Playing brown sugar live

[Dad3353]

[quote name='No lust in Jazz' timestamp='1434563948' post='2800843']
Could you post a recording of this?
[/quote]

Here yer go (no need to thank me, it's a pleasure...) ...

http://youtu.be/2Bj8Q0XvS0k

[Merton]

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1434523203' post='2800326']
I often dep in a steel panther tribute act. Playing brown sugar wouldn't be the worst thing I ever played.
[/quote]

Awesome. I've only ever been able to squeeze Party All Day into our set, and that was because it was requested by the groom.

I bet Asian Hooker is great fun to play!

[Merton]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1434553547' post='2800725']
We dropped Brown Sugar from the set after an unfortunate contretemps when we played Diane Abbot's birthday party. After discussion we decided to go with Honky Tonk Women instead but rewrote the lyrics to avoid giving offence.

I met a gin soaked bar room queen in Memphis
I put her in a cab and sent her home
Paid her tab and went back to my hotel
And read the Gideon bible all alone

It's the Honky Tonk Women
Who would most benefit from gender identity counselling

I met a divorcee in New York city
Exploiting her vulnerable status ran entirely counter to the personal guidelines I have set for myself
The lady then she covered me with roses
"I hope these flowers came from a fair trade partner who pays their workers a living wage and respects diversity standards which would meet with the approval of enlightened progressives everywhere" I said, knocking back my glass of herbal tea.
[/quote]

I want our singerist to sing these lyrics next gig

[Old Man Riva]

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1434556953' post='2800771']
funnily enough we were discussing this last night. There's a bit of humbug here from both sides. Bands play BS because punters love it. They don't play the song to educate people or 'keep the issue' alive. Most bands and audiences would have no more idea of what the lyrics say and mean than say, Lady Marmalade where ironically the only bit they get is the French

Given the rest of the Stones output at the time it was probably just meant to be a sexy song, I don't suppose Jagger would write those lyrics now.

Fortunately they wrote a load of great songs so there is no need to look at it and I wouldn't play it, but wouldn't get in a huff if someone else does. Most singers in cover bands have no idea what they are singing about anyway.[/quote]
Spot on for me.

And at least let's be honest enough to admit it's a throwaway rock 'n' roll song (and a good one at that) and not the son of Strange Fruit.

Also, this whole "it's PC gone mad" argument if someone has a differing view gets right up my hooter. When I was a lad political correctness didn't exist. You either had good manners and an empathy for others or you didn't.

It's freedom of speech gone mad, I tell yer..

[drTStingray]

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1434561745' post='2800818']
Ummmmm, why would you cringe? Where's the support for racism and violence in there?
[/quote]

It's a well known and debated controversy, which is a strange juxtaposition with the popularity of the song, which is undeniably a classic and catchy piece of music. The extract from an article below gives a flavour of the controversy:-

'Music historians point out that the choice of Birmingham in connection with the governor (rather than the capital Montgomery) is significant for the controversy as "In 1963, the city was the site of massive civil rights activism, as thousands of demonstrators led by Martin Luther King, Jr. sought to desegregate downtown businesses...[and] was the scene of some of the most violent moments of the Civil Rights Movement. Segregationist police chief Bull Connor unleashed attack dogs and high-pressure water cannons against peaceful marchers, including women and children; just weeks later, Ku Klux Klansmen bombed a black church, killing four little girls."[4]'

Sorry to OP re thread drift - this is about Sweet Home Alabama.

Brown Sugar's a great song to play but I don't totally buy an argument that it's anything but about sex (which the Stones, like any other young guys, seemed to be obsessed with).

Edited June 17, 2015 by drTStingray

[peteb]

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1434584182' post='2801033']


It's a well known and debated controversy, which is a strange juxtaposition with the popularity of the song, which is undeniably a classic and catchy piece of music. The extract from an article below gives a flavour of the controversy:-

'Music historians point out that the choice of Birmingham in connection with the governor (rather than the capital Montgomery) is significant for the controversy as "In 1963, the city was the site of massive civil rights activism, as thousands of demonstrators led by Martin Luther King, Jr. sought to desegregate downtown businesses...[and] was the scene of some of the most violent moments of the Civil Rights Movement. Segregationist police chief Bull Connor unleashed attack dogs and high-pressure water cannons against peaceful marchers, including women and children; just weeks later, Ku Klux Klansmen bombed a black church, killing four little girls."[4]'

Sorry to OP re thread drift - this is about Sweet Home Alabama.

