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

Definitely a right place, right time thing. If you have a song like "Radar Love" and Bill Curbishley is managing you, you're going to succeed.

I've always thought Golden Earring were underrated. Had they played their cards right, they could have gotten close to Stones/Who level. Of course, they didn't.

 

As a huge fan of 80s music, I think "Twilight Zone" rises to the top as one of the best of the decade. I recently found a used CD of 'Cut' but found the overall album to be pretty inconsistent, which may explain why the album only had one (US) hit.

I also like the final track on the US compilation CD, which has a similar melodic intensity.

I guess that summarizes my very narrow take on Golden Earring - a few great songs mixed in with a lot of stuff that just doesn't catch my ear.

 

Saw them live once. They lost me with that 20 minute version of "Radar Love." Then, Blue Öyster Cult took the stage and well... you can guess what happened then.

.

 

I still think to this day that "Lost And Found" would have been a better follow-up to "Twilight Zone" over "The Devil Made Me Do It".

 

At the risk of embarrassing myself, an admission since you are in the Netherlands and you mention Contraband... originally released as Mad Love here in the states with a different cover... and "Bombay," also one of my favorites songs. I was hooked from the first listen in 1977 with "Fightin' Windmills." Nine years ago I was part of a guided tour across western Europe and we spent three days in Amsterdam, with a side trip to Volendam and Zaanse Schans. At the latter me and the German tour guide climbed into one of the windmills while I attempted to describe what I wanted to hear, the grinding whoosh of the windmill as it is recorded on Golden Earring's song. She had no idea but we climbed to the top section inside and listened intently. We never heard the same wooden sound.

For other readers interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaanse_Schans

At the end of the song can be heard the wooden whoosh. It has intrigued me all of these years. It is sort of spooky, certainly distinctive, and I will always associate it with the Netherlands.

 

Easy Livin' and The Magician's Birthday got a lot of FM airplay.

D.D.

 

never got into this band have to check them out only hope is no more flutes in their songs flute have their place put not in a rock song

 

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

Definitely they were good players and a tight band. And any band could be proud of having achieved what they have.
But compared to the other mentioned acts they had no real image. The members were just ....musicians, the band was not exciting as a band. And they also had no signature sound. Just one chord and you knew it was Deep Purple....or Led Zeppelin.

 

Our fellow SHTV member Robert Haagsma together with Jeroen Ras wrote a book about the Golden Earring "Golden Earring, De Amerikaanse Droom" and he might be able to shed some light on this. However, I do not think the book has been translated in english yet. Note the incorrect spelling of Earing below!

 

The LP is called The Hole (one of their worst albums), and is this somewhere on YouTube perhaps? Would love to see this....gosh some people are so easily disgusted huh...poor little child confronted with those savage rock musicians. Nothing that you couldn't hear in a pub on a boys night out, methinks.

 

Or possibly that's accidental genius!

 

My brother saw them live in the early 70's supporting the Who and he told me it was one of the best live bands he'd ever seen- until recently I had also been aware of their hits only ( Back home, Buddy Joe and Radar Love) but have now listened to all of their albums up to Contraband from 1976 - I have made a two cdR compilation of my favorite tracks which is on constant rotation - my No.1 Golden Earring track is Sueleen from Contraband.
P.S.
I' ve also listened to their latest album , the wonderfully titled Tits 'n ass and it sounded great , apparently their series of unplugged albums is also very good.

 

I grabbed ahold of GE when Mad Love was released and quickly started searching out their back catalog. Mad Love, aka Contraband, remains one of my top picks. To this day they are still making new music and tour. That's amazing.

 

When the lady smiles did not make it to the chars in Canada. It's stated in the book "de Amerikaanse Droom", but that incorrect.

 

Ok, the song is better than the video but this is not a worldwide hit, I much preferred all of Moontan better than this song. Sounds too overproduced.

 

I'm glad to see some positive comments for Contraband. It's a lighter GE album, but it's also one of my favorites.

 

Good point, they have just dropped off my own personal 1st tier.

 

Really good album, great playing by Dutch certified guitar legend Eelco Gelling.

 

Well yes, it was the mid-eighties after all. I think sound-wise it fits right in with the times. But I agree that most (not all) of Moontan is better.

About it being a hit in Canada (or not) - I remember having read that somewhere. Must have been the Robert Haagsma book. But it appears to be incorrect, then.
FWIW, both the Dutch and the English entry on the subject on Wikipedia state the same (I know, I know...)

 

Golden Earring is indeed a very well respected band in Holland. As young boy I was playing sometimes with the son of Frans Krassenburg, the first (?) singer of the Golden Earrings during the 60's. I still remember my mother whispering the information in my ear he was the son of a very famous singer - and that almost 20 years after the end of his career with GE's.

 

To even ask why they aren't on the same level as Zeppelin "you need to go back to schoolin'"

 

The band members seemed to have a knack for remarks like that. I also remember an interview for US radio or TV in which they toyed about with the album title Cut (the one with Twilight zone on it). When asked about their next album they responded something along the lines of considering the word 'Lull' as an apt title for their next album. They had the biggest fun amongst themselves, but of course the interviewer didn't get the notion that those words, when pronounced the right way, sound the same as Dutch 'slang' for certain parts of the female and male anatomy, respectively.
The joke didn't connect with the audience either, so I'm sure this bit of harmless fun didn't hurt their career. The 'Hole' incident on the other hand, I'm not so sure...

I read about this, never actually heard of saw it. But it sounds like it may have been the same interview as the one mentioned above.

 

Yes, GE is an excellent, and sadly very underrated band. But what makes you think Zeppelin were big? Judging by their record sales yes, they were, but so were The Bay City Rollers.

 

Oh, I don't know. Millions of records, millions of ticket sales, incalculable influence on rock and pop music, arguably the most popular band of all time after The Beatles. I'd say Zeppelin were pretty big.