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Hardy Winfred Fox Jr.[1] (also known as H., among various other aliases) (March 29th 1945 - October 30th 2018) was an American composer, sound engineer, A&R manager, writer, and artist, who was best known for his role as a composer, keyboardist, and producer for the avant-garde group The Residents.[2]
Fox was also a founding member of The Residents' management company, The Cryptic Corporation, of which he was President from 1982 to 2016. He began a characteristically prolific solo recording career in 2011, initially under the guise of Charles Bobuck but later as Hardy Fox.
Fox continued to record and release music through his own Hacienda Bridge imprint, until shortly before his death from glioblastoma on October 30th 2018. A number of posthumous releases credited to Fox (and his Bobuck persona) have since been issued, including his final recording, 25 Minus Minutes.
Biography[]
Origins (1945-1962)[]
Fox with his mother Lillian, sister Linda and father Hardy Sr. on an oil lease in Kilgore, Texas in 1952
Hardy Winfred Fox Jr. was born March 29th 1945, in Longview, Gregg County, Texas, to Hardy Winfred Fox Sr. and Lillian Idell Fox. The second of three children, Fox had an elder sister, Linda, and a younger sister, Diane. To the family, he was known as H.W.,[1] but to friends, he was known simply as H.
From a young age, Fox began collecting strange or unusual objects (including lobster shells, bird feathers, and strange rocks).[1] He would also describe his nightmares to his mother by "banging on the piano and talking in strange voices."[3]
In 1961, when Fox turned sixteen, his family left Texas for Rayville, Louisiana. As a student at Rayville High School, Fox demonstrated a talent for art, erecting an entire town backdrop for the school talent show by sticking lamps under painted cardboard boxes.[1]
College and young adulthood (1963-1968)[]
He enrolled as a freshman at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, Louisiana, in the fall of 1963, where he was assigned to share a dormitory with Homer Flynn (who originated from Shreveport). The two quickly became friends, bonding over a shared interest in music: each owned a different version of the Ray Charles single "What'd I Say," and played them simultaneously on two separate turntables.[1] The two formed a loose "anti-fraternity fraternity" nicknamed "Delta Nu" with an open assembly of their friends, including brothers Barry and Palmer Eiland, as well as John Kennedy, and Jay Clem.[4]
Fox graduated with a degree in commercial art in 1968, and was drafted into military service that summer, only to fail the physical exam due to having been diagnosed with mild epilepsy. Although Fox claimed over the years to have been hospitalized briefly with this illness in his teens,[3] his sisters recall him developing it while at college. Flynn has suggested the possibility that Fox, who had a habit of "(creating) his reality," may have affected the "petit mal seizures" he claimed to suffer after meeting Kennedy, who was known to suffer severe seizures.[1]
Shortly after failing the draft physical, Fox escaped to Northern California, along with Flynn, Kennedy, and Clem, staying in the Mission District of San Francisco for several months.[1] Around this time, he briefly managed a group named The Alliance, whose members included future collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Roland Sheehan. Around this time, Fox briefly associated with the members of Jefferson Airplane.
Residents, Uninc. and Ralph Records (1969-1972)[]
Fox photographed in 1973 by John Kennedy (high-res scan courtesy of Mr. Riggsy's ResTube)
Fox and Flynn moved into an apartment in San Mateo, California, in 1968, and the "Delta Nu" group (now including musician Roland Sheehan) began recording several demo tapes. These tapes often contained musical improvisations, tape collages, loose attempts at contemporary pop covers, and a handful of coarsely performed originals.
The primitive recordings were made possible by Fox's acquisition of a high-end two-track tape recorder as a gift from a friend who had recently returned from Vietnam. At the same time, the group experimented liberally with art and photography, with Flynn creating early silkscreen designs to accompany their increasingly elaborate and experimental recordings.
Two of these early demo tapes, Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor and The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger, have never been officially released but have circulated widely among fans.
