Subject: *You Can Feel Good About 4/1/86 Hood*
Date: 5 Feb 1997 15:11:23 GMT
From: zachary.[...]@yale.edu (Zachary [...]) Welcome back!
This is my earliest version of Harry, although I know that an earlier one
was played on 10/30/85. I received this tape from someone who said the
venue was, "Liont's Festival of Fools" whatever the hell that is. The Phishing
Manual says it's from Hunt's in Burlington and because I've heard of Hunt's,
and I've never heard of Liont's Festival of Fools, I'm going with Dean
on this one. If you know better, please let me know. 4/1/86 - Hunt's
- Burlington, VT The setlist for this show goes as follows: Set
1: Mighty Quinn, Have Mercy --> Harry Hood, The Pendulum(?)-->Dave's Energy
Guide, Icculus, You Enjoy Myself Set 2: Help on the Way --> Slipknot -->
AC/DC Bag, McGrupp, Alumni Blues, Dear Mrs. Reagan, Not Fade Away*(cut)
*w/ a bunch of other bands that were playing that night This show is a
lot of fun. You should definitely get this tape. I got it for the Help>Slip>AC/DC,
which is well worth it, but the rest of the tape is cool too. Mighty Quinn
is a great opener, upbeat and lots of fun. I would be psyched if they brought
this one back. I'm not sure what song "The Pendulum" is, but that's how
it's labelled on my tape and it definitely has lyrics about a pendulum.
It doesn't sound like any of the boys singing, but the segue into DEG makes
it clear in my mind that it's at least Phish playing if not singing. However,
Dean doesn't have this song listed in the Manual (it just goes Harry then
Icculus), so I could be wrong. BTW, if you want to hear a good DEG, on
it's own, listening to this tape's version will help you recognize it when
it's buried in a monster '95 or '96 (or '97) jam. You should be able to
find decent copies of this show. Mine sounds surprisingly good for an '86.
Alright, on to the Harry.... 0:00 - Good segue from Have Mercy. The reggae
beat flows well into the reggae-ish beat of the intro. They obviously planned
this segue because it is excellent. The whole band drops right out of Have
Mercy on a dime and begins the Harry groove. This intro, like many early
intros, has a swinging feel to it. I think that it's mainly due to syncopation
from Trey and Page. Also, early intros, including this one, are rarely
sparse or spacy (compared to later intros like 10/23/94 which I just reviewed).
Mike does some nice work in this one (as he usually does). 1:08 - Harry
chorus. 1:40 - Trey says something after the final "Where do you go?" but
it's hard to understand. "Here's one Peter" maybe? Oh well, not a big deal.
Composed section follows. Page isn't as active here as usual. Maybe it's
just my version, but he's hard to hear throughout the composed part. 4:15
- Sounds like the Mr. Minor heavy metal part, but slightly different. Not
as quick, and a different melody from Trey. Tension build and release,
but Mr. Minor is said in the "wrong" place at 5:10. Obviously not wrong,
but not where I was expecting it. Trey plays a little run of notes up the
'doc (almost sounds like a signal), and then everyone gets quiet and says
"Thank you Mr. Minor" softly. It sounds strange to my ears, but that's
because I'm not used to it. All during this segment someone has a weird
effect going on that sounds like a spooky wind or something. It could be
someone blowing into a mic. Actually, no, it can't be someone blowing,
it has to be an effect of some kind. I have no idea what though. In total,
it's definitely a different Mr. Minor segment here. A longer buildup, but
not as heavy as more recent versions, and then there is this little run
of notes from Trey, followed by the TYMM. Oh yeah, no "Thank you Mr. Hood"
either. Luckily, they didn't leave out this last part... 6:55 - Jam section
begins, standardly. Everyone is feeling each other out at this point. Now
Trey clearly takes the lead. 7:55 - Nice harmonizing by Mike with Trey.
8:05 - Trey is starting to bust loose, he's really wailing. Page drops
out for a little while. Wow, Trey is a rock star! This is the Trey we see
less often nowadays. 8:45 - Oops, a little fuck-up from Trey, not too bad.
Just lost his place in the solo for a sec. 9:00 - Trey repeats a cool lick
for a while. He's soaring. 9:35 - UN-smooth transition into the final lyrics.
"You can feel good...." Total Time = 10:20 Grade: D+. An interesting
version, but not by any means spectacular. The Mr. Minor section is clearly
different than recent versions, so if you're really into the evolution
of Phish, it might be worth hearing for that alone. I'm curious to see
when the Mr. Minor section changes over to what we're more used to, and
when they start singing, "Thank you Mr. Hood" at the end. I do like Trey
in these early Harry jams, but he is not at his best here. I'll let you
know when I think he is :-) Until then... Zach