Maybe it's a reference to Maria's drug addicted lesbian past......

That would just be cruel for a new bride who's not been allowed to be with her husband...............

Oh I hope not (THE SICK JOKE FROM SHARON QUOTE) .. it is going to cause some people who remember the song.. to raise their eyebrows at the suitability of this song by a young black woman on a family show...

1971 released date on the album by the dubious name for ME now of STICKY FINGERS... please do not reply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YUK!

For Rolling Stones fans like me, Sticky Fingers rates easily as one of their best albums.. its great to see after all these years people are still shocked by 'em

Maria is obviously changing the lyrics to "just like a young man should" but it doesn't take anything away from the unsuitability of the lyric.

AND what it is better to abuse a young man then.. not at all.. whichever way you look at the lyrics they are so not right for her... and yes they were out to shock SPIV will tell you that.. they always were they were banned from my house if they came on Top of the Pops my dad used to turn it over or off!! Odd that now it seems even more shocking, but I was a little girl.. no wonder he turned it OFF.

GG

GG, if you actually read my post you may notice I said changing the lyric to suit a woman takes nothing away from it's general unsuitability. Where did I say or even hint that it's OK to abuse a young black man?

Is the song also about the black woman Mick had a relationship and a child with?

Sorry I know you were saying that but what the hell is the Osborne camp thinking is what I meant.. okay to change it NO it is not... I wonder if this is why she is slightly not happy about the song.. she is right to be not happy. This was the Stones at the height of the LETS SHOCK THEM ALL ERA.. and they did..

GG

He was seeing a black woman called Carmen before he wrote the song, i think he has said in the past that he had her in mind as well, (thing is it was the summer of love 1969 - he probably can't remember any of that period too well.. Bill Wyman would be the man to ask, he never took drugs and kept a journal all the time.. )but i don't think he had a child with her.. he sowed his oats all over though so he may have done.. I think Marsha Hunt - another black woman may have had a child with him

I'm a bit confused by the way this thread's going. I can see that it's a strange song for a woman to sing; but the other implication is that Mick Jagger was deliberately trying to be offensive when he wrote it?

The Rolling Stones liked to shock, yes, but I don't think he was advocating racism in any way.

He's always seemed to get on really well with woman of all races.

haha, he certainly did, all of the Ikettes (Tina & Ikes backing singers) no to call MJ racist would be way off the mark, if it wasn't for the Stones, legends like BB King & Muddy Waters wouldn't have had half the exposure they have had.. at the time PC hadn't been invented and he was just telling tales as he saw them..

I dont think people are finding it offensive from when Mick Jagger wrote it, but Maria/ Sharon obviously knew it would be offensive to some viewers or they wouldnt have changed the lyrics

I think there was some speculation back in the 1960s, that Mick Jagger was mixed race. It was very important to the American audience to know the race of an artist.

There have always been two theories about the song. Brown Sugar is slang for heroin, and it was also a euphemism for performing cunnilingus on black women.

If you read the lyrics there is also reference to a lady of the house being serviced in some fashion by a houseboy.

Mick himself admitted the song was about sex and drugs.

Good song choice imo. The references are obvious when you know the lyric, but most youngsters won't even think to ask or worry about it at all.

I'm hoping Nicholas can stay in so that next week he can do the classic Snoop track - Ain't no fun if the homies can't have none, complete with full intro.

Bloody nora!!! I was originally wondering if it was about drugs (as in 'Golden Brown' by The Stranglers).

Reading thru the other posts, it cud well be!!

Another cracking song Golden Brown...

Wasn't The LA's hit, There She Goes, also about drugs?

Saw that used on the soundtrack of the Disney film parent trap... lol.

Lol Maria sang 'You're Beautiful' by James Blunt and THAT has references to drug-taking in it. "Flying high...".

If she's not happy, then she has the right to not perform the song. On 24/7 it seemed the choice was down to her in the end; she sought recommendation from her coaches as well as her husband and Brenda and they all preferred her doing "Brown Sugar" because it's a more challenging song. I don't agree with the comments on here about the Osborne team making an unsuitable choice because of racism. It is her choice at the end of the day, and the recommendation of 'BS' was made because Maria wanted to do a rock song (and I think it was Maria who suggested 'Satisfaction' in the first place, so she was thinking of The Stones). My point is, Maria is not a victim here. The song was equally about drugs as women, and Maria could sing it with drugs in mind. (Which make make it more interesting, IMO!)

I think Andy should sing P.I.M.P by 'fiddy' cent.....

Yes, 'There She Goes' is also about drugs - heroin. There are lots of songs about drugs that could also have a taken-at-face-value different meaning. "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chilli Peppers is also about drugs, which apparently All Saints didn't realise (yeah, right) when they covered it. Drugs are often referred to using the feminine article.

I need to set a few things straight here i think.

firstly...the change of lyrics to "Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, just like a young man should?" was actually(or bizarrely) Jagger's own lyric as he caved in to the PC moral minority and re-worked his classic track to play live. This sickening self-censorship can be heard on the 2004 live album "Live Licks".

secondly the song IS about black female slaves being mistreated in New Orleans. That's a fact. Does this mean Mick Jagger believes this behaviour is acceptable?

thirdly the song IS a thinly veiled metaphor for heroin (ab)use

I have to say I think the whole thing speaks volumes about the contestants/mentors. They take these classic tunes to sing/crucify with no respect or regard to where the songs came from or what they mean. this is an eye opener.

Good post. What a lot of people here seem to be missing is that just because a song is about something like slavery, doesn't mean the songwriter agrees with it! It's called creativity (and even education) for god's sake, and the world would be a lot more dull if all songs were about non-controversial topics.

Mick Jagger is hardly a racist nor is the fact he wrote the song saying he agrees with slavery. He also has a mixed race daughter, Karis, from his affair with black singer Marsha Hunt in 1970.
Rock music was always meant to shock and polarise opinion from it's earliest origins. Elvis and his very active pelvis shocked a good few people in it's time. Frankly I find Brown Sugar's lyrics less offensive than I do the Sugababes latest song and video which is very explicit with overtly sexual images yet the market aimed at is pre-pubescent girls.