Get More Down History

Get More Down

Originally Performed By	Phish
Appears On
Music/Lyrics	Anastasio/Fishman/Gordon/Mcconnell
Vocals	All
Phish Debut	2021-10-31
Last Played	2021-10-31
Current Gap	190
Historian	Jay Boda (FinallyMeetAtLast)
Last Update	2025-11-16

History

Do you know how to get more down? If not, it’s time to learn. This is no casual suggestion. It’s a cosmic directive and responsibility bestowed on the Phish community. When doom strikes, we can’t cower beneath our desks, heads tucked between our knees.

No! We must unhead the knee!

Getting more down is how only we, only we can stop the Howling! In reality (sure, reality), it’s just a primer for putting a blank space where our minds should be. That is, the true path to preventing the total annihilation of Earth is to clear our minds.

But how? It’s one thing to instruct people but quite another for them to actually do it.

The traditional route—meditation—takes practice and time. If we’re in a hurry to learn meditation and achieve enlightenment, the Zen fable goes, it will take twice as long. The effort is worth it, but this is a crisis in the making, and we need all the shortcuts we can get. Perhaps the path to tranquility doesn’t always pass through silence.

There’s another embodied way to teach people to clear their minds: turn up the funk and get them moving. That’s exactly what “Get More Down” does, and it’s why the Sci-Fi Soldiers came back via Knuckle Bone Broth Avenue: to get us moving and to teach us the power of dance to clear our minds.

How might we be sure that getting more down means dancing? Two critical clues.

First, the opening of the song warbles, “This is the part on Sci-Fi Soldier when we get more down,” yet in the comic book it reads, “This is the time on Sci-Fi Soldier when we dance.” That parallel phrasing—with its key substitution—is telling.

And then there are the creatures who introduce Holy Blankenstein. They clear their minds—since their brains are located mid-leg—through movement: dancing, gyrating, and handstands in grand fashion. “We can learn much from them,” Holy Blankenstein assures the Soldiers.

So, the Sci-Fi Soldiers came to Earth on 10/31/21 to pass along this message, teach us to unhead the knee, get more down, and clear our minds. Why? To stop the Howling, the self-inflicted destruction of our own planet.

Video by ConceptsIllPonder

But why through Phish? First of all, they “know how to play the music of the prophets,” so they’re the perfect unlikely heroes to teach us these lessons.

And just as importantly, who could be better prepared to get more down than the Phish crowd on Halloween!?

One of only four songs on Get More Down by Sci-Fi Soldier that has been played only once as of late 2025, the song’s importance is nonetheless apparent from its marquee position. It’s our album. Here’s how it goes.

So much of the comic book Phishbill from Halloween 2021 manifests in the lyrics of “Get More Down,” and the song is a lynchpin for the entire trajectory of the Sci-Fi Soldier story.

When we’re dancing—getting more down—time changes. We start bending time itself, accessing windows to new realities and changing the fate of Earth. We’ve all been there, so this is a responsibility with which we can doubtless be entrusted—but now we need to spread the words of the prophets and teach everyone we know to get more down.

So, can we please get more “Get More Down?” Aaaaaahhhh ow!

Video by Sci Fi Soldier

Last significant update: 11/3/2025