Elephant Soup - a brand new demo

This is a demo of a song I wrote a hell of a long time ago. The date on the original file is 2005 but that could easily be the year I transferred it across from some other computer or hard drive. It was written at a time when my partner and I were trawling through the vagaries and bureaucracy of inter-country adoption - something that ultimately proved frustrating and fruitless for us. Roundabout that time I became aware of a story concerning the difficult arrival of an elephant at the Melbourne Zoo and so with Van Walker’s Wildgrass ringing in my ears, it should be pretty obvious I was attempting to use the trials and tribulations of the animals as some sort of cultural metaphor.

I actually came across the old demo as I was searching for songs, not for Substack, but rather for the resurgent Shackleton3 lineup. With a run of shows coming up and a bunch of new covers we have been learning I have been thinking it would be nice to have a couple (only a couple) of signature ‘originals’ in there. Like all good covers bands we like to have a few originals (not too many, mind you) and I think this orphaned tune fits the bill perfectly.

I can’t wait to hear Anna take the main vocal with Liv caressing the banjo and interjecting some appropriate vocal parts. I doubt the song will stray too far from the arrangement that is on offer here, but as I said, I think Anna singing it will make all the difference.

(pic by Mark Hopper)

But the decision to give it an airing is far more serious and rooted firmly in the current political debate taking place in this country. Against a background of the apparent rise and rise of the great red blemish from Ipswich (who shall not be named) the campaign of the Socceroos at this year’s World Cup is providing some welcome relief. I was greatly moved by the video the team chose to go to air. It is a simple, powerful and well constructed sentiment. I felt relieved when I first saw it and so I think it is one that needs to be viewed as much as possible. In case you haven’t seen it here it is.

What a fantastic thing that as I write the Socceroos are the last team in the competition representing Asia. Asia. Where we live.

I am caught between feeling that the whole One Nation thing is some sort of beat up with a well funded misleading social media campaign being used to skew the figures on the actual support for their racist ideology - caught between that, AND, the very real fear that this apparent success is something that will be used to somehow legitimise their cause. I actually suspect Gina or Barnaby don’t give a shit where their underpaid workers come from - as long as they are sufficiently underpaid. And as long as they don’t have to pay a cent toward the environmental safeguarding of the planet or, heaven forbid, have to consider the traditional owners of the land that has reaped them such obscene reward. If the bumbling redhead shoots her mouth off and we all get incensed and distracted from the real issues at hand - this is pretty much the Steve Bannon handbook at work right there.

But how could you not be incensed and distracted? The idea of a mono culture is as impossible as it is repulsive. Paul Keating said it best.

I have been pretty quiet about it online generally as I detest the furore that the right wing bots create. I have nothing but admiration for someone like Dave Graney, who has stood up to the noise from the start - but there are some big insidious forces at play here. Check this out:

And look, I don’t want this to become a platform for THE argument but I really think if you are going to listen to my stuff you should know who and what you are dealing with.

And so here’s a song about elephants catching trams. (And if you want actually listen to it, you know what you have to do).