I grew up on several different genres of music dating from the “Rat Pack” in the 50s to Duran Duran in the 80s. I even have the fondest memories of jamming to House of Pain’s “Jump Around” on car rides with my mom. With such a wide variety of music interests, I chose The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black” for this song assignment because I loved this band growing up, thanks to my dad. The Rolling Stones, a rock band from the United Kingdom, is one of the most popular rock bands from the early 1960s. The phrase, “Paint It, Black” isn’t usually paired with good qualities, rather, it usually refers to something evil or dark. This song can be found on The Rolling Stones’ “Aftermath” album and was completely written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Apparently the song has a mysterious meaning, but Mick Jagger says it alludes to the idea of loss, grief, and a depressive state.
You may be thinking, how does this relate to Chapter 5? For the first time in a Stones piece, a sitar is featured in “Paint It, Black” thanks to a trip to Australia, ironically. The band thought a sitar fit the vibe of the piece. According to Richards, they couldn’t bend a guitar enough for the sound they wanted. The rock group claimed they used a double-time drum pattern, mimicking Indian music. “Paint It, Black” quickly became well-known for disagreeing folks during the Vietnam War, though it wasn’t meant to hold any political meaning. It reached No. 1 in the U.S. and the U.K. charts in 1966 while remaining popular on the Stones set today. The song starts with the sitar, then drums enter, third, a solo male voice, and then others make appearances later. Additionally, there is humming that mimics the sitar before the song ends. This song always reminded me of an anxious, high-speed chase, maybe because of the intense drum and energetic plucking which is kind of ironic because the song is supposed to resemble grief… maybe anger is involved as well due to the yelling nature of the lyrics.
Provide Feedback