Bye, Ministry Man is the second single, after Fine Shields We Are, to be released from the album Four. It mocks the rise and inevitable fall of the league of preacher men, enchanting the crowds with fact-free bullshit, semi-religious mumbo-jumbo and whatever nonsense available on the market. Like we have witnessed big time in the US2016 elections, but encounter just as much in Europe and, for that matter, in the Netherlands, the home country of The Dutch. Founded in the eighties, Amsterdam based pop group The Dutch released three albums (Working In Los Alamos, This Is Welfare and Under The Surface) and a couple of hit singles in the Netherlands, including This Is Welfare. In 2015, the band reunited as the back catalogue albums were remastered and distributed online. We started writing and recording new songs. We, that is: Hans Croon (vocals and guitars), Bert Croon (keyboards and vocals), Jan de Kruijf (bass guitar and vocals) and Klaas Jonkmans (drums and vocals). The music of The Dutch does not follow any formula. Writing the 14 songs on "Four", we did not feel any constraints in the way they should sound. Rather, we let each song organically define itself: some songs called out for a marimba and a banjo, others needed a string quartet or a brass section, a vibraphone arrangement or a mandoline. This song, Bye Ministry Man, is all about pizzicato violins. The same counts for the themes we write about: some lyrics are narrative, some personal and some, like Bye, Ministry Man, outright political. Here are the lyrics to the song: On a mountain high Lives a mean old guy He’s selling his mean old stories To anyone he knows All believers go To the valley low Where he’s descending To perform his well-known shows And it’s always the same So many to blame So few who are chosen So weak and so tame When they call out his name Their thoughts are like frozen Bye, ministry man I’m counting from ten, yeah Your mystery plan Is that all you can, yeah In the name of God Or any other thought The ministry man is trying to Get you on his side Tell you where it’s at Before you bow your head The ministry man is always Playing with your mind And it’s always the same So many to blame So few who are chosen So weak and so tame When they call out his name Their thoughts are like frozen Bye, ministry man I’m counting from ten, yeah Your mystery plan Is that all you can, yeah