Your First Notes of Phish

Phish General
#1

What was your immediate reaction to the very first time you heard a Phish song?

  • Immediately HATED it
  • Disliked and dismissed it
  • Thought it was all right, but didn’t motivate you
  • Liked it and sought more of it
  • Immediately LOVED it

0 voters

Was listening to PON this morning coming into work, and recalled when Llama started playing, that this cut was my very first experience with Phish music, and I reacted negatively to it. As a matter of fact, I never even played the rest of the CD, one that I bought in a record club deal, you know, 15 CDs for 99 cents if you agree to buy eight more over the next year.

Wasn’t until ALO came out several months later, and I heard BATR on the radio, that I was encouraged to re-listen to PON and buy ALO. It was all over after that cause I was hooked. But initially, not so.

#2

Julius was the first notes of Phish I ever heard, thanks to Hoist.

Like yourself, it didn’t sell me on the band. I liked it, but didn’t love it.

A Live One was my next album, and well… here I am.

#3

They played me some of Lawn Boy on the way to my first show. I think it was Bathtub Gin, and it didn’t excite me. Then they opened with “I Didn’t Know”. Vacuum’d.

I was dumbfounded at my first show, honestly couldn’t tell if I even liked it or not. I was definitely impressed by the show, but my brain just didn’t know what to do with them. It wasn’t until I got the newsletter in the mail that I finally figured out that I loved this band.

#4

First Phish I heard was the album version of Tweezer, and I liked it. It pushed some button deep in my brain, but at the time I was too young to understand what I was feeling about it. I realize now that I had a change in my view of what music could be that day.

It was while I was at a bleak boarding school in north Georgia, and they happened to have some Phish albums in the jukebox in the student center. My friend Ryan put on Picture of Nectar, starting at Tweezer. At first I was like, “Dude, this is a bunch of bullshit. What are they talking about?” and he said, “Just listen.” And I did. And then Tweezer, Mango, Chalkdust, Faht, Catapult, Tweeprize changed my whole perception of music.

This was not music in the sense that I was used to hearing it, even being a longtime Grateful Dead fan thanks to my mother. The dissonance, humor, weirdness, and mystery blended so perfectly to me. Ever since that day, I would always put Phish on the jukebox (and all the other kids would yell at me that it sucked, but fuck em :smiley: ), and my appreciation for the band continued to grow.

Then, a bombshell was dropped (no pun intended, but now I realize that it is, indeed, a pun). Ryan brought in the Live Phish release from the Bomb Factory in Dallas, 5/7/94. He said, “You like Tweezer right? Well listen to this shit.” And he played me that Tweezerfest, and then my brain proceeded to freak the fuck out. I kept thinking, “What is going on? What song are they playing? How are they doing this all at the same time?” I still wonder some of these things to this day. :slight_smile:

But yeah, Ryan Greene from somewhere in New York, if you’re out there reading this OKP, you, my friend, are the reason I am now completely addicted to Phish. Words cannot express my thanks to you for introducing me to this wonderful band that has brought so much JOY into my life.

#5

The first notes of phish I ever heard was the chorus from Reba. I was about 6 years old and thought to myself, “what the hell kind of lyrics are bag it, tag it, sell it to the butcher in the store.” 10 years later I realized what a fool I was then and here we are today :clap:

#6

I have to go with liked it and sought it out. When I first heard YEM, and Guyute; we were at work in a factory with saws and what not running. Well at that time (about 5 years ago) I was coming out of the musical closet, so to speak and so when I hear it those two, I did some research and bought the only live Phish I could find that had both those on it. (The who hallo) well the Icculus to Wilson blew my mind and the rest is history…

#7

I remember hearing my sister play some of Story of the Ghost, and then hearing Bouncing on the radio. My first vivid Phish memory was probably the piano solo from Squirming Coil off of A Live One. I remember thinking “this really sounds like classical music, and it’s blowing my mind that it fits with what was just played”. I think I was about 13 years old, and just starting to turn the radio off in my life . . . :sunglasses:

#8

After hearing “a live one”, i was instantly hooked.
I had never heard anything even remotely like it.
I still love “a live one”. fucking love it!

