Syd Barrett - Effervescing Elephant
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
Пікірлер: 480
It's not acid that makes a genius songwriter. It's talent.
@onewaytickettotheastraplan2232
6 жыл бұрын
Heightened by psychedelics..
@theAtomicKass
6 жыл бұрын
And talent is developed
@seanryan3020
3 жыл бұрын
And acid eventually destroys talent.
@ammitproductions5825
3 жыл бұрын
Too bad bad talent died long ago
@jakelovesexplosives
3 жыл бұрын
It's creativity no matter where it comes from
Syd's music is a genre of its own. So sorry we lost him so soon.
@luannabbate2624
Жыл бұрын
Got that right. Wish he was still around!!!!
At the beggining of the song a tuba is heard playing part of the "The Elephant", from "The carnival of animals", a piece of classical music composed by Camile Saint-Saens.
@floweringgreenly
5 жыл бұрын
woww.cool.
@nna1536
3 жыл бұрын
Yes! And this piece was originally made for double bass
@hankmobley
3 жыл бұрын
Well spotted
@DC180
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks!
@embolismnelson1749
3 ай бұрын
coincidentally Saint-Saens music was used for babe the movie,farmer hoggetts dance was perhaps the most original composition from Saint-Saens . :D
i feel like i can hear syd laughing a bit as he's singing this
@emmao3870
4 жыл бұрын
He definitely sounds like it. He seems to be enjoying himself XD
@kuszynier
Жыл бұрын
He wrote lyrics to this song when he was a child, so he was probably satisfied that he finally recorded it after all these years or he was just happily nostalgic
@MrUtah1
3 ай бұрын
For me it sounded like he either lost breath or his voice started breaking with tears. I really hope it’s the first one and not the latter
Roger waters or David Gilmour never in their wildest dreams would they have the creativity and out of the box vision and thinking to compose songs like Syd Barrett.
@adrianlarios6842
3 жыл бұрын
differents styles, syd is more childlish poetry, gilmour is more for adult ones, waters is a leftist anarchist.
@tool_fighter
3 жыл бұрын
@@adrianlarios6842 There's nothing "childish" about a gossiper who gets eaten alive.
@surviveandstrive6436
2 жыл бұрын
@@tool_fighter need I remind you of the meaning behind ring around the rosie? The baby in the cradle falling out of a broken tree branch, the old man who broke his head during a thunder storm in the night and perished before sunrise, and pretty much all Disney movies? Children seem to love that tragic stuff. Lol. I like Barrett's use of the natural world in this song.
@tool_fighter
2 жыл бұрын
@@surviveandstrive6436 Yes, me too. I was juat trying to correct the writer's description of Barrett's writings as being "childish", ie silly. "Childlike is more appropriate, though I don't think that is accurate either, though he was very innocent in many ways. Cheers
@inspectious9839
2 жыл бұрын
yes, it's a shame the direction they went after The Wall
I love syd barrett.
@mimidean6950
7 жыл бұрын
who doesn't?
@kerwinsmith3659
5 жыл бұрын
I've been to syd barrets in england
@joemac7690
5 жыл бұрын
And love Barrets you
@dawhoda1
5 ай бұрын
@@kerwinsmith3659did you do acid with him and write a song?
@dawhoda1
5 ай бұрын
@@joemac7690love and Barrett also
I respect Syd so much, being a musician I know how hard it can be to play guitar and remember all of those lyrics at once, all of what he says is in sweet timing, but yeah it's almost like he reads a book when he sings and it's beauiful
This song has a bizzarre hidden terrifying element to it. i love it.
go syd your a fucking genius. and so goddamn adorable.
@giacomocappellari9813
7 жыл бұрын
amazing
@jackkelly4668
7 жыл бұрын
YOUR A F*CKING GENIUS, too lov
@jackkelly4668
7 жыл бұрын
your a genius for waking up and just being here at all
@iost5459
3 жыл бұрын
Jack Kelly simp
@dawhoda1
5 ай бұрын
@@jackkelly4668🤡 doesn't take much to be a genius anymore I see
every time I hear this I laugh my ass off, and it makes me smile
Big Syd! You dindt really lose it. That sick world lost you I think..
@danuggman
8 жыл бұрын
+StrangeMachines1 One of the best comments I've seen on any Syd video.. Syd's music(now 80-90% has finally been released) is becoming more and more appreciated than ever. 10yrs ago, noone had a clue commenting on youtube. Now, since the facts have dribbled out.. he's soaring! Forever and a day my dear Syd!
