Phish.net > Charts > Narration Chart: "Mockingbird", 1995-10-05

TREY: If you let me take one minute here, I’m gonna tell you a little story. Now, what I want to tell you about, this is less of the standard roller coaster ride that you might know about and more of a conceptual kind of thing. What I want to talk about here is the concept of the matrix. Think of a matrix. Think of the word “matrix” coming from the latin root “mater,” which makes the words “mother” and “matter” and other things that are basic stuff that make up the Earth.

Well, life as a human being is basically a series of matrices. So, the first matrix you experience as a human being is the womb. Every matrix has three things that it needs for it to be a matrix. The first thing is a source of possibility. The second thing is a source of energy. And, the third thing is a safe ground on which to stand where you can realize that possibility using the energy. So in the womb, a human being has three things: a source of possibility, a source of energy, and a safe ground on which to stand. From when the baby is born, the next matrix becomes the mother. The mother is a source of possibility, a source of energy, and a safe ground on which to stand so that it can learn and figure out that possibility. From there it becomes the Earth, and this is the way that human beings travel.

Now, in the universe, and in space, everything is a little bit different, but the concept stays the same because this is a concept that runs through the entire universe. So, in the universe the main matrix, which is the glue that holds everything together, is Music. So music is a source of possibility, a source of energy, and a safe place on which to stand where you can realize that possibility and get that energy. So, the question remains here: where does the music come from? Well, I can tell you where the music comes from. The music comes from a place that floats out in space, and you might know it as… Gamehendge.

So, musicians like the four of us, we consider ourselves to be basically big holes. We transmit the music to you. We don’t feel like we’re making music, but were taking it. Now, everything is great, right? This system is perfect because here you’ve got the music coming from Gamehendge. It’s the safe matrix and out it goes in the universe. Now, Gamehendge, if you wanna picture Gamehendge, Gamehendge is green and black. What I mean by that is, when I picture it in my mind I see green and black. The first green and black I see is the blackness of space surrounding my entire view and the tiniest green spot imaginable floating in the distance. Gamehendge is the tiniest thing in the universe. It’s also green and black because Gamehendge is a green field as far as the imagination can go, with a black rhombus sitting in the middle of it that’s a tiny black rhombus. So, Gamehendge is green and black, both at the same time, huge and tiny. It’s everything. And, everything is beautiful because the music is coming from Gamehendge, except that there is one little problem… And that’s that a human being came to Gamehendge a long time ago, and his name was Wilson.

Now, just as human beings have tried to intellectualize their own existence... For instance, you know doctors and human beings try to intellectualize the birth process, which is this incredibly spiritual, beautiful thing that, you know, we’ve, you know, got all the drugs now and everything. Oh, we can do it better. We can intellectually make this beautiful thing better, right? In the same way, Wilson went to Gamehendge. When he saw the power that was involved, because music is also a very powerful thing, he realized that he could use this power and enslave the people, use the power for his own personal gain, which of course starts sending off very strange and weird vibrations.

So, what our quest is here as four musicians up on the stage, what we’re trying to do right now, and what this song that I’m singing right now, Colonel Forbin, is about, is about the quest that us and anyone else that wants to be with us, to try and get back to the pure state, to Gamehendge, the music back to a pure state.

Now, there are people in Gamehendge, the Lizard people, who have been thinking along the same lines because they liked it before the human beings tried to intellectualize the place. Right now, as I sing this song, if you can picture in your mind, one of them is part of the revolutionaries. His name is Colonel Forbin, and he’s climbing up a mountain because he’s going to ask Icculus, who is the spirit on Gamehendge, to help him get back this Helping Friendly Book.

Now, The Helping Friendly Book… Because, a book is a matrix in itself, right? A source of possibility, a source of energy, a safe place on which to stand. A good book, you can’t beat it. This book is how these people were, you know, where they were getting their knowledge to stay in tune. So right now, Colonel Forbin is asking Icculus to send his friend, The Famous Mockingbird, to fly to the castle of this evil guy, Wilson, steal the book back, and hopefully, by that process, turn Gamehendge back into a purity. Hopefully, by the end of the song, it will be turned back into purity, and we will be transmitting that kind of music that you like to hear.

So, here he comes now, right over there, the Famous Mockingbird...