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
Quiet Eyes
Golden Earring Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Clock strikes, it's the count of four
Four hours of tossin' and turnin'
In a big brass bed
I've tried all the tricks in the book now
But I just can't sleep no more
Tony, what's happenin' to me
Somehow I'm imagining things
Movin' in the shadow
And my face is a painting crying
In the heat of the sun
Let the world outside pay its dues
I'll never know why, no matter how high
It's a sign that's been sealed and delivered
Tony, it's lookin' into your
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silent as the night you deserted me
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silence, and the night lasted seven years
Meanwhile I'm counting all the hours
And I've counted all the days
On the pages of a calendar
And I threw it all away
Tony, I'm tryin' to make some sense, babe
I'm always tryin' to get through to you
Maybe you're the last one to notice
How much I've been lovin' you
Let the world outside pay its dues
I'll never know why, no matter how high
It's a sign that's been sealed and delivered
Tony, it's lookin' into your
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silent as the night you deserted me
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silent as the night you deserted me
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silence, and the night lasted seven years
The lyrics of Golden Earring's song "Quiet Eyes" explore the emotions of a person who is unable to sleep and finds themselves lost in their thoughts. The clock strikes four, indicating that the person has been awake for several hours, trying to fall asleep in a big brass bed. They have tried all the "tricks in the book" but they still cannot seem to find any rest. The singer is cold and tired, lonely and unhappy while still imagining things "Moving in the shadows." Although the person seems to be tired physically, their mind is lost in their emotions which are tormenting them while fueling their imagination. They feel as if they are crying in the heat of the sun and their face is a painting expressing their emotions vividly.
The chorus of the song has the singer appeal to Tony, who appears to have deserted them. The singer is counting the hours, days, and pages of the calendar trying to make sense of everything, but Tony doesn't seem to notice what the person is going through. The singer feels as if Tony has deserted them in the middle of the night and that night lasted seven years. The plights of the person are clearly reflected in their quiet eyes that have become pools of silent tears, and they seem to question why they cannot unravel what's going on around them. The lyrics bear a touch of bewilderment as to why Tony is not remaining in touch. The singer wants to be noticed and recognized and hopes that Tony will finally manage to see and understand them.
Line by Line Meaning
Tony, my head is on a pillow
I am lying in a bed with my head resting on a pillow.
Clock strikes, it's the count of four
It is four in the morning now, as the clock makes a sound.
Four hours of tossin' and turnin'
I have been awake for four hours, unable to find a comfortable position to fall asleep.
In a big brass bed
The bed I am in is a large bed made of brass.
I've tried all the tricks in the book now
I have tried every known method to help me sleep.
But I just can't sleep no more
Despite my efforts, I still cannot fall asleep.
Tony, what's happenin' to me
I am addressing someone named Tony, asking what is happening to me.
I'm tired and I'm cold
I am feeling both tired and cold.
Somehow I'm imagining things
I am beginning to have hallucinations, imaginations of things that are not really there.
Movin' in the shadow
I am seeing things moving in the shadow, perhaps as a result of my hallucinations or the shadows being cast onto the wall by objects in the room.
And my face is a painting crying
My face is contorted, making me look like a painting of a crying person.
In the heat of the sun
Despite it being night time, I feel like I'm under the scorching heat of the sun.
Let the world outside pay its dues
I have decided to ignore everything outside the room and focus on myself.
I'll never know why, no matter how high
There are certain things in my life that I will never understand, even if I think deeply about them.
It's a sign that's been sealed and delivered
There is something that has already happened, and it is irreversible.
Tony, it's lookin' into your
I am addressing Tony again, and now something is looking into his eyes.
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Tony's eyes are calm and placid, despite tears being shed silently.
Silent as the night you deserted me
The tears are as silent as the night when Tony left me.
Silence, and the night lasted seven years
The silence and loneliness that I have experienced has felt like seven years, which seemed like an eternity.
Meanwhile I'm counting all the hours
While unable to sleep, I am keeping track of the hours that pass.
And I've counted all the days
I have also been counting the days that have gone by doing the same thing.
On the pages of a calendar
I have recorded these counts on the pages of a calendar.
And I threw it all away
Despite my efforts to keep track of time, I have now decided to discard the calendar pages.
Tony, I'm tryin' to make some sense, babe
I am still trying to understand what has happened.
I'm always tryin' to get through to you
I have been attempting to communicate with Tony, but have not been able to get through to him.
Maybe you're the last one to notice
Tony may not have realized the extent of my love for him until now.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: BARRY HAY, GEORGE KOOYMANS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@ravenwhite31113
Quiet Eyes
Golden Earring
LYRICS
Tony, my head is on a pillow
Clock strikes, it's the count of four
Four hours of tossin' and turnin'
In a big brass bed
I've tried all the tricks in the book now
But I just can't sleep no more
Tony, what's happenin' to me
I'm tired and I'm cold
Somehow I'm imagining things
Movin' in the shadow
And my face is a painting crying
In the heat of the sun
Let the world outside pay its dues
I'll never know why, no matter how high
It's a sign that's been sealed and delivered
Tony, it's lookin' into your
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silent as the night you deserted me
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silence, and the night lasted seven years
Meanwhile I'm counting all the hours
And I've counted all the days
On the pages of a calendar
And I threw it all away
Tony, I'm tryin' to make some sense, babe
I'm always tryin' to get through to you
Maybe you're the last one to notice
How much I've been lovin' you
Let the world outside pay its dues
I'll never know why, no matter how high
It's a sign that's been sealed and delivered
Tony, it's lookin' into your
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silent as the night you deserted me
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silent as the night you deserted me
Quiet eyes, silent tears
Silence, and the night lasted seven years
@darkcecil13
Such a great song, one of my favorites by Golden Earring. Shame that it doesn't get any attention here in the US
@GhostshadowShadowghost
+Tom Mruzik Well,not quite... this GE song was US#31...
@Despina838
I've never heard it played here.
@vaalst75
I agree , its a great song .... also here in holland not muts of attention i think its one of the best from the golden Earing ...!!!
@timgels2918
@@vaalst75 just heard it on the radio in the netherlands :)
@jodyhoffman1405
Back in the 70s we had to listen to Beaker Street AM radio from Little Rock to hear this kind of great music. AM radio was pretty sketchy when driving around because the transmitter was 200 miles away. Everyone was putting in AM/FM cassette player & nobody listened to am. That's what killed most songs except top 40 bullshit. To this day i can't listen to Free Bird or Stairway to Heaven or Radar Love or dozens of others. FM stations were run by guys that answered to some guy in a 3 piece suit. I have a steamer trunk full of obscure albums that i would hear on Beaker street.
@Burgieking1
Alweer een Haagse parel van de beste Nederpop band allertijden, ditmaal uit het beste muzikale jaar ooit 1986
@FlyingWamphyri
So far ahead of their time. Video oozes style.
@MarcelDekker-il3vw
Dope! het beste by far dat die gasten hebben opgenomen in de 80s.
@RLee-we1fc
That baseline!