Golden Brown
Encyclopedia
"Golden Brown" is a song by the English
rock band The Stranglers
. It was released as a 7" single in December 1981 in the US and in January 1982 in the UK, on Liberty
. It was the second single released from the band's sixth album La Folie
.
, which was released in November 1981, and later on some pressings of Feline
, "Golden Brown" was released as a single in December 1981, and was accompanied by a video. It reached #2 in the official UK singles chart
in February 1982, behind "Town Called Malice
" by The Jam
. It was
the comparatively conservative BBC Radio 2
, at that time a middle-of-the-road (MOR) music radio station, which decided to make the record the single of the week, a surprising step considering the band were almost as notorious as Sex Pistols
only a few short years before. The fourth line of the song, "With my mind she runs," is a common source of mondegreen
s. The band claimed that the song's lyrics were akin to an aural 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 heroin (although in an interview with Channel 4, drummer Jet Black
quipped it was a song about Marmite
).
The single was a hit around the world, scaling the Top 10 as far away as Australia
. Its commercial success was probably the single factor that secured The Stranglers their continuing life in pop mainstream for the remainder of the 1980s.
It was also featured in the 2000 film, Snatch
, and is included on the accompanying soundtrack album.
clearly states "'Golden Brown' works on two levels. It's about heroin and also about a girl". Essentially the lyrics describe how "both provided me with pleasurable times".
, harpsichord
-led ballad alternating between 3/4
and 4/4
. The song's characteristic opening phrase consists of three bars of 3/4 and one bar of 4/4. The music was largely written by keyboardist Dave Greenfield
and drummer Jet Black
, with lyrics by Hugh Cornwell
.
The video for "Golden Brown", directed by Lindsey Clennell, depicts the band members both as explorers in an Arabian country
(sequences include images of the Pyramids
as well as the explorers studying a map 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
, the Shah Mosque
in Isfahan, Iran
and Great Sphinx, Felucca
s sailing, Bedouins riding and camel racing
in the United Arab Emirates
. The performance scenes were filmed in the Leighton House Museum
in Holland Park
, London
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
rock band The Stranglers
The Stranglers
The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...
. It was released as a 7" single in December 1981 in the US and in January 1982 in the UK, on Liberty
Liberty Records
Liberty Records was a United States-based record label. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.-1950s:...
. It was the second single released from the band's sixth album La Folie
La Folie (album)
La Folie is an album by The Stranglers, recorded and released in 1981.The Stranglers had initially been the most commercially successful band of the punk/new-wave period in Britain, but by 1981, their success had waned noticeably. The La Folie album was a conscious attempt to deliver a more...
.
Overview
Originally featured on the group's album La FolieLa Folie (album)
La Folie is an album by The Stranglers, recorded and released in 1981.The Stranglers had initially been the most commercially successful band of the punk/new-wave period in Britain, but by 1981, their success had waned noticeably. The La Folie album was a conscious attempt to deliver a more...
, which was released in November 1981, and later on some pressings of Feline
Feline (album)
Feline was the seventh studio album by The Stranglers and was released in the new year of 1983 . The first edition came with a free one-sided 7" single "Aural Sculpture Manifesto"...
, "Golden Brown" was released as a single in December 1981, and was accompanied by a video. It reached #2 in the official UK singles chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in February 1982, behind "Town Called Malice
Town Called Malice
"Town Called Malice" is a song recorded by The Jam from the album The Gift. It reached number one in the UK singles chart.-Song profile:It was a double A-side single release featuring "Precious" as the flip side...
" by The Jam
The Jam
The Jam were an English punk rock/New Wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped...
