A lot of the classic rockers aging out. I guess I am getting there too.

We enjoyed your art, which lives on beyond the artists.

I know what a big fan-lady of the band you are and of the man himself, how closely you followed them, etc.

Mr. Kooymans and may you pass gently

I've checked for news of George almost every morning for years, knowing this was inevitable it they didn't find a miracle cure for ALS. Also knowing how much he had to be enduring with that terrible disease.

Up until he developed ALS, he'd had a very lucky and successful life - including a successful 56-year marriage to his childhood sweetheart, whom he'd fallen in love with in his early teens. Two great kids, who were also there for him as he battled ALS. Long string of hits in the Netherlands, in addition to the worldwide hits. Very much a rock god there, idolized so much that when he was in his 30s, in the mid-1980s, he won some teen magazine's readers' poll for sexiest musician (he said the kids needed to find younger idols). Healthy and athletic enough to run marathons. Won European guitar awards. Launched or salvaged the careers of some other artists, in addition to founding Golden Earring and keeping them together all those years. I've never run across any statement from anyone who didn't like and admire him.

I was just looking at Wikipedia, and they have today as the date of his death, though I read that the statement announcing it said it was yesterday, Tuesday. I haven't checked translations yet of the longer articles in Dutch.

1986 photo by Anton Corbijn:

The days the music died.

Radar Love was always Blasting in CIC on my Destroyer. We Would share it with Lookouts on the
M1C, on the hours long times of zero contacts on a blank scope. We knew every syllable of ever word.
RIP. Ya’ll helped us stay prepared, ya can’t fall asleep with that song.

RIP to great artist.

Last edited Wed Jul 23, 2025, 02:10 PM - Edit history (1)

from Music Appreciation (which I host) for reply 2 there and the list of Golden Earring threads I'd posted to that point (which included the very long thread in the Lounge that I also posted in the OP in this thread): https://www.democraticunderground.com/103480101#post2

I've also posted a lot about the Dutch supergroup trio Vreemde Kostgangers (Strange Boarders, which is a Dutch way of saying "It takes all kinds" ) that George formed about ten years ago with a pop/ska singer who'd been one of the Netherlands' biggest stars in the 1980s, and the folk and protest singer who was the Netherlands' version of Bob Dylan. Their last album, which had been mostly complete before the pop singer died of cancer and George was diagnosed with ALS, was completed and released and topped the Dutch charts. And George was also recording with American singer-songwriter-guitarist Frank Carillo. All the while still working with Golden Earring and keeping them together. He'd done his last touring with VK in spring of 2020, right before Covid shut everything down. That summer was when he first started seeing doctors to diagnose the problems he was having playing guitar, but it wasn't conclusively diagnosed till that fall and wasn't announced till early 2021, with the announcement that Golden Earring would disband.

Video below of Vreemde Kostgangers in 2018, playing old hits. Their new music was all in Dutch, and George's VK bandmates had also recorded in Dutch throughout their long careers, but Golden Earring had always recorded English lyrics (I've read that 90+% of Dutch adults know English). But in this clip they're doing two of Golden Earring's early hits, and then an old song that was a hit for folksinger Boudewijn de Groot (left). Pop star Henny Vrienten, center, would also do some old hits during VK concerts. I'll post an old (1969) Golden Earring video of Another 45 Miles below the VK video.

Link to tweet

“Somewhere in lonely motel room a guy is starting to realize that eternal fate has turned its back on him. It’s 2am.”

From, “Twilight Zone.”

The song spent about a year on US charts. My favorite of their songs...and I really like the live performance I posted in the OP.

and was entranced. I grew up in central NY and we had MTv (which my parents were not fans of and I was not supposed to be watching) and that video was mind blowing.

I mean, how would you coordinate something like that?

….. who were doing the drumming and the conductor pointing to sections of drummers and
asking them to do something and those Rotterdamers were spot on. Those drummers knew
their chops and knew that song cold. L. O. P. lots of practice for the drummers.

Netherlands, Dutch, or Hollanders which one is it?

bècause that's how my brain works.

Basically, did they rehearse? For how long? All of them at once? Were they all playing the same thing, or did different sections have different parts, like a choir?

which was much longer than just that song. There's narration, just a few minutes, at the start of the video, and unfortunately it's in Dutch without captions, but the fan's description will help.

And the entire video is fascinating to watch.

https://casperroos.nl/story90.html

Btw, it's Dutch, not Hollanders, if you're talking about the people of the Netherlands in general. Although the entire country is sometimes referred to informally as Holland, this Wikipedia article explains that Holland is just a small part of the Netherlands:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland

band.

Look at the audience for a concert on the beach near The Hague in 1993. This concert was also televised, but if I recall correctly the audience on the beach was estimated at over 100,000 people, on a chilly day that had been rainy until right before the concert started. Btw, this song - one of their songs where George and Barry traded lead vocal - had been a top 10 hit in the Netherlands a couple of years earlier.

As the Righteous Brothers sang, "If there's a rock and roll heaven, you know they've got a hell of a band."