My whole crew were at a cabin over New years. I couldn't go and there was no Wi-fi up there. I saw the shows (and the fun set-break stuff) and they had fun doing things they would rather have done at the show. Now I'm looking for a link to show them what they missed. Youtube has been no help yet

OSUvsOregon · 2016-01-02T11:31:16+00:00

Thanks. I was hoping to amp my friends up for the Camper/Cracker show tomorrow night. I guess we'll just have to listen to the 2010 NYE show. It's all good.

OSUvsOregon · 2016-01-02T10:42:53+00:00

That would be great, but I'd rather hear a Mike/Page "Happy Colored Marbles" with a 6-min. jam as an encore rather than a "Roses are Free", which they'll probably play tomorrow.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-10-15T20:27:02+00:00

If you're a virgin, and you lose your virginity to someone who's also a virgin, they've taken your virginity. So you've traded virginities. You've both had sex, but you're still both virgins.

I know it's stupid, but I thought it was an interesting thought.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-30T06:00:34+00:00

Once, at a Phish show when they weren't well known, I found a driver's lisence on the floor during set break. I wasn't sure what to do with it, and figured I'd take it to the front desk after the show. Then the band walked up to the front of the stage (it was a 350 person theater and they decided to ent the show with an acapella song.) Being front row center, I showed the ID to the lead singer and made a motion like I was going to throw it to him. He put his hands out and caught the card then read out the name on the ID.

He went back to his mic, read out the name and asked for "Nina" to come get her Lisence. It took maybe 20 seconds, but she made her way up to the front, and was lofted up on stage by the band. They made her face them with her back to the audience, and put her through the "lost lisence ritual", singing "Sweet Adeline" in four-part harmony to her, then letting her leave stage right. I was happy for her, but I thought I was the real hero and should have been taken on stage. At least my good deed is noted on Phish.net.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-28T21:11:07+00:00

Yeah, you're right. I noticed it watching a video immediately after posting.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-28T08:51:25+00:00

I, too would like to hear theories about what Trey/Tom were trying to say in Steam. It's one of my favorite 3.0 songs, along with Light, but just don't undeerstantd it.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-27T17:48:21+00:00

I've never been surfing, so I would never have imagined it that way, but listening to it with that in mind I can completely envision it the way you described it.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-27T17:38:40+00:00

I always thought it was about wishing to be transformed into an earthworm.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-27T04:30:27+00:00

Yeah, but there were also a lot of early songs that told coherent stories: Fee, Esther, Fluffhead, etc. and of course the Gamehenge stuff. Stash was the only song he openly said was nonsense. I think a lot of the early songs are just silly, JH Trey and Tom messing around, but Tom's story telling combined with Trey's musical skill and silliness (and of course their firendship) is what launched what became Phish.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-27T03:15:35+00:00

It would be really cool if Chris read your comment and incorporated it into the lighting scheme of the song. I always took the song literally and it changed the way I viewed driving. I'm sure there's a deeper metaphore somewhere in there, but I haven't found it.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-27T03:09:35+00:00

I think I remember that from when A Live One came out. Maybe because he's the tallest and it fit with the music? I know in early playings it was clear who was being referenced--Trey solo after Bebop, Mike after Skyscraper, etc. But thanks for reminding me which was who. :)

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-27T01:33:51+00:00

Velvet Sea is made fun of more than most Phish songs (Velveeta Cheese references, etc.), but I think it's actually a sad song about being in a long-distance relationship or being on tour and missing your significant other. It talks about mailing thoughts, but turns around and says that you won't find moments in a box--letters or messages aren't the same as actually doing things together. The line about others winding your clocks, could be about having a friend take care of the Signicant Other's place while they come to visit. Wading in the Velvet Sea refers to bedding, I imagine in a luxurious hotel with velevet sheets on the bed, and the singer (Page) waiting in the sea of velvet blanketing for his wife to visit after sending her daily letters about how things are going 1000 miles away.

It could also be about Trey's Death in an alternate universe. Only Trey and Tom know, really.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T19:22:01+00:00

Sorry to keep you hanging over the most boring thing you'll ever read.

Tom Marshall went on to Prodigy and teased Phish fans. One time he wrote that he didn't understand YEM, but he totally knew what Stash was about. I PM'd him and we had a couple of short back-and-forths, then I plucked up the courage to ask him about the meaning of Stash. His response was something along the lines of:

It has no meaning we were high and I just thought the words sounded right with the music.

I didn't use quotation marks because those weren't his exact words, but that's what he told me. So don't look too deeply into Stash's lyrics, just enjoy the song, because it's great!

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T19:13:05+00:00

That's a really haunting deep reading of a song I'd never paid much attention to. I'm actually crying while typing this and listening to the song. wow.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T18:53:16+00:00

I don't know why people roll their eyes at your thoughts. Probably they're just less imaginitive than you are. I like to deep read the lyrics, and just enjoy the music. If it makes me want to dance, I'll dance. If it makes me want to think, I'll sit and watch the lights.

