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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Mr_Mojo_rising
09-24-2002

Rated 0 
I always thought it was a drug induced song after a bad trip.

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6th_sadistic_sniper
09-27-2002

Rated 0 
Heh, wouldn't you know it, the file was deleted from my PC. Damn.

And no, nothin bout drugs, how is it?!? He's clearly depressed over losing a loved one. It DOES have a clear theme shared with the Vietnam war - desensitization. Which is why Kubrick chose to use it for Full Metal Jacket.

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lilavati
10-13-2002

Rated 0 
So...who actually wrote the lyrics to the song? I always thought it was Mick, but I was a little thrown off by pkjun's post. Personally, I think I agree with Mr. Mojo rising...

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pkjun
03-07-2003

Rated 0 
Look at some biographies. Keith had lost his longtime lover, was painfully addicted to heroin, was exhausted by the band, and was miserable overall. And for god's sake, look at the credits in the album. This IS Keith's baby.

lilavati: no doubt, it did have drug-related themes. However, the Stones weren't that into hallucinogens at the time. It was heroin and pot for these boys.

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happylittlditty
03-07-2003

Rated 0 
Another great Stones song.....never be anything like it.....what more can I say?

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lilavati
03-08-2003

Rated 0 
Someone on a message board elsewhere mentioned that people used to believe a red door would protect them from evil.

Also, just found this quote:
Mick wrote it. I wrote the music, he did the words. Get a single together... What's amazing about that one for me is the sitar. Also, the fact that we cut it as a comedy track. Bill was playing an organ, doing a takeoff of our first manager (Eric Easton) who started his career in show business as an organist in a cinema pit. We'd been doing it with funky rhythms and it hadn't worked and he started playing it like this and everybody got behind it. It's a two-beat, very strange. Brian playing the sitar makes it a whole other thing.
- Keith Richards, 1971

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slickvic
03-19-2003

Rated 0 
the following lines explain the meaning quite clearly
I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
(line of cars = funeral

With flowers and my love both never to come back
(flowers and my love- flowers and his love in the funeral and never to comeback cuz she died

I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
(people know wat happend and are sad and fell bad and stare and talk about him until he catches them then they turn

Like a new born baby it just happens ev'ry day
(this couldnt be more obvious, wat else besides birth happens every day yes many things but the opposite of birth is death

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ZinbobDan
03-28-2003

Rated 0 
it IS NOT about war...however, it was used as a war protest song...the Rolling Stones did not write many political songs (although they did hav a few)...of course this song was used in the 60s, 70s as a protest song but probably wouldn't hav remained associated with the war if not for...

a late 70s movie/documentary was titled "Paint It Black" and used this as the theme...a similar association occured when a book about charles manson was called "Helter Skelter" just as people were beginning to forgive and forget how the beatles shocking attempt at Who-style hard rock inspired a weirdo to kill...

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Illnero
04-02-2003

Rated 0 
I always thought the song was about being depressed. Not like just depressed once in a while but like the illness depression. I've dealt with it a lot myself and see the song as a statement of someone so depressed that he has changed his outlook on the world so much that the things most people enjoy, he finds to be worth nothing.

("I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black")

Not even seeing pretty girls can even break his feeling of guilt and desparity from within. And until he can feel less depressed, he won't even put forth the effort to be with someone
("I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes")

He did have a love once, but she's gone now and he just feels lower than ever because he has no one to share his feelings with. Her absence is much like a death to him inside i.e. a funeral.
("I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
With flowers and my love both never to come back.")

No one knows what feelings he's going through and feel the need of not even acknowledging that he's feeling down, when he'd like the people around him to at least acknowledge his problems. To them, it's some other guy going through sh*t and not them.
("I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a new born baby it just happens ev'ry day")

He knows that he has a problem. A problem real bleak. He recognizes his sickness. It has even turned his heart a darker shade.
("I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black")


Since no one acknowledges him, he wants to die. What's the point of living if people around you don't even take the effort to acknowledge that you're around.
("Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facin' up when your whole world is black")

He's lost all hope. There's no turning back now. He's become something totally different than what he once was. Depression has made him a different beast altogether.
("No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you.")

But even though he is changed, he still yearns for the happiness from the old times. Those old memories are what is left of who he once was.
("If I look hard enough into the settin' sun")

The repeating of the first lyric reaffirms how low he's feeling.

Near the end, he's accepted that he has an illness. A disease and he can't get better even if he tried. Instead of shunning it, he accepts his skewered outlook. He accepts his dark side. Possibly in a fit of rage, lamenting on everyone around him who he feels doesn't care about him because he's changed.
("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!"

That's what "Paint it Black" means to me. Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.


My love will laugh with me before the mornin' comes")

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Muzzy
05-07-2003

Rated 0 
Slickvic makes a pretty good point about the whole funeral thing. So does Illnero, combine the 2 together....He's really depressed over a lost love. And I think that's what the song is about.

