The Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar Lyrics

The Rolling Stones Lyrics

"Brown Sugar"

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Skydog slaver knows he's doing 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 wonderin' where it's gonna stop
House boy knows that he's doing alright
You shoulda heard him just around midnight

Brown sugar how come you taste so good, now?
Brown sugar just like a young girl should, now

Ah, get along, brown sugar how come you taste so good, baby?
Ah, got me feelin' now, brown sugar just like a black girl should

I bet your mama was a tent show queen
And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
I'm no schoolboy but I know what I like
You shoulda heard me just around midnight

Brown sugar how come you taste so good, baby?
Ah, brown sugar just like a young girl should, yeah

I said yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
How come you... how come you taste so good?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
Just like a... just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo

Submit Corrections

Thanks to carboncrank, JayRock for correcting these lyrics.

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards

Mick Jagger wrote the riff to this song in Australia during the filming of "Ned Kelly" (1970) which he played the title role in.

Keith Richards wrote in his book "Life" how Mick Jagger penned these lyrics, "He wrote it down as fast as he could move his hand. I'd never seen anything like it. He had one of those yellow legal pads, and he'd write a verse a page, just write a verse and then turn the page, and when he had three pages filled, they started to cut it. It was amazing!"

Bill Wyman told in an interview for Rolling Stone in 2002, "The lyrics were partially inspired by a black backing singer we knew in L.A. called Claudia Linnear."

In his autobiography "Life" (p. 278), Keith Richards quotes pianist Jim Dickinson talking about Mick Jagger writing this song, "If you listen to the lyrics, he says, 'Skydog slaver' (though it's always written 'scarred old slaver'). What does it mean? 'Skydog' is what they called Duane Allman in Muscle Shoals, because he was high all the time. And Jagger heard somebody say it and he thought it was a cool word so he used it."

This song was dropped from the set list of their "No Filter Tour" when touring started following the ease of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in 2021. Members of the band said they will no longer perform "Brown Sugar" live because it references black women sold into slavery and whipped. Keith Richards explained The Los Angeles Times in September of 2021, "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 shit. But I'm hoping that we'll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track."

album: "Sticky Fingers" (1971)

The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers album cover

Brown Sugar

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"Brown Sugar" lyrics

The Rolling Stones Lyrics