Brown Sugar's a great song to play but I don't totally buy an argument that it's anything but about sex (which the Stones, like any other young guys, seemed to be obsessed with).
[/quote]
I seem to remember an interview with Ronnie Van Zant where he said that the point of the song was to defend Alabama and say that you could not blame all southerners for the Guvenor of Birmingham any more than you could blame Yankees for Nixon!

[ras52]

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1434613188' post='2801115']
I seem to remember an interview with Ronnie Van Zant where he said that the point of the song was to defend Alabama and say that you could not blame all southerners for the Guvenor of Birmingham any more than you could blame Yankees for Nixon!
[/quote]

That actually makes sense, it's saying that the North and the South both have their rogues:

[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]In Birmingham they love the governor, boo boo boo[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]Now we all did what we could do[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]Now Watergate does not bother me[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth[/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]Read more: [url="http://www.metrolyrics.com/sweet-home-alabama-lyrics-lynyrd-skynyrd.html#ixzz3dOw8ukDe"]Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama Lyrics | MetroLyrics[/url] [/size][/font][/color]

[Roland Rock]

I've just been listening to Tower of Power, a seemingly harmless band, only to be reminded that they condone drink driving!!!

"I hope it doesn't show while I'm driving down the road that I've had too much to drink" - Down to the nightclub

I've alway thought that was quite a charming line which portrays the carefree recklessness of the 70s disco party animal. I'd never drink drive though.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Roland Rock

[drTStingray]

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1434616917' post='2801159']


That actually makes sense, it's saying that the North and the South both have their rogues:

[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]In Birmingham they love the governor, boo boo boo[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]Now we all did what we could do[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]Now Watergate does not bother me[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth[/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif][size=1]Read more: [url="http://www.metrolyrics.com/sweet-home-alabama-lyrics-lynyrd-skynyrd.html#ixzz3dOw8ukDe"]Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama Lyrics | MetroLyrics[/url] [/size][/font][/color]
[/quote]

Indeed - but it doesn't explain the reference to the guv'nor below, which suggests concurrence with the courses of action. Even the producer, Al Kooper is quoted as saying they tried at the time to get the references removed from the song.

'Sweet home Alabama,
oh, sweet home baby
Where the skies are so blue
and the governor's true'

[steantval]

PC brigade gone mad again.

It's a classic song that goes down really well.

A minority of people are making a fuss about it, just get on and play it.

[KevB]

We've just been offered a gig at short notice tonight, will put it to the test and report back tomorrow who looked offended.

[BILL POSTERS]

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1434724098' post='2802237']
We've just been offered a gig at short notice tonight, will put it to the test and report back tomorrow who looked offended.
[/quote]

Why not go the whole hog and play Bitch, the B side of the original single as well ? I always wanted to play that one, and it might just offend somebody somewhere sometime, I reckon its got a better groove than Brown Sugar, which I have played hundreds of times - although not recently - without anybody being offended. Mind you I wouldnt have given a flying f*** if they were, its a song not a speech.

Stop worrying about it and just play it.

[Happy Jack]

There's always Star****er of course.

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1434733388' post='2802357']
There's always Star****er of course.


[/quote]

Great song, especially the little twist they put in the chorus when they truncate one of the lines.

[tauzero]

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1434557441' post='2800776']
However the one I nowadays cringe at playing is Sweet Home Alabama with its Deep South attitude towards racism and support of violent put down of black protest - cringeworthy in my book, in a similar way to a couple of 70s British sit coms which only get shown as clips to demonstrate how society has changed since then - but Sweet Home Alabama goes down a storm presumably because no one takes the lyrics in.
[/quote]

I can't find anything like that in the lyrics. If anything, it's anti-racist, or at least anti-governor, the governor at the time being the racist George Wallace.

[pete.young]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1434733388' post='2802357']
There's always Star****er of course.


[/quote]
Or Wayne County and the Electric Chairs masterpiece.

