TOGETHER

Golden Earring is a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as The Golden Earrings. The "s" was dropped in 1969 and the prefix "The" disappeared also in the same year. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, which went to number one on the Dutch charts, reached the top ten in the UK and went to number thirteen on the US charts, "Twilight Zone" in 1982, and "When The Lady Smiles" in 1984. During their long career they had nearly 30 top ten singles on the Dutch charts. Over all those years they produced 25 studio albums.

Golden Earring is the most successful Dutch import since the windmills. The name was changed to the Golden Earrings when they discovered that the name The Tornados was already in use by another group. Initially, Golden Earring was formed by Rinus Gerritsen and George Kooymans as a quartet called The Tornados. The band initially was the Dutch version of ABBA. Golden Earring experienced various musical styles all over their lengthy career, names and personal, before settling on a straight edge, hard rock approach, sometimes with some progressive rock influences. The move paid off as a band, by then known as Golden Earring, was courted by The Who to open their European live tour of 1972. The Who subsequently signed the group to their record label the Track Records, were Golden Earring prosped and soon after released their ninth studio album "Moontan", which is considered by many, critics and fans, their best and most sucessful album. "Moontan" is also the album with their first and biggest hit "Radar Love", with its single version.

The band's line up currently consists of the two co-founder members Rinus Gerritsen (bass and keyboards) and George Kooymans (vocals and guitar), along with Barry Hay (vocals, guitar, flute and saxophone), and Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums and percussion). All musicians in the present line up of the band have been continuous members of the band since 1970, although some other musicians have joined and left the band during the intervening career years.

"Together" is the eighth studio album of Golden Earring and was released in 1972. It represents a different step for Golden Earring. Unlike the group's previous outings, "Eight Miles High" of 1969, "Golden Earring" aka "Wall Of Dolls" of 1970 and "Seven Tears" of 1971, the songs on "Together" don't fall into the strict rock or progressive categories. Instead, the group blurs those strict lines and weaves elements of each genre into a distinctive style that gives the songs a unique and distinctive flavor. The group also makes a concerted effort to give to each song a tight arrangement and usually more than one catchy hook. The final result is a band's truly solid, enjoyable and consistent album, really.

"Together" has eight tracks. The first track "All Day Watcher" is a good slow burning, mid tempo rocker which kicks the album off right. This track has successfully set the overall tone of the album. The second track "Avalanche Of Love" has great harmony of music and catchy melody reminiscent of the 70's music. It might have had a more melodic and progressive direction but it hasn't lost their edge at all and the track still retains some of their heavy metal roots, as happened with the previous track too. The third track "Cruisin' Southern Germany" is in the same vein of "Avalanche Of Love". It represents a logical continuation with its similar type of music, a guitar riff based music. The fourth track "Brother Wind" is a different kind of music, more dynamic and more energetic. It has the complex arrangement and length of a prog rock epic, but it moves forward with the energy and powerful riffing of a hard rock song. The fifth track "Buddy Joe" is a surging, dramatic adventure tale built on a sing along chorus and an insidiously catchy Indian style guitar riff with an inspiring chorus line. This rousing tune has remained a popular part of the band's live set list. The sixth track "Jangalene" is basically a ballad in an acoustic setting. It has a cleverly arranged tune that starts out as an acoustic blues but flowers into a full throttle rocker midway through. The verse melody is really catchy and the guitar breaks near the end works well too. The seventh track "From Heaven From Hell" has a mysterious atmosphere to it that I find a little appealing. It has great melody and singing style. The vocal job on the screaming part is really good. The composition, structure, melody and harmony are nice. The eighth track "Thousand Feet Below You" is straightforward rock song that doesn't do anything outstanding. It isn't a bad track, so doesn't spoil the overall quality of the all album.

Conclusion: Despite it isn't as good as their two studio albums "Eight Miles High" and "Golden Earring" and even "Seven Tears", but especially and above all, not be as good as "Moontan" is, "Together" remains, for me, an impressive album and clearly shows off the chops and songwriting skills that would bring the group a massive worldwide success the next year with their worldwide acclaimed album, "Moontan". So, with "Together", Golden Earring is in a fine form and at the height of their powers on this release. "Together" doesn't really have a bad moment throughout and holds up well after forty years, still isone of Golden Earring's best albums as well as some of the best rock albums to come out of the early 70's in general, with some great guitar riffs and some of the best drumming work of any rock album in general.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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