Two musicians from The Netherlands are known as Frank Boeijen:

1. Fr… Read Full Bio ↴Two musicians from The Netherlands are known as Frank Boeijen:

1. Frank Boeijen is a Dutch singer/songwriter, who was the front man of popular (and eponymous) pop group De Frank Boeijen Groep from 1980 until 1991, the year he went solo. As leader of De Frank Boeijen Groep, Boeijen was one of the pioneers of Nederpop; along with the likes of Doe Maar en Het Goede Doel. After the peak of Nederpop passed, Boeijen broke new ground by touring theatres with his band and bringing pop music to new auditoriums and audiences. As a solo artist, he has kept to this theatre based approach of his music and maintained a productive pace.

Frank Boeijen was born in Nijmegen, The Netherlands on November 27, 1957, as the last in a family of ten children. His father was a typesetter in a factory. His older brothers were into American pop music; in the Boeijen household, Bob Dylan and Neil Young were often to be found on the record player (years later, Boeijen would write a song about this, appropriately titled Robbert Zimmerman). Young Frank learned to play the guitar. After finishing high school, Boeijen started a musical collaboration with guitarist Wout Pennings. Boeijen en Pennings released an album together in 1977. The songs of the album were re-recorded and the album was re-released a year later, with Rob de Nijs acting as producer. It was appropriately titled Boeijen en Pennings. To fulfil live engagements, drummer Henk Wanders en bass player Nels Busch joined the duo.

Pennings left the band in 1979 and was replaced with guitar player Wil Theunissen. The name was changed into the Frank Boeijen Groep. The b-side of their fist single, a song entitled Verjaardagsfeest was picked on up by radio disc jockey Frits Spits, who played the record a lot during his evening show. The group released their debut album, simply entitled Frank Boeijen Groep, album later that year. On the base of the airplay of Verjaardagsfeest, the album reached the Tipparade.

Nederpop, pop music with Dutch vocals, was becoming a mainstream success in the early eighties, and the Frank Boeijen Groep hitched a wagon to that train, when their single Linda, reached the Top Forty. Zwart Wit, another single, written after a racial murder had taken place in Amsterdam, became a number one hit. 1982's Twee and 1983's 1001 Hotel became big sellers.

In 1984, the Frank Boeijen Groep was awarded the Zilveren Harp by Conamus. In that same year, album Kontakt was released. Lead guitarist Wil Theunissen quit the group later that year and replaced with Maarten Peters, who himself was replaced two years later by Ger Hoeijmakers. In 1985, the group released Foto Van Een Mooie Dag. Single Kronenburg Park -- named after Kronenburger Park a park in Nijmegen, Boeijen's place of birth and residence -- became a huge success. Follow up, In Nature, released in 1986, didn't do as well, but still sold respectively.

Towards the end of the eighties, Boeijen's music fell somewhere in between het levenslied of André Hazes, the chansons of Ramses Shaffy and the pop of Doe Maar. According to Frank Boeijen and his manager Paul Schouwenaars the group had outgrown clubs and tents. With the release of album Welkom In Utopia in 1987, the group decided to tour Dutch theatres. The Welkom In Utopia tour started in the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam in September of the same year. Two more albums were released: studio album Een Zomer Aan Het Eind Van De Twintigste Eeuw (1989) and live album Hier Komt De Storm. During these years, Frank Boeijen dated Sky Channel presenter Amanda Redington. The two would marry in 1990. The album Dans In Slow Motion, released in 1988, was written for her. In juni 1994 scheidden ze weer van elkaar.

In the spring of 1991, Boeijen announced the ending of his group. In November of that year, he released his first solo album Wilde Bloemen. The musicians on the album were drummer Norman Bonink, guitar player Peter van Benthem and bass player Michel van Schie. Van Schie was replaced by touring bass player René te Voortwis, and pianist Ton Snijders was also recorded. Wilde Bloemen featured several duets with other well known Dutch musicians, among them were: Twee Gezichten, a song written and recorded with Henk Hofstede of The Nits); and Het IJs, written and recorded with Henny Vrienten of Doe Maar).

