When we left off, it was the spring of 1994, and Phish had just gotten their first hit on MTV with the okay but more-equipped-for-long-road-trips-when-you-need-as-much-music-as-you-can-get "Down With Disease". It was preceded on Hoist by the epic "If I Could", and came after the song "Julius",

The name Phish comes from the sound that the waves of a body of water makes on a nice calm, cool day "Phisssssssshhhhhhhhhhh". And it was one of those things that made lots of people who liked to bring fiddles and acoustic guitars to the beach at night thought was really cool. It became a minute source of identification for people who wanted more then anything to start a rock band...but were being made to go to college. Phish features the very best college-educated rockers this side of Ween.

As "Down with Disease" got them attention, they became known as a great "live" act almost primarily due to their very passionate fan base that toured with them and was outraged that "Down with Disease" was what was being used to introduce them to the rest of the world. Now when people saw them in school, they would laugh rather then actually...know.

It appeared that Phish would take baby steps from this point. They had worked an AWFUL long time to get here, more then eleven years. And they weren't doing it with the proper perception.

But then something would happen that changed their fortunes forever. Out West...

The death...of Jerry Garcia.

Suddenly millions and millions of touring Greatful Dead fans, going dutifully to every live act, were left with a band that was breaking apart as fast as it could. Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh each went and started touring colleges. Bob Weir and Krutzmann went to go...I dunno...play NBA Live 08 on Playstation 3. But this is where Phish would come in -- for one single summer, they would go on tour...with multi-colored dancing bears ala Grateful Dead on every single one of their ads.

It worked.

If anything, it provided over half-a-million saddened Grateful Dead fans to really really hate Phish...which made them the topic of conversation in over 4,000,000 dorms and smoky apartments on colleges nationwide. Everyone was guilty of wearing a Phish t-shirt with the 1960s fish-eye lens and multi-colored pattern. And everyone else was guilty of calling them dorks. In truth, many people who tell you Phish is far far far better of a live act then a studio act is simply remembering their time at a Phish concert to be alot more fun then when they were listening to Rift on their walkman while walking towards a math final. People started to try to see for themselves. It was one of the only times in music history when PEOPLE ACTUALLY LISTENED FOR THEMSELVES.

With "A Live One", which concludes with the very best rendition of "Squirming Coil" anyone will ever hear, Phish had solidified themselves by 1995. If you listened to Philadelphia's legendary band Ween with Phish, you had yourself some great music.

But it would start to go downhill. It began with "Billy Breathes".

Billy Breathes is a very clean, bland, plain yuppie Phish album, and the only good song on this album happens to be one your girlfriend will like called "Waste".

Yeah, a waste this album was.

Then came "Story of the Ghost" (1998) which features a song "Birds of a Feather" which is good but I've heard my own friends play the beginning with an electric guitar in a way that Trey hasn't. (All that open space in the beginning? You should hear what my friend Zev does).

New Years Eve, 1999. They play a show in Fort Lauderdale? that goes on for EIGHT HOURS.

August, 2000 -- The rest of the group hates Trey, because while a classical piano player can be hired from the Boston Pops immediately Page McDonnell, your boy Jon Fishman does some bullcrap with a vacuum cleaner (I'm not kidding), and Mike Gordon, the supposed George Harrison of the group, comes up with songs like "It's Ice" and...you know what, I like Mike Gordon. But the point is, they had fights over and over again. And this wasn't the Beatles where a few of the members could claim equal stake. Mike, Page, Jon, do what the HELL TREY SAYS!!!!!

2003- They get back together.

2005 -- They break up again, failing to produce anything good since "Story of the Ghost", and anything legendary since that span from 1989-1994.

And now your official Phish songlist.

1) "Down with Disease". In all fairness, this very bland song leads very nicely into a great song.

2) "If I Could". That's Alison Krauss doing the backup vocal.

3) "Esther" from Junta.

4) "Golgi Apparatus" from Junta.

5) "Horn" from Rift

6) "Rift" from Rift

7) "Fast Enough for You" from Rift

8) "Maze" from Rift

9) "Weigh" from Rift

10) "The Horse" on Rift

11) "Silent in the Morning" from Rift

12) "Fluffhead" from Junta

13) Whatever the song is that goes "Wash your face and drive me to Forenzey"

14) "Sample in A Jar" from Hoist

15) "Stash" from Picture of Nectar

16) "The Landlady" from Picture of Nectar

17) "Llama" from Picture of Nectar

18) "The Mango Song" from Picture of Nectar

19) "Glide" from Picture of Nectar

20) "Wolfman's Brother" from Hoist

21) "Squirming Coil" from a Live One.

22) "David Bowie" on Junta

23) "Bouncing Round the Room" on Lawn Boy

24) "Strange Design" on one of the countless bootlegs out there, since Phish allows you to pirate their stuff.

25) "Scent of a Mule" on Hoist (yeah boooyyyy)

26) "Wolfman's Brother" on Hoist if you have time

27) "Lizards" from a friend of yours' CD he made when he saw them in 1993. It's not on any album, and there's only one good version of it, where Trey plays the electric guitar...and the drums slowly come in...Trey normally starts to play the slow part all fast to be cute.

Maybe the other members of Phish had a point when they started arguing with him afterall...

Now CLICK BELOW!!

http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Plot-of-the-next-Dark-Knight-movie

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http://hubpages.com/hub/Phish-Part-2