“Burn The House Down” is a politically-charged single by the indie pop band AJR. The original version of the song was used as the theme song for director Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! They wrote it once they watched it and said:
We were blown away after watching the...
[Verse 1: Jack]
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
[Verse 2: Jack]
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?
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 3: Jack]
Yeah, used to let it go
Walk into the show
Gawking at the tricks up your sleeve
Too good to be truth-
Full, I’m in a room
Full of entertainers and thieves
Used to let it go
Woah, oh no
(Woah, oh no)
[Chorus]
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
[Bridge: Jack]
(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
[Chorus]
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
Woah oh, yeah
We gon’ burn the whole house down
We burn it down, we burn it down
We gon’ burn the whole house down
Burn the House Down was produced by Ryan Met.
AJR released Burn the House Down on Fri Mar 23 2018.
It’s kind of like an AJR version of a political song. We’re never going to be the guys that are the leaders of the resistance… Just observing what’s going on in the world. Like with our generation, with stuff like Me Too and gun control. There’s kind of an exciting energy in our generation going on...
Producer Ryan Met created a behind-the-track video that was posted to the band’s Instagram. In it, he touches on how the track came to be:
This song was certified Gold by the RIAA on December 13, 2018.
The song was performed live on December 26, 2020, as part of the band’s One Spectacular Night virtual livestream event. It was later posted to YouTube on February 2, 2021: