Stand Up and Be Counted in the Epic Golden Earring Showdown: Radar Love vs. Twilight Zone

duh, radar love. you can't beat l.a. woman on the autobahn.

Wot? No "When the Lady Smiles"?

"Candy's Going Bad"!

Nah, I love both of these, but I'll go with "Radar Love." Oddly, I was just posting about G.E. (and a 1986 LP by them) here approximately 24 hours ago:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

I dunno: I prefer MTV to FM, new wave to classic rock, and artsy fartsy, by a country mile, to boogie, but come on, "Radar Love" crushes "Twilight Zone" like a grape.

I like the idea that "Twilight Zone" = artsy fartsy!

("Radar Love" BTW. I am not mentally ill.)

http://www.biography.com/biography/images/episode_images/Brenda_Lee_320X240.jpg

Radar Love: a fun snack.

Twilight Zone: an epic feast.

http://bp2.blogger.com/_66T1v32JwZ0/RqQySOPwjgI/AAAAAAAAAEM/E5t57BDpSKk/s320/mx80.bmphttp://www.businesspundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/heart-blending.jpg

ugh....... Radar Loooove.....

i used to think "Twilight Zone" was one of the dumbest songs ever, but the classic rock radio station here seems to play it about 10 times a day (oddly enough they never play "Radar Love") and my friend & i always seem to catch it in the car. maybe it's because they repeat the hook 74 times, but this song is now one of my absolute favorites to sing along with in the car, particularly with someone else who knows the words. "Radar Love" is almost undoubtedly the better song, but my vote is for the song that forces me to turn to my friend & sneer before howling shamelessly, "WHEN THE BULLET HITS THE BONE!"

"Radar Love" brings back memories of the Golden Oldie Picture Show (Dave Lee Travis hosting video show with pre video era classic rock songs, clips made by BBC staffers).

And it exists!

I'm in the demographic that'd be expected to vote "Radar Love," I think, but "Twilight Zone" in addition to be such a good time represents (I think) one of the longest lags between US chart appearances - ten years or so Golden Earring is "the band with that one song" and then out of nowhere, sneaking in during the early high-water of the video age, boom, these dudes with an awesome track. Loved that.

when i was 12 (and looked like 8) Golden Earring's singer patted my head at a concert. yes! he also kissed my mother! o_O

this is a tough poll of course, i must admit i could sing Radar Love immediately and had to think hard about Twilight Zone.

one of the +-es of Twilight Zone is the prominent singing role for guitarplayer George Kooymans. (a much cooler guy really)

Lunatic Fringe vs. Life is a Highway

As much as I love "Radar Love," I always seem to get it confused with "Driver's Seat" by Sniff n' The Tears (which is also righteous). "Twilight Zone," meanwhile, is awesome in virtually every aspect of its execution (also, one of the best videos E V E R !!!)

(also, one of the best videos E V E R !!!)

can't find it on tube yet. :\

AND it got an awesome treatment on the Twilight Zone pinball machine, aka the best pinball machine of all times:

"Twilight Zone" for me -- I first heard about "Radar Love" as 'this song White Lion covered.'

I second Ludo that George Kooymans ia a much cooler singer than Barry Hay. Voted Twilight Zone for that.

"Radar Love" is hall of fame shit, "Twilight Zone" is a footnote imo

footnotes > texts

don't unmix my metaphors

Boogie vs. Artsy Fartsy

Somebody else keyed on this, but I gotta say I don't see how "Twilight Zone" is any more artsy-fartsy than "Radar Love" (which is hardly your average boogie record -- on that Hard Rock thread, I mentioned how Alan Neister in the Rolling Stone Record Guide called it "a fusion of Canned Heat and Kraftwerk": an exaggeration, but I always liked the equation anyway, and get where he coming from.)

Also curious whether American kids growing up in the '80s who'd never heard "Radar Love" just figured G.E. were another wacky new new-wave band when "Twilight Zone" hit MTV. (They are such archetypcal two-hit-wonders in the U.S. -- like with Janis Ian or Dobie Gray, it's like their two hits were from two different lifetimes; hard to even think of them even as from the same band, unless maybe you saw them live, which I sure never did. Except G.E. had apparently already had a lifetime or two in Holland before "Radar Love" hit.)

curious whether American kids growing up in the '80s who'd never heard "Radar Love" just figured G.E. were another wacky new new-wave band when "Twilight Zone" hit MTV

Definitely the case with me (though I didn't even have MTV at the time, they were just one of those 'new' bands on the radio to my ears -- like Reflex or Nena or the like [or perhaps even more appropriately, Slade]).

I'm voting for "Twilight Zone" even though "Radar Love" may be the objectively better song.

Also curious whether American kids growing up in the '80s who'd never heard "Radar Love" just figured G.E. were another wacky new new-wave band when "Twilight Zone" hit MTV.

