What follows is the lengthy response that Richard Wright posted on his Facebook page in response to Jesse Jarnow’s feature story, “Everyone Knew Him as Nancy: Richard Wright and the Old, Weird Phish.” This is followed by Jarnow’s comments on Nancy’s assertions. The feature which appeared in our July-August issue also can be found on Relix.com.

Here’s Nancy…

Regarding the article about me in the July/August 2012 issue of Relix, there are some inaccuracies which I feel need correcting. The article takes up three pages: Pages 26, 27 & 79. There are three columns on each page (four on 26), which I will refer to respectively as Columns A thru C (A thru D for 26). I will address each inaccuracy by column, paragraph &, if necessary, line. (And for those of you who only read the article online: You’ll just have to make guesses based on content as to what paragraphs in the online article correspond to the ones in the magazine article to which I refer.)

1. Page 26, Column A, 1st paragraph. The word “demon” is arbitrary. I choose not to refer to the invading “spirit” as a “demon” (as, for one thing, I don’t believe in demons), though I have said things along the lines of “what some people might call a demon”. I myself, though, have never referred to it as a demon.

2. Column A, 1st paragraph. In September 1982, I was still in Maryland, recovering from a Summer of binge-drinking following my expulsion from high school (which followed my week-long incarceration in a mental hospital following a bogus suicide attempt). I didn’t even VISIT Goddard until December 1982 & I didn’t start attending Goddard until January 1983. I attended for three straight years, January 83 thru December 85. Also, I didn’t move to Vermont & then enroll; I enrolled from Maryland after visiting Goddard.

3. Column A, 2nd paragraph. I didn’t begin calling myself Nancy until February 25, 1985 – my third & final year at Goddard. And I can remember wearing a dress on only two occasions, both of which were BEFORE I started calling myself Nancy: Halloween 1983 & my 20th birthday, March 19, 1984. I had a white dress with blue polka dots which was given to me on Halloween 83 for my Zippy costume. It wasn’t a comfortable dress which is why I didn’t wear it more often. A few years after I was out of Goddard, I acquired a very nice denim skirt which I wore for years afterwards, though only indoors, as I was living in Montpelier by then. It wasn’t until the late 90s when I moved to Burlington that I started wearing dresses publicly.

4. Column A, 3rd paragraph. I hosted several different radio shows over the years at Goddard, only one of which lasted from Midnight till 7 A.M.. This was in 1984 & it only lasted a few months (doing a seven-hour-long radio show every Friday night can get quite tiresome rather quickly). Most of my shows were only about 2 to 3 hours long & were usually around 8 P.M. (though when I lived at the radio station – illegally – for a month in the Spring of 85, I did lots of random shows whenever nobody else was on, just spinning whole album sides & whatnot, as well as the “Nancytronics” recordings I was doing at the time).

5. Column B, 2nd paragraph. “I Didn’t Know” wasn’t the first song I recorded on 4-track; it was a medley of two David Byrne songs from The Catherine Wheel that I covered: “My Big Hands”/“Poison”. It was May 1985. I didn’t write “I Didn’t Know” until July 85. I did a recording of it in August but it wasn’t good enough so I re-did it in September. Also, during my “teenage dalliance with born-again Christianity” (age 12 to 15), I was only into The Beach Boys for a year before I got into The Beatles, which became (for the most part) the only band I’d listen to till I was 16.