. It was
the comparatively conservative BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
, at that time a middle-of-the-road (MOR) music radio station, which decided to make the record the single of the week, a surprising step considering the band were almost as notorious as Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
only a few short years before. The fourth line of the song, "With my mind she runs," is a common source of mondegreen
Mondegreen
A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. It most commonly is applied to a line in a poem or a lyric in a song...
s. The band claimed that the song's lyrics were akin to an aural Rorschach test
Rorschach test
The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning...
and that people only heard in it what they wanted to hear, although this did not prevent persistent allegations that the lyrics alluded to heroin (although in an interview with Channel 4, drummer Jet Black
Jet Black
Jet Black is an English drummer and founder member of punk rock / new wave band The Stranglers.-Early years:...
quipped it was a song about Marmite
Marmite
Marmite is the name given to two similar food spreads: the original British version, first produced in the United Kingdom and later South Africa, and a version produced in New Zealand...
).
The single was a hit around the world, scaling the Top 10 as far away as Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Its commercial success was probably the single factor that secured The Stranglers their continuing life in pop mainstream for the remainder of the 1980s.
It was also featured in the 2000 film, Snatch
Snatch (film)
Snatch is a 2000 crime film written and directed by British filmmaker Guy Ritchie, featuring an ensemble cast. Set in the London criminal underworld, the film contains two intertwined plots: one dealing with the search for a stolen diamond, the other with a small-time boxing promoter named Turkish ...
, and is included on the accompanying soundtrack album.
Meaning
There has been much controversy surrounding the lyrics. In his 2001 book The Stranglers Song By Song, Hugh CornwellHugh Cornwell
Hugh Alan Cornwell is an English musician and songwriter, best known for being the vocalist and guitarist for the punk/new wave group, The Stranglers, from 1974 to 1990.-Career:...
clearly states "'Golden Brown' works on two levels. It's about heroin and also about a girl". Essentially the lyrics describe how "both provided me with pleasurable times".
Musical composition
Written in the key of B-flat minor, the song is a waltzingWaltz (music)
A waltz, or valse from the French term, is a piece of music in triple meter, most often written in time signature but sometimes in 3/8 or 3/2...
, harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
-led ballad alternating between 3/4
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
and 4/4
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
. The song's characteristic opening phrase consists of three bars of 3/4 and one bar of 4/4. The music was largely written by keyboardist Dave Greenfield
Dave Greenfield
Dave Greenfield is the keyboard player with English rock band, The Stranglers.-Biography:He is noted for his trademark style of playing rapid arpeggios...
and drummer Jet Black
Jet Black
Jet Black is an English drummer and founder member of punk rock / new wave band The Stranglers.-Early years:...
, with lyrics by Hugh Cornwell
Hugh Cornwell
Hugh Alan Cornwell is an English musician and songwriter, best known for being the vocalist and guitarist for the punk/new wave group, The Stranglers, from 1974 to 1990.-Career:...
.
Music video
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
(sequences include images of the Pyramids
Giza pyramid complex
The Giza Necropolis is an archaeological site on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments includes the three pyramid complexes known as the Great Pyramids, the massive sculpture known as the Great Sphinx, several cemeteries, a workers' village and an...
as well as the explorers studying a map of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
) in the 1920s and performers for a fictional "Radio Cairo". In addition to the Pyramids, the video is intercut with stock footage
Stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...
of a madrassa in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, the Shah Mosque
Shah Mosque
Imam Mosque, is a mosque in Isfahan, Iran standing in south side of Naghsh-i Jahan Square.Built during the Safavid period, it is an excellent example of Islamic architecture of Iran, and regarded as one of the masterpieces of Persian Architecture. The Shah Mosque of Esfahan is one of the...
in Isfahan, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Great Sphinx, Felucca
Felucca
A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in protected waters of the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean including Malta, and particularly along the Nile in Egypt, Sudan, and also in Iraq. Its rig consists of one or two lateen sails....
s sailing, Bedouins riding and camel racing
Camel racing
Camel racing is a popular sport in India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Australia, and Mongolia. Professional camel racing, like horse racing, is an event for betting and tourist attraction...
in the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
. The performance scenes were filmed in the Leighton House Museum
Leighton House Museum
Leighton House Museum is a museum in Holland Park, London, England. It is housed in the former home of the painter Frederic, Lord Leighton. The first part of the house was designed in 1864 by the architect George Aitchison, although Leighton was not granted a lease on the land until April 1866...
in Holland Park
Holland Park
Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Chart performance
| Chart (1981/1982) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
2 |
| German GfK GfK The GfK Group, established in 1934 as Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung is Germany's largest market research institute, and the fourth largest market research organisation in the world, after Nielsen Company, Kantar Group, and IMS Health... chart |
10 |
| Dutch Top 40 Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting... |
8 |
| Irish Singles Chart Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
3 |
| Chart (1981) | Peak position |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
68 |
| Irish Singles Chart Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
25 |
Cover versions
- In 1994, Sopas del Mundo (Spain) recorded an acoustic version.
