Song · The Grateful Dead
“Fire On The Mountain” by The Grateful Dead
From the album Shakedown Street (1978)
“Fire On The Mountain” by The Grateful Dead appears on 8 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1997 and 2026. It was first released in 1978 on the album Shakedown Street. Its best result is #361 on the WBAB Top 1,023 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time (1997). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,126 indie & aaa song of all time.
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"Fire on the Mountain" landed on Shakedown Street in November 1978, but Deadheads already knew it well. Mickey Hart wrote the music, and an instrumental take called "Happiness is Drumming" had turned up in 1976 on Diga, his album with the Diga Rhythm Band. Robert Hunter wrote the words about a real blaze tearing through houses near Hart's place in Northern California. Lowell George produced the studio cut, with Dan Healy as co-producer, Matt Kelly guesting on harp and Jordan Amarantha on percussion.
Onstage is where it breathes. It debuted in San Francisco on March 18, 1977, and nearly every night after it was stitched to "Scarlet Begonias", a pairing fans dubbed "Scarlet Fire" that could sprawl past 20 minutes; at Nassau Coliseum on November 1, 1979, it ran over 34. The Dead played it 253 times before 1995 was out.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
Classic Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 361 | 102.3 WBAB | WBAB Top 1,023 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time (1997) | 1023 |
| 2007 | 833 | WTMD | WTMD Top 897 Songs of All Time | 897 |
| 2009 | 666 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2012 | 1071 | 100.7 WZLX | 100.7 WZLX Top 1200 Countdown (2012) | 1200 |
| 2012 | 745 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Greatest Rock Songs (2012) | 885 |
| 2020 | 793 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2025 | 892 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2025) | 1043 |
| 2026 | 980 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Also listed as: Fire on the Mountain.
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