Southbound Pachyderm

Infobox Single
Name = Southbound Pachyderm


Artist = Primus
from Album = Tales from the Punchbowl
B-side =
Released = 1995
Format =
Recorded =
Genre = Alternative rock, funk metal
Length = 6:22
Label = Interscope
Writer = Claypool/LaLonde/Alexander
Producer = Primus
Certification =
Chart position = * #28 U.S. Modern Rock Tracks
Last single = Mrs. Blaileen 1995
This single = Southbound Pachyderm 1995
Next single = Shake Hands With Beef 1997
Misc =

"Southbound Pachyderm" is a song by Primus, from their album "Tales from the Punchbowl". The song is dominated by Larry LaLonde's guitar playing and a repeating bass line by Les Claypool. The song is over 6 minutes long, as instrumental jamming dominates the beginning of it.

Track listing

# "Southbound Pachyderm (Radio Edit)" - 4:00
# "Wynonas Big Brown Beaver" - 4:24
# "Jerry Was A Race Car" - 3:11
# "Driver Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers" - 5:18
# "My Name Is Mud" - 4:40

Composition & Meaning

On the album, the song is over 6 minutes long, as instrumental jamming dominates the beginning of it. However, the radio edit cuts the jam out. The song is actually a protest song against poaching in Africa, the band specifically addressing pachyderms, as they seem to be more "common targets" for poachers. It is also a direct reference to the 1977 album "Animals" by one of Primus' main influences, Pink Floyd.

Another interpretation of the song is about the proliferation of airplanes; The lyrics create many metaphors such as: "they take to the sky," "they're filling the sky," and references to how implausible it would be that man could fly.

Music Video

The music video is remembered for being shot entirely in claymation; the first of several more to come for Primus. The music video featured poachers trying to hunt down elephants that were being protected by a group of natives. In the end the elephants, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses escaped. (The elephants had separate airplane-like wings on their backs, the rhinos had helicopter propellers on their backs, and the hippos piled into a dirigible.) Primus themselves only appeared a few times in the video, on the poacher's TV set.