GOLDEN BROWN

"'Golden Brown'" is a song by the English rock band The Stranglers. It was released as a 7" single in January 1982, on Liberty.

Contents

Overview

Musical composition

Music video

Media appearances

Cover versions

Track listing

Notes

External links

Overview

Originally featuring on the group's album ''La Folie'', which was released in November 1981, "Golden Brown" was released as a single in early 1982, and was accompanied by a video. It reached #2 in the official UK singles chart in February of that year, behind "Town Called Malice" by The Jam. The comparatively conservative BBC Radio Two, at that time a middle-of-the-road (MOR) music radio station, decided to make the record the single of the week, a surprising step considering the band was almost as notorious as The Sex Pistols only a few short years before. The fourth line of the song, "With my mind she runs," is a common source of mondegreens.^[1]. The band claimed that the song's lyrics were akin to an oral Rorschach test and that people only heard in it what they wanted to hear, although this did not prevent persistent allegations that the lyrics alluded to the narcotic heroin (although in an interview with Channel 4, Drummer Jet Black quipped it was a song about toast). The success of this song commercially is probably the single factor that secured The Stranglers their continuing life in pop mainstream for the remainder of the 1980s.

Musical composition

The song is a waltzing, harpsichord-led ballad in a 3/4 and 7/4 time signature. The instrumental bridges add an extra beat in every other measure, effectively producing a 13/4 time signature.
The music was largely written by keyboardist Dave Greenfield, with lyrics by Hugh Cornwell.

Music video

The video for "Golden Brown" depicts the group both as explorers in an Arabic country (images of the Pyramids in the sequence allude to the Giza area of Egypt) in the 1920s and performers for a fictional "Radio Cairo". In addition to the Pyramids the video is intercut with stock footage of a madrassa in Uzbekistan, and Great Sphinx, dhows sailing, and Bedouins riding and camel racing in the United Arab Emirates. The performance scenes were filmed in the Leighton House Museum in Holland Park, London.

Media appearances

★ "Golden Brown" is featured on the soundtracks of the 2001 movie'' He Died With A Felafel In His Hand'', and the 2000 movie ''Snatch''.

★ In the 2005 version of the video game ''NARC'' the song is used along with several other song presumably about drug use.

Cover versions

★ In 1997, Soul singer Omar revived the song and took it back into the UK Top 40.

★ In 1998, Emer Kenny released a trip-hop cover of "Golden Brown" as a single on the Farewell Records label.

★ In 2005, English rock band Oasis used the main melody to "Golden Brown" for their song "Part of the Queue", from their album ''Don't Believe the Truth''.

★ In 2006, English jazz singer-songwriter Symeon Cosburn covered the song on his album ''Breakfast With The Blues'', which was later re-mixed into a pop/chillout version by The Groove Foundry and added as a bonus track on the album.

★ In 2007, English pop singer Jamelia sampled the song for her single "No More".

Track listing

Songs, lyrics, and music by The Stranglers.

★ '7"' (BP 407)
#"Golden Brown" – 3:28
#"Love 30" – 3:57

Notes

1. "Golden Brown" at amiright.com

External links

★ "Golden Brown" Guitar Tablature