Lyrics analysis: Long Forgotten Stories by Dennis Versteeg

After listening to the yellow hotel yesterday evening I listened to all the
lyrically related songs. this is what I found out from the lyrics to these
songs.

the songs are:
long forgotten story
night owl
yopollo
de rode vaas
the yellow hotel

It seems that all these songs were based on a trip henk made to greece in
september 1989. he went there with his friend from finland, seppo, to athens
and the island Hydra, where Leonard Cohen has a house, and where he wrote
the song Suzanne.

In long forgotten story Henk looks back from the year 2040 on that trip. he
remembers the lykabettos hill where he performed in 1989 and a red vase he
bought there (the vase can be seen in the long forgotten story video). he
also met an old woman in the hall of the hotel who told him about a lover
she was supposed to meet, but he never showed up. the holtel probably was
painted yellow.

in 'de rode vaas'  he also sings about this meeting with the old woman and
that the hotel is the same as it was the first time he was there, but that
the room has changed. the woman spoke about her lover, an island and youth
to henk. she says she is old but her heart still remembers.

the song 'the yellow hotel' tells the same story about the old woman and her
lover, but this time from the old woman's perspective.

in 'de rode vaas' henk also sings about an island close to athens, probably
hydra, and sings about a woman in the sea, I don't know if this means the
island has a woman shape or that it means something else. in this song he
and pieter look through the red glass of the vase, probably some kind of
metaphore for looking to the past.

the story of going to Leonard Cohen's house is sung about in the night owl
and yopollo. yopollo is probably a straight translation of the words into
finnish, recited by henk's friend seppo, his traveling companion.
during a concert from the giant normal dwarf tour henk explained the song.
he went all the way to Cohen's house, hoping he was home and that they could
speak. he referred to the story about Wagner who wanted to meet Beethoven
and only spoke with him for 2 minutes and of a girl who went to see George
Michael, but he wasn't there.
When Henk and Seppo arrived at the house Leonard Cohen wasn't home and the
only thing they could do was look in the garden and through the window. the
saw a bird flying away in the garden (the night owl?).
henk also told during this concert that the song is about travelling to meet
your idol, but because he wasn't there, only the trip remains.

if someone has other insights into this story please add to it. the lyrics
for long forgotten story and nightowl are in the giant normal dwarf cd. the
lyrics to yopollo and de rode vaas are in quest. I transcribed the lyrics to
the yellow hotel and the dutch translation of de rode vaas and I will post
these seperately. [They can be found at the CD and CD singles pages, JSt]