Glen Phillips FAQ, ver. 0.0.6

1. John Mayer

1. Nickel Creek

Anyone is free to join the mailing list; just head on over to Yahoo! Groups and sign up.

You can also post to the Professional Victim list, as I read that regularly.

• The various postings of people on the Professional Victim mailing list, especially Rob (Vocalizer3@cs.com).
• The Toadpage FAQ
• flapping, Flapping info

• Born Glen Richard Phillips on 29 December 1970
• Graduated from Santa Barbara High School
• Former Toad the Wet Sprocket lead singer
• Married Laurel Franklin on 19 June 1993
• Father of three daughters: Sophia Francesca (9 November 1995), Zola (1 January 1997) and another (5 September 2001)
• Another child is on the way. (Yay, Glen!)
• Currently lives in Santa Barbara, California
• Website: glenphillips.com
• e-mail address: glen@glenphillips.com

Friends report that he is often confused for our Glen. :-)

Montgomery Street is available for sale at the 7South website. Of the 11 songs on the disc, Glen wrote and sings in four.

Glen recorded two songs with them.

In addition, Glen is listed in the recording credits of their album Items.

Although I don't know of a Lapdog FAQ page, you can get quite a bit of info from Lapdog's website.

• It Takes Time
• Train Wreck
• Darkest Hour

Michael also put up a copy of a live version of Marigolds he had.

Since glenphillips.com has been in operation, these songs have been available, in roughly chronological order:

• Fred Meyers (Live Acoustic)
• Back on My Feet (Demo)
• Professional Victim (Demo)
• Easier (Demo)
• Darkest Hour (Acoustic Nickel Creek version)
• Everything Matters (movie demo)
• Something To Say (Live Acoustic at Fez, 5.31.00)
• Back On My Feet (Live Acoustic)
• Chapel Perilous (Demo)
• Marigolds (Demo)
• Reincarnation Song (Live Acoustic at Largo)
• Fred Meyers (Acoustic Nickel Creek Demo)
• My Own Town (Demo)
• Gabriel (Live Electric at Largo, 6.17.00)
• Jam (Live Acoustic at Largo, 8.3.00)
• Maya (Live with Ethan on electric guitar, 8.3.00)

Please note: This information is an accurate description of what was released as of mid-2002. Since then more songs have been added. Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up, and these tracks are not reflected in this list.

[Thanks to Rob (Vocalizer3@cs.com) for the clarification of this info.]

• Rob's Abulum Lyrics
• Nick Kocharhook's lyrics site
• Cindy Bochna's lyrics site

Song Name	Information
"Back on My Feet"	Live, Glen usually sings "like a Wilco song" instead of "like an old bar song." Also, at the end of the song, he tends to say "back on my feet before you know it" at least once.
"Darkest Hour"	This song is about the death of Glen's father. Glen was alone with him when he passed on. The experience has been described as "uplifting."
"Drive By"	This song is mostly a true story. The boy in the song was actually Ben Folds, formerly of the group Ben Folds Five. Unfortunately, in the real version, the dog died. :-(
"Easier"	Glen has two versions of the first several lines of this song. The demo released on his website used these lyrics: I am the son of a soap opera town Mayberry rebel and middle-class clown You were the back-flipped, doe-eyed, tree-climbing angel From heaven who finally came down However, when Glen sings this song live, he often uses an alternate set of lyrics, namely: I was eighteen, so were you I was that Birkenstock, geek-rock dude You were the back-flipped, doe-eyed, tree-climbing Earth-mama Beautiful evergreen girl
"Far Away"	"This is one of Glen's first solo tunes written after Toad when he was working on the 'slightly r&b-ish' material he spoke of in early interviews, the material we've yet to see surface, except for 'Far Away' (which Glen has stated live is the tentiative title), he's only played it a few times." [Thanks to Rob (Vocalizer3@cs.com)]
"Forget About Me"	This is a song Glen wrote with Jon Brion, it's set to be released on the Mutual Admiration Society CD. [Thanks to Rob (Vocalizer3@cs.com)]
"Fred Meyers"	This song is about what happy lives everyone will have in post-apocalyptic America. Taken from Glen's site on MP3.com: "I like the idea of all the big-box stores turning into affordable housing," Phillips explains. "Today we don't know the people who live right next door to us. To bring people back together, it might take what everybody in America fears the most: the loss of our gadgets and our money. I love the idea of tight communities in the former temples of consumerism." [Thanks to Steve Averett (saverett@mindspring.com)]
"Gabriel"	This explanation is paraphrased from a 2000 show in Annapolis, MD: "Glen (who is Jewish) had a (presumably Christian) friend in his younger years who once told him 'Glen, I'm so sad. You're such a nice person, and it hurts me to know you'll burn in hell for all eternity.' (that's from my memory--not an exact quote). Glen's quip to that? 'It's a nice sentiment, if taken the right way.' "He goes on to say that he thinks everyone, no matter how adamant in their religious beliefs, must occasionally walk down the street and see people of some other faith and wonder whether THEY'RE the ones with the right idea. The song, then, is about arriving at the gates of Heaven and being 'denied access,' (to use Glen's words) on the basis of religious denomination. "Incidentally, Glen later went on to point out that it's actually supposed to be St. Peter, not the angel Gabriel at the gates of heaven, but the song remains as is." [Thanks to Rich (rbs4655@ksu.edu)]
"Garage"	"Glen's dad was a scientist, and used to spend all his time puttering around in the family garage. He had dozens of boxes of knick-knacks in the garage, all marked with his initials, D.T.P. (David Turner Phillips). After David's death, his body was cremated, and for a brief time his ashes rested in a box (actually unmarked, despite a contrary lyric in the song) in the garage. Glen liked the idea of the ashes sitting in the garage just being 'D.T.P.'--he thought it was a fitting resting place for his dad. Later, Glen built a studio in his own garage, so his children would always know where to find him when they needed him, just like he did with his dad." [Thanks to Rich (rbs4655@ksu.edu)]
"Holding Me"	This song is actually called "Wrapped in Water." "Holding Me" is part of the refrain, and the name fans attached to the song.
"My Own Town"	"In various explanations, Glen has traced this song's roots to two different sources. The first is a report he once heard on National Public Radio (late at night and sleep-deprived, he says) on the potential dangers of the bacterium Anthrax. "The second is a Twilight Zone episode entitled "Time Enough at Last" (which, for a time, was the song's subtitle). In that episode, an avid reader is the only survivor of the apocalypse. He is thrilled to finally have time to read to his heart's content without interruptions from the rest of the world. His happiness is quickly ended, however, when he drops and breaks his glasses, leaving him all alone without even his books. Some combination of the two things (I'm not sure which was the bigger influence) got Glen thinking about the idea of being the last man left alive on earth, which is the crux of the song." [Thanks to Rich (rbs4655@ksu.edu)]
"Train Wreck"	In the second verse of this song, the acronym SAG stands for "Screen Actor's Guild."
"Wrapped in Water"	This is an old Toad song. One of the first known recordings is from 1992. It was recorded for both Pale and Dulcinea, but didn't make it on either album. In some versions, Glen played the mandolin. Glen has recently begun playing "Wrapped in Water" again, to the delight of his live audiences.

