“Pull my songs apart and write about them,” Koos du Plessis said, “but leave me alone ... I’m just an ordinary guy.” Koos Doep, as he is popularly known, would have celebrated his 80th birthday in 2025. And yet, a good 40 years after his death, when people talk about “Koos”, almost everyone knows who is referred to and a number of hits immediately come to mind, including “Sprokie vir ’n stadskind”, “Kinders van die wind”, “Gebed” and “As almal ver is”. This is the extent of Koos du Plessis’ fame and his influence on Afrikaans and Afrikaans music. The reason for this is the subject of much debate, sometimes in university lecture halls, but mostly in the middle of the night, with “Kinders van die wind” or “Skielik is jy vry” playing somewhere in the background, and with a good bottle of red wine of course, Koos Doep’s favourite drink.