The performances from all the band members shows Golden Earring in their prime, with years of live experience, there are later live LP’s and CD’s of Golden Earring, such as ‘Live II’ and ‘Naked Truth’, so there is lots of discography to play with, but this is where it all starts.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Golden Earring
ALBUM: Live
LABEL: Polydor
SERIAL: 2625 034
YEAR: 1977
CD REISSUE: Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Netherlands
LINEUP: George Kooymans – guitar, vocals * Rinus Gerritsen – bass guitar, keyboards * Barry Hay – flute, vocals * Cesar Zuiderwijk – drums * Eelco Gelling – guitar
TRACK LISTING: 01 Candy’s Going Bad * 02 She Flies On Strange Wings * 03 Mad Love Coming * 04 Eight Miles High * 05 Vanilla Queen * 06 To The Hilt * 07 Fighting Windmills * 08 Con Man * 09 Radar Love * 10 Just Like Vince Taylor
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
I’ll go on record and say that I’m not an expert on Golden Earring’s discography by any means. Having a look through my collection, I have many of their albums, but rarely play them. I decided to ramp this up, starting with this double-live set from 1977.
I do remember this LP from my high-school days, as some of my school colleagues would play this often during lunch-breaks. The band did drift from an early 60’s Nederpop style to more of a hard rock stance, somewhere between glam (perhaps the imagery) and a semi boogie regime.
The Songs
Originally, the double-album contains some very long renditions of their classic material. The opener ‘Candy’s Going Bad’ strangely isn’t one of them, clocking in at a short five minutes. But others like ‘Eight Miles High’, ‘Vanilla Queen’, and ‘Con Man’ all go over the 10 minute mark.
The album probably contains the definitive performance of their hit single ‘Radar Love’, all 12 minutes worth. Whether for good reasons or bad, much of the material here is from the 1973 album ‘Moontan’ with one or two others selected from their 70’s LP’s. You don’t hear much of their earlier stuff, with the exception of the 1966 Byrds cover ‘Eight Miles High’.
In Summary
The thing I like about this ‘Live’ set is that sounds raw and genuine, without too much in the way of post-studio fix-ups or dabbling. From what I understand, GE took these live performances pretty much as is, and from reading elsewhere on the Net, the material is culled from a gig at the Rainbow Theatre in London.
The performances from all the band members shows Golden Earring in their prime, with years of live experience, it’s easy to see how an LP like this cannot be emulated in today’s slick/clean recording environment which dispenses with analog qualities. There are later live LP’s and CD’s of Golden Earring, such as ‘Live II’ and ‘Naked Truth’, so there is lots of discography to play with, but this is where it all starts.
Golden Earring on Video
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
