Paint it Black: song of grief and depression

The Rolling Stones is among rock n roll royalty. They have been performing since 1962 with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards at the helm. While they are not my favorite rock n roll band, I do have a few favorites. One of my favorites is “Paint it Black” from their 1966 album, Aftermath. The song was released on May 7, 1966 and quickly became one of their popular songs. It was number 1 on Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. It would The Rolling Stones third #1 hit in the US and the sixth in the UK. “Paint it Black” is listed as #176 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It has been covered numerous times by artists like U2, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister and Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest.

The lyrics meant to describe depression with color-based metaphors. The opening lines are clear, “I see a red door and I want it painted black/No colors anymore, I want them to turn black.” Color is the main imagery in this song. Black, of course, is the color of depression and darkness. The narrator wants the world to be as dark as he feels. “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.” The narrator talks about seeing girls in summer clothes and needed to look away. “Summer clothes” paints an image of bright yellows and other colors that might “blind” a man darkened by grief. Almost like walking outside after leaving a darkened room, it pains him to look at it. Another line “No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue” gives no real indication what the narrator means. Possibly its how he describes her eyes and his green eyes will no longer see her deep blue ones.

The lyrics describe a fictional girl’s funeral with “a line of cars” with “with flowers and my love, both never to come back” and the extreme grief suffered by the narrator. The line, “I could not foresee this thing happening to you,” shows the unexpectedness of this young girl’s death. The narrator, so deep in his depression, has lost all hope, “I look inside myself and see my heart is black.” The line, “I turn my head until my darkness goes” claimed to be inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) referring to a theme of desperation and desolation (Visconti, 2014). The narrator talks about fading away so “not have to face the facts” that his love is gone and describes the difficulty in accepting her death, “It's not easy facing up, when your whole world is black.” In the traditional grief cycle, after the initial shock or disbelief, people generally go through five general stages: denial, anger and bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The narrator talks about looking “hard enough into the setting sun” that maybe his love “will laugh with me before the morning comes” as he may join her in heaven.

The song describes the everyday occurrence of death and the indifference to those outside the funeral procession. “I see people turn their heads and quickly look away/Like a new born baby, it just happens every day.” To everyone else, it just another death, like birth happens every day, so does death, but the narrator is devastated by his loss. That line always gets me plays in my head if I happened to be stopped by a funeral procession. I remind myself that loved ones are grieving, and I often say a prayer for the family and friends. A prayer of comfort and peace in their loss. Even acknowledging that death happens everyday and will affect us all at multiple times in our lives, it is still difficult to deal with. In his book, The Time Keeper, Mitch Albom writes, “Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.” Despite acknowledge that death comes to us all, despite planning for its inevitability, there is never enough time with our loved ones. We always want, and wish for, more time.

In conclusion, “Paint it Black” is a song of grief and depression. A man has lost his love and he does not want to see a world filled with color when his heart and mood is dark. With the use of colors, The Rolling Stones paints imagery of pain, depression, and loss. Grief is often a lonely process as one looks on as life goes on and he or she has no desire to continue with it. Death is always around us in many forms. While we know this, some embrace it and others do all they can to avoid it, it is still a time of grief for those left behind. “Paint it Black” depicts that pain very well. For that reason, it is one of my favorite Rolling Stones song.

References

Visconti, Tony (2014). 1,001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die (4th ed.). New York, NY: Universe Publishing. p. 175 ISBN 9780789320896.