Rolling Stones are shocking again as China bans four sexy tour songs

In the Western world it has been several decades since the Rolling Stones appeared even remotely threatening or dangerous. But yesterday the Chinese Ministry of Culture decided that four songs in their repertoire have no place in its society.

The band will be banned from playing the songs at two groundbreaking concerts in the country next month. "Brown Sugar", "Honky Tonk Women", "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Beast of Burden" had already been cut by censors from the mainland release of the 40 Licks album – thought to be because of sexual references – and now the two gigs in Shanghai and Beijing will also be officially trimmed.

When the tour dates were announced, the local promoter said the band's appearance would "show the world China is a country of openness and prosperity". Yesterday he said he did not know why the songs were cut but the ministry "must have some reason".

A spokesman for the band, in Tokyo on the Asian leg of their 40th anniversary world tour, declined to comment. And the Ministry of Culture said no one was available to talk.

The concerts in Shanghai on 1 April and in Beijing three days later will be the first the band have performed in China. As they rose to fame, China was embarking on its Cultural Revolution that condemned Western pop culture as spiritual pollution. The Stones were refused permission to play in China in the 1970s and last week Keith Richards had said: "It's about time they let us in."

Wang Long, of the Beijing Time New Century Entertainment, the organiser of the Chinese leg of the tour, said: "They have a lot of popular songs and they have 130 specially for the world tour. They have a lot of good songs and people know them." Mr Wang said tickets for the 7,000-seat venue in Beijing and similar-sized arena in Shanghai were selling well but most were going to expatriate workers. With tickets ranging from £21 to £450, they are beyond the pockets of most Chinese. In Shanghai, average wages in 2001 were £1,350 a year.

The hits Beijing will miss

Let's spend the night together

Not the first time Jagger has been forced into being coy about this one. When it was released in 1967, and the BBC was squeamish, Jagger conveyed a message to Top of the Pops – read out by Jimmy Savile -- that the song was actually about a "rave-up". Sex? You must be out of your Chinese minds.

Honky tonk woman

The Chinese authorities have worked out that the meeting with a "gin-soaked bar room queen" is about an encounter with a prostitute. They might even be rightly suspicious that the lyric "She blew my nose and then she blew my mind" is a reference to cocaine. But they're missing out on one of the great song intros. Charlie Watts will not be tapping on his cow bell in Shanghai.

Brown sugar

This actually describes the abuse of slave girls in the cotton fields of the American Deep South. "Scarred old slaver knows he's doing alright, Hear him whip the women just around midnight." One would have thought the Chinese might have welcomed this item of political education. Are they mixing it up with "Golden Brown", a Stranglers song about heroin?

Beast of burden

A mystery why this should be considered offensive. The plea from the singer that he has walked for miles, his feet are hurting and he just wishes to make love with his lady is one of Jagger and Richards' more tender lyrics. If the Chinese authorities really want a debate on political correctness and the Rolling Stones, there's this little number called "Under My Thumb", which features such masterful lines as "The squirmin' dog who's just had her day, Under my thumb, a girl who has just changed her ways, It's down to me, yes it is, The way she does just what she's told." Charming.

David Lister