The World’s
on Fire
(The Heat)
An ominous sunrise, a terribly hot day, an awful, oppressive political landscape, a sunset and relief. Things might not be so bad.
Music & Lyrics by Michael Gould
THE PLAYERS
Michael Gould — keyboards, vocals
Chuck Peden — vocals
Marty Anderson — vocals
Greg Moye — drums
THE COMMENTARY
LYRICS
the dogs wanted out this morning, they were up before the dawn
sensing something in the yard, a low growl and a yawn
there’s a hot wind flowing from the east, warning off the day
a smoke-filled rosy-fingered haze has settled on the bay
and the dogs and i are watching as this ball of fire roars
and pours its heat into the morning
and breathes its breath into the day
it’s another day in a whole new world, and it starts like all the rest
beneath its mask it’s laughing at this uninvited guest
the battle between light and dark is always won by light
but i can’t say i’m feeling safe against the forces of the night
so we agree to play this waiting game, time will take its time
but i’m afraid for tomorrow
hell i’m worried ‘bout today
the world’s on fire
i see trouble on the way
we’re down to the wire
and i can feel the heat
i can feel
the heat is stealing from the rafters
the heat
the burning sun is bearing down upon this melting room
the dogs and I are hiding out in this overheated tomb
a rush of numb unfeelingness circles round my head
and I’m worried that tonight’s blue moon will turn out to be red
the TV’s off to protect ourselves from the anchors of the day
we need a stay of execution
we need to find a better way
the world’s on fire
i see trouble on the way
we’re down to the wire
and i can feel
the heat is seeping from the floor boards
the heat is weeping from the four walls
the heat is creeping through the back door
the heat
a dying sun paints a ruddy glow upon this battered beach
the tide flows in grey repose as the sun slips out of reach
the dogs and i are watching as the evening star appears
the eastern sky is blackening, water’s laughing in our ears
there’s a restful sense of majesty, i can feel the pressure fade
we made it through another warning
we’ll live to see another day
and everything’s alright
now the evening mist is comforting
enveloped in the night
i can hear the crickets whispering
that everything’s alright
Behind the Song
On September 9, 2020, we woke up to a choking-with-smoke post-apocalyptic day.
The sky was orange. It never cleared. It never got light. It was roasting hot and had been. Fires were ripping through California. Smoke and ash were everywhere. This was the fourth fire year in the past five.
I grew up here, from 1967 on. It was never like this. There was autumn, or Indian summer, not ‘fire season’. This is what global warming looks like.
To add fuel to the fire, we were coming toward one of the most significant elections of my lifetime. Donald Trump running for re-election, lying with nearly every word out of his mouth. Covid raging as we were fairly locked down, locked out of restaurants and bars and theaters and concerts. People sick and dying, the media filled with dire and depressing news. Life was grim. And I thought of the song I had written in 1975, then called The Sun Song.
In my first week as an advertising copywriter, my boss pinned an index card to my cube wall with a typewritten note: “Good writing isn’t written. It’s rewritten. — F. Scott Fitzgerald”. It has become my motto.
This song was written and performed at my senior recital in college in 1976, but completely rewritten in 2020.
The original song was simply about an oppressively hot day, 110 degrees in Terra Linda (San Rafael, Marin County, CA). I had the idea then, which I kept today, to make the melody largely a single-note drone that occasionally broke out from the drone with a sigh of relief. I split the song into three parts (it being very long): the sunrise (which opened my recital); followed by the hot middle of the day (which closed the first act of my recital), followed by the sunset (which ended the second act of the recital).
So I pulled my senior recital handbill and read the lyrics. Pretty good, but I rewrote about 90% of them to capture 2020. I added a chorus that hadn’t been there before, ‘the world’s on fire, i see trouble on its way, we’re down to the wire and I can feel the heat…” I added the heat drone vocals. Then I started to record.
There is something magical about recording something immediately truthful, something right now, and I couldn’t stop. Back in 1975, I could only play the song on a piano. Now I could add whatever I wanted, Indian tablas, pakawahj, doulak, kohl, and dohl. I used oboes and bassoons, sound effects and pads, a grand piano, pipe organ, harp, regular traps drums.
And when I played the song’s first track on electric piano, I finished by oscillating notes in sort of a cricket pattern at the end. I thought, I wonder if I could create the impression of crickets without using a cricket recording? So I developed sounds on my synthesizer, sounds that were tonal and musical, not sound effects, and I played in variations of a Bb7 and Ab7 chords using different sounds. As I played each, I turned off the other crickets and the metronome, so that I could achieve a rhythm for each group of crickets, but not synced with the other groups of crickets, the way one might find in a field where you can hear all of them pulsing in separate groups of rhythms. The effect, to me at least, is transcendent.
Finally, I played the song for my good friend and longtime collaborator, Chuck Peden, who said he’d like to lay down some vocals on it. Marty Anderson, Chuck’s love and wife, is a great singer (and close friend) as well, and she said she’d like to join in the fun. So I sent them the mixed track, and scored their parts to direct them. They sang their parts and more, and sent it all back to me to assemble into the song. Thank you Chuck and Marty. Now there’s a small flood of unison and harmony vocals I was able to add to the Gregorian chant, and harmonies for the choruses.
The song is long, but I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. Thanks also to Greg Moye for his drum tracks and to Jimi Fischer for his ear and mix suggestions.
