The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
You keep a lot of secrets
And I keep none
Wish I could go back
And keep some
You're fireproof
Nothing breaks your heart
You're fireproof
It's just the way you are
You tell me you're waiting
To find someone
Who isn't so hopeless
There's no one
You're fireproof
Nothing breaks your heart
You're fireproof
How'd you get so far?
You're the needle in the hay
You're the water at the door
You're a million miles away
Doesn't matter anymore
Jennifer, you are not the only reason
My head is boiling and my hands are freezing
Jennifer, you are not the only one
To sit awake until the wild feelings leave you
You're fireproof
Nothing breaks your heart
You're fireproof
It's just the way you are
You're fireproof
It's what you always say
You're fireproof
I wish I was that way
And I keep none
Wish I could go back
And keep some
You're fireproof
Nothing breaks your heart
You're fireproof
It's just the way you are
You tell me you're waiting
To find someone
Who isn't so hopeless
There's no one
You're fireproof
Nothing breaks your heart
You're fireproof
How'd you get so far?
You're the needle in the hay
You're the water at the door
You're a million miles away
Doesn't matter anymore
Jennifer, you are not the only reason
My head is boiling and my hands are freezing
Jennifer, you are not the only one
To sit awake until the wild feelings leave you
You're fireproof
Nothing breaks your heart
You're fireproof
It's just the way you are
You're fireproof
It's what you always say
You're fireproof
I wish I was that way
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by Imaji, jahjahjeh, flamebroiledchicken, dcb, nutshell7, Supersheep, vesperlynd7061, delorean21, cecioce89, Taytay41
Fireproof Lyrics as written by Matthew Donald Berninger Aaron Brooking Dessner
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Matt Berninger yearns for a hard-shell that would shield and protect him from strong, at times painful feelings and nagging thoughts associated with caring about someone special...
He openly envies the tough, resilient, 'fireproof' nature of the woman who caused him pain and left him with a broken heart. He regrets opening up as much as he did, as he verbalizes with the remorseful "You keep a lot of secrets and I keep none. Wish I could go back and keep some."
"You tell me you’re waiting to find someone who isn’t so hopeless", he utters calmly in an attempt to face the harsh cold truth himself. "There’s no one", he continues, in a sincere disbelief that it can be humanly possible to be immune to the emotional consequences of opening up and letting someone in.
"How’d you get so far?", he asks in a partly rhetorical manner. It might be his belief that possessing that hard-shell and being 'fireproof'' comes naturally with one's emotional evolution.
He tries to rationally get over his still-alive feelings for the one he cannot let go, by affirming and reminding to himself that "You’re a million miles away; it doesn’t matter anymore..."
Self-aware and with his heart on his sleeve, he can see things as they are, but his feelings do not always cooperate.
"Jennifer, you are not the only one to sit awake until the wild feelings leave you", he cries out softly at a climatic point. It is a confident moment of reassurance that he is not alone, and she too must have suffered from feelings, which he tries to relate to...
"I wish I was that way", a sincere wish to be immune to certain feelings is right on point and ends the song on a high note, which the ongoing music carries on until the very end...
@gatinha<br /> <br /> Most of the interpretations here seem adequate, though, I think one important point is missing from them: The songs is sung by the other person to the narrator. It is the narrator who is made out to be fireproof; it ends "You're fireproof, that's what YOU always say" and then "I wish I was that way", suggesting that the idea the woman has of him as fireproof is wrong, though he would like to be since it's causing him pain. This fits with "Jennifer, you are not the only one to sit awake until the wild feelings leave you". She's the one representing the one with the heart on her sleeve in her mind, though, obviously, the narrator himself sits awake until the wild feeling leave you. That's how I see it.