She said, "Andy, you're better than your past"
Winked at me and drained her glass
Cross-legged on a barstool, 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, sweep up the hair from her floor

If I'd fucked her before she got sick
I'd never hear the end of it
She don't have the spirit for that now
We just drink our drinks and laugh out loud
And bitch about the weekend crowd
And try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow

She said, "Andy, you crack me up"
Seagram's in a coffee cup
Sharecropper eyes, and the hair almost all gone
When she was drunk, she made cancer jokes
Made up her own doctors' notes
Surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone

But I'd sing her classic country songs
And she'd get high and sing along
She don't have a voice to sing with now
We burn these joints in effigy
And cry about what we used to be
Try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow

I buried her a thousand times, given 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


Lyrics submitted by jfoxx

Elephant Lyrics as written by Jason Isbell

Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Elephant song meanings
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    General Comment

    The song is one of my favorites behind his "Cover Me Up" song which is first on this same album.

    "giving up my place in line" to me interprets with the same meaning or rather way of thinking if considering a parent who loses their child. No mother should be pained with the death and burial of their child. To me I see the husband in this situation saying why? He's been Angy, angry and living with the pain, he has relived "burying her a thousand times, "giving up my place in line " (he is being sarcastic in that line because he never wanted to. He wanted, in a perfect world, for their life to be what it "should " he should die first... To me that is how I hear this... Beautiful song!

    laurenwalleyon December 08, 2015   Link

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