by Jan Emous
POP MUSIC and America. No matter what has been tried all over the world, Americans have always had a leading role in the popular music industry. Almost all current guitar gods learned the trade by listening carefully to the inventors of the blues, jazz, rock & roll and country & western, and combinations of all that beauty.
In Holland in the fifties and sixties we held off the American music juggernaut at bay by translating things. The Fouryo’s sang ‘Zeg Niet Nee’ (‘Tell Him No’ by the Everly Brothers) and Rob de Nijs sang the ‘Ritme Van De Regen’ (Rhythm Of The Rain by The Cascades). This English-language stuff would never work here, was apparently the thinking among the record executives.
But time overtook that view with lightning speed. The Summer Of Love in 1967 sends a shock through the world: An idealistic dam has broken through and new ideas flow into the world, ideas of a generation that uses music as an important medium. Which does not go unnoticed, even in the Netherlands.
America, that’s the place to be, George Kooymans and the other members of The Golden Earrings from The Hague think. They were already well known in their own country, and adventure beckoned at the end of the sixties. Their Mercedes tour bus is loaded onto a ship and, along with the band, arrives in the U.S. three weeks later. The whole project is in some ways not quite well thought out, though. It is winter and bitterly cold. Much colder than the boys have ever experienced.
The Mercedes bus may be much admired in the US – the brand is synonymous with success and wealth – but the thing’s heater is totally inadequate. And it gets worse: The bus’s huge windshield breaks due to a rock chip. A new windshield is nowhere to be found, and so the band tours around in a moving freezer. On the other hand, they are on the same stages as Led Zeppelin and Joe Cocker. That makes up for a lot. It even earns them a nice hit, as George Kooymans writes ‘Another 45 Miles’ upon returning to The Hague, inspired by the adventure in the U.S.
ABOUT FOUR years later the band records the album ‘Moontan’. It includes ‘Radar Love’, written by singer Barry Hay. That song hits like a bomb. Also in the US. Barry Hay was raised in English and comes up with lines like ‘I’ve been driving all night / My hands are wet on the wheel.’ That’s something else than I love you so and please don’t go….. Moreover, the lyrics mention Brenda Lee. In short: This has to be a hit in America. And that’s precisely what happens.
So pack the bags and head for the American stages. And no more faulty buses. The Golden Earring, the ‘s’ has now been dropped, is the support act for major acts, such as Santana, made world famous after the Woodstock festival in 1969. There is no longer any reason to catch a cold. To their own surprise, transportation consists of two giant stretch limousines, one for each duo of band members. Hotel rooms are of royal allure. Treatment everywhere is five-star level. This is cloud nine for four guys from The Hague with no star power.
Doubts arise when they look sideways from their fancy cars at a traffic light. They are lined up next to a bus. On that bus is Carlos Santana with his entire band and instruments. “Hey, we’re their support act, aren’t we?” says bassist Rinus Gerritsen. Quietly, some alarm bells start ringing.
That something is not quite right becomes apparent after they return home. Someone must have made a lot of money from the tour. But not the members of the band, unlike what they suggest to the press upon arrival (see image). In fact, it turns out that they have paid for all the luxuries themselves.
It is a familiar story: the creative artist is taken for a ride by the businessman. But the nice thing about these guys from The Hague is that they could laugh about it afterwards. Maybe not right away. But they didn’t linger in resentful sourness. Besides, who needs America. All it does is making Hague boys homesick.
* Journalist Jan Emous has for many years hosted radio shows at Radio Noord Holland and NPO’s Nachtvluchten show on Dutch Radio 1. In Maryland he built Paperback Radio from scratch.
