Formed in 1961, the band was active for 60 years, almost non-stop. They had 56 years of studio output, starting in 1965, which made them the world's longest surviving rock band, formed a year before The Rolling Stones, until their tragic end on 5 February 2021, when guitarist founding member George Kooymans revealed that he had been diagnosed with the neuro-muscular disease, ALS.
The band's core line-up of four was unchanged from 1970 to 2021, although extra musicians had short stints in the band in the 1970s. Golden Earring was always touring, except in 2000 (their only sabbatical year) and the final year of their existence, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 1961 George Kooymans (age 13) and his neighbour Rinus Gerritsen (age 15) formed The Tornado's in the Zuiderpark district of their home town of The Hague, The Netherlands. The band's first line-up mainly played The Shadows and The Ventures covers, as well as other instrumental tunes, and played its first gigs at school parties.
In 1963, as the band found out that there already was a British band called The Tornados, they decided to change their name into The Golden Ear-rings (after a Peggy Lee song). The band now performed around The Hague, soon had a devoted local following and landed a record deal with Polydor. Their début single, 1965's Please Go, immediately landed in the Dutch Top 10.
Under the Golden Earrings moniker the band eventually recorded four albums and had twelve hit singles in the Netherlands between 1965 and 1969, ten of which reached the Dutch Top 10. Several of their records were released internationally in Europe and even North America, although they failed to make an impact there.
One of the band's sixties singles became their first Dutch #1 hit: 1968's somewhat carnavalesque Dong-Dong-Diki-Digi-Dong, although that tune is now frowned upon by the band and generally regarded as inferior to other sixties Earrings gems, such as That Day (1966, the first Dutch pop single to have been recorded in the U.K., at London's Pye Studios), Sound Of The Screaming Day (1966) and the epic Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart (1969).
The band's lead singer during the early Golden Earrings years was Frans Krassenburg. He was replaced by Barry Hay (ex-The Haigs) in 1967. The band's drummer for much of the 1960s was Jaap Eggermont. His successors were Sieb Warner (1969) and, in 1970, Cesar Zuiderwijk (ex-Livin' Blues), Golden Earring's definitive drummer.
The band's international career modestly started to take off in 1969, the year of their psychedelic Eight Miles High album, their first haphazard tour of the United States and also the year in which the band name was slightly changed into The Golden Earring and finally (dropping the article within a year), Golden Earring. On their early U.S. tours, their long, wild cover version of The Byrds' classic Eight Miles High impressed audiences and press alike. Golden Earring's 19-minute album version, as well as the stand-alone 1969 single, Another 45 Miles, were the first Golden Earring recordings to get some North American airplay.
The arrival of drummer, Cesar Zuiderwijk, in 1970, completed what would turn out to be the group's definitive line-up: Barry Hay (lead vocals/guitar/flute), George Kooymans (guitar/vocals), Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums) and Rinus Gerritsen (bass/harmonica/keyboards).
1970 saw a dramatic shift in Golden Earring's musical style. After the melodic, often Beatle-esque sixties beat of The Golden Earrings and a brief phase of psychedelia and hippie rock in 1968 and 1969, the single Back Home marked the birth of Golden Earring's trademark heavy, riff-based brand of hard rock with catchy hooks. Back Home hit #1 in the Dutch charts and 'broke' Golden Earring in most of Europe, notably countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France.
This marked the start of a decade of domestic and international glory. Between 1966 and 1976 seventeen consecutive Earring singles rocketed into the Dutch Top 10, while their international popularity increased, especially after their lengthy 1972 tour of Europe, supporting The Who. Buddy Joe (1972) achieved considerable chart success in the German-speaking countries of Europe, but 1973's Radar Love was their breakthrough smash hit worldwide: #13 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, #1 in the U.S. Cashbox chart, #5 in Britain, #8 in Australia, #10 in Canada, #5 in Germany, #6 in Belgium, #1 in Spain and also #1 in (last but not least) Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), to name but a few.
