Sir Mick Jagger has spoken about axing Brown Sugar from Rolling Stones gigs, with him saying that the band could not cause shockwaves for ever.
The decision to stop performing the song - released in 1971 - came after years of controversy over the lyrics, which include the depiction of non-consensual sex with a slave.
Discussing its absence from their forthcoming tour, Sir Mick, 78, said times change and that the Grammy Award winning band - which was formed in 1962 - have had to adapt.
He said recently: "The early days were the days of shock and awe, things can't stay like that for ever." The song was axed from the US leg of the band's No Filter tour last year.
Brown Sugar was released in 1971 and reached the top of the charts in several countries at the time. Critics however have called the lyrics sexist and offensive to black women.
Commenting on the band's approach to music, Sir Mick remarked: "When you start out, I mean popular music is always in need of shaking up. We were quite good at that."
He continued: "We had our own style and our own way of approaching things and we had a different way of behaving. And it provoked a lot of people."
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He added: "I thought a lot of it was super over-reaction but it became a bit of a cliché." He also told Swedish radio: "It served us well in some ways... we got noticed."
The Rolling Stone's guitarist Keith Richards has previously said Brown Sugar, which reached Number 2 in the UK upon its initial release, was about the "horrors of slavery."
The lyrics of the track - which featured on the album Sticky Fingers - tell of a slaver who "knows he's doing all right, hear him whip the women just around midnight."
The band are preparing to embark on their latest tour, Sixty, which celebrates the group having formed six decades ago. It will bring them to parts of Europe, including the UK.
This includes a performance at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool, with the Rolling Stones also due to take to the stage in the British Summer Time festival at Hyde Park in London.
Sir Mick said he doesn't expect the band's upcoming European tour to be their farewell outing. The legendary singer has insisted: "I am not planning it to be the last tour."
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