If you like this part, take a listen to the show opening Wilson from 11/29/03. Not only is it a strong version of the song, when Mike delivers the “Hendge”, he says it so raspily and loudly, that it cracks Trey up to the point where he misses the next couple of words in the song.
They had so much fun during that first set and the music showed it. Gad, why aren’t these guys playing together?
So do you guys like the short versions with little jamming, or the “heavy metal” versions with a long rock solo by trey. I actually prefer teh latter, just because the song is over too fast when the jam isn’t there. The rock solo helps build up to the “so you got me back thinking, that you’re the worst one…” part. I really enjoy teh 7.19.03 wilson. It was my second show ever, it was the first wilson of the tour, and it had the rock solo (with one particular riff by trey I always love). Even though trey messed up the lyrics, it was still great. And it was placed nicely after a great REBA.
My favorite wilson ever is the hampton 98 version, which leads into my favorite BBFCFM!!! Those 10 minutes are soooooooo fun.
7/10/99 is an overlooked and great version, IMO. That first set is just golden.
All Wilsons are great! Classic classic classic song, like 12/30/94.
I’m so glad Wilson was on A Live One because it’s one of those quintessential Phish songs. Never dropped from rotation that I can remember…
5-20-89…
i prefer tha band singing th intro on this…
also…i never really thought about this but didnt trey say that the band would never put any of the gamehendge songs on an album and make money off of them?
You know I think I heard that somewhere, too, but I think it was in reference to a full ‘Gamehendge’ album.
Wilson’s one of those songs that I think I prefer the earlier versions of. It seems to be like a great stadium rock type song, but that’s what makes it seem more appealing to me in a small club/bar setting. I can’t imagine what people must have thought of Wilson when they first started playing it. It is such an important part of the phish canon, and one of the songs not totally butchered at Coventry. I don’t know if they ever really played a bad Wilson. Did they?
This is also one of my girlfriends favorite phish songs.
Funny, when I see them playing it in the small European club in Bittersweet Motel I thought it was funny of them to play such a big arena style song in such a small venue, not even realizing that they used to play it in small venues all the time.
Holy crap I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned 3.13.93 in this thread.
A nearly 8 minute version from '93!!
They tease “Hydrogen” heavily in the last section before BLAT BOOM, and then nail the ending. They’re also teasing something else in the beginning and middle of the song, but I can’t figure it out.
This is the perfect placement for Wilson, right before an Antelope set 1 closer. Awesome.
My favorite Wilson is 12-31-92 … mainly cuz Trey nails all the high notes ("duke of lizards!!), but also cuz the guitar solos are great. And because while Page is playing the theme music for Jeopardy!, Trey does a Simpsons secret language thing … I don’t think it’s necessarily their best Wilson (they’re pretty standard anyway, right?), but this is the version that made me friends with the song.
This one has the band singing the intro, and not for too long, methinks.
Wow…3.22.93 Wilson is exactly how I want this song to be played.
Lots of organ from Page, tight playing and singing from Trey, and a few choice bombs from Mike. So energetic.
Perfect.
a PERFECT SHOW too
i’ve always never been able to figure out what trey is saying near the end of the song - the part that starts with something like blat boom. … dont know the rest. is he saying real words or just jibberish?
blat
boom
ba-diddy doom
biddy-boom
What does trune mean?
^Anyone?
As in, “I beg it all trune for you”?
I really dug the Wilson/Buried Alive combo but the YEM>Wilson>YEM was just really special. 
Who’s got my 80’s version where there is one dude in the crowd yelling ‘Willllllsoooooooon’ as the band plays the intro? It’s been many years since I listened to this show and I just can’t recall what one it is. It might be me but I found it both awesome and hilarious when I heard this specific version many years ago. It’s awesome in the fact that one guy knows the song that well in the 80’s and he is singing the intro way before the crowd ever took part in doing so and also hilarious because it’s just one dude singing a song while no one around him probably has any idea what’s going on.
[edit]
I decided to get down to the bottom of this. Using the phishtracks.com complete streaming show list I started in 1988 to see if I could find the elusive show with the first fan Wilson chanter. The first instance I heard the band singing the Wilson intro was 1998-03-11 so hopefully I chose the correct starting point of 1988. 1990-01-27 was the first in a series of Wilsons that starts off with a sweet guitar shredding by Trey. It’s just the Wilson chords but after listening to dozens of the same ba-dum, ba-dum intro this was a nice change of pace and gives the song a more rock feel to it. This style of intro lasted for a couple months. At this point the crowds are growing noticeably larger and I’m all but certain now this had to be a show outside of the northeast. Now I’m through 1991 and need to stop. I know it was from the 80’s! Maybe I cut them off too early and instead need to listen until the lyrics start up the next time through.
Looks like 1987-08-21 was the first band Wilson chant. Soon after I’m back in and through 1988 to no avail.