Rolling Stones-Brown Sugar?

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  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts


    In any case, Afrocentricity had very little to do with either since that was never embraced into the mainstream of American culture.

    So there weren't millions of Lee Oskar look-alikes running around during the early 70's?

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts


    In any case, Afrocentricity had very little to do with either since that was never embraced into the mainstream of American culture.

    So there weren't millions of Lee Oskar look-alikes running around during the early 70's?

    Stylistically, the kufi/dashiki-era might have been a minor rage but I meant more in terms of the philosophy of Afrocentricity. The term didn't even really gain momentum until the early '80s and regardless, "Black Power" was not an idea sweeping middle America in any era, '70s or otherwise.

    Btw, Scott Saul does a nice summation on Black Power history in last month's Harper's when he reviews Peniel Joseph's "Waitin' Til the Midnight Hour" and Stephen Shames' photography book, "The Black Panthers."

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts

    Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields,
    Sold in a market down in new orleans.
    Scarred old slaver know hes doin alright.
    Hear him whip the women just around midnight.
    Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
    (a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should
    A-huh.

    Drums beating, cold english blood runs hot,
    Lady of the house wondrin where its gonna stop.
    House boy knows that hes doin alright.
    You should a heard him just around midnight.
    Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
    (a-ha) brown sugar, just like a black girl should
    A-huh.

    I bet your mama was a tent show queen, and all her boy
    Friends were sweet sixteen.
    Im no schoolboy but I know what I like,
    You should have heard me just around midnight.

    Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
    (a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should.

    I said yeah, I said yeah, I said yeah, I said
    Oh just like a, just like a black girl should.

    I said yeah, I said yeah, I said yeah, I said
    Oh just like, just like a black girl should.

    Crazy!
    I never could understand half the lyrics in Brown Sugar...
    No wonder Mick mumbled so damn much.
    Like somebody else said, I just thought this was about wanting a little loving from
    a sister.
    I figure that like so many of the Stones tunes, it was written from
    an alternate perspective, or in character, as it were.
    Like "Sympathy For The Devil" or "Street Fightin' Man".

    I think you are right. Rereading these lyrics I think Jagger is imaging early 1800s Jungle Fever, first the salvers desire for Black women (whip clearly is a double entendre here) then the lady of the house's desire for Black men and finally the singers own desire. Jaggers sexualisation of African Americans is not a good look at all, but this works as a jungle fever type song. I agree with whoever said; that it was a hit, along with the Stones other offensive songs, because people don't listen to (or analysis) the lyrics.

    There is (and never will be) no number one hit by a Black artist that demeans or sexualizes Whites in this way.

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    I am kinda surprised that this song came out when it did. 1971 was an extremely Afrocentric, P.C. time

    I'll give you the afrocentric part, but PC? nowhere near it; I don't even think the term existed yet. Top rated show of '71 was All In the Family.
    In '71 we still had crazies like George Wallace spitting out their rhetoric and getting TV time to do so. Not to mention the first season of Sanford and Son, maybe I'm mistakn but I think John and Yoko had the track "Woman is the Nigger Of the World" got released that year as well.

    I first started hearing PC in the early 80s. It was used by leftists to describe other leftists who were holier than thou. If you turned down your thermostat to 68 they turned theirs to 64, If you said "disabled" (knowing that handicapped was offensive) they said "otherlyabled". It was a back handed way of putting down other leftists. In the 80s Ronald Regan removed the fairness clause from TV and radio liscences. This gave rise to the right wing talk shows. One of their first crusades was to elimate political correctness, which had crept into universities and work places. No more turning down the thermastat and using non-offensive language.

    1971 was perhaps the apex of the anti-war hippie yippie Black power era. These groups were not in anyway mainstream. Nixon, who was very popular, waged war on these groups in 1971. Students and activists were shot and killed and exiled and jailed. At the same time Madison Avenue and the fashion world embraced the style and language of the revolution. We had "revolutions" in toilet paper and Dean Martin wore bell bottoms.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    There is (and never will be) no number one hit by a Black artist that demeans or sexualizes Whites in this way.

    You dont think they'll be a Black song w/out the slavery context that celebrates women besides their "own"?

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts

    There is (and never will be) no number one hit by a Black artist that demeans or sexualizes Whites in this way.

    So this has no chance of smashing the charts?



  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Wait, where does Teena Marie's "Casanova Brown" fall?

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    There is (and never will be) no number one hit by a Black artist that demeans or sexualizes Whites in this way.

    You dont think they'll be a Black song w/out the slavery context that celebrates women besides their "own"?

    I'm not sure I understand the question. A song that celebrates women? perhaps. A song that demeans women? Perhaps. A song that reduces White women to sexual objects to be used and abused? No, never.

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts

    There is (and never will be) no number one hit by a Black artist that demeans or sexualizes Whites in this way.

    So this has no chance of smashing the charts?



