ABSTRACT
The noise of motorbikes starting up blends seamlessly with the aggressive triplets of drums and electric guitars. After a few stirring ooohs and aahs, lead singer Bennie Jolink launches into broad Achterhoeks dialect: ‘Oe-oe-oerend hard kwamen zie doar aan gescheurd/oe-oe-oerend hard want zie had’n van de motorcross geheurd’ (At full speed they raced up on their bikes/at full speed because they’d heard about the motocross). These are the opening lyrics to Jolink’s ballad about Bertus and Tinus, farmers’ sons who, on their way home from the motocross where they’d had ‘alderbastende gein’ (a great time), crashed to their deaths on their Norton and BSA bikes. Jolink wrote the song in 1977, when such crude country sounds had never before been heard in popular music.
