i am very interested in all of the spectacular band that is phish’s lyrics but would love to find out the deeper meanings behind their goofy spontaneous lyrics… i know about a few songs & the whole gamehendge story but am interested in learning mooore so share sum of that great phish wisdom 
^ That being said, one of the things I love the most about Phish is the nonsensical lyrics to a lot of the tunes and then hearing the song live at a show (most of the time on ‘substances’) and ‘interpreting’ new meanings into the lyrics that I may not have ‘realized’ before.
Kind of like how you make sense of dream sequences whilst dreaming … you ‘believe’ their meaning and connection whilst in that dream state but once you wake up you’re like, ‘WTF?’
I hope I never wake up from Phish.
Anyways … one example is in ‘The Wedge…’
[i]We’re bobbing on the surface
and the shadow glides below
They say she feels my heartbeat
Oh…But how I’ll never know
That it’s the ocean flowing in our veins
Oh…That it’s the salt that’s in our tears
Oh…'Cause we could have come so very far
Oh…In at least as many years!
Take the highway through the Great Divide (x2)[/i]
I’d always thought from the beginning that this part was about human evolution, and how ‘we’ve come so very far’ in the evolutionary chain. And the ‘bobbing on the surface’ part is like when we were single-celled organisms living in the age of Pangea, and now it’s the same atoms in our tears and blood that was in the primordial soup eons ago.
But the stuff above is pretty obvious. The part I ‘interpret’ is that when they sing ‘Take the Highway to the Great Divide’ I think of the evolutionary phenomenon known as the Cambrian explosion when all of a sudden (cosmically speaking) all these complex organisms started to differentiate and take shape.
Yep.
That’s funny because I’ve always thought the Wedge was about having sex with a woman, and that the Great Divide, and the Wedge itself are expressions of that magical triangle from which all life flows.
Shows where my brain is.
"What ever you do, take care of your shoe’s! " was always a goofy, but uplifting line for me…
Cavern is most definitely about the vag.
A frothy cap, a steady slap…
Oh, Fishman, you devil.
I read in the PB that it was coincidence, but I still think Walls of the Cave is about 9/11.
Funny story…
I think the show was 6.19.04 at SPAC.
I have 3 others who are pretty much my show mates. My brother, his wife, and our friend. When we go to an outdoor show, we had this tiny little system in order to give ourselves a bit of room. We’d show up, find our spot, and create a pile of crap (bags, shoes, etc) and then sit around said pile of crap.
When the shows would start, we’d be able to create a little bit of space between us and our pile of crap and therefore, have room to dance and whatnot.
Every once in a while, we’d get a train of people moving through the crowd and we’d do our best to block our ‘crap’ from being trampled. But, as we all know, that doesn’t always work.
We’ll, a train came along during Cavern, and our pile got pretty much stomped on…to which my sister-in-law yelped some concern about her ‘new shoes’. I leaned in and said the band has a message for you…
30 seconds later…"Whatever you do…take care of your shoes’
We had a good laugh.
It’s nothing to do with lyrical meaning, but random Phish trivia: Mike’s bassline in the intro melody to It’s Ice is the Benny Hill theme. 
Oh yeah I forgot about that! I thought so when I first heard it.
Attempt to stay on topic: Dinner & a Movie has great lyrics. Dead serious, love 'em.
Yes, and the end to “Foam” is Joplin’s “The Entertainer.”
One of the coolest things about Phish is that the meanings (and sometimes lyrics) are not explained in detail to the fan or the media…it leaves an open door for our imaginations to actually be imaginations. Interpret them however you’d like…cause it’s your song too! 
^
True, but a lot of them are explained. The Phish Companion has a lot of info on songs.
Like about how Fluffhead was about The Dude’s older brother and how they also saw a guy at a GD show with cotton balls stuck to his head.
Ha ha!! That’s right…why don’t I ever get to see funny stuuff like that?
“There’ve been times that I wondered; times that I don’t. There’ve been concepts I’ll ponder and concepts I won’t ever see. God isn’t one of these [concepts I won’t ever see]. Which did you think I meant?”
“Nothing I see can be taken from me.”
I know this was written by Tom, and Tom’s not big on the God thing, but that’s how I interpret these words (with the double negative and all). Bug’s a wonderful, wonderful tune.
“It doesn’t matter.”
And the end of OKP Ceremony is Shave and a Haircut minus one note., I think.
Got a blank space where my mind should be
Got a Clif Bar and some cold green tea
Got clouds that seem to follow me
Got strange demands piled up on me
Got memories, Got memories
Memories of being free
Gonna steal time from the faulty plan
Gonna act as though i’m still a man
Gonna give you one last chance to see
Gonna shrug demands off of me
Gonna dream, gonna dream, gonna dream, gonna dream
Dream of being free…
My fav new lyrics…This song speaks volumes of were Trey is at right now…
^Woah, nice find!
checks joy-book