Rolling Stones dump 'Brown Sugar' after 50 years: 'They're trying to bury it'
'I'm trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is,' guitarist Keith Richards says
Author of the article:Mark Daniell
Publishing date:Oct 13, 2021 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read • 78 Comments
Lead singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones kicks off their U.S. tour in St. Louis.
Lead singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones kicks off their U.S. tour in St. Louis. PHOTO BY LAWRENCE BRYANT /REUTERS
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Fifty years after its release, the Rolling Stones have decided that Brown Sugar doesn’t taste so good with live music fans. The British rockers have dropped the popular song from the set list of their current No Filter Tour.
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“You picked up on that, huh?” guitarist Keith Richards remarked to the LA Times when he was asked recently why they’re not playing one of their biggest hits. “I don’t know. 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? But they’re trying to bury it. At the moment I don’t want to get into conflicts with all of this s—.”
The song contains lyrics that depict “Gold Coast” slaves being sold in New Orleans, with references to a “slaver” and women being beat “just around midnight.” The tune also alludes to the rape of a female slave and the line, “How come you taste so good?”
“We’ve played Brown Sugar every night since 1970, so sometimes you think, We’ll take that one out for now and see how it goes,” 78-year-old frontman Mick Jagger told the Times . “We might put it back in.”
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In a 2019 op-ed, Ian Brennan argued in the Chicago Tribune that the song, which was the first single from 1971’s Sticky Fingers LP, should be dropped from the band’s setlist.
Mick Jagger performs during the Rolling Stones “No Filter” 2021 North American tour at The Dome at America’s Center on Sept. 26, 2021 in St. Louis.
Mick Jagger performs during the Rolling Stones “No Filter” 2021 North American tour at The Dome at America’s Center on Sept. 26, 2021 in St. Louis. PHOTO BY KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI /AFP via Getty Images
“If the song’s same words were recited publicly, they would incite outrage,” Brennan wrote. “Twitter would run amok, friendships would fray, careers would capsize, swallowed whole by waves of shame. Somehow though, when set to music, the words are ignored.”
In a 2015 piece for Vulture , Lauretta Charlton called the song “gross, sexist, and stunningly offensive toward black women.”
According to setlist.fm , the band has played the track live 1,136 times — second only to Jumpin’ Jack Flash .
“I never would write that song now,” Jagger admitted in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone . “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.'”
Still, Richards, 77, would like to see the crowd-pleaser reinstated into the Stones’ future sets.
“I’m hoping that we’ll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track,” Richards told the Times .
mdaniell@postmedia.com
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