DOWNLOAD (right click/Save Target As) Oh Hardy Ho

I originally wrote "Oh Hardy Ho" in 1974 as an acoustic sort of folk song but soon added the guitar melody at the intro to support an electric version. It was probably at that point that I worked out the counter melodies for a second voice with Icarus bassist Rick Randall in mind. There really was bell hanging from my ceiling in my room when I was growing up.  It was an unfolding paper Christmas bell.  I used to lay on my bed and look at turn ever so slowly.  The vacuum cleaner line was in reference to a cat called Kittsie that [Icarus' drummer] Bill Dube and I used to hide from the RA in our dorm rooms.  We would move her from room to room like a shell game.  Kittsie was terrified of the vacuum cleaner so we would put the vacuum in whatever room she was not allowed thus the "rooma two wa-dee-day" stuff in the chorus.

The guys in Icarus all went for the song so each of the others created their own parts to go with the framework that I provided.  Nick Bucci's amazing guitar arpeggios set the style for the others to follow. Rick and Bill integrated their ideas to create the unique arrangement that is "Oh Hardy Ho".  After practicing it to perfection, we were given the opportunity to record it in Philadelphia's now long gone "Society Hill Recording Studios"(01/25/75). Once set up, we recorded it very quickly followed by our version of "Burlesque" a Family cover that featured Nick on lead vocal.

--Hangnail

Oh Hardy Ho (Phillips) 1974

And in my room there is a bell hanging from the ceiling.
The movement of the air makes it turn
And so I sat and I watched it all last evening
And found there was no pattern to be learned.

Oh hardy ho rooma-two-wa-dee-da
The iron has fallen from my hand
Oh hardy no rooma-three-wa-dee-day
The vacuum cleaner scared the cat away.

The subtle change that I see can not have a meaning
The many times I tried to make it fall
And after all is said and done, the bell keeps on turning
The shadow that it makes is off the wall

There's a bell that's hanging from the ceiling in my room
Whirling swirling turning 'round
The Subtle changes I observe will witness what I say
The vacuum cleaner scared the cat away

Hangnail Phillips: (Vocal One, Guitar Left)
Nick Bucci (Guitar Right)
Rick Randall (Vocal Two, Bass)
Bill Dube (Drums)

Copyright 2008, Hangnail Phillips