This remnant will be replaced soon. The FAQ is back, with a new design! What is The White Album? Update: The White Tape was released independantly in August 1998 exclusively through Dry Goods -- $13 for the 16-track disc, with both original artwork by Trey and new work from Pollock. Basic I.D.: The White Album (aka The White Tape; also labelled Phish and simply "demo") is a collection (actually, two collections) of Phish material used as a demo/sample tape for clubs etc. It was never officially released, but circulates through trading circles. Title dispute: There is no official name, though phans have referred to it (them) as The White Album since at least 1988 (in allusion to the officially unnamed album by the Beatles). Throughout 1996, there was a shift/movement to call the collection The White Tape rather than The White Album, partly because it was and always has been in fact a tape and not an album; and also because there was increasing confusion with 10/31/94 II, during which Phish covered the Beatles' White Album in its entirety. This movement has not succeeded, and the original convention has stuck. Track variation: What the "White Album" includes depends on where you got it. Although one incarnation seems to be most widely distributed, and regarded as "The" White Album, there are variations, so calling them The White Tapes is probably more accurate. The first came from four-track pieces done in a dorm room for their own personal pleasure. Trey distributed one compilation of these pieces circa 1985, and then a slightly different version circa 1986. (At this point Junta was recorded but not yet released and folks were clamoring for some kind of Phish tape to get and cherish.) Both versions of compilation includes first versions of many songs, and some only partial versions, and are typically ninety-minutes long. Only four songs with all four members of the band playing. The compilation includes: Alumni Blues > Steve Reich (c.1985 only), And So to Bed, You Enjoy Myself (acapella), AC/DC Bag, Fuck Your Face, Divided Sky (intro only, acoustic), Slave to the Traffic Light, Aftermath, Ingest, NO2 > Fluff's Travels, Tube (c.1985 only, and probably just filler at the end of side A), Dog Log (c.1986 only), He Ent to the Bog (c.1986 only), (tape flip), Run Like an Antelope, Minkin, Letter to Jimmy Page; Fluffhead filler with the Dude of Life (c.1986 only). Also, occasional 45-minute versions Slave is followed only by (and in this order) Letter to Jimmy Page, Ingest, N20, and Aftermath; and sometimes only by Letter to Jimmy Page and Fluffhead with the Dude of Life. Some versions may also include Hamburger, and there is debate about whether or not Ingest and N20 are different songs. Regarding the acapella YEM, some argue it's one sample of one voiced note played on a synthesizer, and some will insist is 4 tracks of repeatedly voiced and edited actual singing of the separate notes, but in either case are probably both Trey. The second (and less commonly circulated) compilation has forty-five minutes of (circa 1987) studio recordings (the first four essentially the same as those versions that appear on Junta), supposedly remixed as a precurser to the release of the original Junta. This compilation has You Enjoy Myself (picks up at the buildup before the scream leading into boy/man/god/shit), Fee, David Bowie, Esther, and Golgi Apparatus; these may be followed by Fluffhead, or by I Know A Little and Sneakin' Sally. An occasional side B has live recordings (with studio Mike added in remastering) of Wilson, Alumni Blues, Lizards, and The Sloth; and a studio (yes, studio) Mike's Groove (usually labelled incorrectly as Mike's Song). Thanks also to Nick Johnston, Tina, Travis J. Mcdermott, Eric Fein, and Tyler Penn. "The White Tape is to me almost like if you combine all of the good pieces of all of our albums. The creative freedom of that first White Album, the playfulness of Junta, the sound quality of Hoist and the conciseness of Hoist -- someday, there's an album like that [combined]. But every time, it's like we can only cover one bit." -- Trey Anastasio, Addicted to Noise, c. 6.95. This page last updated February 03, 2007. All contents © 1992-2007 Ellis Godard. All rights reserved.