ithaka

6y

· edited

“Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones? written about her.

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

Now not the finest tho, at least tasteful homage, is it now? let's leave that for Bowie:

In 1972 Bowie is touring and stops by Detroit, they meet at a dinner party: they started talking blues. Lennear was impressed by his knowledge and taken by surprise surely by his obsession of Soul music too? a friendship blossomed, days out in New York city turned into nights on the town. a romance ensued.

Nobody else said “Cloodia” I never liked my name. When he said it, I liked it.

Claudia Lennear

It was on his next album, 1973’s Aladdin Sane that he penned one of his most powerful ballads for Claudia Lennear: “Lady Grinning Soul.”

The inspiration was a rush as he didn’t wait long to lay something down in the studios: recorded between 20-24 January 1973. “Lady Grinning Soul” was the last song written for, recorded for, and sequenced on Aladdin Sane, Bowie actually scrapped a remake of “John I’m Only Dancing” which was intended to be the album closer, possibly because it spoiled the album’s closing mood.

Lady Grinning Soul was like the best James Bond track that never was (altho it doesn’t top Beach Boys actual James Bond lost song, the instrumental Pet Sounds):
a -lot- of people says this is Bowie’s lost Bond theme, I can see that, with the flamenco and all that feel, It was sensual, but ethereal.

She’ll come, she’ll go
She’ll lay belief on you
Skin sweet with musky odor
The lady from another grinning so…

The key line at the core of the song is “How can life become her point of view?” liberation from the self by submission to another, possibly ending in death. (Dark, but to be fair, by Bowie’s standards this what a love song is lol)

Bowie has performed every song from Aladdin Sane live but this one.

In 2014 after the Oscar winning documentary “20 Feet From Stardom” in which she is featured, Bowie contacted her to offer to write some new original songs for her next project.

I got a call from David Bowie out of the blue two days ago, I couldn’t believe it when I first heard his voice. We haven’t seen each other in 20 years ... He told me he wanted to write my next project.

Claudia Lennear, 2014

Unfortunately he passed away before this could come to fruition.

(2/2)

@Cookies @door @kiddash3r @rwina @Soupvillain

MrIndigo96

6y

damn Bowie really liked them ebony queens.
great to know the context behind this beautiful song.
How are you this knowledgeable about Bowie and I wonder if there are other artist you have interest for?

ithaka

6y

Definitely weezer, I try to keep my weezer thread light in content tho I don’t wanna scare people away 😫 (I think I already have lol) so I keep it fun but I have some cool stuff on them

Most definitely The Beach Boys too, they’re my biggest obsession, all of these three are, I would make a Beach Boys thread with facts like this and like the weezer thread but again the interest on ktt is so limited I don’t know if it’s worth the energy, let alone to do these Bowie posts can take to an hour... I mean just look at the hot threads poppin rn, ppl chatting about tyga tagging that girl on Instagram, it’s discouraging

I prolly know too much stuff about more artists too, Beatles I reckon, Oasis.. mmm

deepsleep

6y

why would you scare ppl away who are into bowie to begin with? it's just more amazing facts and unknown stories to learn about lol

ithaka

6y

Definitely weezer, I try to keep my weezer thread light in content tho I don’t wanna scare people away 😫 (I think I already have lol) so I keep it fun but I have some cool stuff on them

Most definitely The Beach Boys too, they’re my biggest obsession, all of these three are, I would make a Beach Boys thread with facts like this and like the weezer thread but again the interest on ktt is so limited I don’t know if it’s worth the energy, let alone to do these Bowie posts can take to an hour... I mean just look at the hot threads poppin rn, ppl chatting about tyga tagging that girl on Instagram, it’s discouraging

I prolly know too much stuff about more artists too, Beatles I reckon, Oasis.. mmm

ithaka

6y

idk, attention span times i guess

ithaka

6y

· edited

“Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones? written about her.

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

Now not the finest tho, at least tasteful homage, is it now? let's leave that for Bowie:

In 1972 Bowie is touring and stops by Detroit, they meet at a dinner party: they started talking blues. Lennear was impressed by his knowledge and taken by surprise surely by his obsession of Soul music too? a friendship blossomed, days out in New York city turned into nights on the town. a romance ensued.

Nobody else said “Cloodia” I never liked my name. When he said it, I liked it.

