Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Brown Sugar
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, Florence, Sheffield, Alabama, US,
December 3 - 4, 1969, Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK,
December 9 - 10, 1969 & April 24, 1970 and
Rolling Stones Mobile Recording Unit, Stargroves, Newbury, Berkshire, UK &
Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, May 9 - August 1970.

Mick Jagger - lead vocals, percussion
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmony vocals
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Mick Taylor - electric guitar
Ian Stewart - piano
Bobby Keys - saxophone

Gold Coast slaveship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver know he's doin' alright
Hear him whip the women just around midnight
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should

Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wond'rin where it's gonna stop
House boy knows that he's doin' alright
You should-a-heard him just around midnight
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good now
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should now, yeah

Get it on, brown sugar, how come you taste so good, baby
Got to get it on, brown sugar, just like a black girl should, yeah

Now, I bet your mama was a Tent Show queen
And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
I'm no school boy but I know what I like
You should have heard me just around midnight
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, baby
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should, yeah

I said yeah, yeah, yeah, whooh, how come you, how come you taste so good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, whooh, just like a, just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah, whooh

Produced by Jimmy Miller

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Brown Sugar / Bitch / Let It Rock” 7” single
(Rolling Stones Records RS 19100) UK, April 16, 1971
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Brown Sugar (alternate take)
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, Florence, Sheffield, Alabama, US,
December 3 - 4, 1969 and Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK,
December 9 - 10, 1969 & April 24, 1970

Mick Jagger - lead vocals, percussion
Keith Richards - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmony vocals
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass
Ian Stewart - piano

Gold Coast slaveship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver know he's doin' alright
Hear him whip the women just around midnight
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should

Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wond'rin where it's gonna stop
House boy knows that he's doin' alright
You should-a-heard him just around midnight
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good now
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should now, yeah

Get it on, brown sugar, how come you taste so good, baby
Got to get it on, brown sugar, just like a black girl should, yeah

Now, I bet your mama was a Tent Show queen
And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
I'm no school boy but I know what I like
You should have heard me just around midnight
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, baby
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should, yeah

I said yeah, yeah, yeah, whooh, how come you, how come you taste so good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, whooh, just like a, just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah, whooh

Produced by Jimmy Miller

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Hot Rocks 1964 - 1971” 2LP
(London 2PS 606/607) US, January 1972 (first pressings only)



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 2015-02-11 11:39 by René.

Damm song gets better every time I hear it, I adore it.

Maybe the greatest song of all time.

Jagger wrote an absolute diamond with this one - he never even claims credit for the G tuning riff etc - most believe it's Keith.

So Mick here is both humble and brilliant....

Quote
squando
Maybe the greatest song of all time.

Jagger wrote an absolute diamond with this one - he never even claims credit for the G tuning riff etc - most believe it's Keith.

So Mick here is both humble and brilliant....

I'd love to know the full history of this song, now that you mention the open-g tuning element. It's acknowledged that Mick wrote it, but then Keith apparently worked on it and tweaked it. I wonder if that included transposing it from standard tuning into open-g, and/or whatever else.

Any buffs out there know the fiull history of this song, who did what to it to get it into the final form ?

Mick ..... and Keith should get back down here again...
Easily get 'em out to a desert and let 'em knock out a some gems






ROCKMAN

Quote
Rockman
Mick ..... and Keith should get back down here again...
Easily get 'em out to a desert and let 'em knock out a some gems

Priceless. Terry, you got any more info on this, like the standard tuning/open-g tuning conundrum, and/or anything/everything else about this wondersong ? Cheers mah man.

Here ya go Pauly .... borrowed from timeisonourside.com ....


TrackTalk

I've got a new one myself. No words yet, but a few words in my head - called Brown Sugar - about a woman who screws one of her black servants. I started to call it Black Pussy but I decided that was too direct, too nitty-gritty.

