Light On Dark Water

Fox On the Run

Weekend Music

I don't know why, but almost every morning this week I've discovered that this song is running through my head as I'm getting ready for work. Something is triggering it–maybe something to do with walking the dogs to the bay–but I don't notice what, I just suddenly realize that it's there. It was on the radio back in the '70s, and I thought it was great, though maybe that was because it was so much better than most of the other stuff. But still, that one verse is magnificent:

She walked through the corn leading down to the river
Her hair shone like gold in the hot morning sun
She took all the love that a poor boy could give her
And left me to die like a fox on the run

 

I had always assumed Tom T. Hall wrote it, since he was known as a writer as much as a performer, and was astonished–the word is justified–to learn that it was written by an Englishman and originally recorded by…Manfred Mann? Yes, Manfred Mann.

 

I like Tom T. Hall's version much better; it even tweaks the tune and the lyric a bit, and to my taste improves them–the fall is not The Fall, but the speaker's own recapitulation of it. And the tune somehow has a bit more urgency. It was a stroke of genius on someone's part to rework it as a bluegrass tune.

Maclin Horton

14 responses to “Fox On the Run”

  1. Paul

    I’d never heard either version of that song before. It is quite haunting.
    The words rather put me in mind of Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn (which you can hear here, although the singer’s cheerfulness does seem a little at odds with the lyrics).

    Reply
  2. Mac

    One of the commenters on the video makes the same observation. It is very much in the same vein. Those first two lines of Fox on the Run have an amazing sensual power. It occurs to me to wonder whether this association of sensuality and fecundity is something that people are still capable of grasping.

    Reply
  3. Grumpy

    I played it 3 times and the third time I liked it. 1st 2 times the banjo just sounded silly. 3rd time was just after listening to country music driving back from Portage. Heard a group called ‘The Howling Boys’.

    Reply
  4. Mac

    The banjo is not an instrument one turns to for the expression of deep emotion, but it’s pretty much a sine qua non for bluegrass.

    Reply
  5. Grumpy

    so is that ‘Blue Grass’ as distinct from ‘Country’ ?

    Reply
  6. Janet

    Yes.
    AMDG

    Reply
  7. Mac

    Definitely, although people constantly misuse the terms, especially “bluegrass,” and I am always pedantically trying to correct them. For instance, the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou is often referred to as bluegrass, which only part of it is. Bluegrass is a sub-category of country, but it has a fairly specific meaning. This would do for a dictionary illustration.

    Reply
  8. Grumpy

    I didn’t know there was a difference. Well now I’m addicted to this stupid Fox on the Run song!

    Reply
  9. Mac

    Happy to be of service.:-)

    Reply
  10. Grumpy

    Just swinging through for my hit on Fox on the River. Thought I’d try the Manfred Mann version. But it just sounds like Quinn the Eskimo. Tom T. Hall is the hit I need.

    Reply
  11. Mac

    “sounds like Quinn the Eskimo”…well, if you say so. 🙂
    Now I have it in my head again, too.

    Reply
  12. Grumpy

    Yes, listen!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liIQLIx2Onw

    Reply
  13. Mac

    Hmm, you have a point. “And left me to die…” does sort of resemble “You’ve not seen nothing…” (musically).

    Reply
  14. Grumpy

    that’s what I meant. it’s the way they put the emphasis on the words

    Reply

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