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 the fox on the run, plays the 1968 classic “Fox on the Run.”
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Within a decade of its release, the rock hit became a bluegrass standard and has since teetered in both genres. Whether its words are set to a rolling twang or a frolicking jangle, the versatile song sounds just as good in its adopted bluegrass as it does in its intended rock.
The same can’t be said about every song, which really speaks to the genius of the lyrics themselves and the lyricist behind them.
Who Wrote It?
The song was written by acclaimed singer-songwriter Tony Hazzard, the hit-making mind behind classics like The Hollies’ “Listen to Me,” The Yardbirds’ “Goodnight Sweet Josephine,” Manfred Mann’s “Ha! Ha! Said The Clown,” and many more.
The latter group originally recorded and released “Fox on the Run,” a version that saw a healthy chart performance in their native United Kingdom.
The Hazzard-penned tune was initially influenced by The Band, the songwriter recalled in conversation with Songfacts. “I was a fan of The Band and wanted to write something I could imagine them recording,” he said. “My original demo aims at that. The actual idea for the song itself really came from my imagination, from an image of a summer’s day and standing in a wheat field sloping down towards a river.”
It wasn’t until years later when on a trip to a medieval manor in the English countryside that his vision became a reality. “We went round a corner and there below us was a field ‘leading down to the river’ with reeds all around. I said, ‘That’s the picture I had in my head when I wrote ‘Fox On The Run’!’”
Turning Bluegrass
The song, inspired by bucolic England, would soon take off in the realm of bluegrass, becoming a longstanding favorite in the genre.
“I don’t really know how it happened,” Hazzard admitted, but added, “I love hearing the cover versions: the song has adapted well to bluegrass.” In the interview, he revealed that he had been honored with an award in the United States for Tom T. Hall’s hit rendition of “Fox on the Run.”
“In ’76 I was moving house and received an invitation to an awards banquet in Nashville but didn’t know why, so I thought no more about it,” he detailed. “I later saw Kris Kristofferson on TV receiving an award at the 1977 Country Music Awards presentation: it was the same one I should have attended. I’d won an award and didn’t know it … It’s now on my wall at home.”
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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