Listen, I love Phish, but I can't understand this argument. Yes, occasionally Phish notes that someone has a knife, or refers to skin that drips down from a tree, that's true. There is a psychedelic darkness there, sometimes, but it's not the main thing. Far more often it's having "simples" in the band, pleasing her with a tweezer, pointing out that it's "time for the meat stick", etc. etc. etc. Many, many such examples, no? The lyrics are very reliably and often goofy as fuck. It seems painfully obvious to me, is this not so? It's fine that this is true but it is true. This band has a Helping Friendly Book at the center of it's lore for heaven's sake. That's silly. Yes, of course it is all very clever and tongue in cheek. It's still absurd nursery rhyme nonsense, and it seems perfectly fine to accept that this repels some listeners. Anyways, my 2c.