Nigeria, April 22, 2016 – The song, Fire on the Mountain released in 2007, was a pivotal one early in Aṣa’s career. It wasn’t just the lyrics, nor the excellent video that fully captured the words. It was the sound and its uniqueness.
It was so different, yet so good and is one of the tracks the lively and soft spoken musician will be unleashing on her fans in May when she will stage a grand concert in Lagos.
Fire On The Mountain was one of the singles from Aṣa’s debut album; “Aṣa”. A track that was as much about the times as it was prophetic, the song brilliantly covered a range of issues, literally and metaphorically. It featured on the airwaves around the country for a long time and was the perfect foundation for the album that was to come. The track is simply a classic!
About the track, Aṣa once said: “The song title is a metaphor. Whichever way you look at it, there’s fire—trouble. Things are not always rosy and things are not always beautiful. Every day we hear of bizarre things and we can’t help but wonder, “Where is this world going?” We have to remind ourselves of that sometimes.”
LYRICS
Ooh. Why? Oh-oh mmh.
There is fire on the mountain
And nobody seems to be on the run
Oh there is fire on the mountain top
And no one is a-running
I wake up in the morning
Tell you what I see on my TV screen
I see the blood of an innocent child
And everybody’s watching
Now I’m looking out my window
And what do I see?
I see an army of a-soldier man
marching across the street
Hey Mr soldier man
Tomorrow is the day you go to war
But you are fighting for another man’s cause
And you don’t even know him
Ooh!
What did he say to make you so blind
To your conscience and reason
Could it be love for your country
Or for the gun you use in killing?
So…
There is fire on the mountain
And nobody seems to be on the run
Oh there is fire on the mountain top
And no one is a-running
Hey Mr Lover man
Can I get a chance to talk to you
‘Cause you are fooling with a dead man’s corpse
And you don’t know what you do
So you say you have a lover
And you love her like no other
So you buy her a diamond
That someone has died on
Don’t you think there’s something wrong with this
Tell me
Who’s responsible for what we teach our children?
Is it the internet
Or the stars on television?
Why oh why
Why oh why oh
So little Lucy turns sixteen
And like the movie she’s been seeing
She has a lover in her daddy
She can’t tell nobody
Till she makes the evening news
For there is fire on the mountain
And nobody seems to be on the run
Oh there is fire on the mountain top
And no one is a-running. Oh yes.
One day the river will overflow
And there’ll be nowhere for us to go
And we will run, run,
Wishing we had put out fire…
Oh Lord!
For there is fire on the mountain – yeah, yeah
And nobody seems to be on the run
Oh there is fire on the mountain top
And no one is a-running
So yeah, yeah, yeah …
There is fire in Africa
Fire everywhere, can’t we see it?
And no one is a-running
(fade)