[KevB]

[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1434733141' post='2802356']
Stop worrying about it and just play it.
[/quote]

Forgot to put a winky emoticon in there, my post entirely tongue in cheek.Wasn't remotely worried. Needless to say not a whiff of indignation, we actually had a few people dancing to it and it was only second song in on the first set. Think it's staying in for time being

[Buzzy]

I'll be playing Brown Sugar and Bitch tonight in my Stones tribute (Not The Rolling Stones) and they both always go down a storm. The band has been gigging for 10 years and no one has ever complained about Brown Sugar or any of their other songs with risqué lyrics ( star****er, under my thumb etc) our singer even dedicates Bitch to his ex wife sometimes.
I think the punters are more likely to complain if we dropped Brown Sugar rather than worry about the lyrics.
Don't think Stray Cat Blues will ever make it onto the set list.

[Count Bassy]

[quote name='The Badderer' timestamp='1434494040' post='2800261']
The fact there is a song written about this topic and that it is regularly performed, does not mean that anyone who performs it condones slavery, rape or prostitution. These are topics it is important to actually talk about and for them to be present in our society as a pointer back to the past, and for it to be ok to be talked about. Sweeping it under the carpet is the wrong thing to do. What about all the millions of women who are still in slavery and sexual slavery today? This topic still needs to be in the public eye. Are we supposed to ban the Blues? That is how I would talk to a disgruntled punter about it anyway....
[/quote]

This. Can we not do 'Hey Joe', or 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Whiskey in the jar' etc. any more for fear of condoning murder?

Most of these songs tell a story. That's all.

[grenadilla]

I read some interesting stuff about Brown Sugar :Keith does not play on the original Sticky Fingers version! If my source is to be believed, Mick strums acoustic gtr (open tuning?) and Mick Taylor plays electric gtr ! They had been recording at Muscle Shoals where Duane Allman was employed full time. Duane was called "Skydog" because he liked being high. "Skydog slaver" may be a callout to Duane because he was a slaving studio musician, paid very little. Skynard were Florida boys.

[Old Man Riva]

The alternate version included on the recently re-released/remastered Sticky Fingers isn't a patch on the version included on the original album (to my ears, at least).

It has Clapton playing slide guitar and Keef's backing vocals all over the mix and is apparently the version that Keef was pushing to get released as a single - Lord only knows why..

[Happy Jack]

[quote name='grenadilla' timestamp='1435004680' post='2804682']
Duane was called "Skydog" because he liked being high. "Skydog slaver" may be a callout to Duane because he was a slaving studio musician, paid very little.
[/quote]

Alternatively, maybe Mick was actually singing "scarred old slaver", which is what the lyric has been for over 40 years.

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1435048277' post='2804850']


Alternatively, maybe Mick was actually singing "scarred old slaver", which is what the lyric has been for over 40 years.
[/quote]

In an interview with Derek Pippin published in Kreem magazine in 1972 Bill Wyman insisted that the lyric is 'sidecar raver sinks his dong all night' - a reference to the band's early days when he - Wyman - would transport himself to gigs on an Ariel Arrow motorcycle and sidecar combination.

Upon leaving the gig with female company Mr Wyman would repair to a layby on the Western Avenue near Denham where - being of sufficiently diminutive stature - he would engage in sexual congress in the sidecar. This arrangement continued until March 1964 when Wyman bought his first car (an Austin A40).

(Reproduced from 'Bill Wyman - Minute By Minute: 1962-1982' / Rocco Siffredi / Backdoor Press)

[BILL POSTERS]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1435059966' post='2804975']
In an interview with Derek Pippin published in Kreem magazine in 1972 Bill Wyman insisted that the lyric is 'sidecar raver sinks his dong all night' - a reference to the band's early days when he - Wyman - would transport himself to gigs on an Ariel Arrow motorcycle and sidecar combination.

Upon leaving the gig with female company Mr Wyman would repair to a layby on the Western Avenue near Denham where - being of sufficiently diminutive stature - he would engage in sexual congress in the sidecar. This arrangement continued until March 1964 when Wyman bought his first car (an Austin A40).

(Reproduced from 'Bill Wyman - Minute By Minute: 1962-1982' / Rocco Siffredi / Backdoor Press)
[/quote]

Having read Wymans autobiography a few years back, I'd take anything he said about his pulling power with a pinch of salt.

Also having been a fan of Ariel Arrows back in the day - they were pretty fast for a 250 of the time & with a few tweaks went really well, I never saw one with a sidecar. They didnt have a conventional frame, so dont see how you could fit one to be honest, and even a shorthouse with a very small girl would need to be a contortionist.

[KevB]

Wyman had detachable legs. Little known fact. Explains lack of onstage movement.