Scarlet Begonias -> Fire On The Mountain
Oct. 2, 1977
Paramount Theatre
As a Scarlet Begonia’s fan this delivers. Jerry sings wonderfully commanding the music with every fiber of his being. A guitar masterclass in melody making. Tiny embers dance in an open field of tall grass with a neighboring forest swaying in the wind dancing with the embers. There are some truly wonderful moments during this piece of music. Phil and Keith create some wonderful moments of harmonic texture during the transition, leaning towards A flat minor but Jerry’s keeps jamming in B Major territory( or Mixolydian if you want to get technical) leading the band to the earth’s core. You can see in your head the small fairy like embers are now, swirling spheres of raging flames, descending from the mountain as the band reach the center of the earth. There’s a Fire on The Mountain and it’s HOT. The ending jam During FOTM gets pretty spacey, natural energy evolving and growing in spaces of green and fire red. What a version we have here. One of the best of that year with that classic 77 sound.