Paint it Black - Song Analysis

Music Song Analysis Term Paper

          The Rolling Stones were part of the British Invasion during the 1960’s and regarded by many as the bad boy counterparts to the clean-cut Beatles.  “Paint it Black” is an example of the Rolling Stone’s darker themes and projected bad boy image.  The song was originally written, produced and recorded by the Rolling Stones in 1966 for their Aftermath album released later that year.  “Paint it Black” features unique song qualities due to several contributing factors.  First, there is the prominence of the Middle Eastern instrument, the sitar, played throughout the song.  The sitar is used in a number of areas, frequently playing the main song’s riff.  The sitar was first introduced by The Beatles George Harrison, in the song Norwegian Wood on their Rubber Soul album and brought an entirely new and different sound into mainstream rock and roll.  The sounds and influences of the Middle Eastern cultures were slowly being utilized by more bands and artists during the 1960’s.  The introduction of the sitar proved that musical norms were slowly changing.  Additionally, the lyrics of “Paint it Black” focus on suicide, which is a substantially darker theme than most rock and roll songs created during that era. 

          Within “Paint it Black” one can mark the growing trend within songs that were no longer happy songs about simply holding hands or being in love with girls, the musicians had moved on to tackling bigger and much more difficult ideas.  Ideas that dealt with life, death, society, and politics, not just simple, easy love.  The social significance of “Paint it Black” is very important because the slow change to darker themes musically are also reflected in the slow change of America’s youth from happy-go-lucky hippies to angry, stoned discontented mobs.  The change in America’s youth is due to the changing state of the nation with the growing involvement in Vietnam and the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Junior can be seen in their changing music tastes and preferences.

          “Paint it Black” is sung by Mick Jagger with Keith Richards adding in some backup vocals.  The song also has a very passive melody, where Mick Jagger stays within the same notes for the duration of the song.  In addition to the sitar, “Paint it Black” features a tamboura – both played by Brian Jones, drums played by Charlie Watts, bass and organ played by Bill Wyman, acoustic guitar played by Keith Richards and the piano played by Jack Nitzsche.  The main hook in “Paint it Black” is the repeating sitar/guitar riff, which is found in the introduction and repeats throughout the song during the verses.  The song, however, doesn’t have a regular chorus and only repeats itself once.  The lack of the chorus that repeats is an interesting variation from other songs of that era.  Additionally, the song breaks down in a structuralized pattern.  “Paint it Black” begins with an electric guitar solo introduction playing the main guitar/sitar lick featured throughout the song for four measures.  These guitar/sitar instrumentations are done in a finger picking style on the guitar.  The drums now come in as the solo finishes and establishes a very strong beat and enables the listener to gather the song is done in standard 4/4 time.  The sitar now comes back into the song, featuring the main riff, along with electric guitar, drums and bass for three measures before Mick Jagger starts the first verse of “Paint it Black.”  The verses of the song, breakdown in a similar structure and can be best explained with the aid of the diagram detailed below:

 

        A  - Introduction                           Instrumental

          The instruments and the style are all played in the same manner for the B and C parts.  Each verse will start off with the B part that features the sitar playing the main riff, the drums and the electric guitar, the drums establishing and holding the beat and the guitar is playing the rhythm parts of the song.  This lasts for four measures and then the song will shift into the C part that has an upgraded drum section with additional cymbal crashes, the sitar drops away from the main riff and the electric guitar is now playing the main riff.  The electric guitar parts are very interesting, because the Keith Richards plays a combination of finger picking and strumming.  This pattern repeats for the first three verses – sitar instrumental of the main riff on the first half, electrical guitar instrumental of the main riff on the second half.  However, in the fourth verse labeled D1, the instrumentation changes slightly with all the other instruments dropping out except for the sitar.  Also, there is the very faint sound of the tamboura being played in the background during this first half of the verse.  The other instruments return in the second half of the verse with the drums marking their return with a loud cymbal crash and continue in the same pattern as the previous verses.  The first verse repeats itself again at this point, the only time during the song that a verse is repeated.  Finally, in section E – there are no lyrics, only humming done by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.  The same instrumentation, heavy drum beat, finger picked guitar riff, continues during this section as well.  There is a strange sounding noise during these hummed sections as well, it almost sounds like a bass guitar being picked with a lot of reverb thrown in to completely distort the sound and give the song more of a Middle Eastern feel.  The song ends with one last verse, drastically different from any other verse in the song.  Mick Jagger almost shouts these lines in a similar style to jump blues rather than sing them.  The humming section, E, returns along after this last verse with a small electric guitar part that varies the main riff.  The song then fades out. 

          “Paint it Black” is only sung by Mick Jagger.  During the small humming sections, Keith Richards adds to the vocals by humming along as well.  This marks a major difference when comparing “Paint it Black” to a typical Beatles song where both Paul and John usually sing.  The lyrics themselves talk about a suicide and how the person is having difficulties dealing with the aforementioned suicide.  The person who committed suicide was most likely a girl and this song was written from the boyfriend’s perspective that can’t even look at other girls without feeling pain.  The person within the song is slowly sinking further and further into their own despair.   Further on in the song, it can give the listener the feeling that the troubled boyfriend is planning to commit suicide themselves to join their girlfriend once again.  Again, these lyrics are uncharacteristically dark for a rock song, but the Rolling Stones were slowly changing the norm for tone and color of music.

          All in all, “Paint it Black” has a unique sound and feel, one that isn’t commonly found in very many songs of that time period.  Part of the draw to this song is the hook of the main guitar riff.  The guitar/sitar riff is so powerful that it draws you into the song and keeps pushing the melody along.  The Rolling Stones, despite their bad boy imagery, created a deep and meaningful song about death in the process of trying to break the pre-set molds established for them.