headbangs
I remember reading an article where Trey said lots of early lyrics were written for the purpose of hearing their interaction with the other instruments; consonance with no meaning in mind whatsoever.
I think the later lyrics are a lot easier to get meaning from and relate to on an emotional level. Pretty much anything on Story of the Ghost gets me lyrically every time.
That’s how Nancy Taube wrote the lyrics for I Didn’t Know and Haley’s Comet.
I think Gotta Jiboo is the most contraversial. With slavery innuendo and rumors?
I love em especially when you play the song to someone who has never heard it and their faces changes as they realize that those are the only lines. I’m not sure if it’s better than Why Don’t We Do It In the Road but it’s close.
Strangely, one of my favorite tunes to sing along with is Clod…complete total nonsense and I love it.
And has anyone ever figured out the meaning behind Contact?
Er, what?
Mike’s attempt at a kid’s song.
i love the lyrics “black corners come seize me” from i didn’t know.
i think in the phish companion interview said it was referring to the black corners of your mind.
that makes me think about the parts of our brains that we don’t use. like the deep primal parts that we stopped using long ago as other parts developed and we had no use for them anymore. or parts that haven’t been activated yet because our environment hasn’t caused us to evolve to use them.
Gotta love a good love song to your car.
“I’d never leave home and drive real far away without you…”
i read somewhere that “Ocelot” was actually written about a Cheetah but Ocelot fit the rhythm better.
trippy stuff.
[i]Appletoast, bed-heated furblanket rat
Laugh when they shoot you
Say, please don’t do that!
Control for smilers can’t be bought
The solar garlic starts to rot
Was it for this my life I sought?
Maybe so, Maybe not . . .[/i]
The Stash lyrics, even though they are some of the most nonsensical, happen to be some of my favorites. I think its their ability to say something straight out of Wonderland, like furblanket rats and solar garlic, then immediately bounce back to say something meaningful.
Control for smilers can’t be bought . . .hmmm, you can decode that in many different ways I think.
“But I learned my lesson, and yes I still remember the last one. This time will be different, until I do it again…”
I really love these lyrics. Sounds just like myself.
Oh man, Joy is full of great shit…
“Obstacles are stepping stones (that lead us to our goals)!
Fences are filters (that purify our souls)!”
And my favorite…
“INSIDE THIS SILENT SCENE, ALL ARE FREE, ALL ARE FREE, SECOND TIME AROUND…”
If you can heal the symptoms
but not affect the cause
it’s quite a bit like trying to heal
the gunshot wound with gauze
if you instead attempt to rest
the pistol from the hand
then I would not be able to equate my life with sand
Flowing through the hourglass
pushing through the funnel
turn once more and racing all your siblings for the tunnel
slide like the silicone
embrace you as you fall
then bounce around and let your brothers
crush you to the wall
I would choose my own religion
worship my own spirit
but if he ever preached to me
I wouldn’t want to hear it
I’d drop him a forgotten god
languishing in shame
and then if I hit stormy seas
I’d have myself to blame
From what I gather, this song is about what is wrong with society. The first and third verses are pretty straightforward, but the second verse has always left me a bit perplexed. My interpretation is this: You live your life out in the rat race, competing against (and sometimes hurting in the process) your own species for your own gain. But this is this “justified” because everyone else is doing the same. Sure, there are going to be people who help you along the way, but they are just as focused on “reaching the end of the tunnel” as anyone else.
I think I heard that Trey’s great great nana had slaves and Jiboo was an old work song for the ladies. Years later I saw a thread on PT that delved into the subject as well. If it’s on PT then it’s got to be true. 
David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie
these are some of the deepest lyrics ever put to music…
But what about
UB-40, UB-40, UB-40???
I am finally just beginning to see the light behind First Tube’s message. 
Manteca is definitely the most profound song lyrically in the Phish canon.
my interpretation of a couple songs as i was listening to them in miami:
character zero:
i had an epiphany realizing who they wrote this song about! each show we go to, my boyfriend and i always look for the most out there person and name them Character Zero for the night. he went to a few shows during the fall tour and said that he saw the same guy there every time - a really old, wild guy. he and his friends called this guy Old Man Phish.
when i was in miami and they played character zero, i realized that the song is about Old Man Phish!! trey must see this guy at every show, so eventually he decided to write a song about him. (“i see the man volcain” or whatever the man’s name is). So there actual is a Character Zero. he is Old Man Phish, and he has his own song.
stash:
i love the way phish songs tell stories. in a great version of a song the music portrays the message of the lyrics. the miami version of stash was very dark and tense, and i felt like the lyrics were resonating with trey as he played. “was it for this my life i sought? maybe so and maybe not…” i definitely felt the struggle of the main character in the song spending his whole life striving to get this “stash” and then realizing maybe it wasn’t worth it after all - maybe the consuming desire to get the “stash” destroyed his life in the process. at the end of the song when they go back to the chorus, the band started singing the lyrics again but trey wasn’t ready yet - he was really into the song and the music he played in that extra minute or so at the end really portrayed the intensity of the emotional struggle of the character in the song.