Tag Archives: The Rolling Stones

Song of the Day: Paint It Black (The Rolling Stones)

Posted on by Arleigh

You ever notice how “Paint It Black” doesn’t really start so much as it unfolds—that strange sitar riff creeping in like a bad dream you can’t quite shake? The Stones captured something that feels less like heartbreak and more like a total emotional blackout. The sound is restless, paranoid even, like someone pacing around inside their own thoughts at 3 a.m. That’s what makes it such a sharp symbol of depression: it’s not just sadness, it’s this all-consuming fog where color, joy, and even meaning itself disappear.

The thing that always strikes me is how the song turns that private darkness into a worldview. The singer doesn’t only feel grief—he wants the whole world to match how he feels inside. That line between self and everything else completely breaks down. You can hear it in the drumming, that pounding rhythm chasing itself in circles, or the sitar’s looping melody that never resolves. It’s like he’s trapped in motion, unable to stop thinking or feeling, stuck in a spiral that makes sense only to him. It’s haunting because it sounds familiar to anyone who’s been that low.

And that’s why, even decades later, “Paint It Black” still feels so alive—so uncomfortably modern. Underneath the 60s cool, it taps into that quiet nihilism a lot of people still wrestle with today: the idea that maybe there’s nothing left worth looking at, so you might as well black it all out. But there’s something cathartic in that honesty. The song doesn’t try to fix anything or offer redemption; it just sits in the darkness. And sometimes, that’s what makes it hit harder than any happy ending could.

Paint It Black

I see a red door
And I want it painted black
No colors anymore
I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by
Dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head
Until my darkness goes

I see a line of cars
And they’re all painted black
With flowers and my love
Both never to come back

I’ve seen people turn their heads
And quickly look away
Like a newborn baby
It just happens everyday

I look inside myself
And see my heart is black
I see my red door
I must have it 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

No more will my green sea
Go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing
Happening to you

If I look hard enough
Into the setting sun
My love will laugh with me
Before the morning comes

I see a red door
And I want it painted black
No colors anymore
I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by
Dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head
Until my darkness goes

I wanna see it painted
Painted black
Black as night
Black as coal
I wanna see the sun
Blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted
Painted black, yeah

Song of the Day: Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones)

Posted on by Arleigh

The latest “Song of the Day” is very near and dear to my blues-covered metal heart. I consider it one of the best rock ‘n’ roll songs ever created. It’s been covered by numerous bands in the decades since it’s initial release but I will always consider the original as the best. The latest song of the day is The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil”.

This song was released in the early days of December 1968. It was the opening track for The Rolling Stones’ latest album (Beggars Banquet) at that date. What makes this song so great is how simple the song really comes across. It doesn’t have the typical blues rock tone of previous Stones’ songs until Keith Richard’s guitar solo around the 2:55 mark. The song definitely sounds more like a combination of folk rock (by way of it’s spoken word-like lyrics) and a samba (due to the incorporation of additional percussions like the congas).

“Sympathy for the Devil” has been called a confession song while others see it as the narcissistic bragging of the narrator. Both viewpoints are quite valid and there are more as every listener of this song hears and imagines different themes. I always saw it as a combination of the two. It’s Lucifer’s confession and bragging about his role in the tumultuous and evil events in man’s history. It’s a song that its narrator wants to understand and admit that while he has been there through all those dark moments in history, he wouldn’t have been able to do what he’s done if not for people allowing him in and becoming complicit.

Sympathy for the Devil

Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
I’ve been around for a long, long years
Stole many a man’s soul and faith

And I was ’round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

I stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the czar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain

I rode a tank
Held a general’s rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah
(woo woo, woo woo)

I watched with glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the gods they made
(woo woo, woo woo)

I shouted out,
“Who killed the Kennedys?”
When after all
It was you and me
(who who, who who)

Let me please introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reached Bombay
(woo woo, who who)

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
(who who)
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby
(who who, who who)

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what’s confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
(woo woo, who who)

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
‘Cause I’m in need of some restraint
(who who, who who)

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
(woo woo)
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I’ll lay your soul to waste, um yeah
(woo woo, woo woo)

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, um yeah
(who who)
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down
(woo woo, woo woo)

Woo, who
Oh yeah, get on down
Oh yeah
Oh yeah!
(woo woo)

Tell me baby, what’s my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
Tell me baby, what’s my name
I tell you one time, you’re to blame

Oh, who
woo, woo
Woo, who
Woo, woo
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Oh, yeah

What’s my name
Tell me, baby, what’s my name
Tell me, sweetie, what’s my name

Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Oh, yeah
Woo woo
Woo woo

Great Guitar Solos Series

Music Video of the Day: Mess It Up by The Rolling Stones (2023, directed by Calmatic)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

After 60 years, The Rolling Stones are still at it, making music and filming music videos.

