Golden Earring: Why Weren't They As Big as Zeppelin, Sabbath, Purple...?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Barnabas Collins, Aug 29, 2014.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. bibijeebies

    bibijeebies vinyl hairline spotter

    Location:
    Amstelveen (NL)
    T&A is a rather good album, but please forget the awful sleeve and title....
     
  2. LordThanos1969

    LordThanos1969 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ, USA
    I guess I am just not a fan, but I do agree with you on The Sweet.
     
    Barnabas Collins likes this.
  3. rburly

    rburly Sitting comfortably with Item 9

    Location:
    Orlando
    Golden Earring played at my Senior Night at the local amusement park in 1975. I think that shows you how seriously they were taken overall. We all loved the couple hits they had, but they weren't anywhere in the same league as the other groups named at that time.
     
    Huck Caton likes this.
  4. DJ LX

    DJ LX Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison WI
    That reminds me of the first day we got cable hookup in our house in the mid to late 80s. I turned on the tv and dialed in MTV. Golden Earring were being interviewed by Martha Quinn to promote the album The Whole. The band presented Quinn with a shirt advertising the album, which she gamely put on. Quinn then asked them what the title referred to. One of the band members sort of smirked and said 'well Martha it refers to a certain part of the female anatomy" Looking shocked, Quinn jumped out of her chair and exclaimed "that's disgusting" and tore off the shirt! Can't remember much else about the interview but that segment surely made an impression on me. :D
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2014
  5. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest

    Eh...those albums are ok. There are certainly some killer riffs sprinkled throughout. All Day Watcher is a personal fave. But the big problem with them....is that there is a large amount of cheesiness on a lot of the tracks.

    Hope has a cool little sax/guitar thing happening....but the lyrics just stink to high Heaven. Embarrassingly bad.


    Bleeding
    Nothing quite went right after Eden
    Your neighbour doesn't know
    But he's a Heathen
    He broke his mind on what he's been reading
     
  6. Orthogonian Blues

    Orthogonian Blues A man with a fork in a world full of soup.

    Location:
    London, UK
    I wasn't around at the time, but I have read that Barry Hay's reputation as a sex symbol really put 'serious' rock fans and writers off Golden Earring in the UK
     
  7. keifspoon

    keifspoon Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Bill Curbishley thought they were going to be big too. Sounds like their peak in America was 1973.

     
    abor1g and jon9091 like this.
  8. Prophetzong

    Prophetzong Forum Resident

    Location:
    NE WISC
    Naked Truth. Golden Earring's Acoustic album shows how great this band really was.
     
  9. Jgirar01

    Jgirar01 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Texas
    I remember seeing them in 1974 or so in the states touring Moontan I think. All my friends loved them but never kept up with them after Moontan. The drummer was an animal, beating the drums with bare hands, think he was shot like a cannon out from behind the drums at the end of a song. I still love the Moontan album, have listened to some later ones and don't like them but may have to check out the earlier ones recommended here.
     
  10. KASHMIR

    KASHMIR Forum Resident

    Location:
    Charleston, SC
    I was a DJ at my college radio station and ever other Sunday night, I would start my radio show off with "Vanilla Queen" off of Moontan. I would alternate the next Sunday's show with Elton John's "Where to Now, St. Peter" (since it was Sunday and the school had a theological dept.)
    :)
    I also liked Switch but they fell off the radar after that album until I heard "Twilight Zone" years later.
     
    jon9091 likes this.
  11. eelkiller

    eelkiller One of the great unwashed

    Location:
    Northern Ontario
    And it is available in glorious Hi-Rez which should be the selling point here. ;) The 3 disc acoustic set is fantastic.
     
  12. pscreed

    pscreed Upstanding Member

    Location:
    Land of the Free
    Great band. Excellent combination of psych/hard rock with a little prog on top was very well done. That run from Eight Miles High, Wall of Dolls, Seven Tears, Together, Moontan was terrific... George Kooymans is a very good guitarist with an original style that is very tight and melodic. These guys really know how to arrange and produce rock records.

    I will say that comparing the USA and Euro versions of Moontan, I like the USA version a LOT better. Whoever put that together took a good record and made it great. And that SH mastered CD is genius.

    Big fan here.
     
    turnersmemo, Hawklord and jon9091 like this.
  13. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest

    Yeah... I like the US track listing far better. That re-recording of Big Tree, Blue Sea is great.
     
    pscreed likes this.
  14. chodad

    chodad Hodad

    Location:
    USA
    They were a pretty good beat band in the mid '60s when they were known as The Golden Earrings.

