The song that got me addicted to Phish. It's track #13 on A Picture of Nectar, and features the same infectious but basically non-sensical lyrics by Tom Marshall that Phish fans--high or not--have come to expect, but there is meaning. Sure, it boils down to "school sucks," but use the word "vasoconstrictor" to describe how much school sucks, and you're clearly a prodigy. The scorching electric guitar that Trey Anastasio lays down over the bumpy railroad tracks of Page McConnell's piano riffs make this song a toe-tapper that adds to any concert or mix tape, especially with a road trip theme.


Lyrics:



Come stumble, my mirth-beaten worker:
I'm Jezmund, the family berserker;
I'm bought for the price of a flagon of rice.
The wind buffs the cabin,
you speak of your life
or more willingly, locust the lurker.

Confuse what you can of the ending
and revise your despise so impending,
'cause I soak on the wrath
that you didn't quite mask:
I'm getting it clearly, through alternate paths,
or mixed in with the signals you're sending.

chorus

...but who can unlearn all the facts that I've learned
as I sat in their chairs and my synapses burned?
The torture of chalk dust collects on my tongue,
thoughts follow my vision and dance in the sun,
all my vasoconstrictors come slowly undone--

Can't this wait 'til I'm old?
Can't I live while I'm young?


But no peace for Jezmund tonight!
I plug the distress tube up tight,
and watch what I say as it flutters away
to where all this emotion is kept harmless at bay,
not to educate somebody's fright...

chorus, JAM, chorus out

{{...and if you're having trouble with the lyrics, imagine Jezmund is a teacher in an old schoolhouse, a drunkard for sake, who clearly hates his students and relishes their fear and loathing of him.}}

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