Burning Down the House Lyrics
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).
Thanks. I have always enjoyed this song (and find DB to be MOST talented), but I never really understood the lyrics. Talking Heads put on a GREAT concert, but NO encores! That was just plain wrong :)
Thanks. I have always enjoyed this song (and find DB to be MOST talented), but I never really understood the lyrics. Talking Heads put on a GREAT concert, but NO encores! That was just plain wrong :)
thank you. man, so many of these "interpretations" are so off! but this was great and succinct.
thank you. man, so many of these "interpretations" are so off! but this was great and succinct.
That's a good possibility as well.
That's a good possibility as well.
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.
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.
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".
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".
WeeKnighT, I completely agree with you, and you're the first one in seven years of posting to see what I see when I get the chance to READ the lyrics rather than just watch the video or listen to the song.
Three hundred sixty five degrees has nothing to do with temperature; it's how many days in a row they're (feeling like they're) on the road, missing their families. The highway lines going by is not some imagery of "coke lines," they're just what is seen night after night on the tour bus.
Hold tight wait till the party's over. Hold tight we're in for nasty weather. There has got to be a way.
(Can't leave a city until all the touring personnel (trying to untangle themselves from the local hangers on) are ready to go (bandmates are burned out and can't wait to leave)- Nasty weather - socked in at the airport.)
Here's your ticket pack your bag:time for jumpin' overboard. The transportation is here. Close enough but not too far, maybe you know where you are. Fightin' fire with fire
(They've been to so many cities, they can't remember what city/arena they're in: by this time they all look the same)
All wet hey you might need a raincoat. Shakedown dreams walking in broad daylight. Three hun-dred six-ty five de-grees.
(Every single damned day of the year, they're expected to "burn down the house.")
It was once upon a place sometimes i listen to myself. Gonna come in first place.
(back in the hometown, wanted to win the "battle of the bands..")
People on their way to work baby what did you expect. Gonna burst into flame.
(My job isn't like your job.. when people in my profession go, (rock star) they go in a big way.. (perhaps as bad as untimely death, more likely Betty Ford)
etcetera.. funny, I like the song more now than ever..
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