![]() With a quiet flute intro begins “Song Of A Devil’s Servant”. In the opener track “Landing”, Gerritsen plays very well his organ that paired with a rousing lead guitar, the band fires here a great job, really. The whole thing was enhanced by orgiastic screams and wild moaning.īut the four other titles of the album, which are the titles on the first side of the LP left a very strong impression too. But in between, there were wonderful drum escapades, which culminated in a solo that was about four minutes long. It was wonderfully rowing with its lines alternated with long-lasting and stretched to the madness of single tones. The bass set the tone here and was the dominant instrument. This marathon version of The Byrds’ classic was sometimes extended to over 45 minutes during live concerts and had hardly any resemblance to the original, except for the chorus. The title song caused a worldwide sensation with its extensive guitar duels, the imaginative drumming and many surprising tempo changes. Golden Earring in 1969 was still pretty much at the beginning of their musical career. So, among the favorite tracks of the band is certainly the over eighteen-minute song “Eight Miles High”, the track that fills the entire side two of the album. ![]() “Eight Miles High” is divided into two parts, four tracks on the first side of the LP and one lengthy track fills the entire second side of the LP. However, the band didn’t make an album this psychedelic again. The band had evolved from a very good pop band on their first album to a very serious psychedelic hard rock band on this, their fifth album. As well as being highly psychedelic this album is also a very heavy rock album at times. Listen to Barry hay’s flute open track, “Song Of A Devil’s Servant”, and you are transported somewhere else entirely, which is the achievement of only truly great music. On the scale of great psychedelic albums this should be high. This 1969 album shows a great band at the peak of their powers. This is a very curious and interesting thing because ironically enough, the music that Golden Earring created has always been exactly what America likes, pure and honest Rock‘n’Roll that acknowledges but never gives in to the current trends. In reality, the long lived Dutch rock band is of course best known for the most casual music fans in the United States for approximately two songs, by their 1973 worldwide breakthrough hit “Radar Love” recorded on their ninth studio album “Moontan”, which is an arena rock milestone that had been deliberately constructed to appeal to the American marketplace, and for their 1982’s hit “Twilight Zone”, which was recorded on their sixteenth studio album “Cut”. However and strangely, their unique brand of Rock‘n’Roll has largely been overlooked by the American audiences. This resulted in an overlooked period of band’s history that produced three excellent albums of the genre, the 1969’s “Eight Miles High”, the 1970’s “Golden Earring”, also known as “Wall Of Dolls” and the 1973’s “Moontan”. During these years the band played a brand of rock popular as many headlining European groups of that era, a blend of the two budding genres of prog rock and heavy metal, with an emphasis on the contrast between the heavy and the light. In between this early stage of Golden Earring’s existence and the career zenith of “Radar Love”, there lies a transitional period covering the years 1970-72. Golden Earring had made their name in their native Holland by dominating the charts with a series of singles. They’ve managed to maintain a big popularity in many European countries all over these years. Golden Earring was formed in the mid of 1960 in The Hague, Holland and still is active in our days, albeit slowing down on their prolific discography. Golden Earring had and still has a leading role in the history of the Dutch rock music. ![]() The line up on the album is George Kooymans, Barry Hay, Rinus Gerritsen and Sieb Warner. “Eight Miles High” is the fifth studio album of Golden Earring and was released in 1969. Review Summary: This is a surprising album. ![]()
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