Chalk Dust Torture
Chalkdust was first played I think on February 1, 1991 at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. This song is the absolute BEST! It reaches out to most any adolescent today, and has a good riff as well. Written by Tom and Trey, the song is about a kid who lets his imagination take over when he is looking out his window.
The riff, I found, was actually taken from another song that Trey made when playing with the Dude of Life. The song it was originally from was called "Self," created in 1990, when Trey took it, improved it, and turned it into Chalkdust. It's hard to compare older versions with newer versions, because it changed periodically when the band tried to get it down pat. It took them about 2 years to get it right, and it became the only single on A Picture of Nectar. It was practically the song that made Phish publically popular, apearing on David Letterman, and nationwide radio. Because of it being played fairly a lot, it should not be hard to find a good one through trading, but it is on an album.
Come stumble my mirth beaten worker
I'm Jezmund the family berzerker
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 signal you're sending
But who can unlearn all the facts that I've learned
As I sat in their chairs and my synapses burned
And the torture of chalk dust collects on my tongue
Thoughts follow my vision and dance in the sun
All my vasoconstrictors they 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
And all this emotion is kept harmless at bay
Not to educate somebody's fright