The Grateful Dead was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area amid the rise of the counterculture of the 1960s. The founding members were Jerry Garcia (lead guitar, vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar, vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (keyboards, harmonica, vocals), Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums). Members of the Grateful Dead had played together in various San Francisco bands, including Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions and the Warlocks. Lesh was the last member to join the Warlocks before they became the Grateful Dead; he replaced Dana Morgan Jr., who had played bass for a few gigs. Drummer Mickey Hart and non-performing lyricist Robert Hunter joined in 1967. With the exception of McKernan, who died in 1973, and Hart, who took time off from 1971 to 1974, the core of the band stayed together for its entire 30-year history. The other official members of the band are Tom Constanten (keyboards; 1968ā1970), John Perry Barlow (nonperforming lyricist; 1971ā1995), Keith Godchaux (keyboards; 1971ā1979), Donna Godchaux (vocals; 1972ā1979), Brent Mydland (keyboards, vocals; 1979ā1990), and Vince Welnick (keyboards, vocals; 1990ā1995). Bruce Hornsby (accordion, piano, vocals) was a touring member from 1990 to 1992, as well as a guest with the band on occasion before and after the tours.
The name "Grateful Dead" was chosen from a dictionary. According to Phil Lesh, "[Jerry Garcia] picked up an old Britannica World Language Dictionary ... [and] ... In that silvery elf-voice he said to me, 'Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?'" The definition there was "the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial". According to Alan Trist, director of the Grateful Dead's music publisher company Ice Nine, Garcia found the name in the Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary, when his finger landed on that phrase while playing a game of Fictionary. In the Garcia biography, Captain Trips, author Sandy Troy states that the band was smoking the psychedelic DMT at the time. The term "grateful dead" appears in folktales of a variety of cultures.
Live performances
The Grateful Dead toured constantly throughout their career, playing more than 2,300 concerts. They promoted a sense of community among their fans, who became known as "Deadheads", many of whom followed their tours for months or years on end. Around concert venues, an impromptu communal marketplace known as 'Shakedown Street' was created by Deadheads to serve as centers of activity where fans could buy and sell anything from grilled cheese sandwiches to home-made t-shirts and recordings of Grateful Dead concerts.
In their early career, the band also dedicated their time and talents to their community, the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco, making available free food, lodging, music, and health care to all. It has been said that the band performed "more free concerts than any band in the history of music".
With the exception of 1975, when the band was on hiatus and played only four concerts together, the Grateful Dead performed many concerts every year, from their formation in April 1965, until July 9, 1995. Initially all their shows were in California, principally in the San Francisco Bay Area and in or near Los Angeles. They also performed, in 1965 and 1966, with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, as the house band for the Acid Tests. They toured nationally starting in June 1967 (their first foray to New York), with a few detours to Canada, Europe and three nights at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt in 1978. They appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Festival Express train tour across Canada in 1970. They were scheduled to appear as the final act at the infamous Altamont Free Concert on December 6, 1969 after the Rolling Stones but withdrew after security concerns. "That's the way things went at Altamontāso badly that the Grateful Dead, prime organizers and movers of the festival, didn't even get to play", staff at Rolling Stone magazine wrote in a detailed narrative on the event.
Their first UK performance was at the Hollywood Music Festival in 1970. Their largest concert audience came in 1973 when they played, along with the Allman Brothers Band and the Band, before an estimated 600,000 people at the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen. They played to an estimated total of 25 million people, more than any other band, with audiences of up to 80,000 attending a single show. Many of these concerts were preserved in the band's tape vault, and several dozen have since been released on CD and as downloads. The Dead were known for the tremendous variation in their setlists from night to nightāthe list of songs documented to have been played by the band exceeds 500. The band has released four concert videos under the name View from the Vault.
In the 1990s, the Grateful Dead earned a total of $285 million in revenue from their concert tours, the second-highest during the 1990s, with the Rolling Stones earning the most. This figure is representative of tour revenue through 1995, as touring stopped after the death of Jerry Garcia. In a 1991 PBS documentary, segment host Buck Henry attended an August 1991 concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre and gleaned some information from some band members about the Grateful Dead phenomenon and its success. At the time, Jerry Garcia stated, "We didn't really invent the Grateful Dead, the crowd invented the Grateful Dead, you know what I mean? We were sort of standing in line, and uh, it's gone way past our expectations, way past, so it's, we've been going along with it to see what it's gonna do next." Furthermore, Mickey Hart stated, "This is one of the last places in America that you can really have this kind of fun, you know, considering the political climate and so forth." Hart also stated that "the transformative power of the Grateful Dead is really the essence of it; it's what it can do to your consciousness. We're more into transportation than we are into music, per se, I mean, the business of the Grateful Dead is transportation." One of the band's largest concerts took place just months before Garcia's death ā at their outdoor show with Bob Dylan in Highgate, Vermont on June 15, 1995. The crowd was estimated to be over 90,000; overnight camping was allowed and about a third of the audience got in without having purchased a ticket.
Their numerous studio albums were generally collections of new songs that they had first played in concert. The band was also famous for its extended musical improvisations, having been described as having never played the same song the same way twice. Their concert sets often blended songs, one into the next, often for more than three songs at a time.
Tapes
Like several other bands during this time, the Grateful Dead allowed their fans to record their shows. For many years the tapers set up their microphones wherever they could, and the eventual forest of microphones became a problem for the sound crew. Eventually, this was solved by having a dedicated taping section located behind the soundboard, which required a special "tapers" ticket. The band allowed sharing of their shows, as long as no profits were made on the sale of the tapes.
