The first time I ever heard of the Dutch rock band Golden
\nEarring was when I was watching a music video program that aired on
\nChicago television. The video for “Twilight Zone,” the band’s last
\nAmerican hit, was a staple of both that program and early MTV, and
\nbrought the band’s name to the forefront of the infant video
\ntechnology.<\/p>\n
Why American audiences never caught onto Golden Earring is
\nsomething I’m at a loss to explain or understand. But even I have
\nto admit that I wasn’t terribly interested in Golden Earring – that
\nis, until I listened to their 1982 release
\nCut<\/i> (which included “Twilight Zone”) for the first time. For
\nthe most part, the eight songs featured on this record showed there
\nwas more to the band than the one song they became known for in the
\n’80s.<\/p>\n
Led by guitarist George Kooymans and vocalist\/guitarist Barry
\nHay, Golden Earring have writing rock songs down almost to a
\nscience. Bassist\/keyboardist Rinus Gerritsen and drummer Cesar
\nZuiderwiik provide a solid backbeat that really captures the
\nlistener’s ear – that is, when Kooymans isn’t dazzling you with his
\nguitar work. (Kooymans has been recognized as a superior guitar
\nplayer in Europe; one wonders why his name isn’t revered along with
\nothers like Rhoads, Van Halen and Clapton on these shores.)<\/p>\n
\nCut<\/i> will obviously always be remembered for “Twilight Zone,”
\na song whose bass line is instantly recognizable. And while the
\nbridge prior to Kooymans’s guitar solo could have been shortened a
\nbit, the song has withstood the passage of time quite well. (Unlike
\nGolden Earring’s other American hit “Radar Love,” this one hasn’t
\nbeen oversaturated on the radio airwaves in recent years.) The
\nvideo for this track is probably more notable for the one scene
\nfeaturing a topless female for all of one or two seconds – then
\nagain, what was shocking in 1982 in the world of music videos would
\nhardly cause any notice in 1998.<\/p>\n
Ah, but if you think that the rest of
\nCut<\/i> would comprise of danceable songs, you’d be in for one
\nhell of a surprise. The bulk of this album is actually some
\nwell-crafted rock withgood songwriting – and while one or two
\nnumbers miss the mark, the majority of them beg you for repeated
\nlistens, and hold up well. “Baby Dynamite” takes a little time to
\ngrow on you, but is a good number, while others like “Future” and
\n“Lost & Found” hit the target almost immediately. “The Devil
\nMade Me Do It,” the album’s opener, is a slap in the face for those
\nexpecting a different version of “Twilight Zone” – but is a welcome
\nshift in direction.<\/p>\n
Of the misses, only “Chargin’ Up My Batteries” is laughably
\npainful. The other misfire, “Last Of The Mohicans,” is just
\nlyrically weak (nothing against Native Americans – hell, the song
\nhas little to do with that, anyway).<\/p>\n
The bulk of the songs are so well-crafted that the longer Golden Earring was a one-hit wonder – twice – in America, a fate \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7305],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38784","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-golden-earring","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38784"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nnumbers (only two songs clock in at under four minutes) seem to fly
\nby. If anything, one might wish that more material had been
\nincluded on
\nCut<\/i>. (And you gotta love the Harold Edgerton photo of the
\ncard being sliced by the bullet. Trivia time: What other band used
\nan Edgerton photo on an album cover?
\nE-mail<\/a> me if you know
\nthe answer.)<\/p>\n
\nthey obviously didn’t deserve.
\nCut<\/i> shows that this band had what they needed to be more
\npermanent stars in this country, if only people had been willing to
\ntake a chance on them. It appears that this album is presently out
\nof print, but is well worth searching for at the local used record
\nstore.<\/p>\n