By Michael Baginski/ Last week was a tough one for music with the deaths of Ozzy Osbourne and Chuck Mangione (and pop culture in general if you count Hulk Hogan*). It’s not surprising then that another loss – that of George Kooymans – sadly slipped under the radar. The Dutch rock star may not have been a well-known outside the Netherlands, but his band, Golden Earring, and their classic song “Radar Love,” certainly are.
(* Oddly, I once met Hulk Hogan on a tourism mission for Minnesota at ITB in Berlin when he was serving a term as the state’s governor in the early 2000s).
Kooymans co-wrote and sang on the 1973 hit that broke the band globally, reaching the top 10 in most markets, including Canada. Such was their impact that KISS and Aerosmith even served as opening acts for the band at the time.
It was almost a decade before Golden Earring scored more international chart success with the No. 1 “Twighlight Zone” – ‘when the bullet hit the bone’ – in 1982 and another marginal hit in ’84, “When the Lady Smiles” (which reached No. 3 in Canada, but was pulled from MTV due to a controversial video thereby thwarting any momentum in the U.S.)
But even while notching 47 hits over its 60-year career in the Netherlands, the band will always be known for “Radar Love,” which cemented its legacy, having earned acclaim as one of the greatest “driving” songs ever (despite the narrator dying in a crash).
Indeed, to honour the band’s 50th anniversary in 2011, the Dutch postal service even unveiled a special music stamp that triggered a smartphone app to play the song.
With Kooymans’ announcement in 2021 that he was suffering from ALS, the group disbanded, but reconvened for a farewell concert in January of this year (though Kooymans could not participate), and the remaining members called it quits again officially last week after Kooymans succumbed to the disease at age 77.
Here’s to George Kooymans – speeding into a new sunrise… another radar lover gone.
Lyrics
I’ve been drivin’ all night, my hand’s 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 half past four, and I’m shifting gear
When she’s lonely and the longing gets too much
She sends a cable comin’ in from above
Don’t need no phone at all
We’ve got a thing that’s called radar love
We’ve got a wave in the air, radar love
The radio’s playing some forgotten song
Brenda Lee’s coming on strong
The road’s got me hypnotized
And I’m speeding into a new sunrise
When I get lonely, and I’m sure I’ve had enough
She sends her comfort, comin’ in from above
Don’t need no letter at all
We’ve got a thing that’s called radar love
We’ve got a line in the sky, radar love
No more speed, I’m almost there
Gotta keep cool, now gotta take care
Last car to pass, here I go
And the line of cars drove down real slow
And the radio played that forgotten song
Brenda Lee’s coming on strong
And the newsman sang his same song
One more radar lover gone
When I get lonely, and I’m sure I’ve had enough
She sends her comfort, comin’ in from above
We don’t need no letter at all
We’ve got a thing that’s called radar love
We’ve got a line in the sky
We’ve got a thing that’s called radar love
We’ve got a thing that’s called radar love
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