It has been my observation and experience that the energy of a woman when she is happy is equal to her energy when she is angry. In other words, you may not feel he is so lucky when he pisses her off! Just a theory.
The stones are great for writing really provocative and honest lyrics that then navigate away from just enough clarity for anyone to really define enough to attack. That to me, is real art art. At a time when it was a lot less ok to be in an interracial relationship, at the end of the day, this song helped make it be more ok. And to me, I feel that's a good thing. Rock songwriters today use the same method of provoke and maneuver. But once you figure the lyrics out to a Stone's song, your faith in humanity is more likely to be restored, whereas contemporary artists are more likely to make you lose faith in humanity.
Well, in the deep south at this time (1970), the old school white (previous Dixiecrats turned republicans) like Strom Thurman still had "shadow" families. This tradition goes back to antebellum times and was perfectly in line with racism and slavery. The idea of the hyper-sexualized Black Woman is an old but enduring racist trope. "House Boy" in the lyrics means this song might well be taking place in the antebellum times. I love the Stones, especially in this period (with Mick Taylor), but the "inter-racial" progressive stance you claim just doesn't play out at all in this song.
@@peterjonas4971 Yeah I think Jagger had some interesting things to say about this song. He was going out with a black girl at the time and he admitted the lyrics were a bit crazy. And certainly provocative.
Look at Brad with the big brain....lol Stockholm syndrome is correct. I've heard this song hundreds of time and never knew what it was about. Now I'm educated. 👍
I have a good friend from high school that still plays that tenor sax. Leon Bridges and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. Its a classic sound that never gets old.
See Duke's comment below, he's right. The song was always said to have been inspired by either Claudia Lennear, one of the hottest, best backup singers in the business, or the lady who mothered his first child. No, it's not a love story, it's a riff on interracial relationships. And yeah, the sound was kind of a "homage" to older rock and roll style, where there was usually a strong tenor saxophone solo. Great pick guys, enjoyed this one. 🌲⛄🎅🌲
"interracial relationships"? read the lyrics. it's about a slave ship coming from the gold coast to new orleans. and about the slaver whipping the women "just around midnight". hardly "a relationship".
breathe and squeeze well no, because the proceeding verses have their own content and references. A song can have multiple meanings and references - it doesn’t have to be monochromatic and this isn’t. The song isn’t “about slavery”. The first verse tells the story of a black woman being abused by her slave owner. The proceeding verses describe more consensual interracial encounters. In that sense, the song is more about interracial relationships than it is about slavery.
Brown Sugar was written about Jagger's girlfriends Claudia Lennear and Marsha Hunt. Both women claim that the song was written about them specifically.
This was recorded in Muscle Shoals, AL, thus the funky beat. Check out others recorded at Muscle Shoals - Percy Sledge (When a Man Loves a Woman), Clarence Carter (Look Away); Aretha Franklin (I Never Loved a Man Like I love you); Boz Scaggs w Duane Allman (Someone Lend me a Dime); Wilson Picket (Mustang Sally); Etta James (I'd Rather Go Blind) and hundreds of others. Muscle Shoals studio musicians had their own unique sound.
This was a total party song, back in the day! Surest way to fill up the dance floor. Nobody really thought about what it meant, or cared, it was just great to dance to!
The last band I sang and played sax in, and the one I was in the longest, in the late 60s and 70s had this tune as our opening tune. We were a dance band, mostly playing covers, with some original stuff, some with our own arrangements, but we opened with "Brown Sugar" with the same tempo and energy as the Stone's version. We wanted people out on the dance floor and drinking, since we got a percentage of the booze sales. I always loved singing this song and playing the sax solo. It and "Gimme Shelter", which we also covered, are my two favorite Stones tunes.
@@kingspeechless1607 The period from Beggar's Banquet to Exile on Main Street were the golden years for the Stones when they were at the top of their game.
You mean like women on the cotton plantations Lynn? I get it, but as you say it was just a great sound when it came out. The association didn't really register... although it makes it even more interesting now I guess.
I think Brad is so cool! Unlike most reactions channels, Brad gets right into it by saying,"Let's get right into it". Most other channels talk for a minute or two while you leave the talking to mid stream or the end. Keep up the good work! 👍
Tina Turner performed this live with the Rolling Stones. At the time she said it was a well written account of a dark time in history, that no matter how uncomfortable, cant be ignored. And they told the story so well accompanied with a great rock n roll tune.
"Brown Sugar" was about getting "Some Sweet Loving" from your Afro-American Sweetheart. Young Black Men first coined the Phrase back in the Early 1960's. Another GREAT Rolling Stones "Funk" Song is "Honky Tonk Woman". This British Band loved to sing about the Women in New Orlean's... Apparently, they had a GREAT TIME there!
This song along with Wild Horses were both recorded in a studio on 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, Alabama.(Studio used to be an old used appliance storage building. And i delivered alot of used appliances into that place lol) Cher's first album in her career was recorded in the same studio. And the album was named after the studio. The Rolling Stones are not the only artist to ever record here in northwest Alabama. And 3614 Jackson Highway isnt the only studio to ever record hit songs. The other studio being FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) owner Rick Hall was the man who made this area famous for making hit music. Hometown native Arthur Alexander recorded a song called " You better move on" That song was the song that the Rolling Stones did a cover of for the European fans in the 60's and got their attention about the amazing blues, soul, southern gospel type sound. And they wanted to record a couple of songs here. Percy Sledge another native of the area, had a song called "When a man loves a woman" during that time. Then the producers and artist came flooding in. Jerry Wexler, Clarence Carter, Jimmy Cliff, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Duane Allman, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Michael McDonald, Alisha Keys, Kid Rock, Steven Tyler, Nuno Bettencourt, Alan Jackson, and more. Those are just a few that recorded at FAME. Here is a list of the ones that recorded at 3614 Jackson Highway. Cher, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Black Keys, The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Dire Straights, Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, The Staple Singers, Bozz Skaggs, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, the list goes on. And now I'm going to make this story connect with my favorite band MetallicA. Walt Aldridge, and Gary Baker (Wrote the song "I swear") live here in the Shoals. WC Handy the father of the blues was born here in Florence. The founder of Sun Studios in Memphis Tennessee (Sam Phillips the father of Rock n Roll) and signed artist such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash. Was born in Florence and is buried here. The man who helped write songs for Carrie Underwood (Before he cheats and others) Florida Georgia line, and a couple of rock bands. Chris Tompkins is someone I grew up with because his aunt lived right behind my house and I was a close friend with his cousin. Which now leads me to Gary Nichols, and Jason Isbell. I went to school with Gary Nichols. He was doing really well in country music. Had a video called "On broken ground" but he fell off somewhat. But still a really good guitar player. Jason Isbell and Tompkins went to the same high school (Rogers HS) Jason Isbell has a band called Jason Isbell and the 400 unit. And they recorded a cover of Sad But True for the Blacklist for MetallicA. BOOM! lol. If you guy love music, especially r&b, classic rock, southern rock, country, you name it. Come visit the Shoals in northwest Alabama. Or at least watch the Documentary movie "Muscle Shoals " special guest Bono from U2, Alisha Keys, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and others. Also my uncle was a musician that recorded at Sun studio in Memphis, Tn with his band Lou Roberts and the Marks. You can find several of their songs on UA-cam from those recordings. I know you guys have a love for music. As I myself also. Music runs through my veins, just like it does through the Tennessee river in which the area gets its musical and name identity from. The river that sings, the Muscle Shoals sound! 😉 I apologize guys! I really love the music history of my home, my family, and friends. Please check out some of the musicians and newer videos from Muscle Shoals and FAME. ROLL TIDE!
