Unlike several songs that are rumoured to be about drugs, this one actually is.
When Golden Brown was first released in 1982, people were surprised that it came from The Stranglers.
Up until that point, the English punk rock band were known for their idiosyncratic approach and brash on-stage performances. Hits like No More Heroes and Peaches made them a household name in rock circles, but Golden Brown was the single that cemented them as a mainstream band.
The song presented something of a rebirth for the Guildford natives. In the years prior they were beginning to fade into the abyss.
Jean-Jacques Burnel, bass guitarist and co-lead vocalist for the band, told Far Out magazine: “We were written off by then. There was a new record company at the time that had taken us over because they have swallowed up our previous record company.
“They said punk was over and we were finished, and then we forced them to release that record,” he added. “They said it didn’t sound like The Stranglers and that you couldn’t dance to it, etc.
“They released it before Christmas thinking it would kinda die a death, but it developed its own legs. As a result it won an Ivor Novello award that year.”
In his book The Stranglers Song By Song, Hugh Cornwell said that the song works on “two levels”.
He explained: “It’s about heroin and also about a girl. Essentially the lyrics describe how both provided me with pleasurable times.”
The “girl” in question was Cornwell’s Mediterranean girlfriend at the time.
Cornwell joked: “It’s very nice to hear this song about heroin on the most popular show on radio – family entertainment. In a way, it was more punk than anything we’d done.”
While other rock and roll songs that claim to be about drugs actually aren’t, Golden Brown actually lives up to the rumours.
See for yourself. Here are the lyrics:
Golden brown texture like sun
Lays me down with my might she runs
Throughout the night
No need to fight
Never a frown with golden brown
Every time just like the last
On her ship tied to the mast
To distant lands
Takes both my hands
Never a frown with golden brown
Golden brown finer temptress
Through the ages she’s heading west
From far away
Stays for a day
Never a frown with golden brown
Never a frown
With golden brown
Never a frown
With golden brown
The Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, for example, is not about LSD, but actually about a drawing by John’s three-year-old son Julian.
Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter, Paul and Mary is another – it’s about the loss of childhood innocence, not smoking weed.
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Golden Brown wound up becoming the band’s standout hit.
Keyboard player Dave Greenfield tragically died on 3 May 2020 after contracting COVID-19 while receiving treatment for a heart ailment.
The remaining members still continue to sporadically perform around the world. Their most recent performance was in May of this year at the Cruel World Festival in Los Angeles, California.
