80 Songs About Fire

Sometimes it seems like the world is ablaze around us. Literally, with devastating wildfires in the western US, the Amazon rainforest, and poor Australia, as well as figuratively, with interpersonal animosity and incivility.

In the midst of this turmoil, it's easy to forget that fire is not always a destructive or sinister force. Popular music often depicts fire much more positively, as a symbol of passionate love, motivated action, personal transformation, knowledge, or creativity. Make a playlist of pop, rock, R&B, country, and hip-hop songs about fire that will light up your life. We have a long list to start you out.

This catchy 1983 ditty has oddball stream of consciousness origins and a wave/funk vibe. It was initially inspired by attendance at a Parliament-Funkadelic concert in which the band encouraged its large audience to "burn down the house"—in other words, get loud and cut loose.

Talking Heads developed the song's instrumental arrangement first. Then they penned the lyrics by chanting nonsense syllables and phrases until they found words that seemed to fit together thematically. Some of the rejected lyrics included, "Pick it up by the handle," "You travel with a double," and "I'm still under construction."

In this Grammy Award-winning pop song from 2011, Adele portrays a narrator who is nursing a broken heart. The emotionally vulnerable woman is elated to find love again, only to learn that her new partner is conniving and toxic:

'Cause there's a side to you
That I never knew, never knew
All the things you'd say
They were never true, never true
And the games you play
You would always win, always win.

With rain representing her pain and tears, the narrator angrily throws their relationship into the symbolic fire, destroying it. Just as setting fire to rain is impossible, however, she finds that she cannot genuinely get over him.

In this classic rock number from 1972, Elvis confesses to being "just a hunk, a hunk of burnin' love." The passion of his lady friend's kisses have set fire to his heart, raising his body temperature and making it difficult for him to breathe. The guy is now burning up, his chest is heaving, and he's laying down begging for the gal's help.

Before the King of Rock and Roll died in 1977, "Burning Love" became his fortieth and final Top 10 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Although Elvis released additional singles during his remaining years—including "Separate Ways" (1972), "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" (1975), and "Moody Blue" (1976)—these songs found more success on the country and adult contemporary charts.

The narrator in this heartwrenching 2015 country song loves his partner unconditionally. What is clear, however, is that she does not make it easy. The man is preparing to be pelted with her barbed questions, painful accusations, and words that "cut like a razor."

Although the love weary man knows that this relationship is a great source of pain, he steadies himself for her full-scale verbal assault. Declaring that he's in it for the long haul, he challenges her to

Fire away
Take your best shot
Show me what you got
Honey, I'm not afraid
Rear back and take aim
And fire away.

The song's award-winning music video is stunning in the way that it highlights the struggles of loving a mentally ill partner.

"She's just a girl and she's on fire." This contagious 2012 R&B ballad became an international hit and remains a powerful female empowerment anthem.

The song's protagonist is an everywoman character who is lonely inside. However, she dreams of escaping her current circumstances. While her head is in the clouds, her feet remain planted firmly on the ground. The inspirational woman takes full control of her world, setting it on fire with her motivation and goal-directed hard work. Just watch her set the world on fire!

If you remain an observer and stand outside the fire, you're not truly living—you're merely surviving. So says country megastar Garth Brooks, co-writer and singer of this motivational country song from 1993. The tune also became a success internationally which isn't too common for a country song.

Brooks encourages you to jump in, mix it up, and take some risks in your life rather than standing outside the fire. It's much more rewarding to dream big. Sure, you may get burned or wind up looking like a fool, but that's life. Just do this.

In 1967, this classic rock single from The Doors' debut album topped the charts and became their first hit. In so doing, it catapulted frontman Jim Morrison and his band to fame.

Their psychedelically-tinged tune is a love song containing double entendres and symbolism of sex, drugs, and death. The song's central expression "light my fire" alludes to both the heat of sexual passion and lighting up a joint. Additionally, with the lyrics, "And our love become a funeral pyre," the song references the thin line between sex and death that occurs with ecstasy. (Note that the French refer to orgasm as "le petit mort," or the little death, the expenditure of the life force.)

When The Doors appeared live on The Ed Sullivan Show to perform this song, Sullivan requested that they change the drug-related lyrics, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" to "Girl, we couldn't get much better." In spite of promising to comply, when time came to sing the song on live television, The Doors sang the original lyrics. Infuriated, Sullivan had a producer tell the band that they'd never appear again on The Ed Sullivan Show. The cocky, irreverent Morrison famously quipped, "Hey man. We just did the Sullivan show."

If you need encouragement to step up and take command of your life, then here it is! This 2015 pop tune is one of those uplifting feel good songs to put you in a good mood. With its pulsating beat, it encourages you to conquer your fears and self-doubts as you own your destiny. The narrator expresses confidence in the person she's singing to and believes in their emotional connection. Your time is now so do it!

