Song Lyric Sunday: I See A Red Door

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The band members are in a grassy area. The standing row has Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman. Laying down in front of the others with his head resting against Mick Jagger's left leg is Keith Richards. The title of the song, "Paint It, Black", and its UK B-side, "Long Long While" are in orange text with a black background on the top of the cover. Below a white horizontal line (still with the black background) is the band name, "The Rolling Stones", in white text.

 

Continuing his trip around the band’s instruments, Jim’s invitation for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday is to play a song that features great drums, as he tells us in his post, Legendary Drumming. I did toy with the idea of seeking out the longest drum solo I could find, but I have to admit that most drum solos are, to my mind, pretty dull. And I even include Led Zeppelin’s Moby Dick in that category – when I saw them live it seemed to go on for ever! Great drumming for me is to be found in the way that the drummer drives songs along and almost dictates the pace to the band, without ever taking front stage, so who should I play?

Easy. The best there ever was:

See what I mean? Eight seconds of intro and then Charlie Watts’ drums come crashing in and set the song off and running. The lyrics, from which I have drawn today’s title, go like this:

I see a red doorAnd I want it painted blackNo colours anymore
I want them to turn black
 
I see the girls walk byDressed in their summer clothesI have to turn my headUntil my darkness goes
 
I see a line of carsAnd they’re all painted blackWith flowers and my loveBoth never to come back
 
I’ve seen people turn their headsAnd quickly look awayLike a newborn babyIt just happens everyday
 
I look inside myselfAnd see my heart is blackI see my red doorI must have it painted black
 
Maybe then, I’ll fade awayAnd not have to face the factsIt’s not easy facing upWhen your whole world is black
 
No more will my green seaGo turn a deeper blueI could not foresee this thingHappening to you
 
If I look hard enoughInto the setting sunMy love will laugh with meBefore the morning comes
 
I see a red doorAnd I want it painted blackNo colours anymoreI want them to turn black
 
I see the girls walk byDressed in their summer clothesI have to turn my headUntil my darkness goes
 
I wanna see it paintedPainted blackBlack as nightBlack as coalI wanna see the sunBlotted out from the skyI wanna see it painted, painted, paintedPainted black, yeah
 
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Michael Phillip Jagger / Mick Jagger / Keith Richards
Paint It, Black lyrics © Mirage Music Int. Ltd. C/o Essex Music Int. L
 
Paint It Black was released as a single in the US on 7 May 1966 and in the UK on 13 May: it topped the charts in both countries and has sold more than a million copies in each of them. It was included on the US version of the Aftermath album, released on 1 July 1966 and peaking at #2, but not on the UK version which had been released in April, prior to the single, and got to #1. We got fourteen tracks compared with eleven in the US, but not this one: it didn’t appear on an album here until November 1966, on the UK edition of Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass), which got to #4 here, including the purchase made by my Mum and Dad for one of my Christmas presents that year. Perfect timing on the Stones’ part, I think: it is a stunningly good album, and again we got the bigger and better selection of songs than our Transatlantic friends. I still think this is one of the greatest rock songs ever to top the UK charts, and fifty eight years on it sounds as fresh as ever.
 
As regulars will know I like to give you more than the lead song for my SLS posts. I had planned on playing another Sixties track until a brand new one appeared in my YouTube feed on Thursday. This one resolves the question of how you improve on what a drummer can do for your band. Answer: have two drummers. It is by a band I first played in an unrelated post a couple of years ago. Apologies for not posting the lyrics to this one, as I have absolutely no idea what they are singing about: my command of the Mongolian language is a little lacking.  The CC option on this video is utterly useless, but I love the feel of the music and thought it worth sharing for that reason alone:
 
 
The band, including their two drummers, give that everything and really seem to be enjoying themselves – as they always do. The Hu are a Mongolian folk metal band formed in 2016 who use traditional Mongolian instrumentation, including the Morin khuur (the upright square wooden fiddle thing), the Tovshuur (a kind of two or three stringed lute), and Mongolian throat singing. They call their style of music “hunnu rock” – ‘hu‘ inspired by the Hunnu, an ancient Mongol/Turk empire, known as Hünnü in Mongolia, and some of their lyrics include old Mongolian war cries and poetry, which may well be what we are getting here, if we did but know it. Their name Hu means human beings in Mongolian – apparently. To date they have released two albums, the first of which, The Gereg, was a success in many countries: it got to #21 here in the UK and even made it to #103 in the US. This is a new video for a song which was on their second album, Rumble Of Thunder, released in 2022, which reached #4 in the UK Independent Albums chart: its title translates as Upright Destined Mongol. They have played gigs in many countries including the US and the UK – they played at Glastonbury last year and are touring the US as support for Iron Maiden this autumn. Their main success has been on YouTube, however: they have 1.63m subscribers there, and this video has already been viewed over 213k times in its first four days. To further prove my point, two of their videos from five years ago have over 123m and 100m views. Now that is good! I think they are amazing, something really different, and above all they are fun. Just one question, though: which one is Roger Daltrey?
 
That’s all for today, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them: a mix of the well-known and very likely obscure for most: that just goes to show the variety of music that exists in the world, much of which can be found on YouTube.
 
See you again for Tuesday Tunes 😊

 

33 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: I See A Red Door”

  1. Pingback: So Long, July | Take It Easy

  7. This is a double header for you and me, Clive. Not only did we both feature “Paint It Black” this week, but a while ago when I was writing for The Rhythm Section we did a feature on The Hu. What an incredible sound!

    Great fun post today, Clive!

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    • It’s the best I know of the song, Jim. The Hu are great, and when I saw that video on Thursday I knew I just had to play it, even though finding the lyrics was a bit tricky 🤣

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  14. Charlie Watts such a Hero a mild man and brilliant drummer who was never really in the right genre he loved jazz and had his own group ! He was a Stella Drummer!

    just love the Hu thanks for introducing them brilliant 🙂🙂🙂

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    • I just had to go with Charlie for this!

      I’m pleased you like The Hu. I think they’re amazing, and some of their previous videos have been shot in incredible landscapes, which adds to the enjoyment 😊

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