The Rolling Stones Were Not Cancelled

Recently, the Rolling Stones retired from their concert repertoire the song “Brown Sugar,” citing lyrics that called to mind some slave-based imagery. Cool. I don’t really care all that much. I only listen to two songs by the Rolling Stones with passive regularity, and neither of them are “Brown Sugar.” There was no mainstream public outcry against the Rolling Stones by people of color to get them to stop singing that song. That particular group of old men just decided, “Oh, we feel kind of icky singing this song,” and they decided against it. It’s growth. The Stones, even now, in their old age, are learning and maturing, which is more than you can say about most conservatives. But, this gesture reminds me of something that I can’t seem to outrun: The whole Doctor Seuss controversy last Spring.

For those of you who are not familiar with my attachment to that controversy, I worked at a bookstore from February to May of last year. At this time, the Seuss Estate announced that it had pulled six titles that depicted racist imagery from publication—something they had done quietly almost a year prior—and the right wing went crazy. Talk show hosts raged, and Doctor Seuss books flew off the shelves and into the hands of conservative reactionaries, who feared what classic Seuss books would be cancelled by the liberal mobs next. (No Seuss books were cancelled by liberal mobs, just so you know. It was an act of the Seuss Estate’s personal conscience, nothing more.)

So, what does this have to do with the Rolling Stones and their decision on “Brown Sugar”? Well, I was on the front lines of this previous culture war. The customers I would serve at my old bookstore constantly asked me if we had those pulled titles and tried to use me as a sounding board on their ill-developed takes on cancel culture. One woman, after asking me about each title individually, even pulled out and recited a written statement, which ended with the words, “In my experience, when you start banning books, these are dark times indeed,” or something to that effect. It was dumb, I won’t lie. My favorite anecdote is that Senator from Texas and man with a kazoo stuck in his throat Ted Cruz began selling signed copies of Green Eggs and Ham—a book he did not write—to his supporters.

Ultimately, what this boils down to is a public embroilment of a non-problem, and while I am not on the front lines of this impending culture war (the Battle of Brown Sugar, as it were), I made a terrible mistake and read the recent comments on the YouTube video of the song. My personal opinion is, I never clocked the song as evil. I never heard any lyrics I viewed as racist, but that might just be because Mick Jagger is very difficult to understand. Surely, now that people know the lyrics, and know that the artist feels icky about the lyrics, they’ll think, “Okay, sure. I’ll be respectful about this.” Nope. As I read through the comments section, a lot of things stood out: your classic repetitions of “Fuck cancel culture” and “I don’t care what the liberals say, this song slaps,” and I’ll admit, I like that riff. But then there are comments that are openly racist and confrontational, and no pushback on those comments. I dare not quote them exactly, so as to avoid parroting racist rhetoric, but you understand the issue here.

Maybe it’s not another full-blown battle in the culture war like the Seuss ordeal. I have no idea what Tucker Carlson is saying about this whole snafu—last time I googled his opinion, I kept receiving ads for Ben Shapiro for the next three months, and that’s not a hell I’m keen on repeating. But, ultimately, the pushback is there. An artist, or group of artists, out of its own conscience, discontinues a piece of art that it has, on its own accord, identified as problematic. Right-wing reactionaries cry out that it is not the free will of the artist that drove this, but changing social values brought about by left-wing censorship. And facts won’t have any effect on them. I’ve been down that road before. They shrug it off. So, what can we do?

Nothing. The answer, plain and simple, is nothing. It doesn’t matter what we say or do: they will remain angry at a non-problem. But the opposite is true as well. The reactionaries can gnash their teeth, blast their music, flip off the “snowflakes” when they pass them on the streets, but what’s done is done, and in time their complaints will fade into obscurity and they’ll be out a hundred dollars with the world’s worst copy of Green Eggs and Ham. Those Doctor Seuss books aren’t coming back, and the Rolling Stones won’t play “Brown Sugar” for them. They’re still free to read those books and listen to that song. I accessed that song just this morning, just to see what the big deal was, and the Woke Police did not come to my house and arrest me for listening to the Forbidden Music. Nobody’s being censored. The artist has simply chosen to not continue to platform the ideas within a piece that is completely within their creative control. Mick Jagger is not some robot that they can force to sing racist songs. That’s Ted Nugent you’re thinking of. And honestly, if they’re going to a Rolling Stones concert just to listen to “Brown Sugar,” they’re missing out on some other amazing pieces of music. I have a lot of respect for the Rolling Stones, and some of their songs have shaped my values as an artist. But ultimately, social values change, no matter if you’re on the right side or not. If it just so happens that society has changed in a way that makes a band freely choose to not play a song you like, well, then, I’m afraid you can’t always get what you want.