#9

right! :thumbup:

#10

loved it, changed my life, continues too.

#11

My first Phish song was YEM. I was driving down a long swervy road and I remember the music just going with it. It was perfect and I’ve been hooked ever since.

#12

This was 1999, summer or early fall, and I believe it was Hoist.

Sample, Wolfman’s and Disease!

What a nOOb!

#13

1st time I heard Phish or anything about them was days before the Alpine 96 show.
Prior to the show I had no clue who they were, what they sounded like, or how many were in the band.
After partying WAY to hard in the lot I went into the show(I’d also like the point out that I never attended a show at Alpine either).

The first song I ever heard was My Friend, My Friend. BUT do to self medication I could not tell the songs apart. Or even tell when a song ended and a song began.
Listening to 8.10.96 again most of the songs have little to no break between tracks. So to me at the time of the show it was one long track.

A year later I went back to Alpine but this time I was much more educated on what I was going to see… Still self medicated. :crazy:

#14

I remember being in a park in North Portland Oregon (Mt Tabor) playing frisby with some new friends circa summer of 1992. A cassette was played on a jambox. You Enjoy Myself was the first tunes that I heard (Junta version). The initial musicial prog-rock that blew my mind piqued my interest for MORE.

#15

I went with “Liked it and sought more of it” though i didnt really look for more for a while. I remember i was 14 and i had just seen my first SCI show (first show ever) and i absolutely loved it. I had been listenig to the Dead for a while and loved what SCI did because i was a bluegrass musician. Well i remember someone at the show telling me about Phish and how they had just broken up but how amazing they were. Then a short period after that my brother (Ship of Fools) played several tracks off of Junta including YEM (first Phish song) Bowie, Divided sky, and i thought it was amazing but didnt really look for more for a while, partly because i dint know there was free Phish all over the interwebz. well fast forward to my 15th birthday im at the cd shop with my dad. I pick up 12-31-95 and LOOOVVVEED IT but i never got way addicted to them until i picked up ALO a year later and since then i have been in love. I’ll just say i was a casual listener from the ages of 14-16 then once i got ALO at age 16 i never looked back. :thumbup:

#16

The first Phish song I heard was Simple. Yes, Simple, not Sample. It was the 8/6/96 Red Rocks version. It is on a compilation of music recorded from Red Rocks called Carved in Stone (still have it, too!). Initially, it didn’t grab me. However, I do not consider that my formal introduction to them. About a year later, it hit me… I STILL don’t own any Phish! I knew about them for the longest time and just never got around to hearing their music. I knew that they were considered best live so I checked out ALO and LP11 from my library. I really liked ALO, especially Bouncin, Gumbo, and Stash. Then I heard LP11 and boy, did Phish hook me.

The best part about this is that when I was coming home from the library, looking at the Phish CD’s, I KNEW that I was getting into something great. (If that isn’t the understatement of the decade.)

#17

Chalkdust Torture was on our Pre-Game CD for our home Lacrosse games, and it was the one song I didn’t like…I told our coach to take it off, and he said no, that it was the best song on the CD…not too long ago I gave Phish a real listen because of all the hoopla created around my area after Bonnaroo, and I am now hooked for life…I don’t know what I didn’t like about Chalkdust at the time, but now it is one of my favorites no doubt, and it has to be the best Phish song to put on any kind of warm up playlist

#18

Loving these stories :thumbup: :clap:
Keep em coming!

#19

Sick thread.

#20

I remember the Junta version of You Enjoy Myself was the first Phish I ever heard. Then somehow I ended up getting A Live One. I pretty much only listened to YEM initially. I really got hooked on the ALO You Enjoy Myself for a long time before I started actively seeking more Phish. I remember that Chalkdust Torture (right after YEM on ALO) annoyed me because it was too rock 'n rollish for me at the time so I didn’t like it. But that YEM really had an impact on my life for nearly my entire freshman year of college. I just fell in love with it and it seems like I fell asleep to that song almost every night for that entire year. I am really surprised it took me as long as it did to begin to dive into live shows, but once I did… well, the rest is history. So basically, I owe it all to my best friend’s aunt, who gave me a burned copy of A Live One, which led to my undying love for PHISH.

Hurray!