- In 1994, the Czech band Tři sestryTri SestryTri Sestry is a stratovolcano located in the central part of Urup Island, Kuril Islands, Russia.- References :*...
covered this song on their album Stará Kovárna (Old smithery). - In 1996, British hip hop group KaleefKaliphzKaliphz were a British hip hop crew formed in Rochdale by 2-Phaan and Jabba da Hype. They began as part of the breakdancing scene in the early 1980s, before branching out into spoken word and rap as other members joined the group. The group had a constantly shifting membership, and various name...
had a UK Top 40 hit with their re-working of this song. - In 1997, soul singer OmarOmar Lye-FookOmar Lye-Fook and known as Omar, is an internationally acclaimed British soul singer, songwriter and musician. Omar grew up in Canterbury, Kent. He learned his craft classically, playing the trumpet, piano and percussion. Omar also spent two years at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, and...
revived the song and took it back into the UK Top 40. - On 20 May 1998, it was covered by American band Bedhead during an interview/live session on the radio in AmsterdamAmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. - In 2000, Emer Kenny recorded a trance techno version of the song.
- In 2002, Serbian rockSerbian rockSerbian rock is the rock music scene of Serbia. During the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s, while Serbia was a constituent republic of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbian rock scene was a part of the SFR Yugoslav rock scene....
band Night ShiftNight Shift (band)- Underground years :The band was formed in 1991, by the Šćepanović brothers, Milan and Danijel , with their friend Marko Dacić . The official date of the band formation was chosen to be January 11, 1991, when the trio had their first live performance...
covered the song on their debut album UndercoversUndercovers (Night Shift album)- Night Shift :* Milan Šćepanović * Danijel Šćepanović * Marko Dacić - Additional personnel :* Mirko Vukomanović * Ivana Pavlović * Dejan Cukić - References :...
. - In 2006, English jazz singer-songwriter Symeon CosburnSymeon CosburnSymeon Cosburn is an accomplished jazz singer born in London, England. He is best known for his modernised jazz music and cover of the Stranglers song “Golden Brown.”...
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 JameliaJameliaJamelia Niela Davis , best known mononymously as Jamelia, is an English singer-songwriter, model, entertainer, television presenter and actress. She is most famous for her use of a cappella and prolific work in the R&B genre...
sampled the song for her single "No MoreNo More (Jamelia song)"No More" is the third and final single release from Jamelia's third studio album, Walk with Me. The single is notable for its sample from "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers. A slightly altered single mix was released for the actual single release....
". - In 2008, Martina Topley-BirdMartina Topley-BirdMartina Topley-Bird is a British vocalist and songwriter who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album, Maxinquaye...
played the song in live sets. - In 2008, the group Cult With No Name released a down-tempo version of this song that emphasized its drug use aspect.
- In 2009, English pop artist FrankmusikFrankmusikVincent Frank born Vincent James Turner is known professionally as Frankmusik is an English electropop musician. The name "Frank" is derived from the surname of his grandfather, whose name he took in tribute.-Early life:...
heavily sampled the song for his song "When You're Around." - In 2010, English electronic pop artist George Demure covered the song on his album The Drifter.
- In 2010, Australian jazz guitarist James Sherlock covered the song on his trio album Domestic Arts.
Track listing
Songs, lyrics, and music by The Stranglers.- 7" (BP 407)
- "Golden Brown" – 3:28
- "Love 30" – 3:57
External links
- "Golden Brown" Guitar Tablature