Burn

I think it’s an analogy for any woman who has been mistreated. There are two sayings, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and if mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

Any man out there who has pissed off a woman can attest to the idea that when she’s pissed everything will burn.

She warned him to knock it off, and now he’s paying for it.

Excellent song- The whole band excels, with Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale alternating on vocals, the expected strong soloing from Jon Lord and Richie Blackmore, and a verse which is backed by Ian Paice giving the drums a good rolling. The lyrics are almost to an Ian Gillan level of silliness, proving that Mk3 Deep Purple didn't lose too much of Mk2's trademarks!

What does this song mean to me? Well, it marked a whole new era in Deep Purple was all! And what a helluva debut! Right from the killer opening riff (based - accidentally, according to Blackmore - on "Fascinating Rythym", to Paice's energetic drumming (he drops fills in all over the place) throughout, to Jon Lord's 'signature' Hammond song - this track absolutely lit up the old turntable back in '74! Lyrically, it's a bit silly in retrospect, but no more or no less silly than what had been being churned out for years already at that point by any # of other artists, and what's been churned out since. Blackmore was looking for castles & damsels/ dungeons & dragons/devil's daughters & demons type lyrics for the track anyway (like the majority of DP's music back then, the music was usaully created first, then the lyrics would get written) and Coverdale, being brand new in the band & eager to please, provided 4 different sets of lyrics. The alternative that finished 2nd in the selection process was titled "The Road".

People seem to forget, or ignore, this is a place to talk about MEANINGS, in other words, not about musical appreciation, personal tastes or the instrumentals.

Fact: there is nothing about metaphors in this song. It's plain context of the Middle Age and the perverse hunt for "witches".

I think that the most thing to cause misinterpretation about those lyrics is the fact that they depict a cast of characters, many people talking.

There is someone who sees that a woman is to be burned (as a witch) because people think that she has put the city on fire (or imputed for other crimes). This person seems rather convinced that this is an terrible error!

The woman is set to be killed (assassinated) by the sentence of being "witch". They strapped her and put fire at straws to burn her, just like the image we have, of a Joana D'Arc for example.

The FLAMES REACH HIGHER, and THAT causes the fire to spread all over the city. Maybe there were too many straws and wood all around the cities, and wind too.

The woman just alleged innocence, while people were thinking that she was responsible for the burning all of city, that she had to do with devil and other foolish nonsense and scapegoating.

While the fire was spreading all over the city, it was clear that people had no time left to save themselves. They had even no CANNED WATER, thing that so many later was introduced to Europe brought up from the Orient.

The very MADNESS of the content of the song is that people continued to claim the woman (women) to be BURNED, as their own city was being BURNED TOO, but the HATE was so much stronger that they didn't care anymore for their homes and lives, they just wanna see the figure that they blamed as the only reason to their doom, the Woman, to be burned.

The woman, in sigh of total despair, as someone who is seeing the insanity of the whole society were she lived in, just could lament herself, maybe as saying to herself that THAT human beings have no more salvation for themselves, and her lament: "Burn!"

Not Vengeance! Not Witchcraft! No fault or guilty from that women! No Supernatural! Only lament!

The other hand, people drowning and dying in their self inflicted fire and hatred, still shouting "Burn!"

Take care of yourselves!

Rafael

really good tune

Song about a witch or the daughter of the devil. Apparently no one believed that she was, even though she warned them, and eventually she sets the world ablaze. I guess if you take the song literally.

Another brilliant Blackmore riff.. another brilliant DP song.. the best song of the Coverdale/Hughes era.

Now that we've all established that this is a brilliant song, what is this song all about? I have a faint idea that it is about a woman that was being mistreated. Was a good as a angel and due to dispair she turned evil and her hatred showed through the fire that was 'burning' through cities.

sorry for all... but who cares about the meanings ? this song is the best rock song ever made in the the history !!! what a masterpiece ( when there's blackmore / paice and lord , a depth man can cry to the harmony provided by these 3 geniuses )

Isn't it about the nuclear bomb being dropped over Hiroshima - the woman is the place 'Enola Gay'? Or is that too obvious?