    Who is more demeaned in this picture? Girlz, who are refered to as White, or the Black men who are refered to Niggaz?

    I no you were posting a joke, but is this a popular song by a popular group? Sorry, I am

  • i didn't read all the way through but isn't it "white gurl" by e-40?

  • Found this through a google search. lol One of the stupidest things I have ever read.

    by shauncreaney on 07-21-2002 @ 06:36:17 AM
    i originally thought that brown sugar was a metaphor for oral sex. firstly, because it should taste good as far as i have been told. (i can't speak from experience here), hence the 'sugar'. and 'brown' secondly because most pubic hairs are brown (some physiologist told me). but after some critical thinking, i arrived at a different conclusion. i think that some african slaves in the US may have been unwarrantedly force to harvest brown sugar for the elitist fat-cat caucasian racist nabob-bosses. or maybe the rolling stones went abe lincoln style and decided to praise the sexual prowess of the young black princess. i 'heard' that many of these cock-asian fellows would fornicate with their black wenches while the housewife listened to the bumps in the night but did nothing. oh well, so much for american freedom. 'the home of the free and the slave' as far as i'm concerned.

  • GuzzoGuzzo 8,611 Posts
    by shauncreaney on 07-21-2002 @ 06:36:17 AM
    i originally thought that brown sugar was a metaphor for oral sex. firstly, because it should taste good as far as i have been told. (i can't speak from experience here), hence the 'sugar'. and 'brown' secondly because most pubic hairs are brown (some physiologist told me). but after some critical thinking, i arrived at a different conclusion. i think that some african slaves in the US may have been unwarrantedly force to harvest brown sugar for the elitist fat-cat caucasian racist nabob-bosses. or maybe the rolling stones went abe lincoln style and decided to praise the sexual prowess of the young black princess. i 'heard' that many of these cock-asian fellows would fornicate with their black wenches while the housewife listened to the bumps in the night but did nothing. oh well, so much for american freedom. 'the home of the free and the slave' as far as i'm concerned.

    HarveyCanal, is this true?

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    i didn't read all the way through but isn't it "white gurl" by e-40?


  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    I should clarify that while Brown Sugar was a #1 hit, and I was unaware of any protest against it, that does not mean there was none. Stanley Crouch or The Call or some writer or paper may very well have written an article protesting the lyrics of Brown Sugar and the Rolling Stones appropriation of African American music. But as a White teen from the suburbs I was unawares.

    It's hard to imagine today, but in 1971 only a few papers or magazines would publish an article on the social impact of rock and roll lyrics. Outside of Rolling Stone, Screw and Village Voice and underground papers there was no serious rock criticism. News magazines and papers payed zero attention to popular music, or culture, unless it was vice president complaining about drug references or something like that.

  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    Outside of Rolling Stone, Screw and Village Voice and underground papers there was no serious rock criticism. News magazines and papers payed zero attention to popular music, or culture, unless it was vice president complaining about drug references or something like that.

    Don't forget Creem! Or this:


  • Outside of Rolling Stone, Screw and Village Voice and underground papers there was no serious rock criticism. News magazines and papers payed zero attention to popular music, or culture, unless it was vice president complaining about drug references or something like that.

    Don't forget Creem! Or this:


    ...which has a song called "Jagger The Dagger" which I think is about the Stones' lead singer...tune is so paranoid I can hardly tell whether it's a tribute or a teardown

  • awallawall 673 Posts
    doesn't anyone remember the prince paul-produced, biz markie-sung brown sugar response song?

    WHIIIITE BIIITTTCCCHHEESSS

  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    ^ file needed.

  • awallawall 673 Posts
    ^ file needed.
    i would have to do some serious attic digging to find that CD. i'm sure someone can make it happen.
    that shit was hilarious though
    "white bitches, how come you look so good
    white bitches, do shit no sister would"

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    ^ file needed.

    Here you go

    Biz - Snow Flake

    And on that note, just noticed it's 4.20 in the morning, the alcohol is wearing off and bed is calling. If I don't get back here before it have a happy new year Strutters.

  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    ^ file needed.
    i would have to do some serious attic digging to find that CD. i'm sure someone can make it happen.

    that shit was hilarious though
    "white bitches, how come you look so good
    white bitches, do shit no sister would"

    That sounds hilarious.

    Edit: thanks for the link.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    ^ file needed.
    i would have to do some serious attic digging to find that CD. i'm sure someone can make it happen.

    that shit was hilarious though
    "white bitches, how come you look so good
    white bitches, do shit no sister would"

    That sounds hilarious.

    Edit: thanks for the link.

    Question answered!

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    Outside of Rolling Stone, Screw and Village Voice and underground papers there was no serious rock criticism. News magazines and papers payed zero attention to popular music, or culture, unless it was vice president complaining about drug references or something like that.

