Lily was here was the international title of a movie, called in Dutch De kassière. This record is the soundtrack of that movie. Lily was here tells about a girl working as a cashier at a local supermarket. When she gets pregnant and the father gets killed in gang violence she had to fend for herself. Wrong choices lead to a life of crime. The film was shot mostly in Rotterdam and had the daughter of former mayor of Amsterdam Ed van Thijn playing Lily. I don’t think I ever saw it, but the music is better known, if only for the famous title track with Candy Dulfer on saxophone.
Candy Dulfer is the daughter of Hans Dulfer, a jazz musician that played a major role in the Dutch jazz scene. She was invited by Dave Stewart of the Eurithmics to play saxophone on his instrumental piece in the score for this movie. According to her father it was just a jam session done after studio work for the score. Stewart liked it enough to publish it separately and the rest is history.
The other day I was visiting a friend who is currently very happy using ChatGPT. To test it out, I asked him what would the AI say about Lily was here. The answers ranged from how beautiful the music was, to how it was jazz that was way too easy and superficial. None of the answers told me it was made for a Dutch movie of the same name. Far be it from me to have any critique on Monsterbrain, but reading this background makes me realise that the song is known very well, and the film is not.