In this context, why is it that Jason Isbell’s “Elephant” touches such a nerve, and is so revered and placed among fans' "Isbell's Best" song lists? Perhaps it is the realism of the characters, the tangibility of the setting and their vulnerabilities, their humanity in trying to treat each other normally, despite the elephant in the room?
The lyrics:
The song enters in the middle of a dialog between friends in a bar, and we wonder if there is some sort of flirtation going on. She knows him well (“you’re better than your past” and “you’re taking me home”) winking and siting cross-legged on a barstool. We get the first of many reality-check gut-punches, as we enter the mind of the narrator, a bartender, who knows he would only end up sweeping her hair from the floor. There is no need to discuss all the lyrics, as every fan is likely quite familiar, but Jason injects both a sense of humor and humility. Making jokes, forging doctors’ notes, Seagrams in a coffee cup... but regardless, she is dying alone. Despite all efforts to illustrate the camaraderie and friendship, he makes clear the sobering point that “no one dies with dignity”.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
And try to ignore the elephant somehow, somehow
I've 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
By his own words (ref), he intentionally used the bartender-patron relationship as a vehicle for the song, as he had witnessed several people from the bar die cancer-related deaths:
Given what we now know about the album, it’s timing, his history, and his drinking, one question (which I am not sure if I read or generated independently) is about the line “he buried her a thousand times”: could her cancer perhaps also serve as a metaphor for his alcoholism? While the song was consciously (and clearly) written about a woman dying from cancer, was the (or one) unconscious motivation his own battle with alcohol, which he (at one time) was losing, and had many times before?"I think the original inspiration for this [was] I used to spend a lot of time in this bar downstairs from the apartment that I lived in, in Alabama, before I moved up here to Nashville. Gradually, the regulars would start to disappear. Almost always, it was cancer-related. Over time, there were probably eight or nine people who just would sort of vanish almost right before your very eyes. These were people who weren't having the best life. They were spending a whole lot of hours sitting at a bar, but I think I got that idea. I imagined a couple of folks who were drinking buddies, nothing more than that, and how their relationship changed when one of them got sick. I've known a lot of people who have gotten cancer and died. I think everybody has at this point in time, but those two folks aren't necessarily people who exist in reality."
Musically, it is just Jason and a guitar, and a bit of echo. The attention to time and space gives room for the notes and syllables to develop (i.e, the verses that start with “She said “Andy”… “ ). Despite this, there is a sense of suddenness or urgency that emerges with a paradoxical feeling of rushed lines (i.e., verses that start with “If I fucked her…” and “But I’d sing her classic country lines”). By the song’s final verse, the space between lines decreases to create an emotional climax with “one thing that’s real clear to me”, only to slow down and fade away.
To call this a “masterpiece” is an understatement.
A great acoustic solo version from his SiriusXM studio performance:
