Phish by Parke Puterbaugh Read Free Book Online Page A

happy to start a partnership with Tom. I can produce so much more and have more fun, because music is more the language that I speak.”
    Back in 1998 I asked Marshall what was the first song he and Anastasio wrote together. His e-mailed answer:
    I think Trey and I might differ on this. Probably the first song with my lyrics was “Wilson” . . . although I wrote that with Aaron Woolf. “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters” has some of my earliest lyrics, but it hasn’t been recorded by Phish—in the studio anyway. Ditto for “Makisupa Policeman.” The first recorded song with my lyrics might be “Squirming Coil,” although that was written by Trey alone looking at the lyrics I sent him in a letter. We also wrote “Lawn Boy” over the phone, I believe. We recorded “I Am Hydrogen” together a long time ago . . . but I wrote that with Marc Daubert [another Princeton Day School alumnus], and it doesn’t have lyrics. The first Phish song with my words on it, some people say, is “Run Like an Antelope”—I wrote the famous “Rye Rye Rocco . . . ” part—but realistically I had no part in writing that song. So which is the first song that Trey and I wrote together, face-to-face? I don’t know—there are some old ones, “Mathilda” and “Little Squirrel,” but they’re not Phish songs. “NICU,” maybe? I guess I really don’t know.
    That may be another way of acknowledging that the their friendship and collaboration is so prolific and long-lived it’s difficult to completely untangle the threads.
     
    The Anastasio-Marshall friendship started back in eighth grade, when Marshall switched from public to private school. His parents had sent him to Princeton Day School, figuring there would be fewer trouble-makers to fall in with. They were wrong.
    “It turns out Trey was sort of a misbehaving-type character, and I was happy to find people like him existed,” Marshall said with a laugh.
    There were other misfits and social outcasts at Princeton Day as well, and they all gravitated to music. In addition to Anastasio and Marshall, the core of the “Princeton mafia” comprised Aaron Woolf (immortalized as “Errand Woolf” in the Gamehendge saga), Dave Abrahams (an inspiration for several Phish numbers, notably “Dave’s
Energy Guide” and “Guelah Papyrus,” which also name-checks his parents), and Marc “Daubs” Daubert. Their personalities and contributions left their mark on Anastasio, especially in the band’s early years.
    “It was a really amazing thing how musical our grade was and how many bands we had,” said Marshall. “People like Aaron, Marc, Dave, Roger Halloway, Pete Cottone, Trey and me, plus at least ten and maybe even fifteen other guys out of a total class of a hundred, had bands, played an instrument, or were very interested in music. Extremely interested in music.”
     
    Anastasio was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on September 30, 1964. His family moved to Princeton when he was two. Exhibiting musical precocity from a young age, he took up drums at age eight. The guitar wouldn’t enter the picture until ninth grade, and even in high school he still regarded drums as his primary instrument. His drumming background would strongly influence his approach to the guitar, with his rapid-fire soloing, snare roll-style chording, and impeccable timing.
    As a schoolkid, he would also learn lessons he would later draw upon with Phish in an unlikely place: the hockey rink. Anastasio was a solid hockey player who played right wing, and his dad coached the team. Many years later, Anastasio adapted the knuckle-down work ethic Ernie Anastasio imposed in hockey practice to Phish’s rehearsals. These practice sessions were legendary for their duration, focus, and intensity. So Phish fans can thank Ernie Anastasio for cracking the whip on the ice.
    Anastasio, Marshall, and his Princeton pals came into musical awareness at a time when classic rock was the rage. Anastasio sifted through it