one of 1966’s coolest songs<\/a>, it still sounds vastly weirder, cutting-edge, and cooler today.<\/p>\nAt its heart, “Paint It, Black” is a weird song. Give it a listen. Does it really sound like “rock?” Does it sound like any other chart-topper? To us, it really sounds like a galloping desert chase between an obsessed, Wild West lawman and outlaw, one of whom is a yogi and both of whom wield black magic. It sounds like madness and smothering oppression and exactly what the\u00a0lyrics describe:\u00a0“I wanna see it painted, painted black \/\u00a0Black as night, black as coal \/ I wanna see the sun, blotted out from the sky \/ I wanna see it painted, painted, painted\/ Painted black, yeah.” Is this the memoir of a serial killer?\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s a testament to the enduring, legitimately brilliant songcraft of “Paint It, Black” that the song got to where it is. Fear not, we’re\u00a0going to get to the heart of what makes “Paint It, Black” so undeniably cool.<\/p>\n
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The lyrics of Paint It, Black<\/p>\n
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Even though “Paint It, Black” is a whole package of a song, where each part links perfectly to the other \u2014 mood, intent, lyricism, tempo, rhythm, etc. \u2014 we’re going to first highlight why the song’s lyrics\u00a0go far in making it so cool.\u00a0Plainly put, “Paint It, Black’s” lyrics paint a disturbing story that can be downright uncomfortable when read outside of its melody. Take lines like, “I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes \/ I have to turn my head until my darkness goes.” Say what, again?<\/p>\n
We’re sure plenty of people know these lyrics by heart, but have you ever realized what they’re saying? Mick Jagger basically lists a whole bunch of things cloaked in darkness: doors, cars, hearts, the “whole world.” It’s the repetition that makes it work, lockstep with repeating musical phrases. The song’s stand-out verse\u00a0sounds like gothic musings of an eloquent goblin creeping through shadow: “No 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 comes.” Good luck finding many songs, rock or otherwise, classic or modern, with lyrics like this.\u00a0It’s something of a miracle that words so impenetrable, heavy, and even graceful snuck into an up-tempo, mainstream rock song that’s become all-but-immortalized over time.<\/p>\n
As for what “Paint It, Black” is actually about, well, it’s pretty simple:\u00a0grief. True to the song’s classical-sounding allusions, it’s about a lover who just can’t go on after his love has died \u2014 hence the desire for everything to turn to black.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The music of Paint It, Black<\/p>\n
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Intriguingly, “Paint It, Black” has no chorus. It’s a song that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, is the Rolling Stones’ No. 1 listened-to song on\u00a0Spotify \u2014 the biggest song from one of rock’s biggest bands, ever \u2014 and it has no chorus. It’s just a bunch of end-on-end verses with different lyrics that build and build, and drive on and on, relentless and all-consuming. The final 90 seconds is mostly instrumental, with some “hmm, hmm, hmm, hmms”\u00a0and final outro lyrics. It’s written in an exotic-sounding Phrygian musical mode, not a bog-standard major or minor mode \u2014 unheard of for a popular song. It was also the first song featuring a sitar to hit No. 1, thanks to Brian Jones’ deft riffs. How did this all happen?\u00a0How does it possibly work?<\/p>\n
The honest answer is that good music is good music. But really, “Paint It, Black” boils down its ultra-cool main riff, the one that repeats again and again, matching Jagger’s vocal melody note for note: “I see a red door and I want it painted black.” Without getting too far into the music theory weeds, this main riff is written in a musical mode not typically associated with rock or Western musical scales: Phrygian, reminiscent of Arabic music, Indian music, Spanish flamenco, plenty of metal, and more. The mode sounds mysterious, even sinister, like a terrible secret, and fits the tenor and lyrical themes of “Paint It, Black” to a T.<\/p>\n
Extra hats off to Brian Jones’ sitar playing in “Paint It, Black,” without which the song loses much of its musical color. He tragically died very young in 1969, which only adds to the song’s darkness.<\/p>\n
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