Radar Love remains an enduring 'car classic' and radio anthem of global fame to this day. Between 1969 and 1985 Golden Earring completed ten major tours of North America, building a considerable North American fanbase, as well as five headlining tours of Great Britain in 1973 and 1974 alone. Golden Earring toured as 'special guests' of The Who, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, .38 Special, Rush and many more, whereas bands like Aerosmith, KISS, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd opened for Golden Earring. The album that spawned Radar Love, 1973's Moontan, was certified 'Gold' by North America's RIAA in 1974 and sold millions of copies worldwide.
The band failed to achieve similar chart success in the years after Radar Love: the progressive Switch (1975) and To The Hilt (1976) charted in Billboard's album charts, but yielded no major U.S. hits. The singles were clearly not what North American audiences wanted from the 'Radar Love guys'.
Golden Earring was forgotten by many outside of The Netherland and by 1980 even Dutch audiences started to lose interest: albums such as No Promises, No Debts (1979) and Prisoner Of The Night (1980) were commercial flops, leading to the band's decision (in 1981) to record a 'final LP and then call it quits.
The lead single from 1982's 'farewell album', Cut, a Kooymans-penned tune called Twilight Zone, surprisingly became an even bigger hit in the U.S. than Radar Love: #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks, thanks to heavy MTV rotation of the Dick Maas-directed video. The song (#1 in The Netherlands) revived Golden Earring's stateside career overnight. The Cut LP was certified 'gold' in Canada, with Twilight Zone hitting #3 in the Canadian charts.
In their native Netherlands the band did manage to extend their creative and commercial peak this time: the single When The Lady Smiles and the album N.E.W.S. ('NorthEastWestSouth'), both released in 1984, repeated the success of Twilight Zone and Cut. 'Lady' peaked at #3 in Canada, but fared disappointingly in the U.S. as MTV and even radio stations banned the track because of its controversial video, once again directed by Dick Maas, in which the rape of a nun was suggested.
After 1985 things rapidly went downhill for Golden Earring internationally (they would not tour the U.S. again), but - after a creative and financial crisis that lasted throughout the second half of the 1980s - the band wrote one of their most enduring Dutch hits in 1991 (the power-ballad, Going To The Run, which fared partially well in Russia) and discovered a new gold mine in their home country a year later: acoustic concerts in theatres, the concept of MTV Unplugged.
To everybody's surprise, the band's acoustic live album, The Naked Truth, slowly became their all-time biggest selling album in The Netherlands. Its sequels, Naked II (1997) and Naked III (2005) also went platinum at least once in The Netherlands.
Golden Earring's by far most succesful album internationally remains 1973's Moontan, which sold well over 3.5 million copies outside of The Netherlands and was certified 'gold' in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom (and platinum in the U.S. in later years).
Golden Earring released 25 studio albums, 9 live albums and countless succesful compilations. Almost all of these records were certified gold, often platinum, in The Netherlands. More than anything else, though, the band remained a live force of legendary status in their home country and beyond. They toured throughout each year until the very end, almost exclusively in the Netherlands, although there are still occasional live appearances in Belgium and Germany. 2009 saw Golden Earring's long overdue return to the United Kingdom: their sold out shows in Ipswich and London's Shepherd's Bush Empire were their first live appearances in England since 1978.
In 2011 the band recorded their first album of new material since 2003's Millbrook U.S.A.: Tits 'n Ass - studio album #25 for the Dutch legends - was released on 11 May 2012 on Universal Music and hit #1 in the Dutch album charts one week after its release to become Golden Earring's 8th #1 album in their home country. Certified 'gold' in The Netherlands, the album was generally believed to be Golden Earring's final studio outing, but December 2015 saw the release of a five-track mini album entitled The Hague, released more than fifty years after their début single and just before the band's sold out 'Five Zero' anniversary concert at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome in front of a 17,000-strong crowd. 2019 saw the release of a stand-alone single, Say When: Golden Earring's final studio recording.
