Dave Greenfield, the composer of this song (the Stranglers at their most Doors-like) just passed away two days ago from Covid-19. He was a very talented keyboardist and the core of this unjustly underrated band.
He was truly a great musician and Golden Brown was one of favs. It had an almost baroque harpsichord-y vibe to it, which I really dug. Of a different note (no pun intended), we need to be careful about assigning causes of death to COVID-19. Millions, and perhaps billions, of people will contract COVID-19 and not even know it due to non-testing, which is the rule and not the exception. Apparently, Dave Greenfield contracted COVID-19 nosocomially, that is, while in the hospital being treated for preexisting heart problems. According to Wikipedia: "Greenfield died on 3 May 2020, aged 71. He had been diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection on 26 April 2020, a week before his death, during an extended hospital stay for heart-related problems"
According to The Stranglers "Song By Song" Hugh Cornwell tells the author that: "Musically Golden Brown is in 13/8, so there are three bars of 3/4 waltz-time and then one bar of 4/4, but it only does that in the pieces where there's no singing. When the singing comes in it stays a straight 3/4." That's a direct quote from the book, by the way.
Anyone watching this, i would highly recommend checking out some of the Stranglers other songs, they are a brilliant band, with their own unique sound, and i got to see them live :)
Richard Brooks - He's also my role model as a wonderful keyboard player. There are a very few players in his league like the keyboardists from The Doors, The Animals, Deep Purple IMO.
These were crazy times......everyone was smacked up...I was doing half the wives and g/fs of The Clash and The Stranglers.......everyone from then was trashed but had lots of talent.....London was smaller then, metaphorically speaking.....club. fashion and music and press (Face and ID) everyoone knew everyone....
