First of all Golden Earring isn't the only well known Dutch Rock band but unlike contemporary bands like The Tee Set, The Bintangs, Focus, Trace and Shocking blue, they never split up. Every one of the bands I mentioned split up at a certain moment only to reform many years later, not so with Golden Earring, they have survived for almost 50 years and 40 of them in the same line up.
Anyway it all started in The Hague in 1961
The Golden Earrings in 1965 from left to right: Frans Krassenburg (leadvocals), George Kooymans (leadvocals, guitar), Jaap Eggermond (Drums), Peter De Ronde (Guitar) and Rinus Gerritsen (Bass)
In 1961 childhood friends George Kooymans and Rinus Gerritsen started a beat group called the Tornado's only to find that the name "Tornados" already had been used, so they changed it to
The Golden Earrings after a song by Peggy Lee. With Frans Krassenburg as the lead singer, Peter de Ronde on rythm guitar and Jaap Eggermont on drums they recorded a single in 1965 called "Please go"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAx1bpkQf00
The picture in this clip shows a different line up from the one actually playing on the song. Kooymans later recalled that he hated the song because it was sung so off-key but the record company wouldn't allow them to do another take.
Nevertheless, "Please go" and their rowdy performances got the attention of producer Freddy Haayen who believed he had found the Dutch Beatles got the Earrings into Pye studios in London to record their debut album "Just Ear-rings" which was a moderate succes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW203q70ndQ
"Daddy buy me a girl" one of the singles from "Just Ear-rings" very apparent here is the contemporary sixties pop-sound. The Golden Earrings were perfectly suited to share the charts with the Beatles, the Stones and The Yardbirds. This song with the autoharp also reflects the influence of the Yardbirds, since it echoed "for your love"
in 1966 Peter De Ronde was dismissed from the band because of him being unable to develop as a player in the way the rest of the band were developping. While touring with bands like the Kinks, the band also developed a more hard rocking sound and Vocalist Krassenburg had a tough time keeping up, in 1967 he decided to call it a day. He was replaced by Barry Hay who because of his English heritage spoke English fluently and could help out writing lyrics that actually made sense.
The Golden earrings in 1967, from left to right: Gerritsen, Barry Hay, Eggermont and Kooymans.
But The Earrings were still pretty much a pop band and their 1969 hit "Dong-dong-diki-diki-dong" with the Rolling stones influenced usage of latin drums and Clavecimble reflects that, they still were a band perfectly at home in the charts with the Mamas and the Papas, the Byrds and The Hollies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktI1iAqXxuc
1969 was a very special year for the Golden Earrings. The band's success in Europe secured them a record deal in the United States with Atlantic Records. The group released a "rockumentary" film, and embarked on their first tour of America. This was not without its problems, however. In the Amsterdam airport, just before the plane was scheduled to take off, the band was informed that their work permits were not in order. Manager Freddy Haayen left the panic-stricken group, and flew immediately to the States. He returned the following week with the necessary permits, and the Golden Earrings found themselves in America, the first Dutch rock group ever to tour the States. The band's visit to the States included gigs at the Whisky-A-Go-Go, the Fillmore East, the Village Gate, Detroit's Grande Ballroom, and the Fillmore West. Among the acts they supported were Joe Cocker, John Lee Hooker, B.B.King, Led Zeppelin, and the Who. The latter of which had an ENORMOUS influence on the developing of the band.
On their return to the Netherlands, drummer Jaap Eggermont, tired of life on the road, was replaced by jazz percussionist Sieb Warner. With this change came a new musical direction for the band. Pop records were now a thing of the past; the group wrote and recorded exclusively rock'n'roll. Their music bordered on heavy metal, with a dose of acid rock. Evident in this new sound was the dominance of Gerritsen, who, influenced by The who and John Entwistle's high octane sound, developed a unique style. Using his trusty Danelectro basses through distortion pedals, Bass solos were now featured during the live shows, and included an assault on the bass amp, usually ending with Gerritsen lying flat on his back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXXuR5bCoKk
Gerritsen's Bass solo.
It was about this time that the band dropped the "s" from their title, becoming The Golden Earring.
