music that sounds like elephants walking....where is it?

April 26, 2014 2:57 PM

I turned on the tv the other night and the credits to a movie were on. This song was playing during the credits and I was in love. I'm enthralled by songs which remind me of walking elephants.

It's big drums or something. With a certain beat. I do not know. I need more. Like Kongos/I'm Only Joking, Tame Impala/Elephant and Fleetwood Mac/Tusk. Some of those songs have to do with actual elephants but some do not. I don't care about the subject matter or the words or lack thereof, only that the songs should sound like elephants walking. Not looking for music which does not make me think of walking elephants, like Baby Elephant Walk by Henry Mancini. Nope. I only want music that makes me think of elephants walking, because I totally dig elephants walking. I want a playlist of songs that make me think that elephants are walking.

Sum up: I don't want songs about elephants. I want songs that sound like elephants.

posted by the webmistress to Grab Bag (29 answers total)

Maybe "Jumanji" - Azaelia Banks? (Obviously a bit of a reference there.)
posted by stoneandstar at 3:01 PM on April 26, 2014

Get to know Adam and the Ants if you don't already.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 3:05 PM on April 26, 2014 [4 favorites]

Perhaps some of the Burundi-style drumbeats of Adam and the Ants' early songs might appeal to you....like Dog Eat Dog and The Human Beings.
posted by Oriole Adams at 3:07 PM on April 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Funny. Sing, Sing, Sing always reminded me of elephants, but not sure if everyone would think so... There's something about the drums in the beginning sounding like elephants swinging their big caboose, and then the horns come in, which is the elephants trumpeting their trunks.
posted by mochapickle at 3:12 PM on April 26, 2014 [5 favorites]

Ha, nice question!

Blockhead - The Music Scene perhaps? (The beat enters at around 0:30.)
posted by yaymukund at 3:18 PM on April 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

For me, it would be Parade of the Charioteers from Ben Hur.
posted by jgirl at 3:41 PM on April 26, 2014

henry mancini - baby elephant walk
and lots of sandy nelson
posted by ouke at 3:48 PM on April 26, 2014 [4 favorites]

Sounds like the second half of "Powerhouse" and Sing, Sing, Sing thrown together.

Bow Wow Wow maybe?

Gary Glitter of course, pretty much every song he ever did. This kind of thing was really popular in the early 80’s and a lot of people, like Adam Ant, were copping Gary Glitter from 10 years earlier (as apparently that Tame Impala track is). Joan Jett covered a bunch of his songs if you want to check those out.
posted by bongo_x at 4:18 PM on April 26, 2014

Non-species specific, but this might be the sound you're looking for.

Adrian Belew, Big Electric Cat
posted by vers at 4:44 PM on April 26, 2014

Barry Black (Eric Bachmann from Archers of Loaf)- Duelling Elephants. (That Whole Album, "Tragic Animal Stories", is really great. I especially like Drowning Spider.)
posted by macrowave at 4:56 PM on April 26, 2014

It's those tom toms. You might find Sing Sing Sing has some amped up elephants leading a whole menagerie
posted by klarck at 5:44 PM on April 26, 2014

the Pines of Rome
posted by dilaudid at 6:03 PM on April 26, 2014

Sing, Sing, Sing is ALL Gene Krupa!

He's the boss!

Bow Wow Wow and Adam and the Ants, the drummer for both is David Barbarossa.

It's all in the drummer.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:02 PM on April 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Holy crap. So many walking elephants!! Thank you. I will listen to every one.

( Except the Henry Mancini song! )
posted by the webmistress at 7:06 PM on April 26, 2014

Circle of Life, and probably other songs too, from The Lion King.
posted by JimN2TAW at 7:28 PM on April 26, 2014

James Clarke's Wild Elephants. You may know it from a Gap Commercial.
posted by nightwood at 7:59 PM on April 26, 2014

This is pretty explicitly about elephants, but also really sounds like them: the Sun Ra version of "Pink Elephants on Parade" (a song from Dumbo; here's part of the original too).
posted by lisa g at 8:12 PM on April 26, 2014

There There by Radiohead
posted by otolith at 8:34 PM on April 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've always liked Monster Bobby by Add N to (X).
posted by mcmile at 9:21 PM on April 26, 2014

If you want more in the Hollywood-Jungle-Tribal vein, I Eat Cannibals, by Toto Coelo is a great cheesy number. Plus the video is pure 80s.

(Great question, by the way.)
posted by benito.strauss at 9:41 PM on April 26, 2014

Baluchitherium by Van Halen. (Hey, it's called Baluchitherium, named so because Eddie Van Halen's then wife, Valerie Bertinelli, thought it sounded like elephants or dinosaurs or some other big animal walking, or so I vaguely recall reading in some guitar mag back in 1992 or whenever it was.)
posted by smcameron at 9:54 PM on April 26, 2014

If you're looking for something of a little more techno feel, Ten Walls provides. Though I think Gotham sounds exactly like elephants walking, they have a track called Walking with Elephants.
posted by newpotato at 6:11 AM on April 27, 2014

Suzy Quatro's Primitive Love sounds pretty similar to Tusk, though it is almost too fast for elephants walking. This is an excellent question, btw!
posted by routergirl at 8:30 AM on April 27, 2014

Oh - what about Sail by AWOLNATION?
posted by routergirl at 8:32 AM on April 27, 2014

Bolero
posted by duckstab at 9:24 AM on April 27, 2014

Cheap Trick - Just Got Back
posted by bongo_x at 4:14 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

Gary Glitter already got a mention, but there's also The KLF's Doctorin' the TARDIS which is a slightly different take on the same thing.
posted by sainttoad at 7:35 AM on April 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Booming drums, the feeling of inexorable, unstoppable moving forward? To me, that screams Human Behavior by Bjork.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:45 AM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

i heard Ane Brun - Do You Remeber today on Radio Paradise, and couldn't help but think of this great thread.
posted by sainttoad at 2:32 PM on July 8, 2014 [1 favorite]