Billy
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Elektra 61971; Producers: Steve Lillywhite and Phish
Bliss was reportedly written for a fan named Kevin. (There was a page at http://www.pitt.edu/~mxsst3/kevin but that link is dead now; if anyone has a new URL or the original source code and images, please send an email.)
A tabulature book for the album is available through Phish Dry Goods, and in the Doniac Schvice. (Note that all of the lyrics to "Swept Away" are repeated in "Steep", and that the book reveals the chorus of Character Zero.)
The miniature Doniac Schvice included with the liner notes is a "greatest hits compilation, so here's the track listing" (provided by Dean Budnick):
Hint: If this mini-Schvice keeps falling out of the jewelcase, stick in in front of the frontcover liner (suggested by Andy S / Russ Barnett
Title track lyrics (thanks to Frank Zeletz
Tumbling greens, a pick up screams, alone above the square Whoooa... sing softly. Above the trees, where ["when" in liner notes] Billy breathes, we float upon the air Whoooa... sing softly, Softly sing sweet songs (x3) Silent scenes in motion means, I'll wake you when we're there Whoooa... sing softly. Time it seems, in broken dreams, to sleep beside the stair Whoooa... sing softly, softly sing sweet songs.(x8)
According to Billboard Magazine, 10.3.98, " "Billy Breathes" peaked at No. 7 in 1996 and sold 434,000 copies."
Outtakes reportedly included Spock's Brain, Strange Design, Flip, The Blob (at least the full-length version, from which Steep, Talk, and Waste were taken), Grind (performed 12/30/98 with Tom Marshall), and several instrumentals.
Billboard Magazine, on 11/2/96, said of Billy Breathes, "Rock'n'roll journeymen's latest album is a typically diverse excursion into the edges of rock, jazz, and blues, highlighted by Trey Anastasio's adventurous writing and the band's improvisational talents. .... the album paints a colorful stylistic palette that will no doubt appeal to the group's large and loyal fan base, despite the absence of a clear radio hit." (Posted by Mike Pelczarski.)
See also, reviews and sound clips from Music Boulevard; tab book from SheetMusicPlus.
Alternate titles, as listed in liner notes and posted to RMP: THE WRONGS OF SPRING - your name here - boom marengue - IF THEY'RE PHISH, THEY'LL BITE - Thanks for letting us use your phone - A wet one - IF YOU'RE Phish I'LL BITE - FIRST TAKERS - BITE - skin - XOXINASTIC (ed a sticker) - NOTHING COULD BE FUNNER - spatial relation distinction confusion - Dave Matthews Band Crash (ed the sticker label from a CD, complete with bar code) - POP SEX - MOTHRA - Psychadelic Is Better Than Funky - Folk psyche - not think about it even more - page against the machine - solace white guys - bad clef - sweeps of the barn - LIKE A VERSION - HUNDRED - Big Blob of Music - Beanbow Music - It's About Time - >From Nothing to Still in the Background - Blowin the Hootie - The Other White Meat - Blah Blah Blob - Stock Riffs - No One to Blame but ourselves - Third Ball - Wrong Again - I Could Hear My Brain Getting In The Way - I Hear My Brain A-Comin' - Cut the Shit - From Boomp to Blap - Fish and Chips (Fishman w/ Ponch + Jon) - Welcome to Corsackie - If you don't like this album; Fuck this album - From Pussbag to Meathead - If you've got a dwarf you've got a party - Third Bowel - (a fishook symbol) The artist formerly known as Phish - Like India - Beware of Peace (a peace sign with a line through it) - Torque Lug Torque - Peace is head - Peace's Head - S-WORD - More ass than Head - Imperialism - No Pain Rogaine - Weird Design - B.O.R.D.E. - inectymop - insectafuct - HIGH FOUR - ratio problem - penile smile - cardboard kick - VAAZ - Third - Song in the key of D - Captain Chris and the Microscopic Chubby - SCHROEDER VIBE - R&B - r and b - songs for the charts - The Acceptable Sound of Rock Guitar - Lassiecollie - Elektra-wish - onelektra - talk - A thousand Pictures - crossover - no Hits - NO HITS BUT BONG - india - LIKE - The beverage - bypass filter - labor of like - DICA - MUSIC TO TAKE ACID TO - ACID TONES - 6 Week Repair - An album for your money - "jam?" "no... jelly please" - TREY SMOKED POT - Martha's Vineyard!!! - No pain yes gain
Thanks also to Drew Clausen.
"How our albums are going to turn out is never conscious for us. But we do sort of go in with certain goals in mind, and whatever comes out, comes out. And the goals this time were, first of all, to make a shorter album than A Live One--which was real long--and try to make an album that was vinyl length, the length of a record, because we thought that sort of matches people's attention spans better. And then, another goal was just to really experiment a lot without bringing in a lot of influences--no guest musicians, no record company people walking around the studio. And just to really experiment." -- Mike Gordon to the The Onion 10/15/98
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