Phish

Phish is an American rock band noted for jamming and improvisation. The band's four members performed together for the better part of 21 years until their breakup in August 2004, but have since reunited in 2009. Their music has elements of a wide variety of genres, including rock, jazz, bluegrass, heavy metal, folk, blues, progressive rock, reggae, acoustic music, and European classical music. Each Phish concert is original in terms of the songs included, the order in which they appear, and the way in which they are performed: most of their songs are never played the same way twice. Although the group receives little radio play or MTV exposure, Phish has developed a large following by word of mouth and the exchange of live recordings.

The following quotes are from a variety of Phish songs performed throughout their history. The majority of Phish lyrics are penned by lyricist Tom Marshall, a childhood friend of founding member Trey Anastasio.

The following lyrical excerpts are listed in alphabetical order.

Lyrics

• All of These Dreams

If you go there, and after you do

All of these dreams would be yours to pursue

The rest of your lifetime devoid of a care

If you keep your eyes open, you may find yourself there

• Anything But Me -

You've become an island in the hazy world surrounding me

Offering a vast reward each time I safely cross the sea

All too often I become lost in the fog and haze

Clinging still against my will to promises of clearer days

• Back on the Train -

When I jumped off, I had a bucket full of thoughts

When I first jumped off, I held that bucket in my hand

Ideas that would take me all around the world

I stood and watched the smoke behind the mountains curl

It took me a long time to get back on the train

• Brian and Robert -

If you're just staring at your walls

Observing echoing footfalls from tenants wandering distant halls

Then this one is for you

If children playing all around to you is noise, not pleasant sound

And you feel lost on the playground...

Then this one is for you

• Bug -

Nothing I see can be taken from me

• Bye Bye Foot -

Where I end and you begin

I wanna find that line and cross it back and forth

Until it's erased by our footsteps

• Crowd Control -

It's crowded in the lowlands but the fools stay on the hill

You control us now, you have the reins

Do something or we will

• The Curtain -

As he saw his life run away from him

Thousands ran along

Chanting words from a song.

'Please me have no regrets'

• Dear Mrs. Reagan -

Dear Mrs. Reagan, I hope you're feeling well

Fighting drugs and abortion will keep you out of Hell

Send in the troops, they'll shut the system down

Take away their leaders and replace them all with clowns

Out in the Rose Garden, time for a speech

Make up your face so it looks like a peach

Aw, Nancy dear, what shall I say?

Tell ol' Ronnie it's all okay

• Destiny Unbound -

She started the ignition and without permission, the two of them flew down the dusty road

But the road wasn't finished and the pavement diminished

They soared off the edge and they plunged in the sludge

She said, "There isn't even any road, our destiny was bound

We were the ones for us, but now we're in the ground"

• Dirt -

I'd like to live beneath the dirt

A tiny space to move and breathe is all that I would ever need

I wanna live beneath the dirt

Where I'd be free from push and shove like all those swarming up above

Beneath their heels I'll spend my time

I'll wriggle in the earth and dew

And sometimes I will think of you

And if you ever think of me, kneel down and kiss the earth

And show me what this thought is worth

I'll never hear your voice again

• Discern -

I think I hear a whisper around nearly every turn

But what the voice is saying, I barely can discern

The echoes that are following the contours of the ground

Ebb and flow and ease into a tidal wave of sound

• Dog-Faced Boy -

Whenever I think of you it only makes me feel sad

Whenever I think of you....the best friend I ever had

Before I give it up all for nothing:

Well, I lied and I cheated, and it made me feel bad

It made me feel guilty for not being true

For the months I spend trying for a way to explain

In the end all I could do was turn my head in shame

• Down With Disease -

Waiting for the time when I can finally say

That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

But when I think it's time to leave it all behind

I try to find a way to, but there's nothing I can say to make it stop

• Driver -

I'll tell you about the driver who lives inside my head

He starts me up and stops me, then puts me into bed

He opens up my mouth when it's time for me to talk

He fires up my legs when he wants me to walk

He keeps my eyes open for most of the day

Adds to my memories the things that people say

And when he makes decisions, I don't have to wait

But sometimes it seems that he's got too much on his plate

Like this morning when I woke up and he dressed me in this shirt

That looks a little ragged where he dragged me through the dirt

I'm moving through this life and I'm thinking about the next

And hoping when I get there, I'll be better dressed

• Farmhouse

Each betrayal begins with trust, every man returns to dust

• Fast Enough for You -

If time were only part of the equation and you could draw the boundaries of our cage

You wouldn't pile another stone upon me, and I'd be happy just to watch you age

But everything is in its own dominion, and waiting in the shadows as I do

Appeases me as water slowly trickles out, which isn't nearly fast enough for you

• Frankie Says -

Relax

The world will spin beside itself and suck you in

With threats and hopes beyond compare

I change the landscape as I pass, meandering from sand to glass

I suction there for one whole day, until the feeling goes away

• Free -

I feel no curiosity, I see the path ahead of me

In a minute I'll be free, and you'll be splashing in the sea

We hear a tiny cry as the ship goes sliding by

• Mountains in the Mist

Rain falls on my shoulders, sun rises in the east

I'm worn and bruised, but I am here at least

• Friday -

I crashed, I burned

But then I learned to keep my eye on you

You always say you'll lead the way

But then you never do

• Heavy Things -

Things are falling down on me, heavy things I could not see

When I finally came around, something small would pin me down

And when I tried to step aside I moved to where they'd hoped I'd be

• The Horse -

It's time I sling the baskets off this overburdened horse

Sink my toes into the ground and set a different course

Because if I were here and you were there, I'd meet you in between

And not until my dying day confess what I have seen

• If I Could -

Stay with me till time turns over

I wanna feel my feet leave the ground

Take me where the whispering breezes

Can lift me up and spin me around

If I could I would, but I don't know how

• It's Ice -

Slipping on the friction slide, my skin peels to the bone

The flesh I leave behind is something that is not my own

I beg my mirror image for a moment with my soul

He's pleading back, it's time to attack

It's me who's in control

With every move I make, he's got a hand up just in time

He's throwing several punches and he's blocking most of mine

Defeated now, I sulk and squirm in mud with frozen mice

Waiting, calculating 'til next he ventures onto the ice

• Julius -

'Cause a week is a month and an hour a day

When your reaching just pushes it further away now

With your past and your future precisely divided

Am I at that moment? I haven't decided, I haven't decided

• Jennifer Dances -

You ought to know from long ago to listen to the winds that blow

Cause when the past creeps up at last, you'll see the landscape open fast

And you'll be standing on a landing, crumbling despite your demanding

• Lifeboy -

When the line is breaking and when I'm near the end

When all the time spent leading, I've been following instead

When all my thoughts and memories are left hanging by a thread

God never listens to what I say

• Limb by Limb -

I never want my hand cut off, I never want a hacking cough

I never need a cliffside push, I never turn my brain to mush

Always give me what I lack, always take the best parts back

Always recognize your fate, always just a moment late

Left is where I always turn, left is how I'm forced to learn

Left the route my walking takes, left alone with my mistakes

Up against the person who up 'til now I never knew

Up from hell the answer blew, up or down...it's up to you

• The Mango Song -

Your hands and feet are mangos, but you're gonna be a genius anyway

• Maze -

The torrent of helplessness swept me away to the cavern of shame and the hall of dismay

Inside me a voice was repeating the phrase, "You've lost it, you'll never get out of this maze"

• Meat -

I need a different life, I think

Perhaps I'll be the missing link

I treasure moments as I drink away the memories

Let them sink

• The Meatstick -

Long before this scene concludes, the end I'm seeking still eludes

My every effort to apply, my will to moments passing by

But everytime we say goodbye, there's a pain I can't identify

That reveals to me the hidden door that leads to several moments more

• Mike's Song -

Trapped in time and I don't know what to do

These friends of mine, I can see right through 'em

You don't gotta tell me, cause I don't gotta move

I'm sittin' back here just sharin' in the groove

• The Moma Dance -

All throughout I gaze and glimpse you

Loving never did convince you

I see you when you're all alone

It's like a person I've not known

The moment ends though I feel winds

Blowing differently than ever before, and then pushing me further from shore

• Mound -

Ice is all he was made of

The bitter blue had frozen through

He went over to the mound

Reclining down his final thoughts

were drifting to a time this life had shined

• Never -

Never is that point in time that doesn't have dimension

Always is the measure of how long time's been around

• Nothing -

I stand on a featureless sheet of blue stone

And then for one instant I'm not quite alone

Your hand is extended but then you rescind

And you, like my thoughts, are borne off by the wind

• Pebbles and Marbles -

She started a blaze from one tiny spark I didn't even detect

She loved the light, was dismayed by the dark, the stars, though, she seemed to respect

