Fire on the mountain

Readers may have already surmised, either from an earlier post or from the generally psychedelic bent of Fort Kant, that I'm a fan of the Grateful Dead. Lately I've been checking out recordings from the Grateful Dead archive at www.archive.org, which contains a *lot* of Dead concert recordings (including multiple versions of some shows, if the master tapes are importantly different).

On this Two-for-Tuesday, the 10th anniversary of Jerry Garcia's death, I offer two performances of "Fire on the Mountain" from 1977, the year the Dead started playing that song and, many argue, the year they were at their peak. "Fire on the Mountain" is not so much a song as a two-chord opportunity to explore the mixolydian mode, and in these recordings, Jerry turns it inside out.

1.) March 18, 1977, Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA

2.) April 23, 1977, Springfield Civic Center, Springfield, MA