Why Did Mick Jagger Write and Perform Brown Sugar?

Just asking…

The notorious bunch. Image via Wikimedia commons

It is strange that it was a character from HBO hit show — The Wire — which got me to pay attention to the lyrics from the hit song of The Rolling Stones — Brown Sugar.

When Roland Przybylski quoted the opening line to this song, I knew that I had to do a bit of research on this subject and ask the questions which have sat on my mind on for the very longest time.

But before I go any further, examine the lyrics for yourselves:

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

Were Mick Jagger and Keith Richard high on Skunk, when they decided to put their ideas on paper?

Did they think that it was perfectly acceptable to reenact the fantasy of most slavers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in their music?

Were these chaps well versed in history to appreciate the degree to which Black women were liberally raped and the perpetrators never accounted for their crime?

And it would be nice to know what the inspiration of this song — Marsha Hunt — really thought of the lyrics, which…