re: Is Phish a Great Band?- grantland article

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I think what he was trying to say was that phish live vs. phish recording

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I get that, and agree completely.

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more night and day difference than any other "great band"

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This I can also agree with, simply because I think the Dead had some pretty fricking solid studio albums (Workingman's Dead, American Beauty are the two standouts, though Terrapin Station was pretty good too)

They have some great lyrics

All the way home we felt we had a chance
To review the coulds before we were born
And to invite a new game of can'ts

Absorbed in the clouds a voice from afar said
"With the right device you can make a pattern grow
Or you can tune up your car

So, we stayed on the train admiring the time
As the lights of the city drew near
We drank a little wine

They were blurry and green outer space in between
With a depth and a form unclear
Then we saw it up ahead


A flickering lantern lit up on the tracks
In the rugs that had covered up the bridge
From the banks of a river to the bed
Of the valley upstream to the place we live

The glass on the lantern cast back the sight
Of a drive-in movie we drove by below
We saw where we'd been in the pictures within
Projecting all the places we would go

So we follow the scene and flowed up your steps
To a smooth wooden floor in a trance
The train whistle melody woved through the trees
And in through the door to signal the turns of a dance

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Workingman's Dead, American Beauty

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I think those are 2 excellent albums, though I never would consider myself a dead fan. I highly respect them, though (although I'm pissed we're getting Bob Weir on the Atlanta leg of the Americanarama tour, instead of Richard Thompson)...

Phish is a whole lot of blah to me personally, but I recognize what they have achieved as a band without much radio support... So, I guess there is a level of respect there...

I'm not really a huge fan of Trey's songwriting, and usually skip a lot of the songs (or song sections) and skip to jams when I listen to shows

But I think to dwell on Phish's below average lyrics is kind of missing the point with them

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I'm not really a huge fan of Trey's songwriting

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I'm not a fan of him trying to be a singer/songwriter. It ends up as boring dad rock. IE: Alaska and KDF. They need to get back to full band song writing.

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But I think to dwell on Phish's below average songwriting is kind of missing the point with them

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Well, they certainly dont have below average song writing. Songs like YEM and Foam are years beyond what a majority of professional musicians could write. I could see people griping about lyrics, but I disagree there as well. They just arent straight forward songs. The lyrics can be just as abstract as the songs and jams they produce.

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usually skip a lot of the songs (or song sections) and skip to jams when I listen to shows

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Is that because you don't like them or because you have heard the song hundreds and hundreds of times? I bet it is the latter.

I usually skip the composed sections but it is because I know them by heart. They are still great live though, especially when the band is ON.

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Is that because you don't like them or because you have heard the song hundreds and hundreds of times? I bet it is the latter.

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Probably

I'll still listen to Reba composed sections though, just to see if they flub it up or not.

But yea stuff like Gin or Tweezer, that's a skip to 4:30-5 minutes every time.

Tube has some pretty fricking awesome lyrics

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An asteroid crashed and nothing burned it made me wonder: Do tigers sleep in lily patches? Do rhinos run for thunder?

I got an ache in my left ear I felt a twinge but I still could hear Made me think I would not be burned but rather give myself to science I felt that I could help To science, I felt that I can help

Paranoid the doctor ran shouting his graphic translation A fortnight of turmoil gang wars and ails of riches Spewing forth their color he purposely waited till I was done to knock on the lavatory door accusing me of ruining the fun he knocked on it some more The fun, He knocked on it some more

Alloyed suitors drawn inside an apple or a grape To put forth a cloud of mercury he was run over by a car on a freeway in Los Angeles once the spraying has been done 'Cause there's more pain from necessity you're a portrait of your past There's a mummy in the cabinet Are there no more arrows left?

What's that rubber bottle doing here? How's that napkin for a proof? Ten cents to a dollar now for a shelf of pregnant eggs Robert Palmer is implored to dance, to dance, to dance

It's so stupendous, living in this tube!

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Absurdly fantastic

Yes I love tube, I always end up forgetting some of my top 5 favorites when I try and post shite like this.

But i understand how people don't like it sometimes. Honestly I hated Col. Forbin's Ascent until I saw it live. (I know it shames me to admit it)

again it is the interplay between the written music and lyrics that make the songs so great.