The appearance of the song “Makisupa Policeman” in a Phish set always provides a few minutes for the band and their fans to get a little goofy (eh, goofier), especially with the “keyword” moment in the tune, when Trey Anastasio says, “Woke up this morning…” followed by some word or phrase, usually having to do with marijuana. And now, thanks to the wonderful people over at Phish.net (and in honor of 4/20, of course), we have a complete compendium of all of those keywords in one ridiculous and honestly pretty hilarious chart. 

As Phish.net note, “Makisupa Policeman” has been called the first Phish original to be performed publicly—at a 1984 garage gig in Burlington—and the origin of the song’s title and lyrics, written by Tom Marshall when he was a kid back in 1969, ostensibly harken back to a nickname Marshall had for his older sister’s boyfriends: Macky (with the original song title being “Macky Super Policeman”).

 Throughout the decades, “Makisupa Policeman” has shown Phish at their most playful, with Anastasio cheekily saying things like “dank,” “nug,” “skunk,” “gooballs” and “herbal jazz cigarette” or opting for the longer phrases like “Sitting in my hotel this afternoon on the couch, smoking a big ol’ blunt. My girl came up next to me and sat down and before I knew it I was nibbling on her tasty, moist bundt cake that she cooked at her cooking class.” In other words, pure poetry. I’ll let the Phish.net folks take it a bit further:

Whether spontaneous, or “spontaneous,” Trey’s pithy ruminations always spark a smile, as they have grown from direct pot references (“Woke up in the morning, smoke a little herb”) to ignite direct political action (“Woke up this morning, NORML”), alight upon clever understatement (“Woke up this morning in Hempstead”), highlight the band’s (more than one might guess) brushes with the Makisupa Policeman himself (“Woke up in the morning, border guard in my bunk; he took his fucking dog on my bus, and he found my dank”), peaking in the run-up to Coventry with the brutal irony (“Woke up this morning, had myself a tall, cool, soy milk”), and even bravely acknowledging the elephant in the room post-reunion (“Woke up this morning, pissing in a drug cup; woke up this afternoon, called my probation officer”). All these classic keywords and phrases, and
many more, populate the new chart.

Take a trip back through the various incarnations of the “Makisupa Policemen” keyword with the fantastic Phish.net chart 
here, and check out two eras of the tune below, including one from December 1995 (“Woke up this morning, looked at the clock, it was 1:11; rolled over, Gaddafi in my bed. So I smoked a joint with him.”) and one from August 2011 (one of my personal favorites: “Woke up this morning, sitting on my couch, listening to some of my favorite old records: you know like, Dank Sinatra, Herby Hancock, Nat King Bowl, Harry Chronic Jr., Van Inhalen…).