"Burn It Down" is a song by American band Linkin Park, included the third track of their fifth studio album, Living Things. The song was released through digital download and radios as the lead single from the album on April 16, 2012. The song was written by the band and produced by Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin, who also produced the band's previous two albums: Minutes to Midnight (2007) and A Thousand Suns (2010). The music video was directed by band's turntablist Joe Hahn.
Background[]
The song's working title was "Buried at Sea" and was recorded in February 2012, as it can be seen in many LPTVs , released in April and May 2012. Lead singer Chester Bennington talked about the song in an interview with MTV, saying what made the song interesting was "the really high energy and the really strong electronic melodies and hooks kind of set this song apart, which is why we chose it as our first single."
Mike Shinoda went into detail about some of the themes explored on "Burn It Down", and how important it is for the listener to derive their own meanings from the lyrics, stating "You know, to be honest, we get the songs to a certain point, and once we put out our record, it's up to the fans to decide how the song gets finished. In other words, we lead you to a certain point in the road and we say, "Okay, the rest of it is your call. You bring your own interpretation to the song." In the case of most of these songs, I think Chester (Bennington) is coming from a certain place, I'm coming from my own experience, and on top of that, there are oftentimes metaphor and maybe a third read. In the case of "Burn it Down," we're talking about my personal story and his personal story, and there's also a layer of pop culture that plays a role in the lyrics of the song. For example, people build up a certain celebrity or musician or actor or whatever and they're popular one minute and the next thing, you know either they've done something wrong or they've done nothing wrong and there's just a bad rumor that goes around about them and then everybody's attacking that person. That's just the way things are. We've actually lived through that as a band. All that stuff plays a role."
During an interview with ABCDane.net, Chester Bennington commented about some of the more unexpected reactions the band had gotten in response to "Burn It Down", stating "It’s interesting, since ‘BURN IT DOWN’ was released, we’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from people saying something like, ‘I can finally work out to your music again.’ It’s something we never even considered while making this album. You don’t really think, ‘This song is perfect for doing push-ups to!’ or ‘I can’t wait to jog while playing this song.’ But it made us happy to hear these things, because it meant that this album has a lot of energy."
Lyrics[]
The cycle repeated
As explosions broke in the sky
All that I needed
Was the one thing I couldn't find
And you were there at the turn
Waiting to let me know
We're building it up
To break it back down
We're building it up
To burn it down
We can't wait
To burn it to the ground
The colors conflicted
As the flames climbed into the clouds
I wanted to fix this
But couldn't stop from tearing it down
And you were there at the turn
Caught in the burning glow
And I was there at the turn
Waiting to let you go
We're building it up
To break it back down
We're building it up
To burn it down
We can't wait
To burn it to the ground
You told me yes
You held me high
And I believed when you told that lie
I played solider
You played king
Struck me down when I kissed that ring
You lost that right, To hold that crown
I built you up But you let me down
So when you fall
I'll take my turn
And fan the flames As your blazes burn.
And you were there at the turn
Waiting to let me know
We're building it up
To break it back down
We're building it up
To burn it down
We can't wait
To burn it to the ground
When you fall
I'll take my turn
And fan the flames
As your blazes burn
We can't wait
To burn it to the ground
When you fall
I'll take my turn
And fan the flames
As your blazes burn
We can't wait
To burn it to the ground
Track listing[]
Main article: Release history of "Burn It Down"
| European CD Single[1] | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 1. | "Burn It Down" | 3:51 |
| 2. | "New Divide (Live)" | 4:29 |
| 3. | "In the End (live)" | 3:39 |
| 4. | "What I've Done (Live)" | 4:04 |
Gallery[]
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Click here to see more photos about Burn It Down |
Spotify[]
YouTube[]
References[]
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