They were a two-hit wonder here in the U.S. In their native Netherlands, they had 28 top-ten singles, dating from 1965 through 2005. They had a fair amount of success in some other European countries, as well.
I wasn’t expecting this so soon. I knew he was sick with ALS for a few years. I am planning on going to their final concert in January, George wasn’t going to play.
I saw them twice in 2004, both times were great. The entire crowd was really in to it like I have never seen before or since.
I’ve always wondered if, in at least a small way, Golden Earring was part of the inspiration for Spinal Tap, given their oddities and different styles, as well as occasional profound goofiness.
They did crank out memorable lyrics, like from the opening of “She Flies On Strange Wings”:
Lonely is the night without you
Just as lonely as the shepherd without sheep
I have just a Golden Earring greatest hits album. Looking them up today, I was surprised to see that in the years after “Twilight Zone” they’d recorded nine albums, not counting live recordings. I have a feeling those late efforts are better left unheard…
Actually all of their newer albums are good. There was no quality change over the years. They were never really a band to do the same music for every album.
IMO their 1975 album (and track) Switch is as good as any other of the period!
I was referring to albums released after 1982, when Cut (containing the song “Twilight Zone”) came out.
If you love Twilight Zone (as I do), this might change your mind.
Although modern civilization and health care means that there are a lot of people 70 and older who aren’t frail that doesn’t mean they’re “not old”.
Just because you’re old doesn’t mean you’re frail or incapable. You certainly can be a healthy, capable, and vigorous old person, even into your 80’s and in some cases 90’s. It is possible. Far from guaranteed, though.
Even so, once you get past about 50, and certainly past 60, damage accumulates, your immune system isn’t as efficient, you don’t heal as well, etc. You don’t tolerate heat or cold as well as you once did. Side effects from medications and complications from surgery or other “procedures” becomes more likely. And so on. No amount of vigor and lean muscle mass can change that. Diseases for which “advancing age” is a significant risk factor - such as cancer - become more common even in people otherwise healthy, even in people with no other risk factors.
70 is, in fact, old. Even if these days it doesn’t automatically mean feeble. Even if most people that age can look forward to another 10-15 more years of life. It’s a great thing about modern civilization that so many people reach that age while still being vigorous and capable. Yay. We’ve learned a lot about what keeps people healthy that long into life. It’s a great thing.
It’s still not entirely surprising when someone 70 passes away. Especially when that person has had various health problems in the recent past, such as Ozzy Osbourne.
Actually… it’s pretty likely those folks will “drop dead” of cancer or heart disease because those two, by far, are the most common reasons to die at that point in life (accidents are, overall, third but concentrated more in the younger demographics). They may not die of those things at 70 but statistically that is what they most likely to die of, even if that fate is 10 or 20 years in the future.
And even for those highly vigorous 70 year olds - I know quite a few of them, too. I hope to be one of them one day - being older still has consequences. Chronic diseases - from arthritis to high blood pressure to blood sugar issues to a number of other problems - start to appear. Those folks might be managing them well, to the point they don’t otherwise interfere with their lives, and they may not be talking about them to you, or maybe they’re ignoring them but even among the most fit these things start to happen. If they become ill they will have more trouble fighting off things like pneumonia which is why people over 65, not 70, are urged to get vaccinated. If they are injured they take longer to heal. And so on.
You can’t stave off death forever.
Er… average survival from diagnosis of someone with ALS is about 2-5 years in the Netherlands, with length of survival going down as age goes up. Assuming “a few years” is 3 he did pretty well.
It took me a surprisingly long time to figure out that “Twilight Zone” was the song used in the Twilight Zone pinball machine.
It was the very first video I saw on MTV.
I think of Twilight Zone often. There’s a sign on a street here that says ‘Entering Golf Cart Zone’.