Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone

john prine

 

First recorded for the 1978 album "Bruised Orange", this song is not a chimera. It's a tiny tragic comedy about extortion of asians, africans and any kind of people without a white skin to "amuse" people and make money.

In 1937, while shooting on location in India, film maker Robert Flaherty cast a 13-year old boy named Sabu Dastigir into a film called "Elephant Boy", based on the story "Toomai of the Elephants" from Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book". As the income from the movie dropped, the company put child actor Sabu on tour for promotion, which became a disaster.

But Sabu stayed. He became an American citizen in 1944, served in the 2nd World War and was even decorated. After the war was over, he tried to restart his acting career, and ended up in 22 movies between 1937 and 1964, all of them rapidly forgotten. He died of a heart attack in 1963.

John Prine could be a dick. He never sang nor wrote down the last word of the last verse, and he never revealed anything. Discussions have been many. But John left it with the mideastern wind, and so do I: I just chuckle and go to chorus. Anything else is disrespect. Sacrilege.

the movie wasn't really doing so hot
said the new producer to the old big shot
its dying on the edge of the great Midwest
Sabu must tour or forever rest

«hey look ma
here comes the elephant boy
bundled all up in his corduroy
headed down south towards Illinois
from the jungles of East St. Paul»

his manager sat in the office alone
staring at the numbers on the telephone
wondering how a man could send a child actor
to visit in the land of the wind chill factor

Sabu was sad : the whole tour stunk
the airlines lost the elephant's trunk
the roadie got the rabies and the scabies and the flu
they was low on morale but they was high on ...

For the following CHORD section, fullscreen/horizontal mobile is recommended.
Chords in brackets may be omitted.

E                        E7       A
the movie wasn't really doing so hot
         B                   B7        E
said the new producer to the old big shot
                               E7      A
its dying on the edge of the great Midwest
B                    B7    E
Sabu must tour or forever rest

E                             E7
hey look ma   here comes the elephant boy
A                      F#7
bundled all up in his corduroy
B                          B7
headed down south towards Illinois
          A          B7       E
from the jungles of East St. Paul