TOGETHER

An important time for GE to really make their mark with this 1972 release. The frustrating reality with this album is that it has moments of sheer brilliance as in tracks like the opener " All Day Watcher", " Brother Wind" and the commercially appealing " Buddy Joe" ( Reminds me of Ballad of Big from Genesis six years later) but unfortunately there is a slight lack of consistency with others like " Avalanche Of Love" and " Cruise Southern Germany". " Jangalene" is another attempt at commercial success, for which they were reasonably successful. Overall though a very enjoyable album but there was much better output to come from later releases. Three and a half stars.

A rather "lost" (IMHO) album in BE's discography, Together fails to build on the trilogy preceding it, even if the album have its unconditional array of fans, but this writer can never escape the thought that GE that they missed the gold medal with this one. Indeed if the mood had been to longer tracks on the preceding track, together goes the opposite direction drastically, and deal us a series of short songs obviously trying to hard to get this international hit they're yearning for. With a semi-famous coffee table in the forefront and suspicious bags and paraphernalia in the foreground, the living room artwork might seem bland, but man, is that apartment ever filled with plants... I wonder if Mary Jane comes by often. I also wonder if this album's weakness is not due to Barry Hay's solo album coming out that year, the superb Only Parrots Frogs And Angels, filled with catchy songs, did not unconsciously hurt Together.

Anyway, as I said above, the mood is to shorter songs and unfortunately the songwriting is not up to par on this album, and it is little wonder if my favourite tracks are the two longer ones on the album. Indeed From heaven, From Hell is easily the album's most accomplished and proggiest track and even if dominated by a martial 5/4 riff, the group smokes right through its six minutes, Hay really pushing his voice into metal realm. The other winner is the longer Brotherwind (an 11/8 riff, if I'm not mistaken) that ends up in total chaos with a drum interlude laced with flute spears, organ wails and plenty of energyyyyyyyyy.

Outside those two bravura moments, there isn't much for a true proghead, but a pure hard rocker might find his happiness. All I can say is that it would be too bad to overlook Together, but I'll give you rendez-vous for Moontan.

After a duo of good rock songs, there is hardly wonderful moments to expect from the flying Dutchman during this album. Some good rock moments of sure (''Cruisin' Southern Germany'') but hardly great adventures like available during ''Eight Miles High'' or even more the great ''Golden Earring''.

This one is a straight rock album, performed with great skills of course, but completely alien to this site. The true rock lover is with no doubt submerged with joy while listening to this good album: some great keyboards interplay, excellent fluting (but this is no new stuff actually), are integrant parts of GE music in those days.

I guess that some indulgence needs to be accepted while reviewing ''Together''. Some overlong drum solo (''Brother Wind'') aren't too bad even if it sounds quite bizarre on a studio release.

During all these years, the band has also managed to write several pop songs that will make their entry into the Dutch pop chart. To be honest, I have nothing against a catchy rock song as ''Buddy Joe''. At the end of the day, these flying Dutchmen were one of the best continental rock band of the era (but this is probably an unknown fact for most of the reviewers on this site (except the old ones like myself and a couple of other reviewers as well). N'est-ce pas Hughes, Chris S or Seyo ?

Now, to be honest, we are not confronted to a great album in the vein of ''Wall Of The Doll'' but still, this work needs to be discovered (as most of the early GE days albums). Especially as it is the immediate predecessor of one the greatest ''Montan'' of course.

Some songs do hold of the grandiose, the pomposity of the upcoming work. But of course, I would only consider the excellent ''From Heaven From Hell'' as some sort of hors d'oeuvres in expectation with great songs to come.

In all, this is a solid rock album from the early days. A great intro to one of the best rock album of the decade; for sure (but I might be biased ? at least I know it and I tell so).

Three stars for this good rock effort.

I was lucky that finally I got the CD version of this album. In fact, when I searched the CD I did not even know what album that I was looking for. What I vividly remember was the song that the album contained, i.e. 'From Heaven From Hell'. It dated back in 1974 or 1975 (I can't remember exactly) when my brother, Jokky, brought home several classic rock cassettes like Focus and Golden Earring. I remember that the cover was actually those in Seven Tears but the song was 'From Heaven From Hell' which became one of songs that I loved during the 70s in addition to Deep Purple's 'Woman From Tokyo', 'Strange Kind of Woman', 'Fools' as well as Uriah Heep's 'The Wizard', 'Easy Livin'', or Black Sabbath ' Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' or Led Zeppelin 'In my Time of Dying'. I was relieved that finally I got the CD version sometime in 2000s.

