Golden Earring - Twilight Zone (live on the Dutch TV show Countdown, 1982; uploaded to YouTube this summer)

[highplainsdem]

This has never been posted in Music Appreciation till now. With all the political news this summer, I missed seeing that Countdown had uploaded this video June 4. This is a great live performance of the song, and unlike the June '82 show recorded for Rockpalast - which I've posted here before, most recently in a reply (reply 3) this morning at https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034125958 - this was done after Twilight Zone had been recorded and had become a hit (Rockpalast's German audience in June 1982 had clearly never heard the song before).

They looked so young then, especially guitarist George Kooymans, who wrote this song. He was 34 then and had already been a rock star in the Netherlands half his life (he'd formed the first lineup of the band in 1961 after teaching bass player Rinus Gerritsen to play guitar, and they had their first hit in 1965). He's battling ALS now - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181674319 - but he kept this band together for nearly 40 years after this appearance in 1982, and his side projects until a couple of years ago included a successful duo with an American, Frank Carillo, and a supergroup trio, Vreemde Kostgangers (Strange Boarders) with two other famous Dutch musicians. He was in his 70s but not slowing down until ALS hit him.

Golden Earring disbanded in 2021 after George was diagnosed with ALS, but a tribute concert is planned for the Ahoy arena in Rotterdam this fall. No word yet about whether George will be able to attend, or how many of the other three members of the band (all of whom have continued separate musical careers) will be there. The concert had originally been scheduled for last year, but those plans fell through.

[highplainsdem]

1. kick