Burn Baby Burn
"One more female who received a not-so-nice biblical treatment was Jephthah's daughter, so insignificant that no one remembers her name. Now, while Jephthah was a hell of a fighter, the lights were a little dim in the top floor of his tabernacle. I mean, if you were the father of a flowering young daughter, would you promise God to sacrifice the first thing to greet you when you returned home from war?"
— Mr. Skull at the Fillmore
"Burn Baby Burn" (previously under working titles "Anything" and "Daughter of Death") is a song by The Residents, featured on their 1998 concept album Wormwood: Curious Stories from the Bible, sung by Diana Alden from the perspective of Jephthah's daughter who must be sacrificed to God as an offering from her father in gratitude for having won a battle with the Ammonites.
The song was a mainstay of The Residents' setlists throughout the early 2000s, always performed live in a much slower and brooding arrangement with Molly Harvey on vocals.
This is the most recent track featured on The Residents' video retrospective DVD Icky Flix, with a music video created by the group using footage from a Wormwood Live webcast.
Album notes
Jephthah is a general who depends upon the favor of YHWH to win. He vows to the Hebrew God that if He will let him win this war, he will sacrifice the first creature that comes out of his house to greet his return. Since Jephthah lives just with his only child, a daughter, it isn't much of a surprise that it is she who greets him that day. He blames her for being the first creature he saw. She takes the news rather well, and heads off to the country with her friends for two months before coming home to be slaughtered by her daddy.
Look it up. Judges 11:31-40
Lyrics
I'm gonna die with no tears in my eyes 'cause God digs my Daddy! I'm gonna die with no tears in my eyes 'cause God digs my Daddy! God digs my Daddy! God digs my Daddy! His enemies died when he lifted his knife and said, "Please let me win and I'll send you a life." So soon I will be burning for my, Soon I will be burning for my Daddy I'm ready to die but it seems to be odd that bleeding is better than breathing to God. But soon I will be burning for my, Soon I will be burning for my Daddy God digs my Daddy! Soon I will be burning for my, Soon I will be burning for my Daddy God digs my Daddy! Soon I will be burning for my, Soon I will be burning for my Daddy Soon I will be burning for my, Soon I will be burning for my Daddy Soon I will be burning for my, Soon I will be burning for my Daddy
Releases
- Wormwood: Curious Stories from the Bible (1998) [Version 1]
- Wormwood Live 1999 (1999) [Version 2]
- Roadworms: The Berlin Sessions (2000) [Version 3]
- Icky Flix DVD (2001) [Version 4]
- Live! ...on the Outskirts DVD (2002) [Version 5]
- Kettles of Fish on the Outskirts of Town DVD (2003) [Version 5]
- The Residents Play Wormwood DVD (2005) [Version 6]
- The Way We Were (2005) [Version 7]
- Icky Flix Live (2009) [Version 5]
- Brava (2010) [Version 8]
- 80 Aching Orphans (2017) [Version 1]
- Loss of the Lizard Lady (2018) [Version 4]
- Icky Flix (The Original Soundtrack Recording) [Version 4]
- Wormwood Box [Version 1] [Version 9] [Version 10] [Version 3] [Version 2] [Version 8] [Version 7]
Versions
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wormwood album version (2:59)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wormwood Live recording; Europe, Summer 1999 (5:17)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Roadworms studio version - recorded in Berlin, 1999; mixed in 2000 (3:40)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Icky Flix studio recording, 2000 (3:19)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Icky Flix live version; recorded in Seattle, March 2001 (3:49)
- ↑ Footage of Wormwood Live webcast in Bonn, Germany, July 1999
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Way We Were version; recorded in Australia, March 2005 (4:28)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Icky Flix live version; recorded in San Francisco, October 2001 (3:46)
- ↑ "Anything" instrumental demo (2:39)
- ↑ Wormwood Live recording, at the Fillmore, San Francisco, Halloween 1998 (5:12)