This remnant will be replaced soon. The FAQ is back, with a new design! Who is/was Harry Hood? Background: Mike, Page, and Fish lived in a house on King Street (one block from the Wilson Hotel) in Burlington in the fall of 1985 with Brian Long. As Trey explained when the song was was first performed 10/30/85, Trey wrote the music in Europe during the previous summer and Brian came up with the first lyrics in September. Harry Hood: Harry Hood refers to the Hood Dairy Co., a New England milk company based in Boston. The four of them lived next to a Hood milk plant. (There is no billboard, as earlier reported; they are illegal in the state of Vermont. Benjamin Hayes 2/28/01) Many of the lines in the song are traceable to this company. A mid-1970s television ad featured a claymation Harry Hood, with overalls and a milkman hat. In television ads, folks opening a fridge were startled to find Harry standing (and presumably living) inside. The line "Harry, where do you go when the lights go out?" was Brian Long's contribution. (Others have said the line refers the lights at the plant going out at some point each night.) The company sold toy dolls, wooden dairy truck banks, and who knows what else, all about Harry, and all with the slogan (still printed on their cartons, crates, and trucks) "You can feel good about Hood", which is the last line (repeated three times) of the song. Hood currently has "no t-shirts, stationary, pencils or anything else to offer for free or purchase." <Bill Hance> Mr. Miner, who is thanked thrice in the song (just prior to the gorgeous-to-frenetic explosion) likely refers to a Mr. A. Miner (first name might be Floyd?), a former tenant of the King Street house for whom frequent calls from debt collectors came, constantly interrupting early Phish practices. (Other tales have Mr. Miner as the landlord (according to Sabr Ingalls 10/27/96), the man who owned the nearby plant/billboard (according to "Golgiap420" 9/7/96), the man who owned a convenience across the street that had a Harry Hood sign that he turned off each night so the boys could sleep, the milk delivery person, someone in a Harry Hood advertisement, or a former resident/tenant to whom much (we're talking a lot) of junk mail (including form letters beginning "Thank You, Mr. Minor") continued to come while the band lived there. More specifically, the former tenant (or landlord or whoever) was reportedly Mr. A. Miner, and/or the chords over which the three "Thank You Mr. Minor"'s are sung are minor chords (Bm C#m D#m - B-minor, C-sharp-minor, and D-sharp-minor), and the first chord in the song is D-minor. (Much thanks to Tobet Forsman and Chris Bertolet.) Performance: "Harry Hood" is known for glowstick wars, and played a role in their origin and history Thanks also to Christopher, Steve Dolley, and Jeff Katz. "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, and life to everything."" -- Plato" This page last updated February 03, 2007. All contents © 1992-2007 Ellis Godard. All rights reserved.