ThePhanastasio

Phish

The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday

Trey's Senior Thesis (1988)

Track Listing:
1.) Introduction (Wilson Prelude) - Anastasio
2.) The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday - Anastasio
3.) The Lizards - Anastasio
4.) Tela - Anastasio
5.) Traveling Narrative - Anastasio
6.) Wilson - Anastasio
7.) AC/DC Bag - Anastasio
8.) Betrayal Narrative - Anastasio
9.) Colonel Forbin's Ascent - Anastasio
10.) Fly Famous Mockingbird - Anastasio
11.) Errand Wolfe's Narrative - Anastasio
12.) The Sloth - Anastasio
13.) Forbin in the Dungeon Narrative - Anastasio
14.) Possum - Holdsworth

Please Note: Following the links, you are given the option to download the tracks, but you can also stream them.

The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, the senior thesis of Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, is a four track recording featuring the full Phish line-up and what would become many of their most well-known songs.

The recording is fanciful, whimsical, and often exceptionally lovely musically. Anastasio delivers spoken narration of the story over composed music, in addition to through songs. His vocal delivery of the spoken dialogue is pleasant and absolutely perfect for the tone of the recording, almost like that of someone reading the perfect bedtime story.

Other "concept albums" have generally focused more on the overall mood of the piece rather than continuous narrative (see Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Pink Floyd's The Wall, and Phish's own Rift for good examples of this) but the story of Colonel Forbin's journey into the land of Gamehendge set down here in The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday is very linear and heavily involved with the story itself.

Those vastly unfamiliar with the work of Phish but well-versed in the more contemporary indie scene might think that sounds a lot like The Decemberists' 2009 record The Hazards Of Love, but there are several glaring dissimilarities between the two. While not like a traditional concept album in the expected sense, on The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, Anastasio chooses to progress much of the storyline through spoken narration above music, rather than merely through song. (This is, after all, his thesis for a Creative Writing degree.) As such, the work cannot be considered a "rock opera" by any means; it's something a little different. The pieces (much like in The Hazards Of Love) are dependent on each other when viewed as a cohesive unit, but there are several offerings (much unlike The Hazards Of Love) which can hold their own as standalone pieces.

Take, for example, the first non-narrated "track" on the recording, "The Lizards".

03 - The Lizards.mp3

"The Lizards" has been played extensively live, generally out of context to The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday as a whole. It remains a fan favorite, but lyrically still serves to progress the story in a linear manner. As a matter of fact, the song details the events immediately following the protagonist, Colonel Forbin, after he "steps through the door" and enters Gamehendge. He comes across a knight in a full suit of armor, Rutherford the Brave, who proceeds to walk with him and tell him about Gamehendge, the Lizards, (the race of people indiginous to Gamehendge) and the oppressive dictator, Wilson, who has enslaved the Lizards and proclaimed himself king. So why is it such a popular song for the band when taken out of context if it's so closely involved with the story?

The reason is this: It's just a damn enjoyable song. It features a nice melody, catchy chorus, very pretty guitar work by Anastasio, and a gorgeous piano solo by McConnell. Gordon and Fishman each shine in the piece as well, bringing a superb energy to the rhythm section that makes this song a very wondrous piece indeed.

While not a band necessarily known for having brilliant lyrics, "The Lizards" also features some wonderful lines. Midway through the track, Rutherford tells Forbin of The Helping Friendly Book, (penned by Icculus, but we'll get to him later) to which the colonel observed that, "The trick was to surrender to the flow," a very nice, somewhat poignant little tidbit.

While "The Lizards" has enjoyed its fair share of live performance by the band, the track which has easily been performed live most frequently (from this particular recording) is "Wilson", a little ditty about the wretched king himself.

07 - Wilson.mp3

Delivered from the point of view of Errand Wolfe, a man leading a group of Lizard revolutionaries to overthrow the dictator, "Wilson" is quite a remarkable (albeit angry) song. McConnell pounds away at the dark chords of the song, and the others follow suit. As the song nears its conclusion, Anastasio (as Wolfe) asks of Wilson, "I must inquire, Wilson...can you still have fun?" At this point, the music becomes almost frenzied, full of energy and intensity which make this such a successful live track.

It does, however, appear on this recording in a slightly different form from that seen in live performances: The intro when live consists of audience interaction to exclaim, "Wilson!" when Trey hits the 'E' notes.

(Youtube a live version to see what I'm talking about, I suppose - it's kind of more difficult to explain in words than I thought it would be. )

"AC/DC Bag", also seen on The White Tape, makes an appearance in Trey's thesis as well. It is described in the narration as being an "electrified robotic hangman," and the song is delivered by "Wilson" to his accountant, Mr. Palmer, who is being hanged for embezzling money from Wilson to aid the revolutionaries.

It's a solid track, and also often performed live quite frequently.

The album progresses to find Colonel Forbin getting involved with the revolutionaries, "falling in love" with Tela, the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, and ultimately going to the top of the mountain to ask Icculus for help in getting the Helping Friendly Book back from Wilson and into the hands of the Lizards.

(Now is the point where I bitterly wish I had chosen just to focus on the music and not the story, but it proves almost impossible. As such, I feel like this review is much longer than it has to be already.)

Icculus is best described by Anastasio during the opening narration of the song:

Something of a metaphor or approximation of God in the popular religions? Probably. Anyway - as Colonel Forbin makes his way up the mountain to talk with Icculus, his ascent is described via sung narration with the song "Colonel Forbin's Ascent".

11 - Colonel Forbin's Ascent.mp3

The song itself is not a perfect track by any means - the vocals at the beginning are pretty bad, even for Anastasio. This is another song, however, on which McConnell is showcased quite well. Gordon is exceptional as well, although regrettably difficult to hear and appreciate well with the "quality" of the recording.

The "Happily Ever After" to this story, which has the feel of a particularly fantastic fairy tale almost, doesn't exactly come. It's very bittersweet.



The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday is a very unique and enjoyable listening experience, recording quality aside. The story is intriguing in and of itself, and the compositions are, for the most part, of exceptionally high quality.

If you would like to listen to the work in its entirety, I highly suggest that you listen HERE as it can be streamed in its entirety with no pesky track breaks.

My feelings for this recording are overwhelmingly positive.

GRADE: A
(94/100)