In 1971, Fox began a correspondence with Warner Bros. Records executive Hal Halverstadt, who had recently signed Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band to Reprise Records. The group sent Halverstadt a demo tape entitled The Warner Bros. Album, featuring silkscreened cover art parodying the then-current design of Warner's record labels. He returned the demo tape (marked with an "A for Ariginality") and addressed it to the unnamed "Residents" of the San Mateo apartment. The group adopted this as their official name, becoming Residents, Uninc.
The Residents and Vileness Fats (1972-1976)[]
Fox as Uncle Willy on the set of Vileness Fats
In 1972, Residents, Uninc. moved into a former print-works on Sycamore Street in San Francisco. Being a much larger space than their San Mateo apartment, this allowed the group to expand their operations considerably.
The building had an open ground floor, which they fashioned into a film studio, and began working on what was to be their magnum opus; a musical feature-length film titled Vileness Fats. Fox was very involved in the project, contributing cinematography, set design and construction, and the production of music intended for the film's soundtrack. Fox appears also appears as Uncle Willy, the night club owner who deliverers the film's final monologue.
In order to promote the upcoming film, and announce the official inception of Residents, Uninc., the group compiled Santa Dog, a 4 track EP to be sent to select individuals in Christmas 1972. The EP was released through the group's newly founded independent label, Ralph Records, which also operated from the Sycamore Street building.
In February 1973, Fox and other members of Residents, Uninc. formed a musical division, known simply as The Residents. By the following year, The Residents had compiled their first studio album, which was released on Ralph as Meet The Residents in April 1974.
Foundation of The Cryptic Corporation (1976-1982)[]
Following the release of Meet The Residents, the group continued to use the designation of Residents, Uninc. for management, production, and public relations purposes, as well as in the operation of Ralph Records. This partnership, and The Residents' need for "babysitters", eventually led to the foundation of The Cryptic Corporation in June 1976. The Cryptic Corporation was made up of Fox, Flynn, Kennedy, and Clem. In June 1976, the group left their Sycamore Street studio for an even larger studio and office space at 444 Grove Street.
Fox in Portland, photo by William Reinhardt
In 1976, Fox married Nessie Lessons; Lessons inspired the instrumental suite "Leapmus" and parts of what would later become Not Available.
Fox continued his efforts producing, arranging, and composing for The Residents (credited for his production work as The Cryptic Corporation) throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as well as contributing album art and design to Not Available in 1978 and Commercial Album in 1980.
President of The Cryptic Corporation (1982-2010)[]
When Jay Clem and John Kennedy left The Cryptic Corporation in October 1982. Fox became President of the company, as well as one of their primary spokespeople, alongside the company's other remaining founder, Homer Flynn.
During production of The Residents' soundtrack for the 1984 film The Census Taker, Fox met and began a relationship with Steven Kloman, which led to an amicable divorce from his wife Nessie Lessons. Fox and Lessons would remain close friends for the remainder of his life.
In August 1986, Fox was interviewed on New Zealand television in promotion of The Residents' 13th Anniversary Show tour, which took them to Australasia for the first time.
In 1990, Fox was interviewed on The Joe Franklin Show, promoting The Residents' live show Cube-E.
In 1991, following a chance encounter at a zen retreat in Big Sur, California, Fox and guitarist Fred Frith began work on a collaborative album. Around twenty minutes of music was recorded for the project, however it would remain unfinished for more than a decade.
Hardy Fox, 1990s
In 1997, The Residents released an interpretation of N. Senada's composition Pollex Christi. Fox later credited this instrumental recording as the first instance of an entirely solo recording being released as a Residents project. Another such project would follow in 2001, with the EP High Horses being credited to Combo de Mecanico.
In 2005, Fox was interviewed for an episode of The Residents' official BOGcast.
Fox and Kloman married in 2008, following the legalization of same-sex marriage in California.
