Issue #170 – Supersister

Formed in The Hague in 1968, SUPERSISTER would achieve that rare thing – a hit single – two years later with ‘She Was Naked’, an improbable fuzzy prog hybrid inspired by The Lovin’Spoonful and a Latin prayer.

In this exclusive extract from his exhaustive chronicle of the band, FRED BAGGEN takes us deep inside the writing, recording and impact of the song

The record label owner who has taken Supersister under his wing drives to a mansion-like edifice in The Hague, the well-known GTB sound studio. Hugo: “I said I wanted to have the Supersister seven-inch recorded and produced at GTB, and that it had to be done on a modest budget so it would be financially safe for me – I had to finance the single out of my own pocket.”

The studio is where Radio Veronica in its early days recorded the tapes that were broadcast on board the Veronica ship, and where so many Dutch artists recorded their music. Erik Bakker is one of the few studio technicians who speaks the language of pop musicians, understands their ambition and wishes and makes sure they leave his studio thoroughly satisfied. Hugo and Erik come to an arrangement, and Hugo tells “his” boys the good news: two days have been allocated for the recording of their first single.

Hugo takes his task very seriously. He demands that the group enter the studio well prepared. There’ll be no time to experiment on the spot, he warns, so the material needs to be thoroughly rehearsed in advance. He also wants to ensure that the English pronunciation is correct.

Native speakers in other studios take great pains over this, so Hugo wants the diction in this recording to be at a professional level as well. Q65’s‘The Life I Live’ might be a textbook example of “Dunglish” pronunciation, and many British listeners are charmed by this to a certain extent, butHugo is striving for perfection. “[Flautist] Sacha van Geest was born in London, he had an English mother and spoke English without an accent.He and his mother went through the lyrics of the single to make sure everything was written and sung correctly.”

To read the whole story order issue #170 here. Subscribe to the mag here.