About The Song
This perspective is from a person grappling with depression, yearning for everything to take on a somber, black hue to mirror their emotional state. The lyrics were crafted without any particular source of inspiration. When questioned about why he composed a song touching upon mortality, Mick Jagger responded at the time, saying, “I don’t know. It’s been done before. It’s not an original thought by any means. It all depends on how you do it.”
The song appears to revolve around the loss of a beloved:
“I see a line of cars and they’re all painted black” – Depicting the hearse and accompanying vehicles.
“With flowers and my love both never to come back” – Symbolizing the funeral flowers and the departed loved one in the hearse. The singer expresses how his heart has turned dark due to this loss.
“I could not foresee this thing happening to you” – Emphasizing the unexpected and sudden nature of the death.
“If I look hard enough into the setting sun, my love will laugh with me before the morning comes” – Suggesting the presence of the departed loved one in the afterlife.
Originally, The Rolling Stones composed this as a slower, traditional soul song. However, during the recording session, Bill Wyman playfully experimented with the organ, imitating their initial rendition in a spoof of music played at Jewish weddings. Co-manager Eric Easton and Charlie Watts joined in, creating an improvised double-time drum rhythm reminiscent of certain Middle Eastern dances. This upbeat rhythm was subsequently incorporated into the recording to contrast with the melancholic lyrics.
Brian Jones, a guitarist for The Rolling Stones, played the sitar on this track, an instrument famously introduced to pop music by The Beatles in their 1965 song “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).” Jones garnered attention by balancing the sitar on his lap during performances.
Keith Richards elucidated how this song came together: “We were in Fiji for about three days. They make sitars and all sorts of Indian stuff. Sitars are made out of watermelons or pumpkins or something smashed so they go hard. They’re very brittle and you have to be careful how you handle them. We had the sitars, we thought we’d try them out in the studio. To get the right sound on ‘Paint It Black’ we found the sitar fitted perfectly. We tried a guitar but you can’t bend it enough.”
This song served as the theme music for “Tour Of Duty,” a CBS television series depicting the Vietnam War that aired from 1987 to 1989.
Interestingly, the single version of the song includes a comma before the word “black” in the title, rendering it as “Paint It, Black.” While some fans interpreted this as a commentary on race relations, it is more likely the result of a clerical error, a not uncommon occurrence during the ’60s.
Mick Jagger reflected on the song’s psychedelic sound, noting its connection to the era of heightened LSD usage: “That was the time of lots of acid. It has sitars on it. It’s like the beginnings of miserable psychedelia. That’s what the Rolling Stones started – maybe we should have a revival of that.”
Several artists have covered this song, including U2, Deep Purple, Vanessa Carlton, GOB, Tea Party, Jonny Lang, Face to Face, Earth Crisis, W.A.S.P., Rage, Glenn Tipton, Elliott Smith, Eternal Afflict, Anvil, and Risa Song.
Jack Nitzsche contributed keyboards to the song. Apart from working with The Stones, Nitzsche arranged records for Phil Spector and composed scores for numerous films. Nitzsche, unfortunately, gained notoriety for appearing on the TV show “Cops” after being arrested for brandishing a gun at an individual who stole his hat. He passed away from a heart attack in 2000 at the age of 63.
The Rolling Stones’ former manager, Allen Klein, held the publishing rights to this song. In 1965, The Stones enlisted his services and signed a contract they later regretted. With Klein managing their finances, The Stones relinquished the publishing rights to all songs they had written up to 1969. Consequently, every time the song is used in a commercial or TV show, Klein’s estate, even after his 2009 passing, continues to receive royalties.
The song features in the closing credits of the movie “The Devil’s Advocate” and is also heard at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s film “Full Metal Jacket,” where it serves as an allegory for the sorrow associated with sudden death in the song, correlating it to the emotional toll on the men in the movie, and by extension, all men in war.
Brian Jones played a significant role in the creation of this song but was not credited as a songwriter (Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are the credited writers). Although Jones contributed arrangements to “Paint It Black” and many other songs during this period, Keith Richards claimed that Jones never presented a completed song to the group, which resulted in his omission from the songwriting credits.
Brian Jones was a founding member of The Stones and played a pivotal role in their early success. While he was still active when the song was released in 1966, his drug use and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg leaving him for Keith Richards led to his decline. By June 1969, he had become a liability, and The Stones dismissed him. Tragically, less than a month later, he drowned in his swimming pool at the age of 27. Jones made notable contributions to the group, including his lead guitar work on “Get Off of My Cloud” and playing the recorder on “Ruby Tuesday,” but his sitar performance on “Paint It Black” is often regarded as one of his greatest musical achievements.
This song was featured in the movie “Stir Of Echoes” with Kevin Bacon. In the film, Bacon’s character is haunted by the opening chords of the song in a memory but struggles to recall the title, causing him distress throughout the movie.
Ronnie Wood, co-guitarist for The Stones, revealed on his Absolute Radio show that Keith Richards occasionally has difficulty recalling how to play this song. Wood disclosed, “We always have this moment of hesitation where we don’t know if Keith’s going to get the intro right.”
Keith Richards attributed the transformation of “Paint It Black” to Bill Wyman’s contributions on the organ, which significantly altered the song’s sound. He noted that it didn’t resemble the finished record until Bill Wyman made his suggestion.
Ciara recorded a captivating cover of this song for the 2015 film “The Last Witch Hunter.” She expressed her excitement about the opportunity to cover the song, highlighting the creative freedom it offered her and the unique direction she took with the track.
In 1966, “Black” seemed to be a popular theme in music; the Spanish group Los Bravos achieved success with their song “Black Is Black,” which reached #4 in the US and #2 in the UK that year.
During the two weeks when this song held the #1 spot in June 1966, the #2 song on the charts was “Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind?” by The Lovin’ Spoonful, an American group
Watching Video Here
Lyrics
I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colours anymore, I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by, dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goesI see a line of cars and they’re all painted black
With flowers and my love both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a newborn baby, it just happens every dayI look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door, I must have it painted black
Maybe then I’ll fade away and not have to face the facts
It’s not easy facing up when your whole world is blackNo more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you
If I look hard enough into the setting sun
My love will laugh with me before the morning comesI see a red door and I want it painted black
No colours anymore, I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by, dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goesHmm, hmm, hmm…
I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted blackYeah!
Hmm, hmm, hmm…