Gamehendge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gamehendge is the fictional setting for a number of songs by the legendary rock band Phish. Most of the songs can be traced back to The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday (or TMWSIY), the senior thesis of guitarist and primary vocalist Trey Anastasio, written while he attended Goddard College in 1987. Anastasio developed the main story into Phish's second studio album that same year. It is the only Phish complete album that has never officially been released, although it has been heavily circulated among fans since 1987.

Contents 1 Story 2 Characters from Gamehendge 3 Songs from Gamehendge 4 Character and Location References 5 Live Performances 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Story

The Gamehendge saga, as told on The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday album, tells the story of Colonel Forbin, a retired colonel from Long Island, New York, who enters the land of Gamehendge and rescues a document called the Helping Friendly Book from an evil dictator named Wilson.

[edit] Characters from Gamehendge

1. The Lizards (the race of people who inhabit Gamehendge and are dependent on the writings of the Helping Friendly Book)
2. Wilson (a traveller who arrives in Gamehendge and eventually captures the Helping Friendly Book from the Lizards, thus becoming the sole ruler of Gamehendge)
3. Colonel Forbin (a retired colonel who embarks on a mission to rescue the Helping Friendly Book from the tower of Wilson's castle)
4. McGrupp (Colonel Forbin's dog)
5. Rutherford the Brave (head knight of the Lizards who leads a team of allies to help overthrow Wilson)
6. Tela (member of the allies and Colonel Forbin's object of desire who is eventually revealed as a spy for Wilson)
7. Errand Wolfe (member of the allies who keeps the book for himself after overthrowing Wilson instead of returning it to the Lizards, thus declaring himself ruler)
8. Roger Wolfe (member of the allies)
9. Mr. Palmer (Wilson's accountant who is hanged by the AC/DC Bag in the town square after he is caught embezzling money to fund the allies)
10. The AC/DC Bag (a robotic hangman with a bag on its head used to hang traitors and enemies of Wilson)
11. The Unit Monster (a giant monster who is a member of the allies and is killed along with Tela for spying)
12. Spotted Stripers (messenger birds sent by Tela the spy to reveal information to Wilson about the activities of the allies)
13. Multibeasts (giant four-legged creatures that are used as transportation by the people of Gamehendge, much like horses or camels)
14. The Famous Mockingbird (a bird who is sent by Icculus to fly to the very top of Wilson's castle and retrieve the Helping Friendly Book for Colonel Forbin)
15. The Sloth (a hitman who is hired to murder Wilson after the Helping Friendly Book is rescued)
16. Icculus (the Supreme God of the Sky)
17. Llamas (giant animals used by the Lizards in combat; complete with huge guns on each side)
18. Jimmy (young resident of Gamehendge)
19. Poster Nutbag (The cat owned by Jimmy; always dies some form of death towards the end of the song 'Harpua')
20. Harpua (A mean bulldog owned by an old man who was banished from Jimmy's village; invariably ends up in a terrible fight with Poster Nutbag, usually resulting in Poster's death.)

[edit] Songs from Gamehendge

Songs from The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday

1. The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday (The introduction features the story's main theme music as the narrator describes the lonely life of Colonel Forbin and what happens when he begins to see an image of a strange door on a daily basis)
2. The Lizards (Colonel Forbin, while on a walk with his dog McGrupp, decides to finally walk through the door, thus entering the land of Gamehendge. The song features Colonel Forbin hearing tales about the saga of the Lizards, Wilson, and the Helping Friendly Book as told by native Rutherford the Brave)
3. Tela (Colonel Forbin joins Rutherford and other allies, one of whom is the beautiful Tela. The song reveals Colonel Forbin's deep feelings for Tela)
4. Wilson (a song introducing the evil king Wilson, who captured the Helping Friendly Book from the Lizards and declared himself ruler of Gamehendge)
5. AC/DC Bag (tells the story of the execution of Mr. Palmer, Wilson's accountant. Palmer was using Wilson's money to secretly fund the revolution, and was therefore hanged in the town square by the AC/DC Bag, a mechanical hangman)
6. Colonel Forbin's Ascent (details Colonel Forbin's journey to the top of a giant mountain to ask for Icculus' help in regaining the Helping Friendly Book, which Icculus wrote, from Wilson)
7. Fly Famous Mockingbird (Icculus sends his friend, the Famous Mockingbird, to retrieve the Helping Friendly Book from Wilson's Castle)
8. The Sloth (once the book is recovered, the Sloth is hired by the allies to murder Wilson)
9. Possum (a non-Gamehendge song written by original Phish guitarist Jeff Holdsworth and later entered into the story by Anastasio with altered lyrics to fit the Gamehendge theme. It offers a strange moral: Icculus considers all that's happened in Gamehendge, offers a slogan to consider ("ain't no truth in action unless you believe it anyway") and describes the roadside demise of a possum. Aside from "Col. Forbin's Ascent," this is Icculus's only direct speech in the Gamehendge saga.)

