6 October 2011 Who by fire, when and where

  Fire on the mountain, fire down below!

          Fire is a common theme in music of many genres.  I can recall one of the folk groups prominent in the late 1950s-early 1960s singing a pseudo-sea chantey revved up from a hauling tempo to an awkward dance tempo for the audience to clap off tempo and sing along.

          “I just came up from the galley,

          I thought you ought to know;

          The cook, he burnt the biscuits,        

          And there’s fire down below!”

          Chorus:

          “Fire, fire, fire down below

          Fetch a bucket of water, boys,

          There’s fire down below!”

          Song titles are not copy-right-able and are often repeated across a broad spectrum of songs. 

          Every Dead Head knows the lines:

          “There's a dragon with matches loose on the town
          Take a whole pail of water just to cool him down”

          The Hunter-Hart composition most often paired with Scarlet Begonias as a jam vehicle seems an apt description of life in the music business.  Like every word and note performed by the Grateful Dead, it has been misunderstood, interpreted in drug-addled and in drug-free brains, covered by imitators and by musicians crossing genres. 

          The phrase provides many good images to play with.  The chorus, “Fire, fire on the mountain…” is of no great import. 

          However, if one is fortunate enough to be driving in the Appalachian Mountains this weekend, the words will readily spring to mind, as the fall color display on the mountainsides will feature amazing reds and oranges.

          Fire on the mountain is also a blue-grass/country fiddle tune that is always a crowd pleaser.  It can be the high point of a concert set if done well. 

It hardly seems possible for it to be October already.  In two or three weeks the hillside behind us will look incredible as the deciduous trees change color before dropping their leaves.  They’ll stand out among the giant hemlocks and pines that line the eastern wall of the valley like gold in a stream bed. 

          Time seems to be compressing more and more. Blue-shifting as the edge of our time spins toward us.   Yet, the information out this week about the Nobel prize winner in physics indicates that the universe is accelerating as it expands.  So time, however relative it may be, can’t be compressing, it’s pulling away from our reality. 

          As the hillsides turn, if we change calendars in a timely manner it is now nearly time for us to chant “Unetaneh Tokef, an 11th-century liturgical poem recited on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur   and to listen to “Who by Fire", the words and melody of which echo the  Unetaneh Tokef,

We shall ascribe holiness to this day.
For it is awesome and terrible.
Your kingship is exalted upon it.
Your throne is established in mercy.
You are enthroned upon it in truth.
In truth You are the judge,
The exhorter, the all‑knowing, the witness,
He who inscribes and seals,
Remembering all that is forgotten.
You open the book of remembrance
Which proclaims itself,
And the seal of each person is there.
The great shofar is sounded,
A still small voice is heard.
The angels are dismayed,
They are seized by fear and trembling
As they proclaim: Behold the Day of Judgment!
For all the hosts of heaven are brought for judgment.
They shall not be guiltless in Your eyes
And all creatures shall parade before You as a troop.
As a shepherd herds his flock,
Causing his sheep to pass beneath his staff,
So do You cause to pass, count, and record,
Visiting the souls of all living,
Decreeing the length of their days,
Inscribing their judgment.
On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed,
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed.
How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die,
Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not,
Who shall perish by water and who by fire,
Who by sword and who by wild beast,
Who by famine and who by thirst,
Who by earthquake and who by plague,
Who by strangulation and who by stoning,
Who shall have rest and who shall wander,
Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued,
Who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented,
Who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low,
Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished.
But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree.