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Effervescing Elephant Lyrics
An Effervescing Elephant
with tiny eyes and great big trunk
once whispered to the tiny ear
the ear of one inferior
that by next June he'd die, oh yeah!
because the tiger would roam.
The little one said: "Oh my goodness I must stay at home!
and every time I hear a growl
I'll know the tiger's on the prowl
and I'll be really safe, you know
the elephant he told me so."
Everyone was nervy, oh yeah!
and the message was spread
to zebra, mongoose, and the dirty hippopotamus
who wallowed in the mud and chewed
his spicy hippo-plankton food
and tended to ignore the word
preferring to survey a herd
of stupid water bison, oh yeah!
And all the jungle took fright,
and ran around for all the day and the night
but all in vain, because, you see,
the tiger came and said: "Who me?!
You know, I wouldn't hurt not one of you.
I'd much prefer something to chew
and you're all to scant." oh yeah!
He ate the Elephant
with tiny eyes and great big trunk
once whispered to the tiny ear
the ear of one inferior
that by next June he'd die, oh yeah!
because the tiger would roam.
The little one said: "Oh my goodness I must stay at home!
and every time I hear a growl
I'll know the tiger's on the prowl
and I'll be really safe, you know
the elephant he told me so."
Everyone was nervy, oh yeah!
and the message was spread
to zebra, mongoose, and the dirty hippopotamus
who wallowed in the mud and chewed
his spicy hippo-plankton food
and tended to ignore the word
preferring to survey a herd
of stupid water bison, oh yeah!
And all the jungle took fright,
and ran around for all the day and the night
but all in vain, because, you see,
the tiger came and said: "Who me?!
You know, I wouldn't hurt not one of you.
I'd much prefer something to chew
and you're all to scant." oh yeah!
He ate the Elephant
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Brilliant song. Syd had a natural talent with words and chords. The lyrics are wrong though, should read "Effervescent"
Apparently this was the first song he ever wrote, at sixteen, and the last song he ever recorded.
Hehe, I like this song.
Awesone song, Heh, good moral too. I wish I could write this good. Good job Mr.Barrett.
There is something of the boy who cried wolf to this song. Not many songs contain words like 'effervescing' and 'plankton'. The rhyming is genius.
this has to be my very favorite song by syd barrett. R.I.P.
It's about talking elephant who is spreading rumours.
it's catchy as hell and just as clever... he was genius...
Amazing song. Syd was always stuck in childhood. I'm glad he recorded this because I enjoy singing it all the time!
Such deep moral meaning. It's like the native american story of the mosquito who tells a lie, and gets a bunch of animals in trouble, but in the end, he suffers the only punishment.
Except here, the elephant is the liar. So honestly, it's a cool song, but it's not very original.
Still quite good.