How Web Activists Caused Rolling Stones to Drop ‘Brown Sugar’

That 70s Guy

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Posts
16,488
Reaction score
6,447
Location
Nova Scotia Canada
1f (2).jpg

The Rolling Stones haven’t been playing their controversial 1971 song “Brown Sugar” during the ongoing No Filter Tour. We now have a reason, according to The Daily Mail.
Activists reportedly targeted the band's largest fan site, posting about the Sticky Fingers track's references to slavery — and ultimately prompted its disappearance from set lists.
The publication reports that “a group of campaigners posed as ******** Stones superfans” in order to access the 40-year-old subscription service IORR (a nod to “It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll”), posting messages on discussion threads criticizing “Brown Sugar.” The fallout reached management, and reportedly informed the band’s decision to retire the song.


Keith Richards addressed that notable omission in a recent interview: “You picked up on that, huh?” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they’re trying to bury it. At the moment, I don’t want to get into conflicts with all of this ****."
The guitarist couldn't say if "Brown Sugar" would ever return, adding only that he's "hoping that we'll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track.”
Fan site founder Bjornulf Vik said Richards’ use of “sisters” appears to reference a group of female activists whom The Daily Mail says “have aggressively targeted unsuspected fans over recent weeks.” He reportedly shut down IORR’s subscription service and is attempting to remove the activist members.
"IORR has been spammed by political posts related to 'Brown Sugar' lately," Vik confirmed. "Like many other things, some people do make this a highly political discussion. It seems like it is impossible for some to discuss 'Brown Sugar' without getting highly political and offensive."
When the Los Angeles Times asked Mick Jagger about the song’s stage shelving, he offered a more vague answer than his bandmate: "We've played 'Brown Sugar' every night since 1970, so sometimes you think, 'We’ll take that one out for now and see how it goes,'" he said. “We might put it back in.”

Read More: How Web Activists Caused Rolling Stones to Drop 'Brown Sugar' | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/rol...sugar/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
 

Nai Noswad

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2019
Posts
17,863
Reaction score
27,148
Location
The lands of Marshall Stack.
Absolutely Recky.... but by the same token, I find it sad.. nay mind laughable that Jagger and Richards have took the knee on this.... given that their image and the billion they have made was based on rebellion, questioning and going against the norm. The very cornerstone of stoneism was machiavellian in itself.
 

Recky

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Posts
342
Reaction score
148
Location
Brisbane City QLD
That’s be high-larious Jake T , how about a 30 minute jam Version of brown sugar with all the whiners allegedly invited on stage as part of an apology ..WITH Dave Chappelle introducing the stones
 

Vehicle

Aging Metalhead
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Posts
2,725
Reaction score
342
Location
The Barrens
Whatever.

I can still listen to Brown Sugar whenever I want.

It is an annoyance, though.
 

Find member

Forum statistics

Threads
30,655
Posts
1,064,756
Members
6,354
Latest member
edmerka

Members online

Top