Wally Tax
Encyclopedia
Wally Tax was a Dutch
singer and songwriter, best known as founder and frontman of the Nederbeat
group The Outsiders
. After commercial and artistic success with The Outsiders in the late 1960s, he had a brief solo career in the 1970s, and then was a successful songwriter, producing a number of hit songs for Dutch artists. He faded into obscurity in the 1980s; after his death in 2005 two benefit concerts in Amsterdam proved his lasting popularity and influence.
. He grew up in Amsterdam
and learned English
at an early age from contacts with American
sailors, for whom he acted as a pimp
. In 1959, at age 11, he was one of the founding members of the beat band The Outsiders. The band sang English lyrics, with Tax as the main songwriter; Tax sang and played guitar and harmonica
. Even while playing with The Outsiders, Tax recorded a solo album (with a symphonic orchestra), Love-In.
The Outsiders reached a measure of success, opening up for The Rolling Stones
in 1966 and scoring a number of Dutch hits. They were one of the best-known bands of the Nederbeat movement—when they signed with Phonogram Records
in 1968, Billboard
reported on it. Leading what Billboard called "the leading Dutch beat group," Tax had a high profile—he was reported to have the longest hair in the country, and lived a lavish lifestyle involving expensive dinners, chauffeur-driven cars, and friendships with Little Richard
and Johnny Halliday, as well as rumors of an affair with Brigitte Bardot
.
Although The Outsiders' records were not distributed in the United States, Tax did go overseas and made friends with notable musicians such as Tim Hardin
, Richie Havens
, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and attended the Woodstock Festival
. He played with Hardin and Jimi Hendrix
at the latter's Electric Ladyland Studio. As he explained in his 1998 autobiography, success came too quick for him, and alcohol and drugs took their toll, and combined with a lack of financial security (he admitted not being good at bookkeeping since his "way of life" had killed too many braincells) the next decades of Tax's life were chaotic.
After recording three albums, The Outsiders broke up in 1969, and Tax, after briefly heading a band called Taxfree, went solo. He was accompanied, in succession, by Bamboule (1972), George Cash (1973), Watermen (1973), and The Mustangs (1976).
The end of his playing career was "Let's Dance" (1977) a small hit in the Netherlands. Afterward, he concerned himself mainly with songwriting and wrote a number of hits for Dutch artists such as Lee Towers
("It's Raining in my Heart") and Champagne ("Valentino," "Oh Me Oh My Goodbye," and "Rock 'n Roll Star," the latter charting at #2 in the Netherlands and #83 in the United States). The 1980s saw his personal decline, starting with the slow death by cancer of his long-time partner Laurie Langenbach [she had a brief affair with Jimi Hendrix, when he was in Amsterdam in March 1967] , who died in 1984—according to close friend Armand, he never recovered from her death and for the next twenty years lived surrounded by her personal belongings. Efforts to revive a music career appear hampered by personal problems caused by a heavy alcohol addiction and tax problems.
Tax died in 2005 in relative obscurity, bothered by financial and physical problems. He was buried in Amsterdam, after a gathering in Paradiso
in his honor raised enough money for his funeral. A year later, a benefit concert was held in Paradiso to raise funds for a monument to be placed on his grave. The monument, two guitar necks crossing, continues to draw visitors.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
singer and songwriter, best known as founder and frontman of the Nederbeat
Nederbeat
Nederbeat is the Dutch pop music influenced by the early 1960s Beat groups led by the Beatles.Also the emergence of pirate station Radio Veronica stimulated the Dutch music community to produce truckloads of 'Nederbeat'. The Hague was the country's beat capital, along with neighbouring coastal...
group The Outsiders
The Outsiders (Dutch band)
The Outsiders were a Dutch band from Amsterdam. Their period of greatest popularity in the Netherlands was from 1965–67, but they released records until 1969...
. After commercial and artistic success with The Outsiders in the late 1960s, he had a brief solo career in the 1970s, and then was a successful songwriter, producing a number of hit songs for Dutch artists. He faded into obscurity in the 1980s; after his death in 2005 two benefit concerts in Amsterdam proved his lasting popularity and influence.
