'Fourth Man in the Fire ' the title song for True Blood Season One Episode Eight

I recently did a Season 2 Spoiler show for my Blogtalk radio show, where we looked at what we might know about the upcoming episode by knowing examining the title song for that episode.

I can't tell you how many emails I received from folks saying they felt so stupid for not realizing that the True Blood episodes were named for songs. It's OK but I thought it might be a good idea to look back at the song, the artist and the lyrics for each of last season's episode title songs.

So let's look back to Season 1, Ep 8: Fourth Man in the Fire which originally aired : 10/26/2008
The Fourth Man was written by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith

Arthur Smith (born April 1, 1921 in Clinton, South Carolina) is an American musician and songwriter.

Arthur Smith was a textile mill worker who became a celebrated and respected country music instrumental composer, guitarist, fiddler, and banjo player who had a major hit with the instrumental, "Guitar Boogie." In 1955, Arthur Smith composed a banjo instrumental he called "Feudin' Banjos" and recorded the song with five-string banjo player Don Reno. Later the composition appeared in the popular 1972 film Deliverance as "Dueling Banjos" played by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel. Not given credit, Smith had to proceed with legal action that eventually gave him songwriting credit and back royalties.
It was a landmark copyright infringement suit.

As a composer, Arthur Smith has nearly 500 copyrights. Among his copyrights, Smith has over 100 active inspirational and/or gospel music compositions including million sellers "The Fourth Man" and "I Saw A Man."

Fourth Man version we hear in True Blood is from the Johnny Cash album, Strawberry Cake.
Strawberry Cake is a live album by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1976. In it, Cash tells stories about the recording of each song, and also the history of the United States, in a precursor of sorts to the VH1 Storytellers series.

Lyrics

Here is a story from the Good Book we know
A story 'bout a miracle that happened long ago
We hope that you'll take courage when temptation you meet
There's somebody watchin' you who's strong when you're weak.

They wouldn't bend
They held on to the will of God so we are told
They wouldn't bow
They would not bow their knees to Idols made of gold
They wouldn't burn
They were protected by the Fourth Man in the fire
They wouldn't bend
They wouldn't bow, they wouldn't burn.

Now the prophet Daniel tells about
Three men who walked with God
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
Before the wicked king they stood
And the king commanded them bound and thrown
Into the fiery furnace that day
But the fire was so hot that the men were slain
That forced them on their way.

True Blood behind the scenes: 4th Man is in a Boy Band

In the photo on the left you will see Renard Parish Coroner, Mike Spencer and his assistant Neil Jones.

We see Neil in many episodes of True Blood but one of the most memorable in episode 6, when they discuss the conditions of Gran‘s body. Mike Spencer talks about " defensive cuts to her hands " and he answers “hard core “ . Spencer is discussing the wounds that were suffered by Gran as she fought off Rene. We also saw him briefly in episode 4 at Fangtasia and here he is below as a fangbanger at the bar in his full goth mode. ( i think Sookie briefly hears him think " i hope she doesn't recognize me )

*We also see him at Dawn’s house and he’s the young man pushing Uncle Bartlett’s wheelchair into the funeral.

This young man is actually Kevin McHale and did you know he in the boy band, NLT (not like them )? He is also from Dallas, well actually the Dallas suburb of Plano but he is a fellow resident of Area 6 here in the Kingdom of Texas !

You can check out his band’s web pages here: http://www.nltmusic.com/

Or visit his MySpace here: http://www.myspace.com/nlttug

He is the " 4th Man in the Fire" as the theme song for that episode describes but he is also 4 man in a boyband.

Here is his demise in episode 8.

True Blood Episode Eight : 'Fourth Man in the Fire ' recap from HBO site

Sookie stands shocked and inconsolable at the scene of the vampire nest fire, and then she breaks free of Andy's grasp and darts to the row of burned coffins. The gruesome sight - four bodies reduced to boiling blood and tissue - immediately drives her back, and she runs home in anguish.

Tara, however, wakes up to a strangely idyllic household, with her mother cooking breakfast and throwing out a monstrous stash of booze. Still somewhat shocked, Tara sits down to eat, allowing herself for the first time to believe things might be different. But when she heads over to Sookie's house - unaware of what's happened to Bill - she finds herself arguing with her closest friend over the fang marks on her neck. Sookie shoots back at her: "Do you have any idea what I've been through today? A friend would ask!" Then she kicks Tara out of the house. Later though, when Sookie goes to place flowers on the grave from Bill's previous human life, the vampire bursts from the dirt - safe and unscathed - and makes love to her on the spot.

At Jason's house, he and Amy lounge in bed, still luxuriating in the afterglow of V. Neither has felt such a strong connection with another person, though it shocks Jason to learn that they never even had sex. Amy's stash of vampire blood is gone, but Jason opens up to her nonetheless, explaining how his parents died in a flash flood and that he feels responsible for his rough relationship with Sookie. Amy takes him in her arms.

Outside Merlotte's Terry helps Sam carry some taxidermy animals into the bar. Terry asks Sam why he was running naked through the woods, but the bar owner dodges the question, guiltily allowing the PTSD-suffering vet to think he's been seeing things again. Once the bar opens and Sookie shows up for work - in a fantastic mood, no less - Sam's faux sympathy at Bill's death turns to irritation at the vampire's reappearance. Jason turns up to eat with Amy, who jumps in to help Sookie with a swarm of waiting customers and earns herself a job as Dawn's replacement - exactly the role Sookie expects her to fill for Jason. But when she tries to warn Amy off of dating her brother, the girl tells Sookie she shouldn't judge him so harshly.

Episode Eight ( S1) HBO Recap

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Sport Music music psychology

Music from True Blood Episode 8 -The Fourth Man in the Fire

Episode 1.08 - The Fourth Man in the Fire

“Comes and Goes (In Waves) by Greg Laswell

“Give It Up” by Lee Dorsey

“Eternal Flame” by The Bangles

“Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me” by Mildred Anderson

“Fourth Man in the Fire” by Johnny Cash

“I Want You So Hard (Boys Bad News)” by Eagles of Death Metal

Sancto Erico sung in Old Swedish by Nathan Barr and Lisbeth Scott

More great documents- scripts and texts from True Blood episodes

Are you trying to figure out what they say in a particular scene ? I know we do all the time on the wiki chat thread so I've created and posted word docs of the "closed captioning " text for the episodes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.
I also have episode 7 for those wiki-folks who are in honor of Eric learning to speak Swedish during the show hiatus. ha!

You can find them as well as a full transcript of episode 1.

Go here

Closed Captioning Ep 12

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Closed Captioning Ep 7 in Swedish

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Preview "The Fourth Man in the Fire" Episode 8 aired October 26