Set 1: Set Your Soul Free[1] Blaze On[1] I Never Needed You Like This Before[2] Esther[3] Brian and Robert[4] Wolfman's Brother[4] Divided Sky[4] Driver[1] When the Words Go Away[1] Twist[1] Foam[2] What's the Use?[5] Chalk Dust Torture[1] Sand[3] Pebbles and Marbles[4] Lifeboy[4] Backwards Down the Number Line[1] Limb By Limb[1] Mountains in the Mist[6] Sleep[6] Waste[6] Sleeping Monkey[6]
Encore: If I Could[7] Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.[8]
[1] Trey on acoustic guitar.
[2] Trey on acoustic guitar; with Jeff Tanski on piano. First acoustic performance.
[3] Trey on acoustic guitar; with Jeff Tanski on piano.
[4] Trey on acoustic guitar; with the Rescue Squad Strings and Jeff Tanski on piano.
[5] Trey on acoustic guitar; with the Rescue Squad Strings and Jeff Tanski on piano. First acoustic performance.
[6] Trey on acoustic guitar; with Page on piano.
[7] Trey on acoustic guitar; with the Rescue Squad Strings and Page on piano.
[8] Trey on acoustic guitar; with the Rescue Squad Strings, Page on piano, and Jeff Tanski on keys.
Want to name a pet something besides Tela? Can't recall which song mentions Aquitana or Elihu? Remember which nine Phish songs mention birds? Now, and once again, you can. Originally published in the second edition of The Phish Companion, extended with input from forum regulars in an earlier (c.2012-2015) version, and now thoroughly rebuilt from the ground up, the Lyrics Index coming back!
This is a selective topical index of the lyrics to 253 Phish originals1 – 26,835 words2, indexed in 2,393 references3, organized in 51 topical categories4, some more selective than others5. And it's rolling out, though still getting populated with entries (1,117 entered so far - 1,276 OTW!).
The included references follow this logic:
- A single index entry typically refers to multiple forms of the root, such as
- Some specific instances of a word are indexed in more than one place, such as
- Different instances of the same word may be indexed differently based on contextual meaning, such as
- "change" meaning "alter" in Col. Forbin, "variation" in Crowd Control, and "coins" in Fluffhead;
- "about" referring to an amount (about a ton) or direction (about town), or an element of time (about 10 p.m.) or logic (about Tom); or
- "with" conveying company (with Forbin), proximity (with the flow), possession (with my fedora on), implementation (with forceps), or time (with her arrival) - though most instances of that preposition don't fit any of our 51 categories3.
- Summarily, for example, "fly" covers "flying" and "flew", but not "flyers" (Tools) or "flies" (Animals) - and the "to" in "to fly" is not indexed at all, while "flying mockingbird" is indexed three different ways. (Can you find them all?)
The index excludes lyrics based on this set of logic:
- Songs: We acknowledge 1024 song titles at Phish.net, of which 48 are aliases. Of the 976 unique songs, 626 (64%) are covers. (The index excludes songs performed only by side projects, though does include, for example, Army of One, written for and first performed by Vida Blue but later performed by Phish.) Of the 338 unique originals, 71 (20%) are instrumental, 12 (3%) have lyrics by someone else (such as the Disney samples, or Jon Popper on "Don't Get My Wrong"), and 13 (4%) are excluded for other reasons, leaving 253 songs indexed here.
- Words: In those 253 songs, there are 38,980 total words, 4,773 unique words, and 3,710 roots after pluralization and verb tenses are removed. That includes some version of many words that would be neither interesting nor practical to index, including 20 pronouns (appearing 4,461 times), 17 conjunctions (1,858 times), 11 prepositions (833 times), 8 definite or indefinite articles (3,730 times), 9 forms of "to be" (1,210 times), 16 words (such as Rouge in Baton Rouge) treated in compound with another (53 total), and 21 words (such as 'to' in an infinitive) skipped for other miscellaneous reasons (1,629 total). Those 102 words appear a combined 12,145 times in some form (not including indexed instances, such as of quot;about" and "with"; see above), 31% of the full 38,980 words of original lyrics.
- References: Removing those 102 words from the 3,710 roots leaves 3,608 identified references, of which 2,000 appear in only one song, 546 appear in two, and 1,062 appear in three or more. Of those, 1,293 fall below a specified threshold, leaving 2,315 indexed references to, including duplicate references, 40,213 total entries.
- Categories range from tshirt-friendly basics to arcane grammatical hair-splitting:
- Basics: Animals, Characters, Colors, Names
- Locations: Buildings, Home, Nature, Places, Proper Places, Travel, Vehicles, Vehicle Parts
- Things: Clothes, Containers, Dishes, Drugs, Food, Furniture, Materials, Tools, Toys
- Measurements: Amounts, Directions, Groups, Numbers, Size, Time
- Arts: Art, Literature, Music, Sounds
- Humanity: Body, Emotions, Events, Family, Illness, Jobs
- Ideas: Geometry, Logic, Mind, Religion, Wealth
- Misc: Combat, Exclamations, Foreign, Made-up, Vision, Water
- Catchall: Misc. Adjectives, Misc. Nouns, Misc. Verbs
- Some categories are exhaustive - such as Animals, Colors, Names, Numbers, and Proper Places - including all potential entries even if only in one song. Some are selective based on frequency - such as Miscellaneous Verbs, indexed only if they appear in at least five songs. The list of categories itself is also not exhaustive (we could, for example, add a category for Education?) - and for some entries in some categories (such as Groups and Amounts, or Mind and Logic), we're definitely splitting hairs.
