Phish.net > Charts > Narration Chart: "Mockingbird", 1992-05-02

TREY: Somewhere, far away from this building, far away from all these people, and far away from this city, and far away from this whole state and this whole country and the riots going on and everything… just imagine yourself lifting off the ground right now, with us, the whole building just opening up above our heads, and all the people just slowly floating, slowly lifting up off the ground, up into the air, and up into the clouds until you can see the mountains and the sea down below…

Going up a little higher and higher and higher and higher and higher and just floating, floating up above the earth. You start going forward. Now, you’re not just going up, you’re going forward. The clouds are splitting slowly behind you; you have grey clouds on either side of you. They start to spread open, and now there’s nothing but blackness in front of you and stars. You’re floating forward and moving forward, the whole group of people is moving forward, through space and through time, moving through time.

Then you look down below you and you start to see some shapes taking form below you. Brown, green shapes, and you feel yourself dropping back down, and you look below you and you see there’s one shape over here, it’s a mountain, it’s a huge mountain. As you get closer it gets bigger and bigger. Over on your left, there’s a green patch. It’s a huge forest floating out into the distance. On the third side there’s a green field that goes straight off into the distance the other way. And, you start to come down, and you’re coming down, and you look and you see the mountain.

The mountain is looming before you, a huge mountain, bigger than you’ve ever seen before, and as you look, you see on the side of the mountain, you look closely, you see a tiny speck. You realize that this is not just a tiny speck. This tiny speck… this tiny speck is… Colonel Forbin! Colonel Forbin is climbing up the mountain. As you come down on your left you see a revolutionary camp, and you start to realize that this is the revolutionary camp. These people are trying to overthrow the Evil King Wilson. This whole area used to be a beautiful, lush, natural area where people used to live in peace and harmony with nature.

But then, the Evil King Wilson came an enslaved the people. He stole their book, the Helping Friendly Book, and he hid it in the highest tower in his castle. Right now, Colonel Forbin, seeing the failure of the revolution, is doing the last thing that he thinks is possible: he’s climbing up this huge mountain, way bigger than K2 or Everest, this is the biggest mountain there’s ever been in the history of time and the entire universe. He’s been climbing for days, weeks, jagged cliffs, climbing up, rocks falling below. He’s starving, hungry, but he needs to get to the top. He wants to find the great and knowledgeable… the great and knowledgeable one.

[“Icculus” begins]

TREY: He needs to find this great man. He’s climbing the mountain to find a great man, because this great man changed his life and he changed our life. And this great man can change your life. Someday, I hope that you too will discover this great man, because he wrote a great book. This man wrote the Helping Friendly Book, and this is the book that contained all the knowledge inherent in the universe. We read this book and we learned the way to a better life, and I hope, I hope deep down, that someday, you all will read this great book and learn the way to a great life.

We showed this book to other people, and their lives were changed for the better. We showed this book to Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. They used to be a feeble bluegrass band until they read this great book. And now look at them, they read the book and that’s why Colonel Forbin is looking for his great spirit on top of the mountain, because he is the great and knowledgeable he is the author of the Helping Friendly Book!

You got to read the Helping Friendly Book! You got to read the book! You want to change! You want to [stop being?] a little puddle of miserable puddle of no good? You got to read the book! You got to read the Helping Friendly Book! Because it’s written by the great, the great and knowledgeable, the great and knowledgeable author of the Helping Friendly Book, the great, the spiritual, the incredible, the fantastic, the wonderful, it was written by the great and knowledgeable Icculus!

[“Icculus” continues to conclusion and is followed by return to “Mockingbird”]

TREY: So, Colonel Forbin is climbing up the mountain, he wants to get back the Helping Friendly Book, and the Helping Friendly Book is right now being held by the evil king Wilson. If he can get the Helping Friendly Book back, everyone can go on living in peace and harmony with nature forever. So Icculus comes out of the mountain and looks down and Colonel Forbin, and he says “Colonel Forbin, I’m gonna help you get the Helping Friendly Book. I’m gonna call on my friend the Famous Mockingbird. He’s gonna fly down out of the sky.” And he lands on Icculus’ shoulder and Icculus says “Famous Mockingbird, fly to the castle of the evil king Wilson, steal the Helping Friendly Book, and bring it back to the people of Gamehendge so that they can live in peace and harmony with the people forever.” So here he comes now, the Famous Mockingbird...