The Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar

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Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he's doin' all right
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 beatin' cold, English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wonderin' when it's gonna stop
House boy knows that he's doin' all right
You should have heard him just around midnight

Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should

Brown Sugar, how come you dance so good
Brown Sugar, just like a black girl should

I bet your mama was a Cajun Queen,
And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
I'm no school boy but I know what I like
You should have heard them just around midnight

Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown Sugar, just like a black girl should

I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo!!
How come you, how come you dance so good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo!!
Just like a, just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo!!

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Lyrics submitted by oofus

Track duration: 03:48

"Brown Sugar" as written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards

Lyrics © ABKCO Music Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Brown Sugar song meanings
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60 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:wow,its a bit heavier topic than i realized now i look at it not sure i can look at it the same anymore
    Flag happyloveon January 21, 2013   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:its about heroin as brown sugar is 1 of many names for heroin, think how many songs are out there that are about drugs from the same era
    Flag bb86on May 27, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I love the Stones,but I've always thought this song was alittle too "rapey" for me.
    Flag redshiftdazzleron December 10, 2011   Link
  • -2
    General Comment:To clear up the confusion, this song is a very heavily layered metaphor. The literal meaning as many people have stated is about the slave trade and such, but that's just to cover up the real meaning so only real fans will understand. The metaphor in this song is the initial rush one has when IVing heroin (hence it's position as the first song in the album). The best heroin comes in tan rocks, and dissolves by itself in water forming a beautiful dark amber coloured liquid; brown sugar. "Drums beating cold English blood runs hot" refers to how when on heroin outside factors and really anything seem much less important; "drums beating cold" is representative of this. The second part of the line refers to the warm rush and euphoria that makes your blood feel like pure ecstasy. With this bump in the right direction I'm sure the real meaning is clear now.
    Flag Harkenon September 30, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:This might be the greatest encore of all rock songs. With an arena crowd all worked up and the tension building those two first chords in the riff... They release an unmeasurable amount of musical power. And yet it's so simple.
    Flagged DullDayon August 14, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:its about the rape of a slave girl, not heroin
    Flag MegadethMaiden23on July 03, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The song is about a man having and affair with one of his slaves the song was inspired by a book called "uncle Tom's Cabin" a book that a woman wrote back in the 1800's. The book was a book made by a woman who been in the south for about a few days and heard stories so over drastic made the book. But the references like "Lady of the house wond'rin where its gonna stop" give it away
    Flag DakotaBroskieon March 15, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song is clearly about sleeping with black girls. When it was written interracial sex was more taboo than now. The song celebrates black women.
    Flag catcalleron February 13, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"scarred slave trader" refers to the fact that black slave girls only defense against rape was using their claws.

    They got scratched a lot basically.
    Flag ceej1979on December 03, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Man, you guys are dense!

    “Gold coast Slave ship”, “Market down in New Orleans”, “Scarred Slave trader is doing all right, you can hear him whip the women, just around midnight”.

    Aint it pretty obvious.

    Probably the Stones most controversial song. Especially for release in America.


    It’s about the practice of slave-rape, that happened a lot in the deep south in America, right up until the 1960s.

    Basically, white slave owners, who raped the young black women they owned.


    The first verse refers to a slave owner raping/abusing a young black women he owns.

    The second verse refers to the white house boy, in an English stately home, getting his sexual gratification from the slaves.

    The last verse is Jagger himself saying, he’s no saint himself, and gets the same gratification from black women, as a white man. Of course, in loving relationships, but as I said, it’s a very very controversial song.

    Basically about white men’s terrible history with black women


    Flag ceej1979on December 03, 2010   Link

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