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I think that simple is truly one of the most brilliant Phish songs ever
written.  what is so amazing is how "simple" the lyrics are, but yet how
incredibly well the song develops and reveals it's overall meaning in a
very specific but also general way.  The song starts by saying" we've got
it simple cause we got a band and we've got cymbols in the band".  Life is
easy and not so fast and all is good.  But suddenly because we now have a
band, we need this and this and this and that.  The lyrical circle
completes itself when they go from "Cymbals are grand" to "Skyscraper is
Grand".  The culmination of the song comes in the nonsense phrase at the
end "cym bop and bi be phone, sky balls and sax scraper".  This shows how a
simple thing can become a convuluted mess.  I think they are speaking
specifically about Phish and how when a band gets big, producers,
engineers, marketing people, A & R guys, lighting, security, etc become a
factor.  It starts with a band and their music and turns into a circus. 
Generally, life is the same way.  Everything that was once simple, turns
into a mess as you begin to believe that you need earthly things like a
car, a house, insurance, 401k, etc.  Life becomes like a big pile of "Sky
balls and sax scraper"!!!! 

Roger


Song Meanings
Andy's Phish Page