Fire on the Mountain

About Fire on the Mountain

"Fire on the Mountain" is a song by the Grateful Dead. It was written by lyricist Robert Hunter and composed by drummer Mickey Hart. It was commercially released on the album Shakedown Street in November 1978. An earlier instrumental version titled "Happiness is Drumming" appeared in 1976 on Mickey Hart's album Diga with the Diga Rhythm Band. Prior to the Dead recording, the song premiered at a concert on March 18, 1977 in San Francisco. It would often be paired with "Scarlet Begonias" during live performances, producing lengthy musical excursions. The paired songs were soon nicknamed "Scarlet Fire". One notable performance of the paired "Scarlet Begonias"/"Fire On The Mountain", at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, on May 8, 1977, lasted for a total of 25 minutes and 50 seconds."Fire on the Mountain" was performed in concert by the Grateful Dead 253 times between 1977 and 1995. It appears on numerous Grateful Dead albums. An outtake of the song appeared as a bonus track on the 2004 reissue of Terrapin Station. more »

Year:

2003

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Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?
Get up, get out, get out of the door
Your playin' cold music on the barroom floor
Drowned in your laughter and dead to the core.
There's a dragon with matches that's loose on the town
Takes a whole pail of water just to cool him down.

Fire! fire on the mountain!
Almost ablaze still you don't feel the heat
It takes all you got just to stay on the beat.
You say it's a livin', we all gotta eat
But you're here alone, there's no one to compete.
If mercy's a business, i wish it for you
More than just ashes when your dreams come true.

Fire! fire on the mountain!
Long distance runner, what you holdin' out for?
Caught in slow motion in a dash for the door.
The flame from your stage has now spread to the floor
You gave all you had. why you want to give more?
The more that you give, the more it will take
To the thin line beyond which you really can't fake.

Fire! fire on the mountain!

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Mickey Hart

Mickey Hart (born Michael Steven Hartman; September 11, 1943) is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995. He and fellow Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann earned the nickname "the rhythm devils". more »

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