The faint light that flutters at night to the earth would land in her eyes and collect

Luminous creatures she'd find in the surf I never thought to inspect

Pebbles and marbles, like things on my mind, seem to get lost and harder to find

When I am alone, I am inclined, if I find a pebble in the sand, to think that it fell from my hand

She gave me ideas and planted the seed, but she never stopped to reflect

The course that she's on, wherever it leads, I never would redirect

Pebbles and marbles, like words from a friend, make us hold tight but are lost in the end

When we're alone, we all seem to tend, if we find a marble in dust, to wish someone left it for us

• Prep School Hippie -

Prep school hippie, or hip school preppie

I can't decide

Should I spend my adolescent days wearing tie dyes or Vuarnets

I can't decide

A big ten kegger at the frat, or watching Jerry shake his fat

Prep school hippie, or hip school preppie

I can't decide

• Rift -

Silence contagious in moments like these

Consumed me and strengthened my will to appease

The passion that sparked me one terrible night

Had shocked and persuaded my soul to ignite

• Roggae -

If life were easy and not so fast, I wouldn't think about the past

I can't forget to turn the earth so both sides get their share of darkness and of light

• Round Room -

If I pass out, take me to the round church

Where echoes resound and my spirit is found

And when I float high, take my arm and I'll fly you by

To the outskirts of town to a garden that's round

• Run Like an Antelope -

Set the gearshift to the high gear of your soul

You've got to run like an antelope out of control

• Sample in a Jar -

You tricked me like the others and now I don't belong

The simple smiles and good times seem all wrong

• Sand -

I will choose my own religion and worship my own spirit

And if you ever preached to me, I wouldn't want to hear it

• Scents and Subtle Sounds -

If you would only start to live one moment at a time

You would, I think, be startled by the things that you would find

Like scents you never noticed, and many subtle sounds

Like colors in the landscape and textures of the town

Then the winds would lift you up into the sky above

And you'd be treated to a view of everything you love

And if the moment passes, you should try it once again

For if you do it right, you'll find the moment never ends

• Shafty -

The terrible thing about Hell is that when you're there, you can't even tell

As you move through this life you love so, you could be there and not even know

But you say, "So what, I'm doing just fine"

