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Fire Fall

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"Fire Fall" (working titles "Beach" and "Whole Lot of Love")[1] is a song by The Residents, featured on their concept album Wormwood: Curious Stories From The Bible, released October 13th 1998 by East Side Digital and Euro Ralph.

The song depicts the events of Genesis 19 from the perspective of Lot, nephew of Abraham, who recalls the flight of his family from the Israelite God's fiery destruction of the cities Sodom and Gomorrah.

An extended arrangement of the song featured in the Wormwood Live show from 1998 to 1999; the extended arrangement was recorded in the studio for the album Roadworms, released in 2000.

The original album version of "Fire Fall" is featured in a dream sequence in The Residents' 2022 feature film Triple Trouble, and was also included on the film's soundtrack album.

History[]

"Fire Fall" is the second part of a two-part suite based on the Biblical Book of Genesis which opens The Residents' Wormwood: Curious Stories From The Bible, following the album's opening track "In The Beginning". It was composed and recorded by The Residents in their Folsom Street studio in 1997, originally under the working titles "Beach" and "Whole Lot of Love".[1]

The song is based on Genesis 19, which tells of the destruction of the legendary cities Sodom and Gomorrah, two "cities of the plain" noted for their "wickedness". The song depicts the events retrospectively from the perspective of Lot, nephew of Abraham, who lived outside Sodom.

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (and their destruction) are referred to frequently throughout the Old and New Testaments as symbols of human wickedness and divine retribution; a version of the story is also featured in the Qur'an. The cities have historically been seen as metaphors for homosexuality; "Sodom" is the origin of the English words "sodomite" (a pejorative term for male homosexuals) and "sodomy" (used in a legal context to describe 'crimes against nature', ie. anal or oral sex or bestiality).

Genesis 19 (New International Version)[]

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed[]

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. “My lords,” he said, “Please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”

“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

“Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.)

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters[]

Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”

That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.

Lyrics[]

I'm just an old man, how could I understand
I'm just an old man, how could I understand

I remember danger when the strangers came -- they knew my name
They seemed to know my neighbors so I gave them safety in my home

Then there was a pounding sound, and screaming voices all around
I offered them my daughters then a light came from the strangers' skin
They said we had to go away, my wife was worried they... they... they...

I'm just an old man, how could I understand

Fire fell from the sky!
Tears fell from my eyes!
She turned to stone like a bone,
or maybe salt had hardened on her

I was lonely for my wife
It only happened once or twice
I'm just an old man who just can't stand his memories[2]

Liner notes[]

Lot, his wife, and his two daughters escape the Israelite God's destruction of Sodom, a town that has a reputation for being wild. YHWH kills the wife by turning her into a pillar of salt because she looked back at the city's destruction. Then the two daughters get their Dad drunk and have sex with him. The Bible paints Lot as innocent in this orgy (he was drunk, after all) but maybe Lot and family were actually just good citizens of Sodom.

Look it up: Genesis 19.

List of releases[]

List of versions[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1998 Studio Version (3:34)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 1999 Live June Version (6:11)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 2000 Studio Version (5:35)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 1999 Live July Version (6:22)
  5. ↑ 1998 'Beach' Demo (3:38)
  6. ↑ 1998 Live Version (6:15)

External links and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wormwood Box liner notes, 2022
  2. ↑ tzoq, "Wormwood Lyrics", RZWeb, ca. 1998 (archived via archive.org)
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