Trust A Fox

Dirty linen's on public display
This fox is a vulture, make no mistake
The day is long gone when I succumb to this
End of my day, nothin' but rage

He'll cut your face off, I'll sooner say hello
He'll cut your face, I'll sooner say hello
I cut your face off, I'll sooner say hello
I'll cut your face
I'll sooner say, I'll sooner say, I'll sooner say
Hello

Dirty linen's on public display
No I need no excuse, up and away
Trust me, trust a fox, a silly thing to do
I want the blood of an Englishman

He'll cut your face off, I'll sooner say hello
I'll cut your face, I'll sooner say hello
He'll cut your face off, I'll sooner say hello
I cut your face
I'll sooner say, I'll sooner say, I'll sooner say
Hello

Ha !

I'll cut your face off, I'll sooner say hello
I cut your face, I'll sooner say hello
I'll cut your face off, I'll sooner say hello
I cut your face
I'll sooner say, I'll sooner say, I'll sooner say
Hello

I'll sooner say hello, I'll sooner say hello
I'll sooner say hello, I'll sooner say hello

He'll cut your face off, I'll sooner say hello
He cut your face, I'll sooner say hello
I'll cut your face off, I'll sooner say hello
I cut your face
I'll sooner say, I'll sooner say, I'll sooner say
Hello

Lyrics by:
Brown

Music by:
Squire / Brown

Written:
1984

Personnel:
John Squire (lead guitar)
Ian Brown (vocals)
Andy Couzens (rhythm guitar)
Pete Garner (bass)
Alan Wren (drums)

Produced by:
Martin Hannett

Available on:
Garage Flower (3.00)

First live performance:
In 1985

Pseudonyms:
'Hello', 'How Long'

Details:
Trust A Fox runs out of musical direction quickly, lyrically is too repetitive and the production is a mess. The song perhaps shares the same subject matter as How Do You Sleep. Jesus called Herod a fox; this, coupled with the repeated "cut your face off" lyric suggests the beheading of John The Baptist, which Herod was partly responsible for. Herod married his half-brother's wife, and agreed to have John the Baptist imprisoned and finally beheaded for criticising that marriage. Meanwhile, Jesus' reputation was growing as he was ministering in the countryside. Jesus drove out a demon, healed a bleeding woman and raised up a dead girl in Luke chapter 8.

Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed, because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, "I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about ?" And he tried to see him.
(Luke 9: 7 - 9)

The use of the word 'fox' should not be taken in the modern sense of the word (sly, cunning); rather, Jesus was commenting upon Herod's ineptitude, or inability to carry out his threat:

At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you."
He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day - for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem !
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing !
Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
(Luke 13: 31 - 35)

Jesus had a goal, and he was going to continue on with His ministry; no-one was going to deter or distract Him from accomplishing His mission. In this passage, after calling Herod a fox, Jesus speaks of a hen and chicks. There is a phrase, 'Don't let the fox guard the henhouse', meaning 'Don't assign a job to someone who will then be in a position to exploit it for his own ends.' You can’t trust a fox; he'll find a way to do you in. And Herod Antipas was such a creature. We also know that Jewish rabbis routinely referred to people who were worthless and insignificant as a 'fox'. Herod Antipas was a tetrarch, which was a subordinate or dependent prince. When his father Herod the Great died, his kingdom was divided into four parts and the Roman emperor named Herod Antipas the tetrarch over the region of Galilee, Jesus' home country. Herod was in effect a puppet prince, a pompous pretender who was merely doing the bidding of the Roman emperor. Herod might see himself as a lion, an imperial potentate, but in reality, he was just a fox, an insignificant peon. Jesus cuts Herod down to size, and Jesus’ audience may have had an inward smile of appreciation upon hearing those words. Jesus was telling the Pharisees ‘Go tell that fox, that pretender, that there’s no way that I’m going to restructure my mission out of fear for him.’ Jesus is being very clear about who He is, about His mission, and he isn’t prepared to let other people’s threats and fears dominate His life. Jesus was not at all fazed by the death threat posed by Herod. Jesus' mission was ultimately to go to Jerusalem to die and subsequently on the third day to reach His goal. We have here the language of death and resurrection. Jesus was going to die, but He was going to die, not in a fight, and not in flight, but in faith and obedience to His father's will, and not the will of some insignificant pretender. Jesus was going to Jerusalem, the capital city of both the political and religious establishment. As He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowds greeted Jesus as a conquering king and shouted: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” But Jesus would enter Jerusalem not as a fox, not as a lion, but as a mother hen, spreading Her wings and gathering Her chicks. But as the crowd demonstrated on Good Friday, the chicks were not willing to be gathered. It is interesting that the fox, Herod Antipas, was in Jerusalem during Jesus' last week before His crucifixion:

On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate became friends - before this they had been enemies.
(Luke 23: 6 – 12)

Instead of the fox guarding the hen house, that week in Jerusalem, the hen willingly entered the fox’s lair.

Speaking to Stone Roses website 'I Am Without Shoes' in 2001, Andy Couzens touched upon the mumbling noises at 2.24 - 2.40:

"Those mumblings are Ian. I can't remember what he was on about. But I'm sure we thought it was important at the time. Tucked away on one track you can hear a match, then a cigarette being lit !".

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