Brown Sugar

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old 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



- Released May 7, 1971

- The song was recorded over a three day period at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama during December 2-4, 1969, the song was not released until over a year later due to legal wranglings with the band's former label though at the request of guitarist Mick Taylor, they debuted the number live during the infamous concert at Altamont on December 6. In the film Gimme Shelter, an alternate mix of the song is played back to Jagger and Richards while they relax in a hotel in Alabama.

- Mick Jagger wrote the lyrics. They were inspired by Claudia Lennear, one of Ike Turner's backup singers (Ikettes) who he had an affair with. They met when The Stones toured with Turner in 1969.

- Author's Notes: It should be no secret by now that the Rolling Stones loved to stir controversy with their music. Although the song is inspired by Mick Jagger's former affair with Claudia Lennear, the song is also about the brothels of New Orleans and the boyish pursuit for a prostitute. The Animals recorded a very popular song, The House of the Rising Sun, which may have also been of inspiration because of its subject matter likeness.