"Burn The House Down" is the fourteenth track on the deluxe version of AJR's second album, The Click. It was also released as a single 6 months earlier.
The song was initially composed out from a request from filmmaker Morgan Spurlock for AJR to create a theme song to his film Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!. Unfortunately, it did not make it into the film.
Used to keep it cool
Used to be a fool
All about the bounce in my step
Watch it on the news
Whatcha gonna do?
I could hit refresh and forget
Used to keep it cool
Should I keep it light?
Stay out of the fight?
No one's gonna listen to me
If I write a song
Preaching what is wrong
Will they let me sing on TV?
Should I keep it light?
Is that right?
Way up way up we go
Been up and down that road
Way up way up, oh no
We gon' burn the whole house down
Watch me stand in the line
You're only serving lies
You've got something to hide
We gon' burn the whole house down
We gon' burn the whole house down
Yeah
Used to let it go
Walk into the show
Gawking at the tricks up your sleeve
Too good to be true
Fool, I'm in a room
Full of entertainers and thieves
Used to let it go
Woah, oh no
(Whoa, oh no)
Way up way up we go
Been up and down that road
Way up way up, oh no
We gon' burn the whole house down
Watch me stand in the line
You're only serving lies
You've got something to hide
We gon' burn the whole house down
We gon' burn the whole house down
(We gon' burn the whole house down)
Should I hang my head low?
Should I bite my tongue?
Or should I march with every stranger from Twitter to get shit done?
Used to hang my head low
Now I hear it loud
Every stranger from Twitter is gonna burn this down
Way up way up we go
Been up and down that road
Way up way up, oh no
We gon' burn the whole house down
Watch me stand in the line, (whoa oh)
You're only serving lies, (yeah)
You've got something to hide
We gon' burn the whole house down
Whoa oh, yeah
We gon' burn the whole house down
We burn it down, we burn it down
We gon' burn the whole house down
Used to keep it cool
Used to be a fool
All about the bounce in my step
Watch it on the news
Whatcha gonna do?
I could hit refresh and forget
Used to keep it cool
Should I keep it light?
Stay out of the fight?
No one's gonna listen to me
If I write a song
Preaching what is wrong
Will they let me sing on TV?
Should I keep it light?
Is that right?
(Is that right?)
Way up way up we go
Been up and down that road
Way up way up, oh no
We gon' burn the whole house down
Watch me stand in the line
You're only serving lies
You've got something to hide
We gon' burn the whole house down
We gon' burn the whole house down
Yeah
Used to let it go
Walk into the show
Gawking at the tricks up your sleeve
Too good to be true
But I'm in a room
Full of entertainers and thieves
Used to let it go
Woah, oh no
(Whoa, oh no)
Way up way up we go
Been up and down that road
Way up way up, oh no
We gon' burn the whole house down
Watch me stand in the line
You're only serving lies
You've got something to hide
We gon' burn the whole house down
We gon' burn the whole house down
(We gon' burn the whole house down)
Should I hang my head low?
Should I bite my tongue?
Or should I march with every stranger from Twitter to get it done?
Used to hang my head low
Now I hear it loud
Every stranger from Twitter is gonna burn this down
Way up way up we go
Been up and down that road
Way up way up, oh no
We gon' burn the whole house down
Watch me stand in the line, (whoa oh)
You're only serving lies, (yeah)
You've got something to hide
We gon' burn the whole house down
Whoa oh, yeah
We gon' burn the whole house down
We burn it down, we burn it down
We gon' burn the whole house down
Used to keep it cool
Used to be a fool
All about the bounce in my step
Watch it on the news,
What you gonna do? I can’t even guess where you’ve been
Used to keep it cool
Yeah
Used to keep it fun
Nickel in a cup
Scooping all the air from my lungs
Now I’m up and up
Pick me up and run
You can never take what I love
I should keep it fun
Oh I’m done
Way up way we go
Been up and down that road
Way up way oh no
We gon burn the house down
Watch me standing in line
You’re only serving lies
You’ve got something to hide
We gon burn the whole house down
Used to let it go
Walk into the show
Gawking at the tricks up your sleeve
Too good to be true
Fool, I’m in a room
Full of entertainers and thieves
Used to let it go
We can let it burn Tables outa turn
Maybe we can bring down the gate
Best I’m on my should-ers
I’m gonna hold ya Until we build(?) it away
We can let it burn
Up and turn
Way up way we go
Been up and down that road
Way up way oh no
We gon burn the house down
Watch me standing in line
You’re only serving lies
You’ve got something to hide
We gon burn the whole house down
Yeah, yeah
We gon burn the whole house down
We gon burn the whole house down
Burn The House Down - AJR live - NYC 10-10-19 Neotheater Tour
Live in NYC
Trivia[]
A joke about the line "used to keep it cool" being misheard as "you sticky pickle" spread around AJR forums. An example of this meme is in this video, uploaded by AEIOU on May 1, 2018.
This song is one of the few songs, along with the Overtures, "Growing Old on Bleecker Street", "3 O'Clock Things", "AfterHours" and "The Trick", whose lyrics don't contain its title. The closest it ever gets to its title in the lyrics is aline in the chorus; "We gon burn the whole house down".
This song was played live on The Click Tour before the release of the studio version, which had different lyrics.