- Mick Jagger, December 2, 1969, on the way
to Muscle Shoals Studios (from Stanley Booth's
The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones)

(I've written riffs that people assume are Keith's.) Brown Sugar. That was the first one I did. I've done many since.

- Mick Jagger, 1994

At the end of the '60s I had a little more time to sit around and play my guitar, writing songs rather than just lyrics for the first time. I'd written songs before then, but they were little things like Yesterday's Papers. Now I could take it more seriously. Brown Sugar was one of those songs. I wrote it in Australia, somewhere between Melbourne and Sydney, while I was in my trailer filming Ned Kelly - I had a whole bunch of time out there. I was simply writing what I wanted to write, not trying to test the waters. People are very quick to react to what you write, but I just write what comes into my head.

- Mick Jagger, 2003

I wrote that song in Australia in the middle of a field. They were really odd circumstances. I was doing this movie, Ned Kelly, and my hand had got really damaged in this action sequence. So stupid. I was trying to rehabilitate my hand and I had this new kind of electric guitar, and I was playing in the middle of the outback and wrote this tune. But why it works? I mean, it's a good groove and all that. I mean, the groove is slightly similar to Freddy Cannon, this rather obscure '50s rock performer - Tallahassee Lassie or something. Do you remember this? She's down in F-L-A. Anyway, the groove of that - boom-boom-boom-boom-boom - is going to a go-go or whatever, but that's the groove.

- Mick Jagger, 1995

The lyrics were partially inspired by a black backing singer we knew in L.A. called Claudia Linnear.

- Bill Wyman, Rolling With The Stones, 2002

We cut a version of Brown Sugar with Al Kooper, it was a good track. He's playing piano on it at Bobby Keys' and my birthday party, which was held at Olympic Studios... We wanted to use it 'cause it's a new version but there's something about the Muscle Shoals feel of the album one, that we got into at the end of the last American tour. Charlie really fills the sound and it was so easy to cut down there.

- Keith Richards, 1971

(Keith was playing) a Gibson, but not a Les Paul... I think it was an SG, and as I recall it was black. I remember it had those sharp horns on the cutaways. That's what he played most of the time he was here. Taylor, to my recollection, was playing a Strat. And guess what we came up with for Bill Wyman? Do you remember those Plexiglas body basses that were around then? I checked with David Hood later and he says it was a Dan Armstrong. So to the best of our recollection, that's what it was... Keith played a Fender Twin, and so did Mick Taylor, and they brought those in with them. The loudness on those tracks really came from Keith. I had it put in that back booth and shut the door on it.

- Jimmy Johnson, 2005

We use acoustic guitars a lot to shadow the electric, always have done. It gives another atmosphere to this track, makes it less dry. It's cheap, too.

- Keith Richards, 1993

Keith's guitar amp was in a booth, and Jagger was in the back of the room with baffles around him. There was some leakage going on, but you couldn't tell because he was so close to the mic. It was part of the sound. The drums did not have a booth, they were open, but with baffles. But there was a lot of leakage on the drums, cymbals and stuff, even though (Charlie) didn't play real hard... Even today, that would be a good way for a rock band to mic their drums, if they like some great live drumming sound. They would be surprised to find that sometimes less is more.

- Jimmy Johnson, 2005

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. 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.

- Mick Jagger, 1995

This song was a very instant thing, a definite high point. We played it at Altamont even before it was out on record.

- Mick Jagger, 1993


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ROCKMAN

The G tuning was all Jagger. He was/is actually quite a good player in G and general.

If you have the footage of him with Ike and Tina backstage at MSG in 69 you'll see him wizzing about the neck of the guit (tuned to G) very comfortably so writing "Brown Sugar" four months earlier in G would have been no issue at all for him I would imagine.

This song has the lot.

Quote
squando
The G tuning was all Jagger. He was/is actually quite a good player in G and general.