Rolling Stones! Yes, yall are correct on what the songs about lol. If I recall Mick Jagger used to date a pretty black lady back in the days, I forget her name, but she was one of the back up singers for Tina Turner.
I looked this up after watching your reaction and according to an article from CNN Entertainment, Mick Jager said of critics "Didn't they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery?" It was released in 1971. He said he would probably censor himself from writing it as of 1995. Keith Richards said he hopes society will be more accepting of some version of the song in the future.
Direct quote from mick in the liner notes of a later compilation of hits "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".
Aye, heroin is known as brown sugar or golden brown here in the UK. The Stranglers have a song called Golden Brown and was about to be #1 here until one of the band members let the cat out of the bag. It's a great song as well.
You are all wrong the greatest rock and roll song of all time? It's Only Rock and Roll is the song that sums rick and roll! Listen to the lyrics. But Dead Flowers is awesome. But New Riders of the Purple Sage does a better cover. And make no mistake I am a Stone fan. 3 concerts. The 82 year shows the best!
This, for me, was the ultimate Beach song (along with The Beach Boys) when the song first came out. It’s a memory that comes back to me crystal clear, when I was a kid back East (Ocean City & Bethany Beach): girls in Bikinis, throwing frisbees on the beach, people enjoying life, and there’s The Stones providing the soundtrack!! Great song!
Yes, it’s called Stockholm Syndrome when someone becomes attached to their captor in an emotional way! I love this song! The Rolling Stones are the prototype for what a real Rock band should be! This song was released in 1971! Mick Jagger is the best, he just loves all types of women! Music can tell many stories and I don’t find anything weird with this story! It’s about a realistic situation that probably happened a lot in the time of servitude!❤️❤️
The Stones should count for two of the greatest bands ever. Their 60s and 70s catalogues are each worthy of being included in the greatest bands ever discussion. Maybe the Beatles are #1, but the Stones are #2 and #3!
@@brushstroke3733 do you know why people believe the beatles are the best band in the world? because they haven't got the brains to look elsewhere. the beatles were marketed as nothing else but a glorified boy band. they were molded by Epstein. He changed their look and made them popular. Their music is okay, but nothing great. They stole heaps of riffs and songs and claimed them as their own.
Brad and Lex - you both rock. I’ve watched many of your reviews and appreciate you know your s..t musically and the dynamic between you just simply works - huge love from London xx
The back story to this song that I heard was that the Stones had some black girls who were backup singers while on tour and they started hooking up with them. It was so great they wrote a song about it.
"Stockholm Syndrome" is indeed the psychological effect you were referencing, named for an incident in 1973 where a bank robber took a bunch of bank clerks as hostages. If you liked this but are interested in trying something a bit different from the same band, try The Rolling Stones: "Angie."
Ethan Hawke starred in Stockholm, a strangely enjoyable film about that incident. They took some liberties, but the syndrome part is true. It reminded me of Dog Day Afternoon.
Claudia lennear was a back up singer for ike and tina Turner and was the inspiration for the david bowie song called lady grinning soul and was the inspiration for brown sugar and has come out publicly and she says she wishes the rolling stones had not removed it from this 2021 tour for the first time in 50 years because some people found the song offensive
The Rolling Stones have a lot of historical types of songs, like Sympathy for the Devil. Many songs about sex, like Stray Cat Blues, Sister Morphine, they've explicitly explored the dark side of humanity with a wink and a leer. Also with amazing musicianship, Bobby Keys on saxophone, founding band member of the Stones, Ian Stewart (deemed too ugly to be on stage with the band, which is saying something) like this song is saying something about slavery, rape, and for that matter Gimmie Shelter touches on the same theme with that lyric sung by a pregnant black woman a lot of sex, drugs and it's only rock and roll.
Ya gotta keep in mind, these guys grew up in the bombed out rubble of WWII. Everything American, and especially African American, was a new exotic treat to them. Bootlegged blues records were the impetus for the "British Invasion".
As a huge Stones fan, I had always hoped that Mic Jagger meant no ill will with the lyrics of this song... Thank you Brad because I never thought of the possible drug reference, which it could be about heroin. Which stones fans know that most of them have tried a time or 2...
It’s funny how much of the songs that I heard my parents play as a kid lyrically went over my head and made sense when grown but as a kid had no idea what tf I was singing
This song has 2 meanings to the overall scheme of things. On one hand you have the slavery on the other hand you have the brown sugar which usually refers to ( Mexican brown or Mexican shoe scrapings which is a meaning for Heroin } which Keith used to inject and Mick use to smoke.
Yep. It's a really clever song, on one hand it is the story of slaves from Africa who were sold in New Orleans and raped by their white masters and all the slavery and whipping is a double meaning for the perils of being "mastered" by Brown Heroin, or "Brown Sugar." The drug cooks brown in a spoon.
That was my take also. Both ends burning,,sex and or rape of a young black woman under the nose of the lady of the house by the masta of the estate mixed in with the drug connection with Brown Sugar Heroin..double entendre here
@@stuartmaclean5572 Yep. And it was the fist song on the Sticky Fingers LP. I think it's possible to get stricky fingers, if you cook your heroin in a spoon...
When this album was first released, the cover featured a man wearing tight blue jeans with an actual working zipper. The zipper didn’t reveal any anything. I was working at a record store and it was fun watching giggling girls unzip the zipper. Memories…..
“Brown Sugar” is said to have been inspired by at least one of two Black women Jagger was romantically associated with at the time, one of whom is actually the mother of his first child.
@ndjfksnwvehsbdjckvkkfss right....he was calling out the establishment(those that chastised his choice of women) for being hypocritical. those that were against his choice of women were the descendants of that scarred ol slaver....
"What is that?" she said. OMG. Neither one of them could identify the sound of a saxophone! I'm not sure how I feel about that....Is the saxophone getting no love in the music world these days?
Hey Brad and Lex the song is a red herring. When Jagger/Richards wrote the song Mick was dating a Black singer who gave birth to his first child, a daughter. But also The Stones worship Black Blues musicians from America and their whole scene, from Robert Johnson on up, and in that way the song is metaphor for Black music and "how it tastes so good," -- it's so good to The Stones dedicated their lives to imitating Black American musicians.
In the 60s when the British rock stars headed to the US they met all these glamorous talented black ladies who they employed as back-up singers. Being British (and more counter culture types) they didn't have the same bias against mixed race relationships like their American counterparts did (Elvis had several black girlfriends that his minders kept hidden).
I’ve been happily married in an interracial marriage for 17 years and I can say the past few years as a country we have Gone backwards as far as accepting of those relationships the flack we’ve both received from so called “activists” or “social justice warriors” has been very sickening , we look back 10-15 years ago we didn’t have hardly any issues now it’s like we both have to be on the defensive.
@@brandon42054 That is awful to read! My first serious relationship was with a First Nations Australian girl and we never had any issues. What sort of problems have you had?
@@deanmaynard8256 mostly it’s just been some really racial comments , my wife (who is black) gets accused of white privilege cause she’s married to a white man ( in reality I’m registered Native American) but that shows how shallow and ignorant these ppl can be I worked with a guy who it really bothered and I got asked a lot of really uncomfortable questions weekly stuff like that
The opening chords to this song are maybe the best thing that Keith Richards ever came up with. When the second guitar sweeps in, I looose it! I have to howl! The lyrics, of course, are very controversial. The Stones don't play it anymore for fear of offending anyone. They're clever, all the same. It's a great, great tune forever!
Yeeeeaah, a song from 1971 written by two British guys, who grew up listening to American Blues, and whose bands earlier albums include many a cover song of the Black American blues artists. Safe to say it’s meant to be pretty straightforward, especially since they have songs like, “Sister Morphine,” and there really isn’t much metaphor used there, (despite the title.)
