Sailboat Man

This was recorded in a house overlooking the Hudson River in April 2010. An alternate title is "I See a Boat"...and THAT is a long story. I'll attempt to shorten it considerably: in Europe somewhere, in June 1997, after a Phish show and subsequent partying, Trey mentioned to me that I should be inspired to write beautiful music by the beautiful cities we were visiting...London, Vienna, Prague, etc... I agreed with him. But he actually pressed me to write one right away! All I could come up with at the time -- since I was sinking deeply into my bed -- was "I See a Boat" -- it was all I could say...inspired by a horrible oil painting near my bed of a boat on the ocean. It was a very short song with no melody. He kind of let me off the hook, seeing that I was not suddenly going to bound out of bed and compose a masterpiece. Of course I knew that wouldn't be the last I'd hear about it...it became the subject of some jokes at my expense...comparing my writing with that of say...Robert Hunter...who apparently composed Brokedown Palace, Ripple and To Lay me Down in one afternoon while visiting London. When Trey held up my composition next to those, I had to admit..my European writing submission came up a bit short. Fast forward to 2010: a boat cruised by on the river capturing our attention. I said "I See a Boat" to remind Trey of our running joke. He grabbed a guitar -- I suppose to finally finish the song we started in 1997 -- and we came up with this. He was able to play it with his band shortly thereafter at a benefit for the big oil spill in the Gulf. Apart from that, this would be a true "From the Dungeon" release.