Golden Earring
Moontan

The Dutch band Golden Earring was founded in The Hague by guitarist George Kooymans and bassist Rinus Gerritsen in 1961, initially named Golden Earrings, with the final 's' being dropped in 1970. Their discography debut dates back to 1965, thanks to a successful single, "Please Go".

In 1968, the eclectic Barry Hay joined the group, a good rhythm guitarist but mainly a singer and flautist, bringing a strong Jethro Tull style influence to the band, up until the album "Eight Miles High" in 1969, which definitively paved their way to a wider audience, thanks to the 19-minute cover/suite of the Byrds' eponymous track. This led to major tours, where they played as the supporting act for bands like Santana, The Doobie Brothers, Rush, and 38 Special. From there came the gradual shift towards more Hardrock parameters (with the flute gradually being abandoned), over three excellent albums ("Golden Earring", "Seven Tears", "Together"), reaching the peak of their success with the album "Moontan". We are in 1973.

With drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk and guests like the virtuoso blues guitarist Eelco Gelling from Cuby & the Blizzards and saxophonist Bertus Borgers, Golden Earring was able to compose the band's most successful single. This album became famous especially because it contains the greatest success that any Dutch band has ever achieved worldwide: "Radar Love", number 1 on the Dutch charts for 14 weeks, number 7 on the UK charts, number 13 on the US charts, earning a spot in the Billboard Hot 100, and forcefully entering the Belgian and German top tens. Listening to "Radar Love" one can easily understand why it was so appreciated: it contains all the necessary ingredients for success, like a radio-oriented sound, a good dose of groove, a rhythm-laden riff, and not least the lyrics (based on the words from "Comin' On Strong" by Brenda Lee), which many have proclaimed to be the best 'car song' or 'driving song' of all time. Notably, you will find a nice guitar interlude accompanied by brass after the drum break. The song has also been covered numerous times by other artists (about 300, including U2, White Lion, R.E.M., and Bryan Adams) and even appears a couple of times in some episodes of The Simpsons. I’d say as a calling card for this album, it’s not bad at all: one might even definitely say that the single derived from it has become more famous than the album itself.

Also, the rest of the album is of first-rate quality: "Candy's Going Bad", in the style of the Rolling Stones, is likable and convincing. It was the other single from the record but, as often happened, it was less fortunate than Radar Love, only reaching number 91. "Are You Receiving Me", with its nine-plus minutes, engages with its simple, direct riff and a central bass part that culminates in a crescendo. "Suzy Lunacy (Mental Rock)" is very bluesy, right from the initial acoustic riff. There’s also a lot of Rolling Stones influence in "Just Like Vince Taylor", with Barry Hay’s voice set very much like Mick Jagger's. Another long composition is the final "Vanilla Queen", with more elaborate atmospheres, complete with psychedelic synthesizers played by bassist Rinus Gerritsen complementing Kooymans' guitars. Barry Hay is superb throughout the album, with truly sumptuous vocal performances.

"Moontan" makes Golden Earring an international phenomenon, a global sensation. Needless to say, the provocative cover featuring a completely naked woman with her private parts painted blue was replaced in prudish America with a black and white photo of an ear adorned with a large golden earring. Besides this, the American version does not include "Candy’s Going Bad" and "Suzy Lunacy (Mental Rock)", which are replaced with a good track "Big Tree, Blue Sea" from the eponymous 1970 album. This greatly angered the band, but it was a sacrifice that yielded great results: 13 headlining tours in the States, with bands like Kiss and Aerosmith as supporting acts. Not bad at all for a band coming from a small and unfortunately too often overlooked country like the Netherlands!