Rockin' Childhood...

I consider 'Together' is the band's third album because I thought the band started good album since its self titled (aka The Wall of Dolls) in 1970. The beauty of this album is in its solid composition from start to end. Each song flows naturally and it brings me back to the glory days of the seventies when all of mu music collection was in the form of cassette. Look into deep, the composition are based on rhythm section that comprises soft guitar riffs overlaid by excellent vocal sung in catchy melody with rhythm section that has excellent grooves. Some songs contain flute as well as drum solo that make good variations to the music. Emotionally, this is the album that colored my rockin' childhood. So, I cannot afford to give less than four stars. Indeed, despite emotional feelings that attached to me for this album, I can assure you that this is an excellent classic rock album!

Excellent melody, great groove...

The opening track 'All Day Watcher' (4:50) starts beautifully with guitar fills backed with long sustained organ, followed nicely with a blast of music in beautiful groove through the work of drums and bassguitar. The vocal enters beautifully and when it moves excellently to chorus line. I really enjoy the chorus, especially when it is followed with guitar fills. Oh..the guitar riffs back by bass guitar at approx 1:46 followed with break on 2:16 are really inspiring. This track has successfully set the overall tone of the album.

'Avalanche of Love' (4:15) starts with guitar lead followed with great harmony of music and catchy melody reminiscent of 70s music. The vocal accentuation throughout the song coupled with guitar riffs characterize the music. Even thought the structure is straight forward, I find this track is a nice one to enjoy. 'Cruisin' Southern Germany' (3:02) is a logical continuation of 'Avalanche of Love' as it has similar type: a riff-based music. The guitar solo in the middle of the track is stunning especially backed with nice groove.

'Brother Wind' (7:57) is a different kind of style as it has more dynamic and more energetic music with intro part reminds me to the kind of Focus music. The organ work sounds quite obvious coupled with vocal harmonies. Again, this song has excellent groove and inspiring interlude. Yes, the interlude part starts beautifully with dynamic drum solo followed with aggressive flutework. It's really nice.

The next track 'Buddy Joe' (3:50) runs in a dynamic style with inspiring chorus line. The following 'Jangalene' (5:10) is basically a ballad in acoustic setting. 'From Heaven From Hell' (6:07) is my favourite song which I knew since I was childhood. To me this song is as powerful as Zepp 'Stairway to Heaven'. The beauty about this song is its great melody and singing style. The vocal job on screaming part is really wonderful. The lyrics are not good, actually. But the composition: melody, harmonies, style change and structural integrity are all excellent. 'Thousand Feet Below You' (4:11) is not a bad track at all. It runs in a rock'n'roll style with good groove.

Overall, this is another Golden Earring excellent track and i recommend you to have it. If you really love the sound of 70s, this is a must have. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW Review # 1500

It may be strange for some reviewers but this album released in 1972 and named Together is among my fav GE albums, I realy like a what is happening here from the first to last piece, even If know is nothing realy impressive or groundbreaking overall in compostional manner. With each year pass by Golden Earring slowly builds up a following, and in 1972 they were already a constant band on almost each dutch chart and they become more and more popular in Europe aswell, not only in their native country. While this album has some fine song writting like on All day watcher, Brother wind or From heaven from hell the overall sound is little on comericial side, I mean more accesible then beforme, is a combination that wound appear to be succesful on later albums aswell. A dynamic album with plenty of good moments as a whole but with all that prog heads will not find here anything in particulat very intrsting, only some rock songs , ok good, combined with more refined moments. 3 stars for sure, a good one and among my most played album from their catalogue.

Review Nº 494

Golden Earring is a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as The Golden Earrings. The "s" was dropped in 1969 and the prefix "The" disappeared also in the same year. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, which went to number one on the Dutch charts, reached the top ten in the UK and went to number thirteen on the US charts, "Twilight Zone" in 1982, and "When The Lady Smiles" in 1984. During their long career they had nearly 30 top ten singles on the Dutch charts. Over all those years they produced 25 studio albums.

