Episode 2 — Analyze Phish Episode 2

[Cstosz 3]

I find it kind of hard to believe that Scott is actually turned off by the quality of the lyrics. I think the vast majority of all songs have shitty lyrics and it must be either the lead singer's voice or the general feel of the music. Scott said he was a fan of funk, and as a purveyor of funk myself, I would be hard pressed to find any song with lyrics that aren't silly or completely nonsensical.
For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isp-LLFCiyQ

[FutureCowboy 0]

A valiant effort, Harris. And I'd say 70% of these comments are off-base. It's important to approach this from a Hot's standpoint, thinking of tunes that he might like based on his taste in music, NOT each phan's own favorite crunchy jam-jamz (brah).

Suggestions from me:

-Chalkdust was a good pick, and rocking songs like it would be as well. The issue is, if you play these, you've GOT to get to at least the first chorus. You can't expect someone used to traditional song structure to even appreciate a studio cut if you don't get through the chorus. Based on Hot's hatred of individual lyrics, I think he'd actually be OK with the lyrics in the chorus of Chalkdust.

-Agreed that you should pick one longer workout and play it all the way through. NOT Fluffhead, clearly. Harry seems like a decent pick, thanks to only 2 lines of lyrics.

-I'd stay away from much of the newer stuff. I cringe at those lyrics more than anything. If you play Stealing Time, and Hot hears "Got a Clif Bar, and some cold green tea," it's all over. That is of course unless you just want to get a laugh, in which case play Backwards Down the Number Line. Jesus christ.

-Gotta play a handful of true instrumentals, respect Hot's Want's. I think he'd dig Buried Alive (and you've got versions out there < 2mins). Landlady too, good pick, hot guitar work right off the bat on the studio version.

-Get more cliips of Trey ripping it up, we've confirmed Hot respects his guitar work. Maybe the instrumental bridge of Rift (not sure he'd dig those lyrics), Tweeprise. Again, a WHOLE Chalkdust (6/17/11, anyone?)

-If you're gonna play live stuff, play official releases post-'97. The Modulus just sounds undeniably better on a CD, and the overall sound will be fuller. Otherwise they sound a little rinky-dink to someone that doesn't know how the instruments/sound evolved.

[piperstash 0]

so if your thinking of going to a show YOU DO NOT WANNA DO ANY HARDCORE DRUGS.....you wanna smoke and thats about it. You mention doing X for the first time, NO WAY, its fun but that stuffs dangerous (and the hangover is a B*TCH). You wanna smoke w**D and thats about it, and drink to your hearts content. But you wanna be able to be in control of it for sure, cause some of there jams get DOWNRIGHT SCARY and freaky and out there. an example is "spocks Brain" and the vocal jam at the end of YEM.....either of these if your not in the right mindset on some hardcore stuff you could flat out lose ya mind.

If you wanna venture a lil trippier I'd say shrooms, but anything beyond that ya may end up in a not fun place if your not enjoying yourself.

[kens522 0]

Truth is, there's two schools of fans out there: people who love the first era of the band that concluded with the 12/31/95 show. And people who came on board after that and love the other phases... the "every song turns into a funk jam" phase, the "every song turns into an ambient jam phase" and then everything after the hiatus. Rift would be a good choice, I think he'd like a whole heck of a lot of tunes on that studio album. Trey's singing sounds the best on that album, and it's been horrendously recorded ever since. Plus, Page sings Rift, It's Ice and SITM, Mike sings Weigh and Mound, so you don't get all Trey. I'd probably stay away from Weigh and Mound though for now. You could play Rift for him, skipping only Lengthwise, Weigh and Mound. Everything else on there he would appreciate. And if you're going to play him tunes, I think you have to start around the second verse, because he doesn't have the patience to hear the different parts of the tune, he just wants to listen to the intro and the first verse it seems...

Also, I suggest no drugs other than a few beers and a little weed if he can handle it. I've heard Scott say before he doesn't like the way weed makes him feel, so I'm content to say 3 or 4 beers before the show...

[conorkelley 0]

Scott needs to watch Bittersweet Motel to understand what Phish is all about. It's the best way to get into them. Also, he should definitely not take drugs, but he SHOULD drink 15-20 beers before the show he goes to.

[obadiahstarbuck 0]

@Conrad Stosz --Yeah, I think that the terrible lyrics are kind of a red-herring for the awful awful singing. You picked two interesting examples of ridiculous or trite lyrics, but one of them happened to be sung by Ernie Isley (a 50+-year soul music veteran) and the other was sung mostly by Glen Goins (P-Funk's best vocalist, hands-up/hands-down). When you sound like Stevie Wonder, you can get away with lyrics like in the song Saturn (barely...). But when you sing like a guy trying to get laid by playing Wish You Were Here in a dorm stairwell, you lose your bad lyrics pass.

