The Fox

The Fox / Jack Hall
Steeleye Span

Dover ROJ 8 (single, p/s, UK, September 1990)

[Peter Knight]

Steeleye Span recorded Peter Knight’s The Fox, “a song about the modern fox” as the album’s sleeve notes said, for their 1989 album Tempted and Tried. It was also released a year later as a single with the B-side Jack Hall. A live recording at the Beck Theatre on 16 September 1989 was released on the video A 20^th Anniversary Celebration. Another live recording from 1994 was released on their album Steeleye Span in Concert.

Lyrics

Steeleye Span sing The Fox

You can hound me now you’ve found me,
But I’m far more cunning than you.
I’m a shy fox, I’m a sly fox,
And I’ll teach you a lesson or two.
I’ll run you through the hawthorn hedge
and tear your dogs to shreds.
I’ll lead you from the open fields
into the flower beds.
I’ll lead you from the open fields
into the nearest town
And take you to my hunting ground.

Chorus:
Run, run, I won’t give in.
Run, run, I’ll never give in.
Run, run, run, I won’t give in.
Run, run, run, I’ll never give in.

You can hound me now you’ve found me,
But I’m far more cunning than you.
I’m a brown fox, I’m a town fox,
And I’ll teach you a lesson or two.
I’ll introduce electric fence
to every horse and hound
And watch the horses suffering
upon the stony ground.
I’ll lead you from the open fields
into the nearest town
And take you to my hunting ground.

Chorus

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Patrick Montague for correcting the lyrics.