As I was going to bed the other night after another day of being shut inside the house due to smoke from wildfires, the lyrics to an old song came to my mind:
“When all the breathin’ air is gone; when the sun is just a bright spot in the night time …” Out in the County, by Three Dog Night (click to listen)
I’m quite sensitive to smoke, due to an asthma-type condition, so we have a good-sized, highly effective air purifier, plus a 20’ box fan with a furnace filter bungee-corded to the back. Looking outside, not only were our nearby hills invisible, but even the houses just across the street were hazy. We had to cancel plans to get together with friends today. BUT. Our little town has not burned to the ground. We have not had to evacuate our home, and flee for our lives. We’ve not even been under an evacuation alert (although after last year, we do have a bugout box packed, and near the car in the garage).
Anyhow, with the tune becoming an earworm, it made me remember when I first became environmentally aware, a couple of years before this song in 1970, about how even then the science forecast our situation today. Then I was reminded about another song:
How can we dance
When our earth is turning
How do we sleep
While our beds are burning
The time has come
To say fair’s fair
To pay the rent
Now to pay our share
“Beds are Burning” by Midnight Oil, 1987 (click to listen)
I love the imagery of the lyrics; wasting our time in trivial pursuits every day, sleeping like babies while where we sleep – the earth – is burning more ferociously than ever. And we may need to make some sacrifices to save what’s left of our world. But then I saw a rabbit trail, and off I went!
Songs about fire, smoke and …
“Fire” by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown “Fire, I bring you to burn…” yeah, once we started, we just couldn’t stop.
“Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple “Smoke on the water, fire in the sky…”
“Light My Fire” by the Doors “Come on baby, light my fire …”
“Fire and Rain” by James Taylor “Well I’ve seen fire, and I’ve seen rain …”
“Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele “Well I set fire to the rain …”
“Ashes, the Rain and I” by the James Gang “Ashes to ashes, the rain’s turning colder
Finding tomorrow, the ashes, the rain and I”
Okay, now it’s your turn! What are your favorite songs about smoke, fire and ashes? Are you dealing with smoke? How are you coping with it?
I Am Gray 
Can’t say I have a favourite song about smoke or fire or ash but I always smile at kd lang’s song “Hain’t it Funny?” from the album “Drag” which is, remarkably, almost a dozen songs about smoking!
Our sky is yellow and ash is continually falling here in the Okanagan. I just read that we’re getting smoke from the U.S.’s fires, in addition to BC’s. I’ve never looked forward to winter as much as I have this summer.
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It’s kind of uncanny how prescient the songs from the seventies were! I find it so disturbing when the smoke moves in here and completely obscures our view even of a few blocks away. I’m trying to retrain myself to live in our new era without being constantly in mourning. When it’s too smoky to see, I try to focus on things close up, right in front of me that I might not notice. As we here in the high rockies move to Las Vegas-style temperatures, I try to be grateful that it cools down in the mornings, and rise early to enjoy the freshness. I’m retreating indoors from 1 to 5, but still haven’t found enough to do there to fill my time.
I think you captured it with all the songs, I can’t think of another one!
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