Today, October 27th, 2019, Phish‘s seventh official studio album, The Story of The Ghost, turns 21 years old!
Back in June 2018, Trey Anastasio dropped by his friend and writing partner Tom Marshall‘s Under The Scales podcast to chat about the 20th anniversary of the 1998 album. After a brief segment in which Osiris Podcast Network co-founder RJ Bee interviews Marshall, the lyricist suggests the pair give Anastasio a call, seeing as he probably knows a thing or two about the making of the album.
What follows is a roughly 80-minute discussion that dives into the story of the album’s inception, including detailed looks at each of the album’s 14 tracks. Anastasio and Marshall also offer insights into the other material that came out of the The Story of the Ghost writing process, such as The Siket Disk, Trampled by Lambs and Pecked by the Dove, and much of Farmhouse. (For instance, did you know that “What’s The Use?” originally had lyrics?)
As is the case with any engaging podcast, the discussion occasionally veers a little off topic into equally interesting subjects like Jon Fishman‘s incredible drumming talents, writing the Baker’s Dozen song list, the history of Bearsville Studios, where much of the album was recorded and where members of the band had hilarious encounters with other artists like rapper Slick Rick and The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde.
Anyway, you can give the discussion a listen a below:
You can also listen to The Story of The Ghost in its entirety here via Spotify:
Phish – The Story of The Ghost – Full Album