The ‘Slow’ Alternate Take of ‘Brown Sugar’ That Producer Jimmy Miller Vetoed

The alternate take of “Brown Sugar” from the December 1969 Muscle Shoals sessions is a completely different animal—slower, swampier, with a slinkier guitar solo and Mick Jagger singing the line “hear the whip” instead of the eventual “hear him whip the women.” Producer Jimmy Miller fought hard against using that version for the single, arguing that the explicit reference to slavery would get the band banned from radio and alienate their American audience. He was right; the take was shelved until it surfaced decades later on bootlegs and