Funny you mention this. When I was a young, MTV-obsessed kid, I pretty much thought that everyone who had a video on MTV was a wacky new band. I assumed that Michael Jackson, Don Henley, Glen Frey, Golden Earring, Stevie Nicks, Genesis, ZZ Top, etc. were all completely new performers who didn't exist before the advent of MTV. Took me a long time to figure out the truth.

No idea whether you're being sarcastic or not, but with Golden Earring it would make a lot of sense. (It's not like they'd previously had a real U.S. presence in the way most of those others had.)

Anyway, from Wiki:

Golden Earring is a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as the Golden Earrings (the 's' was dropped in 1969). They had international chart success with the songs "Eight Miles High" in 1969, "Radar Love" in 1973, "Twilight Zone" in 1982, and "When The Lady Smiles" in 1984. In their home country, they had over 40 hits and made over 30 gold and platinum albums. Current members of Golden Earring are Barry Hay (vocals, guitar, flute and saxophone, member since 1968), George Kooymans (vocals and guitar, founder of band), Rinus Gerritsen (bass and keyboard, founding member), and Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums and percussion, member since 1970). Golden Earring have sold millions of albums worldwide, and they are the oldest rock band in the world that are still performing today. 2009 marks the return of the band to the UK and the release of a new studio album.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Earring

Apparently their first Dutch hit, "Please Go," was way back in 1965. (Someday I need to get out a piece of graph paper and map out all the lineup changes; right now, I'm basically clueless about all those.)

No idea whether you're being sarcastic or not

He's not, that's a lot of what I assumed as well! Musical history pre-1980 or so was nothing to my born-in-1971 mind, outside of Shawn Cassidy and a random song or two.

Voted "Radar Love". But to be honest, the one GE song I'd really vote before-and-above any other of their songs 's "Tons of Time".

"Radar Love" by a mile and that entire "Moontan" record slays, btw. I'm gonna pull it out with the headphones tonight.

Xxxpost

I'm being completely honest - I had virtually no knowledge of any bands outside of MTV. I was 6 years old when MTV was first on and the only radio I ever heard was the softies station my mom listened to.

I assumed that Michael Jackson, Don Henley, Glen Frey, Golden Earring, Stevie Nicks, Genesis, ZZ Top, etc. were all completely new performers who didn't exist before the advent of MTV. Took me a long time to figure out the truth.

ha otm. i remember running across Off the Wall in a record shop around 8 years old and being pretty confused. I guess I wasn't even aware of the J5?? tho that seems weird.

'this song White Lion covered.'

White Lion covered "Radar Love"? That can't have been good.

two-hit-wonders in the U.S. -- like with Janis Ian

Wait -- what's her other hit (other than "Seventeen")?

"Society's Child" in '67

White Lion covered "Radar Love"? That can't have been good.

Just wait until you see the video.

Which, sadly, does not appear to be on YouTube, but maybe elsewhere? MTV's site?

Found it (thanx to google video):

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1apm_white-lion-radar-love_music

And here is the vid for "Twlight Zone"

Apparently someone has it up on youtube too, but the sound has been removed.

two-hit-wonders in the U.S. -- like with Janis Ian
Wait -- what's her other hit (other than "Seventeen")?

The inter-racial dating anthem "Society's Child," which went to #14 in 1967, when she was just 15 years old, eight years before she hit with "At Seventeen." (Which was part of my point -- like G.E., Janis Ian went so long between hits that lots of people don't even seem to connect them in their heads.)

I don't see how "Twilight Zone" is any more artsy-fartsy

The video.

Yeah, it's all Fassbinder meets the Arthur Freed unit.

I've had a longer love affair with Radar Love and only fairly recently put together that Twilight Zone was by the same band.

It is a great video.

My memories of "Twilight Zone" are kinda vague, but aren't they exactly the same song?

No. "Radar Love" has a bass-line that goes doot doot doot doot do-DO! and "Twilight Zone" has a guitar hook that goes dow-now-now-now, dow-na-now-now

"Radar Love" is about driving cars. "Twilight Zone" is about shooting guns.

So these are the only two songs I've ever heard by Golden Earring.

Did they have any other good stuff?

similar career trajectory to manfred mann/mann's earth band. kinda. only i don't think mann had a big mtv hit. just the 60's fame and then the 70's reinvention. the hollies kinda did this too. (um, again without the 80's pop hit.) steve miller did it all. 60's and 70's and mtv fame. (meaning, they mastered the era-appropriate costume changes. not everyone did it so well. twilight zone WAS some sorta perfect mtv hit at that moment. it fit right in. alan parsons did it too (though really this was just a case of mtv and the world catching up with alan parsons' robot pop) and so did yes, obviously.)

Btw:

Where is the love for Golden Earring?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

You will come to know - when the bullet hits the bone!!!

a studio engineer I knew was making up charts for "radar love" cause a band wanted to cover it. he was surprised to discover there was a horn part. so was I! apparently the only thing anybody remembers is the bassline.

We've got a thing that's called Radar Love
We've got a line in the sky

[drums]

[awesomeness]

woo!