Watch Grateful Dead Perform ‘Fire On The Mountain’ With Clarence Clemons At 1989 Oakland Benefit Concert

Grateful Dead shared video of “Fire On The Mountain” featuring late Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons. The footage is from GD’s May 27, 1989 performance for the In Concert Against AIDS benefit at Oakland Coliseum.

The Grateful Dead debuted the Mickey Hart and Robert Hunter composition, “Fire On The Mountain,” on March 18, 1977 at San Francisco’s Winterland, as per JerryBase. “Fire” followed its frequent companion, “Scarlet Begonias,” at Winterland.

According to JerryBase, “Fire” only appeared sans “Scarlet” 15 times. The first time the now-classic paring was separated took place at the band’s historic 1978 performance in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza when it was coupled with percussionist Hamza el-Din’s “Ollin Arageed” featuring el-Din himself.

While the Dead experimented with alternate ways to deliver “Fire” in the 1980s, “Scarlet” > “Fire” seemed to be preferred by the band and fans. The pair appeared together 237 times overall. For the AIDS benefit concert in 1989, “Fire” emerged from second set opener, “Hell in a Bucket,” for the last of three times those songs appeared together with the other instances happening in 1987.

The ‘89 AIDS benefit concert saw legendary saxophonist Clarence Clemons guesting with the Grateful Dead in the first set and most of the second and encore. Big Man would fuel the flames of “Fire,” egged on by guitarist Jerry Garcia.

Watch the Grateful Dead and Clarence Clemons perform “Fire On The Mountain” in ‘89 below: