recently i read “gamehenge,” by trey anastasio.
is this his senior thesis, and what parts are actually in gamehenge, b/c in the copy i read, divided sky was included along w/ llama, and a couple other songs.
also, what’s the explanation behind gamehenge…? where did he come up w/ it? is it totally random? any symbolism in the story? what’s the deal w/ all the different characters? i heard this was performed by phish as a musical? true? did they read the narration parts, and then perform the songs? i’d like to know any and all info. and theories about gamehenge that are out there.
obviously this is the source of many phish songs…
thanks.
peace and rhythm.
Eight songs from Trey’s senior thesis (titled The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday but commonly called “Gamehendge”) made it into Phish’s rotation–“Lizards”, “Tela”, “Wilson”, “AC/DC Bag”, “Col. Forbin’s Ascent”, “Fly Famous Mockingbird”, “Sloth”, and “Possum”. (The project also included a “Wilson Prelude”, which is now used as the beginning of “Wilson”.) There was also some background music composed to accompany the narration; this is now played as “The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday”, almost always as TMWSIY > Avenu Malkenu > TMWSIY.
A few other songs have been written since (or perhaps around the same time as the rest, I’m not sure) that come from the same mythology but aren’t part of the original project, such as “Punch You In The Eye”, “Llama”, “Icculus”, and “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters”. “Divided Sky” was introduced at least once (I have the tape somewhere) as being connected to Gamehendge.
Phish has done the complete saga with narration a few times, the last one being 7-8-94 at Great Woods. They still occasionally do Forbin’s > Mockingbird with narration.
Again, more info than you could ever want at www.phish.net.
Dr. J (SDMB Phish Geek)
More interesting info (as I peruse the FAQ myself):
The original inspiration for the whole saga was “McGrupp”, the lyrics of which were originally a poem by Tom Marshall (who is to Phish as Robert Hunter is to the Dead). A lot of it was also inspired by children’s music that Trey had written with his mother, who has written several children’s stories and was once the editor of Sesame Street magazine.
Dr. J
I believe that there is a blurb in the Junta lyric sheet that explains the “Divided Sky” ceremony and it’s relation to the Lizzards.