. It doesn’t matter, because they don’t turn their hobby, their art, the outlet of their anger into just another stupid job.
lyrics
Linzensoep
Na jaren afzien is de vrijheid voorbij
Muziek een eerzaam beroep
5 dagen spelen van 9 tot 5
en nooit meer linzensoep
professioneel! Nu word je gewaardeerd
contractueel! Dan gaat niets verkeerd
geen stinkend bed en geen slecht geluid
nooit meer pech met een ouwe bus
nooit meer dronken onderuit
doe het zelf!
Geen concurrentie
Geen competitie
Doe het zelf of sterf
Sterf van verveling op de rockacademie
Op jezelf aangewezen net als iedereen
Werken en kopen net als iedereen
Muziek waarbij het niet om geld gaat
Een netwerk van vrienden en een zelfgekookt maal
Ongemak, het is het waard
Voor een plek van onszelf in een wereld vol haat
Lentilsoup (Linzensoep)
After years of hardship freedom ends
Music an honorable profession
Play 5 days from 9 to 5
And never again lentilsoup
Professionally! Now you are appreciated
Contractually! So nothing can go wrong
No stinking bed and no bad soundquality
Never again a broken down old van
Never again passed out drunk
Do it yourself!
No competition
No rivalry
Do it yourself or die!
Die of boredom at the rockacademy
On your own like everybody else
Working and buying like everybody else
Music that is not about money
A network of friends and a homecooked meal
Discomfort, it is worth to pay this price
For a place of our own in a world full of hate
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