B-Sides

Introduction

| Interviews

| KV &Other Bands

| Links | Additional

Themes

Introduction

Kurt Vonnegut's contribution of Hook,

Line &Sinker to The

Greatest Album Covers That Never Were, portions of which are currently

on display

at the Rock &Roll Hall of Fame, inspired me to take a closer

look at the relationship between Mr. Vonnegut and Phish. By and by

I started to feel snowed under and figured now was as good a time

as any to share some of the interviews and notes I've collected in

the name of this project thus far. Now these conversations don't get at a specific thesis or answer a certain question, but you might

say they foreshadow the sort of formalized, academically tuned investigation

that was my original goal.

Jon Fishman noted in the May

2000 Fish's Forum, "I missed the boat once when I was young

and stupid, but now I am able to miss the boat repeatedly with great

skill and accuracy." While the timbre of this statement corresponds

to the brand of self-effacing humor employed at times by Vonnegut,

it also describes my feelings on this project to an extent. I didn't

exactly accomplish what I set out to achieve a few months back, it's

still a work in progress; phase one of a bigger project to be completed

at a later date.

At any rate, I am very proud to share the thoughts of Tom Marshall,

Richard Gehr, Max Prior, and Col. Bruce Hampton (Ret.) on the topic

at hand. The degree of humanity and intelligence exhibited herein

is almost overwhelming. Indeed, their respective works, all unique

in their own way, are touchstones to which I aspire.

Interviews

Tom

Marshall

Richard Gehr

(featuring Max Prior)

Colonel

Bruce Hampton, Ret.

Kurt Vonnegut and

other bands

• Ice-9

Publishing Co. is the name of the Grateful Dead's in-house publishing

company that retains the rights all of the Dead's lyrics and music.

The name of course is drawn from the deadly compound featured in Vonnegut's

apocolyptic Cat's Cradle. Robert Hunter is the president of

Ice-9 (Shenk, David and Silberman, Steve, Skeleton Key: A Dictionary

for Deadheads, pg. 154).

• In 1984 Jerry Garcia and Tom Davis set to writing an adaptation

of Sirens of Titan for the big screen but nothing came of the

finished product, despite a meeting with Bill Murray and other Hollywood

bigwigs (McNally, Dennis, A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History

of the Grateful Dead, pg. 551).

• After Garcia's death in 1995, it was discovered the Sirens

contract contained a clause stipulating that Vonnegut could buy back

the film rights to the book from Garcia for the original purchase

price provided production had not begun on the film by a certain date.

Since that date had elapsed by the time Garcia passed, Vonnegut was

able to repurchase the film rights and subsequently

handed them over to filmmaker Robert B. Weide. Mr. Weide has collaborated

alongside Vonnegut previously, directing the play Happy Birthday

Wanda June (2001) and writing and producing the film adaptation

of Mother Night (1996). Mr. Weide's website

includes a slew of other interesting projects, detailing his work,

for example, as director/executive producer for Curb

Your Enthusiasm and his forthcoming Vonnegut documentary.

• Eddie Vedder's publishing name, 'Innocent Bystander' is a

reference to a passage (see page 255) in Vonnegut's 1973 novel Breakfast

of Champions. (Bands

influenced by Kurt Vonnegut)

• The Red Hot Chili Peppers asterisk logo is based on Vonnegut's

famous, minimalist depiction of an asshole in Breakfast of Champions

(see pages 71-2). (Ibid.)

• Other artists whose work explicitly alludes to Vonnegut include:

Roger Waters, The Verve, Ringo Starr, Al Stewart and Joe Satriani.

(Ibid.)

• Stony Stevenson, the Vonnegut character who, for example,

stars as the reluctant astronaut in Between

Time &Timbuktu, a made for television movie that aired

on PBS in 1972, sounds like he'd be one hell of a Phish fan. With

a name like that how could be not be a head?

• Check out Ice-9

Ballads for a thought provoking blend of spoken word and orchestra

music: The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra (Richard Auldon Clark, conductor)

performs music by Dave Soldier intertwined with passages from Cat's

Cradle spoken by Vonnegut. Try this sample from 'Nice Very Nice'

{audio

sample}.

Relevant links

Kurt

Vonnegut's official homepage

Kurt

Vonnegut at In These Times

The

Vonnegut Web

Kurt

Vonnegut at Amazon

Kurt

Vonnegut at Wikipedia

The

Books of Bokonon

'Tock

Tick' by Kurt Vonnegut and Simon Heselev

Additional themes

for further investigation

• Resigned fatalism (or not) A cursory reading of Slaughterhouse

Five might leave the reader with the same opinion as that of the

story's protagonist Billy Pilgrim who accepts the Tralfamadorian teachings

that free will is an illusion and that all moments in time exist simultaneously.

But listen: the fact that Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse

Five seems to me to be an active protest against such resigned

fatalism. I wonder if Gamehendge could likewise be construed as a

protest against resigned fatalism in given its similarly hopeless

conclusion? Or does the pessimistic conclusion of Gamehendge instead

suggest that fans should acquiesce and accept that status quo?

• The self-delusion equilibrium "The late Harold

Epstein said that the first thing he did after he got to Heaven, after

picking a flower he'd never seen before, was to thank God for the

priceless gift of garden insanity." So writes Mr. Vonnegut in

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (page 40), suggesting perhaps

that happiness hinges upon certain self-delusional tactics, a willingness

to accept harmless untruths as a means to sustain vitality. What then

is the difference between accepting certain harmless untruths and

subscribing to the theory that ignorance is bliss? If there is indeed

a fault line dividing these two practices, on which side do Phish

celebrants fall? In other words, how is life a balancing act between

paticipating in concrete reality and engaging in evasive escapism?