Brown Sugar (song)
Encyclopedia
"Brown Sugar" is a song by The Rolling Stones
. It is the opening track and lead single from the English rock
band's 1971 album Sticky Fingers
. Rolling Stone
magazine ranked it number 490 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
, the song was primarily the work of Jagger, who wrote it sometime during the filming of Ned Kelly
in 1969. Originally recorded over a three day period at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
in Muscle Shoals, Alabama
from 2–4 December 1969, the song was not released until over a year later due to legal wranglings with the band's former label, though at the request of guitarist Mick Taylor
, they debuted the number live during the infamous concert at Altamont on 6 December. The song was written by Jagger with Marsha Hunt
in mind; Hunt was Jagger's secret girlfriend and mother of his first child Karis.
In the film Gimme Shelter
, an alternative mix of the song is played back to the band while they relax in a hotel in Alabama.
The song, with its prominent blues-rock
riffs, dual horn/guitar instrumental break, and danceable rock rhythms, is representative of the Stones' definitive middle period and the tough, bluesy hard-rock most often associated with the group. In the liner notes
to the 1993 compilation album Jump Back
, Jagger says, "The lyric was all to do with the dual combination of drugs and girls. This song was a very instant thing, a definite high point."
In the Rolling Stone interview (14 December 1995, RS 723) with Jagger, he spoke at length about the song, its inspiration and success — including claiming credit for writing the lyrics. He attributed the success of the song to a "good groove". After noting that the lyrics could mean so many lewd subjects, he again noted that the combination of those subjects, the lyrical ambiguity was partially why the song was considered successful. He noted, "That makes it . . . the whole mess thrown in. God knows what I'm on about on that song. It's such a mishmash. All the nasty subjects in one go . . . I never would write that song now." When Jann Wenner
asked him why, Jagger replied, "I would probably censor myself. I'd think, 'Oh God, I can't. I've got to stop. I can't just write raw like that.'"
The lyrical subject matter has often been a point of interest and controversy. Described by rock critic Robert Christgau
as "a rocker so compelling that it discourages exegesis
", "Brown Sugar"'s popularity indeed often overshadowed its scandalous lyrics, which were essentially a pastiche of a number of taboo subjects, including interracial sex, cunnilingus
, slave
rape
, and less distinctly, sadomasochism, lost virginity
, and heroin.
An alternative version was recorded on 18 December 1970, at Olympic Studios
in London
, after (or during) a birthday party for Richards. It features appearances by Al Kooper
on piano, and Eric Clapton
on slide guitar. The alternative version is widely available on bootleg recording
s. Richards considered releasing this version on Sticky Fingers, mostly for its more spontaneous atmosphere, but decided on the original.
radio staple. While the American single featured only "Bitch" on the B-side, the British single featured that track plus a live rendition of Chuck Berry
's "Let It Rock
", recorded at the University of Leeds
during the 1971 tour of the UK.
Little Richard
covered the song while he was signed to Reprise Records
.
The song was performed routinely during the Rolling Stones' 1970 European Tour
, occupying a prominent spot near the end of the set list
even though audiences were unfamiliar with it. It eventually opened the famed 1972 American Tour
shows and has been a Stones concert stalwart since.
When the Rolling Stones perform "Brown Sugar" live, Jagger often changes the lyrics from, "Just like a young girl should", to, "Just like a young man should." The line, "Hear him whip the women just around midnight", is often changed to the less offensive, "You shoulda heard him just around midnight." This is evident in their live albums Love You Live
, Flashpoint
, Live Licks
, and Shine a Light. This change even occurs on the version recorded at Richards' birthday party.
The song is also notable for being the first single released on Rolling Stones Records
(catalogue number RS-19100) and is one of the two Stones songs (along with "Wild Horses") licensed to both the band and former manager Allen Klein
(a result of various business disagreements) resulting in its inclusion on the compilation album Hot Rocks 1964–1971
. "Brown Sugar" is also included on the most significant latter-day Rolling Stones compilations, Jump Back
and Forty Licks
.
The song was later used in a 1998 Pepsi
commercial with a fly
singing a cover version
of "Brown Sugar" after sipping on some spilled Pepsi.