In the summer of 1993, Boeijen recorded Jazz in Barcelona; an album concerned with the break up between him and Amanda Redington. The subsequent theatre tour was a big success, with sold out shows every evening. Traces of Boeijen's break up were also to be found on next album De Ontmoeting (1994 - an even more spare and intimate affair than Jazz In Barcelona. De Ontmoeting also featured a single, Twee Mannen Zo Stil, with music and lyrics by Boeijen and Stef Bos. Although the single failed to mount the charts, over the years it became a Nederpop classic, often played at funerals. In the same year, Boeijen produced an album for Liesbeth List, the female voice of Ramses Shaffy's recordings. In 1995, another live album, Stormvogels, hit the shelves.

Boeijen returned with two new albums in 1997: a greatest hits compilation, Het Beste En Het Mooiste and an album of new material, Vaderland. The year before, Boeijen had travelled extensively through Asia, and a lot of the songs, although concerning Boeijen and The Netherlands, were written from a distant perspective. In 1999, De Ballade van de Dromedaris, recorded in Peter Gabriel's Real World Studio's appeared, followed by live album Door De Jaren Heen, containing several duets with Ramses Shaffy, Liesbeth List and Stef Bos. Both albums were big sellers. In 2001, Heden, was released. Drummer Norman Bonink left the group to join BLØF. He seat was filled by Oscar Kraal. Helder contained a collaboration between Boeijen and BLØF front man Paskal Jakobsen, single Geen Gevaar. The song was released in the summer of 2002. In the same year, Boeijen won an Edison award as best singer.

2. Frank Boeijen is also the name of the keyboardist for the Dutch group The Gathering.

De wapens spreken
Frank Boeijen Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

De kinderen spelen
Met houten geweren
De zandbak
Word een woestijn
Zoals avond en avond
De beelden te zien zijn

Ergens ver weg

Tussen Eufraat en Tigris
Waar ooit
De beschaving ontstond
Valt er vuur uit de hemel
De wereld ging op kruistocht

En in Bagdad zoekt een moeder
Haar verloren kind
En in Haïfa
Gaat het luchtalarm af

De wapens spreken
Overschreeuwen de vrede
En de vrede
Zwijgt als het graf

In naam van God
Of in naam van Allah
Maakt men zich op
Om de strijd aan te gaan
Het lijk alsof of de tijd
Duizend jaar heeft stilgestaan

Onder het mom
Van normen en waarden
Maar in het belang
Van geld en macht
Vloeit er bloed
Van onschuldigen
En van bedrogen soldaten

En in Bagdad zoekt een moeder
Haar verloren kind
En in Haïfa
Gaat het luchtalarm af

De wapens spreken
Overschreeuwen de vrede
En de vrede
Zwijgt als het graf

En in Bagdad zoekt een moeder
Haar verloren kind
En in Haïfa
Gaat het luchtalarm af

De wapens spreken
Overschreeuwen de vrede
En de vrede
Zwijgt als het graf

En de vrede
Zwijgt als het graf

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Frank Boeijen's song De wapens spreken address the destructive power of war and the devastating consequences it has on innocent civilians, especially mothers and children. The first verse paints a picture of children playing with toy guns in a sandbox, which becomes a reflection of the larger conflict raging in the world. In the second verse, the song references the war in Iraq and the bombing of cities like Bagdad and Haïfa, where mothers search for their lost children while air raid sirens sound in the background.

The refrain, "De wapens spreken, overschreeuwen de vrede. En de vrede zwijgt als het graf" (The weapons speak, drown out the peace. And peace is silent as the grave), encapsulates the central message of the song – that war only breeds more violence and destruction and inevitably silences the voices of those who seek peace. The bridge of the song refers to the religious and political justifications often used to justify warfare, but ultimately reveals them as masks for greed and power-hungry agendas that cause the deaths of innocent people and disillusion those who believe in their cause.

Overall, Boeijen's lyrics denounce the futility and horrors of war and pose a poignant question: if mothers are searching for their missing children and air raid sirens are blasting, what kind of peace are the weapons really speaking of?

Line by Line Meaning

De kinderen spelen
Children play

Met houten geweren
With wooden guns

De zandbak
The sandbox

Word een woestijn
Becomes a desert

Zoals avond en avond
As evening after evening

De beelden te zien zijn
The images are displayed

Ergens ver weg
Somewhere far away

Tussen Eufraat en Tigris
Between Euphrates and Tigris

Waar ooit
Where once

De beschaving ontstond
Civilization originated

Valt er vuur uit de hemel
Fire falls from the sky