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23 Jun 02 - 08:42 AM (#735116) Subject: Lyr Add: FIRE (David Mallett) From: kendall FIRE (David Mallett) It's the last week in June near the first quarter moon. Summer is coming down warm. The corn's in the ground. The vane's turning round. It tells of an oncoming storm. There's four of us home but we're not quite alone. There's a host of ghosts living upstairs, For a house doesn't shelter and then let you pass After standing for 200 years. The cow's in the meadow, a sleepy-eyed mother. Her calf stands at tether inside. The barn swallows carry their bricks and their mortar. The big door is swung open wide. This place is like tinder. The timbers are dry. There's dust on the rafters and beams, But the buildings will stand. They’ve been graced by the hands Of the ones who were building their dreams. Now, up from the north there's a black cloud a-rolling. Another rolls in from the west. O Lord, we need rain or we've planted in vain, So, just quench us and we'll do the rest. The weeping old willow that stands in the yard, It sways back and forth in the breeze. There's a rumble of thunder. The rain falls so hard, Bringing the drought to its knees. My grandfather worked here, his family beside him. God knows how many before, How many babies and how many wives. Their footsteps are worn in the floor. There's a silence that falls in the midst of a storm As the elements wait and decide To unleash their forces on mortals like me, Or to move on and let us survive. Now CRASH like a sound that I never had heard, Like a cannon from Uncle John's war. My father and brother they head for the stairway. I shudder and head for the door. Now, off the back doorstep the air has that odor Of brimstone. The rain has gone round And off to my right. I am blind by the sight Of the arc of the barn burning down. There's fire, fire out in the barn, father, Fire in the chicken house too. The flames run so high they are scorching the sky And there's not a damn thing we can do. The sparks from the haymow they light on the cedar, Dry shingles that cover the shed. Nothing is sacred, no, nothing is saved. There's fire and there's flames to be fed. The clock in the kitchen says quarter past three As the gates are flung open from hell, But time here is frozen; the clock ticks no more, Just the ashes the cinders and smell. Just take what you can carry. Leave all the rest. Leave grandmother's four-poster bed. It's too big to haul and the doorway's too small. There's a black cloud of smoke overhead. Take some china, some old things that can’t be replaced. Take a chair and the clothes on our backs. The roof crumbles in. there's a smudge on your chin. You better stay outside. Don’t go back. And there's fire, fire out in the barn, father, Fire in the main house too, And the flames run so high they are scorching the sky And, there's not a damn thing we can do. It's the last week in June near the first quarter moon. Summer is coming down warm. Corn's in the ground. The vane's turning round As it tells of an oncoming storm. km |
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24 Jun 02 - 01:20 AM (#735538) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: wysiwyg Wow! Thanks Kendall! I live in a place just like that... this is GREAT. ~Susan |
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24 Jun 02 - 12:56 PM (#735813) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: allanwill kendall What made you post this song? It's been on my wish list of "songs I'd like to do, but can't get the others interested" for a long time. Allan |
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24 Jun 02 - 01:59 PM (#735876) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: GUEST,Mike Strobel Kendall, Hope to see you at Old Songs. You played the OPEN mic last year and I was truly impressed. What CD is that David Mallett song " Fire " on and yes, why did you post it ? Mike |
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24 Jun 02 - 03:25 PM (#735945) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: kendall I posted it because someone asked for it. That someone hasn't said thanks yet. The song is one his CD titled DAVID MALLETT. I plan to be at Old Songs, but, doubt that I will have a singing voice. Mike, if you were to tell the powers that be at Old Songs, they might hire me another year. |
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24 Jun 02 - 03:33 PM (#735949) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: GUEST,Mike Strobel Kendall, Don't worry about me spreading the word about them drafting you to play in the future. I'll do it all weekend long. Hope you're feeling much better. I'm just gonna have to get that Dave Mallett, CD. Must be so cold in Maine, that all of you sit around the fire and weave stories/songs that would captivate the moose in the woods. See you this weekend. Mike |
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24 Jun 02 - 06:48 PM (#736084) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: GUEST,open mike Is david mallet the hammer dulcimer player who does a spoken piece form a letter between his grandparents in civil war times? whew--as a fire fighter that fire song is a scorcher.. was recently on a fire that burned 60 acres of grass and brush..this year is going to be a hot one for fires.. ever heard Michelle shocked song about the volunteer fire dept. (V>F>D>) ? |
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24 Jun 02 - 07:48 PM (#736121) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: kendall No, this Dave Mallett is a singer-songwriter from Sebec Maine. His songs have been recorded by Pete Seeger, John Denver, Emmylou Harris, Kermit the frog and me. |
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25 Jun 02 - 10:07 AM (#736502) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: GUEST,Mike Strobel Dear Open Mic, I'm real familiar with the Michele Schocked song. Sounds almost like a true story doen't it. Hard to say who the Hammer Dulcimer player was , however, it may have been John McCutcheon from Virginia. Mike Strobel |
