Gus The Christmas Dog

from The Phish Book, p. 62-63:

Trey: "My mother has always written children's stories for a living. When I was in high school we wrote children's songs together as well as a musical called "Gus the Christmas Dog," which never went anywhere. The melodic middle part of "Divided Sky" came from something we wrote called "There's a Christmas Star," and the ending was the theme to "Gus." We had a whole dog motif going on. "If I Were a Dog" became the end of "Lizards". We also wrote songs for a kids' album called Large Motor Skills. We got paid about $250 a song. One of the things we wrote for the album went, "One fat walrus, two left shoes, three loud lions, and four cashews, five gooseberries, six old steaks, seven petunias, and eight big cakes."

 “No Dogs Allowed” is part of a musical for children called Gus the Christmas Dog, a multi-song project that provided ample fodder for Phish’s songwriting as well. Not only did “No Dogs Allowed” make it into Phish’s repertoire intact, but sections from other songs in the musical were transplanted into new Phish compositions, including “The Divided Sky” and “The Lizards.” Many songs in the Phish canon exhibit sing-along, storytelling qualities – “Esther,” “Fee,” “Reba,” the Gamehendge songs, etc. – and much of this approach likely comes from Trey’s songwriting experiences with his mother.