Golden Earring

What is the best thing to ever come out of The Netherlands? Cheese, tulips, wooden shoes or windmills? Pieter van den Hoogenband? Big Brother?

Wrong.

The best thing to ever come out of The Netherlands is the song Radar Love.

Radar Love is quite possible one of the greatest rock songs ever committed to vinyl. What makes its all the more curious is that it was released by a Dutch band called Golden Earring. What is almost incredible is that Golden Earring are still going strong today a full 48 years after their formation.

Golden Earring was formed in 1961 in The Hague by 13-year-old George Kooymans and his 15-year-old Rinus Gerritsen. Both are still in the band today. The name Golden Earrings (the ‘s’ was dropped early in their evolution) was taken from a song, originally sung by Marlene Dietrich in 1947 and covered by Peggy Lee in 1948.

Golden Earring recorded several pop songs in Holland and had some chart success but it wasn’t until 1968 that the band had a number one hit in the Netherlands with the Dong Dong Diki Diki Dong.

This was followed by a successful psychedelic album Eight Miles High, which featured an eighteen-minute version of the title track, itself a cover of the 1966 hit song by The Byrds. The live version, which could last 45 minutes (great song, but 45 mins sounds excruciating), was considered by some to be a highlight in their first and second American tours, in the middle of the hippie and flower power era.

The came Radar Love.

The single from the album Moontan became a hit in both Europe and the USA. Golden Earring embarked on their first major US tour in 1969 – 1970, and were among the first European bands to do so. Due to American influences, their music evolved towards hard rock, and they performed along with Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. Between 1969 and 1984, Golden Earring completed thirteen US tours. During this period, they performed as the opening act for Santana, The Doobie Brothers, Rush and .38 Special. In the early seventies, when “Radar Love” was a hit, they had KISS and Aerosmith as their opening act.

Singer and Lyricist Barry Hay explained the origins of Radar Love on the bands website.

“One evening I had a few friends over, one of whom was American, and I was brainstorming with them about the form and contents of the story. It had to be something very simple, to which every average person could relate, such as someone in the bathtub and ….. Everyone started to put in ideas and it when it got too chaotic I kicked them out of the house and sent them to some nightclub so that I could work in peace. The idea of an ordinary guy in his car became to take shape and when my American house guest got home in the early hours and read the lyrics, he went wild: “This is it, brilliant! The ultimate American car song!!!”

The song is now genuinely iconic. It has its own website www.radar-love.net which claims that over 375 cover versions of  Radar Love have been done including those by  U2, Blue Man Group, R.E.M., Bryan Adams, Carlos Santana, Def Leppard, Ministry, Crowded House, the Alarm, James Last Orchestra, Thunder, White Lion, and many more. It also lists many tv shows, movies and books where Radar Love is either featured or referred to.

Golden Earring had a minor hit with Twilight Zone and in 1984 When the Lady Smiles became a hit in Canada and becoming the band’s fifth number one hit in their native country, but not in the US.

Tragedy hit in 1984 when the band were playing a concert at a US theme park when a fire killed eight teenagers. After this the bands attention increasing went to Europe.

In 1991, Golden Earring scored another hit in the Netherlands with Going To The Run, a ballad about a Hell’s Angels motorclub member who was a friend of the band and died in a crash.

Since 1992, they have focussed largely on acoustic shows which remain very popular in Europe and releasing acoustic albums which have been some of the band’s best selling albums, such as The Naked Truth, which sold over 500,000 copies in the Netherlands alone.

Golden Earring continue to perform over 200 concerts a year, both acoustic and electric mainly in their home country of the Netherlands and occasionally in Belgium and Germany. These energetic live performances have been recorded on several live albums.

Golden Earring have not toured in North America or other continents since 1984. They have never toured Asia, South America or Australia.

Strangely the bands last album was recorded in New York in 2003 and apparently there is another album finished and awaiting release.

To promote the release of the album, Golden Earring will do two gigs in the UK for the first time in thirty years, with one concert on 14 March 2009 at The Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London and one show at Ipswich Regent Theatre on March 13, 2009.

Golden Earring celebrated their 47th anniversary in 2008 and have been performing almost continuously since their foundation in 1961. They have had the same unchanged line-up of the same four musicians and friends since 1970, augmented time to time with a fifth member (Dutch keyboardist and leader of legendary band Supersister, Robert Jan Stips).

Lead singer Barry Hay now lives in the Dutch Antilles island of Curacao in the Caribbean, presumably in a tax haven from the on-going royalties from Radar Love.

More information about Golden Earring can be found at www.goldenearring.nl

There is a great range of merchandise available – who wouldn’t want a Golden Earring t-shirt? Surely it would have to be a must have fashion accessory. I’ve just ordered mine.

For those whose memory is failing here are the lyrics to Radar Love.

I’ve been drivin’ all night, my hand’s wet on the wheel
There’s a voice in my head that drives my heel
It’s my baby callin’, says I need you here
And it’s a half past four and I’m shiftin’ gear
When she is lonely and the longing gets too much
She sends a cable comin’ in from above
Don’t need no phone at all
We’ve got a thing that’s called Radar Love
We’ve got a wave in the air, Radar Love
The radio is playing some forgotten song
Brenda Lee’s comin’ on strong
The road has got me hypnotized
And I’m speedin’ into a new sunrise
When I get lonely and I’m sure I’ve had enough
She sents her comfort comin’ in from above
We don’t need no letter at all
We’ve got a thing that’s called Radar Love
We’ve got a light in the sky
(Instrumental break)
No more speed, I’m almost there
Gotta keep cool now, gotta take care
Last car to pass, here I go
And the line of cars drove down real slow
And the radio played that forgotten song
Brenda Lee’s comin’ on strong
And the newsman sang his same song
Oh one more radar lover gone
When I get lonely and I’m sure I’ve had enough
She sents her comfort comin’ in from above
We don’t need no letter at all
We’ve got a thing that’s called Radar Love
We’ve got a light in the sky
We’ve got a thing that’s called Radar Love
We’ve got a thing that’s called Radar Love