The Friday song (on a Sunday): ‘Radar Love’ by Golden Earring

My Rotterdam/Simonstown friend Fred de Vries is writing a book about Dutch rock legends Golden Earring and asked last week for my thoughts on their album Moontan. With its cover photograph of a woman, nude from the waist up and which somehow got past the South African censors at the time (did they think it was a painting?) when nudity was forbidden, Moontan was the biggest of the Earring’s albums.

I revisited it for the first time in decades this week and was surprised. As a kid it was just a great rock album to me, but listening to it now, I realised how nuanced and complex a record it was for its time. The band generally eschewed the standard verse / chorus / guitar solo / chorus / end format in favour of composition, arrangement and effect-laden good playing. While their vocal harmonies echoed some trends of the times, in many other ways, Golden Earring stood tall and somewhat different. 

Fearless music

More rock than prog, the band nevertheless were fearless about changing time signatures, composing in suites and stretching songs to seven, eight or even nine minutes – and they were unafraid, like Roxy Music or Jethro Tull, of adding an oboe or a flute.

Golden Earring broke ground, not dissimilarly to their Dutch counterparts, Focus. They were keen to experiment, laying down a groove-laden bass-drum figure mid-song, with echoes of early Zeppelin and carefully constructed guitar arpeggios on the long, fabulous Are You Receiving Me? Elsewhere, they embraced (via osmosis) touches of Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep, but mostly, Golden Earring were all themselves and very good at it.

Listening to Moontan a little more critically, I battled to push away the teenage nostalgia and decided on a fun pick for today’s Friday Song. It could and maybe should have been Receiving for complexity, or Suzy Lunacy or Candy’s Going Bad for sheer fun – but I’ve picked the most obvious track, the ubiquitous smash road-trip hit, Radar Love. It’s been a radio, party and air-guitar staple for 50 years, so I figured why not give it another spin today, especially for those of you who may not know it or haven’t heard it for years. 

On the Radar (Love)

Radar Love starts with its instantly recognisable single guitar notes, before the steadily familiar and hypnotic bass-drum motif builds to set up the vocal: “I been driving all night, my hands wet on the wheel / There’s a voice in my head that drives my heel / It’s my baby callin’ says: ‘I need you here’ / And it’s a half past four and I’m shiftin’ gear”. No wonder it became a driving anthem!

Later, with so many big-cred artists to name-check, this hard-rocking band find fun in “Radio’s playing some forgotten song / Brenda Lee’s Coming on Strong” – picking a country and pop specialist’s hit to call out. And after each line, a lead-guitar splurt, which in turn bleeds through a drum roll to the chorus with its sexy oohs and woos and a flip back to another verse. 

It clocks in at well over six minutes – no, you’re not getting the trimmed-down “single” version, as no Golden Earring song would be complete without the exploratory “midsection jam”, with layered synthesizers and funky double-track guitar chords and lines, before a drum dive straight back in for the close. What a classic! 

Listen to Radar Love on Spotify here and Apple Music here.

I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.

For more of Mark’s rocking picks, go here.

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