Supersister: Looking Back, Naked – An extraordinary, detailed history of the legendary band Supersister and the Dutch underground music scene of the 1960s and 1970s.
Cover photo: Supersister July-August 1970 (album sleeve front) photo copyright Niko Venneker
One of the greatest and most comprehensive music biographies ever
Supersister: Looking Back, Naked – An extraordinary, detailed history of the legendary band Supersister and the Dutch underground music scene of the 1960s and 1970s.
The late 1960s and early 1970s were a creative time for rock music. In the Netherlands, an underground scene was bubbling up with bands that still sound fresh and fearless today. Think Focus with their yodeling guitar wizardry or Shocking Blue’s trippy pop-rock hits. Right in the middle of that was Supersister, a group from The Hague that started out as The Provocation before morphing into something far more ambitious and oddball.
David Warren an editor and author for Pop Expresso. Reach out at david@popexpresso.com
The Book
Fred Baggen’s book, *Supersister: Looking Back, Naked*, is the deepest dive into their story yet. Originally published in Dutch in 2020, it’s now available in English (translated by Marco Rossi), and at around 900 pages, it’s no quick skim—it’s thorough, packed with detail, and feels like stepping into a time machine for anyone who cares about that era’s experimental Dutch scene.
Baggen doesn’t just recap the band’s discography; he starts way back, tracing the members’ childhoods and early musical steps, then follows them through every twist. He draws on a mountain of interviews, old letters, photos, and firsthand accounts to build the picture. It’s the kind of work that comes from someone who’s spent years collecting scraps and talking to everyone involved. (Baggen’s previous book was a detailed look at The Doors’ road life through the road manager Vince Treanor’s eyes, so he knows how to handle this kind of exhaustive history.)
Supersister at Holland Pop Festival Kralingen (Rotterdam) June 27, 1970, photo copyright Fred Baggen
The book covers Supersister’s evolution: their debut *Present from Nancy* with its quirky humor and jazz-rock fusion, the sharper edges of *To the Highest Bidder*, the playful weirdness of *Pudding and Yesterday*, and the more ambitious *Iskander*. Tracks like “She Was Naked,” “Radio,” and “Pudding and Yesterday” get proper context—how they came together in the studio, the influences from jazz (Charlie Mariano shows up in the story), classical bits, and the band’s own offbeat sense of fun.
It also doesn’t shy away from the tougher parts: the lineup changes, the struggles to keep going, the tragic deaths of flautist Sacha van Geest and bassist Ron van Eck, and the long friendship between keyboardist Robert Jan Stips and their manager Aad Link. There are stories of big festival gigs—Holland Festival, Roskilde, Pinkpop—and the later reunions, like ProgFest 2000 in Los Angeles and shows back home in 2001. The recent Supersister revival gets attention too, showing how the music keeps living on.
What makes the book stand out is the extras: rare photos, original artwork, behind-the-scenes bits, exclusive interviews, and a full concert chronology. It’s not just for die-hard Supersister fans—it’s for anyone who wants to understand how a small Dutch band pushed progressive rock into strange, joyful territory while the rest of the world was busy with other things.
If you’re into that period’s creativity, or just like reading about musicians who refused to play it safe, this one’s worth picking up. It’s detailed without being dry, personal without turning sentimental, and it captures why Supersister still feels like a hidden gem.
Supersister July-August 1970 photo copyright Niko Venneker
Supersister. Looking Back, Naked can be ordered at
BOOK DETAILS
photos: black and white photos and illustrations
number of pages: 932
language: English
size: 170 × 240 mm
ISBN: n/a
price (Europe): €29.99 + postage & packing costs
Listen to the extraordinary 1970 Supersister album “Present from Nancy”
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