"Elephant Talk" is a song by the band King Crimson and was released in 1981 on the Discipline album. The song is led primarily by Tony Levin's Chapman stick, playing a Go-go-style bass line. The band plays verses, choruses and several guitar solos, the latter of which are deliberately played and processed to resemble trumpeting elephants or squeaky mice.
Adrian Belew sings five stanzas of humorous lyrics, each one beginning and ending with the phrase "Talk! It's only talk!". The other lyrics consist of yelled synonyms for talking, with each stanza containing words of a different letter (Alliteration). The five stanzas progress alphabetically (the first stanza using "talk" synonyms beginning with "A", the second "B" and so on.) Belew's vocal delivery is reminiscent of that of David Byrne, with whom Belew performed in the band Talking Heads.
It was released as a single in 1981. Its tracks are from the album Discipline.
Read more about Elephant Talk: Personnel, Live Versions, Covers
Famous quotes containing the words elephant and/or talk:
“So slowly the hot elephant hearts
grow full of desire,
and the great beasts mate in secret at last,
hiding their fire.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“... whatever men do or know or experience can make sense only to the extent that it can be spoken about. There may be truths beyond speech, and they may be of great relevance to man in the singular, that is, to man in so far as he is not a political being, whatever else he may be. Men in the plural, that is, men in so far as they live and move and act in this world, can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and to themselves.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)