# Paint It Black **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 3, 2000, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941 "2000-08-03T03:31:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/1 "2000-08-03T03:31:23Z")
Paint It Black, the Rolling Stones. What is it about? The death of a lover? “I see a line of cars and they’re all painted black” Funeral procession? “I see a red door and I want it painted black” A grave? ---
**Author:** ![Lazarus7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/67e7ee/32.png) [@Lazarus7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazarus7)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/2 "2000-08-03T03:40:45Z")
I think it is a song about home repair. I mean, imagine how unsightly a red door in your house would be? ---
**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/3 "2000-08-03T03:43:38Z")
I think it’s a vision predicting the future–goths… "bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum \*\* black! \*\* bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum \*\* black! \*\* " And so on… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/4 "2000-08-03T03:47:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lazarus7 \* > \*\*I think it is a song about home repair. I mean, imagine how unsightly a red door in your house would be? \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Quadzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/a4c791/32.png) [@Quadzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quadzilla)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/5 "2000-08-03T05:05:39Z")
This isn’t a funny response, sorry ☹ The way the song was explained to me once is that it can be read as a commentary by a soldier in the Vietnam War who has seen everything that’s going on and is so despondent that he wants to die (“seeing black”). You pretty much stumbled on the idea in the OP, carnivorous. ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/6 "2000-08-03T12:26:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lazarus7 \* > \*\*I think it is a song about home repair. I mean, imagine how unsightly a red door in your house would be? \*\* I have seen the red-door syndrome… Ugh. silly silly silly… thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/7 "2000-08-03T12:46:17Z")
I’m not entirely convinced by the Vietnam War explanation, since the song came out in 1966 (on the album _Aftermath_). I remember it being used (very effectively) over the opening credits to the TV series “Tour of Duty”, though. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/8 "2000-08-03T13:09:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mattk \* > \*\*I’m not entirely convinced by the Vietnam War explanation, since the song came out in 1966 (on the album _Aftermath_). I remember it being used (very effectively) over the opening credits to the TV series “Tour of Duty”, though. \*\* I think they also used “The Watchtower” by Hendrix, so maybe they were just using popular music of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/9 "2000-08-03T13:44:06Z")
I always surmised that it was about a guy with psychotic, homicidal thoughts - a pose that Mick took on “Midnight Rambler” as well. “I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes … I have to turn my head until my darkness goes …” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/10 "2000-08-03T14:12:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Milossarian \* > \*\*I always surmised that it was about a guy with psychotic, homicidal thoughts - a pose that Mick took on “Midnight Rambler” as well. > > “I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes … > I have to turn my head until my darkness goes …” \*\* And I thought his lover had died and he was mad as hell that other women were alive. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/11 "2000-08-03T14:26:13Z")
> [@](#): > > And I thought his lover had died and he was mad as hell that other women were alive. \*\* this is what I always thought too. that he just couldn’t stand to look at women. and of course the red door is his heart which is now black. hell even _I_ the guy who doens’t see much symbolism can see that! I had a couple of friends who STILL insist that its about Vietnam. that to me makes no since because it came out before the war really escalated. on a funny note though my wife, who’s russian, thought that it was I see a refridgerator and I want it painted black" I alwas thought that was funny. ---
**Author:** ![Anniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cc9497/32.png) [@Anniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniz)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/12 "2000-08-03T14:40:45Z")
This is weird, I just listening to this song some minutes ago. I love that song any many outher by them. But what the lyrics is about…, I thought it was about a lost love. ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/13 "2000-08-03T17:34:58Z")
\*\*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 ev’ryday 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\*\* From these lyrics and the ones Milo provided, I take it that he has killed his lover (dark thoughts, funeral procession, red door (heart) has turned black). He wants the world painted black so he doens’t have to face up to the fact that he’s a psycho. ---
**Author:** ![Emperor\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c2a13f/32.png) [@Emperor\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emperor_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/14 "2000-08-04T09:06:18Z")
I have to agree that it is a song about a person who has someone they loved die on them and is in a period of intense mourning. The lyrics suggest that he was responsible for her death, but it wasn’t on purpose (ie car accident, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paint-it-black/27941/15 "2000-08-04T11:04:10Z")
I always thought the red door represented the heart. Some of the rest then falls into place (for me) but this was '66 and Mick and Keef were a little out there. Nothing more definitive, sorry.