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
. It is the opening track and lead single from the English rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band's 1971 album Sticky Fingers
Sticky Fingers
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on "Dead Flowers", electric guitar on "Sway", percussion*Keith Richards – electric guitar, six & twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals...
. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine ranked it number 490 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Inspiration and recording
Though credited, like most of their compositions, to the singer/guitarist pair of Mick Jagger and Keith RichardsJagger/Richards
The songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, known as Jagger/Richards , is a musical collaboration whose output has produced the majority of the catalogue of The Rolling Stones....
, the song was primarily the work of Jagger, who wrote it sometime during the filming of Ned Kelly
Ned Kelly (1970 film)
Ned Kelly is a 1970 British adventure film. It was the second Australian feature film version of the story of 19th century Australian bushranger Ned Kelly....
in 1969. Originally recorded over a three day period at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was formed in Muscle Shoals, Alabama,in 1969 when musicians Barry Beckett , Roger Hawkins , Jimmy Johnson and David Hood left FAME Studios to create their own studio...
in Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Muscle Shoals is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. As of 2007, the United States Census Bureau estimated the population of the city to be 12,846. The city is included in The Shoals MSA. It is famous for its contributions to American popular music.-Geography:Muscle Shoals is located...
from 2–4 December 1969, the song was not released until over a year later due to legal wranglings with the band's former label, though at the request of guitarist Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
, they debuted the number live during the infamous concert at Altamont on 6 December. The song was written by Jagger with Marsha Hunt
Marsha Hunt (singer and novelist)
Marsha Hunt is an American singer, novelist, actress and model.-Early life:Hunt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1946 and lived in North Philadelphia near 23rd and Columbia then in Germantown and Mount Airy for the first 13 years of her life...
in mind; Hunt was Jagger's secret girlfriend and mother of his first child Karis.
In the film Gimme Shelter
Gimme Shelter (documentary)
Gimme Shelter is a 1970 documentary film directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, chronicling the last weeks of The Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour, which culminated in the disastrous Altamont Free Concert. The film is named after "Gimme Shelter", the lead track from The Rolling...
, an alternative mix of the song is played back to the band while they relax in a hotel in Alabama.
The song, with its prominent blues-rock
Blues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
riffs, dual horn/guitar instrumental break, and danceable rock rhythms, is representative of the Stones' definitive middle period and the tough, bluesy hard-rock most often associated with the group. In the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
to the 1993 compilation album Jump Back
Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones
Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones is the sixth official compilation album by The Rolling Stones and was initially released worldwide, except in North America, in 1993...
, Jagger says, "The lyric was all to do with the dual combination of drugs and girls. This song was a very instant thing, a definite high point."
In the Rolling Stone interview (14 December 1995, RS 723) with Jagger, he spoke at length about the song, its inspiration and success — including claiming credit for writing the lyrics. He attributed the success of the song to a "good groove". After noting that the lyrics could mean so many lewd subjects, he again noted that the combination of those subjects, the lyrical ambiguity was partially why the song was considered successful. He noted, "That makes it . . . the whole mess thrown in. God knows what I'm on about on that song. It's such a mishmash. All the nasty subjects in one go . . . I never would write that song now." When Jann Wenner
Jann Wenner
Jann Simon Wenner is the co-founder and publisher of the music and politics biweekly Rolling Stone, as well as the owner of Men's Journal and Us Weekly magazines.-Childhood:...
asked him why, Jagger replied, "I would probably censor myself. I'd think, 'Oh God, I can't. I've got to stop. I can't just write raw like that.'"
The lyrical subject matter has often been a point of interest and controversy. Described by rock critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
as "a rocker so compelling that it discourages exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
", "Brown Sugar"'s popularity indeed often overshadowed its scandalous lyrics, which were essentially a pastiche of a number of taboo subjects, including interracial sex, cunnilingus
Cunnilingus
Cunnilingus is an oral sex act performed on a female. It involves the use by a sex partner of the mouth, lips and tongue to stimulate the female's clitoris, vulva, or vagina...
, slave
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, and less distinctly, sadomasochism, lost virginity
Virginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
, and heroin.