    [​IMG]
     
    EasterEverywhere likes this.
  15. elgreco

    elgreco Groove Meister

    Answering for bibijeebies, but being from Holland I can confirm that Golden Earring is still in high regard over here. They're considered stuff that legends are made of, not only because the core band has been together for so long, but also because they were the biggest rock band to ever emerge from Holland.
    They're still touring, both acoustically and electrically, and still draw quite a crowd. Over the years, they have had more than 50 Top 40 hit singles over here in Holland and they enjoyed chart success in countries like Germany, France and Poland as well. At least more than those 2 hits they're remembered for in the US and UK.

    I think one of the reasons they didn't make it bigger internationally is that they never decided to move to the US. Circa 1974, they took that into consideration for a little while, but in the end they decided to stay in Holland. And though they toured the US extensively after their chart successes, they finally gave up, because most of those tours cost them a lot of money. I have interviewed the band once and they told me that at the tail end of the 80s they threw in the towel as far as an international breakthrough was concerned and decided to focus on touring and charting in Holland and the surrounding countries.

    Another reason for their relative failure to hit it big internationally is some wrong decisions at certain points in time. To follow up the hugely successful Moontan album with the very different music of Switch wasn't a smart move and they lost their momentum. Also, their deserved third international hit escaped them because the 1984 single When the lady smiles was accompanied by a video clip that contained scenes in which a nun was being raped. I think that song might have given them a third international hit if MTV would have picked it up. But with a vid like that, there was no chance in hell it would get any airplay.

    And though I personally love GE for what they are and what they did, I honestly have to say that they put out a LOT of mediocre albums. There's only a handful of them that really hold up well. So yes, purely from a musical standpoint I can see why they didn't make it bigger than they eventually did.
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2014
    turnersmemo and Barnabas Collins like this.
  16. zen

    zen Senior Member

    In 2012 they released an album called, Tits 'n Ass.
     
  17. elgreco

    elgreco Groove Meister

    Yes, they seem to be proud of things like that. OK, it may be a rock 'n' roll spirit, but business-wise it's not a smart move. But at this point in time they don't care much what America might think of their releases.

    BTW. This is the video that got banned from MTV in 1984. Should have been a worldwide smash. It did make #3 in Canada IIRC.

     
    Grohlfan and dlokazip like this.
  18. elgreco

    elgreco Groove Meister

    Can't say I agree with this. Barry Hay is a frontman many bands would love to have and drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk is quite the showman, too. He's well known for his theatrics during live shows, like his 'parachute jump' over his drum set. Besides, he's a very good drummer, as others in this thread have mentioned. Certainly worthy of international stardom, methinks.
     
    Cousin It and Barnabas Collins like this.
  19. MJConroy

    MJConroy Senior Member

    Location:
    East Coast
    If you hear any tracks off of that on Sirius /XM radio, you are listening to my copy of that album that I donated to their library. NT II and III are also great.
     
  20. cwitt1980

    cwitt1980 Senior Member

    Location:
    Carbondale, IL USA
    They were a great little beat band. I love their early records.
     
  21. tkl7

    tkl7 Agent Provocateur

    Location:
    Lewis Center, OH
    Well, I certainly prefer 1979 Aerosmith, but it is hard to believe that selling bazillions of records has somehow dropped them to a lower tier. I don't like most of the cheese, but it isn't like they are playing clubs or the state fair circuit.
     
  22. FatherMcKenzie

    FatherMcKenzie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Winnetka, CA, USA
    Interesting that the July 2014 issue of UK mag 'Record Collector'has an article on the history of Track records. In the article was this one sentence:

    "Unfortunately, Golden Earring didn't have what it takes to become as successul as Hendrix and The Who." (Page 76)

    Before that sentence, there are a few statements that don't help to explain much regarding Golden Earring. One sentence says, in 1973, they were seen as Track's new hope.

    I appreciate this doesn't really add much to the discussion.
     
  23. tkl7

    tkl7 Agent Provocateur

    Location:
    Lewis Center, OH
    I have heard both of Golden Earring's hits on the radio for years. Likewise, Thin Lizzy. I cannot ever recall hearing any song by Uriah Heep on the radio. Ever. I don't know anyone else personally, i.e., not on the internet, who owns a single Uriah Heep album. Hell, I cannot even find a used Uriah Heep CD in any of my local brick and mortars, and I have been looking! Jailbreak and The GE compilation were two of the first CDs I ever bought.
     
  24. Scotian

    Scotian Amnesia Hazed

    I think Vanilla Queen is their best songs. Side 1 of Moontan was a large part of the soundtrack to my stoner years.
     
    jon9091 and KASHMIR like this.
  25. FatherMcKenzie

    FatherMcKenzie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Winnetka, CA, USA
    Wait a sec... I have six (6) Uriah Heep albums on CD (fron Essential/Castle), plus a deluxe edition of 'Demons & Wizards' from Castle/Sanctuary.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine