Sugar Mama (Led Zeppelin song)

'Sugar Mama' is a 1969 song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. The track was composed by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and recorded at Morgan Studios, London in June 1969. A driving blues rock song, it officially remains unreleased, and has only appeared on bootleg recordings.

Overview
'Sugar Mama' was intended for the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was recorded at the same session for 'We're Gonna Groove', on 25 June 1969. The title was inspired by a 1937 song by Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee Curtis Williamson) entitled 'Sugar Mama Blues' (also known simply as 'Sugar Mama'). P. J. Proby also recorded a song entitled 'Sugar Mama' for his Three Week Hero album in 1968. Musically and stylistically all three songs are dissimilar, with only the repeated pleading refrain from singer Robert Plant, 'Sugar mama, sugar mama', having commonality. This track is driven by a galloping rhythm section courtesy of drummer John Bonham and bassist John Paul Jones, and a repetitive and compact Jimmy Page guitar riff. The tone achieved by Page is similar to the one used on 'Travelling Riverside Blues', recorded for BBC Radio the same year. 'Sugar Mama's underpinning bouncy, catchy repetitious rhythm was perhaps too out of place for the album given the material they had already recorded up to June 1969, and was subsequently left unreleased. The master tape for this song was reputedly found during a storage clean-out of Morgan Studios in the 1990s. Bootlegs containing 'Sugar Mama' have since surfaced from this tape.

Live performances
'Sugar Mama' was never performed live in its entirety. A few bars were played as part of the 'Whole Lotta Love' blues medley in a number of concerts in 1971.