Down by the River

I did not see this one coming.

I am staggered to discover that maybe my favorite version ever of "Down by the River"—a Neil Young song I've probably heard at least a dozen versions of, which, I know, makes me a piker compared to true blue Shakey fanatics—is with Phish as his backing band.

Phish. The jam band which inherited the Grateful Dead's throne—two bands I've tried hard to like over the years without ever succeeding. I want to like them. I should like them. I just don't.

And yet. And yet there's this. 20 minutes of noodling and shredding and yowling and it's absolutely, to my ears, magnificent.

Live and learn, man. Live and damn learn.