The Phish Song That Featured Jon Fishman On Guitar

On Sunday night, Phish drummer Jon Fishman showed off his unremarkable guitar-playing skills during the band’s debut performance of “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia.” Recognizing his limited abilities, Fish sheepishly quipped at the end of the cover premiere, “You can tell your grandkids that you actually paid money to see that.”

Sunday’s performance of the song popularized by Reba McEntire was not the only time Fish has played guitar with Phish. Along with a few instances when he picked up bandmate ’s guitar during a rotation jam when the band members would swap instruments, Fish also played guitar on a song that was played only five times in 1997, and has been stowed away ever since.

Debuted February 13, 1997, on the opening night of Phish’s first European Tour that year, the band-written original “Rock A William” featured Fish on guitar and Anastasio on drums, while keyboardist Page McConnell played bass and bassist Mike Gordon played piano. Earlier that same night, Fish also showcased his bass-playing talents on the debut performance of another band-written original, “Walfredo,” which saw Anastasio on piano, McConnell on drums and Gordon on guitar.

In The Phish Book, author Richard Gehr detailed the new, full-band composed songs Phish played at London’ Shepherd’s Bush Empire, writing:

Phish introduced the band-written tunes “Walfredo,” “Rock A William,” and “Carini Had a Lumpy Head.” The band members switched instruments to perform the first two of these, and all three songs contained autobiographical lyrics — concerning a Santana percussionist and a friend in Colorado among other subjects — in the longstanding rock tradition of taking verbal snapshots of life on the road.

Gehr’s book quoted both Anastasio and McConnell regarding “Rock A William”:

Anastasio: It’s a struggle for Phish to write songs together. Before leaving for Europe, though, we said “Damn it, we’re gonna write together no matter how it comes out.” So we wrote “Walfredo, “Rock A William,” and “Carini Had a Lumpy Head,” which were okay.

Then we tried to solve the problem another way by going into Bearsville after the Europe tour with no songs whatsoever. Even though I had new songs with Tom [Marshall], I didn’t play them for the guys and we started recording from degree zero. The plan was to edit it together and then come up with lyrics afterward. A lot of people—both friends and relatives send me lyrics now. But Tom’s are nearly always the only ones I can sing. I completely make his voice my own.

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McConnell: We switched instruments onstage during the Fall ’95 Tour, first in Hampton, Virginia [November 25, 1995], then again in Philadelphia [December 15, 1995]. The idea started out as a joke. We were going to learn a Led Zeppelin song we’d play while switching instruments in rotation. Each of us would have to learn the same song on four instruments.

In the end, we decided to just jam and see what happens. Eventually, we ended up writing “Walfredo” and “Rock A William” as songs to play on instruments other than our own.

Phish.net’s song history for “Rock A William” states:

“Rock A William” is a dark but comic song, purportedly based on a true story of a “very strange man” the band met in Colorado in 1987 while spending the night in a purple house and partaking of bloody Marys and turkey ham. “A loner just like Malachi from Children of the Corn,” William lives in a cabin in the hills and has purportedly hit a bear on the nose with a hammer. He appears at the purple house with the hammer in hand, where his sister is upstairs with Timber Ho. William grabs Timber Ho by the hair while his sister screams, but the others present – remembering the bear – fear to intervene. “We didn’t want to die!” The song ends inconclusively, with the hammer “held high,” before it dissolves into Fishman’s inspired guitar renderings and Mike’s piano outro. Check the February 26, 1997 Stuttgart outing for a particularly good version.

Video footage of two of the five times Phish played “Rock A William” in 1997 circulate, the June 25, 1997 performance in France during their second European Tour that year and its most recent performance on August 10, 1997 at Deer Creek, which emerged from an instrument rotation jam. That summer Fish ditched his signature donut pattern dress for a tailored Italian suit. Check out the dapper looking drummer playing guitar in the videos below:

Comparing the performances from 1997 to the one from Sunday night, it appears Fish has not spent much time over the past 26 years honing his guitar skills. Thankfully, the same cannot be said about his drumming as he remains among the top drummers alive.

Phish Summer Tour 2023 continues tonight, Tuesday, July 18 with the first of two shows in Wilmington, North Carolina. Livestreams for the Live Oak Bank Pavilion at Riverfront Park shows and the rest of the band’s 2023 Summer Tour are available via LivePhish.com.