Like many others, when I first listened to Jason Isbell’s wonderful 2013 album Southeastern I was blown away from the first listen to the song “Elephant.” As you listen to the song, it slowly dawns upon you what the “elephant” in the room is and it is heartbreaking. If you have never heard the song before, watch the video below before reading further.
In the song, the singer tells about his close relationship with a woman dying of cancer. The singer recounts their interactions while trying to “ignore the elephant.”
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.
The song seems so personal, detailed, and truthful, that for a long time I had assumed Isbell wrote it about a friend who had died. But that is not the case.
The source for “Elephant,” however comes from real people. Isbell has said “Elephant” was generally inspired by watching regulars at an Alabama bar and over time seeing some of them disappear from the scene due to cancer. He explained to NPR, “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.”
Although the characters are not “real,” the descriptions are genuine and the conversations seem to exist in reality. It is one of the greatest songs about dying, loss, and friendship.
Below, Isbell performs the song in 2013 for SiriusXM Outlaw Country. Check it out, but only if you have tissues handy.
What is your favorite song about death? Leave your two cents in the comments.
