Paint It Black

I always thought the song was about being depressed. Not like just depressed once in a while but like the illness depression. I've dealt with it a lot myself and see the song as a statement of someone so depressed that he has changed his outlook on the world so much that the things most people enjoy, he finds to be worth nothing.

("I see a red door and I want it painted black No colors anymore I want them to turn black")

Not even seeing pretty girls can even break his feeling of guilt and desparity from within. And until he can feel less depressed, he won't even put forth the effort to be with someone ("I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes I have to turn my head until my darkness goes")

He did have a love once, but she's gone now and he just feels lower than ever because he has no one to share his feelings with. Her absence is much like a death to him inside i.e. a funeral. ("I see a line of cars and they're all painted black With flowers and my love both never to come back.")

No one knows what feelings he's going through and feel the need of not even acknowledging that he's feeling down, when he'd like the people around him to at least acknowledge his problems. To them, it's some other guy going through sh*t and not them. ("I see people turn their heads and quickly look away Like a new born baby it just happens ev'ry day")

He knows that he has a problem. A problem real bleak. He recognizes his sickness. It has even turned his heart a darker shade. ("I look inside myself and see my heart is black I see my red door and it has been painted black")

Since no one acknowledges him, he wants to die. What's the point of living if people around you don't even take the effort to acknowledge that you're around. ("Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts It's not easy facin' up when your whole world is black")

He's lost all hope. There's no turning back now. He's become something totally different than what he once was. Depression has made him a different beast altogether. ("No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue I could not foresee this thing happening to you.")

But even though he is changed, he still yearns for the happiness from the old times. Those old memories are what is left of who he once was. ("If I look hard enough into the settin' sun")

The repeating of the first lyric reaffirms how low he's feeling.

Near the end, he's accepted that he has an illness. A disease and he can't get better even if he tried. Instead of shunning it, he accepts his skewered outlook. He accepts his dark side. Possibly in a fit of rage, lamenting on everyone around him who he feels doesn't care about him because he's changed.
("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!"

That's what "Paint it Black" means to me. Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

My love will laugh with me before the mornin' comes")