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
Space Ship
Golden Earring Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
* Face it
I remember it happened
Late one night
No moon - no stars
No sound - no light
I was young and scared
When I saw that space ship
Shaped like a heart
The years went by
Just like a shot
I was way too busy
Growing up - I was datin' girls
So I forgot -
All about that space ship
Shaped like a heart
Well I woke up one morning
Feelin' fed up and lost
Runnin' out of luck
Desperate for love
And there she was
I kid you not -
That space ship shaped like a heart
Blindin' my eyes
Cloudin' my sight
Givin' me hope it would be all right
Space ship shaped like a heart
I saw it in your eyes
And in the way you smile
Right from the start
Space ship shaped like a heart
Don't wanna ask me why
Don't wanna say goodbye
To that heart in the sky
I was standin' by the window
We just made love
I was comin' down
>From the push and shove
And lookin' up -
I saw a spark
It was a space ship
Shaped like a heart
The song "Space Ship" by Golden Earring depicts a personal experience of the singer who witnessed a UFO many years ago when he was young and scared, but then forgot about it as he got busy with his life. As the years passed, he found himself feeling lost and desperate for love when he suddenly saw the same space ship that shaped like a heart, and it gave him hope that everything will be all right. The chorus of the song talks about how the singer saw the shape of the space ship in the eyes and smile of his loved one, emphasizing the idea that love can be a source of hope and comfort even in difficult times.
The lyrics use the symbol of a spaceship as a representation of hope, love, and the unknown. The song suggests that while love can seem mysterious and inexplicable, it can also bring light and guidance, even in the darkest of times. The singer's experience with the spaceship symbolizes his personal journey of rediscovering hope and love after feeling lost and disillusioned for a long time.
One interesting fact about the song is that it was a commercial failure and did not chart in any major countries, unlike Golden Earring's more popular songs such as "Radar Love" and "Twilight Zone." However, "Space Ship" has gained a cult following among Golden Earring fans over the years. Another interesting fact is that the album "Face It," which features "Space Ship," was produced by Shell Schellekens, who had previously worked with David Bowie and Queen.
Line by Line Meaning
I remember it happened
The singer recalls a significant event that occurred in their life.
Late one night
The event occurred at a time when most people are asleep.
No moon - no stars
It was a dark night with no visible celestial objects in the sky.
No sound - no light
The scene was quiet and unilluminated.
I was young and scared
The singer was at an age where they were more susceptible to being afraid.
And afraid of the dark
The singer was specifically afraid of the absence of light.
When I saw that space ship
The significant event was the sighting of a spacecraft.
Shaped like a heart
The spacecraft had a distinctive heart shape.
The years went by
A significant amount of time passed since the event occurred.
Just like a shot
The passage of time felt swift and quick.
I was way too busy
The singer was occupied with other matters in their life.
Growing up - I was datin' girls
The singer was focused on advancing their personal and romantic life.
So I forgot -
The singer forgot about the event that had a significant impact on them.
All about that space ship
The spacecraft sighting was the event that the singer forgot about.
Well I woke up one morning
The singer experienced a moment of personal realization.
Feelin' fed up and lost
The singer experienced a sense of dissatisfaction and uncertainty.
Runnin' out of luck
The singer felt as though their fortune was dwindling.
Desperate for love
The singer had a strong desire for romantic love.
And there she was
The singer found someone or something that they had been searching for.
I kid you not -
The singer is emphasizing that what they saw was indeed true.
That space ship shaped like a heart
The spacecraft sighting was once again an important presence in the singer's life.
Blindin' my eyes
The spacecraft's presence was overwhelming and completely engaging the singer.
Cloudin' my sight
The presence of the spacecraft made it difficult for the singer to focus.
Givin' me hope it would be all right
The spacecraft's presence gave the singer a sense of optimism and confidence.
I saw it in your eyes
The singer sees something important in the eyes of another person.
And in the way you smile
The other person's behavior and expressions are indicative of something meaningful.
Right from the start
The singer sensed the importance of the connection they shared with this person from the beginning.
Don't wanna ask me why
The singer does not want to question what they are experiencing.
Don't wanna say goodbye
The singer has no desire to end the connection they share with the other person.
To that heart in the sky
The spacecraft is once again referenced with the metaphor of a heart in the sky.
I was standin' by the window
The singer was in a physical location where they could see outside.
We just made love
The singer had recently engaged in sexual activity.
I was comin' down
The singer is coming off of the physical and emotional high that comes from sex.
>From the push and shove
The singer is likely referencing the act of sex as well as the surrounding events.
And lookin' up -
The singer's attention was drawn upwards.
I saw a spark
The singer saw something small, illuminated and significant.
It was a space ship
The singer once again sees a spacecraft.
Shaped like a heart
The spacecraft sighting is once again described with the characteristic heart shape.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Wouter Veldboer
lief