Deciphering Anne Elephant

[Meghan]

okay, maybe it's just me because i love poetry and singing along with music, but does anyone else find anne elephant's elusive muffled words frustrating at times? i like the song and everything and i was just curious if anyone would like to post up their ideas of what could be possible verses for the song. hopefully two ears are better than one (i can use this phrase because i am deaf in my right ear lol)

over on facebook i heard a pretty good one:
i ticked and i tocked
til i couldn't talk no more

john rob pretty much won't tell anybody nor does the rest of the band even know what the lyrics are. he told me he's embarrassed of them because he wrote them in high school. mind you, i did put up a very good argument so he eventually resorted to a new approach "people tend to hear only what they want to hear, so i want for people to make up their own lyrics for the song" blah blah blah, i was mad and can't remember his quote exactly lol

so then i tried offering him $100, which also didn't work

-meg

p.s. i don't even think the words, whatever they may be, are even similar in this live video to the actual recording, i can't even pick up much english in it

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WafGMyYOeq0

[Nick]

maybe he wants to be like Sigur Ros and sing in his own made up language...

[saellys]

Hopelandic is so much easier than writing real words...

[ifr]

I love Sigur Ros... If saw them in Boston last year, and if I could just see Boris my life would be complete.

[walden]

i dig and i dug
till i couldn't dug no more.

eh, it's as good as anyone's guess.

[shawnfenn]

I am fairly certain at some point we hear...

"Can't we all just get along..."

[pistight]

i dig and i dug
till i couldn't dug no more.

Yeah i think walden is right

[liambf]

i've got this deciphered, very incomplete and probably inaccurate

somebody swished, we hadn't fathered
so we put into a bottle
it's more parchment tide we had to renew
this quite come close with it or loving breathing pattern
being scribbled out like pansy through a sand
so i dig and i dug
until i couldn't dug no more
i had beach cuts often children like a scone
and i have a sterile mound without need not gather pompous



all around


i don't care she, i don't care she

[saellys]

I think this little exercise has shown us that no matter what the real lyrics actually are, they probably make absolutely no sense.

[liambf]

sterile mound is a pretty awesome phrase

[atfeh]

Tonight I switched it out of all
The silly burden to a bottle
This approach makes it harder to bare
To being cruel is what conclusively corrode the ingredient pattern
Being swiveled mad like (?cancer?) over a time

So I (), and I talk
Till I couldn't talk no more
I have preached outside the Treblinka in snow
And now, there are nouns
Without needing my better tongue
Like a preacher out in Congo
Without a song

Aaah Aaah Okey

I'm gonna get you
I'm gonna get you, baaby
I don't get you
I'm gonna get you, baby

Leave me alone
You do-on't welcome me
Thinkin' of me dead
Baby, you doooooon't't't't
Da Da Da
Ah Ah Aaahh

du du duu
ah ah ahh

All around

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh

ah ah ahh

I won't let go
thinkin' about
about me
me

[atfeh]

After listening to it again... this came out..

Tom might have switched it out of all
They sew a burden to a bottle
This approach makes it harder to bare
Tom being cruel is quite conclusively for a degraded pattern
Being swiveled mad like (?cancer?) over time

So I do, and I die
Till I couldn't talk no more
I have preached outside the Treblinka in snow
And now, there are nouns
Without needing my better tongue
Like a preacher out in Congo
Without a so~
wrong
oh oh okey

[ray m.]

Sorry for bringing this board up, I know its old, but I gotta say I feel like I am going to like the song a lot more if I don't know the lyrics so I am not going to read any of the decipherings. It find it creepy that the song is like muffled and the only part you can make out is "I'm gonna get you."

creeeeeeeeepy.

[sandman]

any ideas on the origin of the title?

[ray m.]

I know that, the one that wrote it was coked out in his friends bathroom and saw a painting that had "an elephant" on it. "An elephant" became "Anne Elephant".

[yourmother]

Hey kid, you don't wanna go around spreading rumors like that. Besides, I've heard at least 5 different stories about where the band's name came from. I bet that the lyrics change just as much as the story of how they were written

[saellys]

I've heard corroborating stories from reliable sources about the bathroom and the painting, but not the coked out part.

[pioneer76]

Anne Elephant (my lyrical and phonetic interpretation)

Somebody's wish I had it baller
So we put into a bottle
This small punch meant tide and baaaaand
'Til we notice quite conclusively, a rotten greeting letter
It was scribbled out on hands of wood and saaaand

So I tick, and I tock,
'Til I couldn't talk no more.
I have bleach cuts I've been shortening
Out in this caaaalm

And a large, metal mound
without heat and I gather conflict
I'm your prisoner of incompetence
That soooong (All right)

(Multiple Vocal Tracks mixed)

I'm going to get you,
I'm going to get you, baby.

(*whispering*)
One day you're on,
You don't know it,
But I grow raving for you to
Baby, you do

Ahhh, ahh, I.....
(Mixed vocal tracks and snippets until the end of the song)

[newfnut]

Out of the hundreds of times that I've listened to this song, I have never been able to decide if the words are actually English.
This is my guess:

To my just wish we hadn't bothered,
So we put into a bottle,
A small parchment tied with a band

Time Lord is quite complacently arriving breathing pattern,
Being scribbled out by hands I know of sand

So I dig,
And I dug,
Until I couldn't talk no more,
I have reached cuts of in shortening,
God and tome,

And voweled to get a noun,
Without hate and I gather a comet,
I'm your prisoner of impoverishment,
Without time,
I'm alright

(I have no idea what goes on here.)

I don't get you,
I don't get you, Anne

I don't get you,
I don't get you, Anne

Only alone,
You don't know what it's like,
Or maybe you do

Baby, you do
Ooh ohh
Ahh ahhh ahh ahhh

It's alright,
I'm a little boy,
Ohhhhh

I want your love,
And I cannot have it.

I have resigned myself to the fact that Anne Elephant is a song can only be fully appreciated in silence.

[chord]

someone has switched it out of all this
so we put into a bottle
a small parchment tied with a band

til we noticed quite conclusively
a raw ingredient pattern
being scribbled out like hands were in the sand\

so i did, and i dug,
until i couldn't talk no more
i have reached god's often troubling kind of stone
and then pound these little mounds
without needin' no kettle drum
if i'm your prisoner of intolerance, that is alright.


uploaded them to songmeanings
I think i'm pretty close