Golden Earring Twilight Zone Lyrics

[Hilary Laite]

Ive always thought it was a secret agent kind of thing gone bad. It sounds like he was sent out on a mission in Turkey, most likely his first assination. However, after it happens, everything falls apart. Whoever sent him has left him. He can't get back through to his HQ and he can't leave. Now the police are looking for him, so obviously this was either illegal or they "forgot" to notify the local authorites.

However, the doublecross part could go the other way. Perhaps he was hired from outside as a double agent, and completed his mission, but they deemed him expendible and have no intent of pulling him out.

Either way, he's been screwed by a government, and he's toally snapped. This song is his story. "You will come to know when the bullet hits the bone" sounds like him telling you that if you were to go through it, you'd end up just like him; that only by experiencing this yourself will you ever really understand what has happened.

what i find interesting is the structure...it's from a first person through most of the song, then all of a sudden the narrator sings "the night weighs heavy on HIS guilty mind" and it stays in third person...i've come up with two possibilities, though i'm sure there are more: 1) it switches perspective from the hitman to his "connection" who has betrayed him and observes his murder 2) the original narrator completes his mission and upon the bullet (from HIS gun) hitting the bone he becomes guilty and a dichotomy is created between the repentant soul and guilty body (being cloned)...where do you go when the bullet hits the bone? in this first instance, you go to a physical "twilight zone" brought on by anxiety and fearing the consequnces of our actions...the original narrator makes one last comment on his situation (the "fallin' down a spiral..." verse) before his soul separates himself from his body and takes over the narration: he watches his physical body die and is once again "cloned" as he earns total freedom as an entity...where do you go when the bullet hits your own bone? to a spiritual twilight zone that we will experience once we suffer the same fate as him

obviously i'm putting a lot more thought into the second interpretation. i think this is a parable of sorts: we know how it feels to do wrong and face the consequences of our actions, we can relate to the anxiety expressed in the first part of the song...what is scary is that we don't know the hour of our death and what lies beyond there is a total mystery, as well as if or not our actions during life will have any bearing on what happens to us when we die...it is clearly expressed and elaborated upon in the song how he feels when he puts the bullet to the bone of another, we can relate to that feeling. he says "we will come to know..." but we really already do, which is why it can be described to us. he doesn't describe the feeling of the bullet hitting his own bone because no mortal person can ever grasp it...you will come to know when the bullet hits the bone . . .

No doubt this song is one of GE's biggest songs. Only Radar Love gives it a run for its money. The difference, though, and what I think actually makes this one better than Radar Love is the fact that this is sort of an epic, whereas that one is just a great rocker. This song seems to be aiming at something bigger and more meaningful. And I'm not really talking about the lyrics when I say this (upon a quick glance and listen they seem to be about a hitman performing his first kill, where he enters the twilight zone, or enters insanity and leaves reality. Mental health?); the music itself builds with this atmosphere unlike no other, and I freaking love it. There are so many other things I love about the song too, like those harmonies in the pre-chorus and chorus, that repetitive guitar bit in the middle that doesn't actually feel repetitive, and the well-written guitar solo. Also, just one more thing, I've been doing some thinking, and to me, what makes this song so pleasing, besides all those other terrific things I've mentioned and haven't mentioned (I'm sure someone else can point out so many other great things I missed), is simply the chord progression they use. I'm no music major, so I can't actually tell you what the chords are, or the key the song is in, but when I can tell you is that there's something called tension and release when considering chords. There's a famous video on youtube that explains how all the most famous pop songs use the same four-chord progression, called "Axis of Awesome - 4 Four Chord Song (with song titles)," and when you watch it you'll know what I mean about tension and release. It just feels good to hear those chords played (well, one could argue our Western ears are used to it and that's why it's satisfying, which is probably part of the reason, but I think there's something naturally human as to why we like those chords over others), and I think there's something similar with the chords chosen here. I'm not really trying to compare it to that video, but I'm just saying there's something effortlessly pleasing to the progression this song uses. I think that's why I keep coming back to it. Speaking of that, I'm going to listen to it again. Peace.

I've always imagined the song was about some covert spy operation gone bad. Possibly in Turkey (ie: your observation about the moon and star), and possibly due to the "double cross messenger" spoken of.

lonely hotel roomfearThe Gun's still warmmy connection Is tired of taking chancesCannot decodeMy beacon's been movedWhere am I to go now that I've gone too far?Double cross messengerCan't get no connectionCan't get throughThis far from the borderlinehitman

Interesting note, at the very start of the song the lyrics can be heard very quietly, backwards, in the right channel. When reversed, I can make out: "...the loose, sirens on my head... My whole life spins into...".

I'm not so sure about the spy thing, but it's definately about a desperate man driven to desperate lengths, and he just killed someone, he might not even know why, he just went too far. For some reason this song and The Cure's "Killing an Arab" (which was based on Camus' "the Stranger", despite the uproar over alleged racism) are inextricably linked in my mind.

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