Hello Phish Phans!
We will conclude our brief discussion on prog rock with the Phish’s magnum opus – You Enjoy Myself (or YEM as it is commonly referred to). Written in 1985 while Trey and Fish were in Europe, YEM is one of the most played and beloved songs in the Phish catalog. When Phish took their big hiatus in the mid-2000s, Trey made a comment about how he would give his left nut to play YEM 5 times a day for the rest of his life. The Phish phenomenon is exemplified by YEM’s history and nature, which is as compositionally intricate as it is lyrically goofy. Trey has also said that YEM “sums up our first five years.”
YEM is comprised of five sections (in general): the opening, composed section; the section featuring the song’s only lyrics and the Page-driven trampoline jam; the Trey-driven jam section; a bass and drums segment; and then the vocal jam.
The composed section is the first ~ 6 minutes of the song (depending on the version), consisting of a complex arpeggio opening section followed by a spacey, free-form improvisational section, a brief piano solo, bass solo, and then a tension building section that resolves with a guitar solo (“The Note”).
The next section begins with an often-hideous scream, and then a funky jam that includes the song’s only lyrics. There has long been debate about what the lyrics actually are or mean, but it’s generally agreed upon that it’s “Boy, Man, God, Shit, Wash Uffizi drive me to Firenze,” which probably comes from some language barrier Trey and Fish encountered while in Europe. Trey discusses the origins of YEM in this interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPkMnfD4HO4. Following, Trey and Mike get on trampolines while Page drives the jam (watch the video for this).
After exiting the trampoline jam, Trey usually takes over for the next several minutes. Next, Mike and Fish are featured in the bass and drums segment, while Trey either dances or contributes on his “toy drum kit.” YEM concludes with a vocal jam which is often a strange, inarticulate vocal improvisation (I sometimes just skip this cause it gets weird).
As this is one of Phish’s most played songs, it has many great versions! In college I had an iTunes playlist with 10+ versions that I looped through to compare (people made fun of me for this! and sometimes still bring it up!!). Here are a few of my favorites!
YEM 12/7/94 (audio only): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RuEDNYQQ40
YEM 12/31/95 (full audio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blciN4nMGrMYEM 12/31/95 (video pt 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0XBu3-JXT4YEM 12/31/95 (video pt 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt3HJmnb3yc
YEM 12/09/95 (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXgh2Zmzlxc
Enjoy! Next stop- Gamehendge!
Dan's Phish Blog 