6. Column C, 1st paragraph. Regarding the song (or rather, two songs) that has (have) come to be known as “Halley’s Comet”: “Halley’s Comet” consisted of nothing more than the words “Hayyyyyy-ley’s Comet, I said-uh Hayyyyyy-ley’s Comet”. That’s ALL there was to “Halley’s Comet”. It’s just something I made up & sang to myself during the Summer of 85 when there was all this hype about the impending passage of Halley’s Comet through our solar system (which was due to happen in early 86). Every time I’d see something about Halley’s Comet, I’d sing it to myself. In my head, it had a kind of mid-70s Brian Eno feel to it. Later, in September, I wrote a song called “Goin’ Down”, which was inspired by Motown. Contrary to what the article says, I DID NOT “[think] of Motown & Brian Eno & [call] the song ’Halley’s Comet’”; “Halley’s Comet” & “Goin’ Down” were two seperate songs, one influenced by Eno, the other by Motown, neither of which had anything to do with either title. In fact, the first recording of “Goin’ Down” was recorded by itself, without “Halley’s Comet” at the beginning of it. I also hadn’t yet come up with the “Dee Jew Ba-Ba Ba-Jingo” bass chant. It was a very poor recording & I needed a way to economise my breath for the bass part (which is why I came up with the bass chant). For some reason, I also figured “Halley’s Comet” might make an interesting intro, bridge & outro to “Goin’ Down”, so when I recorded it the second time, I added “Halley’s Comet”. The bulk of the song (with its “I’m goin’ down to the central part of town” refrain) was still called “Goin’ Down”, but the whole piece became collectively known as “Halley’s Comet” largely because it was easy to remember.

7. Column D, 1st paragraph. Page McConnell didn’t merely “hear” the songs; I specifically played the tape of the first versions of “I Didn’t Know” & “Silver Flu” (recorded at the same session as “I Didn’t Know” & written around the same time) for Page & Jim Pollock in Jim’s room at Goddard (shortly after Page first played me a tape of Phish, the band he’d recently joined). Also, the other members of Phish were exposed to those songs plus “Halley’s Comet”/“Goin’ Down” via a tape I’d made for fellow student Ricky Puffer which he then lent to Brian Long who was living with several members of Phish in a red house (now olive green) on King Street across the street from the parking lot of the Hood dairy factory in Burlington. Also, the ill-fated Halloween 85 show DID NOT take place in the sculpture building but in the Haybarn Theatre (Phish played their first sculpture building Halloween gig in 86 & did so every year thru 1989).

8. Column D, 3rd paragraph. I asked Trey “Are you the guy who sounds like Frank Zappa?” I didn’t say “guitarist” as the article states. I wasn’t referring to his guitar-playing; I was referring to his voice.

9. Page 27, Column B, 1st paragraph. With all due respect to Mike Gordon – & I have no doubt that he really was told that I was hydrophobic – I’m not hydrophobic. That was a scam I made up during my first semester at Goddard in early 83. Every student had to work at least one meal team per week in the kitchen, washing dishes & pans & whatnot. Pretending to be hydrophobic was a lame excuse to get out of working. By the time I’d finished that semester, I was already tired of the scam. The next semester, the evaluator for the meal teams said that my work in the kitchen had “improved 100%” since the previous semester. I’m actually surprised that Mike heard that I was hydrophobic – nobody from my first semester was even left on campus by Autumn 1985. Who could’ve told him? Probably somebody who heard it from somebody who WAS there my first semester. Anyway, it’s not true, it’s a sham that should’ve already been dead by Autumn 83. I like Mike’s comment about the essential oils, though. I actually love water.

10. Page 79, Column A, 3rd paragraph. “Super-Delicious Crunchy Forest Critters” is actually one of the few recordings I’ve done that WAS performed & recorded live (though not on stage or in front of anyone): it’s one of my “Nancytronics” recordings (like Frippertronics, it utilises two reel-to-reel tape decks to create a long delay loop system upon which one can build layers of repeated sound). I probably couldn’t duplicate “Super-Delicious Crunchy Forest Critters” EXACTLY, but my point is that that type of recording is probably the only sort of thing I do or have done (apart from singing & playing acoustic guitar or piano) that I could do live, since there’s no multi-tracking & the layering itself is done live. Also, “Passive/Aggressive” was played on electric guitar, not acoustic.

11. Page 79, Column B, 3rd paragraph (not counting the tail end of one at the top of the page). I don’t recall saying “phoning it in” & strongly doubt that I said that. I wasn’t too happy with the 3/18/97 show, I’ll be the first to admit. But I’m pretty sure I didn’t say “phoning it in”. And as for the line about me not speaking to anyone in the band since 2004: It’s phrased as if it’s my decision. It never was. I would LOVE to speak to all of them again. THEY’RE the ones who aren’t speaking to ME. And that hurts.

