Baby's On Fire

Brian Eno

Baby's on fire
Better throw her in the water
Look at her laughing
Like a heifer to the slaughter

Baby's on fire
And all the laughing boys are bitching
Waiting for photos
Oh the plot is so bewitching

Rescuers row row
Do your best to change the subject
Blow the wind blow blow
Lend some assistance to the object

Photographers snip snap
Take your time she's only burning
This kind of experience
Is necessary for her learning

If you'll be my flotsam
I could be half the man I used to
They said you were hot stuff
And that's what baby's been reduced to

Juanita and Juan
Very clever with maracas
Making their fortunes
Selling secondhand tobacco's

Juan dances at Chico's
And when the clients are evicted
He empties the ashtrays
And pockets all that he's collected

But baby's on fire
And all the instruments agree that
Her temperature's rising
But any idiot would know that


Lyrics submitted by fieroavian

Baby's on Fire Lyrics as written by Brian Eno

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Baby's On Fire song meanings
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15 Comments

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  • +2
    General Comment
    I personally think it has meaning that's a culmination of all that has been mentioned. I think it's not only referring to models, but celebrities in general. The media is only concerned with what they're wearing or who they're having sex with or who they're marrying/divorcing, etc., while disregarding the problems they may actually be having.
    IcarusIncarnateon May 28, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General Comment
    "all the instruments agree" is a quote from W. H. Auden's elegy for William Butler Yeats.
    thitheron February 16, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment
    I always thought, since I first heard this song in the movie "Velvet Goldmine" that this song was about someone under a lot of pressure from the media and/or someone who is hiding something and someone else is spying on them, maybe taking photos of them without them knowing. One of my favorite songs of all time, truely amazing!!
    cmh2943on January 23, 2006   Link
  • +1
    General Comment
    taking a pun and stretching it beyond all sensible boundaries. "violating boundaries": could be an Eno-evocative phrase as closely associated with the "non-musician" musician as "oblique strategies". slapstick, really. Eno's first two LPs revel in cruelty as comedy. refer also to the faux-paranoia of the first verse of "Fat Lady of Limbourg" or the suburban-housewife-ravaged-by-sentient-appliance scenario of "Great Pretender"
    foreverdroneon January 17, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    Eno is playing around whith the expression "She's hot!". I think the song refers to the "glamour" of fashion models or celebrety.
    Birdyon December 21, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    Not exactly sure what Eno is singing about...I do think it has something to do with models. But I think it's the greatest rock song Eno has done. Robert Fripp's maniacal guitar solo is amazing.
    MrLongroveon March 17, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    I think it vaguely has something to do with models. But you have to consider that a lot of the lyrics of the album Here Come The Warm Jets were chosn for phonetic rather than semantic reasons. You can't expect them to mean anything all the time - the voice is used mainly as an instrument.
    whapcapnon May 10, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    could the fire conceit (along with what has been said above) also go along with drugs, such as heroin or cocaine?
    chacal_la_chaiseon July 19, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    something extremely sexual is happening here. every word has a physical, bodily, non-brainy feel to it. even the "clever" guys are just clever about maracas, dancing and making money. sort of an impressionistic sex bomb thing
    EifLon March 12, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    This song was a reaction to a photograph published shortly before the recording. An iconic image of the Vietnam war, the photograph is of a little girl running from a napalm cloud, burned skin peeling off her naked body. The photographer snaps the scene as onlooking soldiers show little concern for her and the other fleeing children.
    anyidioton March 02, 2013   Link

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