Nobody was aware of it at the time, but the band's 16 November 2019 performance at the Rotterdam Ahoy would turn out to be their final concert. After a year of Covid-19 lockdowns, guitarist George Kooymans announced his ALS diagnosis on 5 February 2021, the disease rendering him unfit to perform. Within hours, the band admitted that carrying on without Kooymans was unthinkable. In the words of lead singer, Barry Hay: "This is the end of the line for the band. It's a death blow. We always said: we'll keep going until the first one of us goes down. I never expected it to be George."
The band's final performance was released as a live CD and DVD in April 2022, named after Barry Hay's final words at the end of countless Golden Earring shows: You Know We Love You!.
Studio albums (released as Golden Earring, unless noted otherwise)
Just Ear-rings (1965, as The Golden Earrings or The Golden Ear-rings)
Winter-Harvest (1967, as Golden Earrings, sometimes spelled as Winter Harvest)
Miracle Mirror (1968, as Golden Earrings)
On The Double (1969, as Golden Earrings)
Eight Miles High (1969, as The Golden Earring)
Golden Earring (1970, colloquially known as 'Wall Of Dolls')
Seven Tears (1971)
Together (1972)
Moontan (1973)
Switch (1975)
To The Hilt (1976)
Contraband (1976, U.S. title: Mad Love)
Grab It For A Second (1978)
No Promises... No Debts (1979, spelled as No Promises, No Debts on most online platforms)
Prisoner Of The Night (1980)
Cut (1982)
N.E.W.S. (1984)
The Hole (1986)
Keeper Of The Flame (1989)
Bloody Buccaneers (1991)
Face It (1994)
Love Sweat (1995, covers album)
Paradise In Distress (1999)
Millbrook U.S.A. (2003)
Tits 'n Ass (2012)
The Hague (EP, 2015)
Live albums
Live (1977)
2nd Live (1981)
Something Heavy Going Down (1984, includes one new studio track)
The Naked Truth (1992, acoustic)
Naked II (1997, acoustic)
Last Blast Of The Century (2000)
Naked III (2005, acoustic, incorrectly listed as Naked Truth III on some streaming platforms)
Live In Ahoy 2006 (2006, live DVD + CD set)
You Know We Love You! (2022, live DVD + CD set)
Additional information:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Earring
Official website: https://www.golden-earring.nl
I Need Love
Golden Earring Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Do you ever feel unhappy don't know what you wanna do
Do you do you get slap happy, give and take a few
Oh I never been this lonely, somethin' passed me by
I know what I'm missing, and it makes me cry
Hunting for bounty with a treasure map in my hand
And my secretary says she understands in short hand
Take a note, take a note
Is it time to try, before it passes me by
I need love, I need love, I need love
Give it to me
Don't deny me love, I need love, I need love
Lots of it
I wanna o.d. on it
I beg your pardon baby. Maybe you can help me out
Could you move a little closer
We don't have to shout you see I'm a desperate guy
You must've heard it all before
Oh you gotta go,- bye bye - Messin' me up some more
Hunting for bounty with a treasure map in my hand
And my secretary says she understands in short hand
Take a note, take a note
Did I really float in my dreamboat
Is it time to try before it passes me by
I need love, I need love, I need love
Give it to me don't deny me love
I need love, I need love, lots of it
I wanna o.d. on love
I need love, I need love
Let me have it
Let me lay my hands on love
I need love, I need love
Come on... don't deny me love
Everybody's talking about love
I need love
To boil my eggs, to stretch my legs
To scratch my back, before I hit the sack
I need love and with a little bit of luck
Love and not just a quick
- You know what - I need love
Etc
The lyrics of "I Need Love" by Golden Earring express the singer's feelings of loneliness and desire for a romantic relationship. He feels unhappy, slap happy, and lonely, and realizes that he needs love in his life. He mentions the idea of hunting for a bounty with a treasure map in his hand, presumably a metaphor for his search for love. He also refers to dreaming of floating in a dreamboat, which could represent his desire to escape his reality and find happiness.
The singer asks his secretary, who he assumes understands him well, to take a note and then wonders if he's really floated in his dreamboat. He becomes more desperate, begging for love and even hoping to overdose on it, suggesting that he has a strong desire for some kind of emotional intensity in his life. As the song draws to a close, he pleads for someone to not deny him love and talks about how he needs it for little things such as boiling his eggs and scratching his back.
