Here’s my rendition of The Stranglers 1982 singie, Golden Brown. I remember this coming out while I was still at school. A lot of the kids at school felt betrayed by the distinct change of direction of the punk band. Known for snarling out punk classics like No More Heroes and Peaches, this was new territory. Featuring gentle vocals, harpsichord and a beautiful flowing guitar solo, the song was hugely successful and is still universally loved over 40 years since it was released.
At the time, I was getting to grips with guitar, having been teaching myself for a couple of years. I was really keen to decipher what was going on with this beautiful song and managed to get hold of the sheet music. This was usually written for just piano, which is quite appropriate as this is a keyboard driven song. Not so good when you find the sheet music for something like Purple Haze.
Anyway, I was, at the same time, starting to get used to written music. Learning how to decipher all the dots and symbols of standard notation. Golden Brown gave me a chance to really improve on this. The original is in B flat minor and the key signature has 5 flats. I was not used to this! I don’t remember how long it took me to decipher all those notes and find them on the guitar, but I do remember the feeling of euphoria when I finally managed to make a Golden Brown like sound with my guitar.
When I later got my first capo, I realised at some point that the main fingerpicking pattern for this song would be a lot easier with it on the first fret, changing the opening chords from
B flat minor; F minor; G flat and A flat
to
Am; Em; F; G
Here, I play it in Am, which I fully realise is cheating. But, as a folk fiddler, I’m not at all used to playing in weird keys like B flat minor.
It was a real pleasure putting this together – hope you enjoy it.