Brian Eno – Baby’s On Fire

I mostly knew Brian Eno through his work with Roxy Music and David Bowie. I knew his name long before I really started digging into his solo albums. When I heard Baby’s On Fire, though, the thing that immediately grabbed me was Robert Fripp’s guitar. You can tell it’s him. Fripp has one of those sounds that doesn’t get confused with anyone else.

The song appeared on Eno’s first solo album, Here Come the Warm Jets, released in 1974. Eno had left Roxy Music after two albums with the band. Instead of forming another regular group, he brought together musicians from several different bands for the sessions. Members of Roxy Music, King Crimson, Hawkwind, Matching Mole and others appeared on the album. This record is full of strange and catchy rock songs.

This song was recorded in September 1973 at Majestic Studios in London. Eno handled the vocals and synthesizer, with John Wetton on bass and Paul Rudolph on guitar. Simon King of Hawkwind played drums. But it’s Robert Fripp’s long guitar solo that dominates the recording. Fripp reportedly recorded several passes, and Eno selected and assembled the parts he wanted. The solo takes up a huge portion of the song, but it’s totally worth it. He is a guitar player who is instantly recognizable when he plays.

Fripp and Eno were already developing an interesting musical partnership around this time. In 1973, they recorded the experimental album (No Pussyfooting) together, using tape loops and Fripp’s guitar. Their collaboration would continue for decades. Eno would also work with David Bowie, most famously during the period that produced Low, Heroes and Lodger. Fripp himself would appear on Bowie’s Heroes and later Scary Monsters.

I came to Eno from the opposite direction. I knew Roxy Music and his work with Bowie, but I never explored his solo career nearly enough. This song is weird, catchy, and just a little unsettling. Then Fripp comes in and takes the song somewhere else entirely. I love guitar players who have their own voice, and Fripp certainly has one. Give me five seconds of that guitar, and I know who is playing. He likes to build up and then burst; no one does it like him.

Baby’s On Fire

Baby’s on fire
Better throw her in the water
Look at her laughing
Like a heifer to the slaughter

Baby’s on fire
And all the laughing boys are bitching
Waiting for photos
Oh the plot is so bewitching

Rescuers row row
Do your best to change the subject
Blow the wind blow blow
Lend some assistance to the object

Photographers snip snap
Take your time she’s only burning
This kind of experience
Is necessary for her learning

If you’ll be my flotsam
I could be half the man I used to
They said you were hot stuff
And that’s what baby’s been reduced to

Juanita and Juan
Very clever with maracas
Making their fortunes
Selling second-hand tobaccos

Juan dances at Chico’s
And when the clients are evicted
He empties the ashtrays
And pockets all that he’s collected

But baby’s on fire!
And all the instruments agree that
Her temperature’s rising
But any idiot would know that