This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Golden brown, texture like sun
Lays me down, with my mind 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 (never a frown), never a frown
With golden brown (with golden brown), with golden brown
Never a frown (never a frown), never a frown
With golden brown (with golden brown), with golden brown
Never a frown (never a frown), never a frown
With golden brown (with golden brown), with golden brown
Never a frown (never a frown), never a frown
With golden brown (with golden brown), with golden brown
Lays me down, with my mind 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 (never a frown), never a frown
With golden brown (with golden brown), with golden brown
Never a frown (never a frown), never a frown
With golden brown (with golden brown), with golden brown
Never a frown (never a frown), never a frown
With golden brown (with golden brown), with golden brown
Never a frown (never a frown), never a frown
With golden brown (with golden brown), with golden brown
Lyrics submitted by mrfurious4, edited by notmuchtosay, mwillems, Kaiji
Golden Brown Lyrics as written by Dave Greenfield Brian Duffy
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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The Night We Met
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Dreamwalker
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
This song is about heroine.
I was a heroin addict and this song is definatley about heroin.... not that me being an ex-addict makes me any wiser on the topic, its just that since doing heroin the song definatley relates....
"Tied to a mast heading west" This song is obviously about heroin
lots of people think this but i went to see the stranglers last week in manchester and met jj burnell the lead singer and he told me it was about toast......and last year i met the ex lead singer hugh cornwall and i asked him he said it was a about the drummers ex mistress golden brown as in she was coulered the band have never NEVER stated wat the song is about
I am going to see Hugh Cornwell (not Cornwall) this Friday at a pretty small venue and I'll see what he has to say this time. I've read interviews from the band stating it was about heroin, as well as about some tan girl. I wonder if he'll appreciate me telling him that I used to shoot up to this song....Probably not.
@Ciar án any particular heroine in particular?? A fictional heroine like Wonder Woman or a real life heroine??