[Pete Velcro 0]

Harris should play Esther, off of Junta, for Scott, and frame it in a musical theatre context. If that doesn't work, they should both huff a bunch of freon (the stuff that makes air conditioners work) and walk around podcasting in a mall.

Also Scott should be taught how to dance to Phish music. It's called the Doin' the Scoop and Dump. Harris will know what it is.

[cyrus 81]

I used to hate Phish for no reason.

Now I hate them because I've heard a bunch of their music.

[Harrisequalsworstphishadvocate 0]

Hey Harris - if you want to talk through your game plan before doing the opposite of turning Scott on to Phish for the third time - I'm here for you. Although I love the webcast and enjoy the humor, I had to explain to my co-worker that Harris is playing songs that a lot of Phish fans don't even listen to. Farmhouse? Really? That's a pee break. Train song? Pretzel break. Why not play a good Mike's song, like say.....Mike's Song!? Or how about when Scott says he likes that kind of bluegrass feel, to play some of Mike's that has that feel (but upbeat and good!) like Mound or Sugar Shack. Playing Character Zero to get someone to like Phish!? That's my cue to get to my car and hit the road before subjected to yet another Lovin cup encore. If I think about which songs Iliked first and play them in that order. It's probably going to look a lot more like Fee, Reba, Foam, Lawn Boy, My Friend My Friend, Cavern....
Just ask yourself - If you wrote your 2nd webcast as a setlist, would you download that show? Me neither. Scott - I apologize (again).

[wittels 24]

Noah Wilderman,

It's not my fault you listened to the podcast with your shitty co-worker. The reason I chose those songs is because they are "beginner" Phish songs, the songs that people *typically* first like when they get into Phish. I couldn't have explained that any more clearly on the podcast. If someone doesn't like "jambands" (like Scott) I am not going to jump right into a 15 minute Mike's Groove. That would be counter-productive. I even explained that in the third episode, I would focus on playing exclusively jams, since he has now been introduced to their songs. You cant jump right into the deep end.

You're an idiot,
Harris

PS. I'm a Phish fan and I don't even like Foam.

[CarolineEAnd 41]

I was explaining to my mother that I'm sort of growing to like Phish simply because I like this podcast so much and I associate the songs with the jokes. I explained that I tried to listen to one of the songs outside of the context of the podcast and immediately hated it. I played that song (Farmhouse) for her. Her response
After 30 seconds "This is a real song?"
After 45 seconds "They make money?"
After 1 minute "Oh for god sakes turn that off!"

[cobracommander82 0]

I agree Scott should do mushrooms. I hated phish big time for a lot of the same reasons scott does, when one night at the tale end (euphoric phase) of a fresh mushroom trip in Maastricht, Holland, a friend put on 'Billy Breathes' as I was turning in for the night and left the room. All was right with the world and I've been a fan ever since. It took me a while though.

[Scott Aukerman 381]

Noah Wilderman,

Sorry Harris was rude to you. I agree- he did a really bad job getting me to like Phish this episode. After all, I still don't like Phish.
.
I accept your apology upon his behalf, now please accept mine upon his.

[Scott Aukerman 381]

Ps, Harris,

If you don't like Foam so much, why did you name your corner after it? You see, I've caught you in a lie. That's just good detective work there.

[Mosdefjukie 8]

This podcast is just so endearing. All these phish fans coming out from behind their beards to keep Harris's spirits up, only to truly know that phandom will never be attained. I think Harris's fellow phans are concerned if he listens to Phish too much sober, he might actually despise them as much as the next tasteful music lover. My theory is that Harris doesn't necessarily like listening to Phish, but that they are directly linked to the pleasure center in his brain that also likes illegal beans. Basically, he just likes to be reminded about his trips when he doesn't have mr. Magic bean man around.

Brendan L

[Joey G 0]

Harris, fuck the haters.

I registered for the site just to say that.

[Time 0]

Hey Harris, I don't think you've really given Scott anything beyond a cursory, superficial Phish experience. The people I know who definitively don't like Phish are the very people who can't see anything beyond the cursory and superficial, and go through life blissfully unconcerned with what's going on behind the sheen. At first glance, it might be hard to see that there's a lot more going on than meets the eye. It was for me. Take for example the lyrics to You Enjoy Myself (YEM). The song itself is a fairly complicated piece of music composition. It never gets bogged down in repetition, and the improvisation at the end can be exhilarating. The lyrics, however, seem to escape the uninitiated, and ruin the song for them - "Boy. Man. God. S#!+. Wash Uffizi drive me to Firenze." After a first listen, it seems like meaningless nonsense. They appear after about 7 minutes of musical build up, so your primed to hear something meaningful. The band plays a line, and Trey says "Boy". The band plays the same line, and Trey says "Man". Hmmm, is there some kind of progression here, boy... man? The band plays the same line, and Trey says "God". Aha! Clearly there's a literal meaning and progression in the words here now, but what does it mean, where is it going, what's next you wonder. The band plays the same line, and Trey says "S#!+". What!?!? What does this mean? Surely it means something profound. The next thing you hear is the whole band singing the line "Wash Uffizi drive me to Firenze", which clearly means absolutely nothing. It took me a while to realize that this is the point. Boy, Man, God, and S#!+ have no literal meaning whatsoever. They are merely exclamations. You could have just as easily exchanged them with "wow" or "cool". It was you who incorrectly expected them to mean something, and the joke's on you. Of course you're now in on the joke, so it's all good. Point here is that these are NOT meaningless lyrics. The meaning of the lyrics is that words might not mean what you think they mean. This is good art, and people who aren't able to make that extra step in their thinking will never understand it. The title and the Wash uffize line were from experiences Trey and Fishman had while traveling through Italy in 1985 which they no doubt found quite amusing, enough so to use in this big, and otherwise empty musical composition.