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25 Jun 02 - 10:15 AM (#736509) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: harpgirl Hey, someone told me Michelle Shocked married Henry the Fiddler! Is that true?????? (sorry for the thread drift) |
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31 Jan 03 - 05:21 PM (#879464) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: open mike no i was thinking of David Massingill who plays a dulcimer... appalacian one, not a hammered ... David Mallet did the Garden Song--Inch by Inch.. let us know if he is going to be performing in the area (Lane and Francy...)perhaps we could fit him into the Bute Folk music society calendar... |
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31 Jan 03 - 05:32 PM (#879476) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: harvey andrews What a masterwork of lyrical description! |
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01 Feb 03 - 03:50 PM (#880198) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: Charley Noble Anyone who grew up or is living in one of those old cape farm houses, with the woodshed connecting it to the barn, knows the chill that Dave Mallet's song provokes. Scares me to death every time I hear it, and I wouldn't dare sing it. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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24 Feb 09 - 10:53 AM (#2574701) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) - Chords sought From: Myrtle's cook Hi Reviving an old thread here... ...does anyone have the chords for this beautifuly crafted song please? A truly terrifying song for anyone who grew up on a farm even in damp England, with highly combustable barns full of highly combustable straw etc built too close to the farmhouse... Very many thanks |
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24 Feb 09 - 05:49 PM (#2575064) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: GUEST,Gerry Some other songs that are not in the DT that are about wildfires: The Four Elements and Ollie Baxter, written by David Small, recorded by Margaret Walters. Fires of '98, written by John Warner, recorded by Walters & Warner. Cold Missouri Waters by James Keelaghan (I'm sure the lyrics are in some thread or another, but they're not in the database). |
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24 Feb 09 - 06:35 PM (#2575135) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: kendall The chords you use depends on what key you want to sing it in. |
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24 Feb 09 - 08:46 PM (#2575214) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: SINSULL Dave Mallett sang this at a fairly recent concert - brought the house down. Rather timely with the mess in Australia. |
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25 Feb 09 - 01:05 AM (#2575315) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: CamiSu The friend that introduced me to David Mallett always said he was mad at him for letting that great old place burn down. CamiSu |
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25 Feb 09 - 06:10 AM (#2575394) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: cetmst Eric Bogle's "Bushfire" is another terrifying song from Australia |
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25 Feb 09 - 07:20 AM (#2575423) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: Sandra in Sydney "Fire" is a powerful song John Warner's website - see Lyrics - Pithead for "Fires of 98" Cold Missouri Waters .pdf lyrics to Eric Bogle's songs No lyrics available for The Four Elements and Ollie Baxter by David Small |
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25 Feb 09 - 07:56 AM (#2575437) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: kendall Dave was a little boy when that barn burned down. |
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25 Feb 09 - 07:59 AM (#2575439) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: GUEST,harvey andrews Dave Mallett is my favourite living USA writer.If you don't know his works find them. He is, I think, by far the most literate lyricist in his field and a true craftsman of song. "Fire" is a descriptive masterpiece I always play to my songwriting classes. |
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25 Feb 09 - 08:06 AM (#2575443) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: Barry Finn It's not really about just a barn burning down. Dave is a New Englander & in this part of the country it was common, at one time for the farms to be built connected. The chicken coop, the barn, the main house were all attached, so the fire would take all. Here's some background on the connected Farm houses of New England. When we were first married my wife & I lived/owned one of these farms. A Silo used to be atached to the back barn, which was attached to the front barn, which on the street side ran a long low lambing shed, a workshop was the n attached to the front barn that lead to the kitchen el, which then attached to the main hous, under the workshop was the pig sty & off to the other side of the workshop was the double holed toilet which droped directly into the sty (we had indoor plumbing too). The only out building was a one room school house that was moved onto the property more than a century before we got there. Here's a discription from wikipedia; Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn , is the name of a book that gives an in debth history of the New England connected Farms rarely seened outside of the New England. Barry |
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25 Feb 09 - 10:00 AM (#2575518) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fire (David Mallett) From: kendall The house I was raised in had an "L" and a barn all attached to the house. I guess they did that to avoid going outside in winter. Harvey, naturally he is among my very favorites. We are close friends. |