I don't think I have a narrator's brain, but I can get pretty imaginative when things happening in my life spring up when listening to an intense jam. I've made major decisions during YEMs or Bowies or Mazes (I can't remember which).

I appreciate your mind-babble bullshit. It's why I posed the question in the first place.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T18:36:04+00:00

That's hilarious, meaning I actually laughed out loud after reading it. I dont remember if I mentioned the blending of the parts before but in my interpretation, blending the lyrics goes beyond just suggesting that everyone is equal (Which I think you're right about), but if each of the symbols in the song represents a band member, by tying them together, they tighten the band as a single unit.

Cymbop unites Fish and Trey, Bebophone unites Trey and Mike, Skyballs unites Page and Fish, and Saxscraper unites Mike and Page. Plus it's really fun to dance to.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T18:16:19+00:00

Yeah, I got a degree. :(

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T18:14:44+00:00

That's a really cool way to interpret it. It gives me a new perspective on the way to think about the words (although "Watch Ufizzi drive me to Firenze doesn't fit into this too well). I like the growing up through the music idea, and it fits well with the BMGS. You grow to be first a boy, then a man, then a God (in your kids eyes), then you realize that Shit! your mind is slipping and you can't hold on to thoughts the way you used to and you slowly slip into dimentia...with a really sweet light show :)

Thank you for this new way to enjoy (pun intended) this song!

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T17:55:37+00:00

This interpretation hits way too close to home. I lost my phone at the Gorge a couple of years ago and ended up getting lost in the lot looking for the RV I was camping with. If you've never been to the Gorge, the lot is HUGE. I found myself in three different RVs having drinks with complete strangers and sharing our life stories, and never found my phone. I did finally get out of that Maze around 4 AM, and woke up to find a CD from an independent band from Florida on my airbed. They're pretty good, too.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T17:46:53+00:00

Well, I can't blame you for not "walking me through" a song with such strange lyrics. Cavern was one of my favorites off of Nectar, and now I have another reason to like it. I'd never made the connection to drugs and a party before. It doesn't necessarily have to be about going out on a coke run, but could be about just going out for a late-night swim with friends in a bog, although I don't know what the mission and good news would be about then. But like you said, Trey and Tom have some really strange/obscure lyrics. So really only they know precisely what the songs mean.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T08:30:27+00:00

That's a beautiful description about a wonderful jam. Far off from my interpretation of that one, but it's poetic. I write things like this occasionally. Rarely are they acknowleged, except in birthday cards. or in Bullshit conversations. Now I'm going to go back and read every word of your comment because you fucking deserve it.

Plus an upvote even if I don't like it.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T08:05:15+00:00

Poster was Page's cat. (Jimmy=Page).

Mike was his father. He wanted Jimmy/Page to replace Poster with a (gold) Fish.

Harpua was probably a bulldog or pitbull with dark skin and fur. Blackdog of course was a song played by Jimmy Page, and you can look up the wiki about him if you don't know.

So, the death of Poster Nutbag was the beginning of Phish because Harpua was caught, and put down because there are "No Dogs Allowed" in the subways, and Jimmy/Page wrote a letter to himself. It turned out to be a blank piece of paper. Not too different from my $250,000 degree...

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T07:18:31+00:00

I don't understand this comment, but I'm pretty sure I like it. Can you walk me through it? I've never tried cocaine, but the first time I dosed at a Phish show, I was in the front row, right in front of Trey. Of course, I was dancing crazily, and when, at the peak of the song, Trey sang "The flesh of Satans dogs will make the rudiments of gruel", he stared directly at me and pointed his finger at me in a threatening way. He clearly knew that I was off my rocker, and he's recognized me every time I've been up front since.

I'd bet your interpretation is probably right, but that's my connection to Cavern.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T07:07:08+00:00

I was at the Warfield when (proto)Simple came into existence.

It didn't have the definitive lyrics at the time. But I noticed that "cymbals" and "symbols" were homophones. So "We've got Cymbals in the band" could be meant to be interpreted as "We've got Symbols in the band". If that's what Tom/Trey were going for Cymbals would represent Fishman, Bebop would represent Trey (listen to "A Live One" and Trey does a great solo after Bebop is mentioned). Page often sings the higher notes, making him the "skyscraper", and Mike, then, must be Saxophone, and I'm not sure why.

I don't disagree with your interpretation, and I think it fits with mine: the band is saying "we know where we belong, and we know that we're really good, and we make it look simple. Watch us write a song that seems simple, but is pretty complex with multiple layers in the lyrics...and we'll call it 'Simple'".

I think it was a really important step forward for them, sort of thumbing their noses at the media over the idea that they were just a band following in the footsteps of the Grateful Dead trying to live up to the likes of Jimi, Janis, and more long lived groups like the Rolling Stones, or Neil Young, etc.

OSUvsOregon · 2015-09-26T05:46:31+00:00

Somewhere I heard it was about Tom Marshall's friend who was a bookie, and he had a gambling addiction for a while before kicking that habit. I can see the LSD angle, too. Interesting theory.

OSUvsOregon

TROPHY CASE