The Rolling Stones haven’t been doing “Brown Sugar” on the No Filter Tour.
The band was asked about the omission and frontman Mick Jagger explained, “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. We might put it back in.”
Guitarist Keith Richards seemed to imply there was different reason though and talked about the song’s meaning, which covers topics including slavery and rape. It’s title is also a double entendre for oral sex and heroin.
Richards explained, “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 sh*t.”
Richards claims he’s still “hoping that we’ll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track.”
Do you think the lyrics to Brown Sugar are offensive? What if it had been written this year?