THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
2,111) Golden Earrings — “I’ve Just Lost Somebody”
This “[h]auntingly beautiful” (peperudi, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl5PkTqJhZU) and “[d]reamy Psych Pop Ballad” (Vintage Vinyl Via Valves, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jYD50QmgmU) with “a harpsichord add[ing] a touch of the Baroque” (Mark Deming, https://www.allmusic.com/album/miracle-mirror-mw0000841385) is the “song that made me fall so deeply in love with this special . . . band”. (edbertrand8887, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4o2Nal9AdM)
Wikipedia tells us (courtesy of Google Translate) that:
“Lost Somebody” was written by bass guitarist Rinus Gerritsen, but credited to Gerritsen and guitarist George Kooymans. . . . [T]he singer says that his ex-girlfriend has already disappeared from his life after a short relationship, but that he still wants to keep dreaming about her. To promote the single, a music video was filmed featuring a performance from the television program Moef Ga Ga, broadcast on April 3, 1968. The filming of this video took place [in a construction pit of thr Amsterdam metro] near the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. The single became a hit in the Netherlands, reaching number seven in the Top 40 and number eight in the Parool Top 20.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ve_Just_Lost_Somebody, https://web.archive.org/web/20200313143718/http://members.ziggo.nl/casper.roos/story60.html#1968
Kieron Tyler adds:
Talking about the song, Rinus Gerritsen explained that “in those days you also had Paul and Barry Ryan [see #88, 264-66, 317, 671], who made this kind of film music with a lot of orchestral music. Our arranger Frans Mijts was the perfect man for this kind of orchestration. First George played it to us on the acoustic guitar and then we recorded it. The tape then went to Mijts, who wrote the orchestra score. This was then added to in the studio, and then it became apparent that we had a kind of overkill in the wind section – Mijts was originally a trumpet player, so it figures. Half of it was then left out and there we had a song that remains untouched by the passing of time.” He also said that the song had originally composed by George Kooymans [so Rinus didn’t write it?!] for Henk Smitskamp, the former bassist of rival Hague outfit The Motions [see #1,224, 1,260, 2,033], but producer Freddie Haayen said it was so good that they shouldn’t give the song away. . . . Although Miracle Mirror was issued in America by Capitol Records and “I’ve Just Lost Somebody” became a British single for the Major Minor label, The Golden Earrings weren’t getting much attention beyond the Netherlands.
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2011/12/golden-earrings-miracle-mirror-1967-68.html
The Earrings [see #63, 163, 319, 1,215, 1,504, 1,560, 1,572] are my favorite British beat group . . . from the Netherlands! But not only could they sound just as if they had washed up on a bank of the Mersey, a feat in and of itself, they also wrote great songs. Unlike some groups, they didn’t have the luxury of having Lennon and McCartney donate to the cause. The Earrings have earned a lot of good will in my book — everything that happened in the 70’s is forgiven! As Mark Deming writes:
Golden Earring were hailed as one of the hottest new bands in America when the song “Radar Love” . . . was released in 1973. Funny thing was, Golden Earring were hardly a new band; while they weren’t well known outside the Netherlands, in their native Holland they were major stars who had been scoring hits for eight years.
As to the Earring’s third album — Miracle Mirror — which includes “Lost Somebody”, Tyler writes:
Miracle Mirror was magnificent. Consummate psychedelic pop, this was as good as anything coming from Britain, yet it escaped attention beyond the Netherlands’ borders. A US release of the album got hardly any attention. . . . The third Golden Earrings album marked their creative peak to date. Back in 1968 they were fashioning world-class psychedelic pop, showcased on Miracle Mirror. . . .
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2011/12/golden-earrings-miracle-mirror-1967-68.html
Deming adds:
Change was in the air when the Golden Earrings made their third album in 1967; psychedelia was sweeping the U.K. and Europe and the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band had raised the bar in terms of production and arranging styles. The Golden Earrings had made some changes of their own as well — rhythm guitarist Peter De Ronde had left the group, and lead singer Frans Krassenburg was replaced by Barry Hay. Miracle Mirror was very much an album of its time, and predictably sounds a great deal different than their first two LPs. Like Just Earrings and Winter Harvest, Miracle Mirror clearly reflected what was going on in the British music scene at the time (even though the band was Dutch), but the heady atmosphere of 1967 made room for musicians to follow a number of different paths, and the Golden Earrings were eager to investigate as many as they could in the studio. . . . You name the new-in-1967 sonic innovation, it’s probably somewhere on [the LP], but what hadn’t changed for the Golden Earrings was the songwriting talent of bassist Rinus Gerritsen and guitarist George Kooymans and the group’s uniform excellence in the studio; the confidence and sense of adventure that informed their first two albums was in full flower here, and if there are some moments on Miracle Mirror that sound a bit pretentious all these years later, the Golden Earrings’ instincts were spot-on most of the time, and this album has worn the test of time more gracefully than many other works from the first acid era.
Of the Earrings, Tyler tells us:
They were always melodic . . . their music combined the tough chunkiness of The Who [see #119, 548, 833, 976, 1,912, 2,055] and The Kinks [see #100, 381, 417, 450, 508, 529, 606, 623, 753, 865, 978, 1,043, 1,108, 1,330, 1,451, 1,591, 1,697, 1,784, 1,907] with the minor-key, brooding melodies of The Zombies [see #1,138]. . . . Where bands like the rough-hewn Outsiders [see #615, 664, 1,218] defined the edgy sound of Amsterdam, the more polished Golden Earrings defined the sound of The Hague. . . . The[ir] roots . . . lie in The Tornados, a band formed by 13-year-old George Kooymans and 15-year-old Marinus Gerritsen in 1962. . . . An instrumental outfit, their repertoire included Shadows and Ventures numbers. . . . The Hague . . . was stuffed with rock ‘n’ roll bands and competition was tough. . . . [The] boom was fuelled by bands made up from Indonesian immigrants. Indo-Rock had been born. . . . After the British Tornados’ Telstar became a Dutch hit in late 1962 . . . . the band chose The Golden Earrings, from the standard that Peggy Lee had a hit with in 1948. . . . [B]y the end of 1963, it became clear that the shifting musical climate meant the band would have to incorporate vocals. Frans Krassenburg became their singer in early 1964. . . . The[ir] break came in July 1965 . . . . Freddy Haayen saw the band at their regular venue Club 192 . . . . [and] said he worked for Polydor Records and that he wanted to record them. Actually, he was an architecture student who also worked as a trainee at Polydor’s warehouse. The Golden Earrings didn’t know this and duly turned up . . . to record four tracks . . . . Haayen had made good on his bluff and scored a deal with Polydor. Released in September, “Please Go” . . . reach[ed] number 10. . . .
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2011/11/the-golden-earrings-just-ear-rings-1965.html
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