@jackkelly4668
7 жыл бұрын
For sure, with you there. I am 26 now and I was brought up on him around 15 and no one new they still dont lol. What a song this is man. I reviewed music in the newspaper and play in bands myself. This is on par with the kinks. Plz checkout my sub www.soundcloud.com/themetrognomez
@badtux
6 жыл бұрын
He apparently wrote this song before he founded Pink Floyd. It didn't really fit in with Floyd, thus why it didn't make it onto an album until his post-Floyd albums.
@tictoc5443
6 жыл бұрын
@ strange machines most objective comment i have read about Syd Barrett.....thankyou
@BirkinIdk
4 жыл бұрын
Exactly.
This song seriously just made my day. I love him for songs like this.
great storyteller he was
Syd was just amazing
Our concept of insanity is not natural at all. Syd was very aware of the insanity of this world of ours. He did drugs as an escape from his "invented reality", but he let it go way too far, though he hardly seemed to survive from several overdoses, the last of which left him halfway in the middle of nowhere. A true genius who "reached for the secret too soon, he cried for the moon". He knew a lot of secrets and couldn't live with them. Listen to his lyrics more carefully. Cheers from Spain.
these lyrics are so deep
@StrangeMachines1
9 жыл бұрын
for deep people :)
@jackkelly4668
7 жыл бұрын
R U DEEP TOO?????????????????????????????????
@raspberrycrowns9494
4 жыл бұрын
Maybe it's about Syd's public image and how people are quick to spread and believe news. Like people who consider him a complete incurable madman represent the animals who panicked when they heard about the tiger. Or I'm just reading too much into it
@thomascraymer8712
5 ай бұрын
Actually these lyrics remind me of this guy back at my highschool, we often played a bit of football after school (soccer for Americans) and this guy was notoriously clumsy :D he literally was an elephant!
Dear Syd. So many reasons to love his music but for me it's his polished, precise diction. The best rounded 'o' sounds in pop!
Brilliant ditty. They didn't understand Syd's condition and (the band) felt bad enough to pay him royalties all his life and write songs about him all the time. Syd did something that only happens rarely. He captured a mood, a moment of magic. A poet really. He evokes the same feelings as Debussy, John Masefield, Helen Cresswell, Edgar Allen Poe, Kate Bush, Roald Dahl. Storytellers and poets. He pulled back the curtain of reality to the realm of magic
@koDaffi
Жыл бұрын
No they didn't, he died poor living with his mother. He may have squeaked by but he wasn't getting no big checks.
@andrewcandy938
Жыл бұрын
@@koDaffi Not true, his mother died long before and he left millions in his estate. He was receiving big checks until the day he died
@andrewcandy938
Жыл бұрын
@rigatone Well said! Only a handful of people have the stroke of genius and can access that other reality freely and bring it back to our realm in the form of art. He was one of the few 'illuminated' ones (and most definitely not mad).
@kathyhuskins63
8 ай бұрын
@@koDaffino, he lived alone soon after living again with his mum, she moved out shortly, giving him the flat, after she found him too difficult.
This is the best song in the world.
When Syd takes LSD, LSD gets high
@LosHuxleys
5 жыл бұрын
Random Username yeah and it starts making random masterpieces, man...
@ericpreston5826
4 жыл бұрын
When Lsd took Syd, the band left Syd.
@marlontalaca
3 жыл бұрын
Brasileiro?
@CoreyW6292
3 жыл бұрын
Yes.
@Nuj-rx8wk
7 ай бұрын
@@marlontalacalooks like a portugueseman
The way he says "who me?" on 1:18 is just too adorable
Do you realize how lucky you are to have had a mother who knew of, listened to and appreciated the genius of Syd Barrett?
I think Syd loved animals. Haha plus his song Octipus
@briannava3824
9 жыл бұрын
And rats, wolfpack, terrapin(about underwater)
@mimidean6950
7 жыл бұрын
apparently 'cause he also owned a lot of cats from what I've heard
@mralexforbes
7 жыл бұрын
He also replaced his door knobs with toy hippopotamuses haha
@thinginground5179
4 жыл бұрын
@@mralexforbes really??
@mralexforbes
4 жыл бұрын
Psychedelic Reality yea man pretty sure it was the house he died in. I can’t remember exactly where I heard or read about it tho... probably jst a vid on him on YT
The "effervescing elephant" probably was no other than SYD ...
@heatherthenerd2097
4 жыл бұрын
Wow. Wait... do u mean he got EATEN!?
Thats a nice way to end a song!"Oh ya he ate the elephant."
