The Elephant Riders

Album: The Elephant Riders (1998)
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Songfacts®:

  • The title track of Clutch's third album was written by the band in a very old West Virginia house that was built in 1760. The song imagines a fictional elephants' cavalry during the American Civil War.

    The imagery arose from an offer by the King of Siam to Abraham Lincoln to donate some war elephants to assist the Union. The President politely declined this offer pointing out in his reply that steam power had overtaken the need for heavy animal power of this kind. Vocalist/guitarist Neil Fallon told us: "That part of West Virginia where we were living was close to Harper's Ferry. I'd never really known much about the Civil War until that time. When I started reading about it I got very interested in it, and that particular part of the East Coast of the United States and those images infused themselves into that song and that record."
  • Here's some more songs on our database that were inspired by the American Civil War:
    "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by The Band.
    "Yankee Bayonet" by The Decemberists.
    "Billy Don't Be A Hero" by Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods.
    ."When Johnny Comes Marching Home" by Patrick Gilmore.
    "Cold Harbor" by The Outlaws.
    "Out Of The Woods" by Public Image Ltd.
    "The Battle of Hampton Roads" by Titus Andronicus.

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