Fire

The copyrighted words at the end are "I'll take you to learn", but that was only so the repressed, 1950s-type people wouldn't cause problems with the real last line, which is "I'll take you to bed". That's how it's listed at many lyrics sites, and it's also obviously what he's saying when you listen to the song.

Being careful about a reference to sex may sound ridiculous to you now, but I assure you that then, fear and sexual repression were the centerpieces of the dominant American culture, and it was a very big deal. Couples on TV shows slept in separate beds. The word "sex" was never, ever used in public. The old-culture people even burned piles of vinyl records just because they referred to raw animal passion, which they had been told was sin from Satan and hell.

The last word in the last line matters because the song is about a guy with a young girl.

  You've been living like a little girl
  In the middle of your little world

Fire represents the uncontrollable sexual insanity that suddenly overwhelms our brain when we're a teenager. Our mind is no longer in primary control, furious animal lust is.

He's about to release burning passion in her that she never even knew existed. She will learn what she really is, and everything will change.

The singer says it's something that should have happened to her already, like it has everyone else. But her mind, afraid of being overwhelmed and overthrown, hasn't allowed herself to see it.

 And your mind, your tiny mind
 You know you've really been so blind
 Now's your time, burn your mind
 You're falling far too far behind

Not just her attitude and experience will change, but who and (most of all) what she is will change—forever. All her achievements as a little girl (like making her parents happy by getting good grades) won't matter anymore, because something else will.

  You've fought hard and you saved and earned,
  But all of it's going to burn.

The singer tells her (correctly) that being fucked for the first time will be like waking up from a dream: everything she was, she won't be anymore.

  Fire, to destroy all you've done
  Fire, to end all you've become

The little girl life she had won't matter now, because she'll no longer be a little girl. She'll learn something new that will matter instead.

And he's going to "teach" it to her.

  Fire, I'll take you to burn.
  Fire, I'll take you to learn.

After it, she will be a new, different person—freer, happier, and (sadly, perhaps) not an innocent little kid anymore.

She will become what she always was, but didn't know: a female animal.
She will learn her true purpose: to mate—and die.

Though all this is obvious when you read the lyrics (I hope), it is only undeniable when the original word is in the last line.

  Fire, I'll take you to burn
  Fire, I'll take you to bed

--faye kane ♀ girl brain I battled the fire in me for decades. When it finally burned away the fear, I discovered that it was good and wonderful and right and fine. I fought a war with myself for my whole life, and I didn't even know I was fighting on the wrong side.

Maybe you are, too. tiny url dot com/geekassist

The above explanation of the meaning of this song ("Fire") may be spot-on. Personally I believe it applies to much more (or much less) than a sexual awakening, but to the demise of the conventions and values of the "west" at that time.American, conservative, "straight-thinking", white picket-fence, two cars in every garage etc.. A moral code and lifestyle that seems quite puritanical today. I imagine some family-guy living with the consumer/materialistic "keep up with the Jones' mindset being whisked out of his treadmill slumber to a rude but freedom awakened realization of truth. Perhaps.

I have always loved this song. So powerful and the truth. This along with other songs that relate to the theme...pure and simple, this (girl) is a (woman) now. She learned how to give. But that first time is something majical. ???? So is the next time and the next time.