Sabu Visits The Twin Cities Alone notes
"This is a song about Sabu the elephant boy.
Now I'm gonna tell this story one more time for anybody that didn't get it the
other hundred. Just in case you've never seen a Sabu movie, here's the rest of
the story:
Sabu was this 38 year old man from India that played a 14 year old boy
from India in the movies. And most of his movies took place in the jungle, but
the plot was kinda like a grade B western. It'd start out with Sabu ridin'
through the jungle on the back of his elephant with nothin' but a turban and a
loin cloth, and a real dazed and confused look on his face.
And somehow he'd come upon some people that were camped in the middle of
the jungle, or had a small house there, or sometimes even a large mansion.
These people all had one thing in common; they were in lots of trouble.
They had many many problems, so Sabu would ride on up to their camp or their
little house or their mansion, and he'd get off his elephant, hitch it up and
walk on in.
And he'd stay with them for like three or four days. He never really helped out
a whole lot. He just hung around until they figured out their own problems and
got out of their own trouble, then he'd ride off into the sunset on the back of
his elephant.
A lot of these movies did pretty good at the Saturday afternoon matinees.
This song is about one of them that didn't do all that good.
At least the people that made the move thought it should be a whole lot
better so they wanted Sabu to go on a promotional tour. They wanted him to ride
his elephant around shopping malls in the Midwest in the middle of the winter
and wave to all the kids, you know. Their idea being that if the kids had
never seen a live elephant down at the mall before, that they might ask who the
guy was up on it's back. Then they'd go home and hit ma up for some money, and
go see a Sabu movie and everybody in Hollywood would live happily ever after.
But they didn't plan on a couple of things. Sabu had never been anywhere
but India and Hollywood and he'd never heard of the Midwest, particularly in the
middle of the winter time.
There's several other reasons.
When I wrote this I stayed in my room for three days. I was afraid
someone was going to ask me what the song was about.
This is Sabu riding through the jungle, looking dazed and confused."
(transcribed by John Lyon)