If you have the footage of him with Ike and Tina backstage at MSG in 69 you'll see him wizzing about the neck of the guit (tuned to G) very comfortably so writing "Brown Sugar" four months earlier in G would have been no issue at all for him I would imagine.

This song has the lot.

Interesting, thanks.

IMO, the ultimate Rolling Stones party track: guaranteed to turn heads and get the feet tapping!

Who's the sax player on the Top Of The Pops 71 video? Anyone know|?

Havent watched that vid in ages, but I seem to remember it was Trevor Lawrence.

JR

Quote
Rockman


This song was a very instant thing, a definite high point. We played it at Altamont even before it was out on record.

- Mick Jagger, 1993


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How did people react to the premiere?

C

just about as good as good gets

I find this track to be probably their best single ever. Better than Jumpin' Jack Flash (not by much but still better), better than Honky Tonk Women and way better than Satisfaction. Forget the culture aspect of Satisfaction - I'm talking writing, playing, performance. It's brilliant. It's gotten a bit drawn out live over the past 20 years or so but they still play it with authority and better than JJF and Satisfaction.

Charlie said they did the Muscle Shoals sessions without Jimmy Miller. That's the only time that's ever been said. Makes me wonder.

The quintessential Stones track.

what more can you say... in a category with "Satisfaction" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

There was nothing more spectacular than their flatbed performance in 1975 to introduce the Tour of the Americas. Very, very exciting.

Two-and-a-bit great versions plus lots of pictures and info:

probably the grooviest stonestrack. charlie hits very hard!! i like...

even though gimme shelter is my alltime fav. track, i have to admit that (like greenblues said) this must be the quintessential stones song...
groove, lyrics, riff, mood...everything that defines them.

GL

I prefer the alternate 1973 version with the additional melodic guitar play.

Of course, the video below deserves revisiting for this thread. I remember catching it on CBS News. What a great and changing moment in Stones history. And what a tour.

This is such a good song in the studio. Help me find a really good version live. I am usually disappointed in the live versions of Brown Sugar. The studio verson with the sax break and the rythym guitar just kicked up to anoth level never fails to lighten my mood what a song.

Ok - I found one in the last bit of Green Lady's post!!!!

Quote
skipstone
I find this track to be probably their best single ever. Better than Jumpin' Jack Flash (not by much but still better), better than Honky Tonk Women and way better than Satisfaction.

At the time when they came out the effect and impression of singles like Satisfaction, Jumpin Jack Flash and Honky Tonk Woman were all much bigger than Brown Sugars'!
It's a great and quintessential Rocksong - esp. in the long run - but those other tunes were of more importance!

This was likely the most significant 30 day period of the Stones' entire career...some of the greatest musical highs and a ghastly low...
LA Forum, Madison Square Garden, down to Mussel Shoals, hurry to San Francisco for the ill-fated Altamont concert and so eager to get home to England.

If anyone ever walks up to you who's does not know anything about the Stones and you want
to enlighten him with one song, play Brown Sugar. It sums it all up!

Quote
skipstone
I find this track to be probably their best single ever. Better than Jumpin' Jack Flash (not by much but still better) ...

BS is a good song, but it still doesn't have the 'mystery factor', which JJF has - it's still unclear quite how JJF was recorded. One day we may get our hands on the multitrack tape and all will be revealed.

I think BS along with JJF, HTW and "Satisfaction" are the greatest rock songs of all time.

"Angie" I think is the greatest ballad.

They really have written and performed some absolute ball tearers haven't they?

Why does Jimmy Miller get "Produced by" credit when he wasn't even at the Muscle Shoals session?

And why no mention of the version they cut with Eric Clapton?

I think Jimmy was at Muscle Shoals. And also that Clapton story is has never been confirmed. To me, the slide sounds more like Taylor than EC. I thought it was Keith's birthday, not Bills.

There are a few rare live versions with the correct "hear him whip the women" lyric from 72.