Fire On High

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“Fire On High”
“Fire On High” cover
Song by Electric Light Orchestra
Album Face the Music
Released July 1975
September 2006 (remastered)
Recorded 1975
Genre Symphonic rock
Length 5:43
Label United Artists Records
Jet Records
Writer Jeff Lynne
Producer Jeff Lynne
Face the Music track listing
Fire On High
(1)
"Waterfall"
(2)


"Fire On High" is the opening instrumental track from the 1975 Electric Light Orchestra album Face the Music.

It contains a somewhat disturbing opening with a backward message. When the song is played backwards, the message, in a masked heavy voice, can be heard stating, "The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back." - ostensibly Jeff Lynne's shot at backmasking hysteria, after completely false satanic allegations were made against their song "Eldorado" by Fundamentalist Christianity members.[1] Snippets of "Messiah" by Handel can be heard as well.

"Fire On High" was used as the opening theme for the CBS Sports Spectacular TV show in the Mid-1970s. A slightly edited version of "Fire On High" is used on a thrill ride called the Astrosphere at Funtown USA in Saco, Maine. The ride is a scrambler inside of a vinyl dome held up by the air pressure inside, and as the ride goes there are lighting and laser effects and strange random pictures projected onto the walls of the bubble while "Fire On High" is played extremely loudly. A similar ride called GyroSphere at Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester, New York also used "Fire On High" in the early 1980s, but the music has changed since then. In 2000, The New Jersey Devils used, along with video clips, the song "Fire On High" in an opening ceremony to all its games.

"Fire On High (section)"

A forward version of the start of "Fire On High"
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"Fire On High (section) (reversed)"

A reversed version of the start of "Fire On High"
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[edit] References

  1. ^ Big Secrets: Chapter 26, pages 200, 203, 204, 205 & 206. 0-688-04830-7