Only a fraction of Phish lyrics have been officially published, and there are variations in the performance, interpretation, and transcription of others. We thus welcome your feedback, and look forward to future updates.
Welcome to the 474th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the final and hardest puzzle of July - shout out to @sumac22 for the clip! The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Stay safe!
Twenty years ago today, the Mockingbird Foundation released the double-disc Sharin' in the Groove, featuring 23 artists who (with their studios, managers, producers, and more) donated their time gratis to record a Phish cover and help fundraise for music education for children. CDs still sell, believe it or not, and the digital tracks continue to raise grant funds every week, even 20 years later - and we encourage you to pick it up, at any of the 80+ outlets for it, from Amazon and the Apple Store to Spotify and beyond.
Sharin' in the Groove was unusual, as "tribute" albums go. Above all, the performers aren't bands influenced by Phish - it's the bands, acts, and genres that influenced Phish, from school bands (high school orchetra and college marching band) to the international champion barbershop quartet, and every manner of jazz, funk, soul, rock, pop, ballad, and more in between: Little Feat (who recorded "Sample in a Jar", then took it on the road) and the Wailers (doing their first track in over a decade, with their original producer); members of Talking Heads and Los Lobos; Son Seals and Arlo Guthrie - and Jimmy Buffet, with his entire Coral Reef Band.
And it's organized like a show, opening with a clean and vibrant cover of "Bouncin'" by Arlo Guthrie playing with a band that includes 2 of his kids, winding its way through a solid first set CD, then diving into some weirdness for set (CD) two - such as drum-n-bass masters Lake Trout reimagining a chunk of Picture of Nectar, and Japanese oddity The Boredoms mashing up "Free" and "End of Session" - before finishing out with the "Golgi" encore.
Runaway Gin - a Tribute to Phish raised over $8,000 for the Mockingbird Foundation over the past year, donated in memory of keyboardist John "Fitz" Fitzgerald, who passed away unexpectedly in January 2020. We appreciate their support of music education for children, and encourage you to check out Fitz (and all of four of them) laying it down...
Looking for a certain bustout this summer? Hoping to catch a certain song at a certain venue? Looking for more long jams and fewer micro-jams? Create some good vibes towards making your wish come true by making a conditional pledge to a charitable cause!
Here’s how it works:
1. Go to this form: Google Form For Good Karma Hope You Get Your Tour Wish Fundraiser
The only personal information we ask for in the form is your first name and an email address to reach you if your conditional pledge comes to fruition.
2. Enter the donation amount you would like to conditionally pledge. Your choice.
3. Tell us the condition you want to attach to your pledge. We created six ideas (below), but there is an option to create your own. (For example: "I want "Tweezer" to open Deer Creek night 1" or "I want "More" to encore at Walmart" or "'Dog Log' at Dicks" or "For 'Guelah Papryus' to go Type II").
4. If the condition you selected comes true, we will reach out to you and ask you to honor your pledge. It is a strictly voluntary pledge and we ask for no payment or payment information up front.
5. Spread the word!
Thanks to John Greene, Matt Laurence, and Clinton Vadnais, Phish.net is pleased to announce the release of the previously-uncirculated video footage that was shot 30 years ago last week for the planned-but-never-completed Gamehendge CD-ROM. This video comes from a VHS cassette labeled "John's Special Tape":
I had the pleasure of interviewing John Greene (formerly of yeP!, currently of Chum) over beers last week in Marin County to get the straight dope on the backstory of this footage. I transcribed the important details and worked them into a more linear narrative, with John’s blessing of course. Here's what John told me:
When I was a college student at UMass (‘88 to ’93), I worked in this animation lab – this is where I met Jack [Carson] from yeP! – my concentration was computer animation, and Jack and I wound up doing music and sound for all these computer animated educational videos. That’s what funded the lab, we made these videos, and that’s how Jack and I essentially started yeP!. Back then, in 1990, the computer software for the Mac IIfx was terrible. These guys in the animation lab had started their own software company to make a better computer animation package for the Mac than what existed. The short version is that they got to demo their software in the Apple booth at MacWorld in San Francisco – this was like January ’91.
Welcome to the 473rd edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second (and second-to-last) of July. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Stay safe!
In celebration of the 30 year anniversary this week of the video footage taken by John Greene (formerly of yeP!, currently of Chum) in July 1991 (7/12/91 - 7/19/91) that was slated to be included in the planned-but-never-completed Gamehendge CD-ROM, Clinton Vadnais (@cleantone here / @cleantones on Twitter and YouTube) will be streaming the footage he restored and cleaned up on his YouTube channel (youtube.com/cleantones) for the fanbase for the first time Saturday (tomorrow) at 8 pm EST / 5 pm PST!
Welcome to the 472nd edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first and easiest of July - note that the n00b rule is NOT in effect this week: anyone can answer on the blog. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Stay safe!
and then Add to Home Screen.