We've been putting playlists together by subject for a while here at the Y! Radish, and although songs linked by theme (Rain, Fire, Love, Food, Cars, etc) will always be fun to create, many times they are inconsistent in regards to genre and mood. When you focus themed lists by genre, they become more targeted and listenable. This example takes hundreds of songs about fire and filters it down to a manageable number of quality songs that all fall into the "Classic Rock" genre.
Sometimes when I'm hanging out with friends I'll put on a themed playlist like this and about five songs into it ask, "Do you know what the theme of this playlist is?" It always creates a fun game for guests to play with the music they're listening to and never fails to spur some good conversation.
Fire is a powerful metaphor that a writer can use to represent power, destruction, danger, sexuality or even renewal and passion. So even if you don't use this playlist at your next get together, give it a spin and listen closely to how fire has been used by a good cross section of classic rock songwriters.
Classic Rock Songs About Fire
3. Light My Fire - The Doors
4. Jump Into The Fire - Harry Nilsson
5. Play With Fire - Rolling Stones
6. Fire In The Hole - Steely Dan
8. Fire Eater - Three Dog Night
9. Fight Fire With Fire - Kansas
11. Cold Fire (Remastered LP Version) - Rush
12. Keep The Fire Burnin' - REO Speedwagon
13. Fire Of Unknown Origin - Blue Oyster Cult
14. Fire In The Sky - Ozzy Osbourne
17. Fire - U2