The B List: 10 Bands Phish Hasn’t Covered

9. Metallica

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Imagine Mike Gordon banging his head and starting For Whom The Bell Tolls on his overdriven bass. Not quite sure who would handle the vocals, but we’d love to see the boys give this one a shot.

8. Pearl Jam

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Pearl Jam got huge around the same time Phish got huge and the Vermonters actually would tease and jam out Alive back in the mid ’90s. We’d be happy to see them cover any of their tunes, but for some reason I think they’d do a really good job with Wishlist off of 1998’s Yield.

7. Tom Petty

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Back in 2006, future Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio opened a number of shows on Tom Petty’s Highway Companion Tour. As I’ve just learned today, Trey joined the Heartbreakers for a ripping version of Mystic Eyes in Detroit. There’s any number of classic Petty tunes Phish could cover, but how about Jammin’ Me? Kinda fitting.

6. U2

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Sure, Trey reference U2 at Red Rocks on August 6, 1996, but that’s about as close as we’ve come to seeing the Vermont-based quartet cover the Irish rockers. The song Desire seems to leave a little room for the band to rock out, so we’ll go with that one.

5. The Clash

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While nearly every jamband has covered The Clash, Phish has never played a song by the band that bridged the gap from Punk to New Wave. For instrumentations sake, and because it’d be fun to dance to, we’re going with Rock The Casbah. We’d also be down with London Calling, Garageland or Should I Stay or Should I Go?

4. Rush

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Considering all of the proggy influence in Phish’s music, it’s surprising that the band never covered a Rush song. We’d love to see what Phish could do with YYZ.

3. Genesis

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Another great cover for Phish’s first post-Breakup gigs would be Genesis’ Turn It On Again. Plenty of room for improv on this one.

2. Steely Dan

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Back in July, Ryan Blitstein found many comparisions between the music of Steely Dan and Phish. In fact, according to Blitstein when Trey Anastasio first put up ads at UVM looking for a bass player it says something like “guitarist and singer into Steely Dan, Allman Brothers.” We’d love to hear Phish’s take on Josie, but there are so many other perfect tunes like Show Biz Kids, the Royal Scam and The Fez.

1. Radiohead

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It’s about time that one of the biggest bands of the ’90s shows some love for one of the other biggest bands of the ’90s. Two members of Phish have covered Radiohead with their solo projects, yet the full band has never rocked one of Thom Yorke’s tunes. Trey played Knives Out at Richmond in 2005, while Page offered a brilliant cover of Subterranean Homesick Alien with Vida Blue. We’ll go with McConnell’s Subterranean Homesick Alien call.

Other Huge Bands Phish Has Never Covered: Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull, The Kinks, Chicago, Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Yes, The Cars, Styx, Pixies, R.E.M., The Ramones, Guns N Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More

Thanks to Bloo2e, T$ and all of Team HLA for their feedback on this list. What songs would you like to see Phish cover when they return next year? Let us know by leaving a comment below…