Paramore’s Cover of Burning Down the House: Hayley Williams Channels her Inner Byrne

Everyone has their list of songs that should never be covered. For me that includes anything by Aretha Franklin, certain songs by Joni Mitchell…I’m looking at you Counting Crows…and Marvin Gaye. Until recently, I would have put Burning Down the House on that list, but no more. Fresh off the very successful re-release of Stop Making Sense by A24 they released a Talking Heads cover/tribute record. There is a rocky history of tribute records, but there are some real gems like Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, which covers Vic Chesnutt and the Leonard Cohen tribute I’m Your Fan. Judging by Paramore’s cover, A24’s Talking Heads cover record will be part of that list.

Covers are hard to do. There is a balance between keeping true to the original, but putting your own spin on it. It is hard to say what will work until you hear the track. I love some traditional readings that are very close to the original, but I also love some covers that go wayyyyyyyy off into their own world on the cover. For example, one of my favourite covers is Tori Amos’ cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit. It is not an exact science, but it is easy to get wrong. Musically, Paramore keeps what is iconic about the original, but puts there own slightly off kilter punk/rock spin on it. The classic acoustic guitar, outstanding percussion and syth are all there…not as good as the original, but hits those same notes.

Where a lot of covers fall over is in the vocal. You hear the vocal and it just takes you out of it, because it is a poor copy of the original. When I saw this I wondered how someone could possibly embody the artistic weirdness, yet vocally peerless notes of David Byrne. First of all, I love a well done gender swap on a cover, which is why Luke Combs is a national treasure. So, I was going into it in a positive framework. Hayley Williams knocks this track out of the park. She has enough raw power and artistic weirdness to pull off a great David Byrne without falling into doing a second rate impersonation. She is amazing on this track and is probably why Paramore got so much Grammy love. She is flawless on this track.

I am a diehard Talking Heads fan and I think Stop Making Sense is the best live music record / movie ever made. So, on the surface of it you may think I would reject any attempt to cover something so perfect. On the contrary, this cover is amazing and will land on my top 50 of 2024. Is it as good as the original? No. Nothing will be. However, you can tell that the band loves the Talking Heads and took great care to honour the song. This is an excellent cover that will increase your opinion of both the Talking Heads and Paramore.

Listen to Burning Down the House