Mick Jagger wrote the lyric. According to Bill Wyman, it was partially inspired by a black backup singer named Claudia Lennear, who was one of Ike Turner's Ikettes. She and Jagger met when The Stones toured with Turner in 1969. David Bowie also wrote his Aladdin Sane track "Lady Grinning Soul" about Lennear. American-born singer Marsha Hunt is also sometimes cited as the inspiration for the song. She and Jagger met when she was a member of the cast in the London production of the musical Hair, and their relationship, a closely guarded secret until 1972, resulted in a daughter named Karis.
I was shocked at the lyrics. I always loved the sound and energy of the song but I had no idea. Looked it up and Jagger was in a relationship with a black backup singer when he wrote this song so you can figure out the rest.
I never new the lyrics either while loving this song...still this explanation doesnt explain the slave talk in the first few lines. I dont get why he would be clearly singing about a slave girl being whipped and taken advantage of when talking about the mother of his child.
@@mike-mz6yz What I've since read Jagger is now embarrassed and regrets the lyrics. He wrote it in 45 minutes and back in an era where it was common to throw in a mishmash of words and ideas that didn't have to make sense. Which really isn't an excuse. Since it's musically such a great song and its hard to decipher the lyrics it has gotten a free pass. The lyrics have not aged well but there seems no easy way to undo what has become a classic.
This is the time in the history of The Stones when The Beatles had already broken up and if there was any debate over who was the greatest rock band, it was now no competition anymore....during the next few years, The Stones crafted their hard-driving sound and went into a league of their own!
Lol, and over 50 years later the Beatles still have many more good songs than the Stones and are still regarded as the greatest band of all time. Nice try tho
@@alrivers2297 nah you are wrong Stones all day every day. Stones wrote better songs. Beatles were marketed better and to a different audience. They were marketed to an audience that listens to mainstream radio, one that a lot of people paid a lot of money to radio stations to play their music on the radio. The Beatles is a prime example. Beatles have nothing on the Stones. Nice try tho.
@@bwana-ma-coo-bah425 lol, they were both marketed to mainstream audiences. Until the Beatles went psychedelic and then every band tried copying them including the Stones. When the Beatles came out with their Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album the Stones then did a poor imitation called Their Satanic Majesties Request. The Beatles were always the leaders and trend setters and every other band followed their lead. FACTS! When people make lists for the greatest bands of all time the top 3 are usually The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. The Stones are usually somewhere lower on their lists. Their popularity has waned over the years while other bands popularity has increased. Sorry to break it to you
Brown Sugar is actually a song about slavery and a slave being bought in New Orleans and raped by her white master, it's meant to shed light on the past, at the time of writing the song, Mick was dating a black back up singer for Tina Turner
Mick Jagger had a relationship with a back up singer decades ago. Pretty black woman. He has a biracial daughter from that. Karis Jagger, pretty and looks like Mick too with curly hair lol. She is an actress at times.
Horrific? In some ways. It was inspired by his relationship with a black woman (which was illegal back then) who ended up being the mother of his first child. The midnight reference is about how they had to hide the relationship due to the laws of the time. It had nothing to do with any fetishes at all. Just about the ridiculous nature of the law that forced them to hide their relationship
@@TonyM1961 Nonsense. "old Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields Sold in the market down in New Orleans Skydog slaver know he's doin' all right Hear him whip the women, just around midnight" is not about Mick having a relationship with a black woman (which was not illegal in Britain, where the Stones are from). It's about women being abducted, trafficked and raped.
@@kirstenhey9728 There are 2 parts to this song. One is about his relationship with Marsha Hunt (keeping in mind that she is the AMERICAN actress/model/singer and not the British actress of the same name) and that the song was written in 1967, the same year that interracial marriage was finally legalized in the US despite not being released until 1969. The other part is a take down on the people who made love illegal yet committed such horrible crimes against their fellow human beings. It's not either/or, but a serious critique of America as it was then and of the history that led up to it. Try expanding both your mind and your reading list. It will help
The lyric is about slaves from Africa who were sold in New Orleans and raped by their white masters. The subject matter is quite serious, but the way the song is structured, it comes off as a fun rocker about a white guy having sex with a black girl. >> Mick Jagger wrote the lyric. According to Bill Wyman, it was partially inspired by a black backup singer named Claudia Lennear, who was one of Ike Turner's Ikettes. She and Jagger met when The Stones toured with Turner in 1969. David Bowie also wrote his Aladdin Sane track "Lady Grinning Soul" about Lennear.
When this was released in early 70's in the south(USA) everyone was like I would never date an african-american girl or guy. This was a poke at them going your ancestors were attracted to them.
WOW. I've LISTENED to this song so many times... and loved it. This is perhaps the first time I've ever HEARD it... and it shocked me. I feel as if I learn something every day with you guys.
Some say that Marsha Hunt, a black woman and mother to one of Jagger's children, was the inspiration. Others say it was Claudia Lennear (one of the Ikettes, of Tina Turner and the Ikettes), another woman Jaggar had an affair with. Bill Wyman confirms the notion that it was partly inspired by Lennear. Jagger once stated that "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" He said that he didn't have a specific meaning behind the lyrics, kind of a mishmash of impressions he had as he wrote.
Been hearing this song since I was a kid, and only recently, when some issues with the lyrics came up, did I even learn what most of the lyrics were. When I was a kid, I didn't understand the Brown Sugar reference, natch, and I never even heard or understood the opening slavery stuff. Seems like the song is basically historical fiction to start, then moving on to a straight up inter-ethnicity (I dislike "interracial," as I believe we're all one race; the Human Race) sex song.
Happy Wife Happy Life - Lex is an incredible woman but for her to be so happy her domestic life has to be doing really great and I think that Brad has to be a large part of why she is so happy, so good on you both! Stay happy and Stay awesome! Mr. Brownstone is about Heroin and Master of Puppets is Cocain(I think)
Back in October, the Rolling Stones released a statement saying they would no longer sing this song in concert, due to the perception by some that it glorifies slavery. I can see how the argument could be made that "Brown Sugar" has no say in the relationship...that she is a piece of property for her "owner" to use/abuse...but I've always gotten more of a "Jungle Fever" vibe from the song. It comes from an era when interracial relationships were taboo yet the White Englishman singer is obsessed with this young Black woman.
"I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? " -Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger wrote "Brown Sugar" about Marsha Hunt, an actress who became the first black model to ever appear on the cover of Britain’s high-fashion magazine, Queen. Mick and Marsha had one child, a daughter named Karis.
Classic Stones toe tappin', hip shakin' rock 'n' roll. That's right in the Stones sweet spot during their absolute peak (1968-1973). Anything from the Stones during that era is pure gold.
Not sure which Stones songs you've done but here's some of my personal favs: Beast of Burden, Miss You, Can't Always Get What You Want, Waiting on a Friend, and Emotional Rescue. But they've got a lot more hits so do whatever you feel like.
Yes it was Stockholm Syndrome....he was in bi-racial relationships...next Rollin Stones needs to be Angie.....when you hear it you won't believe it's the rolling stones...try it, you'll like it!