My recommendation for listening next time would be the 7.29.03 Burgettstown, PA performance of "Fee > Timber" from LivePhish. The lyrics to Fee tell a perfectly coherent story that begs to be followed. Is the song about a weasel and a chimpanzee, or are they persons best described as a sneaky weasel and a stupid chimp? Hey, metaphors are everywhere in Phish lyrics. A tiny piece of paper can make big things happen. The segue into Timber is thoroughly engaging, and the dark, menacing intensity of Trey's guitar playing and the lyrics carry this combo over the top. There are no "happy" chords sprinkled in here to make Scott roll his eyes. These songs both end in violent death and murder, and each song is just 7 minutes long. Pure Phish. What's not to like?

[treiphish 38]

Gotta clear something up about phish's band name origins. I've heard it both on this and comedy bang bang. Phish started as pshh as in the sound of a plane or filling balloons. The band changed it to Phish cause it was confusing, but they were not named after Jon Fishman.

I'm sure this info is just fodder for more slams, but you gotta admit they have a healthy sense of humor.

[wittels 24]

Dear Josh T,

This comes straight from Trey:

"we'd met and started jamming together. We knew about two songs. Jeff [Holdsworth, a previous guitarist who left after he was "born-again"] knew someone who wanted us to play at this ROTC Christmas jormal dance -- black tie. We decided to do it, but we didn't have enough songs for a whole evening. We didn't have mike stands, just hockey sticks with mikes duct-tapes to a table. No name, nothing. "Phish" just kind of got thrown in there because of Fish's name. Anyway, we went to the gig with about 35 cover song, like "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress," "Heard it through the grapevine," stuff like that. They hated us. [Michael Jackson's] Thriller had just been released; they cranked it up on the turntable, and we couldn't compete. So we selected the name for that gig, and it just stuck."

Thanks for playing.

Harris

ps. Scott, I standby what I said to Noah Wilderman. His co-worker is a shithead. And Foam, when not in a corner, is the worst.

[xerxes 0]

I like phish, but am not a typical fan. I hate them live. If lovin' phish studio albums is wrong, I don't wanna be right If you want Scott to hate them forever, keep playing live stuff. If you want him to actually like them, keep to the studio stuff. Don't look at it from a fanboy perspective, you did a good job last week. Keep it up! But stick to studio, don't play him the jams or you will lose him forever. I would rather drag my balls through broken glass than listen to live phish. Feed him hoist or nectar. Cannot go wrong with those!!!

[FlanSolo 1]

Bryan Raymond - you may not want to be right, but if you like *only* the studio albums, you're definitely doing it wrong. The fact is, Scott is right that they lyrics are often terrible. But so are a lot of the initial premises for things like Would You Rather... they are mostly structures for improvisation. It's really not thing right thing to be getting hung up on.

[Pete Velcro 0]

As far as goofy lyrics, Oasis is right up there, only they're totally humorless.

Also Fred Savage says "Get the dicks out of your ears and recognize: Phish rulz!"

[Cstosz 3]

I think worse than anything that phish or Harris could do to fuck up Scott's opinion of the band is people getting really heated and angry at the selection of music, and showing an unrepresentatively bad side of the phish fan culture. That said, there are a lot of people being cool about it so don't attack me for accusing everyone of freaking out. I am looking forward to the next episode, don't let the haters get to you Harris. That shit is down to clown.

[Bheady 0]

Harris...what you need to explain to Scott is that lyrics for all jam bands is an issue. Most jam bands use lyrics as an after thought or an excuse to go off into an epic jam. The way I like to think about it is like this, Lyrics for jam bands is like making out with a girl you know that your about to fuck. Sometimes the making out is good, sometimes it sucks, but no matter what your about to get laid so you push through it until sexy time happens. So tell Scott to just get over the lyrics because Phish is about to take him to pound town with a good old fashion ear fuck!

[sarahride 83]

"Scott, you list Oasis as one of your Top 10 favorite bands. I'm one of the very few Americans who prefers (or who even knows) Blur in the age-old battle of Britpop. What are your thoughts on them?"

@ Patrick Westgate: You think you're one of the very few Americans who know about Blur? Where do you live?