Fire On The Mountain

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Mickey Hart

Robert Hunter says this in "Box Of Rain" about writing this song:

Written at Mickey Hart's ranch in heated inspiration as the surrounding hills blazed and the fire approached the recording studio where we were working; verses three and four don't appear on the Grateful Dead recording of this song, but lines five and six of verse three became one of our mottoes, along with "Record More than You Erase."

Long distance runner, what you standing there for? (note 1)
Get up, get off, get out of the door (note 2)
You're playing cold music on the bar room floor
Drowned in your laughter and dead to the core
There's a dragon with matches that's loose on the town
Take a whole pail of water just to cool him down

Chorus
Fire, fire on the mountain
Fire, fire on the mountain
Fire, fire on the mountain
Fire, fire on the mountain

Almost ablaze, still you don't feel the heat (note 3)
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 in business, I wish it for you
More than just ashes when your dreams come true

[chorus]

Baby's in scarlet, her shackles in gray
If loves to love she's got it salted away
Out of the rat trap and under the wire
Out of the frying pan and into the fire
Put it down heavy, strip it down lean
Got to lay it down dirty and play it back clean

[chorus]

Fireman, fireman, call off your dog
This isn't a blaze, it's just a hog in the log
Cut up in sections, squirming alive
Lost to the world on that fifty-cent jive
There's a fire on the mountain, running around
What doesn't go up can never come down

[chorus]

Long distance runner, what you holding out for (note 4)
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 want to give more? (note 5)
The more that you give, the more it will take
To the thin line beyond which you really can't fake

[chorus]

Wound in barbed wire, hell I ain't sore
Only hurts when I laugh, or roll on the floor
Only hurts a little, at least that's what I'm told
When you drown in hot oil it can even feel cold
I know I'm in love but I can't tell you why
It feels like poison, shoot me down when I cry

Gonna drink a hot water before I die
It cools me down, I ain't telling no lie

I asked my mother for fifteen cents
To see this Italian fella jump the fence
He jumped so high [fell] on the [grass]
Ever see an Italian French fry, yes, yes, yes