Song writing
Brett: "Turn on the light was inspired by these hippies who came into my recording studio to make a record and they had all the light off and were burning candles and incense and stringing love beads and were trying to write the record that way and it just fucken pissed me off. I couldn't imagine how anyone could make a record that way. That's how turning on all the lights kinda inspired me to write the song."[1]
Song meaning
Brett: "The song is essentially, it kinda has the same theme as Hooray For Me (...), live life to its fullest, burn brightly as possible."[2]
Lyrics
Although unconfirmed, it seems that the line "burn, like a Roman fucking candle" was inspired by the following lines from 'On The Road' (a 1950s book by Jack Kerouac): "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at one time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."
Jack Kerouac is also mentioned in the song Stranger Than Fiction ("caringosity killed the Kerouac cat").
Live
In the Big Bang video Greg sings "he used to fuck it when the wind...".
References
^ Roger Vulture interview with Brett (1996)
^ Roger Vulture interview with Brett (1996)