#95 Tom Marshall on Writing Phish and Everything Else
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2018
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You may have heard Tom Marshall's words even if you've never heard him speak. For the last four decades Tom has been the chief lyricist for the band Phish, which is one of the most successful touring bands in the world. Tom, however, does not tour with the band, and his position as the mysterious wordsmith for the band has spawned several online myths about Tom's origins and his life accomplishments outside of Phish. In this episode, We talk with Phish lyricist Tom Marshall to learn about the history of Phish, his friendship with Trey Anastasio, and the life experiences that inspired the lyrics for some of the band's most well-known songs. We also set the record straight about Tom's life, discuss his podcast Under the Scales and talk about Bob & Ben's collaboration w/ Tom through the Osiris Podcast Network.
Today's music is by Tom Marshall's band Amphibian.
The Road to Now is a member of the Osiris Podcast Network. Learn more about this episode and others at our website: www.The RoadToNow.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is in the Loop, the Legion of Osiris Podcasts. |
| 0:07.6 | What does that mean? |
| 0:08.9 | Osiris is a community of great music and culture podcasts. |
| 0:12.6 | If you like this one, go check out others at osirispod.com and get in the loop. |
| 0:18.2 | Osiris is partnered with Relix Magazine at relics.com. |
| 0:35.3 | How can I enjoy the day |
| 0:38.3 | morning standing in my way |
| 0:45.3 | just for once I'd like the right to skip to red |
| 0:52.3 | I'm Bob Crawford. |
| 0:53.9 | Ben, you're done. |
| 0:56.0 | I'm done. |
| 0:58.0 | Spring, summer, summer break. |
| 1:01.3 | Some type of break. |
| 1:02.5 | It's the week between whenever my regular class is in and my online class begins. |
| 1:08.0 | Oh, wow. |
| 1:09.2 | Would you like to take a history class from me where you have less direct interaction with me than you have listening to my podcast? Well, sign it for History 2010. Yes, I want to take it. But it's only a 200-level course, and I can't take a 200-level course. Oh, sorry. That's because you're in grad school now, Bob. That's right. Can't be working backwards, man. Can't be doing 200 level classes, although I could probably use a few. Yeah, no, that's one of the things that I loved about being a TA in graduate school was that you would then go in and work with somebody on a general education class. And it always brought all the kind of disparate specified things you were learning back into the master narrative. |
| 1:45.0 | So Bob, you know, in a year, if you want to come to MTSU and take my history 2010 or 2020 classes, you were always welcome. |
| 1:51.0 | And teaching those classes is how you really learn history, right? I mean... |
| 1:56.0 | Yeah, absolutely. |
| 1:57.0 | That's how you learn it. But repetition. |
| 2:00.0 | It's the repetition, but it's always like you write it the first time and you have |
| 2:04.7 | the narrative and then the new stuff comes out. |
... |
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