Needless to say, as characterized by Phish’s multigenre musicality, its band members have drawn inspiration from a variety of predecessors. Phish is influenced by 1960s rock, ’70s disco funk, ’80s pop, and more.
In an interview with Charlie Rose in May 2004 to discuss the band’s decision to break up, Anastasio also shared some thoughts about which great musicians inspired him to pursue the art himself. When asked about the comparison between Phish and the Grateful Dead, Anastasio said, “It’s not true in the sense that [the Grateful Dead] is probably the greatest band in American history.” He continued, “Well, I’m just going to talk about Jerry now…. I probably only saw two rock concerts that completely transported me; one was Bruce Springsteen in 1978, he was doing “Rosaletta,” and every single person in the entire arena was locked to that guy. That made me want to be a musician. The other times were the first and second times when I saw The Dead. And what I saw was a guy—Oh no no, another one, Zappa. I saw Zappa a number of times and he was just as intense—but Jerry Garcia was an absolute wonder to behold. When he walked onstage, he had every single person in that room riding on his every eyebrow move. And I’ve never seen it again. And now I know that some time has gone by how lucky I was. He was such a great singer and such a great songwriter. And that’s the thing I don’t see people talking about as much. But when I saw the Dead what I saw was people singing along. And hanging on this guy’s every inflection. And it was done with tremendous soul; he was the most soulful singer I’ve ever seen. There’s never going to be the next Jerry Garcia. There’s never going to be the next Grateful Dead.”
Anastasio then goes on to herald Bill Monroe as the inventor of bluegrass music, as well as Frank Zappa and Little Feat’s Lowell George.
But let’s be honest here. Many of Phish’s early shows—1983, 1984, 1985—featured Grateful Dead covers such as “Scarlett > Fire,” “Eyes of the World,” “Help Is on the Way,” and “Slipknot!,” among others, an undeniable influence on Phish’s early years to say the least.
Page McConnell was also a Deadhead. In a 2008 interview with ABC, McConnell said, “When I would see [the Grateful Dead] in concert, it would be a different song every night that would be my favorite of the evening. It wasn’t any one song in particular that kept me coming back.”
McConnell continued to list influences, including The Allman Brothers’ “Jessica” and a handful of songs by Elton John, specifically “Amoreena,” which, McConnell said, “I think I heard for the first time when I saw Dog Day Afternoon.”
It’s clear to see the band finds inspiration in the bands they’ve covered over the years, particularly Talking Heads, whose 1979 album Fear of Music peaked at No. 21 on Billboard and went gold. In 1980, Talking Heads released Remain in Light, which peaked at No. 19 and went gold. Trey Anastasio was 19 years old in 1980, and 16 years later he and his band Phish would cover the Talking Heads album in its entirety (chapter 11).
Looking at the variety of Halloween “musical costumes,” the band members are also clearly inspired by The Who, The Velvet Underground, Little Feat, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and David Bowie. These are seminal acts whose canonical albums Phish has rehearsed and performed in Halloween homages since 1994.
But let’s go back to the beginning—the late 1980s, Phish’s college days at UVM. Back then it was all about Zappa.
In a December 2015 Rolling Stone article about the 100 greatest guitarists, Anastasio said of Frank Zappa’s 1981 album Shut Up ‘n’ Play Yer Guitar, “When I was learning how to play guitar, I was obsessed with that album. Every boundary that was possible on the guitar was examined by him in ways that other people didn’t.”
According to Phish.net, Phish has covered Zappa’s “Peaches en Regalia” 85 times since premiering the cover in 1986.
It’s reported that the results of Phish’s Halloween cover album fan vote in 1995 elected Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage album to be performed, but the band opted to choose the second-place winner, Quadrophenia by The Who. Rumored reasons for the alternate ranged from Zappa’s complex song compositions and R-rated lyrics to Zappa’s request for certain songs never to be performed live.
“Frank Zappa was a huge influence on how I wrote music for Phish,” Anastasio wrote in Rolling Stone in 2010. “Songs like “You Enjoy Myself” and “Split Open and Melt” were completely charted out because he had shown me it was possible. And when I played at Bonnaroo with my 10-piece band, we did two covers, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and “Sultans of Swing.” In both songs, I had the horn section play the guitar solos, note for note. I never would have thought of doing that if I hadn’t seen Zappa do “Stairway to Heaven” in Burlington with the horns playing Jimmy Page’s entire guitar solo, in harmony.”
Concluding that article, Anastasio wrote plainly, “Zappa gave me the faith that anything in music was possible.”