@emmao3870
4 жыл бұрын
Exactly what I was thinking XD
Gotta love the tuba on this, sounds just like an elephant!!! This should be made a children's nursery rhyme/sing along, would be awseome to see some kids singing some "Syd"!
clever as hell
i turn into a little kid when i hear this song, love it
21 people are too scant.
@helinkiddo5270
7 жыл бұрын
Jon now 25 😞
@kabeceli
7 жыл бұрын
26
@RickStaffordcartunes
7 жыл бұрын
27
@smokingsamosa
7 жыл бұрын
29
@scath90
7 жыл бұрын
30
It's so...so... There are no words. I LOVE IT!!!!! :D Crazy song from my favourite Crazy Diamond :)
I love Syd Barrett!
Approximately one minute and 20 seconds (excluding intro and outro) of PURE GENIUS! So adorable in this song. I have the double vinyl "the madcap laughs", bought it in 1986 or so, and I love every song in it, but THIS, and Rats, are my favs
My mam used to sing this to me when I was a baby.
@dawhoda1
5 ай бұрын
You mean u mum
@senrioflove
5 ай бұрын
@@dawhoda1 nah I mean mam
Forget your Dylans and Joplins.. this is where its at British and proud as punch. Syd. Xxx
He was genius this man
"Stupid water bison" 😂😂
I always thought Syd was one of the first Mods or Goths. my mom was a 60s gothic mod in Berkeley. just interesting culture.
Is it weird that this might be my favorite song of all songs?
@marinam3607
5 жыл бұрын
No
¡Happy Birthday, Syd!
I don't think he went crazy. They say he went mad because of all the LSD he took, but his sister and even a therapist said there was nothing wrong with him. Maybe he was just tripping all the time!
@fabiolalugo5505
4 жыл бұрын
RW use that because of the fault, DG same way, they betrayed an old friend. Imagine the pain of Syd... I think it was horrible, your friends of childhood leave them apart. The family of Syd was in the medical ambience in Cambridge. The father was a pathologist... They could get help for Syd even for free... And i'm sure they did it. He was a good person, very sensitive, with problems like every human people, trying to fit in a place full of sharks. When he was tired of that, decided to be in the place where no one is gonna hurt them because they loved them... His home. This is a really bad analogy, but when my husban left me he said every one I was crazy and a b**ch. He' s in his 4th marriage. Like we said in my country... "Tiempo al tiempo". Syd was an artist, ahead of his time. Just my point of view.
@steveturner5519
4 жыл бұрын
You just have to remember these people are like anybody else you don't know.... but you hear about them and read about them.. they only let you know what you're supposed to know... you don't know these people ...you don't know how nice or good they are ...same goes for a musician and actor on television or your favorite sports hero... you don't know that person... you don't know who put them up to do what they're doing ...you don't know what they're doing.... everything delivered to you through the media is just like a soap opera.. well written to make you think and perceive things in a certain way ...don't trust anything don't even trust the words I'm saying ...research it yourselfn
@darwincrater
3 жыл бұрын
why all musicians taking same lsd ,which mustnt been strong like now all normal have reunion tours before covid
@darwincrater
3 жыл бұрын
plenty great female muscician writers too silenced
@Godloveszaza
Жыл бұрын
@@fabiolalugo5505 you dont know what you're talking about stop feeding this other ignorant syd fans lies.
i love this kind of songs, so childish and cute but still great lyrics and music
Such a silly and humerous song. Love it!
it's the last song from "Barrett" (: ... Make sure you give "Madcap Laughs" a listen too.. And well of course Piper at the Gates of Dawn..
@heatherthenerd2097
4 жыл бұрын
I have madcap laughs and piper.
It's almost like he invented rap with this song, so funny.
It's written by the same person who wrote gloomy "Golden hair" and dark 'Opel"
@miranda6429
6 жыл бұрын
Vest The best he didn’t write golden hair, it’s a poem
@vestthebest2383
6 жыл бұрын
thanks. Didn't know that
i sit in my garden a lot and get some dodgy looks from my neighbours when this plays on my playlist. lol
What a genius song, I absolutely adore it.
Happy new year dear Mr. Barrett! No matter how far or where your soul is, HAPPY 2011, if time exist in your new home
The best song ever written
There is so many addicting music
My mum loved Syd Barrett
@slapchawp3766
8 жыл бұрын
your mom probably did a lot of drugs
@chucks1255
8 жыл бұрын
LMFAO
@user-jc4pf5lp7p
8 жыл бұрын
and then Kevin was born )
How creative
This story is so sad. :(
The lyrics in this song! Poetry! Read them without listening to the song, and you can hear the musicality. It doesn't even need music.
High ✨❤️, love u Syd .
