Monday, March 12, 2018

Paint It, Black

As I said in my June 18, 2013 post, The Rolling Stones' song, "Paint It Black" had the backmasked message, "He was from us .  .  . but he's out."  I'm convinced they were talking about our Paul.

Well, I found the L.A. radio station's 1960's fanzine, KRLABeat had an article about The Rolling Stones in its June 11, 1966 edition that said the following about the song title on the sleeve of the 45 record: 
            "There is a rather odd looking comma hanging in the title of Paint It, Black."  And if you're brave enough to inquire what it's doing there, Keith [Richards] will reply:  'Don't ask me what the comma is in the title.  That's Decca, I suppose.  They could have put "Black" in brackets.'"

Here's a selection of Decca (and Decca's US label, London) sleeves for the song throughout the world.  That's Paint It, Black

So even before The new, new Beatles were dropping messages in their records about things happening in the group, The Rolling Stones AND their label were giving subtle clues about The Beatles.

United States

France

Italy

Japan

Mexico
Germany