‘Venus’: Shocking Blue’s counterculture anthem that featured a typo
Everybody makes mistakes, even globally successful rock bands. There is a common misconception that pop and rock tracks are written over months, painstakingly perfected by determined artists. In actuality, most popular rock tracks were written in five minutes on the backs of beer mats and cigarette packets. Especially within the counterculture rebellion of the 1960s, rock scenes favoured spontaneity, improvisation and doing things off-the-cuff. This might go some way to explaining how a mistranslation made it into a smash-hit number one single for Shocking Blue in 1969.
Formed in the unlikely surroundings of The Hague, Netherlands, Shocking Blue were something of a rarity within the rock scene of the 1960s. Most of the discourse surrounding the era focuses on the blossoming hippie psychedelic scene in the United States, illustrated by groups like Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead. Rock groups from mainland Europe rarely got a look-in on the global scene, though Shocking Blue made a good go of it. Combining new styles of hippie psychedelia with the unique style of Nederbeat, they were undoubtedly among the most interesting groups of the 1960s.
Despite their relative obscurity in comparison to other psych outfits of the time, like Cream or The Byrds, Shocking Blue were deceptively successful during their heyday. With incredible tracks like ‘Send Me A Postcard’, the band established themselves within the pop charts of The Netherlands, but it was the unforgettable song ‘Venus’ which rocketed them towards global success.
Written by guitarist and group leader Robbie van Leeuwen, ‘Venus’ became a defining track of the counterculture era. However, it also proved itself to be more palatable for mainstream audiences than the defiant sounds of pieces like ‘Love Buzz’ or ‘Send Me A Postcard’. Upon its release, the song provided Shocking Blue with a number one track in the USA, as well as Belgium, France and Germany. Despite its popularity, though, the track accidentally contained a typo within its lyrics.
Although they were Dutch, in order to make their music more accessible, Shocking Blue wrote the majority of their material in English. As a result, there were a few typos and mistranslations written within the lyrics of van Leeuwen. Most of the time, these small errors were edited out before the track received commercial release, but one managed to slip through the cracks, and it just so happens it was on their biggest song – sod’s law.
When he originally wrote the lyrics to ‘Venus’, van Leeuwen intended to write the first line as “A Goddess on the mountain top”, but when he put pen to paper, he wrote it as “A Goddness on the mountain top”. Speaking to the spontaneous and quick nature of rock and pop during the 1960s counterculture era, nobody managed to catch the typo before Shocking Blue put ‘Venus’ on to tape. So, when singer Mariska Veres recorded the vocal track, she sang it as “A Goddness on the mountain top”.
Regrettably, now that I have told you about this typo and subsequent vocal performance, you will scarcely be able to listen to the opening line of ‘Venus’ in the same way again. Thankfully, the various cover versions of the song – including the incredibly popular 1980s dance-pop version by Bananarama – fixed the error, but there is certainly something quite endearing about its mispronunciation in the original recording.
