Prep School Hippie

• Performances
• History
• Lyrics
• Artist
  • Phish
  • Fish
  • Mike
  • Page
  • Trey
  • All

History

Basically a one-joke song, "Prep-School Hippie" has only made it to the stage five times. It has been speculated that the band retired this song for fear that they might insult some of their fans, but a more likely guess is that the joke had simply worn thin. The song's lyrics describe a person's internal debate on whether to be a "Prep School Hippie" or a "Hip School Preppie." The narrator is trying to decide if he should "spend my adolescent days wearing tie-dies or Vuarnets." The song was seemingly meant to make fun both of many of the fans that follow the Grateful Dead as well as their preppie opposites. Appropriately enough, Phish, with their vaguely preppie/hippie backgrounds, seem to represent both states of being. At the end of the song Trey screams, "I can't wait until I'm 21, to dip into my trust fund!", and the lyric is repeatedly sung over the music of "Not Fade Away" by the Grateful Dead. Performed on 9/26/85 on Burlington's WRUV Exposure program, the song was in fact introduced as "Trust Fund Baby." If you're interested in hearing this song, dig up 9/27/85, 10/30/85, 2/3/86, 4/25/86, or 12/6/86. 

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