“Olly Olly Oxen Free” is the penultimate song off e’rebody, and the final act of the Playground Trilogy that began with “Farted On” and “Westminster Quarters”. Built around the common melody of a Minor Third interval from the kid’s game Hide-and-Seek, “Olly” features a fun fanfare chorus, puzzle-box structure, and at eight and half minutes, it is the longest Los Doggies song, harking back to the old 70s epics. It might even appeal to actual kids, were it not so prog.
Nobody is sure exactly where the phrase comes from, as it was passed down from kid to kid, and wasn’t recorded until the 1950s. There are several variants, such as “All ye, all ye ‘outs’ in free,” and “Holy Holy Umphrey’s McGee.”
Take a listen to “Olly” on the player below. See if it doesn’t rekindle that child-like spirit of adventure where anything can happen and everything does. Most entertainment these days is designed to either appeal to and/or produce an assembly line of man-children with disposable incomes. Los Doggies would rather appeal to the child-man, the boy-kings and teen empresses, with the beginner’s mind of a zen pupil and the open heart of a fool, freewheeling, exploding into being, and if not living in the moment, then riding atop it like a dad-horse or diaper-box go-cart.
Olly Olly Oxen Freeeeeeedoooooooommmmmm!