It's one thing to feel ambivalent but it's wrong to be unclear about "yes" vs. "no." Bruce Springstein wrote this smokin' hot rock/disco number for Elvis, but The King died before he could record it. The Pointer Sisters modified the lyrics to sing it from the girl's perspective, and when they released it in 1978, "Fire" became a global success.

The song depicts a conflicted woman who responds to her lover's passionate sexual advances with mixed messages. (Obviously, this was in an era when "no" didn't always mean "no." Yikes.) The couple is on a date, and the narrator refuses her lover's touch, claiming she dislikes it. However, she also admits that she's lying and enjoys his fiery kisses. Later that night, he takes her home and states he wants to stay the night, but the woman falsely rejects him. Add this waffling yes/no ditty to the list of songs that wouldn't fly today.

Looking back on the remnants of her broken romance, the narrator in this 2016 snythpop song describes it in scorching, toxic terms. Rumors, secrets, and small talk spread like wildfire, setting their love ablaze. Now all that's left are smoldering embers, and she chokes on the hazy memories:

Oh, oh, our love is running into a burning building
Oh, oh, our love is scattered ash with a burnt up feeling
Feel the heat so we started running
You know you saw it coming
But the memories are still in my mind
Burning like smoke and fire.

Fire quickly consumes everything around the guy in this 2010 haunting alt rock song. (Perhaps he even set the fire himself in disgust, frustration, and resignation.) The narrator has an ideal about what the world should be like and has lost all faith. Now he stands back and watches it burn.

As his world disintegrates in ruins, he refuses to play any role in holding it all together anymore. The song was inspired by a deadly conflict between the FBI and radical Christians who had isolated themselves in the mountains (presumably Ruby Ridge).

It's sad to realize that your best days are behind you. That's the situation in this 2017 electropop song. The narrator mourns the time not too long ago when people cared about what she thought and said. People asked about her and looked for her in the crowd. She was on fire. Now she is a mere has-been. She has faded away, melted by her own fire. The poor gal has flamed out. It happens to everyone eventually.

Rapper Pitbull offers up this 2014 smoldering samba-influenced number that is full of sexy swagger. Although the lyrics aren't all that deep, the beat is thumping and this song really burns it up. This drinking and partying song is aptly named. The word "fireball" has multiple meanings relevant to this song:

• a brand of whiskey
• a ball of flame or fire and
• a highly energetic person.

The rap song was an international hit and became a crossover hit on the mainstream, dance, and Latin charts.

All too often in both media and broader society we build people up to be larger than life only to delight in burning them down. This high energy electronic song from 2012 is a social commentary on this dehumanizing tendency in our popular culture, the rapid rise and fall of heroes among ordinary men.

Stand up for what you believe in and join forces with like-minded others for the power of good. This positive, invigorating pop song from 2013 will fire you up, providing the encouragement to propel you to "give love to the world" and achieve great things. Ignite change and share the fire in your soul with others.

The woman in this peppy 2015 pop song is revved up and ready to set the world on fire. She's seen adversity, but she has faced that down and is stronger for the struggle. Now she's energetically moving on to bigger challenges, shedding all chains that bind her. Leona Lewis was winner of the third series of the British X Factor in 2006.

In this captivating 2018 country pop song, Dierks Bentley embraces the contradictory elements that fill each person's personality. He references struggle and mistakes as well as flourishing, being both steady and stable as well as lost and a little crazy. The tune also alludes to the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada that is dedicated to radical self-expression and inclusion:

I'm a little bit holy water but still a little bit burning man
Burning man
Still just a burn, burn, burning man
Just a burning man.

You know this song. "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. We don't need no water, let the motherf**ker burn." Even if you don't remember this obscure, old school 1984 hip-hop number from back in the day, you probably recall that chant from a remix of the song or one of the many movies that sampled it. It was unique at the time not just for its rhythmic chant but also for its cursing which made it poison to play on the radio. The group released a "clean" version with the curse word scratched out, and the song became a success on the dance charts.

You won't find the guy in this 2017 country/pop song hitting the downtown bars for weekend fun. Instead, he and his friends follow an old red dirt road into a open field. Together, they kick back under the stars, drink a little beer, and dance as they set the night ablaze.

Played during the closing credits of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, this 2013 folk ballad focuses on the last 10 minutes of the fantasy adventure film. Ed Sheeran, who both wrote and sang the song, is a devoted fan of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. It was the first book he read.

Emotionally, the tune transports the audience from Middle Earth back to reality. The song's narrator watches the devastation and desolation to come. He sees the fire and blood in the breeze and toasts his compatriots as they prepare to meet their shared destiny together.