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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isabellahelsing
11-11-2004

Rated 0 
let's come to a consensus here. it's about a lost love, who died in the nam war, and he'd depressed, and want to kill himself and all that....and its not easy but eventually he comes to terms with his depression.

either that, or, it's just about a guy who wants everything to turn black so it'll be easy on his eyes.

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Grottroffe
12-08-2004

Rated 0 
Why not just agree on one thing: The song and lyrics seem to mean something to everyone, that is a sign of a great song.

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maharishi
01-03-2005

Rated 0 
The real name of this song is "Paint It, Black"
with a comma.

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gartz
01-06-2005

Rated 0 
if you've ever lost a loved one, it's strange how people act around you. they don't know what to say or do, wanting to help but afraid to upset...that's what the line "I see people turn their heads and quickly look away" means to me. people avoid eye contact with the grieving.
Like a new born baby it just happens ev'ry day ... of course this is about death, in the end we all have it coming - the big dirt nap, baby!

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amlethus
01-09-2005

Rated 0 
exactly quartz.
I, too, see the grief of losing a loved one to an accident (not necessary lover, might as well be a child)
There are several things that make me connect to this song:
how people deal with death (I almost hear someone saying: "face it, she is dead"), how everything you see in this world relates to such a loss, and you have to turn away from the things that don't fit.

"If I look hard enough into the settin' sun / My love will laugh with me before the mornin' comes "
being he most developable lines: the hope to be together in a way. Dying? Losing Sanity? Or just going to the place one used to be together, doing what we did together...

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xheartbreakerx
01-14-2005

Rated 0 
this is my favorite rollings stones song, and i've been obsessed with it ever since i can remeber when my dad would put on his stones records.
as a little kid, i loved the music, and now i think the lyrics are just as great too

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Seanzy333
03-08-2005

Rated 0 
I also think this is about vietnam... It's about a soldier back from vietnam and cannot forget the horros he had seen there, friends dying in combat, innocent people killed. He is so traumatized that he is getting depressed and all that bad stuff. And this song is in Full Metal Jacket, and a game, Conflict Vietnam.
But thats just my oppinion!

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DougB
03-09-2005

Rated 0 
Folks: This is an anti-Viet Nam war song.
Red Door: Colour of door at 10 Downing St. (Residence of British P.M.)
Line of cars, flowers, people looking away: Funeral Procession

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josh87
03-13-2005

Rated 0 
What a creepy song.

LOVE it.

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Comrade_Liar
03-13-2005

Rated 0 
Not every 60s song is Anti-Vietnam. I dont think this one is for instance. Its about the death of a loved one, and how people react to him afterwoods.

He feels that everyone should share his pain, and he cant believe the world just keeps on going even though he is such depression. Thats why he want to paint everything black, he feels that if he cant be happy, then nobody should be happy.

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kmk_natasha
03-24-2005

Rated 0 
This is written from the viewpoint of a person who is depressed. He wants everything to turn black to match his mood. On the single, there is a comma before "Black" in the title. Some people thought this was a racial statement.
"Paint It Black" was referenced in the second verse of the song "Thirteen" by Big Star: "Won't you tell your Dad get off my back? Tell him what we said 'bout Paint It Black. Rock 'n' Roll is here to stay. Come inside where it's OK. And I'll shake you."

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boxermom1004
03-31-2005

Rated 0 
I've always interpreted it as a song about despair at losing a soul mate. Reading these posts makes me wonder if any of you have ever lost someone that you loved very deeply. I have, and the beat and the words in this song feel exactly like that feeling.

Sort of a spinning, sinking, helpless feeling. You feel numb, you go to the funeral, you watch everything happening as if it is on a movie screen. You go home and get drunk and angry -- towards the end of the song it seems to be more out of control. Makes me think of broken bottles, smeared mascara, tears and cries and screams and wishing you could die too so you can be with that person again.

Oh, and if we're going to base our opinions on the song being played in a movie, then I guess it's about a ghost since they also played it all through the movie Stir of Echoes.

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rightcoastlover
04-10-2005

Rated 0 
i think everyong is too anaylitcal

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val951
04-15-2005

Rated 0 
This is by far my favorite song...according to what I've heard, this song has a lot to do with acid. Seeing as how I've never done, acid, I don't know how true that is...it kinda makes sense tho.

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val951
04-15-2005

Rated 0 
I also think it has a lot to do with losing someone/thing and depression in general.

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JimSteele
04-16-2005

Rated 0 
I'm fairly certain that this song is about Vietnam. I was talking about anti-Vietnam songs over dinner with my father the other night. I mentioned a couple others (such as 'Ohio' by CSNY and 'Fortunate Son' by CCR) and the first anti-Vietnam that came to my dad's mind was this one.

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classicrockgirl
04-17-2005

Rated 0 
Mick Jagger: Let's copy The Beatles and use a sitar and maybe nobody will notice!

