draw me an elephant - tyle
tyle solo in Oregon, Nov 2012
a band and theater on bicycles -- performances and workshops for sustainable living 2010-2014
Story behind the song
written in a bus from Kiev to Warsaw, Oct. 2011, after meeting Aljone in Kiev, who really did ask me to draw her an elephant. i didn't draw an elephant right away, so she sent me a text message later: Draw me an elephant! When i showed her my drawing the next day, she showed me her fist-thick stack of drawings of elephants, and she pulled out one that looked similar to mine: an elephant balancing on a ball with a clown hat and its trunk in the air. She exclaimed, "this one was also drawn by an American!"
i wonder what that says about our culture . . .
Lyrics
F7 Bb7 C7 F7
Draw me an elephant / she said with a smile
a twinkle in her tired eyes / her lips to a vial
i'll drink this magic potion / and escape to a land
where tigers draw eleplants / where the humans understand
[music]
at every border crossing / men in hats demand to know
why i draw these elephants / in passports and so
i tell them about the girl / with her hair down to her knees
she said Draw me an elephant! / and man, i aim to please
[music]
the tigers have all gathered / by the road with the foxes
together they sketch the humans / in their steel and plastic boxes
the fumes reach their nostrils / and they shrink back with fear
of the speedy noise machines / invading the elephants' revier
[music]
language test:
German -- Zeichne mir einen Elefanten
Russian -- privlech' menya slana (???????? ???? ?????)
Polish -- Malowa? mi s?onia
Czech -- Malovat sloni
Serbian -- Nacrtaj mi slona
Lithuanian -- Nupiešk man drambl?
Greek -- Zo?grafise mou ena elefanta (????????? ??? ??? ????????)
Turkish -- Bana bir fil cizmek
Japanese -- z? o egaite kudasai (?????????)
French -- dessine-moi un elephant
Esperanto -- desegni min elefanto
Spanish -- me dibujar un elefante
Dutch -- trekken me een olifant
Chinese -- W? hua y?ge da xiang (??????)
draw me an elephant! (repeat)
Comments
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