In March 1997 I was a freshman at the University of Alabama. Good times were a-plenty, and good friends were developing, taboot. On one sunny, GORGEOUS spring day, one of those days where the sun shines brightly without being too hot, and the wind seems to blow only in the right direction, and the clouds are always right where you wished they would be (the kind of day that those of you who live in the South know what I'm talking about and are smiling right now)... my friend Matt and I took a couple hits of L and went out to the cliffs and woods around Lake Tuscaloosa to lose our minds for a little while. (You know, there's just something about L and sunshine. never have understood why so many people i meet shy away from it during the daytime.)

We proceed to have our regular good ol' time running around the lake and whatnot. And then the time comes to head back to campus (something about a movie Matt just got and wanted me to see and we never got to it). Good trip thus far--little did i know what the fates had in store.

We pulled into campus and were forced to park at the very rear of our dorm's parking lot. Not a bad walk mind you, you just have to weave through all the cars on your way inside. That is what we were doing, heads down so as not to a) stumble over anything which may be in our path or b) make eye contact with anyone we didn't quite wish to speak with at the moment. 

So there i was, walking, head down watching my feet, when i round a car and . . . . . . there It is. A tape. One of those you buy at the store to make your own recordings on (i guess i've learned a bit since then). So OF COURSE i pick it up to check it out. I read side B first, "Man The Stepped Who Yesterday Into" and flip to side A to read "The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday." Hmmmmmm. I don't know if it was my naturally inquisitive nature or just the L (although I prefer to think it was the former), but i stuck the tape in my pocket for further exploration once we got inside.

And let me just tell you (like you guys don't already know); the magical, mysterious, musically intact, funny, beautiful, (and at some points, campy) musical story i experienced for the next hour or so blew me right out of the water, never to return again. It was what i had spent the past couple years of my life searching for. Music that just MAKES SENSE. After the first listen through, Matt and i flipped it back to side A and went right back through it again. And again. 

Over the course of the next week or so i played "The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday" for almost every person i knew, asking, "Do you know who this is? Is it someone here on campus? (yeah, i know, hahaha) Have you ever heard anything like this before in your whole life?" And then i played it for my friend David. "You know, it sort of sounds like the lead singer for Phish." And my response: (something which to this day makes me chuckle) "You mean those guys that sing Bouncin' Round the Room?" And it was. So it began. 

I spent the next several months of my life finding out as much as I could about these wonderful tricksters from Vermont. Summer rolls around, the Boys hit the road, I catch em' at Raleigh (god, what a storm!! not to mention the Taste or the DWD->Mike's) and that was all it took. I was guppy-fied. One more member of the school of Phish.

To this day i still thank the fates for putting me between those cars after someone's carelessness left me the biggest nugget i would ever find. I still listen to TMWSIY (which i have since learned to abbreviate it as) once in a while, and just recently played it for my 14 year old brother on the way to his first show (it was moe.). Hope my story has put a smile on at least one face out there; if i don't see you at TAB tour this summer, i'll see you next phall when we all get to get our groove on once again. 'Till then, I am . . .

- rob