The third stanza uses gambling/loss imagery that occurs in many Grateful Dead songs.[2] The line "As I picked up my matches and was closing the door" uses the symbolism of playing poker with matchsticks to indicate a very low stakes gamble that was made for fun.
The line "Everybody's playing in the Heart of Gold Band" was used by
Keith and
Donna Godchaux to name their new group
Heart of Gold Band when they left Grateful Dead in 1979.
The group first performed the song live on March 23, 1974, at the
Cow Palace in
Daly City,
California.[1] When "
Fire on the Mountain" was incorporated into the band's repertoire in 1977, "Scarlet Begonias" would often be paired with it when played live, resulting in what would be nicknamed "Scarlet > Fire" with the first iteration of this iconic pairing on Friday, March 18th, 1977.[3]
Covers
A version of the song appears on the
Sublime album 40oz. to Freedom (1992), which samples
James Brown's "
Funky Drummer" prominently and features a rapped interlude written by
Bradley Nowell which takes the story in a darker direction with the woman being a police informant.[4]
Phish played "Scarlet >
Fire" at their very first show under the name Blackwood Convention at Harris-Millis Hall at the
University of Vermont on December 2, 1983.