Radar Love is the opening song of the “Continuing Story of Radar Love”. If you listen closely to all the lyrics across all the songs, you’ll notice Golden Earring is telling a story where each song fills in a piece of that story. Though each individual song has its own deeper meanings and metaphors, the songs are interconnected at a basic level.
Radar Love sets the scene and illustrates a relationship between a man and his lover. All is going well in his life and he feels this connection to this person in his life, though she’s far away and he has to drive all night to get to her.
In the second song, “The Vanilla Queen” the author meets a stripper named Candy and he instantly falls for her. He becomes wrapped up in her beauty. He realizes her past and knows it’s her job to seduce men and make them feel wanted. However, he falls for her anyway and she makes him feel different.
“Candy’s Going Bad” goes back in time and tells us who Candy is and where she came from. To rebel against her strict upbringing, she got involved in the seedy nightlife of strip clubs. Her dad claimed he would beat her if she came home dressed in her “stripper outfit” again and he mother begged her to “quit the show”. She eventually quit the show. However, she didn’t care “when she started her affair with the studs and mares of the night.” She met a pimp named Teddy. She got involved in the world of prostitution and eventually moved out on her own using men to survive.
Throughout the next few songs, the relationship between the author and Candy evolves and eventually in “Clear Night Moonlight” the author asks Candy to run away with him. He tells her not to turn his dream into a nightmare. He says “don’t say no.”
She says no.
“Lost and Found” is a song about how the author feels used by Candy and how she completely tore out his heart. He opens the song defending him emotions, saying he’s not an object; something you throw away. I believe Lost and Found is a metaphor for the loss of one love, and how he found himself and recognized that he had thrown away what he had in the first place; his true love, someone who loved him back.
“The Devil Made me Do It” is probably my favorite song on the album. The author has realized what he has done wrong, and the stage is set in the form of a court trial taking place in the author’s head. He claims the devil made me do it, and he pleads innocent. He pleads with the jury (his guilt) with a very convincing verse:
“See her slide out of her negligee, her skin was hot – touch intoxicating. And if you were me, you would have done the same. So spare me the gutter, save me from the ball and chain.”
This is a great song and reminds me of “The Trial” from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” which is also a metaphorical court trial within the authors head.
The album ends with the author all alone, having lost everything. He can’t sleep, he can’t eat. He’s awake at 4am thinking about Toni, his lost love. He’s tired and he’s cold.
Anyway, that’s what the album means to me. I don’t really understand every song but I see how the album as a whole outlines the story of love, seduction, and falling for desires which eventually lead to the destruction of everything you really cherish in life.
Just dug out the vinal and "Radar Love" was first released in 1973 on the Album Moontan. The next four songs on the album are "Candy's Going Bad", "Vanilla Queen", "Big Tree, Blue Sea" and "Are you Receiving Me". Thats it just five songs. The release "The Continuing Story of Radar Love" came along much later and may have been an attempt to make more of a story like The Whos "Tommy" and "Quadraphinia" or Styxs "Paradise Theater". Not that thats a bad thing....
Just dug out the vinal and "Radar Love" was first released in 1973 on the Album Moontan. The next four songs on the album are "Candy's Going Bad", "Vanilla Queen", "Big Tree, Blue Sea" and "Are you Receiving Me". Thats it just five songs. The release "The Continuing Story of Radar Love" came along much later and may have been an attempt to make more of a story like The Whos "Tommy" and "Quadraphinia" or Styxs "Paradise Theater". Not that thats a bad thing.
@imaudi Wow, I am almost 60 and this is one of my favorite songs from the 70's . How ever I do not think I have ever heard another song by golden Earring. At least one that I knew they performed. Odd...
@imaudi Wow, I am almost 60 and this is one of my favorite songs from the 70's . How ever I do not think I have ever heard another song by golden Earring. At least one that I knew they performed. Odd...
Radar Love is the opening song of the “Continuing Story of Radar Love”. If you listen closely to all the lyrics across all the songs, you’ll notice Golden Earring is telling a story where each song fills in a piece of that story. Though each individual song has its own deeper meanings and metaphors, the songs are interconnected at a basic level.
Radar Love sets the scene and illustrates a relationship between a man and his lover. All is going well in his life and he feels this connection to this person in his life, though she’s far away and he has to drive all night to get to her.
In the second song, “The Vanilla Queen” the author meets a stripper named Candy and he instantly falls for her. He becomes wrapped up in her beauty. He realizes her past and knows it’s her job to seduce men and make them feel wanted. However, he falls for her anyway and she makes him feel different.
“Candy’s Going Bad” goes back in time and tells us who Candy is and where she came from. To rebel against her strict upbringing, she got involved in the seedy nightlife of strip clubs. Her dad claimed he would beat her if she came home dressed in her “stripper outfit” again and he mother begged her to “quit the show”. She eventually quit the show. However, she didn’t care “when she started her affair with the studs and mares of the night.” She met a pimp named Teddy. She got involved in the world of prostitution and eventually moved out on her own using men to survive.
Throughout the next few songs, the relationship between the author and Candy evolves and eventually in “Clear Night Moonlight” the author asks Candy to run away with him. He tells her not to turn his dream into a nightmare. He says “don’t say no.”
She says no.
“Lost and Found” is a song about how the author feels used by Candy and how she completely tore out his heart. He opens the song defending him emotions, saying he’s not an object; something you throw away. I believe Lost and Found is a metaphor for the loss of one love, and how he found himself and recognized that he had thrown away what he had in the first place; his true love, someone who loved him back.
“The Devil Made me Do It” is probably my favorite song on the album. The author has realized what he has done wrong, and the stage is set in the form of a court trial taking place in the author’s head. He claims the devil made me do it, and he pleads innocent. He pleads with the jury (his guilt) with a very convincing verse:
“See her slide out of her negligee, her skin was hot – touch intoxicating. And if you were me, you would have done the same. So spare me the gutter, save me from the ball and chain.”
This is a great song and reminds me of “The Trial” from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” which is also a metaphorical court trial within the authors head.
The album ends with the author all alone, having lost everything. He can’t sleep, he can’t eat. He’s awake at 4am thinking about Toni, his lost love. He’s tired and he’s cold.
Anyway, that’s what the album means to me. I don’t really understand every song but I see how the album as a whole outlines the story of love, seduction, and falling for desires which eventually lead to the destruction of everything you really cherish in life.
Just dug out the vinal and "Radar Love" was first released in 1973 on the Album Moontan. The next four songs on the album are "Candy's Going Bad", "Vanilla Queen", "Big Tree, Blue Sea" and "Are you Receiving Me". Thats it just five songs. The release "The Continuing Story of Radar Love" came along much later and may have been an attempt to make more of a story like The Whos "Tommy" and "Quadraphinia" or Styxs "Paradise Theater". Not that thats a bad thing....
Just dug out the vinal and "Radar Love" was first released in 1973 on the Album Moontan. The next four songs on the album are "Candy's Going Bad", "Vanilla Queen", "Big Tree, Blue Sea" and "Are you Receiving Me". Thats it just five songs. The release "The Continuing Story of Radar Love" came along much later and may have been an attempt to make more of a story like The Whos "Tommy" and "Quadraphinia" or Styxs "Paradise Theater". Not that thats a bad thing.
@imaudi Wow, I am almost 60 and this is one of my favorite songs from the 70's . How ever I do not think I have ever heard another song by golden Earring. At least one that I knew they performed. Odd...
@imaudi Wow, I am almost 60 and this is one of my favorite songs from the 70's . How ever I do not think I have ever heard another song by golden Earring. At least one that I knew they performed. Odd...