Burning Down the House

Just to add to what's already been said- on the commentary for the Stop Making Sense DVD, David Byrne mentions how the lyrics to this particular song make absolutely no sense at all. The individual couplets alone make sense, but they have nothing to do with the lyrics before or after them. Also, he does mention the P-Funk connection and how he thought the chant would make a catchy chorus, but the rest of the lyrics he kinda laughs at.

The psychologist Carl Jung said that fire represents the process of psychological transformation so burning down the house is destroying one personality and creating another one, As you can see in the video one person takes over another. David Byrne said the song was about this in an interview for the BBC (but he looked high at the time).

i just heard this song in some movie called "13 going on 30". it was a chick flick but the song was actually used in good taste. some chubby kid dances to it in front of a bunch of his peers.

it wasn't lyrical imagination on david byrne's part. chris frantz just came back from a parliment funkadelic concert and he was yelling one of the p-funk audience chants during a jam session, which was "burn down the house". byrne liked the phrase and turned it into "burning down the house".

“Watch out you might get what you're after. Cool babes strange but not a stranger.” - Radioactive/dead babies. “I'm an ordinary guy. Burning down the house.” - Whose responsible? All of us. “Hold tight wait till the party's over. Hold tight we're in for nasty weather. There has got to be a way. Burning down the house.” - Nuclear blast. “Here's your ticket pack your bag:time for jumpin' overboard. The transportation is here.” - A-bombs. “Close enough but not too far, maybe you know where you are. Fightin' fire woth fire.” - Mutually assured destruction. “All wet hey you might need a raincoat.” - Fallout. (Black rain?) “Shakedown dreams walking in broad daylight.” - Vaporized people. “Three hun-dred six-ty five de-grees. Burning down the house. It was once upon a place sometimes i listen to myself. Gonna come in first place.” - Arms race. “People on their way to work baby what did you expect. Gonna burst into flame.” - More vaporized people (serves them right for not doing anything but making money). “My house S'out of the ordinary. That's might don't want to hurt nobody.” - Everyone, good and bad, gonna burn. “Some things sure can sweep me off my feet.” - Nuclear blast. “Burning down the house.” - (You get the drift.) “No visible means of support and you have not seen nothin' yet.” - Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Nevada, Polynesia, India, Pakistan, France, Polynesian Islands, etc. “Everything's stuck together.” - Little fission to loosen the atoms. “I don't know what you expect staring into the TV set.” - Read some books dumbasses! “Fighting fire with fire.” - Song to fight the dumbing down effect of the tv tube.

Palistave wins the pulling something out of nothing award 2006. "Watch out you might get what you're after. Cool babes strange but not a stranger.” Anyone who can drag dead radioactive dead babies out of that is a nut job.

Such a perfect song... Really beautiful the instrumental part at the end, the way it ends is awesome. Creative band, considering the album "Speaking In Tongues", but all their songs are wonderful and... Kind of hypnotic.

I found this song on singstar, my mom beat me at it She's a TH fan

Most of it seems to relate to touring, playing music, burning down the house. Only the TV set line doesn't fit that scenario. As for the song being about Coke, sure, that fits a bit better. Except maybe the "listen to myself".

I heard on a radio interview years ago that he said the song was about "exfoliation, like the peeling away of an onion". Totally wierd I know, thats why I remember it. lol