• Pedro the Lion
• Nickel Creek

• "See You Again" - This song is by Lapdog, not Glen.

On Bootlegging:

Toad always had a pro-taping policy, and I continue to allow taping of my shows. Why? Well, that way you get a self-regulating trading network setup by and for fans, and there's no room for the bootleg sharks to sell poor quality tapes at exorbitant prices. It kills the predatory element of the bootleg market by encouraging fans to keep it free, fun, and in their own control.

There are two kinds of taping I am not into, though:

1) Video. It simply makes me nervous. I always get a little embarrassed when I see a video camera in the audience, and I think it negatively affects the show. Beyond that, they never look very good.

2) Board tapes. To enable me to be able to sell at least slightly better quality tapes of my shows than are available for free, I reserve the exclusive right to board tapes. Aside from that, knock yourself out.

• "Back on My Feet" - Abulum
• "Comes A Time" - unreleased
• "Crowing" - Dulcinea
• "Darkest Hour" - Abulum
• "Drive By" - Abulum
• "Easier" - unreleased
• "Everything Matters" - unreleased
• "Professional Victim" - Abulum
• "Rings" - Coil
• "Sleep of the Blessed" - unreleased
• "Something's Always Wrong" - Dulcinea
• "Throw It All Away" - Coil
• "Train Wreck" - Abulum
• "Walk on the Ocean" - Fear
• "Whatever I Fear" - Coil
• "Windmills" - Dulcinea

• "Between the Bars" - Elliott Smith
  
• "Cat's in the Cradle" - Harry Chapin
  
• "Crazy Love" - Van Morrison
  
• "Dirty Old Town" - Traditional
  
• "Jesse's Girl" - Rick Springfield
  
• "King of Carrot Flowers" - Neutral Milk Hotel
  
• "Levi Stubb's Tears" - Billy Bragg
  
• "Love is Stronger Than Death" - The The
  
• "Marie" - Randy Newman
  
• "Old Man" - Randy Newman
  
• "One More Dollar" - Gillian Welch
  
• "Political Science" - Randy Newman
  
• "Rainbow Connection" - Muppet Movie
  
• "She" - Gram Parsons
  
• "Sir Duke" - Stevie Wonder
  
• "Star Trek" - Gene Roddenbury
  
• "The Grapevine" - Richard Thompson
  
• "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" - Bob Dylan
  
• "The Longer I Lay Here" - Pedro the Lion
  
• "Think About Your Troubles" - Harry Nilsson
  
• "Thinking Out Loud" - Ron Sexsmith
  
• "Two-Headed Boy Pt. 1" - Neutral Milk Hotel
  
• "Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2" - Neutral Milk Hotel
  

• John Mayer
  John toured with Glen in March and April of 2001. You can find out more about John at his web site.

• Nickel Creek
  A bluegrass group from Southern California, Nickel Creek is made up of three artists whose talent far surpass their age. All of them are in their mid-twentys, but they already have a hot self-titled album and several singles on the CMT (Country Music Television). Nickel Creek is made up of a fiddle player, a mandolin player and a guitarist. Glen describes their relationship with him as a "Mutual Admiration Society."

  Nickel Creek and Glen have recorded an album together which should be released around fall of this year.