Running Man

Album: 24 Carrots (1980)
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Songfacts®:

  • According to Neville Judd's authorized biography Al Stewart: The True Life Adventures of a Folk Rock Troubadour, this is based rather loosely on Dr. Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death from the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was probably the most notorious Nazi to avoid capture after the Second World War. After fleeing to South America he became a citizen of Paraguay but eventually moved to Brazil where he drowned in an accident in 1979. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England

Comments: 2

  • Todd from Atlanta, GaThe Schwarzenegger movie is based on the Stephen King novel "The Running Man", originally published under King's pseudonym, Richard Bachman. I do not believe the novel and subsequent film are related to Al Stewart's song, but with King you never know...
  • Mark from New Orleans, LaLater made into a movie of the same name, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Except instead of a sadistic Nazi physician, it's a wrongly imprisoned ex-cop. And instead of avoiding capture in South America, he's forced to play a deadly game show in an underground arena. And instead of drowning in Brazil, he escapes the arena, clears his name, and exacts vengeance on the bad guys. Other than these minor changes (fairly typical in Hollywood adaptations of Al Stewart songs), a visual depiction of the music.
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