It’s accepted Rolling Stone megastar Mick Jagger wrote the hit Brown Sugar in Australia almost five decades ago.
But did he perform it at the local pub years before it was released to the world?
Well, just maybe.
An Australian production company is on the search for the “forgotten stories of Australia” and that’s where Braidwood fits in.
Screentime Pty Ltd’s Jess Skinner says they are looking into Mick Jagger's stay in Braidwood in 1969 during filming of Ned Kelly.
She hopes to find people in Braidwood or across the district who were in the area at the time of the filming and willing to spin a yarn.
Jagger played the lead role in Ned Kelly and Braidwood was disguised as a central Victorian town.
Jagger “arrived in Sydney on the 7th of July 1969, but [I’m] not sure how long after that he hit Braidwood,” Ms Skinner told the Braidwood Times.
“One of the stories we've heard is that he wrote Brown Sugar while in Australia, and possibly performed it on the piano at the local pub for the first time.”
There is supporting evidence for the writing claim, principally from the man himself.
In a 1995 interview with Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone, Jagger was asked why Brown Sugar works so well.
“That's a bit of a mystery, isn't it?,” he replies.
“I wrote that song in Australia in the middle of a field. They were really odd circumstances. I was doing this movie, Ned Kelly, and my hand had got really damaged in this action sequence.
“So stupid. I was trying to rehabilitate my hand and had this new kind of electric guitar, and I was playing in the middle of the outback and wrote this tune.”
But did he play it on the piano at the pub?
If you know more, Ms Skinner would love to hear from you.
Screentime has also been collaborating with the Braidwood and District Historical Society, “but we are just wanting to get feelers out for some good yarns [and] would be super grateful for any help ...” Ms Skinner said.
You can email her at jess.skinner@screentime.com.au
