What's YEM?

"What are they saying in You Enjoy Myself?" This question has been asked so often that there is a standard abbreviation for the question. "What Are They Saying in You Enjoy Myself?" is thus shortened to WATSIYEM. Only the band members know for sure what they're saying, and there has been variation. But according to the guitar tablature published in Guitar World, they're saying ""washa uffize drive me to firenze". Various explanations concern Trey and Jon's trip to Europe as wandering minstrels in the summer of 1985, and particularly their stops in Florence, Italy (Firenze, to Italians). Uffizi is a part of Firenze, near the Ponte Vecchia and most known for the Uffizi Gallery. They may have asked a cab driver, "What's your fee to drive me to Firenze?" They were pungeant from living in a car, so may have been told "wash your feet" (as they seem to be singing on 10/31/95) or, with something of an Italian accent, "washa you feetsie". They did, sort of, as Mike reported (in an early newsletter) that they stomped around in the fountain outside the gallery. (The title comes from the same trip: Trey has said he'd been hanging out with a couple Italians who couldn't speak English very well. As the foreigners left, they said "You enjoy myself, yes?" Trey and Jon started laughing, and came up with the song.) Mike has exacerbated confusion, even after the "real" lyrics had been discerned, including offering alternate explanations in the newsletter. The first ("water you team, in a bee-hive, i'm a sent you") was clearly used for at least the first half of February 1993. In newsletters of that month, Mike clarified this by saying it means "yes, I'll play, but no I won't raise", & also listed these: "washer/dryer/freezer/fencing", "wanton in a key, i live, & me for horse rent", "wont you please-e-curve me from valensi", "wash, you face, and drive me to Valencia", & "washington fences, please, says me". He later gave additional answers, such as "Watchusett fiji is sun-hived to floor antsy,", and had earlier given the answer "Wasohbf woeh ejwro jeeef je ei Fndsbid." But when the Uffizi Gallery was bombed in the Spring of 1993, a following Phish newsletter extended condolences and grief; at the end, Mike wrote "Drive me to Firenze." "Sometimes I have to figure out where to draw the line! We get in trouble for giving away secrets sometimes" - Mike in Billboard, 12/21/02