Real Pink Flyod
You miss the point....... He ate the Elephant.......
It may not sound like it but this is one of the most haunting and well-written songs he did. That's the way I see it anyway. Maybe I am adding a sort of dimension to it knowing his story. But I really think it's haunting how he is expressing whatever was happening to him in such a childish way. And on the other hand it's a story. You may call it a children's story but it's a story. In my book that's when a songwriter earns my respect; when they can really write a story and make it a song.
Lucky guy, i only learnt about Syd Barrett recently, and just got round to really listening to him this week. I've been transformed musically after listening to his stuff. And encouraged because some of the stuff here and there in his tracks i noticed, was very similar to some of the stuff i've been playing - i've only been playing 2 years, but to hear something so different and creative that has a relation to my style makes my eyes water :')
syd was a legend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not here so much but even in his bounciest, trippiest songs there's still so much darkness and bleakness that with or without any drugs he was naturally drawn into what we call "insanity". I always loved this guy since the '80s when I went on a P-Floyd feeding frenzy -- but you always knew Syd like a solo performer and Floyd after him as something totally different.
Syd was a genius
this is definitely one of my favorite songs ever
Genius, Lyricist
This reminds me of being a kid which is strange because I was born in 1995. . . but somehow Barrett writing reminds me of early childhood.
Syd Barrett thank you.
Also for any Beatles fans out there he died the day ringo was born many years later. The connection of 2 legends
@cuillain5773
3 жыл бұрын
Lmao yeah
classic genius.
This is the sequel, the great continuation, of all the began back then. What a great time to live. keep your eyes and heart open.
Thanks for sharing. One of my favs but then syd was a genius imoho.
as a genX, i have come to realize the tremendous amount of influence that syd had on musicians of the 80s. Jesus and Mary Chain and Michael Stipe paid him a great deal of respect. JAMC recorded Vegetable Man on their first album, and when REM was touring for the Green album, Stipe would sing Dark Globe in concert. I believe REM also introduced the song live on stage as early as late 1987 for the Document tour. It eventually ended up on the B-side of the Orange Crush single.
Solo Syd puede escribir una canción infantil y hacerla interesante. Que incluso el album que tenia tendencias a la depresión, termine con esta canción "feliz" es un poco crudo y bizarro.
so fcking brilliant !
Syd Barrett passed away on this day in 2006 :( RIP Syd!
jaja, the lyrics are amazing, I love you Syd, we miss you man.
What else could he have done we can only wonder
@Donkeyn00b After suffering from diabetes for several years, Barrett died at his home in Cambridge on Friday 7 July 2006. He was 60 years old. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer
This is actually the first song he ever wrote. He wrote it at 16.
@sydneykeller8230
3 жыл бұрын
And the last one he ever produced and put out on album.
Every day, from your birth to the eternity, SYD, shine more, and more. Every day more... This song here → ♥
Syd wuz a mad musical Dr. Seuss!
feels as though Syd was reading Rudyard Kipling
pure brilliance.
shine on you crazy Dimond
@Heatherofscots
7 жыл бұрын
I like your taste in music, Syd and Yes are my two very favorite artists/bands .
I love Syd. That's all....
This Syd reminds me of fun at the zoo. So happy . You can just see elephants and hippos o ya
love u syd.
what a happy song this is makes me happy thank you very much
my babe was awesome💜
syd always allowed brevity to be the soul of wit! huzzzah!
His spicy hippo plankton food
very silly and fun to listen i love syd, hope he's in a better place now
man he looks damn cool in that photo.
I'm learning how to sing this song by memory. The hard part isn't remembering the words, the hard part is getting the intonations correct. If you get the intonations even slightly wrong, then the rest of the song ends up sounding weird
Thank you tack, me ol best friend
Obviously, Syd was an exemplary artist & poet, to which this excellent take on English dance hall tradition attests. Brilliant, he outsmarted everyone, because he chose to ride on his "LSD Freak" reputation, received requisite cheques & got out quietly from the fray of what Pink Floyd would become, dying peacefully at Cambridge.
this song is so cute. |3
@3-methylindole730
7 жыл бұрын
yes the lyrics are inspired from a poem of edward lear, syd used to read his books when he was a child
This makes me really happy :)
This song reminds me of two people... one is an old friend (he practically was an elephant, 2 metres tall and the clumsiest person you'll ever meet), this song describes his persona :D Other was my old surveying teacher, we once had a game of Truth or Dare (both teachers and students), he dared me to cover this song, which I did :D
we miss you terribly,terrapin... r.i.p forever syd!!! xxx
Il a du bien se marrer en écrivant cela !