An alternative version was recorded on 18 December 1970, at Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios was a renowned independent commercial recording studio located at 117 Church Road, Barnes, South West London, England. The studio is best known for the huge number of famous rock and pop recordings made there from the late 1960s onward....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, after (or during) a birthday party for Richards. It features appearances by Al Kooper
Al Kooper
Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
on piano, and Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
on slide guitar. The alternative version is widely available on bootleg recording
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
s. Richards considered releasing this version on Sticky Fingers, mostly for its more spontaneous atmosphere, but decided on the original.
Release
"Brown Sugar" was eventually released in May 1971 as the first single from the album, becoming a number 1 hit in the United States and Canada and a number 2 hit in the United Kingdom and has since become a classic rockClassic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
radio staple. While the American single featured only "Bitch" on the B-side, the British single featured that track plus a live rendition of Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
's "Let It Rock
Let It Rock (Chuck Berry song)
"Let It Rock" is a song by Chuck Berry from his 1960 album Rockin' at the Hops. The same year, it was released as the B-side of the single "Too Pooped to Pop " and reached #64 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #6 in the UK. The song is about working on a train track as a train is...
", recorded at the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
during the 1971 tour of the UK.
Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
covered the song while he was signed to Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
.
The song was performed routinely during the Rolling Stones' 1970 European Tour
The Rolling Stones European Tour 1970
The Rolling Stones' 1970 European Tour was a concert tour of Continental Europe that took place during the late summer and early fall of 1970.-History:...
, occupying a prominent spot near the end of the set list
Set list
A set list, or setlist, is a document that lists the songs that a band or musical artist intends to play, or has played, during a specific concert performance...
even though audiences were unfamiliar with it. It eventually opened the famed 1972 American Tour
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972, often referred to as the S.T.P. Tour , was a much-publicized and much-written-about concert tour of The United States and Canada in June and July 1972 by The Rolling Stones...
shows and has been a Stones concert stalwart since.
When the Rolling Stones perform "Brown Sugar" live, Jagger often changes the lyrics from, "Just like a young girl should", to, "Just like a young man should." The line, "Hear him whip the women just around midnight", is often changed to the less offensive, "You shoulda heard him just around midnight." This is evident in their live albums Love You Live
Love You Live
Love You Live is a double live album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1977. It is drawn from Tour of the Americas shows in the US in the summer of 1975, Tour of Europe shows in 1976 and performances from the infamous El Mocambo nightclub concert venue in Toronto in 1977...
, Flashpoint
Flashpoint (album)
Flashpoint is a live album by British rock band The Rolling Stones. It was released in 1991, having been recorded throughout 1989 and 1990 on the mammoth Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour...
, Live Licks
Live Licks
Live Licks is a double live album by The Rolling Stones and was released in 2004. Coming six years after No Security, this seventh official Rolling Stones full-length live release captures performances from the band's year-long 2002–2003 Licks Tour in support of their career-spanning retrospective...
, and Shine a Light. This change even occurs on the version recorded at Richards' birthday party.
The song is also notable for being the first single released on Rolling Stones Records
Rolling Stones Records
Rolling Stones Records is the record label formed by The Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman in 1970, after their recording contract with Decca Records expired. They were first distributed in the United States by Atlantic Records subsidiary...
(catalogue number RS-19100) and is one of the two Stones songs (along with "Wild Horses") licensed to both the band and former manager Allen Klein
Allen Klein
Allen Klein was an American businessman, talent agent and record label executive. His clients included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.- The accountant :...
(a result of various business disagreements) resulting in its inclusion on the compilation album Hot Rocks 1964–1971
Hot Rocks 1964–1971
Hot Rocks 1964–1971 is the first compilation album of Rolling Stones music released by former manager Allen Klein's ABKCO Records after the band's departure from Decca and Klein...
. "Brown Sugar" is also included on the most significant latter-day Rolling Stones compilations, Jump Back
Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones
Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones is the sixth official compilation album by The Rolling Stones and was initially released worldwide, except in North America, in 1993...
and Forty Licks
Forty Licks
Forty Licks is a double compilation album by The Rolling Stones. A 40-year career-spanning retrospective, Forty Licks is notable for being the first retrospective to combine the band's formative Decca/London era of the 1960s, now licensed by ABKCO Records , with their self-owned post-1970 material,...
.
The song was later used in a 1998 Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
commercial with a fly
Fly
True flies are insects of the order Diptera . They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax...
singing a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of "Brown Sugar" after sipping on some spilled Pepsi.