Phish.net

by Tom Marshall

What is a drone?

It's the bee in the hive that does the “work” – the worker-bee. What is the hive? It's society. It's where we co-exist.

I always felt like a drone. In college – I'm finally away from my hometown (drone-town) and high school and what do I get? More drone activity on campus: happy faces chatting and following pheromone-marked trails from class to class, carrying books. What's in those books? Drone lessons. How to be a drone! They were written 50 years ago these books. We're not breaking new ground here. Cafeteria lines of drones eating drone food. Can't this wait 'til I'm old, can't I live while I'm young? But that's a different song, “Chalk Dust Torture” – a drone protest song about school. (Ok, that one's about other stuff too.)

“Amidst the Peals of Laughter” is about me, living the drone life, but hearing laughter from non-drones.

Watch Amidst the Peals of Laughter on YouTube ”Amidst the Peals of Laughter” – 10/31/13, Atlantic City, NJ

Why did Jack and Jill go up a hill? To fetch a pail of water. "Fetch." They weren't on a sightseeing walk – someone told them to go GET that water. This isn't a nursery rhyme… this is a 300 year-old drone protest poem. They fell down. People laughed at them. They failed at their drone task. They dropped their tray in the cafeteria.

In this society, we're forced to spend most of our waking hours at “work.” Why? Because that's what drones do. We're given “tasks” by non-drones… some of whom may laugh at us when we do them.

Enough about drones, Tom – we get it! Right? Ok… I'll stop. 

In fact, Trey said the same thing. In the last line of the last verse I wrote "the drones have awakened, the day has begun" – Trey said the "drone" reference was too much… too obvious… we GET it, Tom. We substituted "world" for "drones" – I'll still sing drones though. It's drones.

Unfortunately, I don't have any answers. Can we just skip school and have fun instead of education? Of course not… although some people do. Can we just never get a job and never go to work? Of course not… although some people resist the pressure.

Olivia Arias was asked in an interview about all the women who pursued her husband George Harrison throughout his life. She said it's tough, but she had the secret to a long marriage: don't get divorced! It's that simple.

She's right. Just don't. She was pressured but fought the pressure.

My solution to the droning of America is to wake up and leave the drone existence in favor of something else. Wake up – like Kevin Spacey in American Beauty… the ultimate drone transformation.

I was laid-off from the insurance industry in 2005. I never went back to a 9-to-5. I'm not a drone anymore and it's AMAZING. It's tough – I still work, for myself and for others – but with no cubicle-honeycomb cages in sight it's worth it. It took me too long to wake up, and if the decision wasn't made for me, I might not have been brave enough to do it on my own. Looking back though I feel unhappy about those 20 years. I feel it was time wasted. Being patted on the back for doing a good job: good drone. Being laughed at by those who broke free somehow.

That's what this song is about.

(Anastasio/Marshall)
© Who Is She? Music, Inc. (BMI)

The birds are the enemy, their songs and the sun
They're hammering nails in the coffin of fun
The last drop of warmth from your soul has been wrung
You now have to face that the day has begun

It means you'll be summoned to a place they call work
In whose hallways you linger and corners you lurk
You're already three days late on a task
That they gave you to fail, they don't even ask

Jack and Jill went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
and Jill came tumbling after
amidst the peals of laughter

Your brain is in pain and your fate has been sealed
The liquid inside of your eyes has congealed
You can't see in color or discern friend from foe
Your neighbors wake slowly and glare cause they know

That you don't fit in, you can't earn their trust
You're up at all hours "you're not one of us"
They scowl at your windows but smile at the sun
The world has awakened, the day has begun

Against my will drawn up the hill
amidst the peals of laughter
in pain I'm chained to the end of the train
where I remain thereafter
amidst the peals of laughter...

Loose the caboose I'm calling a truce