The irony is that it's all in your mind

That's why Hell is so vicious and cruel, but you'll just go on an oblivious fool

• Silent in the Morning -

You're silent in the morning, suspended in the trees

Lunch time comes, you've found your voice, it brings me to my knees

The volume just increases and the resounding echoes grow

Until once again, I bask in morning stillness I love so

The target that I shoot for seems to move with every breath

I tighten all my arteries and make one last request

Divine creation hears me, and he squashes me with fear

I think that this exact thing happened to me just last year

• Sleep -

I can't describe the feeling when I'm in my bed asleep, and then

I wake up with a vision blurred and all my efforts are deterred

To reconstruct this image lost

There're certain things my mind won't do, and even though they're very few

The image glistens like a gem, repairing is not one of them

So I'm awake, though in my mind, the image that so unrefined

Is calling to me from the deep, tempting me to fall asleep

• Spices -

A single cloud within a storm descends and leaves behind a form

Someone that you knew appears in front of you: a woman's figure, rain-cloud-born

She blinks but doesn't see you yet, she shivers and is soaking wet

You cross the sand and take her hand, a lifetime passed since last you met

Centuries now fall away, seems so long since yesterday

When you were young and in the sun, you let your woman slip away

You take the hands that you have missed and kiss the lips you haven't kissed

For many years, taste the tears

Spices that you can't resist

• Split Open and Melt -

I wake up on my stomach with my face between my hands

And crawl along the floor toward the doorway

Jumping to my feet, I try to put myself together

But I feel it in my knees and the room begins to spin

I slip and bump my head and raise a welt, split open and melt

• Spread it Round -

Together we are all alone, united on a spinning stone

So if your love is running down, don't concentrate it....spread it round

• Steep -

Much ado is all I see, in fact, it is surrounding me

The seething crowd intrudes all day until I'm finally swept away

Although I thought my roots were deep, I sank them into hillsides steep

And riverbanks that soon erode and canyons that have overflowed

• Strange Design -

Dripping in this strange design, none is yours and far less mine

Hold the wheel, read the sign, keep the tires off the line

Just relax, you're doing fine

Swimming in this real thing I call life

Can I bring a few companions on this ride

• Taste -

I'm down, and I will drag you along and around

Until you burst into song and unwind, and leave your new life behind for a while

Cause I can see through the lines

• Tela -

As I look into her eyes, my frozen heart begins to thaw

And burn, 'til layer after layer melts away into a pool

The sky blue mirror of her eyes

And my soul is made of marble, but in her gaze I crumble into dust

And drift away on the wind: the wind from beyond the mountain

• Theme From the Bottom -

Pantomime mixtures of heaven and earth

Jumbled events that have less than no worth

Time in the forest to dig under rocks

Or float in the ocean asleep in a box

Or sink just below all the churning and froth

And swim to the light source or fly like a moth

So toss away stuff you don't need in the end

But keep what's important and know who's your friend

• Thunderhead -

I need a new way to express myself

So you don't need to guess what otherwise I'd say aloud

And watch it float just like a cloud, high up above you like a thunderhead

But you would just look down instead and wait 'til foggy skies appear

And vapor clouds all disappear

And with them, all my words for you have softly sublimated too

And you'll just hope that I've moved on, so you'll look up and find me gone

• Train Song -

The glass on the lantern casts 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 followed 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

• Two Versions of Me -

Ten mountains stand tall, nine seasons since fall

Eight eons of sand, seven oceans began

Now there is none, no more light from the sun

Now waters run free, no more phish in the sea

One more name on the slate, one less minute to wait

Too busy to see two versions of me

One more bottle is dry, one less reason to try

Six feet underneath, five fingers don't reach

Four seconds it seems for all of our dreams

Three oceans away, two children at play

Too bust to see two versions of me

• Vultures -

Blind me with ambition like a razor to the throat

Cast aside your foolish pride, I'll cast the final vote

The feelings you've been waiting for are clawing thru your skin

And if you look above, you'll see the vultures moving in

• Wading in the Velvet Sea -

I took a moment from my day and wrapped it up in things you say

Mailed it off to your address, you'll get it pretty soon...unless

The packaging begins to break and all the points I tried to make

Are tossed with thoughts into a bin, time leaks out my life leaks in

You won't find moments in a box, nd someone else will set your clocks

I took a moment from my day and wrapped it up in things you say

And mailed it off to you.....

• Walls of the Cave -

I'm leaving you a message, I'm leaving you a trace

I'm leaving thoughts for you I hope that time will not erase

And when the moment comes to read the words that I engrave

You'll find them on the walls of the cave

I know you heard the question but you didn't make a sound

And when it fell you caught my heart before it hit the ground

But if you ever need the names of those you couldn't save

You'll find them on the walls of the cave

• Waste -

Don't want to be a farmer working in the sun

Don't want to be an outlaw always on the run

Don't want to be a climber reaching for the top

Don't want to be anything where I don't know when to stop

A dream, it's true

But I'd see it through if I could be wasting my time with you

So if I'm inside your head, don't believe what you might have read

You'll see what I might have said

To hear it, come waste your time with me

• Water in the Sky -

Listen as she speaks to you

Hear the voices flutter through the barriers arranged by you

Close the shutters, draw the shades

Filter out the everglades, glistening with evening dew

Thunder calls through waterfalls, rising tides, and ocean walls

I can hear you when you sigh

Listen as she speaks to you, hear the voices flutter through

Watch them fall and let them lie

• Waves -

How is it I never see the waves that bring her words to me

For though unseen, they drift around, they catch my breath and knock me down

I feel them quickly swirling by as they withdraw with my reply

And slip into the dark of night as I attempt to stay upright

Instead I'm stranded on my knees as words depart upon the breeze

Which quickly drifts away from here and possibly won't reach her ear

If we could see the many waves that flow through clouds and sunken caves

She'd sense at least the words that sought her on the wind and underwater

• The Wedge -

It's the ocean flowing in our veins and it's the salt that's in our tears

We could have come so very far in at least as many years

• Wolfman's Brother -

I might be on a side street or a stairway to the stars

I hear the high pitched cavitation of propellers from afar

So with meaningless excitement and a smooth atonal sound

It's like a cross between a hurricane and a ship that's run aground