To the Hilt - by Golden Earring

1975 Red Bullet Production : $7.50

Golden Earring originally came in on the first wave of Dutch rock to hit the English-speaking market along with Focus, Exception and others. In the past they have used material by other people e.g. their extended version of "Eight Miles High" which was originally written and performed by The Birds.

After hearing 'To the Hilt" I'd say there's tons of inherent interest in the group which does not always get a free run. Right now they're like a bowl of too many ingredients, and in the scramble to be heard it is the "boss" people like Barry Hay, the drummer, and the organist, who are hogging the limelight. Yet when Bongers and Kalf are given a fair go they lend a track of beautiful, solf, tone that threads itself acceptably into the basic rock of drums, guitar, and vocal moaning. Nowhere is this clearer than in 'Sleepwalkin' which is about a fella who falls in love and the old world gets very unwieldly for him: the track starts with a cheeky, bouncey, combination of guitar and drums; the lyrics are humourously sarcastic, e.g.

Don't panic - we're on the Titanic
and
I've never felt this way I'm supposed to be skilled in the
game
Once again, it goes to show
You fall into the trap of love
before you know

and the track goes out on some easy-listening sax backed by trumpet. This is the best track, and is a fine example of what can happen when they use all their muscles.

The other side-two tracks "Latin Lightnin" and "Violins" also try something new. "Latin Lightnin" bounds off to a racy start, then stops dead, and a throaty whisper says......

Oh baby, come see me dance tonight

...then the track races on again. However, these experiments tend to be rare, and the group invariably outplays its lyrics either by limiting the vocals to mere patches, playing so loud you can't hear the words, or singing in an almost identicle key to the backing so that you can hardly tell which is which.

Why does a $7.50 album hardly ever entail a copy of the words? This is a pity because occasionally you catch something interesting, as in "Violins" where a street music man receives "the smiles of people passing" who write about him in the paper

except they found him dead
his bow had made him bad, friends

Side One illustrates the emotional monotony of the group, especially in the lyrics department. All the lyrics announce a cheesed-off, betrayed, cynical, attitude to life, maybe because the lyric writing is in the hands of Barry Hay whose girlfriend burnt down his house last year. "Why Me?" speaks of rejection, and a person who crashes their car into the end of a street "to find out what's behind that wall". The sardonic "Facedancer" orders the listener......

Take that frown from your face
You're looking good when you smile

......which could be told to the group itself. But there is often a touch of humour though morbid humour e.g. on the track "To the Hilt"

One day you're tied and gagged to
the railway tracks
hear the humming of the wheels
feel the wheels right across your neck

However, even when the words are depressive, the actual music is often off on a track of its own, with an urgent invigorating quality peculiar to itself, It's good, easy-going music, just great when you're with yourself in the corner one night, and the smile of Buddha on your face.

- Martin Doyle