Claudia Lennear

It was on his next album, 1973’s Aladdin Sane that he penned one of his most powerful ballads for Claudia Lennear: “Lady Grinning Soul.”

The inspiration was a rush as he didn’t wait long to lay something down in the studios: recorded between 20-24 January 1973. “Lady Grinning Soul” was the last song written for, recorded for, and sequenced on Aladdin Sane, Bowie actually scrapped a remake of “John I’m Only Dancing” which was intended to be the album closer, possibly because it spoiled the album’s closing mood.

Lady Grinning Soul was like the best James Bond track that never was (altho it doesn’t top Beach Boys actual James Bond lost song, the instrumental Pet Sounds):
a -lot- of people says this is Bowie’s lost Bond theme, I can see that, with the flamenco and all that feel, It was sensual, but ethereal.

She’ll come, she’ll go
She’ll lay belief on you
Skin sweet with musky odor
The lady from another grinning so…

The key line at the core of the song is “How can life become her point of view?” liberation from the self by submission to another, possibly ending in death. (Dark, but to be fair, by Bowie’s standards this what a love song is lol)

Bowie has performed every song from Aladdin Sane live but this one.

In 2014 after the Oscar winning documentary “20 Feet From Stardom” in which she is featured, Bowie contacted her to offer to write some new original songs for her next project.

I got a call from David Bowie out of the blue two days ago, I couldn’t believe it when I first heard his voice. We haven’t seen each other in 20 years ... He told me he wanted to write my next project.

Claudia Lennear, 2014

Unfortunately he passed away before this could come to fruition.

(2/2)

@Cookies @door @kiddash3r @rwina @Soupvillain

door

6y

Oh f*** this was a good one hit close to home @Ithaka

ithaka

6y

· edited

“Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones? written about her.

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

Now not the finest tho, at least tasteful homage, is it now? let's leave that for Bowie:

In 1972 Bowie is touring and stops by Detroit, they meet at a dinner party: they started talking blues. Lennear was impressed by his knowledge and taken by surprise surely by his obsession of Soul music too? a friendship blossomed, days out in New York city turned into nights on the town. a romance ensued.

Nobody else said “Cloodia” I never liked my name. When he said it, I liked it.

Claudia Lennear

It was on his next album, 1973’s Aladdin Sane that he penned one of his most powerful ballads for Claudia Lennear: “Lady Grinning Soul.”

The inspiration was a rush as he didn’t wait long to lay something down in the studios: recorded between 20-24 January 1973. “Lady Grinning Soul” was the last song written for, recorded for, and sequenced on Aladdin Sane, Bowie actually scrapped a remake of “John I’m Only Dancing” which was intended to be the album closer, possibly because it spoiled the album’s closing mood.

Lady Grinning Soul was like the best James Bond track that never was (altho it doesn’t top Beach Boys actual James Bond lost song, the instrumental Pet Sounds):
a -lot- of people says this is Bowie’s lost Bond theme, I can see that, with the flamenco and all that feel, It was sensual, but ethereal.

She’ll come, she’ll go
She’ll lay belief on you
Skin sweet with musky odor
The lady from another grinning so…

The key line at the core of the song is “How can life become her point of view?” liberation from the self by submission to another, possibly ending in death. (Dark, but to be fair, by Bowie’s standards this what a love song is lol)

Bowie has performed every song from Aladdin Sane live but this one.

In 2014 after the Oscar winning documentary “20 Feet From Stardom” in which she is featured, Bowie contacted her to offer to write some new original songs for her next project.

I got a call from David Bowie out of the blue two days ago, I couldn’t believe it when I first heard his voice. We haven’t seen each other in 20 years ... He told me he wanted to write my next project.

Claudia Lennear, 2014

Unfortunately he passed away before this could come to fruition.

(2/2)

@Cookies @door @kiddash3r @rwina @Soupvillain

theDonandOnly

6y

How problematic do you think people should look at Brown Sugar as? There's an argument Jagger's alluding to some historical/social commentary rather than just being tasteless. But then you could also be justifying a dumb lyric as being more than it is if you look at it like that

I never knew these were written about her tho. that's one of my favourite bowie songs

ithaka

6y

· edited

That’s a good question, I’m not sure I know enough of the Stones to dive into this tho

theDonandOnly

6y

i always felt like he was talking about the history of interracial relationships in the US, maybe partly in the UK too by talking about previous generations in the girls' family. He did have a lot of good thought out lyrics around that time too, I don't think it was all mindless like people make out. Tracks like Wild Horses, Sympathy for the Devil and Gimme Shelter are beautiful written, even if they're not as complicated as other rock lyricists people love from that era like Dylan or Cohen so it's not a stretch to think he could write something like that.

