- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- I am now a Nederpop music fan of long standing, and finding this amazing album Searching in the Wilderness is a big part of the reason why.
Searching in the Wilderness (Various Artists) (1986): One fine day several years before we moved to New York City, I climbed down the stairs to a basement-level store in Greenwich Village called Underground Records. Searching in the Wilderness – the front cover has “Wild” in all caps – was on display; and it didn’t take more than a glance at the back cover for me to put this album among my purchases. I am now a Nederpop music fan of long standing, and finding this amazing album is a big part of the reason why. Several of the best Dutch rock bands among the artists: the Golden Earrings, the Outsiders, Cuby and the Blizzards, Q65, and the Motions. But these particular tracks turned out to be among the finest and rawest songs by these bands: “Chunk of Steel”, “Won’t You Listen”, “I’m So Restless”, “It Came to Me”, and “For Another Man”, respectively. Most of the other bands (all European) are unfamiliar to me, but the music is just as good and includes fierce covers of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” by the Snobs and Little Richard’s “Keep A-Knockin’ ” by the Outlaws (not the American band called Outlaws). There is also a rare song by the Kinks called “All Aboard” that is credited to Muswell Ravens. If I hadn’t run across another copy of Searching in the Wilderness several years ago – before I found this disc and cleaned it up – I doubt that I would be willing to part with this album!