Their latest music video stars Nicholas Hoult and was directed by Calmatic, who has also done videos for Lil Nas X, Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams, and Zayn Malik.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Far Away Eyes by The Rolling Stones (1978, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“You know, when you drive through Bakersfield on a Sunday morning or Sunday evening, all the country music radio stations start broadcasting black gospel services live from LA. And that’s what the song refers to. But the song’s really about driving alone, listening to the radio.”

— Mick Jagger on Far Away Eyes in 1978, to Rolling Stone

The Rolling Stones do country!

Actually, the Stones were always heavily influenced by both the Blues and Country music. This song was written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger and there’s a bootleg version of Richards singing the lyrics. The official version, with Jagger singing, was the sixth track on the Stones’s 1978 album, Some Girls.

The video, a clip of the Stones performing the song in an intimate studio, was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who did a number of videos for both the Stones and the Beatles. For instance, Lindsay-Hogg is the credited director on Let It Be.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Doom and Gloom by The Rolling Stones (2012, directed by Jonas Akerlund)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“The song sounds a lot different than the title. The theme is that Mick is talking to a girl saying, ‘All I hear from you is doom and gloom – let’s go party, let’s go dance.’ It’s an uptempo tune.”

— Organist Chuck Leavell on Doom and Gloom

“At first I said, Hey Mick, ‘Doom and Gloom’ is a kind of weird title for a 50-year celebration, you know? But you know what the Stones are like, it’s always against the grain. But he came up with it and it’s a great track and a really quite ‘funny’ song, actually – there are some great lyrics.”

— Keith Richards on Doom and Gloom

Also according to Keith, Doom and Gloom was one of the quickest recordings that the Rolling Stones ever did.  It only took three takes to lay down the track.  Richards credits that to the chemistry that the Stones have when they’re playing together.  As Keith puts it, the only problem when it comes to recording a new Rolling Stones song is finding a time when everyone can actually get together.

As for the video, it was filmed in a warehouse in Paris and it was directed by Jonas Akerlund, a prolific video director who is best-known for his work with Madonna.  The video stars Noomi Rapace, the Swedish actress who starred in the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy and who later appeared in Prometheus.

One thing about the Stones: they don’t quit.  The band has existed for nearly six decades and they’re still making music that demands to be played loud.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Waiting On A Friend by The Rolling Stones (1981, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“Just let me be cynical for a moment. First of all, it’s really NOT about waiting on a woman friend. It’s just about a FRIEND; it doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman. I can see people saying, Oh, we’re all much older now, Mick’s writing this much more compassionate stuff, must be about a real person. But that’s only in their perception of it.”

— Mick Jagger on Waiting For A Friend

Is our man Mick waiting for a friend or is he waiting for his drug connection?  Since the video features Mick hanging out in front of a building in New York and waiting for Keith Richards to come walking up, I guess both could be true.  Interestingly enough, Keith has often said that he and Mick have a strained relationship in real life, though Keith also wrote in his autobiography, “”I still love him dearly … your friends don’t have to be perfect.”

This video was popular in the early days of MTV.  At a time when many of the big rock bands were still skeptical about the music video format and many were also predicting that MTV would never last, the network was happy to have a video from a group as legendary as the Stones.  The video was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who was  doing videos even before MTV was a thing.  Waiting with Jagger in front of the building is Peter Tosh.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones (1982, directed by Hal Ashby)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“The story here is the miracle that we ever found that track. I was convinced – and I think Mick was – that it was definitely a reggae song. And we did it in 38 takes – ‘Start me up. Yeah, man, cool. You know, you know, Jah Rastafari.’ And it didn’t make it. And somewhere in the middle of a break, just to break the tension, Charlie and I hit the rock and roll version. And right after that we went straight back to reggae. And we forgot totally about this one little burst in the middle, until about five years later when somebody sifted all the way through these reggae takes. After doing about 70 takes of ‘Start Me Up’ he found that one in the middle. It was just buried in there. Suddenly I had it. Nobody remembered cutting it. But we leapt on it again. We did a few overdubs on it, and it was like a gift, you know? One of the great luxuries of The Stones is we have an enormous, great big can of stuff. I mean what anybody hears is just the tip of an iceberg, you know. And down there is vaults of stuff. But you have to have the patience and the time to actually sift through it.”