Golden Earring is the most successful Dutch import since the windmills. The name was changed to the Golden Earrings when they discovered that the name The Tornados was already in use by another group. Initially, Golden Earring was formed by Rinus Gerritsen and George Kooymans as a quartet called The Tornados. The band initially was the Dutch version of ABBA. Golden Earring experienced various musical styles all over their lengthy career, names and personal, before settling on a straight edge, hard rock approach, sometimes with some progressive rock influences. The move paid off as a band, by then known as Golden Earring, was courted by The Who to open their European live tour of 1972. The Who subsequently signed the group to their record label the Track Records, were Golden Earring prosped and soon after released their ninth studio album "Moontan", which is considered by many, critics and fans, their best and most sucessful album. "Moontan" is also the album with their first and biggest hit "Radar Love", with its single version.

The band's line up currently consists of the two co-founder members Rinus Gerritsen (bass and keyboards) and George Kooymans (vocals and guitar), along with Barry Hay (vocals, guitar, flute and saxophone), and Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums and percussion). All musicians in the present line up of the band have been continuous members of the band since 1970, although some other musicians have joined and left the band during the intervening career years.

"Together" is the eighth studio album of Golden Earring and was released in 1972. It represents a different step for Golden Earring. Unlike the group's previous outings, "Eight Miles High" of 1969, "Golden Earring" aka "Wall Of Dolls" of 1970 and "Seven Tears" of 1971, the songs on "Together" don't fall into the strict rock or progressive categories. Instead, the group blurs those strict lines and weaves elements of each genre into a distinctive style that gives the songs a unique and distinctive flavor. The group also makes a concerted effort to give to each song a tight arrangement and usually more than one catchy hook. The final result is a band's truly solid, enjoyable and consistent album, really.

"Together" has eight tracks. The first track "All Day Watcher" is a good slow burning, mid tempo rocker which kicks the album off right. This track has successfully set the overall tone of the album. The second track "Avalanche Of Love" has great harmony of music and catchy melody reminiscent of the 70's music. It might have had a more melodic and progressive direction but it hasn't lost their edge at all and the track still retains some of their heavy metal roots, as happened with the previous track too. The third track "Cruisin' Southern Germany" is in the same vein of "Avalanche Of Love". It represents a logical continuation with its similar type of music, a guitar riff based music. The fourth track "Brother Wind" is a different kind of music, more dynamic and more energetic. It has the complex arrangement and length of a prog rock epic, but it moves forward with the energy and powerful riffing of a hard rock song. The fifth track "Buddy Joe" is a surging, dramatic adventure tale built on a sing along chorus and an insidiously catchy Indian style guitar riff with an inspiring chorus line. This rousing tune has remained a popular part of the band's live set list. The sixth track "Jangalene" is basically a ballad in an acoustic setting. It has a cleverly arranged tune that starts out as an acoustic blues but flowers into a full throttle rocker midway through. The verse melody is really catchy and the guitar breaks near the end works well too. The seventh track "From Heaven From Hell" has a mysterious atmosphere to it that I find a little appealing. It has great melody and singing style. The vocal job on the screaming part is really good. The composition, structure, melody and harmony are nice. The eighth track "Thousand Feet Below You" is straightforward rock song that doesn't do anything outstanding. It isn't a bad track, so doesn't spoil the overall quality of the all album.

Conclusion: Despite it isn't as good as their two studio albums "Eight Miles High" and "Golden Earring" and even "Seven Tears", but especially and above all, not be as good as "Moontan" is, "Together" remains, for me, an impressive album and clearly shows off the chops and songwriting skills that would bring the group a massive worldwide success the next year with their worldwide acclaimed album, "Moontan". So, with "Together", Golden Earring is in a fine form and at the height of their powers on this release. "Together" doesn't really have a bad moment throughout and holds up well after forty years, still isone of Golden Earring's best albums as well as some of the best rock albums to come out of the early 70's in general, with some great guitar riffs and some of the best drumming work of any rock album in general.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)