I never noted the slavery aspect of this song. Thanks. The song is therefore not a celebration but a protest song about the vulnerability to rape of enslaved adults and children as made explicit in the second verse: "Scarred old *slaver* know he's doing alright, hear him *whip* the women just around midnight." The British musical invasion of the 60's seemed to have universally embraced the civil rights movement and in this song pushed back on the propaganda of benign slave master. Update 1: Reviewing comments the following morning after having some qualms about my comment above has led to the unfortunate conclusion that the song is really a celebration of privilege and power. We can say the sentiment expressed is a reflection of their education and not an embrace of sadism and predation. The embarrassment of Jagger towards the lyrics in later years is heartening. It is perhaps important to note that the song was written while in Australia and possibly immersed within the results of a successful brutal unreflective colonization. Update 2: Having recently listened to, Werewolves of London, and reflecting on the Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil, I believe the intent of this song was to merely tell the story from the perspective of the antagonist. Having never been truly cognizant of that second verse I had presumed the song was in the spirit of, Brown Eyed Girl, which it clearly isn't. Jagger needn't be ashamed. It's a great song in that light. :)
I think you can see that in the song if you're looking to read into it. The Stones were obviously hitting on the taboos around slave masters and interracial relations, I'm a little less inclined to think Mike & Keith were thinking that deeply. You don't put all those "Yeah, yeah, whoo!'s into a song if you have deep thoughts. I kind of think they were playing in much deeper waters than they were really conscious of...
@@davidgoodman4208 And I don’t think you give them enough credit. The juxtaposition of dark lyrics/upbeat groove is purposeful; they knew exactly what they were doing.The poppy sound is just the candy coating on the bitter pill of talking, quite explicitly, about the slave rape that was endemic in the antebellum south. It also conveys the mood of the rapist. For him it’s all fun and games (“he’s doing alright”), but we never hear the slave girl’s perspective. It’s a song that’s so sneakily brilliant most people miss the brilliance.
@@Kaddywompous I think you're doing a lot of work here. "We don't hear the girl's perspective" isn't some sort of jujitsu on the Stones' part - "the girl's perspective" is very much *not* a feature Mick was exploring in his lyrics. And when asked, Mick has never been "yeah, we meant it to be creepy" - his been kind of embarassed by the lyrics of the song, and has altered and softened them in concert over the years. Like I said, you can read that into the song if you like. This is a pretty hotly debated song. The Stones have a very complex awareness and interaction with race and sex in their music. But I'm fairly your interpretation is something Mick & Keith weren't consciously putting into the song.
@@davidgoodman4208 I can see that he never meant it to be creepy because it’s far more than an examination of creepiness, or “taboo” for that matter. Rape of a teenage girl that you own is far more than just creepy. This is social commentary. I don’t know how framing it from the perspective of a slave master can be read any other way, unless you take it as an endorsement. Perhaps Mick is just tired of having been misunderstood/misconstrued so often regarding this song.
@@Kaddywompous here's how I read it... Mick was thinking about how awesome his relationship, and identified with how awesome the English slaver felt about getting to be with girls, and he thought the whole thing was taboo and cool... while Mick was also not thinking about what was different with the slaver - that it wasn't consensual and that it was wrong. These are English kids who were vaguely aware, but did not *get it* in that sort of way and did not have that level of "wokeness" about the British Empire at the time... And if you read basically every bit of review and discourse on the album, literally nobody interpreted the song the way you do at the time it was released.
![Waltz of Rebirth - [Undertale/FNAF AU: "Restless Penumbra"]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/H0Xh0YvCEMg/mqdefault.jpg)
LEX IS PROLLY ONE OF THE HAPPIEST WOMEN IVE EVER SEEN ... YOU GOT LUCKY BRAD!
She's adorable, isn't she? Her demeanor will put you in a good mood, no matter how hard you might try to fight it!
It has been my observation and experience that the energy of a woman when she is happy is equal to her energy when she is angry.
In other words, you may not feel he is so lucky when he pisses her off! Just a theory.
Brad is probably the reason she is happy!!! Y’all do you!!!
cute
And now that they are on UA-cam, we are all lucky :)
The stones are great for writing really provocative and honest lyrics that then navigate away from just enough clarity for anyone to really define enough to attack. That to me, is real art art. At a time when it was a lot less ok to be in an interracial relationship, at the end of the day, this song helped make it be more ok. And to me, I feel that's a good thing. Rock songwriters today use the same method of provoke and maneuver. But once you figure the lyrics out to a Stone's song, your faith in humanity is more likely to be restored, whereas contemporary artists are more likely to make you lose faith in humanity.
Well, in the deep south at this time (1970), the old school white (previous Dixiecrats turned republicans) like Strom Thurman still had "shadow" families. This tradition goes back to antebellum times and was perfectly in line with racism and slavery. The idea of the hyper-sexualized Black Woman is an old but enduring racist trope. "House Boy" in the lyrics means this song might well be taking place in the antebellum times. I love the Stones, especially in this period (with Mick Taylor), but the "inter-racial" progressive stance you claim just doesn't play out at all in this song.
Well said,,.
I don't he is saying anything particularly profound, he's just telling a story about how things were, once@@peterjonas4971
@@peterjonas4971 Yeah I think Jagger had some interesting things to say about this song. He was going out with a black girl at the time and he admitted the lyrics were a bit crazy. And certainly provocative.
Lex, that is a tenor saxophone. Classic sound in blues, jazz and early rock-n-roll. Still used today.
Look at Brad with the big brain....lol Stockholm syndrome is correct. I've heard this song hundreds of time and never knew what it was about. Now I'm educated. 👍
...played by the late Bobby Keys.
i used to play tenor sax.....people used to offer me a tenner to STOP !
I have a good friend from high school that still plays that tenor sax. Leon Bridges and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. Its a classic sound that never gets old.
Mr. Bobby Keyes from Galveson, Texas on the sax!!
See Duke's comment below, he's right. The song was always said to have been inspired by either Claudia Lennear, one of the hottest, best backup singers in the business, or the lady who mothered his first child. No, it's not a love story, it's a riff on interracial relationships. And yeah, the sound was kind of a "homage" to older rock and roll style, where there was usually a strong tenor saxophone solo. Great pick guys, enjoyed this one. 🌲⛄🎅🌲
"interracial relationships"? read the lyrics. it's about a slave ship coming from the gold coast to new orleans. and about the slaver whipping the women "just around midnight". hardly "a relationship".
breathe and squeeze that’s what the first verse is about - slavery isn’t mentioned in the proceeding verses.
@@goldboy150 no, but one can easily assume the rest of the song is a continuation of the story they led off telling.
breathe and squeeze well no, because the proceeding verses have their own content and references. A song can have multiple meanings and references - it doesn’t have to be monochromatic and this isn’t.
The song isn’t “about slavery”. The first verse tells the story of a black woman being abused by her slave owner. The proceeding verses describe more consensual interracial encounters.
In that sense, the song is more about interracial relationships than it is about slavery.
@@zzz7zzz9
Some people will go to great extremes to deny the obvious.
Remember "Uncle" Ben Carson?:
"Poverty is a state of mind."
Brown Sugar was written about Jagger's girlfriends Claudia Lennear and Marsha Hunt. Both women claim that the song was written about them specifically.
one of the Ikettes
This song points out that men and women regardless of race really like each other !
Lex puts more into one song than I've got energy for a whole week. Jim
I agree, but at 68 yo the beat still moves in me 😁
Beast of Burden. My dad always loved that one from the stones. He passed from covid this January. ❤ love how Lex gets her vibe on. 🎶
This was recorded in Muscle Shoals, AL, thus the funky beat. Check out others recorded at Muscle Shoals - Percy Sledge (When a Man Loves a Woman), Clarence Carter (Look Away); Aretha Franklin (I Never Loved a Man Like I love you); Boz Scaggs w Duane Allman (Someone Lend me a Dime); Wilson Picket (Mustang Sally); Etta James (I'd Rather Go Blind) and hundreds of others. Muscle Shoals studio musicians had their own unique sound.
Mavis even mentioned "little davy" Hood in the Staples biggest hit!!!
