A classic rock giant: She Flies On Strange Wings. Golden Earring

Earlier this year the Dutch rock world was shocked by the announcement of Golden Earring having to stop its activities immediately due to the aggressive illness its guitarist and songwriter George Kooymans was struck with. A national 'Radar Love' moment was created to honour the person George Kooymans, the band and its most famous song, 'Radar Love'.

Last week, a two episode documentary, called 'That Day', was shown on television about the band. From its inception at the beginning of the 1960s as The Tornados, to The Golden Ear-Rings, to Golden Earrings and the first hit 'Please Go' to Golden Earring late in 1969. All ex-members, they all live, tell their story, bar one, Eelco Gelling, as do some pivotal persons in the band's history. Only four persons remain silent: Golden Earring itself (and the management people who have died).

One of these made an interesting point. The band was around for such a long time, that every new music generation has its own Golden Earring(s). In the second issue of WoNo Magazine, I wrote exactly that, now almost 21 years ago. My story started with 'I've Just Lost Somebody' in the spring of 1968. The song I focused on however was 'Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart', one of these mini-opera's released in the fall or early winter of 1968. Think Barry Ryan's 'Eloise' as well for example.

Today I want to focus on another magical song by the band. One that struck me at the time, 1971, and only has gotten better since. In 'That Day' there is a snippet of the song, the talking heads are interlaced with film clips from the last show the band played late in 2019. Nobody knew this at the time of course. Covid was something unknown still. I heard Kooymans play the solo and thought: 'he's incorporated some Pink Floyd/David Gilmour style guitar playing' and it sounded so good. The next day I took out the album and played the song at loud volume and was mesmerised once again by the power, the glory, the majesty and the fantastic songwriting and playing.

In 1970 the band had had its second number one hit with 'Back Home', a great rock song that pointed to the new direction it wanted to go into. It was followed up by a second single in this rock style, 'Holy Holy Life', which became my first Golden Earring single. 50 Years in my possession this year, wow. And then came She Flies On Strange Wings. Listening to it again, I can only think, 'Why did this song not become a #1 hit'? It is so incredibly good, that it must be ranked among the best songs of the band.

Perhaps because it is 7 minutes long and much harder to edit, like 'Radar Love' e.g. It is one big song with all these different stages in it.

The intro is George singing with a real organ underneath, while then the still new drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk is crashing his cymbals. Let me point here to the suppleness he brings to playing the drums. It all sounds so incredibly simple, while there's happening so much. There's always something extra Cesar can put into a bar. After the soft and mysterious opening, the band rocks out with a huge rock riff and Barry Hay taking over the lead vocals. The first chorus shows how incredibly good this song is. Guitar and especially the bass play fantastic solo lines. Rinus Gerritsen is a fantastic bass player. If there's a bass part that contends for the best ever, here it is folks.

There are also a few parts that are a bit messy, like the solo guitar interlude between the first chorus and the second verse. The sax part, Bertus Borgers, is strong and then we move into Pink Floyd territory, before that band had invented it itself, it seems. Kooymans has the same mysterious sound to his guitar and style of playing. And the Rick Wright keyboard style is there as well, the style Pink Floyd only perfected on 'Dark Side Of The Moon'. The middle section of She Flies On Strange Wings is one of the most beautiful pieces in classic rock. The interaction between Hay and Kooymans, the man could sing so high, is fantastic. Everytime I hear this part, it's spinetingling. There's no other word for the experience.

From there we move into the second messy part. The modern synth thingies, at the time, had to be in there, but the song could have done without. (Don't get me wrong, I love the parts, but writing from the potential #1 point of view, they are to messy.) The final verse and sax part bring the song to a great climax and fade out.

The song is nothing but a monument and one the whole world should get to know. Golden Earring is so much more than 'Radar Love' and to a lesser extent 'Twilight Zone'. Of course I felt proud when walking around in Spokane, Washington on a local carnival and hearing 'Radar Love' blaring out of the bumpercar attraction. Who wouldn't? Or like I wrote before, to encounter a compilation album in Australia of classic rock hits with 'Radar Love' on it (and Focus' Hocus Pocus)? That takes nothing away from the fact that She Flies On Strange Wings is the better song by far. It is so much more adventurous, the band really is in search of the outer limits of the song and itself as a band. They found them and a little beyond the first encountered limits as well.

Wout de Natris