After yesterday's gentle fox in the snow from Belle and Sebastian, we turn to a fox of a different kind in a fabulous rock and funk number from the Irish band's 1976 album Johnny The Fox. This fox is the notorious 1920s Italian Chicago gangster Johnny Torrio, in many ways the original godfather, who was mentor to Al Capone (who took over after an assassination attempt on Torrio), and also put forward the idea of the National Crime Syndicate. In this song the band set up a fantasy scenario of him meeting legendary Manchester club and pub scene gangster Jimmy 'The Weed' Donnelly, something of character in the north-west. who was a key figure in the Quality Street Gang in the 1970s and 80s and the police-scandal Stalker Affair. Unusual for their men of their profile, Johnny and Jimmy managed not to get killed in their careers, and later retired to a life of straight living.
But alongside the amusing fantasy narrative of dodgy dealings and banter, the real strength of this song is the super-tight dirty rock funk music, joining Phil Lynott on bass and vocals and Brian Downey on drums, the classic lineup of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson on guitars. Not to afraid to mix up figures from different times and places, band Lynott refers to, Hoodoo Rhythm Devils, were a blues-funk band from San Francisco in the early 70s.
Johnny the Fox
He called to Jimmy the Weed
He said "Hey man, I know your name
I've seen you cruising with the low riders
Hanging out down on First Street and Main."
Tuned into and listening to
The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils
Around the Bay
They got some crazy D.J
Send you right out to Heaven
Jimmy the Weed for greed
He was taken back
Johnny the Fox, you old sly cat
Cleverly the Fox conceals his stash
Crisp dollar bills can leave no tracks
In the back of a black Cadillac
The voodoo music travels
Down Skid Row only black men can go
The shady deal unravels
Johnny the Fox, hot to hustle
Jimmy the Weed won't use no muscle
That cat's so sly, slick and subtle
Johnny the Fox breaks out the bottle
Tuned into and listening to
The voodoo music travels
The beating drum for the lonely one
Send you right out to Heaven
Right out to Heaven.
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