Billy Breathes is the sixth official studio album by
American rock band Phish. It remains one of the most popular Phish albums, and
is credited (like the later release Farmhouse) with connecting the band to a
more mainstream audience beyond its strong cult following. Rolling Stone said
that Billy Breathes is "a quiet gem of an album" that confirms Phish
"is much more than a jam band from Burlington, Vermont."
The album includes the song "Free", the band's
most successful chart single, which peaked at #11 on Billboard Mainstream Rock
Tracks Chart and at #24 on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks Chart
Tracks 5 and 9 are instrumentals. "Bliss" is the
only instrumental song on the album to have never been played live by the band.
The album's final track, "Prince Caspian", is also the name of a
mythical prince in The Chronicles of Narnia, a fantasy series by British
novelist C. S. Lewis.
The cover of the album is a close-up shot of bass guitar
player Mike Gordon, the first time that any member of Phish had appeared on an
album cover. Phish frontman Trey Anastasio recalled in a 1997 interview that
the cover came together very quickly on the last day of recording.
The album was certified Gold by RIAA January 8, 1999.
In February 2009, this album became available as a download
in FLAC and MP3 formats at LivePhish.com.
Early song ideas came from a scuba diving trip that Trey
Anastasio and Tom Marshall went on in the Cayman Islands in January 1996. They
then produced a demo which was given to the other band members at the start of
the Billy Breathes sessions. Other songs such as "Free" and
"Taste" had already been in the band's live rotation since 1995.
The album was recorded between February and June 1996 at the
now defunct Bearsville Studios in the Catskills area of New York State. Early
recording started February 1, with the band intending to produce the album
themselves with engineering by John Siket. The first recording project was an
attempt to create a sonic "blob" that filled an entire reel of tape.
Each band member contributed on several instruments. This idea was later
abandoned but elements were used on the tracks "Swept Away" and
"Steep".
Rough mixes of songs were made after recording for most of
February and March. The band took a break from recording beginning on March 20,
and each listened to the rough mixes during their time off. Rough mixes
included the songs "Free", "Grind", two versions of
"Strange Design", "Swept Away/Steep", "Talk",
"Waste" and "Weekly Time". Phish played one live show in
April and then returned to Bearsville on May 1 to resume recording.
With the resumption of recording, Steve Lillywhite joined as
producer on the recommendation of Dave Matthews. Lillywhite had never heard of
Phish before he joined the Billy Breathes sessions. He reflected in February
2011:
“Phish, for me, are the musical equivalent of watching a
flock of birds fly across the sky: They don’t scatter every which way, but
rather, they move with each other; they dip and dive, they go up and down; but
at all times, they seem to have this radar, this instinct, for where the bird
in front or in back of them is going. Musically, each member of Phish knows
what the other is doing, which then carries over to the whole. The band can
play anything, which then raises the question: Well, what should they play?
With Billy Breathes, it’s the closest they got to making what I would say is a
good stoner album. You know what I mean: you put on the CD, you fire up a big
one and you just go down that road. There hadn’t been a good stoner record
since Dark Side Of The Moon. Billy Breathes got close. I keep telling Trey
Anastasio we can make a better one.”
After Lillywhite joined, many of the songs were recorded in
the early morning hours. "We did a lot of that album at five in the
morning, when the sun was coming up. It kind of sounds like that, especially
the stuff on side two like "Billy Breathes" and "Prince
Caspian", "Swept Away" all that stuff was recorded as the sun
was coming up" said Trey in a 1997 interview. On June 6, 1996, near the
end of the sessions, the band played a surprise show in the neighboring town of
Woodstock at a local bar called Joyous Lake.
The song "Strange Design", which the band had been
playing live since May 1995, was recorded during the Billy Breathes sessions
but was left off the album. The band recorded several versions of the track
before settling on a final version. This was later included on the Free
European single CD release. Phish lyricist Tom Marshall spoke of the
"Strange Design" outtake in 1996:
"It was scrapped at the last second. The band was
touring in Europe at the time and made the painful decision there - in Italy or
France I think. The album was complete and about to be mastered.
"Design" was to be the last song on the album - after Caspian. It was
a bizarre version that no one ever really got used to. It was funny though -
the second they got back to the States and played it in their new acoustic
setup it was as strong as ever. It just couldn't be captured in the studio for
whatever reason. Cutting it was one of those great decisions - after working so
long and hard on the song, sacrificing it for the good of the album took a very
wide focus - as much thought went into cutting it as went into recording
it."
Trey Anastasio recalled in a 1997 interview that the cover
came together very quickly on the last day of recording.
"We finished Billy Breathes and our manager kept
saying, "What are you going to do about the cover?" So, finally, it
was the LAST day, and it was, like three in the morning. They (management)
said, "We NEED a cover tomorrow." You know all those pictures on the
back? We cut them out and stuck them on with scotch tape. Mike was on the cover
he just shot a picture of himself. The whole thing took like five
minutes!"
Track Listing
"Free" (Anastasio, Marshall) – 3:49
"Character Zero" (Anastasio, Marshall) – 4:00
"Waste" (Anastasio, Marshall) – 4:50
"Taste" (Anastasio, Fishman, Gordon, Marshall,
McConnell) – 4:07
"Cars Trucks Buses" (McConnell) – 2:25
"Talk" (Anastasio, Marshall) – 3:09
"Theme from the Bottom" (Anastasio, Fishman,
Gordon, Marshall, McConnell) – 6:22
"Train Song" (Gordon, Linitz) – 2:33
"Bliss" (Anastasio) – 2:03
"Billy Breathes" (Anastasio) – 5:31
"Swept Away" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 1:16
"Steep" (Anastasio, Fishman, Gordon, Marshall,
McConnell) - 1:37
"Prince Caspian" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 5:19
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