Scents and Subtle Sounds (Intro)

• Performances
• History
• Lyrics
• Artist
  • Phish
  • Fish
  • Mike
  • Page
  • Trey
  • All

History

When “Scents and Subtle Sounds” debuted in 2003, most fans thought of this as the intro section of the song, not a distinct piece of music despite its unique feel relative to the rest of the song (beginning with the change before the lyrics “If you would stop”). Indeed, coauthor Tom Marshall explains that while “it was written JUST before...that is it was always the intro to the song and never existed as standalone.” However, when Undermind was released a year later, it was in two pieces. 

Phish “Scents and Subtle Sounds (Intro)” from Undermind.

The first (named “Scents and Subtle Sounds (Intro)”) is actually the original demo recorded on Nantucket by Trey and Tom during their “Men From Nantucket” songwriting excursion and serves as the first appearance of Tom Marshall’s voice on a Phish studio album. Tom described how it happened because:

“Trey brought with him his (and OUR) favorite keyboard ever, a Kurtzweil of some kind. It's simply amazing, and back then...it was state of the art. The instrument sounds were off the chart, and Trey somehow was already a genius of calling up the right patch and adding it perfectly to the song...creating the effect of an actual outrageous orchestra playing that intro. 

“He did the whole thing on that keyboard–with me pressing RECORD and REWIND and PLAY over and over again on the ADAT multitrack recorder. It took a long time! But yes–that whole thing was recorded by the two of us and that is the exact version that made it onto Undermind.”

Tom manning the recorder while Trey was playing the keys for “Scents.”
Photo courtesy of Tom Marshall

After 2004, versions of “Scents” did not include the intro, though it finally returned on 7/2/11 after the song took the year off in 2010. A decade later, the intro finally made a solo appearance on 8/15/2021 after “Scents and Subtle Sounds” had been played the previous night, perhaps to atone for the rough version of “Scents” performed without the intro the night before. 

Since its singular performance, the intro has been generally reunited with “Scents” as one complete song, similar to its original incarnation twenty years earlier. Perhaps we will see “Scents Intro” get performed by itself again one day, but until then it will always be a welcomed way to begin the song proper.

See the “Scents and Subtle Sounds” song history also.

Last significant update: 12/12/2023

Submit notes/corrections