Randy, Chuck, and Bob, Charles Bobuck and retirement (2010-2016)[]
In the 2000s, with the increasing shift towards digital music downloads and streaming (as well as peer-to-peer file sharing), the notoriously studio-oriented Residents were forced to make a "radical shift in operation" and become a touring band in order to remain financially viable.[5]
The concept of a Residents live "cover band" was then developed in the late 2009s, with the members of The Residents adopting the individual personae of Randy Rose (vocals), Charles "Chuck" Bobuck (keyboards), and Lionel Bob (guitar). The trilogy of tours that followed, Talking Light, The Wonder of Weird, and Shadowland, lasted a combined six years, and the "Randy, Chuck and Bob" concept encompassed the entirety of The Residents' output during that period.
With The Residents having become primarily a live act, Fox commenced a prolific series of solo recordings, referred to as "contraptions", in 2011. These were projects which, for one reason or another, did not fit into the established aesthetic of The Residents (similarly to how High Horses was credited to an offshoot project in 2001). By his own count, Fox recorded eighteen solo albums under the Bobuck persona between 2011 and 2017.[5]
Following the first leg of the Shadowland tour, Fox (still using the Bobuck pseudonym) permanently retired from live performances with The Residents. Fox had always preferred the studio to touring, and was suffering from increasing health concerns which made him "unable to participate in touring".[5] His last onstage appearance with the group was on March 20th 2015 at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas.
Despite initially intending to continue working with the group in the studio, Fox ultimately retired from The Residents and The Cryptic Corporation altogether in 2016; Fox sold his share in The Cryptic Corporation to Cherry Red Records, and handed The Residents' massive archive of material over to Homer Flynn. This would ultimately result in Cherry Red's exhaustive pREServed series of expanded and remastered reissues of albums from The Residents' catalog.
Hacienda Bridge, heart surgery and solo recordings (2016-2018)[]
Hardy Fox ca. 2018, photo by Steven Kloman
Shortly after retiring from The Cryptic Corporation, Fox began a new management company, Hacienda Bridge, to represent his work. He created a website under this name to aid with the promotion of his new products outside The Residents' canon, and began an email newsletter in which he elaborated on the concepts behind new and old projects, while answering questions from fans.
Around this time, Fox was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis, and was told he would require open heart surgery.[5] In October 2017, Fox stunned Residents fans by announcing at the conclusion of his serialized novella The Stone that he was the person previously known as Charles Bobuck, and thus, had been a primary member of The Residents from their inception until Shadowland in 2015. After this, Fox permanently retired the Bobuck persona, deeming it "no longer necessary, and perhaps even confusing".[5]
Wanting to "break the pattern [he] had been in for so long" and create "an album The Residents could not record", Fox began work on a new project, composed over a "three or four month period" with "minimal equipment". Facing open heart surgery which, at best, would leave him in recovery for several months, or, at worst, result in his death, Fox intended the project to be "personal... revealing" and "honest".[5]
The resulting self-titled album, also known as Heart, was released on Valentine's Day in 2018, as Fox's first release under his own name. It was followed shortly thereafter by the release of the recently-completed 1991 collaboration with Fred Frith, A Day Hanging Dead Between Heaven and Earth. Around this time, Fox underwent open heart surgery to replace his failing heart valve, and recuperated over the following months.[5]
Two further album releases followed during this time; Nachtzug, a mini-album derived from Fox's sketches for The Residents' project The Ghost of Hope, and Rilla Contemplates Love, an album-length suite of music supposedly composed by a computer simulating a gorilla's thoughts on love.
Final illness and death[]
Hardy Fox, 2018
In September 2018, Fox was diagnosed with terminal glioblastoma. Fox changed his official website following his diagnosis to include his birth and presumed death years, with no further explanation or context, alarming many fans. Fox had chosen to announce his illness in this manner in order to take advantage of a rare opportunity - to announce his death while he was still alive.
