Phish.net > Charts > Narration Chart: "Mockingbird", 1992-11-21

TREY: Well, as usual at this point in the show, i certainly see a couple of faces out there who don’t know exactly what’s going on so come with us please on a little adventure right now. If you can all use a little bit of imagination right now.

There seems like there’s a lot of people in the room, but in a cosmic, universal sense this is the tiniest thing so if you could just imagine right now the roof of this building slowly starting to split open and fold up [odd sound from stage, possibly Fish on vacuum] and up above you, you can see the stars drifting off in all different directions, and one by one the walls start to fold down [vacuum again], the back wall slowly folding down, the back wall behind you slowly folding down, and together as a group we’re going to start going a little adventure here.

As the back wall folds down behind us, you can picture a giant rampway exactly as wide as this slowly getting thinner going off into the distance behind me and shooting right off into the stars as far as you can see. Together as a big group, we’d all start to get on this ramp and just walk. We’re walking forward… on the ramp. Everybody’s walking slowly forward, and as you walk you slowly start to see this building right behind us as we’re going up.

As you get a little higher, getting up a little higher, you can see the playing fields on the outside and the rest of the buildings on campus and little bit higher. We’re going higher, and you start to see bodies of water. You see that you’re on an island, Long Island, you can see Manhattan, New Jersey. We just keep walking and walking, and everything’s getting farther and farther down below us. The whole country is starting to look small, and you can see all of North America, the continent. We just keep walking and walking into the distance.

As we walk it gets quieter and quieter all around us because we’re out in space now, which is the void, just the vast void of space, and it’s getting quieter. It’s getting quieter, [with more reverb] quieter, quieter, because now we’re up in space.We’re looking down. Beneath us, just the ball, the Earth, floating, just the distance, the rampway leading all the way back down to the school, and we just keep walking.

As we walk, the ramp is getting thinner and thinner so everybody has to start getting in single file. You’re walking along slowly, and everyone’s in single file now. The ramp is slowly turning into a little tube. Now, it’s just a little pipe, and you’re balancing on the pipe. You’re balancing. Suddenly, you realize you’re starting to tip sideways, and you climb down.

Now, you’re holding on to the thing, but it’s not that hard because there’s no gravity. You’re just walking hand over hand on this pipe. You’re hanging up in space, miles up above the Earth’s surface. Suddenly , you start to drift over to the left, something’s pulling you… [Mike rumbles bass] What the hell? [Trey makes exertion sounds] You’re pulling over to the left, and you realize you’re about to get sucked into a black hole [Fish starts rumbling pattern]. The gravitation is pulling you. Finally, it’s too much for you to hold so you let go [sound of person falling, maybe Fish].

You’re getting sucked into the black hole, and, as everybody probably knows when you get sucked into a black hole, time slows down as you cross what’s called the event horizon. You’re slowing down, your body is starting to stretch out [sparse “Mockingbird” theme]. You’re floating in the black hole where no one has ever been before until, suddenly, you poke through the other side [Fish hits tom]. You poke through the other side [Fish hits tom again]. And, you poke through the other side [Fish hits tom again]. And then you poke through the other side [Fish hits rim of tom]. You’re floating in a sea of blue [band builds crescendo].

You feel that gravity is starting to take control again, you’re drifting down, and you’re drifting down. You’re drifting down. As you come down, you look below you, and you see a whole new world. You’re looking down below you, and you see a huge green field stretching off as far as you can see in one distance. Trees start on the edge of the field on this side, and, out of the forest, a huge mountain, the biggest mountain you’ve ever seen in your life. As you float down, you realize that you’re about to land [cups mic] in Gamehendge.

So as you float down, you’re floating down, and the mountain starts to get higher and higher, and you come down next to it. You see down there, this tiny speck. It’s this little man, this grumpy little man, that’s climbing up the mountain as hard as he can. He’s up on cliffs, and he looks like he is about to fall. But, he’s trying and trying. You’re looking down, and you see and you know that it’s Colonel Forbin.

Colonel Forbin is climbing up the mountain, trying to find the Great and Knowledgeable Icculus because he knows if he finds the Great and Knowledgeable Icculus that Icculus is his last chance to get the Helping Friendly Book, and he needs to bring the Helping Friendly Book to all the people of Gamehendge who have been enslaved by the evil King Wilson [band teases briefly teases “Wilson” intro]. So he’s going to get the Helping Friendly Book, and, finally, as he’s about to reach the peak of the mountain, the whole mountain starts to quake.

It’s an earthquake, and he’s hanging on to a tree. Rocks tumbling down on either side, dodging around but he’s got to hang on, as the rocks fall, they start to take the shape, the whole mountain starts to take the shape of this enormous face looking down, down at him. It’s the Great and Knowledgeable Icculus looking down at him. As Icculus looks down on him, Forbin looks up and he says, “O Great and Knowledgeable Icculus, i’ve come to ask you to help me get the Helping Friendly Book.” And then, Icculus starts to go through all the stuff that he said in that song i just sang, and he decides to call on the Famous Mockingbird.

So the Famous Mockingbird comes flying down out of the sky, and he lands on Icculus’ shoulder. Icculus whispers into the Famous Mockingbird’s ear to fly to the castle of the evil King Wilson, steal the Helping Friendly Book back, bring it to the people of Gamehendge, the Lizard people of Gamehendge, thereby restoring peace and happiness once again. So here he comes, the Famous Mockingbird…