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Rating: “Hey guys, how's it going today?”
“Oh Trey, all good! (they stop playing) We were trying out some pieces... are you ready to jam with us? (bass and drums start creating a swinging groove)”
“Yes... of course! - (he moves towards the amplifier, turns it on, plugs in the jack, adjusts some volumes... tries a bluesy B7 chord progression). You know, I'm a bit like that today... I don't know... this whole thing about them playing “Down With Disease” on MTV kind of shook me!”
“You're right! I also saw that Beavis And Butthead put our song on their show... weird!”
“Weird! (the B7 arpeggio continues but now it seems like a reggae)”
“Anyway, it doesn't change my life that much... even if...”
“Concert tomorrow...”
“Ah, how nice! You sure know how to lift my spirits right away!”
I like to imagine Phish in this way. Four reserved and elegant individuals who surely love to have fun composing always different music, ranging from blues to jazz to bossa nova to reggae to the most sincere rock, and they love to unleash incredible live performances - and those who have been lucky enough to be there talk about memorable evenings – they manage to blend all these genres into a mix that is always expertly balanced. In short, progressive but with taste and far from intellectual wanking or unnecessary tinkering.
Phish who do not seek that glitter and sequin fame - indeed I'm sure it almost bothers them to have their products consumed in a trivial way - who retain even after years of concerts and albums the same initial anarchic and refined spirit, aimed at reading and rereading every genre with lightness and sometimes almost with merry abandon. Never a false note, never a creation that isn’t harmoniously elegant and refined.
A band boasting incredible cohesion, whose concerts are always packed with people who are hard to categorize, very heterogeneous, just like their music and perhaps because - I think I'm not uttering a memorable blasphemy! - Trey Anastasio and his music convey fun and light-heartedness (quality-wise and in a 360-degree sense). Something that is surely better enjoyed live than on record.
It’s in this perspective I like to imagine that when concocting this “Hoist” back in 1994 they said to themselves “Now let's make a good Rock album!” and bam! – clearly in their own way – they went all out with funky blues riffs (“Down With Disease” and “Wolfman’s Brother”), with country-rock moods (“Julius”), or simply rock (“Axilla Part II” and “Sample In The Jar”) or simply country (“Scent Of A Mule” with Bela Flack on banjo, a special guest), enriching it with delicate moments like the one with Alison Krauss on vocals (“If I Could I Would") and “Dog Faced Boy” and the beautiful “LifeBoy” and the concluding “Demand”, the gem of the album, in which all of Phish’s art is summarized, a real jam of about nine minutes of jazzy prog rock, tense, tight, gutsy ending with a car crash and an angelic choir. Brilliant!
The result is an album that flows beautifully, determined and easy to listen to, which I feel compelled to recommend to anyone who loves good music and wants a nice breath of fresh air. Not essential but definitely a very pleasant album.
The situation at the end of the first listen is of the type 1 (the mirabilis one) “ Darn... it's already over!... wait a bit!!!- (the listener gets up, heads towards the stereo and presses the REPEAT ALL button. The first song starts and with it a sigh of relief along with a smile of satisfaction)
See ya!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Julius (04:42)
Danger
I've been told to expect it
I begin my descent
Down the cold granite steps
And who could have turned among those I confide in?
I think that I know what I haven't known yet
'Cause a week is a month
and an hour a day
When your reaching just pushes it further away
With your past and your future precisely divided
Am I at that moment?
I haven't decided
And stretching out into the sea... Aquitana
Is that what the prophet told me he saw?
You gave it to me but I really don't want it
I came out on top by the luck of the draw
'Cause a week is a month and an hour a day
When your reaching just pushes it further away
And what's the return on the faith I've provided?
I think that I know now but I haven't decided
dont take another, dont take another, dont take another step
dont blame it on yourself
you lay on your brother while your sleeping
you'll wake up in the morning and be gone.
