In a new episode of SiriusXM‘s Reverse The Verse, Phish‘s Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon attempt to identify Phish songs after hearing just ten seconds played backwards.
Big Red and Cactus find the backwards Phish songs intriguing from the beginning. “We should learn it [backwards] whatever it is,” Mike Gordon suggests after hearing the first reversed clip.
“It’s much better than any of our forward songs,” Trey coyly agrees before incorrectly guessing that it’s “Twenty Years Later”. The song was in fact “Harry Hood”. Once revealed, the song prompts Mike to reminisce.
“Three of us used to live in a house that can be seen in The Phish Book across from the Hood factory, and we used to get letters to the person who used to live there, Mr. A. Miner, which is not the key of the song.”
Related: Phish Leaves Noblesville With 34-Minute “Sand” At Sunday Closer [Videos]
Next, Trey successfully identifies “Down With Disease”.
“While we were recording that song, the L.A. fires came over the hill. We thought the studio was gonna burn down and everyone had to evacuate. It was very intense and scary. It ended up being safe,” Trey says before remembering, “Alison Krauss sang on that record,” which prompts another story from Mike.
I remember we were sitting at the Troubadour in the back of the room and she and her band was doing an a cappella song that we had covered. They were doing “On Heaven’s Bright Shore” and I looked at Trey and we were both tearing up, and I said I’m gonna try to talk to her afterwards. I said, “Well, this may sound weird but I know your bus is going to San Francisco from L.A, but if you stay behind you can play on our album, even though you’ve never heard of us and don’t care, and then we’ll fly you out to your gig San Francisco.” She talked around to her people and she said, “Okay.” And we looked on TV and the fires were coming right to the studio, and Alison called me and she said, “So I see this thing about these fires,” and I said, “Oh! That’s just a little brush fire.”
Trey then recalls, “We did her first vocal delivery, we were all in the studio and everyone literally fell over, and then she went, ‘That sucked.’ She said, ‘I could do it better,’ and she did it again, and it was better!”
The next song stumps Trey, but after a pause, Mike correctly guesses “Free”. “We should learn that song backwards,” Trey replies. “These songs are all so much better backwards.”
Neither Trey nor Mike recognizes “Everything’s Right”.
“We did ‘Everything’s Right’ on the album version up at The Barn. … I like it because it sounds like actually what Phish sounds like. I just don’t think people make records that way that often anymore.”
Trey ends on a high note, finally identifying a song without any trouble. Watch the video to see if you can guess the last tune before he does.
Phish – Reverse The Verse
[Video: SiriusXM]