Yes, Brown Sugar’s binned ...things don’t last for ever
Sir Mick says the Stones had to accept their days causing a stir are over
SIR Mick Jagger has spoken about axing Brown Sugar from Rolling Stones gigs, saying the band could not cause shock waves for ever.
The decision to stop performing the song came after years of controversy over the lyrics, which include the depiction of non-consensual sex with a slave.
Sir Mick said times change and that the band have had to adapt.
On Brown Sugar missing from their forthcoming tour, the singer added: “The early days were the days of shock and awe, things can’t stay like that for ever.” The song was axed from the US leg of the band’s No Filter tour last year.
Critics have called the lyrics sexist and offensive to black women.
Sir Mick, 78, said: “When you start out, I mean popular music is always in need of shaking up. We were quite good at that. We had our own style and our own way of approaching things and we had a different way of behaving. And it provoked a lot of people.
“I thought a lot of it was super over-reaction but it became a bit of a cliché.”
He also told Swedish radio: “It served us well in some ways... we got noticed.” Guitarist
Keith Richards has previously said Brown Sugar, which reached No2 in 1971, was about the “horrors of slavery”. The lyrics tell of a slaver who “knows he’s doing all right, hear him whip the women just around midnight”. Sir Mick said he does not expect the European tour, set to take in Anfield in Liverpool and Hyde Park in central London, to be the band’s farewell outing. The legendary singer insisted: “I am not planning it to be the last tour.”