Biography
Tax was born of a Dutch father and a Russian Romani mother; his parents had met in a concentration camp during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He grew up in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and learned English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
at an early age from contacts with American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sailors, for whom he acted as a pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
. In 1959, at age 11, he was one of the founding members of the beat band The Outsiders. The band sang English lyrics, with Tax as the main songwriter; Tax sang and played guitar and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
. Even while playing with The Outsiders, Tax recorded a solo album (with a symphonic orchestra), Love-In.
The Outsiders reached a measure of success, opening up for The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
in 1966 and scoring a number of Dutch hits. They were one of the best-known bands of the Nederbeat movement—when they signed with Phonogram Records
Phonogram Records
Phonogram Records was started in 1962 as a joint venture between Philips Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In 1972, Phonogram was merged with Polydor Records into PolyGram....
in 1968, Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
reported on it. Leading what Billboard called "the leading Dutch beat group," Tax had a high profile—he was reported to have the longest hair in the country, and lived a lavish lifestyle involving expensive dinners, chauffeur-driven cars, and friendships with Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
and Johnny Halliday, as well as rumors of an affair with Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
.
Although The Outsiders' records were not distributed in the United States, Tax did go overseas and made friends with notable musicians such as Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...
, Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and attended the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
. He played with Hardin and Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
at the latter's Electric Ladyland Studio. As he explained in his 1998 autobiography, success came too quick for him, and alcohol and drugs took their toll, and combined with a lack of financial security (he admitted not being good at bookkeeping since his "way of life" had killed too many braincells) the next decades of Tax's life were chaotic.
After recording three albums, The Outsiders broke up in 1969, and Tax, after briefly heading a band called Taxfree, went solo. He was accompanied, in succession, by Bamboule (1972), George Cash (1973), Watermen (1973), and The Mustangs (1976).
The end of his playing career was "Let's Dance" (1977) a small hit in the Netherlands. Afterward, he concerned himself mainly with songwriting and wrote a number of hits for Dutch artists such as Lee Towers
Lee Towers
Lee Towers is a Dutch singer. He was discovered in 1975 as "The Singing Crane Mechanic" and labelled as a dockworker in Rotterdam...
("It's Raining in my Heart") and Champagne ("Valentino," "Oh Me Oh My Goodbye," and "Rock 'n Roll Star," the latter charting at #2 in the Netherlands and #83 in the United States). The 1980s saw his personal decline, starting with the slow death by cancer of his long-time partner Laurie Langenbach [she had a brief affair with Jimi Hendrix, when he was in Amsterdam in March 1967] , who died in 1984—according to close friend Armand, he never recovered from her death and for the next twenty years lived surrounded by her personal belongings. Efforts to revive a music career appear hampered by personal problems caused by a heavy alcohol addiction and tax problems.
Tax died in 2005 in relative obscurity, bothered by financial and physical problems. He was buried in Amsterdam, after a gathering in Paradiso
Paradiso (Amsterdam)
Paradiso is an iconic rock music venue and cultural center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.-History:It is housed in a converted former church building that dates from the nineteenth century and that was used until 1965 as the meeting hall for a liberal Dutch religious group known as the "Vrije...
in his honor raised enough money for his funeral. A year later, a benefit concert was held in Paradiso to raise funds for a monument to be placed on his grave. The monument, two guitar necks crossing, continues to draw visitors.
Solo
- Love In (LPLP albumThe LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, PhilipsPhilips RecordsPhilips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
, 1967) - Wally Tax (LPLP albumThe LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, Ariola IT 87762, 1974) - Tax Tonight (LPLP albumThe LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, Ariola XOT 89244, 1975) - The Entertainer (CD, VirginVirgin RecordsVirgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, 2002)
With The Outsiders
- Outsiders (LP, Relax 30007, 1967)
- Songbook (LP, Teenbeat APLP 102, 1967)
- C.Q. (LP, Phonogram RecordsPhonogram RecordsPhonogram Records was started in 1962 as a joint venture between Philips Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In 1972, Phonogram was merged with Polydor Records into PolyGram....
, 236803, 1968) - Outsiders / Wally Tax - Live 1968-2002 (CD, VPRO/3 voor 12, 002, 2006)
- The Outsiders, Photo Sound Book (Book + CD, Poparchief Nederland, 2010)