    Don't forget Creem! Or this:


    ...which has a song called "Jagger The Dagger" which I think is about the Stones' lead singer...tune is so paranoid I can hardly tell whether it's a tribute or a teardown

    It's a teardown. Jagger misappropriates blues music and dancing/selling his soul to the devil to do so is the message. This fits nicely with my theory that the song "Susan Jane" on there is a song making fun of Bob Dylan.
    *Which I can always back

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Isnt Jimi's Dolly Dagger about some chick that he and Jagger were sharing? Or somethin' along those lines?

  • Outside of Rolling Stone, Screw and Village Voice and underground papers there was no serious rock criticism. News magazines and papers payed zero attention to popular music, or culture, unless it was vice president complaining about drug references or something like that.

    Don't forget Creem! Or this:


    ...which has a song called "Jagger The Dagger" which I think is about the Stones' lead singer...tune is so paranoid I can hardly tell whether it's a tribute or a teardown

    It's a teardown. Jagger misappropriates blues music and dancing/selling his soul to the devil to do so is the message.

    The ironic part about it is that McD sounds mysteriously like Jagger when he tries to get "gritty" (it's real obvious on his Outlaw album).

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    Outside of Rolling Stone, Screw and Village Voice and underground papers there was no serious rock criticism. News magazines and papers payed zero attention to popular music, or culture, unless it was vice president complaining about drug references or something like that.

    Don't forget Creem! Or this:


    ...which has a song called "Jagger The Dagger" which I think is about the Stones' lead singer...tune is so paranoid I can hardly tell whether it's a tribute or a teardown

    It's a teardown. Jagger misappropriates blues music and dancing/selling his soul to the devil to do so is the message.

    The ironic part about it is that McD sounds mysteriously like Jagger when he tries to get "gritty" (it's real obvious on his Outlaw album).

    Thus proving his point?!?!

    Could someone post lyrics please?

  • Outside of Rolling Stone, Screw and Village Voice and underground papers there was no serious rock criticism. News magazines and papers payed zero attention to popular music, or culture, unless it was vice president complaining about drug references or something like that.

    Don't forget Creem! Or this:


    ...which has a song called "Jagger The Dagger" which I think is about the Stones' lead singer...tune is so paranoid I can hardly tell whether it's a tribute or a teardown

    It's a teardown. Jagger misappropriates blues music and dancing/selling his soul to the devil to do so is the message.

    The ironic part about it is that McD sounds mysteriously like Jagger when he tries to get "gritty" (it's real obvious on his Outlaw album).

    Thus proving his point?!?!

    In McDaniels' case, not really.

    He sure as hell didn't sing like that on those early pop sides on Liberty - and he was having hits before the Stones showed up! Matter of fact, he sounded pretty "proper," not like the kind of R&B act that Jagger & co. would be emulating(not a slam, as I enjoy his early-60's pop smashes and his "progressive soul" records equally). As a kid, hearing McDaniels'"Chip Chip" on an oldies station, I thought it was a white man singing for the longest time.

    Could someone post lyrics please?

    I believe you, man, no one's got anything to prove! :-)

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    Isnt Jimi's Dolly Dagger about some chick that he and Jagger were sharing? Or somethin' along those lines?

    Quick search found this tidbit:

    The line "Dolly Dagger, she drinks her blood from a jagged edge." is a reference to Mick Jagger, at one of Hendrix's birthdays, Mick Jagger pricked his finger, and Devon Wilson, in full view of Hendrix rushed over and sucked the blood from his finger, refusing to get him a band-aid until the bleeding subsided.

    *Devon Wilson was Jimi's gf at the time.

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    "Jagger The Dagger" by Eugene McDaniels

    Jagger Doin the devil dance
    Just a victim of circumstance
    Jagger wheelin' the Rolling Stone
    He and the devil know he's all alone
    Jagger's lived in the world awhile
    Now he's learnin' the devil's style
    Jagger playing a heavy game
    Free from guilt and he's free from shame
    Jagger sucking the source of life
    Slashing the pig with a horny knife
    Jagger merging the sexes now
    Just stand back and he'll show you how
    Jagger's organ will play the tune
    He will watch the heavens open soon

    Fairly paranoid. I'm feeling a little less certain now of the interpretation, but Left Rev doesn't like Jagger.

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    "Jagger The Dagger" by Eugene McDaniels

    Jagger Doin the devil dance
    Just a victim of circumstance
    Jagger wheelin' the Rolling Stone
    He and the devil know he's all alone
    Jagger's lived in the world awhile
    Now he's learnin' the devil's style
    Jagger playing a heavy game
    Free from guilt and he's free from shame
    Jagger sucking the source of life
    Slashing the pig with a horny knife
    Jagger merging the sexes now
    Just stand back and he'll show you how
    Jagger's organ will play the tune
    He will watch the heavens open soon

    Fairly paranoid. I'm feeling a little less certain now of the interpretation, but Left Rev doesn't like Jagger.

    Hes clearly listened to him.
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