Dave Greenfield, the keyboard player with British punk band The Stranglers and who penned the music to their greatest hit, Golden Brown, has died after testing positive for coronavirus. He was 71. 

The band’s official site reported that Greenfield died on Sunday after contracting the virus taking after staying in a hospital for heart problems. Bass player Jean-Jacques ‘JJ’ Burnel paid tribute to Greenfield as a “musical genius,” who had “passed away as one of the casualties of the Extraordinary Widespread of 2020.”

Hugh Cornwall, the band’s previous lead vocalist, Twitts that Greenfield’s “musical skill and gentle nature gave an interesting twist to the band” which  he “should be recalled as the man who gave the world the music of Golden Brown.” Greenfield was known for his distinctive sound and playing fashion, using instruments such as the harpsichord and Hammond electric organ.

He had joined the band in 1975, which hence got to be one of the foremost innovative during Britain’s punk blast within the late 1970s. It had recently put off a goodbye visit from this summer since the pandemic.

Greenfield is survived by his wife Pam.