Embedded Files
Lesson 2 - Stash
Lesson 2 - Stash
Disclaimer: I'm going to refrain from inserting countless links here - I'll throw a few in for song links and maybe a few surprises here and there, but there's a rabbit's hole for anything you want Phish-related over at the phish.net. If you ever want to know if Nectar attended a show in Gamehendge with Icculus, this is where to look. I'll keep the curriculum surface level for now.
Stash was released on their third studio album, A Picture of Nectar. It has a more sinister, ominous tone right from the onset due to the minor seven chords, the flat fives. Trey was listening to a lot of jazz at this time, so it's no coincidence that the chord structure is a 2-5-1 progression, which is the cornerstone of jazz. Starting at the 2, then going to the 5 before resolving on the 1 creates a good deal of tension – which you can feel – as this song showcases the tension and release style of playing they're so skilled at (see Maze, Run Like an Antelope, Harry Hood, etc.). The Stash melody may sound familiar to you as well - you're not alone. There are a number of songs that people swear they've heard before (perhaps none as strong as the melodic outro to The Lizards, which we'll get to soon....).
Stash is the perfect song to highlight the band's technical mastery combined with another signature trait – lyrical nonsense. This is Phish 1.0 to a tee. If you're looking for meaning in the lyrics, you're looking in the wrong place – that is, if you're looking for emotional meaning, it's not here. Meaning, though, is what you make of it. Another reason my love for Phish goes so deep – my appreciation of wordplay, puns, multiple meanings, and the sheer aural musicality of words. These words are not there for meaning. They're another form of music. Trey wrote Clod because he liked how the words sounded together. Same thing with Stash:
Smegma dogmatogram fishmarket stew
Police on the corner, gunning for you
Appletoast bread heated fur blanket rat
Laugh when they shoot you say, 'Please don't do that!'
The Moma Dance that has the lyrics "The moment ends." Mike sings, "No left turn unstoned" in NICU. They like that kind of wordplay. We do too. I leave you with the studio version of Stash.
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