Give Me Take You: The Music of Duncan Browne

By Emily C.

While bands like Roxy Music gained much publicity and popularity in the mid-1970s, Duncan Browne’s musical talents—superior in many ways—seemed doomed to fade into obscurity. Duncan Browne was a classical guitarist and singer who began his career in a folk vein with 1968’s Give Me Take You album. In many ways, this album is like the solo work of the Beatles, only less saccharine. Many of these gorgeous-sounding songs wouldn’t seem out of place next to George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” (perhaps the best post-Beatles song by any member of that band) with their whispery vocals, ambitious horn sections, and Browne’s impressive guitar figures.

My personal favorite tracks off this album are the title track, “On the Bombsite,” and “Ninepence Worth of Walking” which is perhaps the saddest assessment of a romantic breakup ever: Goodbyes made easier with sleepy eyes/Better a tear of truth than smiling lies. It should have made Duncan Browne a household name but unfortunately Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate Records (the label which carried Browne on its roster of talent) was encountering financial problems around the time of the album’s release, and subsequently it was not heavily promoted.

Browne returned to prominence in the mid-1970s with the band Metro, which also contained the talents of one Mr. Peter Godwin (later of “Images of Heaven” and “Emotional Disguise” fame, and of the vaguely pornographic music videos). Metro’s first album from 1976 contains hyper-sexualized glam-rock; they were not unlike Roxy Music except with more, well, sex. The song “Criminal World” (later covered by David Bowie!) is a lovely tale of cross-dressing debauchery complete with squealing guitar solos. “Black Lace Shoulder,” perhaps the best song from the album, contains an even-more-squealing violin (violin!) solo, heavy breathing, and tons of 1970s soft-focus reverb. The album cover is even better than John Cale’s Helen of Troy: Duncan Browne and Peter Godwin appear to be dressed as two pimps, and are both wearing some dark self-tanner and Italian leather shoes. Allegedly the two musicians clashed over something (shoes? ladies?), and parted ways shortly after the album was released. Without Browne, Godwin released a couple more albums under the name Metro.

After his departure from Metro, Browne continued his foray into art-rock with the song “The Wild Places” from the album of the same name. This was probably the closest Duncan Browne ever came to having a pop hit. This song describes an interlude with a sexy lady in leather (again with the sex) set to lush orchestration and multi-tracking; it remains the most contemporary offering from Browne’s catalog, and lacks the 1970s production values which sometimes plagued Metro’s 1976 album. Browne also released an album called Streets of Fire that contained a song called “Fauvette.” It sounds like a sexier version of every Police song. A video could formerly be found on YouTube of Browne playing this song on Dutch television; unfortunately for us, this video has been removed. A short synopsis: Duncan appears shirtless and breathless across a heavily lipglossed, sexy brunette lady. A tiger also appears in this video. (Apparently Peter Godwin and Duncan Browne used the same director for their videos, as they both seemed mildly obsessed with tigers and sexiness.)

Duncan Browne died in 1993 and while he has retained some die-hard fans, his music has sadly limped off into the sunset. His albums are begging to be reissued (at unbelievable prices: Give Me Take You currently goes for about $100.00 on Amazon.com), as his music truly deserves to be revisited. Give Me Take You still sounds as fresh as anything released in the indie-rock canon today.

Watch the video for “The Wild Places” on YouTube.