Top Unknown/Underrated Song: Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone"

Most people are astonished at both the quality of songs in The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*, and the fact that none of them reached the Top 10!

In this case, it's because organizations that make up weekly charts undervalued rock songs in their methodology.  By the time this song came out, radio had become so fragmented and segmented that it didn't even sound the same as we remember growing up.  The number of rock stations that the organizations included was disproportionate to its popularity, and although this song reached #10 on Billboard's "Mainstream Rock" chart, it did not even make the Hot 100 overall.

 

 

We feel that even #10 Rock was far too low for this song, and believe it easily should be a Top 10 song.

 

 

"Twilight Zone"

Golden Earring

 

Lyrics and Music by George Kooymans

 

(somewhere in a lonely hotel room,
There's a guy starting to realize
That eternal fate has turned its back on him,
It's two a.m...........)

It's two a.m., the fear has gone
I'm sittin' here waitin', the gun still warm
Maybe my connection is tired of takin' chances
Yeah there's a storm on the loose, sirens in my head
I'm wrapped up in silence, all circuits are dead
I cannot decode, my whole life spins into a frenzy

Help I'm steppin' into the twilight zone
The place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I've gone too far
Help I'm steppin' into the twilight zone
The place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I've gone too far
Soon you will come to know,
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know, when the bullet hits the bone

I'm falling down a spiral, destination unknown
A double-crossed messenger, all alone
I can't get no connection, can't get through, where are you
Well the night weighs heavy on his guilty mind
This far from the borderline
And when the hit man comes
He knows damn well he has been cheated

Help I'm steppin' into the twilight zone
The place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I've gone too far
Help I'm steppin' into the twilight zone
The place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon's been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I've gone too far
Soon you will come to know, when the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know, when the bullet hits the bone