Lyrics for Burning Down the House as interpreted by knate15

Burning Down the House Lyrics
Watch out you might get what you're after.
Cool babes strange but not a stranger.
I'm an ordinary guy.
Burning down the house.

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.

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

All wet hey you might need a raincoat.
Shakedown dreams walking in broad daylight.
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.
People on their way to work baby what did you expect.
Gonna burst into flame.

My house is out of the ordinary.
That's might don't want to hurt nobody.
Some things sure can sweep me off my feet.
Burning down the house.

No visible means of support and you have not seen nothin' yet.
Everything's stuck together.
I don't know what you expect staring into the TV set.
Fighting fire with fire.

Interaction
Mail to a friend Send Lyrics to a Friend
Share on Facebook

Stumble It
Add to Del.icio.us Add to Del.icio.us




  • 30 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
oldest first     Expand All
roger wilco
05-29-2002

Rated 0 
this song happened as the result of a Heads jam session and a spark of lyrical imagination from David Byrne. supposedly, the recording we all know and love doesn't deviate far from the original jam demo.

what does it mean to me? PARTY. burn the place down. we don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn!

Log in to reply
MonkeyNum7
06-02-2002

Rated 0 
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".

Log in to reply
roger wilco
06-06-2002

Rated 0 
well, the "burning down the house" part may have been otherwise inspired, but the rest of the lyrics have his quirky signature all over them.

at any rate your explanation lends an idea how the Heads later got p-funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell in on their sessions and also to appear in "Stop Making Sense"!

Log in to reply
BarryKardon
06-13-2004

Rated 0 
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.

Log in to reply
Is_not_Amanda
04-15-2005

Rated 0 
my guiltiest of guilty pleasure songs. i love it.

Log in to reply
PaliSteve
09-17-2005

Rated 0 
“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.

Log in to reply
Kei_Dacova
01-17-2006

Rated 0 
PaliSteve is absolutly correct.
This song is about nuclear warfare, the affects of a nuclear explosion, and the cold war.

Log in to reply
kfe2
02-03-2006

Rated 0 
The music video for this featured the Talking Heads playing instruments and then being replaced by kids in some house. Very weird video.

Log in to reply
muchthanmore
02-26-2006

Rated +1 
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.

Log in to reply
funkmastasupafly
04-03-2006

Rated 0 
nice Palistave. That was awesome.

muchthanmore... You don't catch humor do you? Pity. :(

Log in to reply
Levitator89
05-20-2006

Rated 0 
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.

Log in to reply
_Lovedrug_
07-04-2006

Rated 0 
y'know, I've always seen this as a song about a guy who lost all his money one way or another, and to collect his insurance, he burns down the house. Yeah, that's not what it is, but I'm gunna keep thinking that

Log in to reply
pumkinhed
08-31-2006

Rated 0 
Who says white folks don't have rhythm?

Log in to reply
mattimal
02-23-2007

Rated 0 
pure 80s new wave. love this song.

Log in to reply
humancorporation
05-01-2007

Rated -1 
"Hey lazy, boob-tube Americans, get off your arses and pay attention! Burn down the house (i.e. the status quo needs to go.)"

Log in to reply
mtmoore
05-11-2007

Rated 0 
Love the video to this song. One of my favorite TH videos, one of my favorite TH songs

Log in to reply
butcherjuj
07-17-2007

Rated 0 
The rhythm tracks were recorded before the song was written. THe lyrics are just as rhythmic as they are anything else.

Log in to reply
SamuraiTed
08-10-2007

Rated 0 
You know I could've listened to this son a million times and I would have never picked up the subtle nuclear references, Damn. The Talking Heads stiil are sweet though.

Log in to reply
fisharoon
08-17-2007

Rated 0 
nuclear references? nuclear babies? where? you gotta be kiddin' me with this thing. In case any nuclear refrences do exist after all, let me tell you... they're not subtle. They're fucking encrypted!

Log in to reply
Chazspain
08-28-2007

Rated 0 
Byrne DID say that the song meant nothing at all. He said at the time (paraphrasing) "I really admire songwriters who can actually write a song about something specific."

I think he was just being coy, though. Byrne is too intellectual to write a song about nothing at all. The nuclear holocaust theme does seem to fit the lyrics almost to a tee.

Log in to reply
ActionAimz
10-26-2007

Rated 0 
"People on their way to work baby what did you expect.
Gonna burst into flame."

Wow what an errie prediction of 9/11 there.

Log in to reply
FoRevEr_SPooNer
11-05-2007

Rated 0 
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.

Log in to reply
ActionAimz
11-13-2007

Rated 0 
this line erriely resembles 911

"people on their way to work baby what do you expect, gonna bust into flames"

Log in to reply
mezr
02-26-2008

Rated 0 
Yo ... everyone! The album was called "Speaking in Tounges". The definition of that is ... "vocalizing of fluent speech-like but unintelligible utterances".

So, with that in mind, just let me say that this album was never meant to make any sense at all. If you don't believe me, then believe believe David Bynre himself ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwCEajWOjKE

Log in to reply
TheyMightBeAwesome
03-14-2008

Rated 0 
I found this song on singstar, my mom beat me at it
She's a TH fan

Log in to reply




  • Add Your Comments
What does this song mean to you?

You must be logged in to post your comments.

Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.





Popular
Top:   Lyrics, Artists, Albums
Random:   Lyric, Artist, Album

Your Ad Here