12. Page 79, Column B, 4th paragraph. The smaller speakers are for not disturbing my DOWNSTAIRS neighbour – NOT my next-door neighbour. I don’t give a FUCK about my next-door neighbour.

13. Page 79, Columns B (5th paragraph) & C (top of page). The sentence that begins at the end of Column B & continues in column C…I can’t begin to tell you all of the things that are wrong with that sentence. But I’ll give it a try. My first tape album, A Boy & His Goddess, didn’t even EXIST in 1985. The Casio CZ-101 Digital Synthesiser that I use on that album wasn’t even ACQUIRED by me until May 1987. And the bulk of that album was recorded in the Summer of 87 & the album wasn’t mixed until Autumn 87. So how could a tape that DIDN’T EVEN EXIST until 87 be sold in 1985? Furthermore, the first song on the album is “Halley’s Comet ’86”. How could something that plainly states that it was recorded in 86 POSSIBLY appear on a tape in 1985? Didn’t Jesse READ any of my liner notes? Apparently not. And need I even mentrion that my current pseudonym is Dick FaceBat, NOT “Dick Facebat”?

14. Page 79, Column C, Post Script. They give thanks to WFMU & some guy who works there, but they gave no credit or thanks to my friend Rael OneCloud who sent the tape to WFMU in the first place, back in 1989, nor did they plug her cable access show PostMortem Espresso (Channel 15, Monday nights at Midnight, Thursday & Saturday nights at 1:00 in the morning), WHICH WAS A PRE–REQUISITE FOR MY DOING THE INTERVIEW IN THE FIRST PLACE, OR DID YOU FORGET THAT, JESSE!!!!!!!!? If it wasn’t for Rael, WFMU would never have gotten that tape & this article would never have been written. Got that? RESPECT THE ONE–CLOUD!!!!!!!!

15. Other stuff they didn’t mention that I wanted them to mention: When I started 4-track recording at Goddard, Jim Pollock was my number one influence. If it wasn’t for him, there’d likely be no “I Didn’t Know” or “Halley’s Comet”. I’ve been wanting to say this in print ever since The Phish Companion came out back in 2000 & I realised they had no idea who he was (they thought he was “The Dude of Life”, whose actual name is Steve Pollack; they also thought “Dear Mrs. Reagan” was a Phish original); I instantly regretted not having said more about him in my interview for that book & I swore that if I was ever interviewed again I’d talk about his influence on my early 4-track recordings…which I did when interviewed for this article but apparently they saw fit not to print any of that. [Jim Pollock’s original recording of “Dear Mrs. Reagan” can be downloaded here.]

Jesse Jarnow’s response…

It’s not every day one gets to profile a mysterious entity that composed a pair of even more mysterious songs that have been ricocheting around my memory for decades. And it’s not every day that the aforementioned entity-of-many-names provides detailed corrections to said profile. To Dick FaceBat—and Nancy and Manta Ray and Blue Whale and Sea Creature and Richard—I’d like to formally and publicly apologize for any places where my brain made leaps in the space-time continuum to simplify story threads or misinterpreted an answer or screwed up chronologies for the sake of a punchier sentence or making something fit slightly better with the assigned word-count. I don’t think any of the below-recounted errors at all alter the story in any way. I stand by my paraphrases, and will let Herr FaceBat’s corrections provide nuance for the rest.

The only note I feel obligated to respond to, however, is #14. I recall no such advance promise to promote Rael OneCloud’s public access show, though continue to feel a little bummed that the description of Mr. FaceBat’s glorious lipdub performances of “Gethsemane” from “Jesus Christ Superstar” and songs by Queen, Pink Floyd, Genesis, and “some Thai chick” discovered on YouTube were cut from the final piece. (You can watch “Gethsemane,” performed by—ahem—“BatChrist,” here.) If you live in the greater Burlington area, please check out PostMortem Espresso on Channel 15 on Mondays at midnight, and Thursday and Saturday nights at 1 am. Also, regarding #12. I feel the same way, more or less, though I have no downstairs neighbor.