Another take on the same story:

Black Diamond's Song
by Al Evans

The sun is a-burnin'; the geeks are a-gawkin'
Nine tons of me walks down the street
We're in Corsicana and there's no way I'd be here
If it weren't for these chains on my feet
My name is Black Diamond; the circus can't tame me
And three men who tried to are dead
Now they've cut my tusks short, and put an iron bar on
So I can't reach my trunk to my head

And we roll across Texas and roll across Texas
And roll across Texas some more
In the heat of the midday sun and rockin' and reelin'
My feet are all chained to the floor
As we roll across Texas some more

The boxcar door opens and there stands my Curley
And elephant joy brings the tears
`Cause Curley's my buddy: the one man who knows me
My best friend for twenty-eight years
Now we're walkin' down Main Street, but we stop in the middle
It seems there's some kind of delay
And there stands Miss Eva, that elegant lady
Who's taken my Curley away

And we roll across Texas and roll across Texas
And roll across Texas some more
It's hotter than Hell here and no bath for three days
My feet are all chained to the floor
As we roll across Texas some more

She stands there, so cool and collected
She just doesn't see
How bein' alone and the chains of the circus is torturin' me
She knows she's taken my Curley
But she doesn't know
That elephants' memory and elephants' heartache is the last thing to go

Now, she comes toward us; I can feel the blood risin'
At the sound of her simperin' speech
She walks up to Curley; she says, "Can I touch him?"
She should have stayed out of my reach
If it wasn't for Curley, and knowin' he likes her
I would've just stepped on her head
But I just hit her too hard; I didn't mean to
I'm sorry she ended up dead

And we roll across Texas and roll across Texas
And roll across Texas some more
In the heat of the midday sun, with the rockin' and reelin'
My feet are all chained to the floor
As we roll across Texas some more

Back in the boxcar, I trumpet till midnight
Singin' my song of goodbye
They bring me some poison, but I do not eat it
But I know I am fixin' to die
Early next mornin', they chain me to four trees
In a forest of rifles and men
After forty-nine shots, I finally leave
And I ain't goin' back there again

To we roll across Texas and roll across Texas
And roll across Texas some more
In the heat of the midday sun with the rockin' and reelin'
My feet are all chained to the floor
As we roll across Texas some more

Yeah, we roll across Texas and roll across Texas
And roll across Texas some more


MP3 here