oh kee pah

It’s not that Phish got the lyrics wrong; it’s that the lyrics they sang were better. The fact remains that as much as I enjoyed the Exile set – in fact, it was the most enjoyable in concert of the 4 cover sets that I saw – I still don’t really like the album. Phish didn’t turn me into a Rolling Stones fan or a fan of Exile on Main Street. However, what they did do is make me understand how someone else could be. Phish’s cover was performed from the perspective of a fan of the album, showing what amazing music is on the disc, even if it can be hard for me to hear it when the actual album is played.

Musical taste is arational. You can tell me a song is trite, but if it sets off an emotional reaction in me, I won’t care. Similarly, a long explanation about why an album is great will do nothing for me if I put it in and am bored by it. What Phish managed to do in 100 minutes was most impressive. Hearing their version in Indio was about as close as I could ever come to the moment when Page first placed the vinyl on his turntable and was blown away. People may (and do) argue over whether Phish ruined or improved the album with their version, but they managed to translate the joy that it brings them to at least one person who still doesn’t get it from the Rolling Stones. That by itself might have made the whole Halloween cover album project worth it.

Meanwhile, the June 10 issue of Rolling Stone, which hit our mailbox last Wednesday, includes a festival guide with a neato map that mentions Furthur -- the new band of Grateful Dead figureheads Phil Lesh and Bob Weir -- along with Phoenix, Kings of Leon and Al Green as headliners for Outside Lands. The map is on page 36 of the issue with Russell Brand writhing on the cover.