GOLDEN EARRING: The Second Album

Original released on LP Polydor 736 038

(Netherlands, April 1967)

Holland's the Golden Earrings still sounded like a crack British Invasion-era outfit who had made a wrong turn somewhere when they cut their second album, 1966's "Winter-Harvest", but they were inarguably a stronger and more ambitious group a year after releasing their debut. All 14 songs on "Winter-Harvest" were originals (primarily written by bassist Rinus Gerritsen and guitarist George Kooymans), and the stylistic range of this collection is noticeably wider, with the Northern soul-influenced "Smoking Cigarettes," the darkly witty character study "Lionel the Miser," and the spare but sophisticated "You Break My Heart" all exploring sounds and styles the band had not pursued before. (They could also rock harder than ever before, as evidenced by the swaggering "You've Got the Intention to Hurt Me.") The Golden Earrings clearly had the confidence to try new things when they recorded "Winter-Harvest", and with good reason - they sounded good on "Just Earrings", but they're tighter and sharper here, hitting a more consistent groove and making the most of the possibilities of the studio. Gerritsen began playing keyboards as well as bass on these recordings, and the added tonal colors serve the material well, and vocalist Frans Krassenburg had picked up a lot of nuance after a year of steady recording and performing. If "Just Earrings" was the Golden Earrings' "Please Please Me", "Winter-Harvest" is their "Rubber Soul", an album that masterfully consolidates their old strengths while revealing many new ones. This LP isn't quite up to the lofty level of the Fab Four's early masterpiece, but it stands comfortably beside the work of most of the better-known English acts of the period, and remains impressive more than five decades after it was released. (Mark Deming in AllMusic)

GOLDEN EARRING Debut Album

Original released on LP Polydor 007

(Netherlands, November 1965)

Golden Earring were hailed as one of the hottest new bands in America when the song "Radar Love" from their album "Moontan" was released in 1973. Funny thing was, Golden Earring were hardly a new band; while they weren't well known outside the Netherlands, in their native Holland they were major stars who had been scoring hits for eight years. "Just Earrings" was their first LP, recorded in 1965 when they were still billed as the Golden Earrings, and it's fine British Invasion-style beat music that suggests the group was still formulating a sound of its own, but had absorbed the influences of the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Zombies, and the Hollies and had fashioned the bits and pieces into a sound that was powerfully tuneful and engaging. The Golden Earrings wrote nearly all their own material at a time when even the U.K. bands they modeled themselves on performed a fair percentage of covers, and "Now I Have" and "Lonely Everyday" show they knew how put together a potent rock & roll number, while "I Am a Fool" and "When People Talk" are effectively moody downbeat tunes and "I Hate Saying These Words" is a light but effervescent pop song. George Kooymans and Peter De Ronde were a great guitar team, bassist Rinus Gerritsen and drummer Jaap Eggermont push the music forward with energy and imagination, and Frans Krassenburg's vocals show both attitude and aptitude, especially since he's singing in English (though the lyrics don't always survive close scrutiny). If "Just Earrings" had been recorded by a British band, chances are good the group could have scored that first hit in America a lot sooner - the album is certainly on a par with the work of most of the U.K. bands that were storming the U.S charts at the time, and if it took longer for America to warm to rock & roll from Holland, this is fun stuff that swings in any time zone. (Mark Deming in AllMusic)

GOLDEN EARRING: "Moontan"

Original released on LP Polydor 2925.017

(NETHERLANDS, September 1973)

This 1973 outing is the album that raised Golden Earring to an international level of popularity, primarily on the strength of the hit single and enduring radio favorite "Radar Love." However, there is much more to this album than just that hit. In many ways, "Moontan" is like a summation of everything the group had learned on their first three albums. It presents a similar combination of prog epics, heavy rockers, and songs that combine both elements, but everything is raised to a new level of inspiration and polish. It starts with a bang thanks to "Candy's Going Bad," a piece that starts off as a thunderous, pounding rocker but transforms midway into a bluesy instrumental mood piece. Other highlights include the hit single "Radar Love," a relentless rock tune with a left-field instrumental break in which tribal drums duel with a big band-style horn section, and "Just Like Vince Taylor," a guitar-slinging slice of boogie rock that pays tribute to the fallen rock idol of the title. The album also includes what may be the group's finest prog effort in "Vanilla Queen": this classic builds from pulsating, ominous verses dominated by synthesizer into a hard-rocking chorus and also throws in a stark acoustic guitar midsection before climaxing in a frantic band jam augmented by blaring horns and an ever-spiraling string section. Despite the album's overall strength, not every song reaches these heights: "Are You Receiving Me?" recycles some hooks from the group's past classic "She Flies on Strange Wings," and the twangy country-pop of "Suzy Lunacy (Mental Rock)" is a little too poppy to gel with the rest of the album. However, even these tunes benefit from tight arrangements and a spirited, totally committed performance from the group. The result is an album that retains its power today. In the end, "Moontan" is a necessity for Golden Earring fans, and a worthwhile listen for anyone interested in 1970s rock at its most adventurous. (Donald A. Guarisco in AllMusic)