Of the approximately 2,350 shows the Grateful Dead played, almost 2,200 were taped, and most of these are available online. The band began collecting and cataloging tapes early on and Dick Latvala was their keeper. "Dick's Picks" is named after Latvala. After his death in 1999, David Lemieux gradually took the post. Concert set lists from a subset of 1,590 Grateful Dead shows were used to perform a comparative analysis between how songs were played in concert and how they are listened online by Last.fm members. In their book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn From the Most Iconic Band in History, David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan identify the taper section as a crucial contributor to increasing the Grateful Dead's fan base.
After the death of Garcia in 1995, former members of the band, along with other musicians, toured as the Other Ones in 1998, 2000, and 2002, and the Dead in 2003, 2004, and 2009. In 2015, the four surviving core members marked the band's 50th anniversary in a series of concerts that were billed as their last performances together. There have also been several spin-offs featuring one or more core members, such as Dead & Company, Furthur, the Rhythm Devils, Phil Lesh and Friends, RatDog, and Billy & the Kids.
Fire on the Mountain
Grateful Dead Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Get up, get out, get out of the door
You're playing 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!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
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 living, 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!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
Long distance runner, what you holding out for?
Caught in slow motion in a dash to the door
The flame from your stage has now spread to the floor
You gave all you had. why you wanna 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!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
"Fire on the Mountain" by Grateful Dead is a song that talks about a man who is caught up in the trap of his own world. It starts with a line addressed to a long-distance runner, questioning why he is standing still. The lyrics then go on to describe the runner's situation, playing music alone in a barroom, drowned in his own laughter, and dead inside. The verse is contrasted with the chorus that warns of a dragon with matches, which symbolizes a looming danger in the background. The dragon needs a whole pail of water just to cool down, indicating the severity of the situation.
The verses speak about how the long-distance runner is caught up in his own world, and he does not feel the heat. He says that he is working hard to earn a living, but there is no competition, and he is alone. The chorus is repeated after every verse, emphasizing the urgency of the message. The last verse describes the man's situation as caught in slow motion, running towards the door, with the flame from his stage now spreading to the floor. Even though he has given all that he has, he is still expected to give more. The song's ultimate message is that the desire for success and money can lead to a trap where the man is trapped and unable to change his situation.
Line by Line Meaning
Long distance runner, what you standing there for?
Why are you idle, you who have come so far?
Get up, get out, get out of the door
Move, leave this place and don't look back
You're playing cold music on the barroom floor
Your performance is lacking emotion and soul
Drowned in your laughter and dead to the core
You're masking your pain with fake happiness, and you're empty inside
There's a dragon with matches that's loose on the town
There's a powerful force that's destructive and uncontrollable
Takes a whole pail of water just to cool him down
It takes a great effort to suppress this force, which causes chaos and destruction
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
The situation is serious and dangerous
Almost ablaze still you don't feel the heat
Despite being close to danger, you're unaware of the risks
It takes all you got just to stay on the beat
It requires all your energy to keep going and stay alive
You say it's a living, we all gotta eat
You justify your choices, even if they're not fulfilling or meaningful
But you're here alone, there's no one to compete
You're isolated and there's no one to push you or challenge you
If mercy's a business, I wish it for you
If forgiveness and kindness are a commodity, I hope it comes your way
More than just ashes when your dreams come true
May your achievements be more than just fleeting and unfulfilling
Long distance runner, what you holding out for?
Why are you hesitating and holding back?
Caught in slow motion in a dash to the door
Despite your urgency, you're moving slowly and hesitantly
The flame from your stage has now spread to the floor
The energy and intensity you bring to your performance has spread to those around you
You gave all you had. why you wanna give more?
You've already given everything, why do you want to give more?
The more that you give, the more it will take
The more you sacrifice, the more you'll lose in return
To the thin line beyond which you really can't fake
There's a threshold where pretending is impossible and you must face reality
Lyrics Ā© Downtown Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Michael S. Hart, Robert C. Christie Hunter
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Grateful Dead
"A rare Fire without Scarlet, this version comes out of Space on the final night of the Dead's five+ weeks of shows at the Warfield and Radio City Music Hall, during which the Dead played three sets per night. This was included on the electric album from these shows, Dead Set." - David Lemieux
WrongWay Ranger
Love the FOTD from Dead Set
Bathtub_Jim
Thank you for posting, Great quality!
TurkeyLion
It made me cry.. this space.
Chris Toppi
Cold rain and snow / Fire on the Mountain - Buffalo 86
Mikkael Jordison
a fire right out of space...face melted.
Thomas Bower
I always love that smooth "other-worldly" transition from "Space" to Fire on the Mountain." That suspense of when one song ends and the other starts, just waiting with baited breath until Jerry's guitar gradually breaks into that first intro of FOTM. Gives me goosebumps. Watching this here and almost chokes me up how great it is. Ok does that sound too weird? I just completely love it. All problems of the world aside, just the Dead and your ears, mind, and soul. Am I the only one?
Marc Cadiz
we are everywhere...ā¤ļø
Stewart Skirving
Most certainly not the only one, my friend.
Martin Pickr
Exactly man. To me its like the craziness of our mind/the world breaking into loving music. Grateful Dead literally is the Grateful Dead. As in dead people who are grateful and haunt the world in a good way. Thatās just my two sense maybe I took too much acid in high school idk lol š