Referring to the members of Phish as "the boys" was fun, then "so last week", then ironic. Now, it's just sad. But there's always one way to revisit any issue: statistically.
A little over eight months ago, I posted a Venn diagram purporting to show the numbers of common shows with each combination of Phish songs that mention boys: Lifeboy, Lawn Boy, Dog-Faced Boy, and You Enjoy Myself. The numbers were solid, but some of you questioned the song selection. (No one objected that the first two mention boys only in their titles, not lyrics, but various users suggested adding other songs.)
So, here's a revision, which includes Fluffhead (thanks @larvalcraze) - though not Harpua (which doesn't always mention Jimmy as a boy; sorry, @The_Crested_Hogchoker) or Little Drummer Boy (a cover; sorry, @markah).
This post also does more than update an old farce: This five-petal Venn diagram begins a series of more than two dozen graphs, each drawing on different aspects of Phish.net data, and each utilizing a different kind of graph. Each will post Saturday morning, to give you something to chew on (and perhaps share) over the weekend. Because whose weekend isn't more complete with fresh visualizations of data about the b-... well, you know.
And, by popular demand, yes, you can get it on a shirt - and lots of other stuff, too. Each chart design will be available on several dozen products, with royalties going to the Mockingbird Foundation. And while, sure, this "Five Boys Venn" works on a coffee mug (small or large), it works even better on a boy's toddler t-shirt or mom-to-be's maternity shirt. That's right: Be the first in your 'hood to announce your blue-hued news with a Phish-related visual riddle!
A note on methods: These aren't true Venn diagrams, since each number is total instances rather than unique instances. For example, there have been 191 total Lawn Boys, including the 2 shows that also had Dog-Faced Boy and the 35 that also had Fluffhead; and all three of those numbers include the 1 show that had all three songs.
If you liked this blog post, one way you could "like" it is to make a donation to The Mockingbird Foundation, the sponsor of Phish.net. Support music education for children, and you just might change the world.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Phish.net is a non-commercial project run by Phish fans and for Phish fans under the auspices of the all-volunteer, non-profit Mockingbird Foundation.
This project serves to compile, preserve, and protect encyclopedic information about Phish and their music.
Credits | Terms Of Use | Legal | DMCA
The Mockingbird Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Phish fans in 1996 to generate charitable proceeds from the Phish community.
And since we're entirely volunteer – with no office, salaries, or paid staff – administrative costs are less than 2% of revenues! So far, we've distributed over $2 million to support music education for children – hundreds of grants in all 50 states, with more on the way.
If you understand the diagram, perhaps you mean that you're disappointed that the band hasn't played more shows with multiple songs mentioning "boys"?
What ever happened to that fun thing?
If those seem similar to you, you may be unaware of the *scores* of other data visualizations that I've posted over the years, including in this blog, in previous editions of the Phish Companion, and elsewhere. For the next several months (and possibly through year end), there'll be a new one posted here every Saturday morning (9:15 PST).
In addition to your immense legacy you've shared here, you also have a very healthy sense of self-regard going for you.
I see now I was silly to think you would be rattled by a gentle ribbing.
Carry on Esquire!
Strive to be better than that.
Seriously? One's a simple univariate poll about fans' qualitative impressions of sales outside the venue in recent years; the other's an iterative set of functions of a quantitative measure of what the band has done on stage over decades. The only connection is that they're statistical. That's it.
If those seem similar to you, you may be unaware of the *scores* of other data visualizations that I've posted over the years, including in this blog, in previous editions of the Phish Companion, and elsewhere. For the next several months (and possibly through year end), there'll be a new one posted here every Saturday morning (9:15 PST)."
Boy if you would put all this on a shirt, I would buy it in an instant!
In addition to your immense legacy you've shared here, you also have a very healthy sense of self-regard going for you.
I see now I was silly to think you would be rattled by a gentle ribbing.
Carry on Esquire!"
Really no need to be a douche."
Tim! Name calling is not very admin-like and you know it.
Strive to be better than that."
Strive not to be a douche.
Seriously? One's a simple univariate poll about fans' qualitative impressions of sales outside the venue in recent years; the other's an iterative set of functions of a quantitative measure of what the band has done on stage over decades. The only connection is that they're statistical. That's it.
If those seem similar to you, you may be unaware of the *scores* of other data visualizations that I've posted over the years, including in this blog, in previous editions of the Phish Companion, and elsewhere. For the next several months (and possibly through year end), there'll be a new one posted here every Saturday morning (9:15 PST)."
Boy if you would put all this on a shirt, I would buy it in an instant!
In addition to your immense legacy you've shared here, you also have a very healthy sense of self-regard going for you.
I see now I was silly to think you would be rattled by a gentle ribbing.
Carry on Esquire!"
Really no need to be a douche."
Tim! Name calling is not very admin-like and you know it.
Strive to be better than that."
Strive not to be a douche."
Tim! You did it again.
Don't you need less of these interactions around here and not more?
Level-headed boy, ya better bend"that is one hell of a stretch. and if you want to be technical, it's in the lyrics to "Fluff's Travels", not "Fluffhead""
To get even more technical, it's Clod. But since both we and LivePhish label the entire thing as Fluffhead now, it's pretty much the same thing."
Ummm....pretty sure it's boy, not clod. It's Fat bulk expanse mass lump block clod, but it's definitely "level-headed boy"."
Can someone explain to me why this post got 3 flags? I'm pretty sure I was right about the lyrics ("level-headed boy ya better bend" as well as "fat bulk expanse mass lump block clod"
If you're going to act like a dick, expect to get treated like a dick. Simple as that.
Explain how you are responsible to jump in and insult me?
Try not to get bogged down in little things Tim. Just let it go.
@Lemuria does more for this community than you can possibly imagine. If you disrespect him, don't expect me to stay quiet.
Level-headed boy, ya better bend"that is one hell of a stretch. and if you want to be technical, it's in the lyrics to "Fluff's Travels", not "Fluffhead""
To get even more technical, it's Clod. But since both we and LivePhish label the entire thing as Fluffhead now, it's pretty much the same thing."
Ummm....pretty sure it's boy, not clod. It's Fat bulk expanse mass lump block clod, but it's definitely "level-headed boy"."
Can someone explain to me why this post got 3 flags? I'm pretty sure I was right about the lyrics ("level-headed boy ya better bend" as well as "fat bulk expanse mass lump block clod" "
I don't think you should have been flagged, but that whole section of the song is referred to as "Clod," from back when Fluff's Travels had individually-named parts. You are correct on the lyrics.
Well, I did say "for some reason," and I meant to imply that the zeroes SHOULDN'T be disappointing, but somehow they are. I guess it's because there is all this neat statistical analysis, but it didn't return a super-rare show where all or even most of the "boy" songs were played. It's a neat representation of the actual data, but I suppose my feeling is that the actual data isn't all that compelling since we didn't discover said show(s) mentioned above.