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Paint it Black

PAINT IT BLACK
 
 
“Paint It Black”  (originally released as “Paint It, Black”) is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, written by the songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and first released as a single on 6 May 1966.  It was later included as the opening track to the U.S. version of their 1966 album, Aftermath.  “Paint It Black” reached number one in both the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart.  The song became The Rolling Stones’ third number one hit single in the US and sixth in the UK.  Since its initial release, the song has remained influential as the first number one hit featuring a sitar, particularly in the UK where it has charted in two other instances, and has been the subject of multiple cover versions, compilation albums, and film appearances.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

The frequent hit songs by the Yardbirds – “I’m a Man”, “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago”, “For Your Love”, “Heart Full of Soul”, “Shapes of Things”, “Over Under Sideways Down”, etc. – hit my eardrums with at least as powerful an impact as the greatest Rolling Stones songs, like “Brown Sugar”, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, “Paint it Black”, “Get off of My Cloud”, “Sympathy for the Devil”, “Street Fighting Man”, etc.  To me though, these songs sound every bit as fresh to me today, probably because they haven’t been played to death on oldies’ radio as much as anything else.  

 

(May 2014)

 

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The Loons then lined up an album deal with Get Hip Records called Love’s Dead Leaves that came out in 1999, with Gary Strickland as the new bass guitarist. Just 3 of the 11 songs released in the 5 earlier singles are on the album: “Paradise”, “Face out of Phase”, and “16 Story Reflection”. The songs are all originals, though one song, “Thursday’s Child” has the same name as a David Bowie song (“Thursday’s Child”), and two others, “Silver Threads” and “Paint it Gold” are similar in name to well-known 1960’s hit songs (“Silver Threads and Golden Needles” and “Paint it Black”). I have the album on order, but it hasn’t arrived as yet. 
(June 2017)