Shortly afterward, it was confirmed by numerous sources (including The Cryptic Corporation) that Fox was still alive, although seriously ill, and that his medical prognosis was not good. Fox then made a public statement via his Hacienda Bridge newsletter:
"Hi from, me, Hardy. Yes got sick, making my pass out of this world, but it is "all" okay. I have something in my brain that will last to a brief end. I am 73 as you might know. Brains go down. But maybe here is my brain functioning as I'm almost a dead person just a bit of go yet. Doctors have put me on drugs, LOL, for right now. Anyway. Probably the last of seeing me. Thanks for checking in. Love you all"[6]
Fox spent his final weeks at his home in Marin County;[7] he succumbed to his illness on October 30th 2018, aged 73. He was survived by his husband Steven Kloman, and his sisters, Diane and Linda. Fox was remembered by his long-time friend and collaborator Homer Flynn as "the architect of The Residents' sound and the best friend I ever had."[1]
Posthumous releases[]
Despite a statement on his official website claiming he would no longer record, Fox completed one final project, 25 Minus Minutes, in late October 2018, a week before his death; Fox gave this to Walter Robotka following his diagnosis. 25 Minus Minutes was released posthumously on Klanggalerie in February 2019.
Fox's second posthumous release, Killing Time, followed in April 2020, along with a rarities compilation entitled Oddities 2013-2015 (credited to Bob Uck and the Family Truck) in December. The next posthumous Fox release, a "soundtrack album" named Ibbur, was released on March 12th 2022, and an EP, Hotel California EP (featuring Fox's cover of the titular song by The Eagles) followed in January 2023.
Another compilation of unreleased material, Fragments & Failures, is expected for release at an unknown time in the future, having been delayed from its originally announced release date in January 2021.
Aliases[]
Throughout his life, Hardy Fox used several aliases to obfuscate his identity and role in various aspects of The Residents' productions. Throughout the group's recording career, Fox credited himself simply as Residents, Uninc., The Residents, or The Cryptic Corporation, when applying credit for his roles as composer, engineer, and producer of their music.
Fox's additional roles in instrumentation, design, art, copywriting, web design and public relations were credited to many aliases (many of which were not known to be Fox until after he retired from the group in 2016).
After adopting the persona of Charles Bobuck in 2010 for the group's Randy, Chuck, and Bob Trilogy of tours, this practice expanded dramatically, with the Bobuck persona generating several other nicknames and spin-off projects before Fox's permanent retirement of the pseudonym in October 2017.
- Harvey Sox
- Sammi Selmo
- Mr. Red Eye
- Mr. Skull
- Dead-Eye Dick
- Max Steinway
- Will Rothers / Big Brother
- Rebecca Rothers
- Charles "Chuck" Bobuck
- Bob "Bobby" Uck
- Carlos
Discography[]
With The Residents (1972-2016)[]
As Charles Bobuck (2010-2017)[]
With Black Tar and the Cry Babies (2015-2017)[]
As Hardy Fox[]
Albums[]
- Hardy Fox (or Heart) (2018)
- A Day Hanging Dead Between Heaven and Earth with Fred Frith (2018)
- Rilla Contemplates Love (2018)
- Killing Time (2020)
- Ibbur (2022)
EPs and singles[]
- "Wink" (2017)
- "Duet" (2017)
- "Paying the Sun" (2018)
- Nachtzug (2018)
- 25 Minus Minutes (2019)
- Hotel California EP (2023)
See also[]
- The Residents
- Residents, Uninc.
- The Delta Nudes
- Ralph Records
- The Cryptic Corporation
- Hacienda Bridge
- Charles Bobuck
- Combo de Mecanico
- Sonidos de la Noche
- Black Tar and the Cry Babies
- Bob Uck and the Family Truck
- The Alliance
External links and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Andy Beta, "The Man in the Eyeball Mask", Texas Monthly, February 2022
- ↑ "Festive Greetings and Farewell to a dear friend", The Residents' Cherry Red mailing list newsletter, December 15th 2018
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Charles Bobuck, THIS Is For READERS, 2016
- ↑ Jim Knipfel, "Somethin' Devilish: The Untold (And Finally True) Pre-History of The Residents 1963-1971)"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 "Leaving The Residents & New Paths", Musique Machine, May 16th 2018
- ↑ Hacienda Bridge newsletter, September 23, 2018
- ↑ "He is in Marin, alive." Nolan Cook, comment in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, September 22nd 2018
