Autumn Fires
This track was originally written and recorded in 1992... the version that appears on this release was re-recorded in 1993
giving the song a much fuller feeling to the darkness it personifies. This track, out of all on this disc, has the most colorful
story behind it:
"I was living in New Orleans at the time Autumn Fires was conceived back in 1992. I was attending college at UNO and I lived
just up the street from the university in a small house. My roommate was this big ex highschool football star who had dreams of
becoming the next Bono (from U2). He was also a fire and brimstone-type religious nut who had no problem raining down his good
sensibilities upon us sinners! Now when I say 'us' I mean that his fiance lived there most of the time as well... another emmy
award winner.
The house we lived in was sectioned into two parts: the main dwelling where we lived and a small few rooms which were
quarrentined from the rest of humanity - I'll get back to this in a second. If you walked right outside my bedroom you'd be in
a small hallway looking into the kitchen with a bathroom to your left and the living room to your right.
The walls in the house were quite thin and the base of my bedroom door was about an inch and a half from the floor which didn't
help when it came to the cockroach problem my roommate ignored in the rest of the house. I don't think my living quarters were
ever as clean as they were in this house.
My roommates fiance was bisexual (you know how those religious fanatics hate that) and had a nasty cocaine habit. She'd often
come stumbling in at 3 or 4 in the morning completely blasted to find God waiting in the living room to punish her. Normally
the yelling and screaming took place right outside my bedroom door (no joke). So it was nice to be getting so many good nights
of sleep with school and all. However, every single time, without fail they would always end up screwing on the fold out couch
in the living room thus blocking my exit from the front door , from school, in the morning. We're not talking normal sex either
folks... we're talking Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck style sex!!
So anyhow, in the quarrentined section of the house dwelled an unfortunate older woman whose family left her to sit about two
towns away from where they lived. This woman was a paranoid schizophrenic and had many very lovely personalities. Most of the
time her family simply forgot to come and give her the medication she needed to remain even somewhat human. I recall one
incident during the 1992 elections where she chucked her television at the wall seperating her living quarters and my room.
That woke me up nice and early for school!! Those noises were usually accompanied by something closely resembling Mercedes
McCambridge's Regan voiceovers from The Exorcist.
On top of all of this I was having a really rough time emotionally with certain situations at home and it all compounded into
one evening. I was crouched in the corner of my room staring blankly out the window at the moon and the looney tunes were going
at it and Sybil next door was having a fit and I felt what hopelessness feels like. In that moment I recorded what was the
original version of Autumn Fires."
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