Desert Island Fireworks!

If you were listening to Succession star Brian Cox choosing his Desert Island Discs on Radio 4 you might have noticed that one of his choices was Don’t Get Me Wrong by The Pretenders.

It’s not a song you’d immediately associate with fireworks until you hear

Don’t get me wrong
If I’m acting so distracted
I’m thinking about the fireworks
That go off when you smile

Boom! There is it is. It set me thinking how many other songs contain the reference. Just a quick look on google reveals there are dozens and dozens.

For my Desert Island Fireworks I’ve chosen another 7 that I wouldn’t mind being marooned with.

First up of course is Katy Perry’s Firework. The opening lyric ‘Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind wanting to start again’ is so poetic! But then she really gets in the groove.

Baby you’re a firework
Come on show ’em what your worth
Make ’em go “Oh, oh, oh!”
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

I could never get tired of listening to that song!

Next up is Louis Armstrong’s romantic love song Fantastic, That’s You, which should be our theme tune. Lovely song with another poetic lyric

You whisper darlin’ and before my eyes
A blaze of fireworks light up the skies
My heart grows wings then away it flies
Fantastic, fantastic that’s you

David Guetta has a sackload of hits to his name but one not quite so well known is I Can Only Imagine It featuring Chris Brown and Lil Wayne. Listen out for LW’s poetic pyrotehnics in this verse.

You’re a firework, brighter in the dark
So lets turn off the lights
And give me that spark

For my 5th choice I’m turning to one of my favourite bands Fall Out Boy (My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark). There won’t be so many fireworks this Fourth of July but you can always listen to this great song, including the lyric

It was the Fourth of July
You and I were
You and I were fire, fire, fireworks
That went off too soon

My 6th is Blue Oyster Cult‘s Fireworks, a 70s classic with in-your-face lyrics, no poetry here just verbal fireworks.

Then the lightning flashing (flashing crashing)
Fireworks shooting up in her head (in her head)
The earth was shaking (shaking quaking)
Fireworks pouring down on her head (on her head)

If I was allowed a solar powered DVD player I’d take OMI“s Fireworks, if only to keep watching the very funny video, and listen again and again to

Said she wants more than fireworks tonight
More like than a stick of dynamite
And everyone from next door can hear the explosions

My final choice is by one of my favourite singers Elvis Costello. Elvis is staying safe with Indoor Fireworks but he’s still warning of the dangers.

Indoor fireworks
Can still burn your fingers
Indoor fireworks
We swore we were safe as houses
They’re not so spectacular, they don’t burn up in the sky
But they can dazzle or delight
Or bring a tear
When the smoke gets in your eyes

Now that’s what I call poetry!