George Kooymans, Christopher Plummer

Friday 5 February was a warm day for a winter. A day spent in a voluntary lockdown, with an afternoon stroll as usual by now. A day with a curfew from 21.00 hours onwards. A day chatted on Zoom with my son who lives in Oslo because he can due to the closed university for who knows how long and a day that I found 'The Little Black Book' filled with Oasis songs, lyrics and chords in a mini library along the strolling route of choice.

Friday 5 February was also the day that I woke up with my girlfriend telling me that George Kooymans is extremely ill and is not able to perform ever again and the day that Christopher Plummer died. What has that got to do with each other? you may ask. Let me tell you.

Kooymans plays in Golden Earring, a band I got to know as Golden Earrings and scored many a hit when I was very young. The first one I can truly remember is the band's first #1 hit 'Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Ki-Dong', that single the band did not want to be remembered of not much later. There are not many bands that can afford to ignore their number one hit single later on in their careers. Golden Earring(s) could, even when it went acoustic in the 90s, reviving its career.

Christopher Plummer played captain Von Trapp in 'The Sound Of Music', the first movie I remember seeing. Not just me, my mother, my aunt and even my grandmother was there in Rotterdam in the Cineac. I guess I'm the only one alive who can tell about it, perhaps my younger brother was there also. If so he probably can't remember. I'm not certain when we saw it, what I do know is that I have the single 'My Favourite Things' / 'Edelweiss'. And who leads the latter into the singing, staging the beginning of the flight to Switzerland? Christopher Plummer, the man who hated frivolities in the movie. Plummer died, aged 91. 'The Sound Of Music' was one of my very first, intense, musical experiences. A story and songs that made a tremendous impression on a 6 or 7 year old.

George Kooymans turns 74 this year and can't perform / play guitar any more because of ALS. There's not to be a self-chosen goodbye after 59 years of being in the band that conquered the world, due to the Covid pandemic. In any other circumstances it might have been possible to do.

I have heard 'Radar Love' played in three continents, from a carnival in Spokane to a pub in Mudgee. Together with 'Venus' the song is everywhere. Kooymans wrote so many extremely great songs. The list of hits of Golden Earring(s) is near endless. Several of the songs are beyond memorable. They are exemplary. I never gave a lot about the band for its albums, exceptions noted, but as a singles band they were so good. Check out any greatest hits albums and you'll find out why.

Christopher Plummer, as an actor, of course is a musical footnote in my life, George Kooymans has been an integral part of my life since 1968. Truly a deep, deep thank you to all four Earrings for all those songs and performances.

It turns out that due to Covid I saw one of his last performances with Vreemde Kostgangers on 5 March 2020, days before the country closed itself, when jokes could be made from the stage about a lockdown, while I was already half watching people around me whether they were coughing. No one takes that experience away from me.

Wo.

Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g