"Station to Station" is commonly regarded as the musical bridge between the funk and soul of "Young Americans" and the experimental sound of his Berlin Trilogy. "Golden Years" is the only song on the album to showcase the similar funk sound of the earlier "Young Americans" rather than–in Pegg's words–"the steelier musical landscape" of "Station to Station". Pegg further comments that its American "soul-pop" roots are "easily discernible": he describes the main riff as "owing a debt to" the 1968 Cliff Nobles and Company song "The Horse" and the multi-tracked vocal refrain to the 1958 single "Happy Years" by the Diamonds.