# I heard "Fox on the Run" today by Sweet **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 10, 2017, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440 "2017-02-10T04:29:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2017, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/21 "2017-02-10T23:27:42Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Mick? Okay. Alright fellas, let’s go! 48 crash! 48 crash! (Oops, wrong artist/song. Let’s try this again:} Oh it’s been getting so hard Living with the things you do to me… ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/22 "2017-02-11T01:11:37Z")
Good thread. The other night I was driving home late and a fragment of a song popped into my head. I slowly reconstructed it, line by line, and by the time I was on the home stretch I was (again) singing Eddie Rabbitt’s “Driving My Life Away.” ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/23 "2017-02-11T01:30:14Z")
Another big fan of Desolation Boulevard here, and Give Us A Wink as well. A couple of my favorites not mentioned yet are _Sweet FA_ and _Yesterday’s Rain_. > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Lead singer Brian Connolly died of a heart attack at 51. Sad story…he pretty much drank himself to death. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/24 "2017-02-11T03:55:06Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > Okay. > Alright fellas, let’s go! > > 48 crash! 48 crash! > (Oops, wrong artist/song. Let’s try this again:} > > Oh it’s been getting so hard > Living with the things you do to me… Chapman and Chinn were fucking monster songwriters; I have a huge fondness for their “Can The Can”. Lesser known, though, but well worth investigating are Sweet’s band-composed B-sides like [“Done Me Wrong All Right”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrhe9f7RVzE&list=PLRhsFN5fOP_m5eB_EWpgC7uqFwn7dWekE), which were far heavier than Chapman and Chinn’s bubblegum glam, and wouldn’t have disgraced the likes of Deep Purple: [“Man From Mecca”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_3vvo6Ebb4&list=PLRhsFN5fOP_m5eB_EWpgC7uqFwn7dWekE&index=2) is a killer hard rock song, and Andy Scott just slays it on guitar. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/25 "2017-02-11T04:00:35Z")
I mean, [“Burning”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0hG3Gib-Is) is as metal as fuck, it sounds like Black Sabbath covering Led Zeppelin. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/26 "2017-02-11T12:49:54Z")
Fascinating stuff, **Penfeather** - I’ve never dug into Sweet’s material. That song Done me Wrong All Right sounds like NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Maiden and UFO, to my ear). Burning sound exactly like Zep’s Immigrant Song. Yeah, much heavier with great musicianship. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/27 "2017-02-11T13:17:19Z")
That is weird. I had no idea that the bluegrass Fox was a Manfred Mann tune. I always assumed it was traditional. I just saw/listened to MM’s live version on Youtube. I think I’ll stick with the bluegrass arrangement! ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/28 "2017-02-11T20:30:02Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Fascinating stuff, **Penfeather** - I’ve never dug into Sweet’s material. That song Done me Wrong All Right sounds like NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Maiden and UFO, to my ear). Burning sound exactly like Zep’s Immigrant Song. > > Yeah, much heavier with great musicianship. I think Sweet never really hit the heights because they were so split in what they did. They just wanted to play hard rock, but their writing and management team insisted they do catchy anthems. So their A sides had the Chinn and Chapman material that everyone knows, but which meant they got written off as shiny lightweights. Their own, much harder stuff was relegated to B sides, which means not many people got to hear it. And by the time they did try to wrest control, Brian Connolly had got his throat kicked in outside a pub and started drinking, and the band were on the slide. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/29 "2017-02-11T21:27:32Z")
[The story is rather a sad one.](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/sep/23/sweet-strange-history) ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/30 "2017-02-11T23:22:24Z")
[Well, fucking hell, here they are live with Ritchie Blackmore in 1976 doing _All Right Now_ as a tribute to Paul Kossoff, with Andy Scott guitar duelling like a motherfucker.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIFxWz1UG3I). ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/31 "2017-02-12T00:28:24Z")
The Sweet came out of the same blues tradition as all the great 60s London outfits, maybe with a little more soul influence. They couldn’t write for shit though and eventually teamed up with ‘pop’ writing legends Chinn and Chapman. Between them they exploited the whole glam rock thing. Obv. still solid, pub-honed musicians with genuine heritage. Contrary to other views, the Sweet had little credibility at any point. Slade were the bollocks, a real working class band, and they wrote their own music - the way they stole the Reading Festival in 1980 is legendary. Sadly no video of that. Fwiw, I bought my first Slade single in 73 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440/32 "2017-02-12T00:40:20Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > I mean, [“Burning”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0hG3Gib-Is) is as metal as fuck, it sounds like Black Sabbath covering Led Zeppelin. I know that there is always a very fine line between metal awesomeness and self parody, and I’m not quite sure where I should put this, but I think if Spinal Tap had tried a blatant Zep spoof, it would’ve sounded like this (Immigrant Song, anyone?). ETA: I grew up with Sweet on the telly in 74-76 when I had barely jumped outta my diapers, and I thought it was the coolest shit second to Suzi Quatro, but I never knew their metal side before this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heard-fox-on-the-run-today-by-sweet/779440.md?page=1)