Temporary Mayor Phil Lesh Folds To Lobbyists (Phish Fans), Pardons Trey Anastasio

Election Day came early in Glens Fall, New York, where the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh was named honorary mayor of the town for a day before his Saturday-night concert there. Lesh's first order of business: pardoning Phish's Trey Anastasio, who was arrested more than a year ago in nearby Whitehall for driving under the influence of drugs and possessing narcotics and pharmaceutical drugs. While Lesh overstepped his honorary mayoral capabilities (he couldn't actually pardon anyone, but he could pose in ceremonial pictures), Anastasio didn't really need the assist anyway: The guitarist had already pleaded guilty and accepted a drug-program deal. Regardless, perhaps to repay Lesh for the attempted pardon, Anastasio joined Phil Lesh & Friends' show and performed two of his own songs, "Shine" and "Plasma." It marked only the second time Anastasio has performed live since his arrest; Anastasio also sat in with the Dave Matthews Band at a Saratoga Springs show in August. If there is a lesson to be learned here, it's that Phil Lesh should be mayor full-time.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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