A Song For The Fox lyrics and chords By The Fureys

The Furey Brothers And Davie Arthur, Written by Finbar Furey. Finbar says he wrote this song as an explanation for his son about the killing of the fox. The music was also written by Finbar, great song.The sheet music and tin whistle notes are included. For me, this is Finbar's greatest song ever. [ Irish folk song ] Reynard The Fox is another Irish song included on the site.

[D]An old piper sat [G]down to [D]play
His voice he began to [A]tune
The [D]Fox-chase he heard [G]someone [D]say
And it echoed [A7]round the [D]room
[D]The Fox-chase for a[G] hunt[D]er
To make him stand and [A]cheer
Or [D]is it for the [G]little red [D]dog
That we all [A7]fill with [D]fear

Chorus
O[D] fox o fox o [G]little red [D]fox
With your heart beating in your[A] chest
The [D]hounds they do all [G]foll[D]ow you
And still yopu [A7]cannot [D]rest


The horses race after you 
Their bodies all foamed with sweat 
Their half-crazed masters riding them
Their minds all filled with death.

Their eyes stretch forth on the hunt
For you to kill they're set.
Not fearing for their own sweat lives
The fox they have to get.
Chorus:
The dogs they chase after you
Their tongues loll left to right
They scent their kill ahead of them
But he's not yet in sight

But as they pass the cold blackthorn
Their barks grow loud and clear
It's then the little red dog he knows
That death is crawing near
Men and hounds they gather round 
But his life he fought to win 
But the hunter's horn it sounded then
And they tore him limb from limb.
Old piper play your last lament 
Sad sunset in your mind 
For a little red dog that was torn to shreds 
His life ended by mankind.

And here's the tin whistle sheet music. The original version of the sheet music wasn't suitable for playing on the whistle because it went too low, so I transposed the music into a higher key.

Song for the fox tin whistle sheet music tab