Pretty interesting news. Rinus is a player alright. Wonder if Barry or Cesar will get out on the road again?
I think their manager Freddy Haayen did a lot of work, he could bluff his way into any place or company. He was also friends with "Joost den Draaijer" who was one of the big dj's on Radio Veronica and later became active as a record boss.
Funny thing though, to my ears, they distinctly sing "Things go badder with CC". Might this have been done on purpose? Apparently Dutch Coke Co. didn't review this. They would have surely rejected this I think.
One of the reasons they dropped Frans Krassenburg was his English. Barry was born in India and native English speaking,
Plus of course Barry adds a lot in terms of being pretty good on a number of instruments. Still, it must be pretty tough to jettison your friends from your band.
So…..I have listened to ‘Just Ear-rings’ a couple of times during the last couple of days - here are my random thoughts about the album. Well, first up, it’s a really short record with 12 tracks weighing in at a total of 26:44 minutes. (I have the Red Bullet version from Complete Studio Recordings boxed set.) The opening track ‘ Nobody But You’ is a bright opener to the album with good use of dual vocals which put me in mind of the Liverpool beat groups of the sixties, I’m thinking of The Swinging Blue Jeans and Herman’s Hermits too. George and Frans’ vocals work well and are very similar to my ears. Boy do they sound young, too! Teenagers! This is followed by ‘ I Hate Saying The Words’ which is more thrash and the sound is pretty distorted to my ears. Following this there are a number of medium pace pop songs but then we get ‘Holy Witness’ which is a direction change with acoustic guitar and harmonica giving an almost country feel in an acoustic Beatles or Stones kind of way. It kind of works. ‘Please Go’ is the sixth track and stands head and shoulders above the other tracks: tight playing, quality of composition, production etc and sounds like an assured hit. Spoken vocals in the middle too! ‘Please Go’ at 2:56 is the longest track and the most fully realised. The rest of the album then kind of falls away in terms of quality but the yearning ballad ‘I Am A Fool’ is another confident Beatle-esq effort while ‘Don’t Stay Away’ has an Animals-style flavour probably due to the presence of the keyboards. The vocals are dreadful on this and a number of other tracks though. The rest of the songs such as ‘No Need To Worry’, ‘Sticks and Stones’ and ‘Now I Have’ indicate that a strength of the band would be as a persuasive live act in the clubs and discos of the 1960s. An interesting listen but not essential listening for me, especially when considering what was to come.
Another 1966 release of the Golden Earrings was the single Daddy Buy me a Girl which reached number 12 in the Dutch charts. It is clearly influenced by bands such as the Hollies and Herman's Hermits. This time a promotion video was made.
The b side is the song "what you gonna tell" which is quite different than other Earrings songs in those days. Vocals are (if I hear correctly) by George Kooymans.
It's a very short album. I always have the idea it was released too early since it was followed by a strong run of singles.
I’ve been listening to the associated B-sides from the singles from the Just Ear-rings period and just after. I think Chunk of Steel is pretty average although as per my earlier comments it would have been an ok live track, one for the dancers. That Day sounds better thought out and arranged and vocals are decent. The descending piano line is reminiscent of The Kinks or The Moody Blues circa Go Now. I like this one. The Words I Need is a fairly bright poppy and again dancey song but I hate that ‘ting’ - triangle or bell which punctuates the beat. Ugh. If You Leave Me sounds like a step up in arrangement and production and sounds like a better quality song. The piano also fills out the sound nicely and the vocals are good. Waiting For You sounds pretty miserable, as in sad, again I think the overall sound, arrangement and production make it a step up from some of the tracks on the first album. Chord progression reminds me of Nights In White Satin. The electric guitar break sounds very tinny though Things Go Better (Badder) is amusing to me as I used to enjoy some radio jingles produced by bands where they take one of their better known songs and parody it - this is very tongue in cheek, as is the B-side Rum and Coca Cola. Nice work if you can get a tour bus out of it!
Daddy Buy Me A Girl does indeed sound reminiscent of Herman’s Hermits but again is an improvement on the sound and arrangement of some of the first album’s songs. What You Gonna Tell, I agree Edwin it sounds like George on vocals to me too, sounds very throwaway and a B-side in the truest sense. All these singles and B-sides are interesting to hear, and nice to have, but they are unlikely to get repeated plays by me.
In November the last of the 1966 string of singles was released. A-side Don't run too far reached number 14 in the Dutch charts, their least successful single so far. The keyboards sound like a session musician was used, might be Cees Schrama. The moment the song goes into fade-out there is a guitar part that sounds more interesting than the song itself.
'That Day', best Earring single of their early period. Still have the original 45 with picture sleeve.
April 1967 the Golden Earrings released their second album Winter Harvest. They sounded much more professional on this one, but still were aiming at the commercial pop market. Rhythm guitar player had left the band so they were left with four. To get a fuller sound Cees Schrama was added as a guest musician on keyboards. He can be regarded as the most important keyboard session man in the Netherlands at the time and often also helped with arrangements. To give an example, this is the guy who added the keyboard sound to Shocking Blues Venus. In my House/Smoking Cigarettes were released as the single from the album, and were also the highlights of the album https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbjPX5u51n3jdFd-pD5yakHhe2np1WCYx
In my House showed up on the setlist much later in 2015. In the introduction Barry explained the background of the song and jokes about Frans his Hague accent
