TVD First Date with | Fire Dean

For a while there I had a front row seat for Fire’s unique brand of transcendence. Or perhaps I should say ‘back seat,’ behind the drum kit for a number of months with Fire as he prepped new material at the Donkey Palace years back.

From that vantage point alone I can tell you--Fire Dean is one hell of a songwriter, performer, and story teller, and as TVD was growing I kept saying to him, “We gotta’ do a feature...we gotta’ do a feature...” ...until I think I caught him at the right time recently when boom...in-box: full of stuff.

Make certain you check that vid too.

"Elton John...Madman Across The Water. Jimmy Arlis, the coolest kid on my dead end street had played it for me. I was 10 or 11 yrs old. The back cover was the ass end of a pair of blue jeans with the song titles embroidered over....'Rotten Peaches' .... 'Levon' ... 'Indian Sunset'... Clearly this guy Elton was the Grizzly Adams sort I could hang around with. He'd come down from the Black Mountains after his tribe had been slaughtered and sat down at the piano, just really pissed off "...I heard from passing Renegades..." Holy Shit! My sister understood. She gave me a pair of jeans for Xmas with the embroidery done just like the cover. But my older brother was a problem. He saw me lying in front of the turntable mesmerized with Elton Madman John, and sneered. I was distressed. What did he mean by this? What did he know that I didn't? He'd been listening to Renaissance, Ashes Are Burning ALOT..I liked the girl's voice from the pic of her on the inside sleeve, she was nearly hot as Farah Fawcett only she seemed accessible. My bro told me live he'd almost seen her breasts at a concert in Red Bank, NJ. Woah, I was right. Access unlimited. Still, I knew in order to do this correctly I needed to make a bold, independent decision. Annie Haslam was out and Bowie had his chance. 'Diamond Dogs' was a shot in the dark based on some magnificent pre-Photoshop imagery, I had never heard the music, any of it. I bought it at Jacks' Records, also in Red Bank. At home I pretended I knew all about this record I'd just bought and after I'd listened once invited my brother to check it out. This time his sneer became more like a muted smirk. He hurriedly explained his condescension.
"David Bowie has a better record...you got the wrong one," he said.
"Really?" I said and needled up 'Rebel Rebel.'
"Better than this?"
"Oh yeah." He tried again.
But I could tell he was lying."



Fire Dean - Up at Ericas/Motorcycle Sled-Pull (Mp3)
Wrote this last month. Title is a reference to a game I played as a kid. Gravity wasn't enough apparently. We tied our sleds to dirt bikes and then raced around a horse field out in the woods. The idea was to pull next to the other guy and knock him off, a la Ben Hur.

Fire Dean - Irrational Exhuberance1 (Mp3)
Also new. Inspired by an imposing old Hungarian from Queens. He had dream, my job was to build it. A half million dollars and anything I needed.

Fire Dean - In A Way (Mp3)
One beat fits all. My friend Roger wrote this beat to a guitar riff I came up with 5 years ago. Its since been repackaged into 3 songs. This is the latest.

Fire Dean/Big Black Nun - Burnin' Lucy...(followed by 'Honeymoon In Niagra') (Mp3)
A two-fer. Recorded to 45 vinyl in '94 as a single released by my old band, Big Black Nun. First up is 'Burnin' Lucy' with Riley McMahon on big slide gtar. That's me of course contemplating the pros and cons of honor killing. Of course 'Honeymoon...' is the sentimental flip to my metallic slaying.