Overall, the lyrics convey a sense of yearning and desperation for love and companionship. The singer feels lost without it and is willing to go to great lengths to find it.
Line by Line Meaning
Mad love
The song is about a desperate need for love and affection
Do you ever feel unhappy don't know what you wanna do
Asks if the listener has ever felt lost and unsure of their desires
Do you do you get slap happy, give and take a few
Asks if the listener engages in rough play, both physically and emotionally
Oh I never been this lonely, somethin' passed me by
Admits to feeling incredibly lonely despite having missed or passed over opportunities
I know what I'm missing, and it makes me cry
The realization of what is missing in their life brings the artist to tears
Hunting for bounty with a treasure map in my hand
Searching eagerly for love, akin to searching for treasure
And my secretary says she understands in short hand
The singer's secretary empathizes and tries to help in her own shorthand way
Take a note, take a note
A repetition of the secretary's suggestion to write down ideas or advice
Did I really float, in my dreamboat
Reflecting on happier times when love seemed more attainable
Is it time to try, before it passes me by
Wondering if the opportunity for love will come and go too quickly
I need love, I need love, I need love
An urgent declaration of the need for love, repeated for emphasis
Give it to me
Asking for love to be given to them
Don't deny me love, I need love, I need love
An appeal to not be rejected or denied love
Lots of it
Expressing a desire for a large amount of love
I wanna o.d. on it
Hyperbolically expressing a need to consume so much love that it becomes overwhelming
I beg your pardon baby. Maybe you can help me out
An apologetic request for assistance from a potential partner
Could you move a little closer
Asking the person to physically get closer
We don't have to shout you see I'm a desperate guy
Trying to establish a connection by asking to whisper instead of shouting, while admitting to their desperation
You must've heard it all before
Acknowledging that they may not be saying anything new or unique
Oh you gotta go,- bye bye - Messin' me up some more
The potential partner has to leave, but the artist acknowledges that this interaction has left them more emotionally confused
I need love, I need love, I need love
Repeating the aforementioned declaration of the desperate need for love
Let me have it
Another request to be given love
Let me lay my hands on love
The desire to physically feel love
Come on... don't deny me love
An impassioned plea to not reject the artist's attempts at love
Everybody's talking about love
Observing that love is a commonly discussed topic
To boil my eggs, to stretch my legs
Listing examples of mundane things that love could improve or enhance
To scratch my back, before I hit the sack
Another example of a minor task that love could make better
I need love and with a little bit of luck
If they are lucky, perhaps the artist can find the love they crave
Love and not just a quick - You know what - I need love
Clarifying that they desire meaningful love, not just a physical encounter
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
kriki65
Love this solo. Everytime I hear this song, I repeat the solo many times. Saw GE last time December 2016 in ZiggoDome/Amsterdam, they are still a fantastic band!
Robbert Oomen
Most brilliant acoustic guitar solo I have ever heared or seen. My all time favorit Earring song.
blueeyes9166
Georgeje, weer helemaal geweldig die solo!!!!
Jeffrey Latawiec
What an amazing rendition of a great song live. You are right...Kooymans' solo is great. They have been playing together for 40 years, look great, and sound even better. Thank God for blessing me with Golden Earring music. I dig them the way I dig Katatonia.Thanx for this upload. Any chance of getting the studio version of this uploaded also?
Henrik Falkenfleth
Here you are (the first album I've got with GE just when it came out - been hooked since)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U90CEhPNl0
Enjoy
Jan
@latawie I agree that this is an amazing piece of work. To be quite honest with you... I didn't even know this song until I heard it on the Naked III album. I'm afraid I don't have a studio version to go with it.
Elke Pluntke
yes ... damn good live stuff
Joost Van der Valk
Weer bewijst George dat hij de beste rocker is van het Europese vasteland. En nog steeds nauwelijks (brede) erkenning.
diggr13
I came all the way from Canada for this show at the Panama Club. As usual, I was not disappointed.
Mr James Music
does anyone have tabs for that solo?