“Paint It Black” is known as the song that brought the sitar to Western music. Though it wasn’t the first song to use it, it was the first big hit to feature it. It was such a big hit that it out-sold arguably The Stones‘ biggest song, “Satisfaction,” in the UK and Australia. This is kind of mind-blowing because it feels like “Satisfaction” is a much bigger song. (Total streams are on the side of “Paint It Black,” which is also kind of shocking.)
Los Dedos (“The Fingers”) are a Spanish-British surf rock trio (yes, that’s a thing apparently) who have been releasing music for five years. They are unabashedly surf, name-dropping Dick Dale, among others, on their Bandcamp page.
Sometimes there are covers that seem obvious only once they are realized. Sometimes you hear a new cover and you think “That’s so obvious, why didn’t anyone ever do that before?” I had that reaction to Los Dedos’ instrumental cover of “Paint It Black.”
In Los Dedos’ hands, the famous opening is a surf guitar instead of a sitar. There’s suitable reverb but it’s unmistakably “Paint It Black.” But then the drums kick in and it’s definitely surf music, complete with heavy tremolo on the guitar. The verses make so much sense, and when guitarist Willy Malo fully channels Dale’s playing during the pre-chorus it seems like this cover must have existed already. On the chorus there’s a classic double beat to complete the transformation.
It’s an extremely fun version of the song that feels like it should have existed forever.
That the Damned should still be around, still plugging the same level of 2-D technicolor bombast, should be no surprise. Cartoon characters don’t age, so why should the Archies of Punk? But these are grown men, all approaching 70 from one direction or another, and nobody lives forever. Which is sort of the point and the purpose of Not Like Everybody Else.
Chrissie Hynde has been a rock star for more than fifty years. The Pretenders have not been together quite that long, but Hynde was already making her name as a girl about town and rock-star-in-waiting in London. She has lived the life full-time for all of that period. It is a surprise, then, that she does not fully appreciate the credit that has accrued with that history, and how people still want to hear what she has to say.