— Keith Richards on Start Me Up

Since today is Oscar Sunday, let’s start the day with a video that was directed by an Oscar winner.

Hal Ashby got his start as an editor and a favorite collaborator of director Norman Jewison.  Ashby won his only Oscar for editing the 1967 best picture winner, In the Heat of the Night.  Ashby then went on to become a director himself and, in that role, he was responsible for some of the most important films of the 1970s.  Check out this list of credits: Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Bound for Glory, Coming Home, Being There, and Let’s Spend the Night Together.  All of these films were directed by Hal Ashby.

Let’s Spend The Night Together was a Rolling Stones concert film and I imagine that his work on that film is probably what led to Ashby directing this music video.  Like a lot of the great 70s directors, his career struggled as people like Don Simpson took over Hollywood and the industry’s focus shifted away from empowering directors to keeping studio executives happy.  While Ashby found himself practically unemployable in Hollywood, he was still able to make a living with work like this video and directing television episodes.

Hal Ashby died in 1988 of pancreatic cancer.  Bruce Dern famously said that the way Ashby was treated in Hollywood was the “most disgusting thing” that he had ever seen over the course of his long career.  Fortunately, movies are forever and Ashby’s work has since been rediscovered and continues to influence aspiring filmmakers all over.  Richard Linklater is a huge fan and paid homage to Ashby with Last Flag Flying.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Love is Strong by The Rolling Stones (1994, directed by David Fincher)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Love is Strong was the first single to be released off of the Rolling Stones’s 1994 album, Voodoo Lounge.  Since everyone already knew that the Rolling Stones were giants of music, the video for Love is Strong took the idea one step further by casting the Stones as actual giants, towering over New York City.

The video was directed by David Fincher.  Having already made a name for himself as a talented music video director before even making his first feature film, Fincher did this video after directing Alien 3 but before Seven.  Fincher has said that Alien 3 was such a frustrating experience that, after completing the film, he had no desire to ever make another feature.  (Of course, he would change his mind upon reading the script for Seven.)  As this video shows, even if Fincher had stopped making movies after Alien 3, he would still be remembered and highly regarded for his music videos.

Love is Strong subsequently won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video-winning song.

Music Video Of The Day: Neighbours (1981, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Imagine Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart and his broken leg replaced by Mick Jagger and the other members of the Rolling Stones and you have the concept behind the video for today’s music video of the day.

Neighbours first appeared on Tattoo You and was inspired by Keith Richards’s problems with his own neighbours in New York City.  According to Richards, his neighbours got him evicted from his New York apartment building because they felt that he played his music too loudly.  The actual lyrics were written by Mick Jagger, who, again according to Richards, never had any trouble with his own neighbours.

The video was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who directed several videos for The Rolling Stones but who is perhaps best known for directing the documentary about the final days of the Beatles, Let It Be.

Music Video of The Day: Like A Rolling Stone, covered by The Rolling Stones (1995, dir by Michel Gondry)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

How does it feel….

Needless to say, this song was not originally recorded by The Rolling Stones.  Despite what the title has led some people to assume, the song actually has nothing to do with the Rolling Stones.  Instead, the song was written by Bob Dylan.  It’s long been debated just who exactly Dylan was addressing in the lyrics.  Some people think that Dylan was writing about Edie Sedgwick.  Grace Zabriskie, who is probably best known for playing Sarah Palmer on Twin Peaks, has long claimed that she was the one who inspired the song.  It would appear that only Bob Dylan knows for sure and it’s reasonable to assume that he’ll never tell.

Regardless, I really like this song.  A part of it is because I relate to the lyrics.  I almost feel like they could have been written about me at a certain time in my life.  The other reason I love the song is because the taunting tone of the lyrics makes them perfect whenever you’re looking for something to say to someone who you dislike.  For example, someone once unfollowed me on twitter and I responded by tweeting the lyrics of this song at her until she finally deleted her account.  That was fun.

Anyway, it seemed somewhat inevitable that this song would be covered by The Rolling Stones.  This video, which was directed by the prolific Michel Gondry, follows a young woman as she discovers how it feels to be a complete unknown.  The woman in the video is played by future Oscar-winner Patricia Arquette.

Enjoy!