What's Going Through Your Mind

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History

While every fan knows that the mythological properties and powers of the Helping Friendly Book can never be fully grasped or understated (just read the f***** book), not everyone knows a corporeal form of said publication (or some approximation of it) actually exists here on this plane of existence: it’s a real book.*

Long ago, in a day-glo-drenched decade affectionately called the 80’s, there was a young, humble programmer at AT&T, named Tom Marshall. While a career in programming held promise, Tom wanted ‘something different’; he longed for something more. 

Peering through his own unique lens on the world, Tom started jotting down his thoughts. Eventually, that ‘inner turmoil bubbled up’ as ‘weird poems’ he’d send to Scott Herman, his best friend at work… and those same exchanges would become the lyrics for myriad songs. Scott would reply to a verse from Tom in the same meter and rhyme-- And save each one. Eventually, Tom and Scott compiled and bound all their poetic / lyrical communiques into a book they called The Salamander Prince (taken from lyrics within the book) and bequeathed it upon one Trey Anastasio… And the book became lore. And that lore became the stuff of legend.

While "the Salamander Prince" is actually featured in the lyrics for “What’s Going Through Your Mind” aka “WGYTM ," the book itself has been part of the connective tissue that makes up the Phish Lyrical Universe (or P.L.U.) for years. Lyrics and pieces from the first edition of The Salamander Prince wound up on numerous Phish albums, like Lawnboy, Picture of Nectar, Hoist, Rift, Farmhouse and Ghosts of the Forest. Scott and Tom created the second edition of The Salamander Prince, known as “Walls of the Cave,” for the 2.0 era. They authored the third edition for 3.0, aptly called “Sigma Oasis.”

Lyrically speaking, the song’s narrative catalogues a series of friends or acquaintances, as Tom Marshall explains (on the Undermine podcast from 07/17/24) “at a party that gets out of hand in every single way” over the course of a very long night. Populated with names both familiar and fun to sing, we meet a total of nine distinct, named characters in WGTYM-- Only McGrupp has more (10). The hypnotizing chorus veers decidedly more introspective, as it calls into question the power of words both spoken and unsaid, and how each ripples through time and one’s memories.

Though “What’s Going Through Your Mind” debuted in 2023 with TAB (on 05/09/24 in Chicago), the song’s lyrics, penned originally in the 1980s and finished in the 2020s, feel appropriately timeless. A jam vehicle from the outset, the song was introduced to the gathered masses by Phish in Michigan on 08/07/24 (10:27) with local Grammy-winning guitar virtuoso, William Lee Apsotol aka Billy Strings joining on guitar and vocals.

While not every version of the “WGTYM” has made the hallowed jam chart (like 04/18/25 in Seattle), more have than not. The song had its second longest outing on 08/15/24 at Mondegreen (25:09), then took a decidedly EDM turn on 12/31/24 at MSG (17:13) as part of the monster set to close out the year. 

But 2024 was merely setting the stage for what lay ahead in 2025, when the band took the song even deeper into the phantom zone. The Moon Palace “WGTYM” from 02/02/25 lasts over twenty minutes (21:26 to be exact), while the Chicago version on 07/18/25 runs an impressive twenty eight minutes (28:07). All that said, the honor for the longest “What’s Going Through Your Mind” (at least until the next tour), belongs to Pittsburgh on 06/24/25-- which clocked in at a solid 42 minutes (42:21). But, to close out its huge year, a more concise (12:05) version of the song was played in the second set of the NYE show. 

*Depends on your definition of “real” and “book”.

Last significant update: 1/1/2026

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