Lyrics for Paint It Black as interpreted by hermelinus

Paint It Black Lyrics
I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors 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 goes

I 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 day

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been 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 black

No more will my green seagull 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

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors 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 goes

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 black
Yeah!

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ginger
01-19-2002

Rated +1 
i dont know thats what im trying to find out


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1 Reply
maxpower114
02-08-2002

Rated +3 
I think this song is just about a guy that has lost all faith in EVERYTHING and he just wants to world to emulate his own feelings of despair.

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MUNKY149
02-16-2002

Rated 0 
I think that this is basically about someone who just plain out lost it all and feels he has nothing left. He knows nothing will ever be the same as it was and faces this by having everything dark

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blakerae
03-08-2002

Rated 0 
I believe this song refers to someone who is really mad or depressed and or just really in a bad mood. So anything not already "black" or depressing, well he plans on making it that way. He's tired of the happy and spunky people who are care free and smitten, so he's gonna paint them a dark color, black. i dig this song a lot.....love it!

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xmod2
04-05-2002

Rated +3 
I think it's about him losing someone close to him (lover) and the despair and depression that follows.

A line of cars painted black. Funeral Procession.

With flowers and my love both never to come back...

the rest of the song talks about he it outwardly projecting his darkness.

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1 Reply
nirkit
04-05-2002

Rated 0 
I agree he's lost his girlfriend, and she's dead. However, I think he may have killed her. He refers to his darkness coming when he looks at the women. Either they remind him of his girlfriend, he wants to get through the mouning process first, or (as I think) they summon up his darkness. Also, the red door may be red with blood. Hey, it's a long shot, but still... Also of little of no relevence but supporting this nonetheless, this song is the theme of the game "Twisted Metal: Black". In it, everyone either gets killed and/or is a murderer themselves. Again, long shot.

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3 Replies
dysphoria1
04-17-2002

Rated 0 
or it could also be about Satanism and its fight against religion... Black being the color of satanism (straight from Anton LaVey)... The "red door" perhaps symbolizing a church door or the door into ones beliefs... "colors" perhaps representing religions or philosophies... "Summer clothes" representing the everyday actions and interactions of people... Perhaps his love left him because he was a satanist and this motivates him to want to see his belief system take over... "people turn their heads and quickly look away" due to their general cultural disagreement with his choice of beliefs... even better yet... maybe his love was lost from satanism to christianity thus also explaining why he can't stand to look at the "girls in their summerclothes"... "if I look hard enough into the setting sun"... now look the two things that are going to happen in this scenario are (A) he goes blind and then he only sees BLACK... or (B) the sun'll set and it'll be dark... and so he'll see black and thus his true love (the darkness inside/outside of him will be there with him and "laugh"... "I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky"... How much more satanist can you get?

Note: I am neither a satanist nor a christian I just brought this theory (and I know its a strecht) to the table to make people think)

P.S.: Black is also the color of anarchism.
P.S.II: Mic could've also been dealing with white guilt.



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Isabel Archer
04-29-2002

Rated 0 
i i like to think this song is just plainly and simply a love song. Some guy singing about someone he loved very much who probably died or is close to dying. i dont think he killed her (i could not forsee this thing happening to you) However, maybe its really about betrayal. maybe his girlfriend cheated on him, or something along those lines, and hes torn between being heartbroken and wanting revenge. as in, "painting" everything black is a metaphor to murder.

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melanieclemmons
05-04-2002

Rated 0 
um i think this guy is just generally pissed off at the world for taking his girlfriend/wife/ someone he loved (whatever) unexpedly, so he shows this hate by turning everything to black so everyone can see his sadness and just how mad he really is. howEver someone told me this song was about drugs in vietnam so WHO KNOWS????i guess its just what you want to believe....

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pkjun
05-05-2002

Rated 0 
Dysphoria...just shut up. Please. Keith was, at the time, absolutely depressed, addicted to heroin, miserable, his girlfriend had dumped him in a rather cruel fashion, and he wrote a song to express this. It's just simple depression.