Checkout the.Muscle Schoal documentary movie here on YT or on Netflix. It's really good and worth watching.
Watch the video Muscle Shoals Sounds. Some vintage clips of the Stones from 1974 i think.
A great documentary on Muscle Shoals:
ua-cam.com/video/hKmGUIM1uAI/v-deo.html
There’s a great documentary on that studio in muscle shoals
This was a total party song, back in the day! Surest way to fill up the dance floor. Nobody really thought about what it meant, or cared, it was just great to dance to!
YES!
The last band I sang and played sax in, and the one I was in the longest, in the late 60s and 70s had this tune as our opening tune. We were a dance band, mostly playing covers, with some original stuff, some with our own arrangements, but we opened with "Brown Sugar" with the same tempo and energy as the Stone's version. We wanted people out on the dance floor and drinking, since we got a percentage of the booze sales.
I always loved singing this song and playing the sax solo. It and "Gimme Shelter", which we also covered, are my two favorite Stones tunes.
Spot on! Brown Sugar, Satisfaction, Honky Tonk Women; they never failed
@@kingspeechless1607 The period from
Beggar's Banquet to Exile on Main Street were the golden years for the Stones when they were at the top of their game.
You mean like women on the cotton plantations Lynn? I get it, but as you say it was just a great sound when it came out. The association didn't really register... although it makes it even more interesting now I guess.
I think Brad is so cool! Unlike most reactions channels, Brad gets right into it by saying,"Let's get right into it". Most other channels talk for a minute or two while you leave the talking to mid stream or the end. Keep up the good work! 👍
agreed
When you know the song and you just wait till it dawns on them lol.
And brown sugar "I don't think it's a love story" is quote of the century for me.
Tina Turner performed this live with the Rolling Stones. At the time she said it was a well written account of a dark time in history, that no matter how uncomfortable, cant be ignored. And they told the story so well accompanied with a great rock n roll tune.
I thought the song was about heroin. "Brown sugar"
A dark time in History>? LOL, The Chinese and Irish were enslaving their people for centuries. Long before the Africans were selling theirs.
That too, undoubtedly.
"SWAY" by the Stones is a great song with the great "Mick Taylor" as the lead guitarist.
When Lex was asking what that sound was, it was a tenor saxophone rocking out hard :)
The sax was Bobby Keyes, their long time associate. Legend has it he was kicked out of the Stones for a while for partying too hard, wow 😯
"Brown Sugar" was about getting "Some Sweet Loving" from your Afro-American Sweetheart. Young Black Men first coined the Phrase back in the Early 1960's.
Another GREAT Rolling Stones "Funk" Song is "Honky Tonk Woman".
This British Band loved to sing about the Women in New Orlean's... Apparently, they had a GREAT TIME there!
Yep
From Custard Pie to Brown Sugar, and we still ain't talking about food!!
These guys are so good. Got to be in the top 2 greatest bands of all time. 8 number 1 hits, 10 number 1 albums, and 28 top 10 singles.
THE GREATEST ROCK N ROLL BAND OF ALL TIME
This song along with Wild Horses were both recorded in a studio on 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, Alabama.(Studio used to be an old used appliance storage building. And i delivered alot of used appliances into that place lol) Cher's first album in her career was recorded in the same studio. And the album was named after the studio. The Rolling Stones are not the only artist to ever record here in northwest Alabama. And 3614 Jackson Highway isnt the only studio to ever record hit songs. The other studio being FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) owner Rick Hall was the man who made this area famous for making hit music. Hometown native Arthur Alexander recorded a song called " You better move on" That song was the song that the Rolling Stones did a cover of for the European fans in the 60's and got their attention about the amazing blues, soul, southern gospel type sound. And they wanted to record a couple of songs here. Percy Sledge another native of the area, had a song called "When a man loves a woman" during that time. Then the producers and artist came flooding in. Jerry Wexler, Clarence Carter, Jimmy Cliff, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Duane Allman, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Michael McDonald, Alisha Keys, Kid Rock, Steven Tyler, Nuno Bettencourt, Alan Jackson, and more. Those are just a few that recorded at FAME. Here is a list of the ones that recorded at 3614 Jackson Highway. Cher, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Black Keys, The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Dire Straights, Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, The Staple Singers, Bozz Skaggs, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, the list goes on. And now I'm going to make this story connect with my favorite band MetallicA. Walt Aldridge, and Gary Baker (Wrote the song "I swear") live here in the Shoals. WC Handy the father of the blues was born here in Florence. The founder of Sun Studios in Memphis Tennessee (Sam Phillips the father of Rock n Roll) and signed artist such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash. Was born in Florence and is buried here. The man who helped write songs for Carrie Underwood (Before he cheats and others) Florida Georgia line, and a couple of rock bands. Chris Tompkins is someone I grew up with because his aunt lived right behind my house and I was a close friend with his cousin. Which now leads me to Gary Nichols, and Jason Isbell. I went to school with Gary Nichols. He was doing really well in country music. Had a video called "On broken ground" but he fell off somewhat. But still a really good guitar player. Jason Isbell and Tompkins went to the same high school (Rogers HS) Jason Isbell has a band called Jason Isbell and the 400 unit. And they recorded a cover of Sad But True for the Blacklist for MetallicA. BOOM! lol. If you guy love music, especially r&b, classic rock, southern rock, country, you name it. Come visit the Shoals in northwest Alabama. Or at least watch the Documentary movie "Muscle Shoals " special guest Bono from U2, Alisha Keys, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and others. Also my uncle was a musician that recorded at Sun studio in Memphis, Tn with his band Lou Roberts and the Marks. You can find several of their songs on UA-cam from those recordings. I know you guys have a love for music. As I myself also. Music runs through my veins, just like it does through the Tennessee river in which the area gets its musical and name identity from. The river that sings, the Muscle Shoals sound! 😉 I apologize guys! I really love the music history of my home, my family, and friends. Please check out some of the musicians and newer videos from Muscle Shoals and FAME. ROLL TIDE!
Rolling Stones! Yes, yall are correct on what the songs about lol. If I recall Mick Jagger used to date a pretty black lady back in the days, I forget her name, but she was one of the back up singers for Tina Turner.
I looked this up after watching your reaction and according to an article from CNN Entertainment, Mick Jager said of critics "Didn't they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery?" It was released in 1971. He said he would probably censor himself from writing it as of 1995.
Keith Richards said he hopes society will be more accepting of some version of the song in the future.
The song is about
1.Sugar
2. Black gal
3. Drugs .
That's the genius of the songwriting for brown sugar.
Direct quote from mick in the liner notes of a later compilation of hits
"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".
Aye, heroin is known as brown sugar or golden brown here in the UK. The Stranglers have a song called Golden Brown and was about to be #1 here until one of the band members let the cat out of the bag. It's a great song as well.
@@8moody1 Town Called Malice by The Jam kept it off No.1.
@@daz_n Perhaps but the band blamed it on Jean-Jacques Burnel
@@8moody1 Sorry I meant that was the song that was at no.1 at the time, not that that was the reason for GB not getting there! 👍🏼
@@8moody1 Mr Brownstone by GNR also
Lex is definitely my brown sugar!
I think I read that Mick Jagger was inspired to write this after hooking up with one of Ike and Tina Turner's backup singers.
I'm not a huge Stones fan, but "Under My Thumb" is one of their best songs.
Yeah I agree, they got a few jams but they're not my favorite. She's So Cold is another good one.
I agree. They're good but not the best. I always really liked "Jumpin Jack Flash". Nice bass playing by Ronnie Wood on that one.
Yeah, nothing like a good oppressive tune to start the day.