In 1970 during the band's second U.S. tour supporting Delaney and Bonny and Eric Clapton, Warner was dismsissed from the band because of him unable to take the strain of touring and because he had the tendency to vanish without a trace because of him being so thrilled of being in the USA. His replacement came in the figure of yet another local boy from The Hague: Cesar Zuiderwijk. And with that the line up which survives to this day was formed and with that The Golden Earring dropped "The" from their name.
Golden Earring: Gerritsen, Hay, Cesar Zuiderwijk and Kooymans
In the early seventies Golden Earring fully embraced the Hard rocking sound provided by the powerhouse drumming of Zuiderwijk and buzzsaw bass of Gerritsen, it gave them a string of big hits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZbmmr3vYE8
"She flies on strange wings"
1971, just after Cesar joined on drums. The bass sound on this recording is a good indication on why Gerritsen decided to use other basses on subsiquent recordings: the Danelectro longhorn sounds really good but is a nightmare to intonate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCoxG6mrFMM
"Buddy Joe"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_2iQdIxB9U
"Back home"
In the latter half of 1971 the group again crossed paths with the Who, and was asked to join the British rock legend on a European tour, which continued into 1972. Impressed by the power of Golden Earring's music, Roger Daltry told the band that it was too good to be an opening act. This eventually led to a recording contract with Track Records, a subsidiary of MCA. It was Track Records that funded the 1973 release of the album "Moontan", which contained a little song called "Radar Love".
The follow up album 1975's "Switch" saw Golden Earring dabble in Progressive rock, adding Keyboardist Robert Jan stips to their line up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6bDe9Dgn6g
"Radar love" live in the "Switch" line up with Stips on Keys. Again the band could perfectly fit in with contemporary bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who and Ten years after. This clip also shows Cesar's party piece: jumping over his drumkit after the song's end. While they toured with The Who Keith Moon decided "If he can do it, so can I." which resulted in a couple of very painful encounters between his face and the ground. What Moon didn't know was that Cesar was a trained athlete and had reinforced struts between his two bass drums (you can see them in the clip) making his drums able to support his weight.
After the "Switch" tour was completed Stips left the band and was replaced by former Cuby and the Blizzards lead guitarist Eelco Gelling. With him onboard Golden earring toured the US with Kiss, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, proving themselves to be equals to those guys. Sadly during that tour Gerritsen main Danelectro got stolen and he actually refused to play his customary solo for a few shows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJnNdixQqu0
"Mad love is coming"
"Contraband" is the follow up album of "Switch" and it sees the addition of Eelco Gelling on guitar and this song is a fine showcase of Gelling's way of playing. The solo piece is absolutely magical.
After the tour had ended Gelling decided to leave the band and the line up of Barry Hay, George Kooymans, Rinus Gerritsen and Cesar Zuiderwijk survives to this day. And they entered the eighties with a smash.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfjDcUWPnVc
"Twilight zone"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYczlh0zEzs
"Clear night moonlight"
After working with director Dick Maas on the video for "Twilight zone" the band decided that they liked his twisted sense of humor so much that they hired him again for two videos (The other was for "When the lady smiles" but seeing how the board rules are I won't post it) both of which got them banned from airplay on MTV because of the violence in them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3n7QwEbRwc
"Long blonde animal"
In recent years, Golden Earring still continues to release records, not really trying to get a number one song anymore, they don't need to because of them having paid their dues many times over and they still play hugely succesful tours both in Europe and the USA. But in the early nineties, something extraordinary happened: Golden earring scored a number one again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWKfsT4GaYI
"Going to the run" was a salute to a Hells Angels member who was a personal friend of Barry Hay. Hay describes getting a phoncall from the states every new years eve and how they used to ride bikes together, the guy died in a motoring accident making his final run.
"Going to the run" has since become a true biker song classic and many biker who perished in a motor accident had this song played at their funeral.
I saw Golden Earring a two months ago at the last gig of their 2009 tour, from what I understand, they are now taking time off and getting ready to record a new album.
So we haven't seen the last of the school band that George Kooymans and Rinus Gerritsen started in 1961.
