Performances
Song History
Jamming Chart
so glad this song is still in rotation... ever since Dayton '97, i always have a good night when this is busted out!
Score: 0
Jesus Just Left Chicago
Music/Lyrics: Beard/Gibbons/Hill
Vocals: Page
Original Artist: ZZ Top
Original Album: Tres Hombres (1973)
Albums: Slip Stitch and Pass, Live Phish 10, Live Phish 11, Live Phish 14, Live Phish 15
Debut: 1987-08-10
Historian: Chris Bertolet (bertoletdown)
Last Update: 2012-12-02
Take a down-tempo, 12-bar blues and throw in conceptual lyrics about the Son of God on a road trip across America. Glaze with honky-tonk piano and plaintive, wailing guitar, and bake until crisp. Such is this confection from Texas trio ZZ Top, one of Phish’s less obvious influences.
“Jesus” graced Phish’s repertoire in 1987 and abided there until 1992, when it vanished for over a year. Since its resurrection in March of 1993, the tune has seen limited action, though has been played as recently as 6/11/10 just a few miles outside Chicago in Bridgeview, IL.
In Hamburg, Germany, on 3/1/97, Phish segued out of “Wolfman’s Brother” into what would become the best-known version of “Jesus” (it subsequently appeared on Slip, Stitch & Pass). The following summer at the magnificent Gorge (8/3/97), the band plummeted from a swirling, psychedelic “Twist” into what would become a driving, mighty “Jesus.”
Six years later at the Gorge (7/13/03), almost as if to fuse these moments, Phish played a big ol’ “Jesus” – where else? – out of “Wolfman’s.”
Recommended Versions: 1988-05-24, 1988-07-24, 1993-08-26, 1995-10-31, 1997-03-01, 1997-11-17
You must be logged in to leave a comment!
so glad this song is still in rotation... ever since Dayton '97, i always have a good night when this is busted out!