You are all wrong the greatest rock and roll song of all time? It's Only Rock and Roll is the song that sums rick and roll! Listen to the lyrics. But Dead Flowers is awesome. But New Riders of the Purple Sage does a better cover. And make no mistake I am a Stone fan. 3 concerts. The 82 year shows the best!
Why is it.if I may ask?
This, for me, was the ultimate Beach song (along with The Beach Boys) when the song first came out. It’s a memory that comes back to me crystal clear, when I was a kid back East (Ocean City & Bethany Beach): girls in Bikinis, throwing frisbees on the beach, people enjoying life, and there’s The Stones providing the soundtrack!! Great song!
It's about slave girls.
You are cracked.
Ocean City New Jersey or Ocean City Maryland?
@@quincee3376 Maryland
@@michaelbriefs9764 ah cool. Never been to that one but i did graduate from High School in the state of Maryland back in the day.
Mick did in fact have a real appreciation for black women & he sings about it
According to R&B singer Marsha Hunt, mother of Mick Jagger's eldest daughter, Mick was inspired by their "romantic relationship" for the lyrics.
Lex, you were born out of time. You have the spirit of a 70's teen.
The Stones should never stop doing this song
Yes, it’s called Stockholm Syndrome when someone becomes attached to their captor in an emotional way! I love this song! The Rolling Stones are the prototype for what a real Rock band should be! This song was released in 1971! Mick Jagger is the best, he just loves all types of women! Music can tell many stories and I don’t find anything weird with this story! It’s about a realistic situation that probably happened a lot in the time of servitude!❤️❤️
And that is just one of the reasons why the Rolling Stones are one of the two greatest rock and roll bands in the world
The Stones should count for two of the greatest bands ever. Their 60s and 70s catalogues are each worthy of being included in the greatest bands ever discussion. Maybe the Beatles are #1, but the Stones are #2 and #3!
OK, I`ll bite: who is the other band?
@@hosehead58 the other greatest band is ACDC for a whole bunch of other reasons
@@JP13007 you won't get an argument from me over your choices..
@@brushstroke3733 do you know why people believe the beatles are the best band in the world?
because they haven't got the brains to look elsewhere.
the beatles were marketed as nothing else but a glorified boy band.
they were molded by Epstein.
He changed their look and made them popular.
Their music is okay, but nothing great.
They stole heaps of riffs and songs and claimed them as their own.
Brad and Lex - you both rock. I’ve watched many of your reviews and appreciate you know your s..t musically and the dynamic between you just simply works - huge love from London xx
There’s always layers to their songs! Both of you are correct! Nice job!
The back story to this song that I heard was that the Stones had some black girls who were backup singers while on tour and they started hooking up with them. It was so great they wrote a song about it.
Jagger got very close to Tina Turner when they were on tour together. Needless to say, Ike Turner wasn’t happy about it.
Love this song! Never retire it.
"Stockholm Syndrome" is indeed the psychological effect you were referencing, named for an incident in 1973 where a bank robber took a bunch of bank clerks as hostages.
If you liked this but are interested in trying something a bit different from the same band, try The Rolling Stones: "Angie."
David Bowies wife Angie, Jagger fell in love with her.
I love Angie; one of my favourite Rolling Stone songs, very different to a lot of their stuff
Patty Hearst
Ethan Hawke starred in Stockholm, a strangely enjoyable film about that incident. They took some liberties, but the syndrome part is true. It reminded me of Dog Day Afternoon.
Also Wild Horses and Ruby Tuesday
Claudia lennear was a back up singer for ike and tina Turner and was the inspiration for the david bowie song called lady grinning soul and was the inspiration for brown sugar and has come out publicly and she says she wishes the rolling stones had not removed it from this 2021 tour for the first time in 50 years because some people found the song offensive
This was a huge hit in the early seventies. I think it was on the album sticky fingers.
Yep, Sticky Fingers... One of their best albums!
and the instrument you could not recognize, and thought might be a harmonica, it was Bobby Keys on the saxophone!
The Rolling Stones have a lot of historical types of songs, like Sympathy for the Devil. Many songs about sex, like Stray Cat Blues, Sister Morphine, they've explicitly explored the dark side of humanity with a wink and a leer. Also with amazing musicianship, Bobby Keys on saxophone, founding band member of the Stones, Ian Stewart (deemed too ugly to be on stage with the band, which is saying something) like this song is saying something about slavery, rape, and for that matter Gimmie Shelter touches on the same theme with that lyric sung by a pregnant black woman a lot of sex, drugs and it's only rock and roll.
Ya gotta keep in mind, these guys grew up in the bombed out rubble of WWII.
Everything American, and especially African American, was a new exotic treat to them.
Bootlegged blues records were the impetus for the "British Invasion".
that is indeed one banging harmonica!!!! 🤣love it!! such a tune 🙂
As a huge Stones fan, I had always hoped that Mic Jagger meant no ill will with the lyrics of this song... Thank you Brad because I never thought of the possible drug reference, which it could be about heroin. Which stones fans know that most of them have tried a time or 2...
It's about Stockholm syndrome and interracial relationships at the time..basically giving a f*** you to the views held at the time.
That sound where Lex says " What is this ? " Is the saxophone 🎷
It is a classic rock tune and probably talking about Bianca his wife who was from South America!
It’s funny how much of the songs that I heard my parents play as a kid lyrically went over my head and made sense when grown but as a kid had no idea what tf I was singing
This song has 2 meanings to the overall scheme of things. On one hand you have the slavery on the other hand you have the brown sugar which usually refers to ( Mexican brown or Mexican shoe scrapings which is a meaning for Heroin } which Keith used to inject and Mick use to smoke.
Yep. It's a really clever song, on one hand it is the story of slaves from Africa who were sold in New Orleans and raped by their white masters and all the slavery and whipping is a double meaning for the perils of being "mastered" by Brown Heroin, or "Brown Sugar." The drug cooks brown in a spoon.
That was my take also. Both ends burning,,sex and or rape of a young black woman under the nose of the lady of the house by the masta of the estate mixed in with the drug connection with Brown Sugar Heroin..double entendre here
@@stuartmaclean5572 Yep. And it was the fist song on the Sticky Fingers LP. I think it's possible to get stricky fingers, if you cook your heroin in a spoon...
Not certain, but from what Mick has said, he’s never touched heroin.
I don’t think it’s about heroin at all. This was written well before Keith got into heroin and Mick never was.
When this album was first released, the cover featured a man wearing tight blue jeans with an actual working zipper. The zipper didn’t reveal any anything. I was working at a record store and it was fun watching giggling girls unzip the zipper. Memories…..
Sticky Fingers
It’s love across borders, races, money, and language.
Human nature, and the bond of attraction/love, is stronger than all!
🇬🇧❤️🇺🇸
“Brown Sugar” is said to have been inspired by at least one of two Black women Jagger was romantically associated with at the time, one of whom is actually the mother of his first child.
Marsha Hunt
@ndjfksnwvehsbdjckvkkfss right....he was calling out the establishment(those that chastised his choice of women) for being hypocritical. those that were against his choice of women were the descendants of that scarred ol slaver....
It's brown heroin...
@L Singletary me to.. So old.. But im still here!
Claudia Linnear, who was also a backup singer for Leon Russell
Mick said the song was about Claudia Lennear one of his backup singers he was involved with. Very gorgeous.
"What is that?" she said. OMG. Neither one of them could identify the sound of a saxophone!
I'm not sure how I feel about that....Is the saxophone getting no love in the music world these days?
Hey Brad and Lex the song is a red herring. When Jagger/Richards wrote the song Mick was dating a Black singer who gave birth to his first child, a daughter. But also The Stones worship Black Blues musicians from America and their whole scene, from Robert Johnson on up, and in that way the song is metaphor for Black music and "how it tastes so good," -- it's so good to The Stones dedicated their lives to imitating Black American musicians.
