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
Kingfisher
Golden Earring Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
On the edge of the morning
Gaze at me from across the room
The candle light....dying
Music it sounds like a waterfall
Makes you feel like you're drowning
Kingfisher's eyes, you're like black pearl
SWatchin' the ghosts, surround me
Savage-ly tryin' to drag me down!!
The Candy Man's at the door again
Ringing the bell, I won't let him in
There's a storm a-raging inside my brain
Playing tricks with me in the dark
Don't believe a single word
That your ears have ever heard
Dragon, demon, goblin, gorgon,
Savage-ly tryin' to drag me down!!
The Vagabond outside he knows
The medicine don't work no more
The hurricane inside my head
Is nailing me to the floor
Don't believe a single word
That your ears have ever heard
Picking up the pieces now
Wipe the sweat from off my brow
By the cool light of the moon
Chase the ghosts out from my room
By the cool light of the moon
Kingfisher between me and you [2x]
Dragon, demon, goblin, gorgon,
Savage-ly tryin' to drag me down!!
The Candy Man's at the door again
Ringing the bell, I won't let him in
There's a storm a-raging inside my brain
Playing tricks with me in the dark
Don't believe a single word
That your ears have ever heard
Dragon, demon, goblin, gorgon,
Savage-ly tryin' to drag me down!!
Kingfisher's eyes shine as black as coal
On the edge of the morning
Gaze at me from across the room
The candle light....dying
The lyrics to Kingfisher by Golden Earring can be interpreted as a metaphorical journey through the mind of the singer who is struggling to fight various inner demons. In the song, the Kingfisher's eyes represent a source of hope amidst the chaos, illuminating the path forward. The music creates an immersive atmosphere, and the lyrics are filled with vivid imagery, connecting disparate elements such as a Candy Man, ghosts, and a hurricane inside the singer's head. The Vagabond outside is aware that the medicine doesn't work anymore, indicating that the singer's struggle is a long-standing one. The repetition of the line "Don't believe a single word that your ears have ever heard" is a reminder to not give in to the negative thoughts and emotions that drag the singer down. The singer emerges victorious in the end, having chased the ghosts out of the room, aided by the Kingfisher's presence.
The song has a dark and mysterious quality to it, and the lyrics have multiple layers of interpretation. It offers a commentary on the human psyche and the struggle to overcome one's inner demons. The imagery used in the song adds to the overall atmosphere, making it a song that is open to subjective interpretation.
Line by Line Meaning
Kingfisher's eyes shine as black as coal
The intensity of the observer's gaze is conveyed through the description of black, shining eyes, drawing attention to the color contrast caused by the coal-black eyes against the shining feathers of the kingfisher.
On the edge of the morning
This line captures the dynamic and unstable idea of time and place, situated on the threshold between night and day, where reality and fantasy intermingle.
Gaze at me from across the room
The observer looks intensely and admiringly at the subject from a distance. The gaze is significant for its depth of feeling and the emotions it evokes in the observer.
The candle light....dying
The dimming of the candle light serves as a metaphor for the fleeting and transitory nature of experience, suggesting the passage of time and the fragility of life.
Music it sounds like a waterfall
The music's crash and flow mimic the intense rush and kinetic energy of the waterfall, conveying the aesthetic and symbolic value of nature's power and beauty.
Makes you feel like you're drowning
The music promises an immersive and powerful experience that threatens to overwhelm the listener's sensory and cognitive faculties.
Kingfisher's eyes, you're like black pearl
The observer's admiration for the subject grows as the black pearls are regarded as a precious gem, conveying the inherent worth and beauty of the observer.
SWatchin' the ghosts, surround me
The observer becomes aware of the intangible and haunting presence of ghosts that surround them, intruding upon their personal space and creating an eerie and unsettling experience.
Dragon, demon, goblin, gorgon, savage-ly tryin' to drag me down!!
This is an exclamation of intense distress and anxiety caused by the forces of evil that threaten to submerge the observer, leading to their downward drift and ultimate destruction.
The Candy Man's at the door again, Ringing the bell, I won't let him in
The use of the character 'Candy Man' serves as a metaphorical representation of the temptations and vices that threaten to invade an individual's life, but the observer resists these and protects themselves from harm even at great cost.
There's a storm a-raging inside my brain, Playing tricks with me in the dark
This line expresses the observer's intense inner turmoil that affects their cognition and perception, causing them confusion and disorientation, thus potentially leading to their downfall.
Don't believe a single word, That your ears have ever heard
The observer recognizes the unreliability of their sense perceptions and urges caution regarding their acceptance, indicating that eyewitness accounts and memory can be deceiving.
The Vagabond outside he knows, The medicine don't work no more
The Vagabond represents the world-weary and afflicted traveler who recognizes the limitations of medical treatments and is resigned to his suffering, which reflects the observer's existential crisis and disillusionment with conventional solutions.
The hurricane inside my head, Is nailing me to the floor
The hurricane serves as a powerful symbol of the inner turmoil, raging inside the observer's mind that paralyzes them and prevents them from taking any meaningful action, indicating their trapped and helpless state.
Picking up the pieces now, Wipe the sweat from off my brow
This line hints at the observer's resilience and their slow but steady progress towards recovery from their setback, symbolized by how they pick up the pieces and wipe off their sweat, which symbolizes their hard work and effort.
By the cool light of the moon, Chase the ghosts out from my room
In this line, the observer describes how they find peace in the purifying light of the moon, which allows them to drive out the ghosts of their past and reclaim their personal space from the haunting presence of evil.
Kingfisher between me and you [2x], Dragon, demon, goblin, gorgon, Savage-ly tryin' to drag me down!!
This line explores the tension between the observer and the subject who is still a source of awe and admiration but who also represents the forces of evil that try to 'drag down' the observer, struggling to resolve the contradiction between negativity and positivity.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: HAY, KOOYMANS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind