Scarlet -> Fire minutiae

[John A]

Now back to my regularly scheduled pedantic OCD Grateful Dead song analysis. 🤓

 

(With the requisite shout out to https://www.gratefulsets.net/, of course.)

 

Here's some fun Scarlet/Fire facts for geeks who won’t roll their eyes (speaking for which, there was a Scarlet -> Eyes at Frost 4-27-85 😀)…

 

There were 241 shows with both Scarlet and Fire, 238 of which were Scarlet -> Fire. Talk about a whoppingly high percentage! The other 3 were Scarlet -> Touch -> Fire twice in ’84 and an infamous (IMHO) Scarlet -> Victim -> Fire that I witnessed at Shoreline ’91. 

 

After the first iteration of Fire, Scarlet showed up 26 times with no Fire. That number surprises me; I’d have guessed somewhat lower. Only two instances were in the first set, not surprising at all. I saw what is perhaps the most notorious of these at Alpine Valley: Scarlet -> I Will Take You Home, and the bust out of the latter no less. A confusing moment at a Dead show to say the least. Curiously, I'd argue the hottest Scarlet of all time was two nights after the first Fire, a set 1 closing Scarlet -> Fire at Winterland 3-18-77. On 3-20-77, Scarlet closed set 1 and it absolutely shredded. Very much worth a listen for anybody unfamiliar.

 

Finally, there were 12 appearances of Fire without a Scarlet. That would have been my ballpark guess. Some of these are pretty well known, such as the Olin Arageed -> Fire in Egypt, the Fire coming out of space at Radio City Halloween '80 that made it onto the Dead Set LP, and the Saturday Night -> Fire to open the show at Ventura '85. But one could argue the coolest of these was the ’91 Boston Garden Help -> Slip -> Fire, apparently sparked by Bruce Hornsby ribbing Jerry to shake things up. And lamely, again IMHO, there were three Hell -> Fires. That’s 25% of the naked Fires after all! 😲