It’s a song about bereavement and the despondency one feels during that process. Now backed by this malevolent milieu, Jagger’s lyrics – which would have been far too bleak for a straightforward pop song – are perfectly pertinent. “Sometimes Brian pulled the whole record together.” “It was more than a decorative effect,” Oldham proclaimed. Thus, as the Stones began to unravel the Eastern qualities that “Paint It Black” was conveying, Brian put his sitar to eloquent use, picking out the vocal melody in the verses and furnishing the song with its unique and portentous intro riff. It has completely different principles from the guitar and opens up new fields for a group in harmonics and everything.” “I love the instrument,” he explained, “it gives you a new range if you use an instrument like that. Though he had by no means mastered the sitar, Brian had at least realized how its sound could work within the Stones’ music. He studied under Ravi Shankar for 12 years, yet he still considers himself a pupil these people dedicate their lives to the instrument.” “I met him in a club in New York,” Brian said. Soon, a chance meeting with a sitar virtuoso named Harihar Rao would lead to Brian studying under his tutelage. A week later, during the Stones’ first sessions for Aftermath in RCA, the group’s pianist/road manager Ian Stewart procured Brian a sitar of his own. An accomplished saxophonist, Brian would enrich the musical palette of Aftermath with dulcimers, marimbas, kotos, and – in the case of “Paint It Black” – a sitar.īack in December 1965, Brian had heard George Harrison playing the sitar on “Norwegian Wood” when The Beatles released their Rubber Soul album.
Unable to write his own songs, he began to draw pleasure in embellishing Mick and Keith’s tracks beyond the threshold of conventional guitar melodies. The distance was exacerbated by his unreliability, a by-product of his disillusionment and increasing drug use. “If there was instrument around, he had to be able to get something out of it, just because it was there.”īrian had floundered in the power struggle that pitted him against his songwriting colleagues. “Brian had pretty much given up on the guitar by then,” stated Keith Richards. In pursuing this curious musical detour, guitarist Brian Jones was set to add extra color – but not with his usual six strings. “I’d heard the sound and movement we needed, the whimsy that spelt ‘radio.’” The finishing touch “That’s it!” thought an exhilarated Oldham. By inadvertently stirring in evocative, Turkish flavors, Wyman had sent the song careering into territory far more exotic than the Stones had hitherto adventured. The effect immediately fattened the song’s bottom end, as Wyman had intended, but more importantly, it suddenly eschewed its perceived direction. “I lay on the floor under the organ and played a second bass riff on the pedals, with my fists, at double-time.” “I suggested Hammond organ pedals,” the bassist said. Then, after listening to the last playback, Bill Wyman had an unusual idea. “‘Paint It Black’ was just going to be like a beat group number,” Jagger said. Yet, here they were with an arrangement for “Paint It Black” that neither matched the intensity of its forebears, nor the oppressive themes which its lyrics suggested. “Cynical, nasty, skeptical, rude… The lyrics and the mood of the songs fitted with the kids’ disenchantment with the grown-up world of America, and for a while we seemed to be the only provider, the soundtrack for the rumbling of rebellion, touching on those social nerves.” A game-changing suggestion “Our songs were taking on some kind of edge in the lyrics…” Jagger once explained.
However, this current contender was lacking the driving insistency and scowling attitude that had fuelled earlier hits like “ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “ 19th Nervous Breakdown,” and now seemed so synonymous with The Rolling Stones. The Stones had been chart-toppers since the summer of 1964, but it was only a year ago – when “The Last Time” was released in February 1965 – that they’d begun to score with original Jagger/Richards material.Ī string of Number Ones followed, and it was a winning streak they did not want to break. There was a sense of urgency in the studio, but the real pressure was on delivering a new hit single.
Short on time, they were close to giving up on it completely. “I wrote the melody,” stated Keith, “he wrote the lyrics.” But in exploring the sonic possibilities of the new, minor key number, the Stones had stalled before fully unlocking its magic. Among the songs they were preparing to record was “Paint It Black,” which had been composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards while the group were on tour in Australia the previous month.
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