I love The Rolling Stones. I love this song. I love this channel. Rock n Roll Brad & Lex
Mick was a showman! RIP Charlie Watts. Mick loved James Browns moves and tried like he'll to imitate him.
In the 60s when the British rock stars headed to the US they met all these glamorous talented black ladies who they employed as back-up singers. Being British (and more counter culture types) they didn't have the same bias against mixed race relationships like their American counterparts did (Elvis had several black girlfriends that his minders kept hidden).
School is in. I didn't know that.
@@derekdonnell7780 Mick always had a fondness for the darker ladies! As did Bowie.
I’ve been happily married in an interracial marriage for 17 years and I can say the past few years as a country we have Gone backwards as far as accepting of those relationships the flack we’ve both received from so called “activists” or “social justice warriors” has been very sickening , we look back 10-15 years ago we didn’t have hardly any issues now it’s like we both have to be on the defensive.
@@brandon42054 That is awful to read! My first serious relationship was with a First Nations Australian girl and we never had any issues. What sort of problems have you had?
@@deanmaynard8256 mostly it’s just been some really racial comments , my wife (who is black) gets accused of white privilege cause she’s married to a white man ( in reality I’m registered Native American) but that shows how shallow and ignorant these ppl can be I worked with a guy who it really bothered and I got asked a lot of really uncomfortable questions weekly stuff like that
The opening chords to this song are maybe the best thing that Keith Richards ever came up with. When the second guitar sweeps in, I looose it! I have to howl! The lyrics, of course, are very controversial. The Stones don't play it anymore for fear of offending anyone. They're clever, all the same. It's a great, great tune forever!
Yeeeeaah, a song from 1971 written by two British guys, who grew up listening to American Blues, and whose bands earlier albums include many a cover song of the Black American blues artists. Safe to say it’s meant to be pretty straightforward, especially since they have songs like, “Sister Morphine,” and there really isn’t much metaphor used there, (despite the title.)
I was just thinking about all that again, and realized, Mick Jagger would have only been about 27 or 28 when this song was released.
I love this song for all the right reasons, and all the wrong reasons! ❤
Because of this song I became fan of the Stones. The intro is unique.
Mick Jagger wrote the lyric. According to Bill Wyman, it was partially inspired by a black backup singer named Claudia Lennear, who was one of Ike Turner's Ikettes. She and Jagger met when The Stones toured with Turner in 1969. David Bowie also wrote his Aladdin Sane track "Lady Grinning Soul" about Lennear.
American-born singer Marsha Hunt is also sometimes cited as the inspiration for the song. She and Jagger met when she was a member of the cast in the London production of the musical Hair, and their relationship, a closely guarded secret until 1972, resulted in a daughter named Karis.
Stones are one of the greatest!!
Grandgrandpa here: 70 Musician. Brown Sugar is Heroin. And the Tambourine Man was the Drug Dealer. I survived the Shit.,😆😎
Rolling Stones- Beast of Burden is very good
Brown Sugar was about Claudia Lennear who was an "Ikette" in Ike & Tina Turner's band.
I was shocked at the lyrics. I always loved the sound and energy of the song but I had no idea. Looked it up and Jagger was in a relationship with a black backup singer when he wrote this song so you can figure out the rest.
I never new the lyrics either while loving this song...still this explanation doesnt explain the slave talk in the first few lines. I dont get why he would be clearly singing about a slave girl being whipped and taken advantage of when talking about the mother of his child.
@@mike-mz6yz What I've since read Jagger is now embarrassed and regrets the lyrics. He wrote it in 45 minutes and back in an era where it was common to throw in a mishmash of words and ideas that didn't have to make sense. Which really isn't an excuse. Since it's musically such a great song and its hard to decipher the lyrics it has gotten a free pass. The lyrics have not aged well but there seems no easy way to undo what has become a classic.
That was a Saxophone played by the late great Bobby Keys!
This is the time in the history of The Stones when The Beatles had already broken up and if there was any debate over who was the greatest rock band, it was now no competition anymore....during the next few years, The Stones crafted their hard-driving sound and went into a league of their own!
Lol, and over 50 years later the Beatles still have many more good songs than the Stones and are still regarded as the greatest band of all time. Nice try tho
@@alrivers2297
nah you are wrong
Stones all day every day.
Stones wrote better songs.
Beatles were marketed better and to a different audience.
They were marketed to an audience that listens to mainstream radio, one that a lot of people paid a lot of money to radio stations to play their music on the radio.
The Beatles is a prime example.
Beatles have nothing on the Stones.
Nice try tho.
@@bwana-ma-coo-bah425 lol, they were both marketed to mainstream audiences. Until the Beatles went psychedelic and then every band tried copying them including the Stones. When the Beatles came out with their Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album the Stones then did a poor imitation called Their Satanic Majesties Request. The Beatles were always the leaders and trend setters and every other band followed their lead. FACTS! When people make lists for the greatest bands of all time the top 3 are usually The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. The Stones are usually somewhere lower on their lists. Their popularity has waned over the years while other bands popularity has increased. Sorry to break it to you
@@alrivers2297 I didn't mean to imply The Stones were better than The Beatles.....I just meant that they were still a band!
@@flash218ily as far as longevity goes, the Stones are phenomenal. I do love them but not as much as some other bands.
You guys are so entertaining. Better than anything on TV these days.
Gotta love The Rolling Stones!!
may i ask you to check out The Stranglers,"peaches" first and then "Golden Brown", thanx.
People always claim "Exile on Main Street" is the best Stones album, but "Sticky Fingers" is better IMO...
Disagree
I'll take both thank you.
Equally brilliant albums IMO
"Brown sugar" refers to black girls, but it's also slang for heroine, which the Stones were doing a lot of at the time.
Claudia Linear, back-up singer for The Stones, was Mick's inspiration. Brown Heroin was Keith's.
The song is about Marsha Hunt.
Brown Sugar is actually a song about slavery and a slave being bought in New Orleans and raped by her white master, it's meant to shed light on the past, at the time of writing the song, Mick was dating a black back up singer for Tina Turner
Mick Jagger had a relationship with a back up singer decades ago. Pretty black woman. He has a biracial daughter from that. Karis Jagger, pretty and looks like Mick too with curly hair lol. She is an actress at times.
Her mom is Marsha Hunt. This song was inspired by a different black woman, Claudia Lennear.
This is one of those songs that somehow manages to be utterly brilliant despite the horrific lyrics
Horrific? In some ways. It was inspired by his relationship with a black woman (which was illegal back then) who ended up being the mother of his first child. The midnight reference is about how they had to hide the relationship due to the laws of the time. It had nothing to do with any fetishes at all. Just about the ridiculous nature of the law that forced them to hide their relationship
@@TonyM1961 Nonsense. "old Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Skydog slaver know he's doin' all right
Hear him whip the women, just around midnight" is not about Mick having a relationship with a black woman (which was not illegal in Britain, where the Stones are from). It's about women being abducted, trafficked and raped.
