Herman Brood & His Wild Romance
Shpritsz

Herman Brood was a character, no ifs, ands, or buts. For better and for worse. The personification of the cliché "sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll".

Born in 1946 in Zwolle, in the Dutch region of Overijssel, Herman Brood began taking piano lessons in 1959. He soon proved to be an enfant prodige of the keyboards, with a versatility shared by few musicians of his time. To call his life tumultuous, even in the musical field, is an understatement. In 1964, while still attending art school, he started playing in The Moans, a band that performed many concerts in West Germany for American soldiers still stationed in that region. It was during his experience with this band that his difficult, contradictory, and self-destructive relationship with drugs began, which haunted him throughout his life.

In 1967 he joined the Cuby + Blizzards, the historic Dutch blues band, with which he recorded the two most important albums of his career, "Groeten Uit Grollo" and "Trippin' Thru' A Midnight Blues". Those were golden years for the piano virtuoso, but when it became clear that Brood was continually using illegal substances to keep the energy alive in live performances, the record label imposed on the band to get rid of the inconvenient yet talented keyboardist, following a police raid backstage, which forced Brood to serve a certain number of days in jail.

From this point on, a troubled and mysterious period began for Herman Brood, during which he was a regular guest of the prison due to petty thefts or possession (and use) of drugs in public places (despite occurring in liberal Netherlands, using drugs on the street, and not in coffee shops, is still a crime). In 1974 Herman temporarily returned to the band that had given him some notoriety, Cuby + Blizzards. This also marked the resumption of his musical career; indeed, he played in the debut album of Vitesse, for a short time in the band Stud, and recorded the first (and only) album of the musical project Flash & Dance Band, (including Jan Akkerman, guitarist of Focus).

In 1976 Herman Brood rejoined Cuby and company, and then finally found his definitive musical direction: a solo career, through the establishment of Herman Brood And His Wild Romance. In 1977 the debut album "Street" was released, greeted with great enthusiasm in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

On the heels of this good (and rather unexpected, to be honest) success, Herman Brood and his band recorded the second album, which until now is considered the absolute masterpiece, namely "Shpritsz". It's peculiar how Brood decided to write an anti-drug album in a moment of apparent detoxification. The title, the German word for "injection", is a manifest accusation against those who "shoot up": quite peculiar, given that the very next year Brood became the boyfriend of Nina Hagen, with whom there were few moments when the two were truly "clean".

"Shpritsz" is a great album. And I'm not only referring to Saturday Night, the album's big hit, which peaked in the Dutch, German, and French charts. Dope Sucks is the typical rock'n'roll for the series "do as I say, not as I do", as well as Doin' it, characterized by that peculiar singing style typical of Brood. The rhythmic outbursts like Hit and Never Enough are also great, even if perhaps the most exciting track is Hot-Talk, along with Doreen. Few tracks exceed three minutes, making the album very catchy, with its 15 short episodes.

How fleeting, in the end, is the cruel machine of success: after 1980, and thus after the live album "Cha Cha" and the studio album "Go Nutz", the public suddenly lost interest in the deeds of Herman Brood. Despite having released over a dozen albums since then, the drugs (so denounced in "Shpritsz") have definitively taken hold of the keyboardist. Even though over the years he tried to stay away from them, improvising himself as an artist and painter, Herman Brood never managed to resist the temptation to "get high" every so often.

In 2000, the musician-artist's situation is nothing short of tragic, and in 2001 to state that he couldn’t "do without the stuff, because I’d feel terrible, but even when I take substances, I feel terrible anyway, because they no longer have any effect. In whatever state I'm in, I'm unwell!" . It's surely this that prompted Herman Brood on July 11, 2001, to throw himself off a small balcony at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam. Dead on impact, a note was found in his pocket bearing simply the words: "Try to make it a big party".

Since then, art exhibitions have been organized, biographies have been written, and in Zwolle, Brood's hometown, a statue has also been erected in honor of Herman Brood.

Rest in peace, great keyboardist: this review is dedicated to you, from someone who loved you and still appreciates you today, with your strengths and weaknesses and despite your severe addiction, for the great part you played in helping elevate Dutch music to something great, eternal, and magnificent. Rest in peace Herman Brood, now and forever.