I don’t know of a single solitary Homo sapien who has heard “Hocus Pocus” by the Dutch band Focus and not been left indelibly altered, and I’m talking at the genetic level, by the experience. The weirdos, freaks, and flat-out perverts in Focus toss everything into the song but those flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. You get one of the flat-out coolest rock riffs ever devised by man, lots of demented yodeling and even more demented human vocalizations that do not constitute yodeling but are even more frightening, some cool-ass jamming, a church organ, and even some industrial strength flute straight from the Jethro Tull school of deviant musicology.
I’ve never been able to decide if “Hocus Pocus” is a demonstration of the lengths to which some people, and by some people I mean the people in Focus, are willing to go to entertain themselves, or a symptom of creeping mental illness attendant upon dipping one’s French fries in mayonnaise. It could well be both. One thing I will say; this is progressive rock at its finest, because the lads in Focus don’t sound like they’re arrogantly looking down their nose at rock’n’roll and trying to make it more presentable to the hoity-toity by means of a lethal injection of classical music, but rather like they’re too fucked up on LSD or some such to recognize there is a distinction to be made between classical music and rock’n’roll.
“Hocus Pocus” is without a doubt the most twisted creature to ever wander yodeling onto the U.S. pop charts, but Focus was not some one-trick Dutch pony. No sirree. Focus was a veritable Dutch oven of musical inventiveness, as can be heard on the 2014 compilation Golden Oldies. Besides “Hocus Pocus”—and really, anything Focus produced in addition to “Hocus Pocus” constitutes a classic case of gilding the lily—you get the Jethro Tull flute pyrotechnics of the spritely and most excellent “House of the King,” the very lovely interplay between guitar and organ that is “Focus 1,” and the hard funk instrumental turned triumphal march that is “Sylvia.” Why, “Sylvia” alone is worth the cost of the album, which may or may not be hard to get your paws on but is probably the apple of the eye of every record collector in the Netherlands, so I recommend you start there.
As for “Aya Yippie Hippie Yee,” it’s almost as bizarre an aural artifact as “Hocus Pocus.” When he isn’t repeating the song title, vocalist/keyboardist/flutist Thijs van Leer is busy doing a very good imitation of Adolf Hitler trying his hand at scat singing, while guitarist Jan Akkerman is kicking out the jams Eddie Van Halen style over the cymbal crash of whoever’s bashing away at the drums. Take away the weird trappings and what you’d have is a very good rock song, but the weird trappings are Focus’ raison d’être and what makes listening to them such a mind-warping and yes, even rewarding experience.
On “Neurotika” van Leer does some more yodeling over an otherwise typical prog rock tune, while on “Tommy” the boys pretend they’ve never heard of a rock opera of the same name. Van Leer sounds half-auctioneer and half-lounge singer, while Akkerman plays some stunningly good guitar. “Focus 3 & 2” is more prog-rock fare, but of the sort you can only find at fine restaurants. Imagine Pink Floyd without Floyd and you’re halfway there. As for “Brother,” it opens with the sound of a wounded organ dragging itself away from a burning church, before van Leer comes in all low-voiced to madly bark about how he needs love and brother don’t you know times are hard? Except he cracks up every time he gets to the part about needing love, which in turn cracks me up, and I love this van Leer fellow, I really do.
The music critic Robert Christgau once summed up/dismissed Focus’ 1975 Mother Focus LP as a record on which “art-rock frankly abandons all pretense of both art and rock for tongue-in-cheek mood mush.” How he could say this about a groovy easy listening experience that reaches it peak on the great “I Need a Bathroom” is beyond me. I mean, he hits the nail on the head on such songs as “Soft Vanilla” and “Hard Vanilla,” but I think he’s missing the point as, most likely, am I.
Focus did all kinds of crazy, mixed-up shit that defies rational explanation, which is the reason why “Hocus Pocus” will live forever. There was absolutely no call for it, and nobody could have ever imagined it, much less asked for it, but Focus gave it to us anyway. And why? Simply because they’re a pack of friendly but twisted fucks who mean no one any harm but simply need a bathroom, as does everybody at one time or another.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
