Think about at one time the tallest woman, Sandy Allen (1955-2008), and the song Split Enz wrote about her, from a favourite album, "Time And Tide" (1981), the sound quality is crappy, but what can we do?
Sandy at some point in time had to live in a retirement centre. At that time, the world's oldest person, one Edna Parker, was also living there, at that centre. She died also in 2008, aged 115 years and 220 days... (days matter when you race with the oldest people like this.. - sort of the life's Olympics..)
The Elephant Man, on the other hand, was much less fortunate than Sandy or Edna, or many of us simpletons, he developed severe body deformities in the early years of his life, and died of asphyxiation at 27, having had for a long time problems with neck that couldn't support his heavy head.. The ending songs of first three Mastodon albums are said to have to do with the Elephant Man. They are rather melancholic in nature, which i find appropriate..