Colonel Forbin's Ascent Narrative - Version2 Lyrics - Phish

I look out here in front of all you people, I see that you're all standing on this rink. And when you walked in here, this rink had cement underneath the floor, but as we played the first three songs, unbeknownst to all you standing out there the ice has slowly crept up, and right now you're standing on a huge sheet of ice. And not only are you standing on this huge sheet of ice, but the walls on the outside are slowly starting to disappear, this sheet of ice goes off into infinity in every direction. And up above you, there's nothing but black sky drifting off into space. And down below you, through the clear ice, there's nothing but black sky drifting. And this sheet of ice is just going through infinity. And you're all standing on a little clump on the ice as it stretches off as far as the eye can see in every direction. And as we stand here, slowly from the back, the ice starts to lift and tilt. 

And we feel the ice tilting. And the plane is moving beneath your feet. And you see a grid coming across the ice and the whole plane starts to tilt. And you're trying to hang on but slowly your feet start to slip. And the plane is tilting higher and higher, the angle is getting higher. And you can't hang on, and you start to slide. And you slide off the edge of the ice. And you're going down. And your head's [??? can't understand next 

three words], and all of a sudden, you shoot off the edge into the void. 

And you're just floating through the void now. And you see the ice disappearing off into the distance. And now it's just black stretching; you're surrendering to the void, Cloyde (?). And you float through the, float through the blackness you start to see a 

tiny speck materializing in the distance. And you realize that this tiny speck, even though it's a tiny little speck, it's still got some gravitational pull. And since that's the only thing in space around you, you sloooowly start to drift towards it. And as you drift toward it, it starts to get a little bit bigger. And it turns into what looks like a tiny stone in the distance. And the closer you get to it, you realize it's got more gravitational pull than you thought. And you get closer and it starts to grow and you realize it's actually a planet off in the distance, but there's nothing around to reference it against so it just looks like a tiny speck. But by this point you realize you really, it's starting to get bigger fast. 

You're going towards it. You're flying down. Suddenly you're breaking into the atmosphere. You're burning through the (?). You start to get hotter as the atmosphere is burning your body. You're blazing down. You're blazing down. And suddenly the chute 

opens... 

And now you're floating down with a parachute. And you're floating down, you don't know where you are, but you look down on the ground and you see a huge forest, drifting out into the distance. And you see a huge green field from the edge of the forest going off into the other direction. And the center of it all, the hugest mountain you've ever seen in your life. And you realize that... you're... in GAMEHENDGE. 

And you float down, and slowly the mountain gets bigger and bigger as you get down next to it. You look up at the mountain next to you. It's a huge mountain and going up into the sky. Bigger than anything you've ever seen before. And on the corner of the mountain, you look closely and you see a tiny speck. And the closer you look you realize, that that's no ordinary speck. It's COLONEL FORBIN 

Colonel Forbin is climbing up the mountain. No one's ever climbed up the mountain before because it's so high. You need tanks of oxygen. And Colonel Forbin's arms are grabbing roots, they're grabbing roots, they're grabbing the ROOT DOC. 

And they're pulling up, and it's getting higher and higher and you know in your heart, that Colonel Forbin, the only reason he would brave... climbing the huge mountain would be to find the great and knowledgeable ICCULUS 

And as he climbs up, you see the mountain start to quake and vibrate, boulders tumbling down around Colonel Forbin's head, but he knows he's got to make it, so he hangs on to roots, he's hanging on to roots, he's hanging on to the Root Doc. And the Root Doc pulls him up. And he's stands up on a little ledge. And slowly, the mountain starts to take the shape of the face of the great and knowledgeable Icculus. And Colonel Forbin looks up at Icculus and he says, "Icculus. I've climbed the mountain to find you because I need you. I need you to help me get the HELPING FRIENDLY BOOK. Because the Helping Friendly Book will bring peace and harmony to all the Lizards people of Gamehendge who are now enslaved by the evil KING WILSON who lives in that castle over there. And he's taken the Helping Friendly Book from them and hidden it in his castle. So can you please help me?" 

And Icculus looks down on him and he says, "Colonel Forbin, I can help you. I'm going to send for my friend, THE FAMOUS MOCKINGBIRD." And the Famous Mockingbird comes flying out of the sky, and lands on Icculus's shoulder. And Icculus says, "Famous Mockingbird. Fly off into the distance to the castle of the evil King Wilson. Steal the Helping Friendly Book back. Bring it to the people of Gamehendge so they can live in peace and harmony with nature." So here he comes now, The Famous Mockingbird..