How Brian Jones's Sitar Gave 'Paint It Black' Its Dark Psychedelic Edge

I always thought Paint It Black came out of nowhere – that gnarly sitar riff, the dirge-like organ, the lyrics about funerals and depression. But the story behind it is pure 1966 chaos. The band was still a blues-rock outfit, but Brian Jones had just discovered Indian classical music through a Ravi Shankar record and immediately dove in. He grabbed a sitar from a London shop and started messing around during a session at RCA Studios in Hollywood. The song actually started as a poppy, almost polka-like number – Keith Richards had the basic riff on organ, but Bill Wyman changed the rhythm to a waltz. Then Brian laid down that sitar line on top, and suddenly the whole thing turned sinister.

What’s wild is that the sitar wasn’t just a gimmick – it completely reshaped the song’s atmosphere. The droning notes mimic the Indian tambura, and the sitar’s twang gives the track a queasy, off-kilter feel that matches Mick Jagger’s lyrics about seeing a red door and wanting it painted black. At the time, the Beatles had already used sitar on Norwegian Wood, but this was darker, more aggressive. It signaled the Stones leaving their R&B phase behind and stepping into a psychedelic, drug-fueled era where they weren’t afraid