Features

Nancy Responds to "Everyone Knew Him as Nancy: Richard Wright and the Old, Weird Phish"

What follows is the lengthy response that Richard Wright posted on his Facebook page in response to Jesse Jarnow’s feature story, “Everyone Knew Him as Nancy: Richard Wright and the Old, Weird Phish.” This is followed by Jarnow’s comments on Nancy’s assertions. The feature which appeared in our July-August issue also can be found on Relix.com.

Here’s Nancy…

Regarding the article about me in the July/August 2012 issue of Relix, there are some inaccuracies which I feel need correcting. The article takes up three pages: Pages 26, 27 & 79. There are three columns on each page (four on 26), which I will refer to respectively as Columns A thru C (A thru D for 26). I will address each inaccuracy by column, paragraph &, if necessary, line. (And for those of you who only read the article online: You’ll just have to make guesses based on content as to what paragraphs in the online article correspond to the ones in the magazine article to which I refer.)

1. Page 26, Column A, 1st paragraph. The word “demon” is arbitrary. I choose not to refer to the invading “spirit” as a “demon” (as, for one thing, I don’t believe in demons), though I have said things along the lines of “what some people might call a demon”. I myself, though, have never referred to it as a demon.

2. Column A, 1st paragraph. In September 1982, I was still in Maryland, recovering from a Summer of binge-drinking following my expulsion from high school (which followed my week-long incarceration in a mental hospital following a bogus suicide attempt). I didn’t even VISIT Goddard until December 1982 & I didn’t start attending Goddard until January 1983. I attended for three straight years, January 83 thru December 85. Also, I didn’t move to Vermont & then enroll; I enrolled from Maryland after visiting Goddard.

3. Column A, 2nd paragraph. I didn’t begin calling myself Nancy until February 25, 1985 – my third & final year at Goddard. And I can remember wearing a dress on only two occasions, both of which were BEFORE I started calling myself Nancy: Halloween 1983 & my 20th birthday, March 19, 1984. I had a white dress with blue polka dots which was given to me on Halloween 83 for my Zippy costume. It wasn’t a comfortable dress which is why I didn’t wear it more often. A few years after I was out of Goddard, I acquired a very nice denim skirt which I wore for years afterwards, though only indoors, as I was living in Montpelier by then. It wasn’t until the late 90s when I moved to Burlington that I started wearing dresses publicly.

4. Column A, 3rd paragraph. I hosted several different radio shows over the years at Goddard, only one of which lasted from Midnight till 7 A.M.. This was in 1984 & it only lasted a few months (doing a seven-hour-long radio show every Friday night can get quite tiresome rather quickly). Most of my shows were only about 2 to 3 hours long & were usually around 8 P.M. (though when I lived at the radio station – illegally – for a month in the Spring of 85, I did lots of random shows whenever nobody else was on, just spinning whole album sides & whatnot, as well as the “Nancytronics” recordings I was doing at the time).

5. Column B, 2nd paragraph. “I Didn’t Know” wasn’t the first song I recorded on 4-track; it was a medley of two David Byrne songs from The Catherine Wheel that I covered: “My Big Hands”/“Poison”. It was May 1985. I didn’t write “I Didn’t Know” until July 85. I did a recording of it in August but it wasn’t good enough so I re-did it in September. Also, during my “teenage dalliance with born-again Christianity” (age 12 to 15), I was only into The Beach Boys for a year before I got into The Beatles, which became (for the most part) the only band I’d listen to till I was 16.

6. Column C, 1st paragraph. Regarding the song (or rather, two songs) that has (have) come to be known as “Halley’s Comet”: “Halley’s Comet” consisted of nothing more than the words “Hayyyyyy-ley’s Comet, I said-uh Hayyyyyy-ley’s Comet”. That’s ALL there was to “Halley’s Comet”. It’s just something I made up & sang to myself during the Summer of 85 when there was all this hype about the impending passage of Halley’s Comet through our solar system (which was due to happen in early 86). Every time I’d see something about Halley’s Comet, I’d sing it to myself. In my head, it had a kind of mid-70s Brian Eno feel to it. Later, in September, I wrote a song called “Goin’ Down”, which was inspired by Motown. Contrary to what the article says, I DID NOT “[think] of Motown & Brian Eno & [call] the song ‘Halley’s Comet’”; “Halley’s Comet” & “Goin’ Down” were two seperate songs, one influenced by Eno, the other by Motown, neither of which had anything to do with either title. In fact, the first recording of “Goin’ Down” was recorded by itself, without “Halley’s Comet” at the beginning of it. I also hadn’t yet come up with the “Dee Jew Ba-Ba Ba-Jingo” bass chant. It was a very poor recording & I needed a way to economise my breath for the bass part (which is why I came up with the bass chant). For some reason, I also figured “Halley’s Comet” might make an interesting intro, bridge & outro to “Goin’ Down”, so when I recorded it the second time, I added “Halley’s Comet”. The bulk of the song (with its “I’m goin’ down to the central part of town” refrain) was still called “Goin’ Down”, but the whole piece became collectively known as “Halley’s Comet” largely because it was easy to remember.

7. Column D, 1st paragraph. Page McConnell didn’t merely “hear” the songs; I specifically played the tape of the first versions of “I Didn’t Know” & “Silver Flu” (recorded at the same session as “I Didn’t Know” & written around the same time) for Page & Jim Pollock in Jim’s room at Goddard (shortly after Page first played me a tape of Phish, the band he’d recently joined). Also, the other members of Phish were exposed to those songs plus “Halley’s Comet”/“Goin’ Down” via a tape I’d made for fellow student Ricky Puffer which he then lent to Brian Long who was living with several members of Phish in a red house (now olive green) on King Street across the street from the parking lot of the Hood dairy factory in Burlington. Also, the ill-fated Halloween 85 show DID NOT take place in the sculpture building but in the Haybarn Theatre (Phish played their first sculpture building Halloween gig in 86 & did so every year thru 1989).

8. Column D, 3rd paragraph. I asked Trey “Are you the guy who sounds like Frank Zappa?” I didn’t say “guitarist” as the article states. I wasn’t referring to his guitar-playing; I was referring to his voice.