JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum "Elephant"......best song this decade?

For my money, this song has touched me deeper than any other in the past 10 years. IMO, this is what we all strive to write. I feel this song is as close to perfection as one can come as far as the marriage of song and story and lyric. (Link to song and lyrics below.)
If you don't know who Jason Isbell is may I suggest a listen to "Southeastern."

I've included an article by David Patterson who breaks down the song that many say is a "masterclass in songwriting."



Jason Isbell’s “Elephant” is the Best Song of 2013
January 31, 2014 ~ david r patterson

“She said, ‘Andy, you’re better than your past’ / Winked at me and drained her glass / Cross-legged on the barstool like nobody sits anymore.”

In these opening lines, Jason Isbell culls his listener with the vivid imagery, authentic voice, and sexual tension that spills from the edges of “Elephant.” The words reach out of the speakers and clutch your throat, threatening to crush your layrnx. So you listen as if your life depends upon it.

“Elephant” is honest songwriting that isn’t handed out often these days, or any days for that matter — a prescription to medicate the narcissistic anthems that abound.

Isbell continues, “She said, ‘Andy, you’re taking me home’ / But I knew she planned to sleep alone / I’d carry her to bed and sweep up the hair from the floor.” God, the tenderness of sweeping up the hair of the cancer patient Andy wishes to sleep along side. I feel the song give a sharp squeeze to my throat. What’s beautiful about these lines is that Isbell doesn’t fall into the melodramatic; rather, he lets his details show us the complex emotions Andy is feeling. All songwriters take note of the nuance.

Here’s the kicker: “If I had fucked her before she got sick / I’d never hear the end of it / She don’t have the spirit for that now.” It’s the aching desire of all great writing wrapped up into twenty-four words — it’s the human condition, the wanting of what we can’t have. The use of the pejorative here adds to the raw energy of this song. It’s not a song about the easy emotions of love; it’s a song about death and loss and fucking. It’s an open wound.

“Elephant” also doesn’t commit the sin of being an earnest song about someone dying of cancer. The song contains humor. The dying woman gets drunk and makes cancer jokes with her “sharecropper eyes and her hair almost gone.” Isbell hits all the emotional notes available to him in this story. We laugh despite our tears.

As the song continues, Andy and this woman sing country songs and smoke dope. Isbell writes, “We’d burn these joints in effigy / Cry about what used to be / And try to ignore the elephant somehow.” Isbell elevates the act of smoking to a grand gesture of protest against their impending injustice.

In the narrator’s final epiphany, he wails, “There’s one thing that’s real clear to me / No one dies with dignity / We just try to ignore the elephant somehow.” Those lines are chilling and appropriate for this narrator. He goes through this experience and understands that life will [naughty word removed] you up and won’t even allow you a proper goodbye.

“Elephant” is a song about cancer and drinking and smoking and singing country songs, but Isbell hoists it to greatness. It’s a song about being human, with all the pain and ecstasy that entails. It holds you by the throat with a whisper. It’s a song too honest for the Grammy’s, but for my money, it’s the best song written in 2013.

(Now listen.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHJhyrrUTgc

She said Andy you're better than your past,
winked at me and drained her glass,
cross-legged on the bar stool, like nobody sits anymore.
She said Andy you're taking me home,
but I knew she planned to sleep alone.
I'd carry her to bed and sweep up the hair from the floor

If I had fucked her before she got sick
I'd never hear the end of it
she don't have the spirit for that now

We drink these drinks and laugh out loud,
bitch about the weekend crowd,
and try to ignore the elephant somehow
somehow

She said Andy you crack me up,
Seagrams in a coffee cup,
sharecropper eyes and her hair almost all gone.
When she was drunk she made cancer jokes,
she made up her own doctor's notes,
surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone.

I'd sing her classic country songs
and she'd get high and sing along.
She don't have much voice to sing with now

We'd burn these joints in effigy,
cry about what we used to be,
and try to ignore the elephant somehow.
Somehow

I buried her a thousand times,
giving up my place in line,
but I don't give a damn about that now

There's one thing that's real clear to me,
no one dies with dignity.
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow.
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow.
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow.
Somehow.
Somehow.




Related article

http://www.thesongsurvives.com/2013/06/jason-isbell-elephant/