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fastfingerz
04-27-2005

Rated 0 
the only version i ever had of this song was a live one. for years i thought mick was saying i see the river and i want to paint it black. my bass player was trying to learn it and found he was saying red door. he brought this to my attention and i was too stubborn to admit i was wrong. i told him that i had said i wanted to name the band black river, and so the name stuck, and to this day none of them know any different.

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blakeguy
04-29-2005

Rated 0 
I think it's pretty funny (i read as many as i could but after i saw so many people completely miss the meaning, i just skipped ahead to a reply)

The song is about Death (obviously) and his depression (which must have been mentioned a thousand times) but most of the song is about his realization that everyone dies including himself. and the feeling of "whats it all matter if im just going to die in the end?"

I see a red door and I want it painted black
(red door = passion or his love, painted black cause she died)
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
(the depression that follows and the obsession with that which took his love)(his strong love is not replaced with a strong presence and preoccupation with death)
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
(summer representing the prime of life, if winter is death. he sees girls in their prime but has to turn his head because he knows death is only going to take them as well)
I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
(funeral procession)
With flowers and my love both never to come back
(flowers he gave to the love he lost are gone forever)
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
(he notices that people turn their heads to a thing like death because as people we dont like to think about it, or ignore it, pretend its not an enevitable truth)(but to a man who's fascinated with it, its everywere)
Like a new born baby it just happens ev'ry day
("Old man dies, a young girl lives" couldnt spare the sin city quote. He just mentioning the relationship between birth and death. ones considered a miracle the other is taboo to discuss. example people not wanting to discuss living wills or whatever)


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 facin' up when your whole world is black

The rest of the song is just reiterating his prefacination with death and the fact that everything in life is just a precursor to your own death and the depression and disillusionment that follows.

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blakeguy
04-29-2005

Rated 0 
seriously people... its not about the Vietnam War. theres not a single line in the song that would even hint to that conclusion. Stop mentioning it

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Jere
04-29-2005

Rated 0 
blakeguy, i think you've missed the mark a little bit as well. I don't think he's concerned so much about about the fact that everyone dies nor do i think the summer analogy is correct. Summer clothes to me simply represents pretty women. Trust me, living in a cold climate you can easily see pretty women in summer but not winter. Anyway, that's an aside. Looking at these women sparks memories of his lost love (and the darkness--his grief, his pain, his depression overtakes him) and he has to look away because the pain is too much.

Generally, i agree with you. But i think it's not about death in general; it's about the pain of a specific death and his overwhelming grief.

The person who mentioned the narrator's possible suicide is on to something i think.

I also doubt the vietnam connection. Sure it can, and has been, applied to the war as a commentary; but i don't think that was the intent.

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blakeguy
04-30-2005

Rated 0 
I dont doubt the song is attributed to a specific love he lost (whether it be father sister or girlfriend).
"Summer clothes to me simply represents pretty women" if this is his soulmate, or one who he deeply loves... why would some physical and superficial thing like prettiness remind him of her, i think they must have had something much deeper and internal shared between them. He's wouldnt even think (at this point in his mourning at least) of finding a new women or even care to look at their forms in a sexual way. so i think thats a weak connection.
I'll reiterate back to what i mentioned earlier in a clearer way. Naturally having this loss on his mind, he pervades all his thoughts... he sees girls in thier summer clothes, or in other words the fruit of their life, living and having fun and it pains him to know, it will end the same for them as it did for his love and this cycle will happen forever. thus why he looks inside himself and sees his own death, ergo his obsession with it. i dont know, to me it makes perfect sense, but i realize i might be wrong.

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Antacular
05-11-2005

Rated 0 
This song isn't about the Vietnam war. Yes, it was used in Vietnam films, but it isn't about the war. It was written by two Brits in the mid '60's stung out on heroine. It would be like some American folk song writer in the 1890's writing about the British Boer War. Americans weren't concerned about that British war, and the British weren't concerned with the Vietnam war.

However, it IS a song about depression, suicide, and losing a love one. Not satanism or whatever.

What I am surprised about is no one getting the 'red door' reference. In the bible, Moses and the Jews had to paint red above their doors so the plague wouldn't kill their first born sons. It's in Exodus. Richards is the first born child, so 'I see a red door and I want it painted black' is a metaphor for wanting to kill himself.

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adam1986
05-17-2005

Rated 0 
just because it was played in Full Metal Jacket(excellent movie) doesn't mean that the song is about the war. Hell, Stanley Kuprick played Going to the Chapel during that movie, doesn't mean the song is about the war.

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ray_jay_jackson
05-17-2005

Rated 0 
this song is a great song. CLASSIC. i think i understand it.

he sees a RED door and he wants it painted BLACK. think back to the era when this song came out. who was the free world fighting? COMMUNISTS! what colour symbolized communisim? RED! black symbolizes death. i think it's a song about how we hate the communists. (keep in mind the world was living in fear of the USSR. i am very sure that this could be what it means. if not i am still feeling pretty damn smart about myself.

ray jay

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