I dunno about all the drug refrences, I guess if that's what you wanna make of it.

One of rocks all time great songs, I doubt people will ever stop listening to this song.

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gorefist
06-17-2003

Rated 0 
I think it has alot to do with the Vietnam war, the black heart, the soldiers, returning home, and seeing everything they fought for is pointless and unrecognize and now they are shunned. So they fall into a deep depression because they thought they were doing the right thing and now they are hated for it. So they have no interest in anything and cant bear to be exposed to society because of their own insecurities.

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sploogyshmoo
06-22-2003

Rated 0 
I would just like to point out that vanessa carlton's cover of this song SUCKED so much... it can't compare at all with the original... it makes the baby jesus cry.

but anyway, I think the most obvious meaning is that someone he loves has died, and he's (understandably) depressed. when people are depressed, they usually feel anger at some point, a bitterness towards happy people, hence the "girls in summer clothes" bit and the wanting to "paint" everything black... man I'm smart!

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Yakuza Warlord
06-24-2003

Rated 0 
I was so obsessed with this song a while back, that I spent one night singing it in french! I always thought it was either connected with the Vietnam War or Depression. since of course it was on Full Metal Jacket.

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TheEdge
07-04-2003

Rated 0 
The song first appeared in the "Cash Box Top 100" 5/14/1966. It was written in Winter/Spring 1966.
Maybe a little bit too early for a song about someone coming back home from Vietnam.
I think there were pretty good point about the funeral mentioned before, that's why I think it's about his girlfriend who recently passed away.

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OzzWoz
05-31-2004

Rated 0 
I believe that some of you are on the right track in saying that this song is about a man despondent about the death of a girlfriend. However, I also believe that "Paint It Black" is darker(no pun intended) than just an ensuing depression. I believe that the man in the song is seriously contemplating suicide. Please note the continuous references to things coming to an end. First off, though, the color references are very significant. The red door that he wants to turn black could represent pain(red) that he is trying to kill(black). Furthermore, the choice of a door as the object he wants to paint is curious. In symbolism, doors often represent a pathway to another realm, in this case perhaps death. Also, he says no more will his green sea go turn a deeper blue. Green can represent the envy he feels when he sees the girls wearing their summer clothes and blue the inevitable depression that results. Also, this is one of the references to things coming to an end. Notice - "no more" will this happen. The next line is also very interesting. He says he could not foresee "this thing" happening to you. "This thing" may be suicide and the "you" he is talking to is actually himself as he ponders doing it. He never imagined that he would be in a situation where he might commit suicide. Now, back to the refernces to things ending.We have a couple more in addition to the previously mentioned green sea no longer turning blue. Another is the fading away and not having to face the facts. This one fits perfectly. But the clincher for me is the stanza about the looking into the setting sun. The sun setting on something is yet another obvious reference to a coming end. He then follows that by saying his love will laugh with me before the morning comes - he is imagining joining his lost girlfriend in the afterlife. This may all be way off the mark, but it is how I have always viewed the song. Tell me what you think.

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myhotelyear
06-13-2004

Rated 0 
Red usually isn't a negative color, universally in literature red symbolizes passion and love and the red door being painted black symbolizes his loss of love

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Niam
06-13-2004

Rated 0 
i dont think anyone should be allowed to cover this song its so sacred, i love it. and that is true about red symbolizing passion and love in the book jane eyre she gets locked in the 'red room' and that represents passion

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Rollingstonesrock
09-23-2004

Rated 0 
there is a meanin to this song but it is gonna go with keith richards and mick jagger to the grave and never be told! I love this song tho!

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meursaultsrevolver
09-28-2004

Rated 0 
"In it, everyone either gets killed and/or is a murderer themselves"

what, exactly, is the difference between these two acertations?

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Niam
10-09-2004

Rated 0 
depression

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Clone Boy
10-12-2004

Rated 0 
This is about some guy that killed his lover and now his whole world is coming down

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Niam
10-19-2004

Rated 0 
often the colour red represents passion, painting a red door black shows desensitization. also the death funeral thing feeling completly numb, and what happens when we stare at the sun it hurts your eyes but all you can see is white light

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Humbucker57
10-31-2004

Rated 0 
I'm not quite sure what the song means. It just seems to reflect a sound of despair... as if everything in humanity has left this individual... and the only thing he has left is black... or nothing.

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phantompenguin
11-05-2004

Rated 0 
A loved one's funeral.

That's what I read out of it. Some obvious references early in the song. A line of black cars like a funeral procession, tossing flowers in with the casket, people turning away when they look at the body...

The protagonist goes into deep despair after losing a loved one and wants to shut himself off from the world.

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lizard_king
11-10-2004

Rated 0 
Uh, if you've read this far, get off your ass and do something productive

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