This is the next installment in my Top 25 PJJ tracks series for a year, which you can stream every track directly from Phish Just Jams. As with the previous installments, this is meant to be a list focused solely on the Phish Just Jams tracks from the year in question.
This is my version of the list for 1999. I'm not suggesting that it is the definitive list and there are a few choices that I could swap out with others depending on the day. I'm not ranking these 1 to 25 but just presenting the list as a whole because really what difference does it make which jam I think is 11th or 8th or 23rd or so on. The purpose of this list is just to provide a Phish Just Jams playlist of the best jams from the year. The list will be presented chronologically and can then be parsed and dissected from there. The list will also link to the full version of each song from the terrific resource that is www.phish.in for those want to take in the whole song instead.
I'm doing things a little differently for 1999, however. First things first, after some deliberation and consultation I'm not including Big Cypress in this list. It is such a unique event that it isn't fair to compare regular shows to for list purposes. Plus including Cypress would take up about 5 spots on the list. So no Cypress, and I've decided to change the format a little to handle a year with as many quality jams as 1999. This will be presented as a Top 20 for both Summer and Fall tour (composed of all of the Sept and Oct shows as well as the December run up to Cypress). The separate Summer and Fall lists is something that would have to happen for 1995 and 1997 anyway so this list becomes a Top 40.
1999 is truly an epic year that is littered with highlights from the beginning of Summer Tour right up to the final run to Cypress. The summer started with a continuance of the loops and ambient sounds that defined 1998, only taken another step up. The introduction of the tunes from The Siket Disc, like What's the Use? and My Left Toe, added a new element to jamming repertoire and helped craft the sound of 1999. Once the Fall Tour started they really started to develop and expand upon the millennial sound. It is really something special to hear a sound or theme develop over the course of a tour and in 1999 is a great example of this development happening before your ears.
The Summer mix is just under 5 and a half hours while the Fall mix clocks in at 5 and a quarter hours. All told this mix has just under 11 hours of 1999 Phish improv!