By swawilg
I shot the morning in the back,
With my red wings on,
I told the sun he'd better go back down,
And if I can find a book of matches,
I'm goin' to burn this hotel down.
Tom Waits – Mr. Siegal
Conflagration should not automatically lead to lamentation. In fact, it used to be – and in some parts of the world still is – simply an agricultural technique. Kills lots of pests, puts nutrition back into the soil, rejuvenates. For some wild reason a controlled burn is what The Gourds would love on their dying day (I love the ‘Superstition’ drumbeat in this one), to Mary Gauthier on the other hand burning fields bring only soot, sorrow and dirty laundry. But the burning cornfields of Randy Newman have little to do with agriculture, they are really ominous, forerunners of darker things to come.
But before all of that black charcoal, let’s stay with the lighter sides of setting stuff on fire a little longer. These days you can erase whole conversations with the push of a delete button on your smartphone or computer, but nothing adds that amount of real drama to a breakup like burning love letters. Been there, done that! Ruth Brown enjoys every bit of it, pulls up a chair, sits by the fire with her new lover. Putting the past behind with deliberate flames seems to be the motivation for Low and Slapp Happy too, one burns a guitar in a rage, the other sets light to a straw king in a strange combination of reverence and disdain. Fire can even save your life from another fire! James Keelaghan has the moving story.
Playing with fire as we were all taught can be dangerous, but that doesn’t stop many young people from doing it anyway (I made countless little fires with dad’s magnifying glass). But it can get out of hand just like that and then you’re in trouble. It’s what happens to the blazing cornfields of Prefab Sprout and in a pleasantly chill tune by Paul Kelly, that proved to be my smouldering surprise of the week (thanks deano).
Fire can be vengeance, it is what drives Shawn Colvin’s Sunny to bring a list of names (what names and why?) and set fire to her own kitchen. Grant McLennan’s sweetheart is a full-time arsonist, she proves you can write a good pop-tune about anything under the sun. Tim McGuire by Three City Four also cannot help but use matches in a compulsive way. He has a soft spot for buildings, especially those that exert some unwanted control over him. And then there is the unnamed man in The City Sleeps by MC900FT Jesus, he raps as effortlessly about arson as het gets away with it, as most pyromaniacs seem to do. It’s a good thing they never made a music video for this song, it would only distract from the film noir quality of the lyrics.
The Arson A-List Playlist:
The Gourds – Burn The Honeysuckle
Mary Gauthier – The Sugar Cane
Randy Newman – Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield
Ruth Brown – I Burned Your Letter
Low – Death Of A Salesman
Slapp Happy – King Of Straw
James Keelaghan – Cold Missouri Waters
Prefab Sprout – Cornfield Ablaze
Paul Kelly – Melting
Shawn Colvin – Sunny Came Home
Grant McLennan - Lighting Fires
The Three City Four – Tim McGuire
Mc 900 Ft Jesus – The City Sleeps
The Burning Bright B-List Playlist:
Zayde Wølf – Strike A Match
In and Outlaws – Grey Burned Pile Day
Adrian Belew – Burned by The Fire We Make
XTC – Books Are Burning
Osibisa – Fire
Radiohead – Burn The Witch
Frightened Rabbit – The Woodpile
Kitchens of Distinction – On Tooting Broadway Station
The Afghan Whigs – Going to Town
Jimi Hendrix – House Burning Down
Rokia Traoré – Kouma
Wolf People – When The Fire Is Dead In The Grate
Smashing Pumpkins – Am I One
Guru’s Wildcard Pick:
Shawn Colvin (yes her again!) – Set The Prairie On Fire
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations from last week's topic: Incendiary notes: songs about deliberate fire starting. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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