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Trey Anastasio: Coffee AchieverPage 1 | Page 2 Not trying to live a life that's completely caffeine-free Phish’s song "Fee" made its concert debut in 1987, and was the opening cut on their first commercial album, "Junta." While "Fee" is not the epic, mutidimensional evolving jam song that would one day be Phish’s trademark, it is probably an anthem of sorts for many fans. Its lyrics, written exclusively by Anastasio, are almost bedtime story caliber, telling the story of Fee the weasel and his battle with Floyd the chimpanzee for the love of a "fading beauty" named Millie Grace. In the chorus, Anastasio has advice for Fee:
Oh, Fee, you're trying to live a life There were rumors among the Phish tourheads that one man in their midst had his name legally changed to Fee because, indeed, he was trying to live a life that was completely free. Get it?? The rumor is an old one, and it remains unknown to me whether this real-life Fee existed, let alone whether or not he succeeded in living a completely free life. From the lyrics, though, I can predict what Dr. Anastasio would have prescribed for this overzealous fan – a nice break from following the band around so diligently, and a cup of coffee in the comfort of home, before returning to the road with a new alias.
It is debatable whether Phish was more instrumentally groundbreaking in their early days or in their later ones, but few would dispute that their lyrics improved with time. "Fee" comes from a generation of Phish lyrics that were primarily nonsensical or surface-level narratives, and it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that their songs began to consistently show lyrical depth. "Theme From the Bottom" was first performed in 1995, a well-written and instrumentally complex song whose studio version landed on Phish’s 1996 CD "Billy Breathes." The lyrics are the collaborative effort of all four band members and their chief lyricist Tom Marshall, and among those five is at least one who believes in the awakening powers of coffee:
I feed from the bottom, you feed from the top Ostensibly about a deep-sea creature who lurks in the darkness below, "Theme" seems like an allusion to suppressed thought or memory that remains unexposed to the light of day until something triggers its ascent to the surface, where color and light return. It subsists off leftovers and, of course, coffee, perhaps requiring a bit of a caffeine jolt to emerge from the unseen depth. On his solo tour, Trey has on introduced an original instrumental which he calls "The Happy Coffee Song." In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I’m unqualified to analyze this new addition to his setlist – I’ve heard it only once, and it left no lasting impression. Fans posting concert reviews have alternately described it as catchy or forgettable. Furthermore, there aren’t any lyrics to analyze, so we can only look at the simple fact that Anastasio remains inspired to keep coffee in his musical repertoire – not an insignificant fact. Happy are the coffee drinkers. The Mocha Dance Both in his own words and in those of others, Trey seems to consider coffee a staple of his life. In addition to all the unique situations in which he downed some coffee, he seems to drink it during more routine, everybday events. In an interview with Sno Magazine in December 1997, Anastasio described a morning routine of coffee and skiing in his Vermont house. "Just about four years ago we started [cross-country skiing] because we moved to where there's a lot of woods' Trey explained. "There's other skiers nearby, people are cutting trails. I go almost everyday when I'm home. I wake up, have a cup of coffee, strap on the skis and I'm out into the woods." Others have noticed Trey benefitting from a coffee "pick-me-up". The following comes from Addicted To Noise, summarizing an interview they held with Anastasio in June 1995. "Recently, Addicted To Noise caught up with Anastasio the morning of a show at the Boise State University Pavilion. While initially quite sleepy, after some fruit and coffee, Anastasio was more than ready to talk shop." Does his routine seem familiar to you? Whether he is doing something for the sheer love of it, like skiing, or whether he is fulfilling an obligation of his trade (conducting an interview), Trey gets rolling after his morning or early-day cup of coffee. Like his fellow coffee achievers the world over, he seems better able to perform at his best after coffee is in his system. An incarnate extension of his music If there was any doubt before, this past year has made it clear that Anastasio's life is now an incarnate extension of his music -- daring to depart from the known and the safe and the structured, a biographical improv jam. He has demonstrated time and again a constant forward momentum and a desire to play his music in all conceivable scenarios with an ever-evolving cast of accomplices. And when he needs it, Anastasio isn't afraid to down a cup of coffee or two. Be he solo, be he back with Phish, or be he with any existing or future side projects, INeedCoffee salutes Trey Anastasio as a Coffee Achiever. Page 1 | Page 2 Tags: music phish trey anastasio |
