Phish frontman honored the jazz-rock icons at their Songwriters Hall of Fame induction
It’s been a busy week for Trey Anastasio. On Sunday, the Phish guitarist joined Billy Joel onstage at his penultimate Madison Square Garden residency show. On Thursday, he stopped by another New York event: The Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony, where he covered Steely Dan.
You can catch the eight-minute video below, where Anastasio kicks off with 1976’s “Kid Charlemagne,” then dives into the Dan classic “Reelin’ In the Years.”
“When he played the “Baker’s Dozen” down the street at MSG, he played 237 songs over 13 nights,” the announcer said of the band’s 2017 residency. Phish recently wrapped up four nights at the Sphere in Las Vegas; they’ll release their new album, Evolve, next month.
In addition to Steely Dan, this year’s Songwriter Hall of Fame inductees also included R.E.M.’s original members Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and Bill Berry — who performed together for the first time since 2007. Their performance of “Losing My Religion” arrived right after Mills, the band’s bassist, said it would take “a comet” for them to play together again. Prior to their performance, Jason Isbell honored them with a cover of “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine).”
Timbaland, Hillary Lindsey, and others were also inducted, while Diane Warren took home this year’s Johnny Mercer Award.
