The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time : Rolling Stone

85 "You Enjoy Myself"
Phish (1988)

The hypnotic arpeggios, cathartic hard-rock solos and wah-wah'd funk of the epic "You Enjoy Myself" defined the ambitions — and the whimsical live jams — of Phish in their Nineties prime. But for Trey Anastasio, the song's guitar parts evoke an even earlier time: The idyllic summer of 1985, when the 20-year-old guitarist composed the tune on the half-size Time electric guitar and battery-powered Mouse amp he brought along on a trip to Europe. Anastasio and Phish drummer Jon Fishman spent their days busking and their nights partying and sleeping in a Ford Fiesta. "I was coming up with these little bits, but I never really sat down to write anything," says Anastasio. "We'd be sitting around the bonfire with, like, 20 people, watching the stars and listening to the waves crash, and I'd be strumming along. I'd play something like the opening part of the song, and it would stick in my head. And the next week, we'd be standing on the street, and I'd come up with another part. I would just glue them together — the song is like a travel journal." The intro was inspired by Robert Fripp, and the funk section was "some convoluted attempt to sound something like James Brown," says Anastasio. "What I really liked about that song — and this sounds weird, considering what kind of song it is — is that it had a lot of soul." BRIAN HIATT