The Rolling Stones – Paint it Black

The Rolling Stones‘ 1966 #1 hit “Paint It Black” was a popular track on Armed Forced Radio in South Vietnam during the war. While it wasn’t intended as Vietnam War music, it expressed a sentiment of depression and despair that must have resonated with some of the U.S. servicemen in Vietnam. At the same time, and contrary to its depressing lyrics, it also had an exotic, upbeat tune that made it great radio-fare. This bipolarity of dark lyrics with an upbeat tune make it a bittersweet song that can be both enjoyable and pensive at the same time.

The lyrics are sung from the point of view of a depressed man in mourning, who sees no joy or hope in the world. The lines “I see a line of cars and they’re all painted black | With flowers and my love both never to come back” clearly refer to a funeral for a lost loved one. Apparently the death was unexpected: “I could not foresee this thing happening to you”. This was probably originally conceived as a young man mourning the death of his girlfriend, fiancee or wife. But it could just as easily be interpreted as mourning the death of a soldier or other casualty of war. However it doesn’t really matter whether listeners identified the references to the funeral and mourning, because the song’s general sentiment of loss and despair is very apparent. It could just as easily be interpreted as the loss of innocence or of hope.

The song was released as a single in May 1966, and also on the US version of the Aftermath album in June 1966.

Incidentally, the song is also used in the closing credits of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, about a soldier seeing his first combat at the Battle of Hue in 1968, where it makes sense as a song about the loss of innocence.

(Part of a series of articles on “Vietnam War Music” and “Vietnam War Songs“)