Other Gamehendge Songs

1. The Divided Sky (a chant performed by the Lizards as they stand on the edge of a rhombus and shout to the sky, praising Icculus)
2. Llama (a tale from the later years of Wilson's reign in Gamehendge during a violent war)
3. McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters (the story of a shepherd who lives in Gamehendge, whose flock is watched over by Colonel Forbin's dog, McGrupp)
4. Punch You In The Eye (tells the story of a traveller who passes through Gamehendge during Wilson's reign and his subsequent escape from Wilson's jail)
5. Icculus (introduces Icculus, the author of the Helping Friendly Book)
6. Harpua (tells the story of a mean bulldog who lives in Gamehendge)
7. Axilla (a tale of monsters, witches, and battles in old time Gamehendge)
8. Axilla, Part 2 (told years later during peacetime in Gamehendge as the narrator reflects on the land's past turmoil)
9. Kung (a chant that one must perform in order to enter the land of Gamehendge)

[edit] Character and Location References

1. In the story, "Prussia" is a city that was constructed in the land of Gamehendge. In the song "Wilson," Anastasio refers to Wilson as the "King of Prussia." This lyric references an actual city named King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, which is where "the rhombus" was rumored to be located. Actually located near Anastasio's childhood home in Princeton, New Jersey, the rhombus is a giant piece of art located in a field where Anastasio, Phish lyricist Tom Marshall, and other friends would engage in lengthy songwriting sessions (including some Gamehendge songs). "The Divided Sky" also references the rhombus, where the Lizards supposedly chant to the sky in praise of Icculus.
2. The song "Wilson" also references more of Anastasio's friends, including Mike Christian, Roger Holloway ("Roger Wolfe" in the story, also immortalized in "AC/DC Bag"), and someone named Pete. Anastasio and Roger Holloway perform an instrumental duet named "Aftermath" on the very first Phish album.
3. Dave Abrahms, an old friend and songwriting collaborator of Anastasio's, is referenced in "McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters."
4. The character of Errand Wolfe is named after another of Anastasio's songwriting collaborators, Aaron Woolf, who co-wrote Phish's "Golgi Apparatus."

[edit] Live Performances

The songs from Gamehendge have been played many times throughout the career of Phish, sometimes with Anastasio narrating parts of the story to the audience. The earliest known performance of a Gamehendge song was "McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters" on March 4, 1985, in Burlington, Vermont. On four occasions in the band's history (1988, 1993, and twice in 1994), Phish performed a complete set of Gamehendge songs, complete with narration. Each song list has been slightly different from one another.

"When songs from the project are performed live, accompanying narration often (e.g.) details the transportation of the audience "to" Gamehendge. Some fans speak of "going to Gamehendge" with reference to attending a show, somewhat independent of whether any songs from the TMWSIY project are or were actually performed. Some of the narrations explain how to "get" to Gamehendge -- for instance, the "Vibration of Life" (a seven-beats-per-second rhythm more than a song) may be one path, and a Dentist's nitrous oxide was a route 7/8/94."[1]

[edit] See also

The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday

[edit] External links

• http://music.ibiblio.org/pub/multimedia/jamz/SBDs/trey-gamehendge.shnf/ Lossless SHN download of TMWSIY(Gamehendge)
• http://www.phish.net/faq/gamehendge.html Phish.net's explanation of Gamehendge
• http://www.musicgods.com/phish/lyrics/Ygamehendge.htm The entire transcription of Trey's Gamehendge senior thesis.