@@kirstenhey9728 There are 2 parts to this song. One is about his relationship with Marsha Hunt (keeping in mind that she is the AMERICAN actress/model/singer and not the British actress of the same name) and that the song was written in 1967, the same year that interracial marriage was finally legalized in the US despite not being released until 1969. The other part is a take down on the people who made love illegal yet committed such horrible crimes against their fellow human beings. It's not either/or, but a serious critique of America as it was then and of the history that led up to it. Try expanding both your mind and your reading list. It will help
Here you can hear ALL the best Stones tracks:
open.spotify.com/playlist/3OVzvvJZeZSK9UturloOIL
Brad: disturbing lyrics, Lex: lets dance
The lyric is about slaves from Africa who were sold in New Orleans and raped by their white masters. The subject matter is quite serious, but the way the song is structured, it comes off as a fun rocker about a white guy having sex with a black girl. >>
Mick Jagger wrote the lyric. According to Bill Wyman, it was partially inspired by a black backup singer named Claudia Lennear, who was one of Ike Turner's Ikettes. She and Jagger met when The Stones toured with Turner in 1969. David Bowie also wrote his Aladdin Sane track "Lady Grinning Soul" about Lennear.
I heard The Stones have now removed 'Brown Sugar' from all their routines due to the highly evocative nature of the lyrics.
When this was released in early 70's in the south(USA) everyone was like I would never date an african-american girl or guy. This was a poke at them going your ancestors were attracted to them.
WOW. I've LISTENED to this song so many times... and loved it. This is perhaps the first time I've ever HEARD it... and it shocked me. I feel as if I learn something every day with you guys.
Some say that Marsha Hunt, a black woman and mother to one of Jagger's children, was the inspiration. Others say it was Claudia Lennear (one of the Ikettes, of Tina Turner and the Ikettes), another woman Jaggar had an affair with. Bill Wyman confirms the notion that it was partly inspired by Lennear. Jagger once stated that "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" He said that he didn't have a specific meaning behind the lyrics, kind of a mishmash of impressions he had as he wrote.
Been hearing this song since I was a kid, and only recently, when some issues with the lyrics came up, did I even learn what most of the lyrics were. When I was a kid, I didn't understand the Brown Sugar reference, natch, and I never even heard or understood the opening slavery stuff. Seems like the song is basically historical fiction to start, then moving on to a straight up inter-ethnicity (I dislike "interracial," as I believe we're all one race; the Human Race) sex song.
Lex is some light brown sugar.
Happy Wife Happy Life - Lex is an incredible woman but for her to be so happy her domestic life has to be doing really great and I think that Brad has to be a large part of why she is so happy, so good on you both! Stay happy and Stay awesome!
Mr. Brownstone is about Heroin and Master of Puppets is Cocain(I think)
I always heard the lyric as "how come you dance so good".
Back in October, the Rolling Stones released a statement saying they would no longer sing this song in concert, due to the perception by some that it glorifies slavery. I can see how the argument could be made that "Brown Sugar" has no say in the relationship...that she is a piece of property for her "owner" to use/abuse...but I've always gotten more of a "Jungle Fever" vibe from the song. It comes from an era when interracial relationships were taboo yet the White Englishman singer is obsessed with this young Black woman.
"I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? " -Mick Jagger
@@redSectorA yes but it sounds like it was meant to be a good time, so it does glorify it in that way
So sick of all this "woke" garbage and people caving to it and appeasing all these whining crybabies, they can all kiss my ass.
OH!!! and I know I keeps saying it, "Lex, you got some moves!"
Mick Jagger wrote "Brown Sugar" about Marsha Hunt, an actress who became the first black model to ever appear on the cover of Britain’s high-fashion magazine, Queen. Mick and Marsha had one child, a daughter named Karis.
Mmm very interesting. This is a very solid take on the song
I really dont give a damm what the song is about .its what you make of it . I like it !
Classic Stones toe tappin', hip shakin' rock 'n' roll. That's right in the Stones sweet spot during their absolute peak (1968-1973). Anything from the Stones during that era is pure gold.
Yeah definitely a good classic rock and roll (not just classic rock) vibe. Same with jumping jack flash.
@@soakedbearrd That's the thing with the Stones. They are definitely rock and roll as opposed to rock.
Damn I love Lex
Not sure which Stones songs you've done but here's some of my personal favs: Beast of Burden, Miss You, Can't Always Get What You Want, Waiting on a Friend, and Emotional Rescue. But they've got a lot more hits so do whatever you feel like.
Yes it was Stockholm Syndrome....he was in bi-racial relationships...next Rollin Stones needs to be Angie.....when you hear it you won't believe it's the rolling stones...try it, you'll like it!
P. S. Hats off to Bobby Keys, he played a hell of a sax on this song.
I never noted the slavery aspect of this song. Thanks.
The song is therefore not a celebration but a protest song about the vulnerability to rape of enslaved adults and children as made explicit in the second verse:
"Scarred old *slaver* know he's doing alright, hear him *whip* the women just around midnight."
The British musical invasion of the 60's seemed to have universally embraced the civil rights movement and in this song pushed back on the propaganda of benign slave master.
Update 1:
Reviewing comments the following morning after having some qualms about my comment above has led to the unfortunate conclusion that the song is really a celebration of privilege and power. We can say the sentiment expressed is a reflection of their education and not an embrace of sadism and predation. The embarrassment of Jagger towards the lyrics in later years is heartening. It is perhaps important to note that the song was written while in Australia and possibly immersed within the results of a successful brutal unreflective colonization.
Update 2:
Having recently listened to, Werewolves of London, and reflecting on the Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil, I believe the intent of this song was to merely tell the story from the perspective of the antagonist. Having never been truly cognizant of that second verse I had presumed the song was in the spirit of, Brown Eyed Girl, which it clearly isn't. Jagger needn't be ashamed. It's a great song in that light. :)
I think you can see that in the song if you're looking to read into it. The Stones were obviously hitting on the taboos around slave masters and interracial relations, I'm a little less inclined to think Mike & Keith were thinking that deeply. You don't put all those "Yeah, yeah, whoo!'s into a song if you have deep thoughts. I kind of think they were playing in much deeper waters than they were really conscious of...
@@davidgoodman4208 And I don’t think you give them enough credit. The juxtaposition of dark lyrics/upbeat groove is purposeful; they knew exactly what they were doing.The poppy sound is just the candy coating on the bitter pill of talking, quite explicitly, about the slave rape that was endemic in the antebellum south. It also conveys the mood of the rapist. For him it’s all fun and games (“he’s doing alright”), but we never hear the slave girl’s perspective. It’s a song that’s so sneakily brilliant most people miss the brilliance.
@@Kaddywompous I think you're doing a lot of work here. "We don't hear the girl's perspective" isn't some sort of jujitsu on the Stones' part - "the girl's perspective" is very much *not* a feature Mick was exploring in his lyrics. And when asked, Mick has never been "yeah, we meant it to be creepy" - his been kind of embarassed by the lyrics of the song, and has altered and softened them in concert over the years.
Like I said, you can read that into the song if you like. This is a pretty hotly debated song. The Stones have a very complex awareness and interaction with race and sex in their music. But I'm fairly your interpretation is something Mick & Keith weren't consciously putting into the song.
@@davidgoodman4208 I can see that he never meant it to be creepy because it’s far more than an examination of creepiness, or “taboo” for that matter. Rape of a teenage girl that you own is far more than just creepy. This is social commentary. I don’t know how framing it from the perspective of a slave master can be read any other way, unless you take it as an endorsement. Perhaps Mick is just tired of having been misunderstood/misconstrued so often regarding this song.
@@Kaddywompous here's how I read it... Mick was thinking about how awesome his relationship, and identified with how awesome the English slaver felt about getting to be with girls, and he thought the whole thing was taboo and cool... while Mick was also not thinking about what was different with the slaver - that it wasn't consensual and that it was wrong. These are English kids who were vaguely aware, but did not *get it* in that sort of way and did not have that level of "wokeness" about the British Empire at the time...
And if you read basically every bit of review and discourse on the album, literally nobody interpreted the song the way you do at the time it was released.
Brad's a lucky guy, He's got a rock & Roller on his side.