The Friday song (on a Sunday): ‘Brown Sugar’ by ZZ Top

This week marks the last song of year four of the Friday Song. Thanks to all of you, some of whom have been there since the start and those who joined along the way, for reading and listening. In the next week or two, I will rearrange the past 12 months of tracks into a more coherent, listenable playlist. It’s can be difficult jumping around from jazz to folk to funk, and so I will re-compile them into something that approximates a more coherent, genre-oriented list.

I dislike, strongly, the late-era toy pop of ZZ Top’s Cheap Sunglasses, the sexist Legs, and the lame Sharp Dressed Man. I do like and appreciate ZZ Top in their early days, when they were really rooted in the blues. Give me those early Tres Hombres tracks – like La Grange or Jesus Just Left Chicago – any time, but today I’m reaching even further back, to their beginnings and the crux of ‘Two beards and a Beard’!

The ‘Brown Sugar’ of ‘ZZ Top’s First Album’

This week I listened to a rather weak rocker of a cover, by Tim Montana, Slash and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, of Brown Sugar, a deep cut from ZZ Top’s First Album. So I went to the blues rock original. Not a cover of the Rolling Stones classic rock track, this version of Brown Sugar shows just how deeply felt the blues is for Gibbons. It’s a track in two distinct parts. The first is a solo blues piece with Gibbons on vocal and, no doubt, playing his trusted Gibson Les Paul. It’s warm, sparse and full of feel, and at about a minute and 40 seconds, it morphs into what became the more familiar, standard ZZ Top sound.  

Just like the Stones version, it’s never been clear or explained as to whether the title is a reference to heroin, dark-skinned women, or something else, but the solo blues playing of Gibbons is well worth a listen. If you’re not a fan of ZZ Top, indulge the first part of the track and move on, but if you like the band, give it five minutes. Happy weekend!

Listen to Brown Sugar on Spotify here and on Apple Music here.

I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.

For more of Mark’s excellent picks, go here.

_{Top image collage: Rawpixel; Currency.}