Golden Brown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Golden Brown" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by The Stranglers | ||
| from the album La Folie | ||
| Released | January 1982 | |
| Format | vinyl record 7" | |
| Recorded | 1981 | |
| Length | 3:27 | |
| Label | Liberty Records | |
| Producer(s) | The Stranglers & Steve Churchyard | |
| Chart positions | ||
|
2 (UK) |
||
| The Stranglers singles chronology | ||
| "Let Me Introduce You To The Family" | "Golden Brown" | "La Folie" |
"Golden Brown" is a waltzing, harpsichord-led ballad in a 6/8 and 7/8 time signature by The Stranglers. The instrumental bridges add an extra beat in every other measure, effectively producing a 13/8 time signature.
The song featured on the group's album La Folie, which was released in November 1981. "Golden Brown" was released as a single in early 1982 with "Love 30" as the B-side, and was accompanied by a video. It reached number two in the official UK singles chart in February of that year, behind "Town Called Malice" by The Jam.
The highly conservative Radio Two, at that time an MOR 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 one of the most fertile sources of mondegreens in the Rock Era. Suggestions have included[1]:
- With my Manchero: A strangled reference to Mancunians (residents of the City of Manchester)
- With my mash heroes
- In my white chinos
- With my machine gun
Interestingly, the line is enunciated quite clearly, and is immediately understood as correct once explained. The line might well be an anti-collocation: words that do not normally appear in a phrase together. An Internet-wide search for the phrase "mind she runs" turns up mostly references to this song.
None of this may be accidental: 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 were about heroin. 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.
However, even as of 2004, the Irish Today FM radio station will always play this track as a substitute for The Stranglers' "Skin Deep", which is more obviously about heroin usage (lead singer Hugh Cornwell had been jailed for two months for heroin possession in 1980). This is done for requests and even in retro chart rundowns.
This song is also on the soundtracks of the movies Snatch, and He Died With A Felafel In His Hand.
In 2005 Oasis used the main melody to Golden Brown for their song Part of the Queue which featured on their album Don't Believe the Truth.
In 2007 Jamelia sampled the melody for her single 'No More.'
