The story behind the song. by Tommy Womack
In early 1983, a newly-minted Nashvillian named Bill Lloyd wrote and recorded a delicious bit of pop-rock. Anchored by a palm-muted acoustic guitar and a cheesy Casio drum machine, a tasty simple electric guitar hook and a smooth vocal, “Feeling the Elephant” soars above and beyond its humble 8-track genesis. “We’re all feeling the elephant,” he sings, “It’s all we know.”
“When I moved down here from Bowling Green,” Lloyd remembers, “Doug Dillard [banjo player for The Dillards] lived in the same apartment complex that I did. And I already knew Dean Webb, their mandolin player.” (One thing about Bill is that he knows everybody.) “So when Dean found out that Doug and I were neighbors, he arranged a meeting.”
The Dillard’s guitarist, Rodney Dillard, was also present. During the course of social ice-breaking and conversations about the music business that move hither and yon, Rodney brought up an old Hindu proverb, saying, “We’re all feeling the elephant.” Bill laughed and said, “That’s a song title right there. And then Rodney gave me this blank look, just like The Darlin’s would do on Andy Griffith, and after a few seconds he said, ‘Well, you write it.’” Bill did.
In 1985, just as he inked a deal with indie Throbbing Lobster Records to put out a full-length LP entitled “Feeling the Elephant” (natch), other things were happening. Most artists clamber and scrape to get one record deal, but Bill wound up with two. And two artistic lives, a power-pop one and a country one.