But sometimes I see things which aren't there in lyrics, they could easily be as vulgar as they seem on the surface

ithaka

6y

Oh so like the lines about how she taste wouldn’t be just as face value, him bluntly talking about her but more some satire? interesting

theDonandOnly

6y

nah i think that bit is about how she literally tastes. just like a line about f***ing. or eating p**** (it was originally called 'black p****' but the label made them change it)

but more how the song starts with talking about slavery, slaveships, cotton fields, how that was solid in a 'market' in new orleans, and how the slaver would abuse the female slaves 'whipping them around midnight'. That to me either is a verse about historical abuse which could be interesting or it could be racist insensitive satire or worse a race kink.

then the second verse is presumably about either 'the lady of the house' knowing her husband is with a black slave or the lady of the house is with a 'house boy' herself. Again making the songs first two verses about slavery.

But then in the third verse, jagger is in the current day with a black woman himself, but he's also talking about what her mother would have been like (i bet your mother was a tent show queen).

so i've always presumed the song was about slavery, abuse of black women and then jagger having an interracial relationship in the 70s/60s. But am i reading too much into that? i also thought the line where he talks about 'english blood' is interesting, because at least now, amongst his generation in the UK there's a lot of denial about the UK's colonial history, slavery, empire etc. and that line specifies the abusive slaver is english. we're seeing tensions over this rn, with younger activists literally tearing down statues of slavers (like Colston in Bristol, UK), then people of Jagger's generation feeling threatened/annoyed by this

ithaka

6y

That’s great, I’m glad my post brought this up

I just gotta say i really don’t listen to the Stones at all, I picked the line (I assume is the one that is directly about her since she’s the inspiration, I know he talks about it in the documentary?) to give the context,but going through it rn real quick your point seems pretty valid 🤔

ithaka

6y

“Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones? written about her.

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

Now not the finest tho, at least tasteful homage, is it now? let's leave that for Bowie:

In 1972 Bowie is touring and stops by Detroit, they meet at a dinner party: they started talking blues. Lennear was impressed by his knowledge and taken by surprise surely by his obsession of Soul music too? a friendship blossomed, days out in New York city turned into nights on the town. a romance ensued.

Nobody else said “Cloodia” I never liked my name. When he said it, I liked it.

Claudia Lennear

It was on his next album, 1973’s Aladdin Sane that he penned one of his most powerful ballads for Claudia Lennear: “Lady Grinning Soul.”

The inspiration was a rush as he didn’t wait long to lay something down in the studios: recorded between 20-24 January 1973. “Lady Grinning Soul” was the last song written for, recorded for, and sequenced on Aladdin Sane, Bowie actually scrapped a remake of “John I’m Only Dancing” which was intended to be the album closer, possibly because it spoiled the album’s closing mood.

Lady Grinning Soul was like the best James Bond track that never was (altho it doesn’t top Beach Boys actual James Bond lost song, the instrumental Pet Sounds):
a -lot- of people says this is Bowie’s lost Bond theme, I can see that, with the flamenco and all that feel, It was sensual, but ethereal.

She’ll come, she’ll go
She’ll lay belief on you
Skin sweet with musky odor
The lady from another grinning so…

The key line at the core of the song is “How can life become her point of view?” liberation from the self by submission to another, possibly ending in death. (Dark, but to be fair, by Bowie’s standards this what a love song is lol)

Bowie has performed every song from Aladdin Sane live but this one.

In 2014 after the Oscar winning documentary “20 Feet From Stardom” in which she is featured, Bowie contacted her to offer to write some new original songs for her next project.

I got a call from David Bowie out of the blue two days ago, I couldn’t believe it when I first heard his voice. We haven’t seen each other in 20 years ... He told me he wanted to write my next project.

Claudia Lennear, 2014

Unfortunately he passed away before this could come to fruition.

(2/2)

@Cookies @door @kiddash3r @rwina @Soupvillain