The Burning

Track #11 on evolution is “The Burning.” This song was recorded April 9, 2006.

Florida, despite being surrounded by water, has a long dry season some years — a drought. When this happens, wildfires become a problem. There have been times when I could not go outside because of the thickness of the smoke; worse, the smoke would be from fires in another county.

I wrote this song while remembering a time my wife and I were going to a wedding in Miami, during wildfire season. As we drove south, the sky kept changing colors. At one point, the entire world turned sepia, as if we’d walked into an old photograph. It gave us a strange feeling, like Ragnarök was about to happen.

The chord progression has an odd sort of spiral feel to it:

verse / buildup
G7 / E | G7 | Cm7 | Ebmaj7
G7 / E | G7 | C7 / A | Bbmaj7

bridge
E7 throughout.

Strangely, to me, the thing that makes the song work is the sustained distorted guitar.  It is the fire.