Fire on the Mountain (Grateful Dead song)

Not to be confused with Fire on the Mountain (The Marshall Tucker Band song).
For other uses, see Fire on the Mountain.

"Fire on the Mountain"
Song by the Grateful Dead
from the album Shakedown Street
ReleasedNovember 15, 1978
Recorded1978
GenreRock
Length3:46
LabelArista
Composer(s)Mickey Hart
Lyricist(s)Robert Hunter
Producer(s)Lowell George

"Fire on the Mountain" is a song by the Grateful Dead. The lyric is by Robert Hunter and the music by drummer Mickey Hart.[1] 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.[2] That night, as almost always, it was coupled with "Scarlet Begonias" during live performances, producing lengthy musical improvisations. The paired songs were soon nicknamed "Scarlet Fire".[1] The sequence typically timed from 20 to 25 minutes. The November 1, 1979, performance at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York, likely the longest, clocks in over 34 minutes.

"Fire on the Mountain" was performed in concert by the Grateful Dead 253 times between 1977 and 1995.[3] It appears on numerous Grateful Dead albums.[4] An outtake of the song appeared as a bonus track on the 2004 reissue of Terrapin Station.

This song is also featured as downloadable content for the video game Rock Band.

  1. ^ a b Dodd, David. "The Annotated "Fire on the Mountain"". The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. Retrieved January 31, 2007.
  2. ^ "Grateful Dead Live at Barton Hall - Cornell University on 1977-05-08". May 8, 1977.
  3. ^ Scott, John W.; Dolgushkin, Mike; Nixon, Stu (1999). DeadBase XI: The Complete Guide to Grateful Dead Song Lists. Cornish, New Hampshire: DeadBase. p. 102. ISBN 1-877657-22-0.
  4. ^ "Fire on the Mountain" on the Grateful Dead Family Discography