My Top 2000 Songs #1088: Simple

Our prior visits to Phish on these pages have been songs which were perfectly solid (if not better) in their original studio form (though some obviously thrived on stage, as is typical of most of the band's work). "Simple," however (like some of the best songs of their forerunners the Grateful Dead), has no studio counterpart. (A demo was recorded for the 1994 Hoist LP but didn't make the cut.) Which is a shame, as the song's deliriously infectious riff, and especially its interwoven harmonies, could benefit from some carefully produced studio polish. And, sure, it's one of the band's sillier numbers lyrically, though it has a playful charm far less irksome than some of their other early-ish material; but it would've been kinda cool to see the song issued as a hit single and sky-balls and sax-scrapers entering the popular lexicon. 

Still, there's a lot to be said for the song existing wholly as an ever-changing live platform. Its... well,  no pun intended, relatively simple song structure offers a sound foundation for the extended funk-tinged jamming at which the band excels. Though its initial official release, on 1995's A Live One, was a stand-alone song barely reaching the five-minute mark, it soon morphed into a more exploratory set piece (often joined with "Mike's Song," another live-only Phish track). And even when they can't quite nail those harmonies on stage, that absurd riff, and whatever they springboard it into, remain a critical example of the band's enduring live power.

A Live One version:

Spectrum 1997:

Longest version ever, tipping the scales at 40 jam-packed minutes in 2024: