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Brown Sugar Song Review by Richie Unterberger
"Brown Sugar" starts off with one of the most compelling guitar riffs ever laid down on a rock & roll record: a choppy, bluesy sequence that manages to sound halfway between full chords and single notes, with a prickly, wobbly note inserted between repetitions of the principal lick. Those riffs are what, more than anything else, made it a resounding number one hit in 1971 (although it had actually been recorded back in 1969). There was plenty else on the record that made one dance, sing along, and, probably last, start to wonder exactly what the Rolling Stones were singing about in its typically lust-laden, controversial lyric. There are more amazing riffs dotting the record, particularly when the guitars go to a lower register to play a more ominous lick. The group sings the lyric with all the enthusiasm of tongue-wagging dogs swooping onto a prime rib, leading up to one of the band's strongest shout-along choruses. As on other Stones classics of the period like "Honky Tonk Women" and "Bitch," beefy horns start to duel with the buzzing electric guitars in the instrumental break; few if any other groups have used guitars and horns as deftly in unison. The crowning embellishment is the final choruses, which vary the melody and tempo so that the group sings and make a high-pitched exclamation in a rhythm that very much resembles that of a sexual climax. As Robert Christgau wrote in -The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of ock'n'Roll, "Brown Sugar" is "a rocker so compelling that it discourages exegesis." Once that exegesis had been performed, many listeners were disturbed to find a lyric describing, to most appearances, a Colonial slave owner having sex with a black slave girl, in terms strongly suggestive of oral sex no less. One could take the position that the Stones were being ironic, but the giddy enthusiasm with which they whoop it up seems to belie that interpretation. Muddying the waters even more, Keith Richards told NME, "Brown sugar was in fact a term for Mexican smack. Mick [Jagger] just wrote it for a chick." The brilliance of the track is that it is so musically powerful and irresistible that the most PC-conscious listener will find it hard not to dance to it before getting around to pondering the lyrics. But it can't be denied that the words are among the most troubling evocations of evil and sexploitation that Jagger and Richards devised, whether that was a conscious or subconscious effect.

Quote
Brown Sugar Song Review by Richie Unterberger
"Brown Sugar" starts off with one of the most compelling guitar riffs ever laid down on a rock & roll record: a choppy, bluesy sequence that manages to sound halfway between full chords and single notes, with a prickly, wobbly note inserted between repetitions of the principal lick. Those riffs are what, more than anything else, made it a resounding number one hit in 1971 (although it had actually been recorded back in 1969). There was plenty else on the record that made one dance, sing along, and, probably last, start to wonder exactly what the Rolling Stones were singing about in its typically lust-laden, controversial lyric. There are more amazing riffs dotting the record, particularly when the guitars go to a lower register to play a more ominous lick. The group sings the lyric with all the enthusiasm of tongue-wagging dogs swooping onto a prime rib, leading up to one of the band's strongest shout-along choruses. As on other Stones classics of the period like "Honky Tonk Women" and "Bitch," beefy horns start to duel with the buzzing electric guitars in the instrumental break; few if any other groups have used guitars and horns as deftly in unison. The crowning embellishment is the final choruses, which vary the melody and tempo so that the group sings and make a high-pitched exclamation in a rhythm that very much resembles that of a sexual climax. As Robert Christgau wrote in -The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of ock'n'Roll, "Brown Sugar" is "a rocker so compelling that it discourages exegesis." Once that exegesis had been performed, many listeners were disturbed to find a lyric describing, to most appearances, a Colonial slave owner having sex with a black slave girl, in terms strongly suggestive of oral sex no less. One could take the position that the Stones were being ironic, but the giddy enthusiasm with which they whoop it up seems to belie that interpretation. Muddying the waters even more, Keith Richards told NME, "Brown sugar was in fact a term for Mexican smack. Mick [Jagger] just wrote it for a chick." The brilliance of the track is that it is so musically powerful and irresistible that the most PC-conscious listener will find it hard not to dance to it before getting around to pondering the lyrics. But it can't be denied that the words are among the most troubling evocations of evil and sexploitation that Jagger and Richards devised, whether that was a conscious or subconscious effect.