02 Down With Disease (04:07)
Down with disease
Three weeks in my bed
Trying to stop these demons that keep
Dancing in my head
Down with disease
And I'm up before the dawn
A thousand barefoot children outside
Dancing on my lawn
Dancing on my lawn, and I keep
Chorus
Waiting for the time when I can finally say
This has all been wonderful but now I'm on my way
But when I think it's time to leave it all behind
I try to find a way to
But there's nothing I can say to
Make it stop
(Stop, stop, stop, stop)
(Stop, stop, stop, stop)
(Stop, stop, stop, stop)
(Stop, stop, stop)
Down with disease
And the jungles in my mind
They're climbing up my waterfalls and
Swingin' on my vines
So I try to hear the music
But I'm always losing time
'Cause they're stepping on my rhythm and they're
Stealin' all my lines
Stealin' all my lines and I keep
[chorus]
06 Lifeboy (06:54)
Swinging on the lifeline
Fraying bits of twine
Entangled in the remnants of the
Knot I left behind
And asking you to help me make it
Finally unwind
But God never listens to what I say
God never listens to what I say
And you don't get a refund
If you overpray
And when the line is breaking
And when I'm near the end
When all the time spent leading
I've been following instead
When all my thoughts and memories are
Left hanging by a thread
God never listens...
Stranded on this slender string
The minutes seem to last a lifetime
Dangling here between the light above
And blue below that drags me down
But God never listens to what I say
God never listens to what I say
And you don't get a refund
If you overpray
07 Sample in a Jar (04:41)
its hidden far away
but someday i may tell
the tale of mental tangle when into your world i fell
without you now i'd wander soaking, secretly afriad
but in your grasp the fears dont last
though some of them have stayed
i wheeled around because i
didnt hear what you had said
i saw you dancin with Elihu
up on Leemor's bed
and i was foggy rather groggy
you helped me to my car
the bindin belts enclosin me
a sample in a jar
and the market stands unfolding
with all the willies and their wares
i shuffled by alert but numb
to all the glances and the glares
i think of you unheeding
all the times i raised my cup
its now i know that you knew that id soon end up end up
i wheeled around...
you tricked me like the others
and now i dont belong
the simple smiles and good times seem all wrong
08 Wolfman's Brother (04:28)
Well many years ago now I really can't be sure
That's when it all began then I heard that knock upon my door
And the wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
Came down on me
The telephone was ringing, that's when I handed it to Liz
She said, "This isn't who it would be if it wasn't who it is"
It's the wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
Comin' down on me
So I might be on a side street or a stairway to the stars
I hear the high pitched cavitation of propellers from afar
It's the wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
Comin' down on me
So with meaningless excitement and smooth atonal sound
It's like a cross between a hurricane and a ship that's run aground
It's the wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
The wolfman's brother
Comin' down on - comin' down on me
The wolfman's brother, the wolfman's brother
Comin' down on me
Surely took more than he gave
(repeats..)
09 Scent of a Mule (04:02)
Kitty Malone sat on a mule
Was riding in style
When suddenly, like the sound of a buzzard's breaking
Kity felt laser beams being fired at her head
She said, "I hate laser beams
And you never done see me askin'
For a UFO
In Tomahawk County"
Well she kicked the mule
And it walked the path
And the aliens fired from behind
Till she stopped the mule
And she kicked the rump
And the big old mule took a big old dump
Scent of a mule, you better watch out where you go
Take your laser beams away
Scent of a mule, you better watch out where you go
You better stop that laser game
Or you'll smell my mule
She felt the fire against her neck
And it saddened her to feel it burn
When suddenly, like the sound of a breeding Holstein
Kitty said, "Stop, we ain't lookin' for fightin'
In Tomahawk County."
A little guy from the UFO
Came on out and said his name was Joe
She said, "Come on over for some lemonade
Just follow me now with the whole brigade"
Chorus
They walked into her cabin shack
They had never seen a southern home
And they liked it, better than their UFO
They liked it, they really liked it
They said, "Here's a place of elegance
Here we shower ourselves in lightness"
Chorus
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