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sqrt144
05-13-2002

Rated 0 
it is an anti-vietnam song fellas.

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mhhinch
05-23-2002

Rated 0 
I think it is just simply a statement on the state of youth at the time. They had very little to look forward too. The men were being forced into an unpopular war and the girls were being left lonely. Hence, paint it black, so everyone feels as I do.

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pureevil666
05-27-2002

Rated 0 
I think it is definitly about depression after the loss of a wife or girlfriend. In his depression he wants everything black. Hes so depressed that nothing except his wife/girlfriend could help him. So he wants everything painted black, the red door, the line of cars which most likely was a funeral procession, his heart, and his red door. He cant look at any girls because they all remind him of his former lover so he has to turn his head untill his darkness goes. With flowers and my love both never to come back was refering to the flowers he sent with his lover in the hearse and the my love part is his lover the flowers and his lover will never come back. He says no colors any more, again its his depression he doesnt want any happiness any more he just wants his love back. He talks about fading away and not having to face the facts. I think that refers to him dying and not having to face up to the fact that his lover is dead. Then he says its not easy facin up when your whole world is black. Hes saying its not easy getting up and living your life when everything is black and depressing to you. You know he didnt kill her because it says I could not forsee this thing happening to you. Hes saying that he didnt even see it coming, which is also a reason for his deep depression the shock of his lovers death. Then the part about the setting sun and him laughing with his love is about him just waking up and looking out to heaven and talking to her, and laughing with her. Then finally in the ending its very aggresive hes just getting every thng out. He wants everything black because nothing but his love mattered to him so now that shes dead he just wants the whole world black to match his heart.

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MulishaX
06-13-2002

Rated 0 
This song only means he has finally understood and is ready to except his fate. He is ready to pay for an action and die. But he wants to bring someone else with him.

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rbfboy212
06-16-2002

Rated 0 
This song is about the Vietnam war. What a stupid war it was for us to enter. It's about the loss of American lives. It's basically about a returning soildier who suffers from War Depression. Many men who served in Nam claimed that they only saw two colors due to depression, red, and black. Red of coarse being communism. Just a theory, but it is also a featured song during the ending credits to the movie, Full Metal Jacket, which is of coarse about depression/war. If anyone disagrees, or comments, please post.

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Gilthanis
06-20-2002

Rated 0 
One question, what would a Brit addicted to drugs really care about American lives?

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Andaah
06-20-2002

Rated 0 
Shhhhhhhh.........

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suckmykiss
07-05-2002

Rated 0 
i did once hear this mentioned along with street fighting man as a war protest song

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FUKSHTSHOVERSROL4EVR
08-03-2002

Rated 0 
I think the guy likes black whats wrong with that

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Robin
08-17-2002

Rated 0 
It's about the Vietnam War.


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killingFloor
08-23-2002

Rated 0 
pkjun is right. just depression. don't piss me off with vietnam and vietnam and vietnam again, simply because this song was used by kubrik to close FMJ or other similar stories

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Slice_Paper_Wrists
09-08-2002

Rated 0 
I hate oldies but I don't know what it is about this one...it's just awesome. I love the lyrics. It pulls me right in....

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Oedipus
09-21-2002

Rated 0 
im in the same boat as keith right now. that thing about the brit and americans was pure gold. i said this in another post and ill say it again. it doesn't matter what the song meant to the writer, no one has been in his shoes or knows exactly what he feels. what matters is what YOU feel when you hear the song. and once again dont tell people they're wrong even if they are. they suffer more for their sins if no one tells them they're wrong.

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Karamellpojken
09-22-2002

Rated 0 
For me this is the best song ever but i still can't figure out what was running in Mick Jagger's mind when he wrote the lyric. and i don't wanna know either. But the obvious thought that comes up is that he is depressed and he has lost faith in everything. the red door being painted black probably means that he even lost the strongest belief most people got. religion and in this case christianity.

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6th_sadistic_sniper
09-24-2002

Rated 0 
It's not about Vietnam. I wrote a whole essay about the meaning of this song: unfortunately it is on my other computer. I'll post it as a comment here this weekend.

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