Longtime Phish lyricist Tom Marshall has released a remake of his Amfibian song “Skip The Goodbyes” featuring help from Trey Anastasio. The song, premiered through Marshall’s Osiris podcasting company, is a new take on the title track from Amfibian’s 2007 album. The song also features multi-instrumentalist Anthony Krizan as well as keyboardist John Ginty.
“Fifteen years ago Anthony Krizan and I wrote a song called ‘Skip the Goodbyes’ — which would later come out on Amfibian’s album with the same name,” Marshall said in a note shared along with the video. “We were mixing it in New York and learned that Trey was in a studio nearby. We walked the tapes over to him and he added a guitar track to the song. Today — we re-made the song, and asked Trey to reprise his role as guest guitarist.”
The video features a Goldeneye 007-esque split screen of all four members performing in their respective homes, and Krizan switching between a variety of instruments. The song has a melancholy tone in conjunction with Marshall’s rarely-heard singing voice harmonizing with itself. The big moment comes after the first refrain when, Trey comes in to reprise his tasteful guitar solo. It is abundantly clear that Trey is not the show here, but rather just a part of Tom’s larger machine, and Trey plays accordingly. One could construe this remake of “Skip The Goodbyes” as being a commentary on the situation in which so many of us find ourselves as a result of self-quarantines. We were forced by circumstance to “skip the goodbyes” and retreat inward to our homes for the foreseeable future.
Watch the remake of Amfibian’s “Skip The Goodbyes”, featuring Trey Anastasio.
Amfibian – “Skip The Goodbyes”
As self-quarantines and state-mandated isolations drag on, artists are finding creative ways to pass the time. Trey has been keeping up a prodigious output of new songs over the past two weeks. Many bands and companies have launched elaborate livestream series (like Live From Out There). Others have started teaching online music lessons. Whatever way you play it, many people are settling in for a long stay indoors.
[H/T JamBase]