The Song Fight Bulletin Board

What is your favorite Phish song?

Ooh, that's a hard one for me, because I love so many of their songs. My first introduction to them was "Rift" which is such an amazing concept album, and on that I think my favorite song is "Maze." And the album production on "Story of the Ghost" has literally directly influenced every single one of my albums, as I've always used it as the template for song selection and cadence.

But as far as individual songs go I think I'd have to say "Bouncing Around the Room."

I also like The Mango Song though.

I have a deep deep love for Phish. My favorite Phish part of a song is the first 5:30 of you enjoy myself. I like the Boy, Man, God, Shit part but it's just easing me down after that awesome intro. By the way those beautiful arpeggios at the beginning of YEM is the hardest guitar part I've ever tried to play.

Divided Sky is another contender. So musical so whimsical.

Reba is probably my favorite. It's bookended by a super catchy zany pop song, but in the middle is just one of the best solos ever.

I think the albums Rift and Billy Breathes are maybe the best albums, they flow together beautifully and each song makes it's neighbor stronger.

I have every studio album, and a lot of the live ones ( they must have some record for most released live albums).

Reba is my pick.

Yeah it seems like every single one of their concerts eventually got released as a live album, and they've done hundreds of concerts. Phans can be kind of crazy when it comes to revisiting that stuff.

I always found Farmhouse to be pretty disappointing, but yeah Billy Breathes is amazing. I love the structure of Story of the Ghost though; you have an A-side that builds up with tension that suddenly gets released, then a B-side that starts out shaky and introverted and then eventually builds up again into this amazing lush reprise, with a relaxing outro.

Yeah, I used to be pissed off about Hoist. Hoist at least had a bunch of good songs on it. Then Farmhouse came out. By far their most forgettable album. Certainly the last one anyone should own, and only do it to complete the collection. I mean its still Phish so there is some quality to it, but no where near the magic of their other albums. Round Room has some good stuff on it, and I really like the 1st track on Joy. Oh yes, Story of the Ghost is a very good album too.

When I haven't listened to Phish in a while, I usually go to Lawn Boy to get my Phix.

A Picture of Nectar hasn't been mentioned yet. That one is definitely my fa]"vorite Phish album. My favorite song, though, is the epic "Fluffhead"/"Fluff's Travels" suite.

"Waste" is my favorite of their more traditional song-oriented stuff. Gorgeous song. It reminds me of Atom Heart Mother era Pink Floyd, which is my favorite Floyd.

Farmhouse and Hoise have been named as disappointing albums, on which I agree; Down with Disease, Sample in a Jar, Sand, and First Tube are great songs though.

Picture of Nectar is great yeah. That's where the Mango Song is from, at least in my mostly-no-live-recordings experience (aside from A Live One, Slip Stitch and Pass, and a couple of bootlegs I downloaded off of Napster back when Napster was Napster). Catapult is also a fun little interlude.

The good songs on Hoist are very good radio singles but they don't really do it for me as far as Phish songs. I mean, what I've heard of Hoist is definitely good music - it just isn't good Phish, and doesn't scratch the itches that lead me to listen to them in the first place. It's unfortunate that radio singles (or YouTube singles, now, I guess) are still what make or break a band for the general listening public.

Phish is one of those bands that in my circles I was the first to know about and had the pleasure of turning my friends on to. The Prisoner (drummer from Zipline) and I went to college together and his favorite was "Stash" , which is probably my favorite on Nectar, which is a top shelf Phish album to be sure. If we were to ever cover a Phish song, it would probably be Stash.

Several years back, I ran a project that I called "The iPod Experiment" on my Google+ profile. I had friends, acquaintances, and a few strangers recommend new music to me, and I listened to every single recommendation. If I hadn't heard it prior, it went on the list and I eventually wrote a review of it. The first time there were 165 albums in total, and the following year I did it again with a restriction limiting it to 100 albums.

A friend of mine who has especially idiosyncratic taste in music recommended the Phish album The Siket Disc. I'd heard very little Phish at that point, maybe two songs. I wasn't a fan of jam-bands at that point either (they've since grown on me a bit), but I was looking forward to giving them a fair shake. If nothing else, I was expecting lively musicianship. A tight band. This was, I've gathered, the absolute wrong album to start on. I posted my reaction to it, and it was not a good one. Various people commented with all the other Phish albums I should try instead, but I never really got around to it... And then Nick asked this question, and I guess the timing was just right, because I was in the mood to try something new and follow up on those other recommendations. This week I've listened to Farmhouse and Billy Breathes. Those two albums are worlds apart from the post-rock noodling of Siket, and I'm glad I finally got around to giving the band another shot.

Aside from the tracks comprising The Siket Disc, the only Phish song I was familiar with before was "Round Room," which I think still merits an honorable mention. My new favorite is "Farmhouse." Bold move, opening their album with an upbeat rocker about cluster flies.

Dude! (Jon Eric)

you MUST at least skim through these 3 albums: Lawn Boy, Picture of Nectar, and Rift. When and if you become a fan then you will be ready for Junta.

This is the thing about Phish that makes them so intimidating. When you talk about what you know, some fan jumps out and says something like "You need to listen to these other three albums before you're a real fan!"

And the scary thing is, no two Phish-fans I've ever met have had the same list of "essential" Phish albums.

I know I have a copy of Picture of Nectar somewhere around here, but I don't recall whether I ever listened to it (which is as good as a "no," really). I'm sure the other three are on Google Music or Spotify. I'll check 'em out at some later date, because I don't want to overload myself with new material and lose track of what's what.

My list of albums you should listen to is Rift, Billy Breathes, and Story of the Ghost.

I actually still haven't listened to Lawn Boy or Junta.

I actually still haven't listened to Lawn Boy or Junta.

That explains why they're not on your list!

I was rather baffled about that.

Generic wrote:And the scary thing is, no two Phish-fans I've ever met have had the same list of "essential" Phish albums.

Mine is... probably Picture of Nectar, Rift, and Story of the Ghost. Rift is the one album on everyone's list so far. It is their most prog album, but not the hardest to get into (that would be Junta, which is awesome, but probably not for the "uninitiated").

Farmhouse is a good starting point though. If you like Billy Breathes and Farmhouse, both very accessible by Phish standards, you'll probably enjoy Hoist and Undermind, the latter of which features the gorgeous "Secret Smile". Beautiful song.

Nectar is really good too. I just think Billy Breathes edges it out, and I felt like we were limited to three. For some reason.

Three was just an arbitrary number I threw out.

At this point, I've heard three Phish albums, hated one and liked the other two. I liked Farmhouse more than Billy Breathes, but they were both good on a first listen. Probably some months down the line I'll be in a discovering mood and put on one of the other albums you guys recommended.

I'm gathering, from the general arc of discussion here, that Phish are generally perceived as an "album" band, and that the songs tend to work in context, is that right?

Some people would insist that they aren't an album band, they're a band you have to see live to TRULY appreciate.

I don't like that mindset.

Wolfman's Brother, Chalkdust Torture, Down with Disease... umm I love their cover of Talking Heads "Cities".
-bill

I'm not the biggest Phish fan, but I love "Waste".