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I’m Bob Vrieling.

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I will tell you about my career.

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Through my career runs a thread, which is yodeling. Let me begin with the begin.

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I was 13 or 14 years old.

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I grew up in the Netherlands, as you can hear.

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My father was quite musical. He played the accordion and the harmonica. He wrote songs, but did not do anything with his talent.

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He had this hobby. He loved playing records.

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He had many 78’ records. Very old ones.

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In my youth some new records got added to the collection.

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Like of Mieke Telkamp. You probably will know her from the famous song

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‘Where does the road lead that we must walk’.

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But before she already had sung a lot.

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Then there was Olga Lowina. She was a yodel singer. Of course, you know her too.

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And Bobbejaan Schoepen. Well, no need to introduce him.

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‘The yodeling whistler, he is an odd guy’. Tralalalala.’

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Why do I tell about these three artists?

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They all influenced me.

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Mieke because of her high voice,

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Olga because of the yodeling,

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and Bobbejaan because of his style.

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Yodeling was very popular at that time. Olga as well as Bobbejaan Schoepen..

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their records sold like piece of cake. Everybody tried to yodel. Me too.

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It did not work at all.

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Until I tried it on the bike.

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I worked since my 14. Every day I had to bike several kilometers to get home. And on my way I was trying, and suddenly, I could do it. I could yodel, and not just a little bit, but full on.

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When I got home I was so proud. I said to my mother: “Mum, I can yodel.”. She listened and said: “Oh, that is wonderful!”

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I could do it but for apart from that I didn’t know what to do with it.

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Not many years later I got a guitar from Santaclaus with ten classes. Only had I done two and I thought: ‘Pff, I can do it.”

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I started off writing songs. Two strings and two chords were enough to get me going.

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The first song that I wrote has always been important in my career. Yodeling, yodeling, and even more yodeling.

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At the time there were many yodeling competitions. Everywhere. And every weekend, I would participate in yet another place. I always won the first prize.

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At a certain point there was a National yodeling competition for the three Northern Provinces - I’m speaking about the Netherlands: Groningen, Friesland and Drente.

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I won the second price. Sometimes the second price is more important than the first price. Take Natalia. She was second and look how famous she got. Well, I was second too.

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I got invited to take part in a cabaret group. Semi-professional. During the day we had our jobs and in the evening we would perform in the Northern Provinces.

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I song three songs, before and after the break. Three tiroler songs before the break, and after, three cowboy songs.

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The leader of the band said to me: ‘You always sing about Tirol, but have you ever been there?’

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I had not been even outside of Groningen, let alone that I had been in Tirol.

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‘This is what we’ll do,’ the leader said. We all go on a trip to Tirol. We save money from our shows and when there’s enough we go to Tirol.

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We saved, until the moment came.

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I have to tell first that our cabaret group numbered 8 people. We always toured through the country in a Volkswagen van.

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When the moment came to go, things got in the way.

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I got my first radio gig. That was very important at that time.

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Another guy, a police officer, could not join either, due to the visit of he Emperor xxx of Ethiopia.

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The two of us had to stay home, while the 6 others could leave.

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What happened? All 6 were run over by a train in Austria. All 6 dead.

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I had had it with being an artist. I could not squeeze one single note from my throat anymore. “I need a change,’ I thought.

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Right at that time I enrolled in the army.